A Story to Tell

Everyone has a story to tell.  You’re reading part of ours right now.  We got a glimpse into a few people’s stories today, all wildly different from each other, all very interesting

The first story came from the proprietor of Lead Mine Country Store, a grocery store with attached restaurant on a lonely road near the Lead Mine Conservation area.  We weren’t in any hurry today so we thought we would visit some of the local stores.  It turns out that this area has a clan of old-order Mennonite people, so it has lots of small businesses.  We visited another grocery store and a furniture store selling rough hewn furniture, all beautiful stuff, before arriving here.

The building was homey, with a large porch with stuff for sale.  Two peacocks in full plumage were perched on the railings.  There’s no electricity so the place is lit with light pipes from the roof.  The hum of a diesel reefer unit from a semi trailer could be heard in the background.

Deb is always really good at striking up conversations with complete strangers so we talked with the proprietor for awhile.  He was a former Episcopal priest, having moved here a while back from Colorado to be closer to family.  We talked about origins for a bit, how some of my family had immigrated from the Netherlands and adapted the flower business for the climate.  “In the flower business, we would marry ‘em and bury ‘em,” I told him, as gladiolas were used often in weddings and funerals.  It took him just a bit to make the connection, then he told us, “In my business, we would hatch ‘em, match ‘em, and then dispatch ‘em.”  That’s when he told us that he was an Episcopal priest, doing baptisms, weddings, and funerals.  We all had a good chuckle over this.

We drove towards Springfield, stopping at Costco and Aldi for supplies, and Culver’s for dessert, before arriving at the Bass Pro Shop.  This is the grand-daddy of all Bass Pro Shops, as it all started here when a guy named Johnny Morris started selling some fishing tackle out of his dad’s liquor store.  Since 1972, this business has grown into a large outdoor retailer with nearly 200 stores.  And this one is impressive place indeed.  Not content to just sell stuff, they have made their stores into destinations, with three-story waterfalls, aquariums, outdoor displays brought indoors, and, in the case of this location, several on-site museums.  One of those museums outlines the life of Johnny Morris and how he not only sells stuff but is also passionate about conservation.

We spent over two hours in this cavernous store and still did not cover all of it.  And for the most part, we didn’t even look at the products for sale.

Leaving here, we drove to our stop for the night, a private property at the end of a dead end road just outside of Springfield.  Through the network of boondockers that we are a part of, we found this place conveniently located just off the highway.

Cheryl, the owner, came out to greet us just after we parked the RV.  We had a nice conversation and we heard a little bit of her story.  How she likes to travel, both domestically and internationally.  She has been to South Africa several times and even owned a house there for a while.  She enjoys off-road Jeeping and likes the area around Moab, Utah.  She is involved with a disaster relief organization called Convoy of Hope.  And she lets drifters like us boondock on her lovely 15-acre property by Springfield, Missouri.

So, from Episcopal priest to outdoor entrepreneur to traveler/volunteer, we collected a few stories today as we are writing our own. So glad you could join us in this story.

Leaving the Riverway

We’re starting to run low on time.  Time to wander before arriving at our work assignment on Thursday afternoon.  Since I’m the group leader for this project, I have started corresponding with the ranch and have been receiving group leader instructions and materials via email.

I’m the group leader, but we’re the only couple signed up for this project, so I don’t really have a group to lead.  This will be a new experience for us: serving on a project alone and not part of a group.  We have enjoyed the interactions and the getting-to-know-others in group settings on prior projects, so we’ll see how this goes.  If God wants us to serve alone, we will serve alone.  We look forward to what He has in store for us.

Because we are looking at a Thursday deadline, we have to start planning how to arrive there at that time and moving in that direction. So it’s time to say goodbye to the Ozark National Scenic Riverway and move on.  But not without one last look.

That last look was at Welch, a river access point on our way out and also the location of an old hospital.  We stopped first at Akers and talked to an outfitter there, not that we were looking to do anything, but Deb just wanted to ask a couple questions.  The woman was friendly and gave us some perspective on just how popular this area is.  She told us that over a thousand people a day go on the water on these rivers at the height of summer season.  I’m not sure if that figure was just for her outfitter or for everyone, but that is a lot of people.  Makes the crowd we launched with yesterday seem like a trickle.  The place must be a madhouse.  Shoulder season is definitely desirable.  And also because it’s not so hot.  She said it gets insanely hot during the summer.

The road to Welch was a narrow dirt road but it was less than a mile.  Unfortunately, on these roads, by the time you figure out what you are getting into, you are committed.  This road was narrow, winding, bumpy, and very steep. Rocks embedded in the road way made the RV sway like crazy.  I think Deb was going to have a nervous breakdown on the last stretch, which was particularly bad.  She now had something to worry about: getting back out.

The main attraction here is the old hospital that is built over a spring.  In 1913, Dr. C.H. Diehl bought the property and build the stone hospital over the mouth of a cave, which attaches to a passage from which Welch Spring flows.  He believed that air from the spring would circulate throughout the hospital and help heal asthma, emphysema, and tuberculosis.

The hospital was not successful.  Being way out in the sticks, few people were willing to take the trip.  The hospital fell into ruin after the doctor died in 1940.

The hike here was a pleasant half-mile from the parking area and we enjoyed our last hike of the area.

The drive out was steep and slow and bumpy and we managed to crawl out without burning out the transmission.  It was hot, but it survived.

We took the minor roads, opting not to take the interstate as suggested by Google Maps.  Lots of beautiful country out here, very rolling and hilly.  Deb spotted a small sign that said “Farm Market” at an intersection, and we drove a couple miles out of our way on washboard dirt roads to this market, which was mostly an Amish bulk food store located way out of the way. Everything was neatly arranged and the store, inside and out, was beautifully set up.

On into the little town of Licking where we got groceries and ate lunch in the city park.  One thing that stood out to me as we left town was the local lumber store, for obvious reasons.

Our travels eventually brought us to Ha Ha Tonka State Park.  Kind of a funny name (pun intended), but the name reportedly came from the Osage, meaning ​laughing waters​.

This park is the site of several interesting things: a spring, castle ruins, caves, arches.  The most interesting story is that of the castle.  In 1904, Robert Snyder, a wealthy businessman, bought 2700 acres in the Ozarks, which included the spring and a lake.  He wanted to build a vacation home, but not just any vacation home.  He wanted a castle.

It took a year and a half to build the exterior structure.  In 1906, being one of the few people to actually own an automobile, he had the dubious distinction of being one of the first automobile fatalities in Kansas City.

His children finished the castle after it sat for a few years.  In 1942 a fire broke out and destroyed the entire castle, leaving only the stone walls standing.  Embers from the fire also started the roof of the nearby carriage house on fire.

The water tower was inadequate to help during the fire.  It was burned by vandals in 1978.  Now the whole place is a state park and tourist destination.

The water tower roof was restored in 1999 and it is a defining structure in the park.  It housed several of the caretakers, and a steel tank occupied the top floor, providing water for the castle and the carriage house.  It was filled by a hydraulic ram pump from the spring, using only gravity flow to push the water to the top of the tower.

We browsed several of the trails, appreciating the shady ones as the late afternoon sun was so hot.

We are currently camped at the Lead Mine Conservation Campground. It’s in the middle of nowhere in Amish country.  50 sites and we’re the only ones here.

We’ll start heading south tomorrow, towards Springfield and Branson, then ultimately to Lampe where our project is.  Our trek across Missouri so far looks like this:

Gravel Bar Camping - Almost

Another cool night, good for sleeping, another misty morning, promising to be a picture-perfect day.  We packed up the last of anything that was laying around and left Shawnee Creek.  Beautiful little campground right on the river and under lots of big shade trees, but apparently well-known and well-loved by the locals.

We would have stayed a little longer this morning, but we wanted to have better Internet access to stream the church service.  It’s pretty spotty out here.

We drove into nearby Eminence, parked at the city park, and sat down for the church service.  Conveniently, due to the time zone difference, it started just after we arrived, at 8am.  Good to be under the teaching of Scripture and doctrine again, even if viewed through a small iPad screen in Eminence, Missouri.

We spent another day in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, opting to kayak another section of the Current River.  Leaving Eminence, we drove to Round Spring, where we dropped off a bicycle.  Then on to Pulltite, 9 miles farther down the road, where we unloaded the kayaks.

This portion of the river had an entirely different feel than that of the last few days.  Mostly because it was busy.  Several outfitters and several private parties were all launching boats from this launch point, and we joined the throng.  I guess we won’t have this river to ourselves as we have the last couple of days.

For the first half hour or so, we were two of many, although we gradually passed most of the groups up.  One group had two dogs which just swam behind their canoes, barely able to keep up.  I felt sorry for the dogs, they looked like they were getting tired and the owners appeared to be ignoring them completely.  It was good to get past that group.  Navigating around swimming dogs wasn’t my idea of a peaceful float in the river.

Eventually we left the crowds behind and it became more like the last couple of days.  The water was clear, the weather was great, and the wooded slopes and cliffs rising out of the water were a treat to the eyes.

This section of the river was wider and a little slower than the others, although we still managed to paddle 10 miles in around three hours.  Not as much wildlife along this section, although maybe that’s because we started later in the day.  We got on the water at just after 11am.

We landed at Round Spring and decided to camp here for the night.  No cell service so we used the courtesy phone on the porch of the ranger station.  That was kind of a throwback as it resembled the pay-phone booths that used to be in airports and bus stations. Complete with a push-button phone with a cord that was just a little too short.

When I finally got a live person, she told me that all the sites here were closed for maintenance.  That would explain why no one is here.  We’ll have to find somewhere else.

Before we left here we took a dip in the river. Yesterday’s swim was so refreshing that we wanted to try it again.  Only this water was colder and there was a rather swift current, making it difficult to stand up.  We managed to wash our hair before getting out and drying off.

While on the river, we saw a large gravel bar near the Sinking Creek Campground.  Gravel bar camping is a thing around here and we have seen several people camping on large expanses of gravel next to the river just like this one.  Just park your rig and camp.  One gravel bar we saw earlier had half a dozen trailers scattered across it.  So we made that our next stop.  We pulled into the  campground, past the open gate, followed the many wheel tracks on to the gravel bar, and shut off the engine.  Great place to camp.  Several old fire rings and some junk scattered about were evidence that this has been done before.

We made and ate a nice meal overlooking the river.  We were settling in to do some writing when a guy walked by and talked at the side of the RV. He then walked on.  I came out and approached him and asked him if he was talking to us and what he was trying to say.

“You can stay there if you want, but there’s a %#*& 250-dollar ticket coming,” he said, while hiding behind a large tree.  I tried to move around the tree to establish some sort of eye contact but he kept the tree between us, resulting in a bit of a tree-dance.  “Don’t come any closer,” he said.  “I tell you, it’s coming.” 

It was obvious that he didn’t want any sort of normal dialog, so I gave up and walked away.  I find expletive-laden conversation rather off-putting.  "Goodbye," he said, from behind the tree.

We decided to move on.  This guy had a canopy set up on the gravel bar and his van parked in the campground.  So whether in the campground or on the gravel bar we would be next to this person who rather obviously did not like us there.

The road eventually climbed high enough to get a cell signal.  We stopped long enough to look it up.  Gravel bar camping is definitely a thing around here and can be done just about anywhere there’s a gravel bar.  Just not within 300 yards of an established campground.  So gravel bar camping is a thing, just not here.

We ended up at Pulltite, where we had launched earlier today. 

While we like to travel with no set agenda and no reservations, sometimes it results in some rather interesting situations.

A Thousand-Word Day

I try to keep a journal of the interesting events of life.  And not just travel, which I make public, but the stuff that goes on that I want to laugh about (or cry about) ten or twenty years from now.  The fun things get recorded, and some of the not-so-fun things get recorded.  I also include pictures where I can.  As the old saw says, ​A picture is worth a thousand words.  So a picture makes my journal effectively a thousand words longer.  That saves me a lot of typing.  I’m basically a lazy bum.

Every now and then, a particular journal entry will reach a thousand words, no pictures needed.  Those are the days that are full of stuff, good or bad, and I want to remember all that stuff, so the day’s entry becomes quite long

Today is a thousand-word day.

It was one of those days that just contained a lot, and it takes a while to describe it all.

First of all, our camp site.  The Shawnee Creek Campground is a small loop at the end of a two-mile dirt road.  Six marked sites and a vault toilet.  It’s on the map, but it’s a minor stop, not even deserving a highlight picture on the map.  It was conveniently close to the river, close enough to town to eke out a little bit of cell signal, but far enough away to be in the middle of nowhere.  A recipe for a deserted campground, right?  We initially thought so last night.  But just a few minutes after we arrived, a family in two cars parked two sites away from ours.  Two more cars came a little later.  One of those parked next to us, and a few people set up a cabin tent. They had a lot of kids.

Deb talked to one of the kids this morning.  This girl told Deb that her dad loves camping and they were here last week also.  More of their family were coming today.

A few more cars came and went.  I counted eleven people around the campfire a little later last night.

Meanwhile, across the loop, another group gathered.  Four or five cars and a boat accompanied this group.  The boat was out on the water until nearly 10pm, shining some insanely bright lights in all directions.  It was quite the party going on there.  Just as we were getting ready to go to bed, they all packed up and left and it was finally dark.  The first family, too, settled down and it was a rather peaceful night. 

We didn’t realize we had stumbled on a favorite hangout for the locals.

More on this later...

I spent some time this morning puzzling over the most efficient way to do some kayaking today.  Do I spot a bicycle first? How many trips back and forth are required?  Seven trips over the same stretch of road yesterday got to be a bit much.  So this presented itself as sort-of a math problem.  We are currently at Shawnee Creek, we wanted to launch from Two Rivers, and end at Powder Mill.  After thinking about the permutations for a bit, I finally hit on an idea: launch from here, Shawnee Springs, end at Powder Mill, and spot the RV rather than the bicycle.  It adds three miles to the paddle, but saves a round trip in the RV and puts us in the RV at Powder Mill, an area we wanted to explore a little more.  Turns out this worked extremely well.

So I left Deb and the two kayaks behind, drove the RV to Powder Mill, and biked the 12 miles back to the campground.  12 very hilly miles.  Even on an electric bike, this was quite a workout.

But we managed to be on the river by 9:30am, with everything else in place.

The morning mist was still visible in spots when we launched, enshrouding some of the scenery ahead of us.  Gives a very different and beautiful look to the river.

But it was soon gone and the sky was perfectly clear for the remainder of the day.  Like yesterday, this was a great paddle, with some fun rapids, beautiful scenery and some minor navigational challenges.  We started out on the Jack Fork River, which joined the Current River by our originally planned launch point, Two Rivers.  The Current River is considerably wider and there is not so much deadfall, so the challenges were fewer.  Great day for a paddle.  We did ten miles of river in about two and a half hours.  Pretty good clip in a kayak.

One thing that this area is known for is a small herd of wild horses, supposedly descended from horses released during the Great Depression.  We managed to spot them just after we got on the river, grazing right near the water’s edge.

Once we got everything tied back on to the RV, we drove to Blue Spring, one of Missouri’s deepest. The Statue of Liberty could be put completely into this spring, and the only thing showing would be the torch.  So it has a very blue color.  This spring is at the end of a three-mile dirt road with some very steep slopes.  The steepest one was rather scary and I was wondering if we would make it out.  Steep and bumpy.

After we came back from the hike to the spring, there was a rental RV parked next to ours.  I’m not sure if their rental contract allowed its use on these types of road, but I was especially wondering if he would make it out of this place.  When we drove up that hill, we almost came to a stop in granny gear.  I hope he made it.  I’m glad and relieved I did.

On the road back to our campsite, there was a turn off toward Rocky Falls.  Sounds interesting, let’s check it out.  We had no idea what we were getting in to.

The dirt road into this area was a cakewalk compared to what we had just been on, and when we arrived, we found the parking lot full.  We took the short walk to the falls and discovered why all the cars were there.  The falls was a series of cascades down a large rock formation, and there were a bunch of people scrambling about the falls, including lots of kids.  Our kids would have loved it when they were that age.

There were also several people swimming in the pool beneath the falls.  That explains the number of cars.  This is a local swimming hole.

This is one of the advantages of wearing your house on your back.  We looked at each other, each saying ​I’m in!* and walked back to the RV to change into swim gear.  The next half hour or so was unbelievably refreshing on a hot day.

What a treat!  The water was initially cold but felt great after getting used to it.  We frolicked and floated about, enjoying this unexpected oasis in the middle of the Ozarks.  We had no idea this was here but were glad we stumbled onto it.

Feeling so much refreshed, we drove back to the camp site.

What greeted our senses when we got there was no less than a back country convention.  The entire place was stuffed with cars, with a rather narrow alley way where we could park the RV.  Several cars were parked on our camp site.  There were canopies set up and people lounging around having a good time.  The smell of marijuana permeated the air.

It doesn’t matter what side of the marijuana debate you fall on, that stuff should be outlawed simply because it smells so nasty.

We pulled in forwards because there wasn’t space to turn the RV around and back in.  It was dinner time, so I set up our grill and grilled some salmon while Deb made wild rice pilaf.  It was a great meal, especially with the limited resources in the RV.

We ate to the sound of rather loud music from someone’s car and the entertainment value of watching this large group of people interact.  Most of the kids were in the creek behind the campsite, and the original family had brought in a small truckload of firewood.  It could be a long night.  All the while, vehicles were coming and going.  It's probably a good thing that we were forewarned by one of the girls this morning.

Finally, everyone who had set up on the campsite next to ours and had parked their cars on our campsite packed up and left.  Must be this place is a favorite for day gatherings.  So it has settled down a bit and they turned the music down, but I think they exceed the maximum number of people and vehicles that can occupy a campsite.  By a lot.

I got out my drone and flew it around a bit, eventually spotting the horses from the air.  I brought Deb out and we watched them for a bit.  Attracted by our attention probably a dozen people from the big group came out to check it out also.

Well that turned out to be over 1500 words.  Told you it was a full day!

Kayaking the Jack Fork

We walked around the campground late last night.  The one loop with electricity was mostly full, the other six or seven loops were mostly deserted.  The real treat, however, was looking up.  Because the sky was so dark, the stars were bright and plentiful, and the Milky Way was plainly visible.  We don’t get that very often back home.

On the agenda for today: paddling a section of the Jack Fork river.  This campground was to be our put-in spot, and we would take out in the town of Eminence, about seven miles downriver.  This involved a bit of driving since we had to spot a bicycle in Eminence, but we managed to get on the river just after 9am.

This is a popular place, especially on summer weekends, and we could see other groups setting up to get on the river, but we had the river to ourselves the entire distance.  So it was very peaceful.

It was a swift river.  Numerous rapids and corners and deadfall made navigation a necessity.  We finished the seven-mile trip in almost exactly two hours.  A delightful paddle on a beautiful morning with great scenery the entire distance.  The water was crystal clear and we could see the occasional fish below us, as well as the rocky bottom moving by.

I biked back to the RV, which we left at the campground and then came back and picked up Deb and the kayaks.  We then drove back to Alley Spring to check out the old grist mill.  By this time I had driven this section of road several times and was getting familiar with it.  Seven times, to be exact, one of those on a bicycle.

The main attraction at Alley Spring is the century-old mill situated on Alley Spring.  Built here in 1894 to take advantage of the 81 million gallons of water a day that came from the spring, this mill had the machines that converted wheat into flour, a rather complicated process.  The operation was only marginally successful, however.  The constant water supply seemed ideal, but recurring floods hampered its operation.

The mill now is an iconic structure in this area, the subject of many photographs, and is open to the public.  The area is very picturesque, with the spring being a brilliant turquoise color and lots of greenery and moss around the streams.  We took our pictures and hiked the overlook loop trail around the area before returning to the RV.

We deliberated on what to do next as we want to do another couple of sections of these rivers.  Some of these sections would require a 17-mile bike ride back to the start on very steep roads just to do an 8-mile section of the river.  We did end up with a plan, and ended up at Shawnee Creek, a campground consisting of six sites on this creek.  We were the first ones there at this first-come, first-served campground, but a large family came in right after us.  So we don’t have the place to ourselves, but we are still in a lovely setting, backed right up to the creek.

On to the Ozarks

I checked the weather app when I got up this morning.  We got early two and a half inches of rain yesterday.  I think most of it ended up in my shoes.  The rest was in Deb’s shoes.

So now my supposedly waterproof hiking shoes were soaked inside and out.  This is the kind of soaking that takes several days to dry.  In good weather.  I cast about for some way to dry the shoes faster and finally hit on the idea of zip-tying them to the bicycles on the back of the RV.  Since the rain appears to have ended, maybe this would force dry them a little faster.

It worked. 200 miles later, the shoes are dry.  Now Deb’s shoes are zip-tied to the bicycles.

We finally took the kayaks down and did a little paddling this morning, exploring the area just off our campsite and paddling out into Lake Barkley.  We saw lots of large birds this morning.  Herons, egrets, hawks, eagles, osprey, and probably a few others.  Really cool watching the wildlife from a kayak.

Land Between the Lakes has lots of other areas to explore, especially if you are a fisherman or a mountain biker.  There’s even some off-road trails for off-highway vehicles.  Definitely worth coming back to for those activities, however, we now have our sights set on the Ozark National Scenic Riverway in Missouri, about 200 miles west.  So we packed up the kayaks and took off.  Since we wanted to get there before dark, we took the Interstate.

I really don’t like the Interstate, but it does get you there faster.

Other than a couple stops in Paduca for fuel and groceries, we drove straight there.  We arrived at Big Spring right around supper time and ate in the parking lot next to Big Spring. We were close enough to hear the roar of 296 million gallons of water per day squirting out of the ground.

And, to add to our Worlds Greatest collection, this park is home to more first-magnitude springs (springs with daily flows over 65 million gallons of water) in one area than anywhere else on earth.

A still picture just doesn’t do it justice.  I took some video to capture it a little better:

We are looking to do some kayaking here and to set ourselves up for tomorrow, we drove to Alley Spring, which took almost an hour.  This riverway covers a LOT of distance.

We arrived at Alley Spring after dark.  Driving these roads after dark is a challenge as they are steep, winding, and narrow.  I guess we are in the mountains now.

Making Memories

The worst weather makes the best memories --Unknown / Hiker Lore

We had no agenda for today.  In fact, we really had no idea which way we were going to go.  After checking the weather forecast, we determined that if we drove west, it was going to rain.  If we drove east, it was going to rain,  If we drove south, it was going to rain.  Sometimes we will try to drive out of the weather but this time, that didn’t appear to be possible.

So we drove south.  Towards Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area.  Seemed like as good a choice as any.  And since it was run by the National Park Service, our Golden Age Pass would get us half off of nearly everything.  There are a few perks to getting older.  Cheap coffee and the Golden Age pass.  And we don’t drink coffee.  

It seemed like it took a long time.  Maybe that’s because we never drive directly there.  We stopped at Cave In Rock State Park to use their dump station.  The place was deserted but someone eventually noticed us driving around and checking out the office. He drove over and I asked him about using their dump station.  He refused any payment so we were able to dump and take on fresh water for free.

We also walked to this parks namesake.  The cave in the rock.  A big cave in a rock face overlooking the Ohio River.  Legend was that outlaws used this as a hideout but there’s no evidence to back that up.

The route across the Ohio River involves a ferry boat and we were able to let someone else do the driving for 20 minutes or so.

We arrived at the north entrance of Land Between the Lakes just before noon.  We had lunch on a scenic turnout overlooking Kentucky Lake and then drove to the entrance station to get some information.

The guy at the entrance station was very helpful and showed us places for good hiking and camping.  Deb noticed that he did not have the Southern twang that we are hearing around here and asked where he was from. Turns out he grew up in Kalamazoo so we had some conversation on Michigan attractions.

We stopped at a couple places along the way to check them out.  Hillman Ferry Campground.  Moss Creek.  Demumbers Bay.  Several places had rustic campsites available right on the water’s edge.  A lot nicer than the “premier camping” that was suggested to us. I don’t need full hookups.

We wanted to take a hike or do some kayaking but the weather wasn’t cooperating.  Peeks of sun followed by spatters of rain.

One of the suggested hikes was a two-mile loop around Hematite Lake.  When we arrived, there was a storm system that appeared to be sliding off to the north of us.  Maybe it will miss us.  We’ll take the chance.

A nice hike but a bit buggy.  Little gnats or something that always went for the ears. I hate the sound of buzzing in my ears.  So we were continually swatting at them.

On the other side of the lake, there were fewer bugs.  But it grew steadily darker and we both made comments about someone turning out the lights.

We had just under a half hour to go when the rain started.  First a few drops which crescendoed rapidly to one of the hardest downpours I have seen in a long time.  The trail became a running muddy river and it was hard to step on something solid because I could hardly see anything.  Rain and glasses don’t go well together.  We were soon soaked through and even my waterproof hiking shoes filled full of water.

We slogged though this back to the parking lot, where the RV was sitting in its own river.  It was angled such that all the water hitting the roof poured off right above the door.  I reached in, grabbed the awning hook, and pulled the awning out a few feet, giving us a little bit of a buffer zone from the deluge.

I tried to take a picture, but my phone was very wet, so it didn’t turn out so well.  But we still look like drowned rats.

It took us a while to peel the wet garments off ourselves, wring a few gallons of water out of each one, and throw them in the shower.  We’ll deal with the wet stuff later.  

After putting some dry clothes on, we looked at the map for a place to camp.  Taylor Bay seemed like a good one, and it was the closest.  The rain finally started to let up as we were driving there.  We found a site along the water and parked it for the night.  Perhaps we’ll put the kayaks in the water tomorrow and do some paddling.

We walked to the water’s edge after dinner and Deb had just made a comment about perhaps putting the kayaks in the water when a thunderclap sent us scurrying back to the RV.  It poured rain again for a while, stopped, and now is pouring buckets.

But at least we’re not hiking in it.

Illinois Meandering

We were enshrouded with fog this morning when I got up.  And it was very humid.  The humidity stuck around all day, and the fog eventually cleared but it was cloudy most of the day with the threat of rain always there.

First hike of the day was to Indian Point.  The trailhead was just a short walk from the campground.  A loop trail of just under two miles, it seemed to be a good trail to start the day.

The viewpoint at the end offered commanding views of the fog over the surrounding area.  I’m sure it would be beautiful without the fog.

One unexpected treat we found on the trail: as it was still early in the morning and the fog and dew put a layer of moisture on everything, there were many spider webs hanging about with the dew clinging to them, something normally almost invisible made visible by the water clinging to it.  I took several pictures as it was quite striking.

The path to the viewpoint is mostly on top of the rock formations. The path back, if you take the loop counterclockwise, winds along the bottom of the rocky cliffs.  Lots of interesting rock formations, fissures, caves, and the like, which made for a great hike, despite the fog.

Several miles east of Garden of the Gods is High Knob, a rocky high point that used to have a fire tower.  The tower is no longer there; the only evidence being the concrete footings on the top of the hill.  This place is rather remote, it’s a few miles of dirt road, the last being a half mile of one-lane which climbs steeply to the top.  So we were the only ones there when we arrived.

This place has a loop trail a lot like the last trail. The first half is on top of the cliffs, the second half returns along the bottom. If you like rock scrambling, this is the place for you, especially the second half.  The last little bit of the trail goes through a crevice between two rock formations, with steps made of rocks wedged into the formations.  Rather hard to follow sometimes, because of all the oak leaves on the trail but it was a fun trail.

We had lunch here in the picnic area with a view of the surrounding area.  I launched the drone to get some additional footage.  The clear area in the foreground is where the fire tower used to be.

Another couple miles further east is Rimrock National Recreation Trail.  We stopped at the trailhead and took a 1-mile easy loop trail.  Another walk in the woods, this time on a paved trail, and it put us over 14,000 steps for the day.

Another two miles east is Pounds Hollow, a popular swimming hole an recreation area.  The beach here on Pounds Hollow lake appears to be set up for large crowds of people, with a large parking lot, picnic areas, and shelters.  Other than one other car, we were the only ones there.  If this would have been a few days ago, when it was so hot, we probably would have jumped in the water, but we were content to explore the area.

We decided to stay here in this campground.  It’s getting later in the day and we are all hiked out. One nice benefit: several sites have electric hookups.  Which allow for another benefit on this warm and very humid day--air conditioning.  And at five bucks for a Golden Age pass holder, this campsite is a real bargain.

We ate dinner with the rain drumming on the roof.  It’s supposed to rain all night and possibly all day tomorrow.