The Compulsive Hiker

Saturday morning I headed for Taum Sauk Mountain State Park.  Besides being the highest point in Missouri, it’s also home to the tallest waterfall and deepest valley in the state so I expected some great scenery.  Continue reading →

Crane Lake Recreation Area was next on the itinerary.  It’s a 100 acre man-made lake circumscribed by a 5 mile trail that is one of the few National Recreation Trails in the state.  Continue reading →

My adventures started with a day hike at Rock Pile Mountain Wilderness, the smallest of Missouri’s wilderness areas and probably the least-visited.  The trail begins on Little Grass Mountain and proceeds south to the top of Rock Pile Mountain.  The trail is unmarked but was generally easy to follow since I had a map to give me a clue which way to go.  Continue reading →

“A Complete Guide to Hiking and Backpacking in Missouri” describes the Piney Creek Wilderness as “a terrain of tortured roughness” and “Hiking Missouri” gives its Lookout Tower Trail the highest difficulty rating (5 boots!) so I was immediately smitten, of course.  Still, it took nearly a year for me to get there, which I did on my way back from the North Sylamore Creek trip.

Yet another tower that can't be climbed

I intended to hike the 4 mile Lookout Tower Trail loop counter-clockwise.  The trail south to the creek was easy enough to follow, as was the part that ran along the south side of the creek.  The trail heading back north, however, turned out to be a different one a little further east.  Instead of heading up a drainage and then gradually climbing onto a ridge, it climbed about 350 feet right up the steep tail-end of the ridge.  There were some switchbacks but even they were pretty steep.  Fortunately, after that climb you have more than a mile of relatively level trail.

The main purpose of this trip was reconnaissance for future backpacking trips.  I had read comments on-line that said that the terrain was so rugged that it was difficult to find areas to camp.  Along the south-bound leg of the trail I saw two areas that had been used before – with fire rings – where one could probably cram 4 tents.  Along that ridge on the north-bound leg I think you could fit many more and be less crowded.

I saw just a tiny bit of the area but it looks promising and is about 1/2 hour closer (and less used?) than Paddy Creek Wilderness, so I’ll definitely be back.  Someday I’ll make it to the nearby Roaring River State Park as well, to hike the interesting-sounding trails there.

I’ve now seen 6 of Missouri’s 8 wilderness areas and may be able to see another (Rock Pile Mountain) within the month.

The Brushy Creek Trail is a 13-17 mile loop through a small part of the Roger Pryor Pioneer Backcountry, a part of the Pioneer Forest – the largest chunk of private property in Missouri at about 160,000 acres.  The trail heads west from the Himont trail head.  If you go east two miles through Laxton Hollow instead, you’ll hit the Blair Creek section of the Ozark Trail.

I spent the weekend there with a group from the Adventure Club.  It’s by far the most wild-feeling place I’ve been to so far.  There is so little use of this area that in most places there isn’t even a visible trail – you just follow the blazes on the trees from point to point.  That made things more interesting but also slowed our pace as we worked through the underbrush and over (or around) downed trees.  Complicating matters was unseasonable heat – around 80 Friday & Saturday and 85 Sunday.

Further complicating things was the lack of a decent trail map.  The trail has apparently undergone a few reroutes since the brochure was published.  It takes a very different path along the north and west than hinted-at in the brochure.  It may also be closer to 17 miles than the claimed 13 miles.  There is a map posted at the Himont trail head but you can’t exactly take that with you and you can’t even get a good photo of it because of all the dirt and scratches on the plastic covering it.  Okay, whining finished.

The trail head

That pile of rocks in the center supported one end of a bridge for a railroad that used to run through the area.

This part of the trail follows the old railroad bed. Unlike the rest of the trail, this had a gentle slope with a well-defined tread.

A tiny walking stick apparently got tired of walking and hitched a ride.

The dogwoods were plentiful and in full bloom.

Wake Robin (aka Trillium) were abundant. I only saw one of these all of last spring - I was apparently looking in the wrong place!

Pawpaws were blooming too. Such a cool flower.

I don't know what this is yet. This specimen is about 8" in diameter.

I will definitely be back, though in cooler temperatures.  There is a camping area at the trail head so I would probably drive down in the evening and camp there to get an earlier start in the morning.  I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t see Bee Bluff or the Current River so those are on the itinerary next time.  It would also be interesting to add a couple days to the trip to explore further west on the Big Creek Trail into the “Ed Woods area”.

The Irish Wilderness – sounds like the perfect place to spend St Patrick’s Day weekend doesn’t it?  It’s an annual outing tradition for the local Sierra Club and this year there was a group of 7 participating.

We did a 17 mile part of White’s Creek Trail from the Brawley Pond trail head counter-clockwise to Camp Five, with overnight stays near Bliss Spring and Fiddler Spring.  Temperatures were amazing – from low 60’s to upper 70’s.  Such a big change from last weekend at Paddy Creek where it was below freezing one morning.  We had fog Saturday morning and a couple sprinkles and some thunder that afternoon.  I didn’t need the fleece or down jackets and didn’t even have much need for a sleeping bag!  The wildflowers were starting to bloom, along with the red buds, dogwoods, and nine barks.  Oh yeah, the ticks made an appearance as well.

The camping area at Bliss Spring (down the spur, not right at the spring) had several big trees down, covering some of the prime tent sites.  I ended-up in a place that was pretty level with soft ground but hemmed-in by underbrush.  The camping area at Fiddler Spring was bigger and I found a much better site.

To get to the Brawley Pond trail head, Google Maps had me go south on Mo-J and turn right on County road 164 to go 3.8 miles WNW into the town of Wilderness.  Don’t do it!  About 5 miles before you hit County 164 bear right on Mo-K going SSW into Wilderness.  This is the quicker and shorter route and a much better road.  Country 164 is rough, to put it mildly.  This is one of the better sections – and I had to get out to move logs off the road:

Goatweed Leafwing

A newly-emerged Pipevine Swallowtail? The wings have not yet fully unfolded.

Wake Robin, aka Trillium

May Apple, aka Mandrake

Spring Beauty

Common Violet

Yellow Violet

Bloodroot

Pale Corydalis?

Rose Verbena

Hoary Puccoon?

So many little white flowers, as if popcorn had been dropped from the air.

The chimney is about all that's left of the old homestead at the Bliss Spring camp.

This is where Bliss Spring flows from the hillside.

Looking downstream from the source. Another part of the spring flows in from the right.

Me on "the overlook" with the Eleven Point River below.

A bluff above White's Creek pockmarked with small holes.

The gated entrance of White's Creek Cave.

Fiddler Spring flowing from the hillside

Walking across the dam at Camp Five. The hike is almost done and the long drive home is about to begin.

White’s Creek Trail basically only covers the northern half of the area so there’s still much to see there.  I’m looking forward to the return trip next spring.

For the traditional post trip feast, I found a homey-sounding place in Winona – apparently the town’s only restaurant – but it was closed.  We drove on to Mountain View but the only places open were fast food chains.  No thanks, and on to Willow Springs where we found the Open Range Steakhouse 30 minutes before they closed.  They’ve got steaks, burgers, BBQ, even a bit of Italian cuisine, and some awesome desserts.  The service was good and portions were large so I wasn’t the only one that felt like I was going to burst.