Trip: Camping at Decorah, Iowa
Attractions: Fishing, Hiking, Sightseeing
Date: October 15th – 17th
We wanted to get one last camping trip in before winter, and we love the Decorah area, so we reserved a spot at the Pulpit Rock Campground. We have camped at the neighboring Twin Springs, but this was the first time we camped at Pulpit. Both campgrounds are tucked in a valley with a trout stream running between them and, on this autumn weekend, brightly colored trees draped the hill sides.
The kids had the day off from school and Jill and I were able to take the afternoon off, so we were at the campground, all set up by 3:00, and ready for a hike. You can see the “Pulpit Rock” from the campground. It is a rock formation protruding from the bluffs and there is a hike that leads up to it and around the bluff that it sits on. The Parks and Rec department has done a fine job of making the hike easier with steps but keeping the area natural looking. All the steps and walls are built out of stone that matches the bluffs. Charlie commented that she felt like she was walking through ancient Rome.
Our plan for dinner was to do pie iron pizzas like we did at the KOA in the Black Hills, but we accidently forgot the marinara sauce. It seems like you always forget something when you’re camping, right? We had also planned to have pizza from Mabes Pizza the next day after a bike ride (we really like pizza), so we just improvised and went out for dinner at Mabes that night. We ordered some cheesy bread as an appetizer and a large half peperoni and half peperoni and mushrooms. If you are curious if we thought is was any good, there were no leftovers.
After dinner, we built a fire and sat around asking each other questions like, “If you could live any of the places we have vacationed, where would you stay?”, and “If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?”. Once we had our fill of trying to stay warm next to the fire, we headed in to the camper for bed.
The next morning, Mattix and I tried some unsuccessful fishing by the river and on our way back, our dog Macy decided it was time for her morning bowel movement. Since I didn’t have a poop bag, Mattix ran back while I made sure no one stepped in it. I needed to get a trout stamp if we were going to fish the trout stream, so I took the opportunity to pull out my phone and buy the stamp while I waited for my runner to bring me back a sack.
For breakfast, we made some sausage and egg sandwiches over the fire that are much like the pie iron pizzas we were planning to make the night before.
Pie Iron Breakfast Sandwiches
INGREDIENTS: Butter or Non-stick spray, English muffins, eggs, cheddar cheese, and precooked sausage or bacon
DIRECTIONS: Spray both halves of the the pie iron with non-stick spray or melt butter in each side. Crack in egg into the pie iron and cook both sides to your desired amount of “done”. Open the pie iron and slap one half of the English muffin on top of the egg facedown. Flip the pie iron so the egg is on top of the muffin and add your additional ingredients capped with your other piece of English Muffin. Cook one side until your muffin is golden brown, then flip. Cook the other side until it is golden brown. Let cool before eating.
After breakfast we trout fished for a while. Once I was lucky enough to reel one in, it turned into a competition for Mattix and stopped being fun. Knowing that it was possible to catch one, and the fact that he hadn’t caught one yet was just eating him up and his frustrations got the best of him. We called fishing quits and set our sights on a bike ride.
We got our water bottles ready and the appropriate amount of clothing for the brisk fall morning and headed into town on our bikes. We cruised around the trails for a bit and then stopped at Pulpit Rock Brewery for a cold drink. The kids got strawberry pop, and we treated ourselves to some beer. The kids were hungry too, so we bought a pretzel with some nacho cheese as a snack. There were some bees that wanted our drinks about as much as we did, so we had to be careful leaving our drinks open and unguarded. Once, after Mattix took a long drink from his pint glass, a bee landed right on his face and actually appeared to be drinking off of his strawberry mustache left behind from his swig. Jill laughed so hard she had tears in her eyes.
We decided we wanted to get some beers from Pulpit Rock to bring back for some friends and since we were on bikes, we couldn’t really carry back much, so we rode back to the camp ground with plans to come back in the truck. Yet again we decided to make our meal over the campfire using the pie irons. We had hot ham and cheese sandwiches and you make them just like you would the breakfast sandwiches but we used bread instead of English muffins. After lunch, we pilled into the truck and visited Dunning’s Spring Falls on our way into town. It was a pretty cool spring that appears to just come right out of the stone hill side. Jill’s aunt had suggested we check out Dixies since we were in Decorah so we drank a beer while watching the first quarter of the Iowa Hawkeye’s football game.
Our next stop was to get some ice cream from the Sugar Bowl. After our cold treat, we stopped back to Pulpit Rock Brewery for our beer to-go then back to the camp ground for burgers, beers and a few more rounds of questions around the camp fire before turning in for the night.
The next morning, Mattix and I got the fire going then tried our luck at fishing for a bit. We talked about how it’s possible that he might not catch a fish, and that others might, and how we needed to keep control of our emotions so it wasn’t another bad experience. He agreed and this time he handled himself a lot better. It was a cold morning and there wasn’t much action at the stream, so we came back to warm up by the fire. Jill and I drank coffee while making breakfast sandwiches over the fire again. After breakfast, we packed up and headed home. Since it was the last time we planned to camp for the year, we gave the camper a wash down and winterized it for storage. It’s always sad when you know its your last time camping for the year, but we ended it on a good trip, connecting as a family in the best way I know how. Out in nature.
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