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White’s Creek Trail: An Incredible Hub of Biodiversity
A couple of weekends ago, Eric and I, accompanied by friends John and Sammy, drove four hours southeast to explore the Irish Wilderness, Missouri's largest wilderness area. We hiked White's Creek Trail, starting from the Camp Five Pond Trailhead, over two days. Although the loop is listed at 17.4 miles, most travelers have clocked it at closer to 20 miles. And, if you take the few spurs off the main loop to visit the Eleven Point River and springs, you might hike closer to 22 miles, as we did.
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Big Spring, Blue Spring, and Falling Spring
While Eric was hiking on Memorial Day Weekend, I was spending some more relaxed time outdoors with my family. Although we have owned property near Ellington, MO for almost a year now, we have been so busy spending time on the property that this was one of our first forays into the surrounding community. We checked out three springs near Van Buren, MO: Big Spring, Blue Spring, and Falling Spring.
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Bell Mountain Loop Trail: Missouri’s Best Sunrise
For Eric's birthday, we decided to check out the 11.6-mile Bell Mountain Loop Trail, which had been on our list to check out for a while. Eric was off work on Friday (state holidays are great) but was moving slowly that morning; so, after the three-hour drive and an extremely curvy road, we pulled into the parking lot around 2 pm. The parking lot is a bit easy to miss since it's on the other side of the road from the Bell Mountain Wilderness sign.
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Ozark Trail Current River Section: A Surprisingly Dry Excursion
Over Memorial Day Weekend, my cousins, John, Alex, and Phillip, and I decided we wanted to hike the Current River Section of the Ozark Trail: an ambitious, 30-mile excursion through true Ozark wilderness. This noteworthy section of the trail provides several opportunities for adventure and recreation along the way. Although the maps on the Ozark Trail Association website and other sources say this is a 30-mile trail, the mileage is understated. If you decide to hike this section, you can reasonably expect to walk 35 miles or more even if you skip out on side adventures, such as the half-mile spur trail to Rocky Falls. In other words, this should…
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Ozark Trail Between the Rivers Section: A Private Excursion
Slightly over a year ago, I embarked on my first-ever backpacking trip with Eric as my guide. We had carefully selected a section of the Ozark Trail: part of the Between the Rivers section plus a loop that ran along the Eleven Point River. We also had heard there was a climbable lookout tower in the area. With the whole weekend free, we had our hearts set on covering 19 miles over 2.5 days.
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Brushy Creek Loop: (Probably) the Most Remote Trail in Missouri
The end-of-the-week forecast advised us to head to the woods. This particular middle-of-nowhere patch of forest is one of, if not the, largest contiguous areas of forest in Missouri. It just might be the most remote area Missouri has to offer. Mollie and I cut our Friday workdays a bit short, arriving at the Himont Campground in the Roger Pryor Pioneer Backcountry by 7 PM. Our sights were set on the Brushy Creek Trail, an ambitious, 16-mile loop (AllTrails says 14 miles) that starts at the Himont Campground. Little did we know, due to the pandemic, we had entered a closed county and all state campgrounds had been temporarily closed.…
