Thursday, November 25th 2010 by Mr. Bill.

I’m back from my trip to Missouri.  I did get to do a little hiking.  The area around Pilot Knob, Mo. has a fair number a trails at Johnson’s Shut-ins, Elephant Rocks, and Taum Sauk Mountain State Parks.  Only having one afternoon to spend I selected three trails at Johnson’s Shut-ins to check out.  I started down the Johnson’s Shut-ins access trail and turned on to the Horseshoe Overlook Loop Trail.  This loop trail is about 1.5 miles long.  The lead in trail has several switch backs, moderate level, going up the hill side and then the loop follows around the top of the hill, easy level.  The overlook of Horseshoe Valley is worth the hike.  I returned to the Johnson Shut-ins Trail and it runs about 2.25 mile with a mix of easy and moderate level terrain.  After leaving the main area of the park I drove to the parking lot on the other side of the river.  This gives you access to the Scour Trail.  The Scour Trail leads to a Shelter that overlooks the Scour that was caused by a failure in a man-made lake atop a near by mountain.  The flood that created the scour also took out a section of the Ozark Trail in this area.  When the Ozark trail was being restored they built this trail.  About a mile of the Scour Trail runs with the Ozark Trail.  Just a note the Ozark Trail includes about 350 miles of trails from St. Louis, Mo. south to Arkansas.  The Scour Trail is a loop trail of about 1.5 miles, mostly easy level hiking.  

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Sunday, November 14th 2010 by Mr. Bill.

Oh Boy first Blog entry.  Had a nice warm up hike yesterday in Umstead State Park.  Started out at the parking lot for the bike and bridle trails and walked on to the Sycamore Trail.  It’s about a 10 to 15 minute walk for me to get to the loop section of the trail that way.  I took the left branch (clockwise around the loop) to the Graylyn Trail and crossed the bridge over Sycamore Creek.  Picked up the Company Mill Spur to get on the loop portion of Company Mill Trail.  Followed Company Mill Trail to the left (clockwise again) and met a fellow out for a day hike who was from Texas, but grew up in the Sourthern St. Louis area.  Nice guy - he was walking counter-clock wise so I met him again an hour later.  Having completed the loop part of Company Mill Trail, I came back across Company Mill Spur and Graylyn Trail to Sycamore Trail.  I finished out the loop and returned to my truck.  I figure the hike at around 10 -11 miles at 40% moderate 60% easy.  Walking time 3:15.

Next weekend I will be in Missouri visiting family.  Hope to find some strange dirt to stick my trekking poles into.  

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