Paddy Creek Wilderness #2

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Michael R

I was back in the Paddy Creek Wilderness this weekend, this time for the Backpacking 101 spring class.  Only 8 people that took the classes were able to participate in the trip.  Several others encountered last minute work-related issues.  With 4 crew and 2 others along for the ride we had 14 people in all.  We split into two groups and did the short loop – one group going clockwise, the other counter-clockwise.  I assisted with the CCW group.

We spent Friday night on “the overlook” – a narrow ridge that looks south over Little Paddy Creek. We had clear skies with lots of stars and then a nearly-full moon.

Looking south from the overlook area, along Little Paddy Creek.

Looking east from the overlook area, along the bluff.

Looking west from the overlook area, along the bluff.

The next morning we made our way down below the bluff to the creek for a little sightseeing.

After climbing back up the bluff we donned our packs and headed down the trail.  The plan was to meet the other group for lunch where the connector trail crosses the creek.  Even though we never discussed any particular time, they arrived less than 5 minutes after we did.  Heck of a coincidence.

The area was rather picturesque but for some reason I didn’t take any photos of it.  I did shoot some of the wildflowers starting to bloom.  False Rue Anemone and Dogtooth Violets were a couple I recognized.  Many others should be coming up soon.

I think this might have been pretty cool if it were focused properly.

Saturday night found us camped on a ridge above “the waterfall” (I didn’t get a picture of it this time).  Clear skies again and no moon until late.  As expected, it started to rain Sunday morning.  We skipped breakfast, packed quickly and hiked out, then stopped for breakfast at a Shoney’s in Lebanon MO.  They have a pretty good buffet.

Now I’m cleaning and drying everything in preparation for the next trip.

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A Day at Blue & Gray

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Michael R

I spent the day at Blue & Gray Park near Lone Jack, Missouri with a group from the Adventure Club.  I didn’t realize at the time that it was the first anniversary of my first visit.  It’s just like a man to forget something like that, eh?

I had never been able to locate any trail maps for this 1800 acre park but I saw on my first visit that there were equestrian trails running all over the place.  The plan was to circumnavigate the park, see a cross-section of the area, and maybe find some special spots that could serve as focal points of a return visit.  One of our crew had a PTOC map that eliminated the guesswork and saved some time.

We completed an estimated 10 mile circuit in 5.5 hours and that included a couple long snack breaks.  I’m surprised at that pace since the trails are beat-up so badly by the horses.  I don’t think we found anything really special there though the quarry comes close.  It’s still a pretty quiet place where you can get back to it all.

Afterward I headed up the road to Porky’s Blazin’ Bar-BQ for a little culinary research.  They were out of ribs but the burnt ends were pretty darn good.  I’ve got added incentive now to not wait another year to return.

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Return to Elk River

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Michael R

I returned to the Elk River trail in SE Kansas, this time with 6 others from the Sierra Club.  We hiked the eastern 9.5 miles just like last time so I still haven’t seen the western end.  Saturday was cloudy but it didn’t rain this time.  The skies cleared overnight and the temperature dropped just below freezing.  Sunday was all sunshiny and eventually warm.

I enjoyed the trip and still enjoyed the trail, even though the novelty was gone.  It’s great to have a place like this relatively close to home.  I neglected to take many pictures but I think the camera generally didn’t capture the essence anyway.

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Smithville Lake Equestrian Trails

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Michael R

I finally finished my reconnaissance of the 26 miles of equestrian trails at Smithville Lake.  There are paper copies of the map in a brochure at the Jack Rabbit Bend trail head and probably in Crow’s Creek Park too.

The trail west of point C wasn’t explored as it looks like it is mostly grassy and hence not very interesting to me. There are other grassy areas too, like east of point Y and a bit on either side of access point 23.  The rest is nicely wooded with occasional lake views. Mostly well-marked.  Near point S there is a creek where it will be difficult to stay clean and dry. It’s about 10 feet wide and maybe 5-6 inches deep with muddy, heavily-divoted banks and no rocks on which to hop across.  There are places where the white (boundary) trail passes behind some houses and you may be harassed by dogs – like between points M and P and again east of point Y.

The sections that made the best first impression are between points C-H and Q-Y.

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Orienteering Shawnee Mission Park

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Michael R

Shawnee Mission Park has a permanent orienteering course with 75 control points.  For $3.50 you can get a packet at the visitor’s center that contains an orienteering brochure, a black & white map of the park with all control points, location hints, and a color map on which you can draw your course (make copies before marking it up!).

For my second orienteering outing, I decided to do the hard course suggested in the packet: 11 points that basically circumscribe the entire park.  It’s about 4.5 miles point-to-point, but of course you can’t actually go directly point-to-point so the real distance is greater and much of it is off-trail.  It took me about 4.5 hours (walking).  I had trouble finding two of the markers but I was in the right area so I guess I actually have some clue what I’m doing.

I saw parts of the park I had never been in before so that was pretty neat.  The most interesting find was the “free ride” mountain bike trails.  I had seen some discussion online about trying to start this project a while back and then promptly forgot about it.  Those guys have been very busy building some pretty amazing stuff!  There’s sure to be some bones and bikes broken there when it opens.

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Orienteering 101

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Michael R

I had a great time today at my first orienteering meet.  It was run by the Possum Trot Orienteering Club at Monkey Mountain Nature Preserve near Grain Valley Mo.  I expected that it would be a good way to sharpen my wilderness navigation skills but found that it’s also an interesting addition to the usual hike.

I was on a team with two other people and though none of us had orienteered before we chose to do the Orange, or medium difficulty, course.  We finished in about one hour 38 minutes and weren’t in last place!  The serious contestants run from point to point but we were content this time just to complete the course.

I’m afraid I’ve found yet another new hobby.

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Indian Cave State Park – the winter edition

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Michael R

I spent the weekend at Indian Cave State Park in SE Nebraska.  It was officially an Adventure Club trip but only one other person participated out of the 6 or 7 that were signed-up at one point.  It was an excellent opportunity to watch the bald eagles.  I could have brought binoculars, my good camera, even a tripod, but for some reason I didn’t think about that.

We were last here in July when it was hot and humid, the river was flooding, and the hills were alive with the sound of mosquitoes.  None of that was a problem this time!  We drove up Saturday morning and backpacked in to the big group camping area on top of the bluff overlooking the Missouri River valley (flushing about 2 dozen turkeys) and set up camp.  After watching the eagles in the trees below for a while we  hiked the History Trail – a loop that goes up through the “old town” area.  It was surprisingly challenging, with several large hills.

Our camp area was a large clearing and the night sky was clear, the moon rose very late, and there was very little light pollution from surrounding towns so the stars were visible in a way that I hadn’t seen in at least 30 years.  It was pretty awesome and has me thinking about a trip to the Flint Hills for even more expansive sky views.

Sunday, we packed-up and headed further south on the Rock Bluff Run trail to a trail head and researched some of the other camping areas on the way.  After driving down to the boat ramp area we hiked the part of the Hardwood Trail that goes along the top of the bluff then looped back behind the bluff.  Once back to the car we drove down to the “cave”.  It’s really just an area where the sandstone was scoured-out, leaving an overhang.  There are reported to be old petroglyphs but mostly there is contemporary graffiti.  It’s a shame.  We hung around there on the river bank for a while, watching the eagles and then headed home.

At 2.5 hours, it’s a much shorter drive than any of the Missouri wilderness areas and yet it can still feel very remote, is heavily wooded,  and has interesting terrain.  There is still a lot of the south end of the park I haven’t seen so I will definitely be back, but not in July!  :-).

It's a long drop if you get out of bed on the wrong side

Sunset...

...and the obligatory sunrise-over-the-camp photo

It only looks like he's on the cell phone

The stairs up to the "cave"

Beavers at work

The only decent eagle photo I was able to get

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A Ouachita New Year

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Michael R

I spent New Year’s weekend backpacking with a buddy in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and the weather was just incredible – around 70 on Friday & Saturday, about 60 on Sunday, but rather chilly on Monday.  Clouds were rare, precipitation was absent.  Our objective: the 22 mile Boardstand Loop, consisting of the Old Military Road Trail, the Boardstand Trail, and part of section one of the Ouachita Trail.  We planned to start in Talimena State Park and proceed clockwise.

With breaks, it took us about 7 hours to get there heading down US 69 into Oklahoma and then a combination of I-44, Muskogee Turnpike, I-40, US-59, and US-271.  I had never been south of Pittsburgh KS on US69 and had never been in that part of OK so I saw a lot of new scenery.  I-44 is at least partially a toll road and the screwiest one I’ve seen yet.  I got the usual ticket when entering but after driving about 25 miles encountered a toll booth where you pay a $3.50 toll that assumes you’re going to Tulsa but you can ask for a receipt if you’re exiting earlier.  My exit was only about 2 miles away so I got the receipt, went down the road and exited, handed the receipt to that toll booth attendant, and got $2.00 back.  WTF?

Mile 0 - the west trail head.

The trail climbs from about 950 feet to 1420 feet, where it crosses the highway (Talimena Scenic Drive) at the Old Military Road Vista.

The first vista. Looking south from near the top of Winding Stair Mountain on the Old Military Road Trail.

It then proceeds down the other side along the old road bed into Boardstand Flat.

A rubble wall supported the outer edge of the old road on steep sections. Much of it is still intact 175 years later.

This section was badly eroded but much of the old road still looked like a road.

We only hiked in about 3.5 miles before setting up camp.  We found an area on a ridge that was pretty flat and already had a fire ring so that seemed like a good place.  This was the first outing for my new tent – a Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 1.  It’s roomy with a large side vestibule so I’ve been ogling it for awhile but balked at the price and then found a good deal on the 2011 model at BackcountryGear.com.  This takes another 3 lbs out of my pack FTW!

Typical scenery through Boardstand Flat

Looking south toward Winding Stair Mountain from one of the forest roads

November was wet so water was plentiful down in the flat.

Camp #2 (on New Year’s Eve) was near Redbank Creek, where we’ve just barely started the climb back up Winding Stair Mountain.  Total mileage for the day was about 9.5.  Once again we found a site that already had a fire ring but it was too windy to light a fire so I had to look at the stars instead.  🙂

We started New Year’s Day with a climb from 870 feet to 1440 feet, where the Boardstand Trail intersects the Ouachita Trail, then proceeded west through a boulder field and up another 160 feet to Deadman’s Gap.

The boulder field near the top on the south side of Winding Stair Mountain. Very tough hiking!

Looking south from the north side of Winding Stair Mountain, near Deadman's Gap

From there, we cross the highway again and head west across the north side of the mountain, climbing to about 2200 feet near the Panorama Vista.  That 1330 foot climb was a pretty big deal for a flat-lander like me but the guy I was with has done many 14’ers in Colorado and wasn’t so impressed.

I don't know yet what it is, nor whether it's blooming late or early but I think it's the only flower I saw the whole trip.

Rock gardens like this were very common on the north side

Frazier Creek. One of only two water sources we encountered on the north side.

Camp #3 was in the established Frazier Creek site.  Total mileage for the day was about 6.

Monday morning I awoke to a reading of 29 degrees on the thermometer but I’ve dealt with worse.  We had breakfast, broke camp, and hiked out the remaining 3.5 miles.

On the way home I went east on the Talimena National Scenic Byway (that we had crossed twice while hiking).  There are many places where you can pull off the road to take pictures, and wow, what scenery!  My attempts to stitch-together panoramic shots have failed so here’s 4 of the better photos:

After descending the east end of Winding Stair Mountain you climb onto Rich Mountain and near the east end of that (after crossing into Arkansas) is Queen Wilhelmina State Park, a pretty neat looking place that provided us with a large, tasty,  and very reasonably-priced lunch.

The lodge in Queen Wilhelmina State Park on the east end of Rich Mountain in Arkansas

The Ouachita Trail crosses through the park so the lodge gets many visitors from the trail looking for a good meal and maybe a shower and comfy bed for the night.  I hit US-71 just north of Mena and headed for home.  All the way up to Fayetteville was new territory for me and there was some nice terrain there.  I know I’ll be back in that area eventually to see Devil’s Den State Park and a couple other interesting-sounding places.

For awhile I had been using both a filter and Steripen to treat my drinking water.  Some might think that to be a bit paranoid but I wanted to be sure.  I left the filter at home for the Devil’s Backbone trip since it was going to be so cold (and ceramic filters react badly [crack] if frozen wet) and relied solely on the Steripen.  I liked the weight and bulk reduction and elimination of that maintenance and best of all, didn’t get sick.  I’ve been contemplating abandoning the filter altogether so left it behind again this time but the Steripen failed on day 3 so I fell back to using chlorine dioxide tablets.  I had never used them before but know people that have used only them for several years.  The taste was acceptable and they are so small, light, and simple that it’s very tempting to now abandon the Steripen too.  Update:  The Steripen was failing even after putting in the unused spare batteries that I carried in my pack, but now works okay with some newly-purchased batteries.  Both pairs of “old” batteries show correct voltage when tested and function in a flashlight.  I wonder if they were adversely affected by cold temps or something.

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Perry Lake hiking

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Michael R

I spent another day at Perry Lake but, at long last, this time it was to hike instead of work!  I started at the Old Military Road trail head and went 3.5 miles west to the Old Quarry Road and back (Section 2 East).  After a break for lunch I headed about 3.5 miles east to Kiowa Road and back (Section 3).  About 14 miles total – just what I needed after stuffing myself with xmas dinner.  When I got back to my car I noticed a tick crawling on my wrist.  I guess it’s just a myth that you don’t have to worry about them after the first hard freeze.

The trails were very nice though the part to the east needs a bit of underbrush clearing.  Great rugged (for Kansas) terrain, good views.  I still want to explore section 2 west and section 4 east of Ferguson Rd (I’ve seen part of this while clearing brush).

I also explored a bit of the nearby “hike-in camping area”.  This is in what used to be the Old Military Road Public Use Area.  I don’t why it was closed or when, but at least one of the tent camping areas is maintained and is accessible by walking up the road about .4 miles or hiking west from the trail head to a spur (that I didn’t see) that leads up to the camping area.  There is a shelter house, 1 picnic table, vault toilets, a water hydrant, mowed grass areas for tents, and even a little amphitheater with a big fire ring in the middle.  Very interesting, and the likely site of regular Adventure Club meetups.  There are two more old camping areas further west but I didn’t look at them this time.

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A Wintry Weekend in the [Devil’s Backbone] Wilderness

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Michael R

Devil’s Backbone Wilderness covers almost 7000 acres of south-central Missouri and was the destination of the latest Sierra Club backpacking trip.  8 of us arrived at the McGarr Ridge trail head in 3 separate batches and proceeded southwest about 3 miles to Float Camp, a nice area along the North Fork of the White River that has probably been used by many people floating the river over the years.

McGarr Ridge trail head

Saturday's breakfast next to the river

Our camp. My tent is the second on the left.

When I went to bed Friday night there was already a little frost on the tent.  Saturday morning it was 20 degrees inside my tent with a thick coat of frost on both sides of the fly.  This was my first experience with winter (sub-freezing) camping and the most unpleasant parts were the getting in and out of bed when so exposed to the cold, and getting up in the middle of the night to pee.  On the plus side, you don’t have to deal with ticks and mosquitoes.  I felt a bit of cold on my back so if I was going to be out in even colder temperatures I’d want a second mattress.

I had heard of, but never seen in person, a frost flower.  They’re formed under specific conditions and things were apparently just right as they were numerous on both mornings.

Frost Flower

Saturday we day-hiked south-east down Collins Ridge, then north on Devils Backbone, then west along Crooked Creek with a little detour to see McGarr Spring (which was an itty-bitty trickle).

Collins Ridge trail

Approaching Devil's Backbone itself - a narrow ridge and a great place for Saturday's lunch.

A little cave along the Crooked Creek trail. Concerns about large angry mammals prevented me from getting closer.

Losing the daylight

Sunday we had breakfast, packed-up and headed back to the McGarr trail head to start for home.  We stopped in Mountain Grove for lunch at The Hay Loft and then hit the road again.

This may turn out to have been my last backpacking trip for the year but I’d say it was a pretty good year – 12 multi-day trips in 6 states including 5 of Missouri’s 8 Wilderness areas and even a tiny bit of the Appalachian Trail plus at least 76 day hikes around KC.  And this was just my first year of backpacking and first full year of hiking.

Next year I’ll be turning it up a notch – perhaps a week in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, probably at least one service trip to work on trails a bit farther from home, and whatever else I can fit-in.  Shorter trips to the Ouachitas and Buffalo River for sure.

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