IUOA stands for Indiana University Outdoor Adventures. As quoted from IUOA’s website:
“IUOA is an outdoor recreation program that serves the Bloomington campus and surrounding community. If you love the great outdoors, IUOA is the place to get in gear for your next trip! You can rent or buy quality camping and hiking gear, organize a custom experience, take skills courses for college credit, climb our bouldering wall, or sign up for adventure trips.”
How did I get to know IUOA?
I got to know IUOA through the information board / promotional flyer set up in Indiana Memorial Union. My friends have told me about it too. A lot of my friends have joined IUOA skills courses for class credits and they always have very positive experiences.
What courses does IUOA offer for class credits?
IUOA offers a large variety of skill courses. There are extreme sports related courses such as ice climbing, rock climbing, cross country skiing, and mountain biking. There are water related courses such as canoeing, white water rafting, and coastal kayaking. There are survival skills related courses such as wilderness first aid, leave no trace, backpacking, and map and compass.
Why did I join map and compass class?
I decided that I should take advantage of this great on-campus program and try out at least one class with them before I graduate. I chose to join map and compass because the class time fitted my schedule, and I think mastering navigation skill will be very helpful for me in the future.
How was the course structured?
The course composed of 2 lectures (we met once a week from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm for 2 weeks), 1 field trip (2D1N), and 1 debriefing plus exam session. The students were required to write a reflection paper too.
How many people were there in the class?
There were 4 instructors (2 males and 2 females) and 8 students (2 males and 6 females) in the class.
What did I learn in lecture?
Recognizing features on a typical topographic map – contour lines, hill, saddle, valley, ridge, and drainage
Recognizing parts of a compass – direction of travel, orienting arrow, declination scale, dial, index line, magnetic needle, orienting lines, rotating housing, and base plate
Practice using a compass – how to shoot a bearing
Practice correcting for declination – how to correct for difference between true north (as the maps are drawn) and magnetic north (as the magnetic needle on compass points)
Learning other techniques used in navigation – hand railing, leap frogging, triangulation, reading UTM scale
When and where was the field trip?
We went on a field trip to Bradford Woods (30 minutes’ drive north of IU campus) from March 5 to March 6. We spent roughly 28 hours in the Woods in total.
How is the campsite at Bradford Woods?
The campsite has large picnic tables and clean restrooms that are equipped with sitting toilets, toilet papers, shower heads, running water, and hair dryer.
What did I bring for the field trip?
Map and compass, cooking utensils and tents were provided so I didn’t have to bring them
Sleeping bag (20 oF) and sleeping pad – packed in a duffel bag
2.5 liters of water, 1 long sleeve fleece sweater (to wear at night), 1 small towel, 1 cap, 1 extra pair of socks, personal hygiene items, food container/fork/spoon, lighter, band aids, and snacks – packed in a backpack
I forgot to bring a headlight, so I was using my phone as torchlight at night
What did I wear during the field trip?
Top – long underwear, synthetic t-shirt, 3-in-1 waterproof winter jacket
Bottom – long underwear, body-fit stretching long pants, track bottom (Yes I wore 3 layers of pants because my knees and ankles do not do well with cold)
Mitten hat, fleece gloves, wool socks, and water-resistant sneakers
What did we do during the field trip?
First day:
Arrived at campsite, pitched tents, reviewed concepts learnt
Warm up activity – we hiked from our campsite to Diamond Jack flats (the southernmost point on the north end of the Woods)
First activity (Capture the Flag) – we were divided into 2 groups and each group had to put up 2 flags at the indicated points on our maps.
After that, the 2 groups were supposed to come back to the base (Diamond Jack flats), switch maps, and go to take down the flags put up by the other group. However, since my group got lost multiple times and took too long to travel, we didn’t get to do the second part of the activity.
Returned to campsite, cooked dinner, rested
Second day:
Had breakfast, reviewed concepts learnt
Second activity (Amazing Race) – we were divided into 3 groups and each group had to navigate using the instructions given to reach different checkpoints.
Again, we ran out of time to reach to all 9 checkpoints, and we didn’t finish the race. But in my defense, I felt like we had better progress than the first day! I am not sure whether our skills improved overnight, or the route was just easier for the second day.
Had lunch, cleaned up, left campsite
What is my most memorable experience during the trip?
During the first activity, my group came across a very deep and steep drainage. We got into heated discussion of whether that drainage was “the entrance” for a fire trail that we wanted to take because it just seemed impossibly difficult to be part of a trail. After we received confirmation from our instructor, we hiked up that drainage.
We hiked uphill along the drainage for like 50 meters, then we had to hike “out” from the roughly 4 meters deep drainage. The slope was roughly 60 degrees. The whole drainage was covered in loose soil, lots of dried leaves (my lower calves were submerged in leaves), and loose sheer rocks. (Okay, I might be over-exaggerating the situation)
I was struggling because I had really bad hiking footwork. While others climbed up the drainage, I was literally crawling on my hands and knees, and hugging onto tree roots while I was searching for a firm spot to put my feet. I was not at all graceful, but I had no shame about it. It was my first-time hiking on a trail of such difficulty (I am not sure whether experienced hiker will consider that difficult), and all I could think of at that instant was “I gotta get out of this drainage that looks like the opening of a monster’s lady part!”
What are some other interesting things happened to me during the trip?
A lot of times during the activities we have to travel off trails, so we did a lot of bushwhacking. Even with 3 layers of long pants, I could feel the thorns poking me when I passed by thorn bushes. There was once I followed my groupmate too closely, so when he brushed a thin tree branch out of his way, the branch just swung back and hit me on the face.
This was my first time bushwhacking and I think I have just experienced what Rapunzel experienced when she was casted out of the castle. We were both blind (she was literally blind; I was lost so I was blind of direction) and both of us have to wander in the woods covered in thorns.
Would I recommend this trip to the others?
Yes! Despite the cold and the crazy trails, I would totally recommend this class (or in general any classes with IUOA) to the others.
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