2012-10-06 42 -91

Location

Volga River State Recreation Area: archery range?

Participants

Plans

SwensonJ will try for a 4pm Saturday meetup. This is a long drive from Platteville, WI, and I'm hoping to pass through another hash on the way, so arrival time is approximate.

Expedition

After we (SwensonJ and son) finished our first hash of the day, we cut north to US Highway 18 and headed west for Iowa, crossing the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. My son was asleep almost immediately, and stayed asleep for the entire hour-and-a-half drive to the Volga River State Recreation Area. I listened to the UW-Platteville football game as long as I could get it on the radio (Platteville beat La Crosse 40-10, at La Crosse), then switched to Iowa State against #15-ranked Texas Christian.

The little parking area was actually a bit north of the archery range that I thought we might walk through when I first studied this hash online. It was an easy walk north along the edge of a strip of alfalfa. We reached the hashpoint about 4:15 p.m.; the location was about 5 m into a wooded area, though an extended GPS dance was required before the desired proof photo could finally be taken. The process was made more interesting by a generous supply of animal sign; the boy and I believe we identified the droppings of deer and coyotes (photos available by request).

We left a marker I'd made with permanent ink on a canning-jar lid. After taking the requisite Stupid-Grin photos, we celebrated with a game of Go Fish (I won, in a remarkable comeback). We left the hashpoint about 4:45, and got back to the car feeling pretty hungry. It was a long way to any restaurant, so we got to hear the decisive part of the Iowa State game (ISU upset TCU, 37-23, in Texas) before we found a Hardee's. The end of the trip was an easy run along US Highway 20.