Hi, I'm Kellie Kramer.
And I'm Scott Siepker.
Welcome to Central Iowa.
And our latest edition of Iowa Outdoors.
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Coming up on this episode
of Iowa Outdoors --
Recreate a piece of Iowa's
chilly outdoor history.
Learn about all the care that goes into building
Iowa's trails.
Tag along as grade-schoolers learn to
survive an Iowa winter.
Meet an Iowa photographer who curates photos from
across the planet.
And explore a trail in a minute.
We'll have all that and more.
So sit tight.
Iowa Outdoors is about to begin.
Funding for Iowa Outdoors is provided by the Claude P.
Small, Kathryn Small Cousins and William Carl
Cousins Fund at the Lincoln Way Community
Foundation in Clinton County to support nature
programming on Iowa Public Television.
And by the Alliant Energy Foundation.
Many of Iowa's natural wonders you'll find on
Iowa Public Television can be found in Iowa Outdoors
magazine, the Iowa DNR's premier resource for
conservation, education and recreation activities.
Subscription information can be found online at
iowadnr.gov.
As temperatures drop, only the most intrepid of
adventurers remain outdoors.
For an example, look no further than this episode.
This journey will take us deep into the Iowa
wilderness, teach us how to survive there and show
us one way we can share our love of the outdoors
with the whole world.
But first, let's take a trip back in time to an
era when reaching for a cool drink required some
serious work.
For thousands of years, the only way to get ice
was to harvest it and ship it.
And up until the 1960s, Northeastern Iowa was one
of its main exporters.
To celebrate its history, Lansing, Iowa has started
holding an ice harvesting demonstration every
February to show the current generation all the
work that went into getting ice before the
advent of the freezer.
When it comes to celebrating a community's
heritage most areas would opt for warmer
temperatures and clearer skies.
But for Lansing, an Iowa town in the farthest
northeastern reaches of the state, to properly
represent its history, observance must be made at
the coldest time of year.
So come February, Lansing hosts its annual
Winterfest, embracing its frigid legacy with sleigh
rides, snowshoe hikes, ice carving and chili
cook-offs.
But in recent years the town has included a piece
of area history that has almost been completely
forgotten, ice harvesting.
(engine starting)
In the late 1800s until the
mid-1960s, Lansing was a well-known harvester and
exporter of block river ice.
With the railroad carving right through town, an
ample supply of frozen fresh water, come winter
Lansing was an ice harvesting powerhouse.
Karen Galema: The ice field got very large.
It would be twice the size of a football field and it
was a big production, three or four trucks
hauling steady.
Alright, go, go, go, go!
Karen: It employed a lot of farmers, construction
workers and grocery stores each had their own ice
crews.
There were several ice houses around town.
Gary Galema: Seven big ice houses, they would hold
several tons of ice.
Karen: Oh, many, many tons.
Married more than 50 years, Karen and Gary
Galema are two of the few remaining connections to
this piece of Lansing history.
Gary: I got in on the last harvest that they did
commercially in the winter of '64, '65.
I was a truck driver through here and her dad
ran the local fish market.
And so between Christmas and New Year's holidays
there's no fish sales, so her dad asked if I could
come over and drive a truck for him to haul the
ice from the ice field down to the ice house.
So I have a little bit of an idea what we're doing
out here.
Go, go, go, go, go, go!
Gary: I don't do much work anymore.
I just kind of watch and tell them what they're
doing wrong, but I let them try it first.
♪♪
In spirit, the demonstration showcases
what went into ice harvesting.
On a smaller scale, there's the same tools and
basic processes.
A grid is plotted on the ice --
♪♪
Followed by
long metal picks breaking ice blocks, loading them
onto a truck with tongs or a pull-in rope.
Unlike an actual harvest that was dangerous,
nonstop work, the demonstration is much more
about fun.
(cheering)
And even a few activities that are
decidedly not traditional.
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While the demonstration is all about
smiles and a fun winter activity, for years ice
harvesting was serious work and a means of making
a living.
Familiar faces seen in this 1948 crew are Jack
Erlich, Ben Sweeney, John Prodsman --
For generations, this was the only way to get ice.
Hoards of men would descend onto the frozen
banks of the Mississippi and area lakes to saw,
pick, pry and load up block after block of
crystal clear ice.
Karen: Almost all the little river towns along
here had ice crews, Harper's Ferry, DeSoto.
I remember when we used to ship ice out east, the
rail cars weren't refrigerated and they
packed them in river ice because we had a big
crusher at the fish market, you'd still have
chunks of ice this big and they would hold on the
fish all the way into New York or into Chicago or
out to the West Coast.
Each block of ice weighed several hundred pounds.
In its heyday, ice harvesting provided a good
income as well as barns full of ice blocks that
would stay frozen year round for keeping meats
and dairy, as well as fisherman's needs.
And while today's demonstration looks
strenuous, it's nothing compared to what actual
ice harvesting demanded.
Gary: Before these gas powered ice saws, we had a
horse drawn ice cutter that the horses would pull
across the ice but you had to make three or four
trips with that because you could only cut about
an inch at a time to get deep enough to where you
could get it off.
When you have nice smooth frozen ice two people can
just pull that saw, they don't really pull it, it
will pull itself, drag it to the other end back and
forth all day long.
Karen: It was a tough life, it was a hard life
and you learned early on that you had to be hard to
survive.
It's important that the kids realize what is
involved and there's nothing like first-hand
experience.
Like so many skills and trades before it, ice
harvesting is an industry that in our modern
refrigerated era is commercially impractical.
Now the backbreaking, freezing cold work of
harvesting has been retired to museum shelves
and history books.
Still, it's demonstrations like Lansing's Winterfest
that helps connect the next generation with its
past.
Karen: I do a lot of classes that come through
the museum and when we get to the ice box they'll
say, what did they need an ice box for?
And it's a simple answer.
Well, you know they didn't always have ice makers in
every refrigerator.
So that is where it came from, it came from hard
work, sacrifice, and it came from the river.
♪♪
For nature lovers, few things top a good
hike.
And with over 100 state parks, forests and
preserves, the options are practically boundless.
Come January 1st the Iowa DNR celebrates these
trails with a statewide outing dubbed First Day
Hikes.
While thousands of hikers turn out, many may not be
aware of the amount of work it takes to create
and maintain the many trails of Iowa.
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Hiking is a thing in Iowa,
so much so that when the 2013 state conservation
and outdoor recreation plan was released, the
statewide survey discovered Iowans' number
one outdoor activity was walking and hiking.
♪♪
Events such as the DNR's First Day Hikes are
a perfect example of Iowans' love for hiking.
Amidst some freezing temperatures across the
state, walkers and hikers of all ages through Iowa's
state parks to take in the unbridled beauty and learn
about our shared environment.
When the owls eat things like mice they can digest
the meat part of it but they can't digest the hair
and the bones.
And so that kind of builds up in a little pouch that
they have and when there's enough in there, they
regurgitate or kind of throw it up.
It gives you a good idea of what that owl has
eaten, what kind of critters are in this
habitat.
Of course, for events like First Day Hikes to occur,
there first must be trails.
And if trails are to withstand thousands of
hikers, someone needs to make sure they are
established with conservation and
sustainability in mind.
Pete Englund: We're in Bellevue State Park in
Bellevue, Iowa at the Dyas Unit.
This trail has been in the process for four years and
it was just completed this year.
A lot of the trails, especially in this park,
are four foot wide mowed paths.
And so this one isn't.
It's a two foot wide bench that we're hiking on that
dips and meanders through the landscape to make it
more sustainable so that you don't have to put a
lot of time and effort into maintaining it.
While a fount of trail creation knowledge, Pete
Englund also has a genuine love of the outdoors.
Pete: We call these the three sisters because
these are some pretty old, gnarly trees.
There's not too many other big oaks in a group like
this.
I think they're pretty cool.
Having worked on trail crews across the country,
Pete has helped create and blaze numerous trails.
And with each new path comes a new set of
objectives.
Pete: We go down the creek a little bit and you can
see where they cut with a bulldozer.
But then you get up the hillside a little more and
then you lose the trail.
And so you're in this bottom but it was never
really mowed.
So you just take your own path.
And again, you have a trail that you can't find,
which is the whole reason for this trail that we're
on, so that you have an accessible trail that you
can find, hike and it's not unsustainable like
that one or the trail that's over here.
As hikers pass over bridges, around
switchbacks and along rock retaining walls, it may
seem like they're encountering simple pieces
of trail character.
However, the truth is those elements were
specifically designed and implemented pieces of
trail engineering.
Pete: One of the crew members put this
switchback in, so this is made out of cedar and then
the rock was carried in and it's just a nice
switchback where a climbing turn would have
been too steep, and so to put in this retaining wall
kind of brings the soil up and gives it a more
sustainable slope on the trail than just putting it
in.
Whenever we do these too we want to put in where
there's an anchor that you go around otherwise people
will cut them.
So on your next hike, between moments learning
about and communing with nature, consider the hard
work and passion that went into the more than 8,000
miles of trails our state has to offer.
Pete: We say that trail building is people
building.
We're building trails but we're also building
relationships and we're offering people an
opportunity to go out and experience nature on its
own terms.
♪♪
Surviving the treacheries of nature can
be a bewildering task.
And all too frequently one poor decision can be the
difference between life and death.
That's why each year during Spring Break, the
Polk County Conservation Board hosts a camp
specifically designed to educate grade-schoolers on
a few outdoor essentials that may one day save
their lives.
Good morning.
Welcome to survivor camp.
Take a moment and think back to when you were 10
years old.
Somehow you find yourself lost in the wilderness,
all alone, it's the middle of winter and you have
only your wits and a few pieces of equipment to
survive.
Now, the idea is definitely more attractive
than the reality.
But think of the unique challenges modern society
never asked you to tackle.
Could you find your way through the woods?
Build a shelter?
Start a fire?
Find water?
Well, if you answered no to any or all of those
questions but would still love to learn how to face
down Mother Nature's worst, then survivor camp
is for you.
Patrice Petersen: Kids just get excited about
learning something new.
It was not, hey I'm going to lead you around through
the woods, it was saying, here's your
responsibility, give them a GPS unit and show them
how to use it and they get pretty excited.
And that's putting it rather mildly.
For a full day during Spring Break, the Polk
County Conservation Board exposes a couple dozen ten
to twelve year olds to a handful of new and
thrilling outdoor endeavors.
Between geocaching, shelter and fire building
and archery, survivor camp is a day of discovery and
self-reliance.
Joe Boyles: The experience and the interest in these
skills varies greatly.
We have some that have hardly ever even been out
of the city let alone trying to build a fire.
And then we have those that are camping with
their families all the time that are very
comfortable around campfires and tromping
through the woods and things like that.
Nate Strawn: They kind of just let us roam free and
do our own thing kind of.
Ryan Hanzi: Yeah, we got to do by ourselves instead
of having so much help like we usually do.
It should be over here.
Self-guided discovery of the outdoors is a big part
of survivor camp and doing so in a safe space is what
makes it possible.
I see it!
We know that at this age is when you start building
those lifelong habits, that lifelong passion so
if you're getting kids introduced to it now,
realizing hey it's okay to get muddy, it's not taboo
to be doing some of those things, this is the age to
get kids really excited about being in the
outdoors.
Delaney Clark: We were just walking and we were
looking on the ground for footprints and stuff and
we just saw this weird thing sticking out of it
and it was an antler.
While geocaching can turn up some excellent finds,
the following event is always a hit, even if it
can be a little frustrating.
Boyles: I think anytime a kid has a chance to build
a fire it's pretty exciting for them.
Boyles: So we do a lot of safety talk, but that's by
far the most popular.
Jackson Brinker: I think the hardest thing is to
just be patient when they're doing this stuff
and just keep trying.
Jackson Brinker has attended survivor camp for
four years in a row and while he's older than the
other kids he still loves the experience.
Brinker: I love being outside and I love doing
this stuff.
I'm very outdoorsy, I like to hunt and fish and
stuff.
My personal favorite is the archery.
It's pretty fun to do.
Archery is the perfect event to close out the
day.
It gives kids first-hand experience throwing atlatl
spears and letting loose a quiver of arrows.
♪♪
Ultimately, when the camp comes to a close,
kids have expanded their outdoor horizon and go
home with a lot of good stories to tell.
Riley Walsh: My favorite activity today is
geocaching since I really like to just walk through
the woods.
Fire when ready!
Andrew Ponties: Archery is something that I've been
wanting to do for a while but building a campfire is
by far the most important skill here I think.
Katie Strawn: Geocaching was fun.
Audrey Janssen: But our GPS was kind of confusing.
Katie: Yeah because it had us going in different
directions.
My favorite activity was archery because I really
like shooting bows and arrows.
When I get a bullseye is my favorite part of
archery and I feel happy with I get a bullseye.
Survivor camp may be uncovering new skills for
kids to develop, but in truth, the day is about
something much simpler.
Petersen: The overall idea is that we're getting
people excited about being in the outdoors, so
getting an appreciation, getting an awareness,
getting an enjoyment for being outside because if
you enjoy being outside then you're going to
naturally be learning things about it and
hopefully with that also want to respect it and to
take care of it.
♪♪
For generations, finding success in
photography meant years of practice and refining your
skills with different lenses and subjects.
But with the rise of social media, some novice
photographers have received an unexpected
boost in popularity and notoriety.
For one photographer in Northeastern Iowa, a
single brush of Internet morality led him to a role
moderating outdoor imagery from across the planet.
Some photographers have lived their whole lives
with an unending desire to capture the perfect image.
Others stumble into the pursuit after acquiring a
camera that they just cannot put down.
And at the very end of the spectrum there are people
like Derek Bailey who grew up in a family steeped in
photography, but personally hated having
his picture taken, and yet somehow he too eventually
feel for the allure of taking pictures.
Derek Bailey: Well, actually my mom is quite a
bit of a photographer.
Growing up she would shoot weddings and senior
portraits for friends and family and others and a
lot of pictures of us family members.
And I didn't like getting my picture taken.
So it wasn't something I ever really kind of picked
up.
But after starting a family, photography once
again creeped into Derek's life.
His wife's burgeoning interest in taking family
portraits pushed Derek to the Internet in research
of a right priced high end camera and soon enough --
Bailey: There's a lot to learn, a lot to take in
and once I kind of felt like I had all this
knowledge and picked out the camera, I kind of
wanted to go out and use it and it's just kind of
grown from there.
With his interest growing, Derek quickly found his
niche in photography, somewhere he never
anticipated to end up.
Bailey: It's kind of funny, my wife wanted to
take pictures of the kids and actually it's not
something I've done a real good job of but I find I
enjoy the landscape photography, getting out
in Iowa, taking a lot of pictures of Iowa.
After falling for landscape photography, it
was another family member who actually pushed him to
sharing his work online, a move that would ultimately
lead to a higher profile and new role.
Bailey: I've got a brother who also actually is kind
of into photography, he lives out in Seattle and
does real estate photography
professionally.
And he's the one that kind of suggested, hey why
don't you put your pictures on Instagram so I
can see them.
But as I was on it more and more and found
communities on Instagram and kind of got involved
in some and my presence on there has kind of grown
more As Derek continued to post photos of Iowa and
tag specific Instagram pages, one particular post
gained the attention of a few feature pages who
ended up sharing Derek's work with thousands of
Instagram users.
Bailey: I took one morning of a fence post.
The lighting wasn't really great, it was kind of
dark, but kind of was able to edit it in a way that I
thought it looked good and I went ahead and posted
it.
That was this summer and actually a couple of
pages, feature pages picked it up and featured
it and got quite a few likes and so it was kind
of interesting to have a picture get 2,000 or 3,000
likes on it.
One of the feature pages that shared Derek's fence
picture was Country Features and with his
interest peaked, Derek responded to a call for
new moderators.
Bailey: I didn't really understand the whole
process real well, I know they featured a few of my
pictures and I thought that was pretty neat, but
I did reply back to the moderator request and they
kind of welcomed me aboard.
So it was really neat to be able to see a picture
you like, you select it and then repost it and
start seeing hundreds of people, thousands of
people within an hour start liking that photo.
Feature pages like Country Features are common
throughout Instagram.
Chances are if you're looking for a particular
collection of like photos on the popular social
network there is a feature page waiting for you.
Bailey: So these feature pages will be focused
around a certain type of photography.
There's black and white, there's landscape
features, there's ones that are country related,
ocean related and sunsets, anything you can think of
there's usually a feature page.
They each have their own hashtag, a dedicated
hashtag that you would need to include in the
comments on your picture.
Then the moderators go look through the picture
each day or a period of time and they'll search
for all the photos posted with that hashtag.
So if I post a picture on my personal page a few
hundred people see it, but if a feature page like
Country Features were to pick it up and repost it
now there's 50,000 people that get to see it.
It's a big deal to these artists, some of the
comments they reply back it's really neat.
They're really appreciative of being able
to have their work shared and exposed like that.
Of course part of the benefit of sharing with a
feature page is Instagram users tend to see
something they like and then go directly to the
source.
Bailey: 50,000 people is a lot of people but there's
kind of a little bit of a community there too and
people start recognizing the same people getting
posted and if they see something they like posted
on the Country Features they tend to go look at
that artist's page as well and will probably start
following you directly.
So it's kind of neat, it really kind of grows.
If you're wondering what kind of photo Country
Features is looking for, think broadly.
The criteria for what is considered country is not
defined.
Bailey: We're open to an open interpretation of
country.
Country can mean any number of things, any
number of people.
So we've got two moderators in Australia,
one in the UK, one in Canada, we've got several
across all time zones in the United States, so you
do get a variety.
What speaks to me might be different than what speaks
to some of the other people.
I tend to like the landscapes and the big
dramatic skies and some other moderators tend to
like a little more smaller setting or more focus on a
closer up subject.
We've got some guys that are big fans of cows.
While the Country Features audience is international,
Derek loves the opportunity to share his
home state with the rest of the world.
Bailey: Moderating for Country Features we've had
the opportunity to sometimes pick up on some
Iowa artists, that's always kind of fun to be
able to put them out there, a little extra
pride when you kind of know it's a home boy or
someone close to you.
So, with the world waiting, who should share
with feature pages like Country Features?
Anyone.
That is, anyone who is comfortable with possibly
reaching an audience of thousands.
Bailey: There's no harm in tagging.
You might be surprised.
We're not looking for professional photos.
A lot of them you can tell are just iPhone.
I think currently there's almost a quarter million
photos flagged as with a Country Features hashtag.
So they're not all professional, it's
everything.
So if you're comfortable with your picture being
shared I'd say go for it.
♪♪
It's time for IPTV's Trail in a Minute
where we show you a different Iowa hiking,
biking or water trail each episode.
It's an opportunity to relive an outdoor
experience or to plan a future adventure.
And it's a pretty cool way to view the Iowa outdoors.
Take a look.
The Sunset Trail Ridge Overlook in Waubonsie
State Park is an excellent cold weather hike in
Iowa's distinctive Loess Hills.
♪♪
At roughly three miles down and back to the
scenic overlook, this interpreted trail offers
an up close look at what makes the Loess Hills so
unique.
♪♪
With ongoing efforts to manage native
prairie grasses, the stone covered Sunset Trail still
invites visitors to learn about the area's many
important plants and trees, as well as the
famous silt sediment only found in Western Iowa's
Loess Hills and the Huangtu Plateau in China.
♪♪
As you reach the Sunset Ridge Overlook,
you'll find your first clear view of the Missouri
River Valley.
If you happen to come at sunset, you'll know why
the trail got its name.
♪♪
If you're ready to turn back, consider
searching for the hidden wildlife shelters along
the trail.
But if you're to continue down the path, you're in
for a long, awesome hike.
♪♪
The Sunset Trail Ridge in Waubonsie State
Park, a Loess Hills experience that is hard to
top and definitely worth more than a few minutes,
or perhaps hours, of your time.
♪♪
That wraps up this edition of Iowa Outdoors.
We encourage you to get outside and enjoy Iowa's
parks and recreational opportunities.
If you're planning any outdoor travel, check out
our extensive video archive of adventures at
iptv.org/iowaoutdoors.
While our episodes continue to bring you
outdoor adventures over the Iowa airwaves, be sure
to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for
extended features and extra content.
And be sure to tag Iowa Outdoors in your online
posts.
Who knows, you might even make it onto the show.
We'll leave you now with some more images of Iowa's
outdoor environment.
♪♪
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Funding for Iowa
Outdoors is provided by the Claude P.
Small, Kathryn Small Cousins and William Carl
Cousins Fund at the Lincoln Way Community
Foundation in Clinton County to support nature
programming on Iowa Public Television.
And by the Alliant Energy Foundation.
Many of Iowa's natural wonders you'll find on
Iowa Public Television can be found in Iowa Outdoors
magazine, the Iowa DNR's premier resource for
conservation, education and recreation activities.
Subscription information can be found online at
iowadnr.gov.
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