Ozark Trail 2018 - Taum Sauk Section

Ozark Trail - Taum Sauk 

This was my second backpacking trip out on the Ozark Trail.  Back in December of 2016 made my first backpacking trip covering the Courtois section of the OT, you can read that post down below.  This time my good friend Patrick joined me to cover the Taum Sauk section of the OT.  The section is 36 miles and takes you over Ketcherside Mountain,  Taum Sauk Mountain which is the highest point in Missouri at 1778 feet.  It then runs through Johnson Shut-ins, then into the Bell Mountain
Wilderness.

We got on trail around 10:30 AM at HWY 21 trail head parking lot.  The temp was in the mid-50's with light rain and grey overcast skies that dominated the entire day.  The trail leads up out of the parking lot and directly up onto Ketcherside Mountain at roughly 1300 feet.  The trail is a healthy mix of mostly dirt to mostly rocks with some sections that seem to be entirely rocks.  By 1:00 PM we made it to the top of Taum Sauk Mountain.  This is a dome peak so the actual top doesn't have much
of a view, just a stone marker.   We ate lunch at the top and then continued onto and past Mina Sauk Falls and the Devils Tollgate Rock formation.  We arrived at a campsite around 4:30 PM with a light mist in the air and grey skies that were hastening in a premature nightfall.  Despite everything in forest being wet, we (Patrick) managed to get a fire started and we were able to stay warm, eat a hot dinner, and settle in for a much deserved sleep around 8:00 PM.  We covered roughly 11 miles on our first day and we had a lofty goal of 19 miles for our second day, a good nights rest would be key to making that happen.

Sometime in the early morning hours the clouds cleared out and the campsite was illuminated by moonlight and gave me a good feeling that at least we would have some sunshine on our second day.  We arose around 5:30 AM, made coffee, ate breakfast, broke camp and were on the trail at 7:30 AM.  We started the day with another climb up and stayed on the ridges for the first couple hours.  We stopped around 9:30 AM for a second breakfast and to shed some layers.  The views on this section of the trail are awesome.  The early morning sun burning off the fog and mist reminded me of the smoky mountains (just a little less elevation).  We continued down into the Johnson Shut-ins section of trail where we encountered more day hikers and other back packers on their way to Taum Sauk Mountain.

I am not as young as I used to be and i have been having knee issues off and one for over a year but when my left ankle started to pain me around Noon (roughly 9 miles into our 19 mile day) I started to get concerned.  I slowly made it down to our lunch spot on the Black River.  We had to wade across the river and then set out some of our stuff to dry and have lunch.  I popped a couple ibuprofen and kept my foot in the river with the hope that the cold water would help with the i

nflammation.  Patrick and I both had some lingering physically issues that we knew might cause us to have to pull up short of our goal.  One of the options was to walk the 3-4 miles into the Johnson Shut-ins campground and camp there for the night and then get picked up in the morning.

Watch your Step!

This may sound a bit cheesy but I was sitting there with my foot in the river, on a beautiful fall day, in a beautiful scenic wilderness and I was having a pity party for myself because my foot hurt.  I finally had to just get out of my own head and appreciate all that was around me and I decided that I would just see what the next mile or 2 would bring.  Fortunately my foot gave me no further problems that day.  Those 9 miles from the Black River to our eventual campsite were some of the most memorable portions of the trip.  Patrick being very sharp eye'd pointed out a rattlesnake sunning itself on the side of the trail.  Around 6 PM were were less than a half mile from our campsite and dusk was settling in when we
startled and were startled by a mother black bear and her 2 cubs down in the river.  She made a loud "HUFF" sound and spirited away along with her cubs up the hillside and away from our campsite.  That was our first encounter with bears in the Missouri wilderness and it certainly gave us a reminder to be "Bear Aware."  So we cooked and ate all our food about 150 feet from our campsite and hung our food bags in a tree away from our campsite.  I wouldn't expect a mother black bear to risk taking her cubs into our campsite to forage but we erred on the side of caution.  We awoke the following morning with no signs of the bears and all our food just as we had left it.

All that work on day 2 of our hike left us with a short and manageable 6 mile hike to the the Hwy A trail head.  One of Patrick's good friends who lives in the area agreed to pick us up and take us back to our vehicle.  The weather on Day 3 was perfect hiking weather.  With the sun shining the morning temps in the upper 30s quickly climbed to the lower 60s.  With all our campsites having readily available water for filtering it meant that we were down low in a valley and our start each day would be a climb...our last day was no different.  We took it nice and easy as we climbed up into the Bell Mountain wilderness and were greeted with more awe-inspiring views of the surrounding hills as far as the eye could see.  There was also plenty of beauty right at our feet with colorful mushrooms and many flowing plants.  It seemed that all the reptiles were out sunning themselves trying to soak in the last of suns warm rays before the winter cold finally settles in.  We spotted lizards, snakes, and a rather large box turtle.

As I sit here typing this, with my sore knees, tight calf's, and tired mind, I couldn't think of a better way to spend a weekend then out on the trail with good friends!  There are options for us out there just beyond our doorstep.  You don't have to drive to some far away destination to have an adventure and see natures beautify on full display.  I would encourage everyone to get out there and discover what Missouri has to offer.