Photo gallery: Bell Mountain Wilderness
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Welcome to our gallery of photographs taken at Bell Mountain Wilderness, Iron County, Missouri. Click on a picture to see a larger version.
More >Tagged: Hiking
Busiek Day Hike
We hiked the Busiek Red and Yellow trials today – 5 miles and 596 ft. of elevation. We ventured off trail for a while so I could show Ginger some of the things I’d discovered when I backpacked through here in June.
More >Trail Map: Hercules Glades Wilderness
The trails at Hercules Glades have been re-named (2018), so we’ve switched out the map and links to ones that show the new trail names.
More >Trip report: Backpacking in Hercules Glades – September 2012
Taking advantage of a long weekend, we took Lanie with us on a three day backpacking trip to Hercules Glades. Our plan was to map some of the western trails with the GPS, try to find the Spring we think Rock Spring Trail is named after, and show Lanie the falls.
More >Photo gallery: Piney Creek Wilderness
Welcome to our gallery of photographs taken at Piney Creek Wilderness, Missouri.
More >Trip report: Memorial Day weekend backpacking at Hercules Glades Wilderness
Memorial Day weekend 2011. We took advantage of the long weekend to go backpacking at Hercules Glades Wilderness and spent three nights in the wilderness.
More >Photo gallery: Sac River Trail
Welcome to our gallery of photographs taken on the Sac River Trail.
More >Photo gallery: Hercules Glades
Welcome to our gallery of photographs taken at Hercules Glades Wilderness. Click on a picture to see a larger version.
More >Photo gallery: Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area
Welcome to our gallery of photographs taken at Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area. Click on a picture to see a larger version.
More >Trail Map: Sac River Trail, Springfield Missouri
The Sac River Trail is 3 miles North of the I44 at Springfield on Highway 13. It’s primarily a biking trail, but it’s our ‘go to’ place for a quick hike. You just need to keep an ear out for fast approaching bikes and step out of the way.
More >Forest Service Location Poster survey marker
We found this survey marker by the Tar Kiln Trail in Piney Creek Wilderness. It’s quite hard to see, but I was able to make out that the tack in the center marks the place where this post is on a grid.
More >Hiking Huaraches – My hiking ‘boots’
If one thing is likely to start a passionate gear discussion, it’s hiking and backpacking footwear. I’m in a minority on this subject and I know it. Why? If you look closely at any of our backpacking or hiking pictures, you’ll see I’m almost always apparently barefoot…
More >Trip report: Two days solo backpacking in Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area
With a couple of spare days I decided to fit in a quick solo backpacking trip. To save on gas I stayed close to Springfield, backpacking around Busiek State Forest and Wildlife Area. I found a second cemetery and an abandoned vehicle I didn’t know were there.
More >Trip report: Three days backpacking in the Piney Creek Wilderness – June 2012
School’s out for the summer, so there’s no school run to worry about. Lanie’s staying with her grandparents for a few days. The big kids are old enough to be left home alone. What better opportunity to get in a few days backpacking?
More >Places to go: Piney Creek Wilderness
Right off the bat, the most unusual thing about this Wilderness area is that its boundaries circumscribe the entire drainage of Piney Creek. So you always start on a ridge and go down into the valley of the same creek system. There isn’t a lot of up and down all day hiking. Once you’re down in the valley it’s flat. Piney Creek opens into Table Rock Lake on the east, allowing access to and from the lake…
More >Trip report: Backpacking at Piney Creek Wilderness – April 2012
One of the more problematic aspects of an outdoor-loving lifestyle is that you have to either find someone to take your kids while you go play or you have to bring your kids with you. We finally have two kids old enough to leave at home. But our youngest is still a bit young so we’ve been working on getting her interested in the idea of going on backpacking trips with us
More >Ozarks Hikes: Sac River Trail
There’s a little-known trail just north of Springfield, within the city limits, that will give you miles of moderately rugged hiking and exposure to streams, woods, and open fields. The Springfield-Greene County Park Board owns the 300 acres that contain well over 8 miles of natural surface single track. The trail is rocky in places, muddy in places, and winds back and forth an amazing amount. There are no steep climbs but the trail goes up and down enough, and has many small seasonal stream crossings and plenty rugged rocks to give you a decent hiking workout.
More >Sac River Trail – March 26, 2012
Strike while the iron is hot, they say. The weather was perfect and we just got back from a week’s backpacking trip to the St. Francois Mountains. We were eager to get a move on! Plus, the 12yo and 16yo wanted to get some exercise. Directly after school we filled water bottles and piled into […]
More >Trip report: Backpacking the Berryman Trail – 2011
With the kids away for Spring Break with their father for a week we decided it was time for our next backpacking trip. The children had to be dropped off and picked up from St Louis, so that focused our attention on the Berryman Trail. Some people do this trail in a day, bikes do […]
More >Trip report: backpacking at Hercules Glades Wilderness – December 2010
Our first backpacking experience The kids were with their dad in Chicago. The forecast was for unseasonably warm temperatures. We had backpacking gear we’d not fully tried out yet. It had been nearly six weeks since our last camping trip. It was time. We were ready to go on our first backpacking trip!
More >Trip report: Hercules Glades day hike with MDC
We wanted to backpack in the Hercules Glades Wilderness, but we’d never been there. We decided to reconnoiter the Wilderness first, in preparation for our first ever backpacking trip. We found out that MDC’s Springfield Nature Center was organizing a ‘Hiking Club’ trip to Hercules Glades, so we signed up to go. The group is limited […]
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