Hercules Glade is definitely a place I would like to go back and explore some more!

The road to the trail head was flooded, adding almost 3 miles round trip. Most of the forest in this area was Red Cedar,.a fairly common tree in Missouri but I can’t recall seeing a forest where they are the dominant species. It smelled very nice!

Long Creek runs right through the center of the wilderness area.

By definition a wilderness area cannot contain anything man made, including bridges. So you have to cross streams the old fashioned way.

Matt, Andy and I on a rock ledge overlooking a deep pool of water. Matt decided to do a canonball into it.

Long Creek has many areas of rapids.

Long Creek Falls was probably our favorite feature we saw. It looks much smaller in the photo that it seemed in person!

We could see more waterfalls downstream but with time running out we decided to turn back at this point.

I’ve tried for years to get an interesting shot of Virgin Bluff and this is probably the closes I’ve come. It’s a magnificent subject but difficult to photograph. Perhaps the main reason is that it’s just so large and flat…awesome in person, boring in an image. Another reason is that it’s surrounded by water and mixing up the vantage point is difficult. The last reason is that it’s hard to get a shot that evokes a sense of nature and wilderness because there are 2 homes and a cell phone tower on top of the bluff, as well as a subdivision taking shape on the hill just off the left frame. Somehow I managed to exclude all of that from the frame.

The afternoon shadows and early spring colors add a bit of extra interest to the photo. I don’t think it’s a gallery worthy image, but I think it’s worthy of my photo of the week!

The winter landscape can be messy, especially in forested areas hit hard by the ice storms of recent years, but it can also be more interesting with the foliage no longer hiding the contents of the forest from view.

Probably the most annoying thing about winter is scraping frost off my windshield in the morning. I absolutely hate that!

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!

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!

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!

I was actually familiar with the dog from this property. It routinely chased and tried to bite me when I would ride past on my bike…so I’m not surprised it was hit by a car. It’s sad to lose a pet, I’ve lost several in my life, but I do think it’s kind of silly to place blame on anyone other than yourself when you have a dog that chases cars and bikes and you let it run loose next to a busy road. Right after I took this photo I almost hit 2 other dogs. Apparently loose dogs run rampant along this stretch of road.

When the highway department mowed down my overgrown landscaping perhaps I should have resorted to the redneck sign method to express my displeasure with the unknown offender. Of course my frustration was really at myself that I allowed my landscaping to become so overgrown that it obscured the fact that it was landscaping…setting it up to be mowed down. But people tend to be more attached to pets than landscaping.

One thing I do know is that if I did make a redneck sign and I wanted people to read it…I sure wouldn’t choose yellow text on a white background.

One the way home we had lunch in Chillicothe, MO which in addition to being my grandmother’s home town, is apparently also the home of sliced bread. Upon further investigation I found that the bread slicer was actually invented in Davenport, IA, however it was first used on a commercial scale by a bakery in Chillicothe. Battle Creek, MI also lays claim on sliced bread, but most bread historians seem to go with Chillicothe.

Also interesting is that sliced bread was illegal for short time in 1943 because it was believed to require additional packaging to keep fresh. The ban was lifted after much upheaval and turmoil among bread producers and consumers nationwide.

At any rate, now you know what town to thank every time you make toast without having to cut up your bread first.

Saturday I took Emma hiking at Big Sugar Creek State Park near Pineville. The weather was nice and we had a fun picnic. It’s a small state park with only a couple trails, but I like it a lot. I visited it once before a couple springs ago. If the streams wouldn’t have been dry on Saturday I probably could have got some really great fall/stream shots.

This is the only ‘sunrise’ looking picture that was even halfway good. It’s 2 exposures overlaid. I really need to get a graduated ND filter because that would achieve the same effect with a lot less work.

This part of the trail winds precariously along a cliff above Shoal Creek.

[SinglePic not found]I didn’t get the sunrise photo I was hoping for but nature photography really can’t be planned. I did get some good fall foliage shots however and most importantly I had a lot of fun.

Big Sugar Creek Road in McDonald County. I like this road a lot. Reminds me of how more of Missouri highways probably used to be.

This trail also went along some neat rocky bluffs, but not nearly as tall as Wildcat Park.

This forest was full of sugar maples so the colors were amazing!

A typical “fall foliage” shot.

So that is my latest photo work! I imagine the next time I blog it will be to post some photos from Ireland!

I rode from my house up Old 66 and got on the trail where it crosses the road just before Steph’s parent’s house. I wasn’t sure which direction to go, so I chose east into Carthage. The gravel on the 2 mile section from Carthage is extremely coarse, more like driveway gravel than something suitable for a bike trail. It was rideable…but barely. I heard that there was a mis-communication when the gravel was ordered. The trail going west toward Oronogo is the correct small gravel normally found on bike trails.

It turned out to be a bit shorter than I expected, my entire trip was only 11.5 miles. Most of the trail crosses through farm land, so I wouldn’t describe it as terribly scenic, but nearing Carthage there is a nice canopy of trees shading the trail. Also this section appears to receive heavier use, so it was a bit more worn and the rough driveway gravel was less annoying.

When complete, the Ruby Jack trail will ultimately run from Carthage to the KS state line. Initially it was planned as a bi-state trail all the way to Columbus, KS. However, Cherokee County passed an ordinance in response to those plans that effectively prohibits the rail-trail from entering Kansas. So until the good people of Cherokee County overcome their fear of bikers and joggers, the trail will stop at the state line.

Rough gravel aside, I am really excited about this trail. I think it’s a great asset to the area and another excellent component of the ever expanding trail system in the Joplin area.