Summer getaway

We spent last week at Backbone State Park in northeastern Iowa once more for the 10^th consecutive year. If you have never rented a cabin in a state park, it’s a wonderful experience, especially because it gives you the opportunity to unplug and completely unwind. Unless we head into nearby Manchester for supplies, there is no telephone, television or Internet. The state park itself is nestled in the middle of rural Iowa farm country, so even when you’re not at Backbone, everything feels like it’s operating—delightfully—at half-speed.

To be honest, the cabin we rent is not exactly rustic—it’s an air-conditioned cabin with a refrigerator, microwave and stove—in addition to two bedrooms and a queen-sized futon in the full-sized living room that is bigger than our own. Although we did spend time outdoors, this year’s unseasonably warm, humid early June weather definitely called for the air-conditioning to be turned on!

We checked into our cabin on Friday evening. By the time it was eight-thirty, we were hungry but still not completely unpacked, so we drove into Manchester for supper at the Fireside Pub & Steakhouse, where we enjoyed nachos and the best pizza (really!) we have ever eaten. You can tell from our happy faces that the food hit the spot! If I had thought about it, I would’ve handed the server my iPhone to snap our picture, but I didn’t think of it at the time and instead took individual shots of us.

Our son, David, drove out from Indiana for much of the week, which was a special treat for us. I think he got a chance to relax, too.

Every evening but Thursday, when it rained buckets all day, we grilled our dinner outdoors over the fire pit, and sometimes we enjoyed roasted marshmallows much later, when the stars came out. But there was at least one fire every night but Thursday, filled with appropriate chat and silence, in equal measures. One night after our dinner campfire, we took a walk along the East Trail Lake. When we returned a couple of hours later, David stacked the wood chimney-style and blew on the still-hot embers to get a second campfire started.

John and David paddled a canoe around sunset on Backbone Lake one evening, while I enjoyed being a passenger. Because we had never done this previously, we didn’t realize how shallow some parts of the lake are. At one point David dipped his paddle and hit bottom, pointing out we probably had less than 18 inches of water below us. It made me feel foolish for wearing a life vest, but at least I can say I was following safe boating practices. John and David sat on theirs—ha!

Despite the shallow water in some parts of the lake, we still enjoyed being on the water. In the photo below, you can see a rock formation against the shoreline. If you use your imagination, you can see how it resembles part of a backbone. Backbone State Park is known for this type of bedrock, carved by a loop of the Maquoketa (ma-KOH-ka-tah) River.

Paddling a canoe around sunset provides an excellent opportunity to take photos. I can’t take credit for the beautiful ones below; David took the first two from the canoe using his iPhone, and the last one from the dock.

The sun was setting as we pulled into the boat dock. I had it pretty easy as John and David tied up the canoe across from the boathouse.

We hiked along the East Lake Trail, which parallels Backbone Lake. In the photos below, you can see more examples of backbone-like rock formations.

In front of our cabin is an immense, mature pine tree that provides a lot of shade over our fire pit and picnic table. David couldn’t resist climbing it—probably to make me nervous, as I’m not fond of heights.

One day last week, we had perfect kiting weather. John and David flew a stunt kite on a hill next to Backbone Lake while I tried to follow the kite with my iPhone lens.

One afternoon we played a board game called Firefly (yes, based on the Firefly film series) and enjoyed root beer floats at the same time. Both were thoroughly enjoyable!

Next year we hope to rent the same cabin again. There are small, medium and large cabins at the state park, and ours is called Hawk’s Roost, one of the medium-sized ones. A porch wraps around the back, where a picnic table and benches sit—great for when it rains. We also store our firewood on the deck to keep it dry. The cabin is surrounded by trees, bushes and a large grassy area. The people in the cabin next to us used their grassy area to play croquet. Our neighbors on the other side spent most of their time trout fishing, for which Backbone State Park is known. Behind Hawk’s Roost are woods with lots of oak and maple trees, the East Lake Trail and Backbone Lake.

You couldn’t ask for a better summer getaway, or a better place to create some family memories!

© 2015 Judy Nolan. All rights reserved.