Shortleaf » Places I Go

Show-Me Bowl 2011

Ryan — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:01:59 +0000

Thanksgiving weekend marked my former high school Webb City’s 12th appearance at the Class 4 Missouri State Football Championship, cleverly named the “Show-Me Bowl”. We decided to make the long trek to St. Louis to catch the game and see a few sights in Missouri’s most populous metropolitan area.

The game was among the most exciting I’ve seen ever. The cardinals played MICDS, a private school in St. Louis, and neither team was capable of stopping the other’s offense. Webb City scored on every possession except the first and when the clock ran out at the half. MICDS scored on every possession except for 2, both in the second half and both teams successfully pulled off on-side kicks to attempt to steal an extra possession, since it seemed the only way to win this game was to have an extra possession. For most of the game, the score was tied or one team had a temporary 1 score advantage.

In the end a total of 98 points were put on the board, which was a Show-Me-Bowl record for all classes. With Lamar and Rogersville also bringing home titles, it was a good showing for Southwest Missouri at the dome.

A 60ish yard score that sealed the win.

Eily hangin’ around with Grandad.

The next day we visited the arch and enjoyed the fairly nice fall morning in the park!

Fall at the Lake

Ryan — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:23:52 +0000

Last week we loaded up the fam and spent a week at mom and dad’s lakehouse enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery of the Ozarks. I was very much looking forward to a getaway and some relaxation.

The weather was a bit chilly the first few days but that didn’t stop us from getting outside…

Steph and Emma

Eily wore her bear coat when we went for a walk.

Emma rode around on her tricycle. She's getting pretty good at it!

One morning Emma and I went for a hike at a nearby conservation area. Emma hiked 2 miles all on her own! I was so proud! Some stray dogs tagged along.

A small stream near a spring.

Hayes Spring, from which this conservation area gets its name.

One of the dogs jumped into the spring and couldn't get out so I had to extract it. Emma was excited to tell Steph how we saved the doggy.

I asked Emma where she wanted to eat lunch and she said "under the big (pine) tree!". To which I responded, "thats my girl!" Ha!

I have always wanted to check out the historic "Y Bridge" in Galena so we took a quick detour and walked across it.

Nice view of the James River, which is quite clean and clear here.

Eily Beth enjoyed her time at the lakehouse.

Eily snuggling up to daddy before bedtime.

We went to Silver Dollar City on friday. Emma had a good time doing some new rides.

Emma rode the teacups and enjoyed it immensely. She's becoming such a big girl!

I rode the 'big swings' with her.

Nonna and Papa came for a visit at the end of our trip.

A nice sunset over the lake at the end of our vacation! Good times!

Labor Day

Ryan — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 01:53:43 +0000

We were long overdue for some nice weather, and today was just about as nice as it gets. Lucky for me I had already planned a day outing for Emma and I. First we headed to Prairie State Park near Liberal, MO. We had a nice picnic lunch in a wooded area and then we and found some Bison to watch.

Then, we headed to the visitor center and walked a trail into the prairie. Prairie State Park is a glimpse of what a large portion of Missouri used to look like. Unlike most other Missouri state parks, it’s monotonous and sparse, but I also think it’s very relaxing and beautiful out in the wide open space. Emma seemed to enjoy it as well.

Coincidentally there is a small state forest on the same road as Prairie State Park. The land is an old strip mine that was planted with numerous tree species and eventually donated to MDC. I remember riding bikes on the paths with my parents a long, long time ago. Emma enjoyed running up the trails and particularly enjoyed the turtle we found!

So we had a great day enjoying the weather, taking photos, and being out in nature!

Ozark Trail, Missouri

Ryan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 18:19:43 +0000

It’s been a few weeks now, so I’m finally getting around to posting some pics from Ian and I’s hiking trip. As you may recall, we opted to stay in Missouri this year and backpack on the Ozark Trail. The mountain we planned to climb was Stegall Mountain, which at 1,348′ was nowhere near the magnitude of previous climbs. However, 25 miles with 40 pound backpacks combined with the ups and downs of the trail made for an equally challenging trip. Not to mention the forecast was for severe thunderstorms all weekend.

I didn’t get any great photos of some of the cool features we saw, mainly due to hazy midday lighting conditions and the fact that I was too tired to go climbing around looking for the best angles. Nevertheless, we saw a lot of great scenery without having to travel very far!

Packed up and ready to head out on the trail. We started at the Powder Mill Trail Head.

We hiked the “Current River Section” of the trail, although aside from this crossing, we really never even saw the Current River. On a side note, I am very fascinated by the beautiful teal colored streams and rivers of the Ozarks. I’ve seen lots of rivers all over the world, some very clear ones, but nothing that compares with the deep teal colored streams so common throughout the Ozarks. I am not sure what causes this, but I like it a lot!

I took entirely too much photography gear and food. Better safe and exhausted than hungry and needing a tripod I guess.

This area is called Klepzig Mill and was one of my favorite spots along the trail.

We enjoyed lunch at this nice overlook of Klepzig Mill.

Here is a clear pool of water below another series of rapids and waterfalls called Buzzard Mountain Shut-Ins.

Buzzard Mountain Shut-Ins

I like this area because it contains a lot of pine forest. Most of the trail was Oak, Hickory, and Pine mix, however this mile or so was mostly just Pine, so it smelled really nice!

We opted not to carry 2 days worth of water and instead got water from this clear creek and purified it. It tasted quite nice, maybe better than the tap water we brought!

Rocky Falls, another cool area along the Ozark Trail. This was actually a spur off the main trail, but well worth the side trip.

The trail started getting steeper as we made our way up Stegall Mountain. A massive t-storm hit us as we were approaching the summit so we were unable to safely explore the area and enjoy the view. Had the weather been more cooperative we would have enjoyed this view…

Thanks to Ozark Bill for allowing me to use his photo from a more successful trip up Stegall.

We hiked back down a ways where lightning would be less of a risk and setup “camp”, which consisted of a couple rainproof hammocks. Actually worked out very nicely and we stayed nice and dry even though it rained non-stop for about 15 hours!

More shut-ins as we made our way back the next morning.

Crossing was a bit more of a challenge on the return trip due to the rains the night before. I hopped across but Ian was a bit nervous at first.

Crossing here Ian almost completely lost it. Somehow we both managed to get to the other side ‘mostly’ dry. From that point on I didn’t really take any photos because I was too tired…

So in summary, while being less exotic than previous trips, it was still a great time and we saw some great scenery here at home!

Skiing Winter Park

Ryan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:37:34 +0000

Last week my fam took a quick ski trip to Winter Park in Colorado. Though we don’t ski very often, when we do ski it’s usually in the spring and in Utah. The resorts themselves are fairly similar, however CO ski resorts are much further from the airport, and going in winter is much, much colder! This was also my first airplane trip with a small child!

Poco has traveling with wee-children down to an art.

Me, Steph, and Emma enjoying a nice short plane ride to Denver.

Poco has dramatically improved her skillz on the slopes from the last few times I’ve skied with her.

Steph and I on the slopes. This was Steph’s first time to snow ski. I’m pretty sure I got that coat in high school.

She did really well and was picking it up pretty quickly – though no one is immune to the occasional wipe-out into a snow drift!

We chose Winter Park because they seemed to cater to people with kids more than other ski resorts. They even had these handy wagons that the girls enjoyed riding in from place to place!

It was reeeeaallly cold on the mountain. The trees were all covered with a dusting of snow so they looked more gray than green.

I finished the second day with one of the most difficult slopes I’ve ever attempted. I only fell once, but it was so steep I never actually stopped before getting back on track. This black diamond was worse than some of the double blacks I have done at Park City.

Jimmyjack, Poco, and me riding up to the very top lift. It was above the tree line, windy, and blowing snow. It was probably the coldest I have ever been!

We could only see about 1 chair ahead of us on the lift. Everything else was white.

On top of the mountain. I am not used to skiing with full face protection and goggles but it was so cold we had no choice!

The view from the top was quite spectacular (when we weren’t in a cloud that is).

Steph and I finishing up our third and final day on the slopes!

We finished the trip with a night on the town at this Mexican restaurant.

Emma enjoys a snack of ice cubes on the plane home. Like mother like daughter!

Oklahoma State

Ryan — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 22:01:53 +0000

This weekend we made the trip to Stillwater, OK to watch MSU play OSU with Andy and Bridget. I always think it’s fun to travel to away games and see their arena, especially if it’s one I’ve seen on tv before. MSU rarely has road games that are within easy driving distance, so this was a good opportunity to see one.

We attempted to eat at Eskimo Joe’s but decided against it when we found out there was a 2hr wait. Instead we opted for The Hideaway Pizza, which was quite tasty. The game itself was fairly disappointing. OSU was favored by 4 points and I expected we would probably lose by a few points after a close came. The first half was close, but the second half was a total disaster. Plus it didn’t help that MSU was called for fouling every time they attempted to play defense.

Nevertheless, we had a great time and found a frozen yogurt place afterward!

Ireland

Ryan — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:18:51 +0000

I’ve finally managed to pick a few of my favorite nature shots from Steph and I’s trip to Ireland. We saw so much more than this, but it was overwhelming to try and blog about the entire trip and include photos. So I just decided to start with some nature shots, since that’s kind of the theme of Shortleaf.com. I’ll post up some “fun” shots of us and the places we stayed later!

Ireland is probably the rainiest place I’ve ever been. The weather was terrible for most of the trip, but we came prepared with raincoats. We rarely saw more than the bottoms of mountains.

This was the view from our cottage near the town of Kenmare. Most mornings all we could see was low clouds, but on this morning we could see across the valley.

One of the smaller lakes in Killarney National Park.

Not sure, but I think this may have been a “bog”.

Fall foliage along a nature trail in the park.

In the thicker parts of the forest all the trees were covered with moss. There were a lot of really oddly shaped old trees.

A creek running down the mountain.

Torc Waterfall, much larger in person than it looks.

Ireland has lots of water, so lots of my photos have water in them as well. I have never seen so many streams and waterfalls. They were everywhere!

Derrynane Beach along the scenic loop drive known as the “Ring of Kerry”.

The sun came out for the first time on the trip this morning, making everything bright green! This was a random spot along the highway.

Looking out to some islands called the “Skelligs”. One of them has an ancient monastery on top, which we could have climbed up to, but there were no boats going because of the weather.

A view of “Telegraph Point” where the first communications cable between Europe and North America connected the European side.

Steph took a pic of me playing photographer. I think it’s maybe better than most of the pics I took!

The Gap of Dunloe, a narrow mountain pass. Lots of small lakes, streams, waterfalls, and neat bridges. This was the tallest mountain range in Ireland, called Macgillycuddys Reeks.

This road seemed to keep winding up forever. Although these were the tallest mountains in Ireland, they still weren’t particularly tall compared to the Rockies or Appalachians. The tallest is a peak called Carrauntoohil, only 3,406ft.

We went to hike up to a waterfall at Gleninchaquin Park but it started raining about 10 minutes after we got out of the car.

If you look closely you can see a guy herding some sheep out of the field below the waterfall. What a beautiful place to have a farm!

Some cool Oak trees in the meadow.

One of the zillion lakes we saw randomly along the roads.

Another pass we drove up. This is another example of something that couldn’t be properly captured in a photo.

The rough seas crashing into the Cliffs of Moher.

These cliffs were amazing and huge. Photos just can’t capture it. This was one of our favorite spots from the whole trip.

A old lookout tower above the cliffs. Further down there were sheep grazing, seemingly indifferent to the 700ft cliffs below them.

Roaring River

Ryan — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:27:22 +0000

Saturday I decided to introduce Emma to one of my favorite places – Roaring River State Park. I remember the first time my parents took me there and how cool I thought it was. I’ve probably been there 100 times by now but it never gets old. So I was excited to have a conservation outing with Emma.

Emma enjoys riding in the backpack. She always wants 2 rocks and after she gets bored with them she throws them and says “bye bye!”. Then she asks for “more rocks”.

I had never hiked this trail before but it was nice. Steep but nice. Hiking up ozark hills is hard enough, but even more of a challenge with 40lbs of baby, backpack, snacks, water, rocks, and photo equipment!

About halfway up the trail leveled out for awhile along this neat rocky ridge. Emma wanted to go touch the big rocks.

I was exhausted when we reached the top so I let Emma out. She enjoyed exploring on her own.

This open glade area provided for a nice view.

After the trail we threw some rocks in the river.

And no trip to Roaring River is complete without a stop at Dairy Queen.

South Dakota

Ryan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:37:13 +0000

We are back from our trip to South Dakota and had a great time! I took tons and tons of photos and had a very hard time narrowing it down… so even the narrowed down list is pretty long. If you want to see the larger versions just click on them! Enjoy!

Here we are, ready to set out!

It wasn’t long before Emma decided to try out the napping abilities of the Jetta.

The first night we made it as far as Sioux Falls, right about 500 miles from home. Cracker Barrel started off the second morning.

I had never been to the Corn Palace so we stopped by to check it out.

As it turns out, the Corn Palace is weird. A combination theater and basketball arena with a maze of trinkets and trash for sale.

One of my favorite sights – mountains in the distance!

Welcome to the Black Hills!

Our little cabin. And by little, I mean tiny. I think the entire cabin would fit in my bedroom at home. But it was cute and did us well for the week.

After we got settled, we drove in to Rapid City to get groceries and eat dinner. Emma was more interested in conversing with the people across the divider.

Our first order of business was Mt Rushmore.

Emma insisted on doing all of the 200 or so steps completely unassisted. Luckily we weren’t in a hurry.

Emma usually likes pinecones, but this one was fairly sharp.

Our first picnic of the trip in a nice forested area.

Emma decided to try on my sunglasses.

A nice view near our Picnic spot.

We walked around a small trail by Horsethief Lake.

Steph sitting in our bug spattered car while I get out to take photos of something.

Some wildlife.

Emma napping with the wild hair.

We stumbled across a really neat overlook along the road.

A family photo at the overlook.

Emma, my little rock climber. It won’t be long until she’s going up mountains with me!

Walking back to the car after enjoying the overlook and the rock climbing.

Me and Steph.

The cabin only had a standup shower, so Emma used this duckie tub. This was after she had taken a bath, got dressed and then decided to get back in the tub.

Emma enjoying another hike.

She wanted to hike on her own.

Another nice view of the Black Hills.

Trying to take a photo with Emma… but she was not cooperating. This is her famous move that we have dubbed “the limp noodle”.

A road went to the top of this mountain. The rocks kept us from driving over the edge.

Every time we would pass by some water, Emma would start pointing. Apparently her new favorite thing is to throw rocks into water.

We drove the “wildlife loop” which was both scenic and offered views of various types of wildlife.

Most of the days of our trip were blue skies and bright white puffy clouds. Perfect weather!

A friendly burro.

There were tons of bison along the drive.

After the drive, we decided to break out the new backpack. She liked it!

Steph was feeling left out so she took this self-photo.

Emma is still riding good in the backpack!

I have already started teaching her to appreciate pine trees. “See Emma, this is a Ponderosa.”

Wednesday I got up at 5:30am and climbed the 7 mile loop to the summit of Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota. Compared to some of the others I’ve done, this was fairly easy.

The sign said to allow 5-6 hours, but after only an hour and 10 minutes I was at the top.

Just below the summit I saw this crazy looking animal.

The early morning view from the top was amazing!

All alone at the top. I didn’t see a single person the entire hike up, and only one on the way back down. Then I saw a second person as I reached the parking long.

A view of “the needles”, the rest of Custer State Park, and beyond.

Just one of the many awesome rock formations in the Black Hills.

After my hike, we all headed into Wyoming to Devils Tower. The rolling green mountains and valleys made for a very nice drive.

Here is Devils Tower.

We broke out the pack again. This time for a mile and a half.

Another self timer family pic after we finished the hike.

Since Emma was so good we gave her a cook-cook (Cookie).

We took the scenic way home up Spearfish Canyon. There are several waterfalls, but it started raining so we were only able to see this one.

The Alpine Inn, where we had dinner in the cool little town of Hill City, SD.

Steph and Emma hiking some more. This time at Jewel Cave.

Another great picnic spot. This time by a lake.

Whee!

Steph and I in the car.

Emma was doing so well in the pack, we just kept doing hikes!

This was an old house the used to belong to a poet back before the park existed and is nicknamed “The Badger Hole”. It was like walking back in time. Very cool!

Another view of the mountains!

Driving along Needles Highway.

More bright skies!

Needles Highway is not a place for large vehicles!

Emma and I enjoying the latest National Geographic.

Our last day we headed out to the Badlands.

Me and Steph at an overlook.

We had a picnic and luckily the picnic tables had shelters since there were no shade trees to be found.

We enjoyed the striped patterns in the soil and rocks.

Steph and Em after lunch.

Once again trying to take a photo with an un-cooperative child.

Em and I checking out some fossils along the trail.

A family photo at the Badlands, courtesy of nice British couple.

A self-shot at the badlands.

I have definitely never hiked a trail that looked like this!

Our last night in South Dakota…hiking around Sylvan Lake.

Sylvan Lake… if you have seen National Treasure 2 you may recognize it.

Hiking through a narrow passage behind the lake.

Our last night….having a cookout by the lake!

Em is quite independent.

A view of Harney Peak on the drive back to the cabin for the last time!

This was how Em spent most of the 14 hour drive home.

Natural Falls State Park

Ryan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:38:03 +0000

Saturday we had originally hoped to head down to Roaring River but the weather ended up being cold and dreary. Instead we decided to make a day trip down to an amish cheese store in Chouteau, OK. As luck would have it, the weather was a bit nicer down there so we stopped by Natural Falls State Park to do a short hike and check out some scenery. It also gave me an excuse to get out the camera and take a few photos…

Steph loading Emma into the stroller.

The waterfall from the bottom of the trail.

The three of us squeezing into a pic.

Em running from Steph across the bridge.

Me and the Lady.

Me and the Little Lady.

It was a great day and I particularly enjoyed the waterfall trail. If you want to check it out for yourself, the park is located in Oklahoma just off hwy 412 a few miles west of Siloam Springs.

Oklahoma’s state parks are operated in the same fashion as their highways, so be prepared to pay a toll to view the waterfall. Also from the few I have visited, Oklahoma state parks seem to be geared more towards recreation, with a dash of conservation, where Missouri parks are more about nature and conservation with a little bit of recreation. Having said that, Oklahoma does have some real gems as far as natural areas go.