Missouri Ozarks

Spent three nights in the Ozark hills just outside of Potosi, MO at the Berryman Campground. The plan was to ride the Berryman Trail which was built in the 30's by the CCC on Friday the 21st, and then head south to ride the trail surrounding Council Bluff Lake on Saturday. Sunday's planned ride of a section of the Ozark trail feel through secondary to mechanical issues with my bike (spoke tension issues and what looks to be a loose rear hub on the rear wheel).

The Berryman Trail is a 24 mile long all single track run through the hills and hollows of the Missouri Ozarks. Contrary to what the description says the trail surface is not really technical in nature compared with Pisgah or other areas I've ridden. Sure there are a few places that will test your ability, but none are overly long nor too difficult. The trail is in excellent condition for the most part, but I understand quite a bit of work has gone into the trail bed the past two years. The only bad portions of the trail are found in some of the bottom land areas that stay moist and have been churned into stagnant mud holes by horses. I'm sad to say most of my pictures of the Berryman did not turn out too well due to lighting issues. The best time of the day to ride mountain bikes generally is not the best time of day for pictures.

 Trailhead and Campground for the Berryman.

Typical trailbed, dry sandyish soil. The hardest part was the loose over hard surface of the trail (referring to the small loose rocks and hard packed soil) which my tires aren't well suited for. Caused one wreck where my front wheel washed out in a turn. I backed the speed down a couple notches after that.

The Missouri Ozarks around Potosi seem to be composed of mostly Oak and Pines, very little fall color here.

Trail follows the contours of the ridges in many areas reminiscent of the Womble Trail in Arkansas, especially along the eastern portion of the trail.

If you look closely at the left of this image you can see the trail continuing on between the trees. The Berryman wraps in and out of multiple hollow like this when its not climbing up and down the ridgelines.

On Saturday morning I headed about 30 minutes south of Berryman to Council Bluff Lake. Contrary to trail descriptions online this 12 mile trail around the lake had a much rougher and rockier surface than the Berryman, but the rocks tended to be anchored in the ground and much larger. The trail did not climb as much as the Berryman as it remained close to the shoreline for the majority of the ride, but had a more rolling nature. The forest was also more varied here with much more color. All in all this trail reminded me of home.

Missouri rocks.

Short steep descents followed short steep climbs throughout the trail. Only one real long sustained climb on the entire trail, well long and sustained for the area.

This is supposed to be a great area for Bald Eagle viewing in the winter as the lake is full of dead standing trees.

Tones of home (minus the lake).

I like it rocky.

Left the Ozarks on Sunday for St. Louis watching the weather and prepping for Katy.

Where to next?

The next post is mostly for my family, but feel free to read if you're so interested.

I've changed my plans slightly. Initially I was planning on heading to St. Louis and the KATY Trail.
Looking at the forecast and checking the map and mileage it makes more sense for me to hit the trails in the Missouri Ozarks before heading north. So here are my travel plans as they now stand. I will be traveling toward Potosi, MO and camping outside of town on Route 8 at the Berryman Camground. This is a primitive campground, and I doubt I'll have cell phone service there so I will be using my Spot unit to let you know I'm ok. I will hit the ok button at the trail head of each trail and once again when I'm done riding. Remember if something were to happen such as an injury that I cannot get out of the woods under my own power I have to option to notify Search and Rescue through the Spot unit, that's why I bought it.

So here's the plan as it stands. I will leave my campsite at Land Between the Lakes Thursday Oct. 20th and travel to my new campsite just outside of Potosi, MO off of Rt. 8 at the Berryman Campground. Thursday afternoon if I have the time I will be riding the Council Bluff Trail and Friday I will ride the Berryman Trail and Saturday I will be riding the Middle Fork portion of the Ozark Trail. Sunday I may or may not ride a portion of the North Trace of the Ozark trail depending on weather and how my legs feel, and then its north to just outside of St. Louis in preparation for riding the KATY.

Land Between the Lakes

The last 4 days of my trip have been spent in western Kentucky in an area called the Land Between the Lakes (note: this colored text is a Link, click on it to take you to the mentioned website). This area is a peninsula between Lake Barkley, formed from the damming of the Cumberland River, and Kentucky Lake, formed from the damming of the Tennessee River. My decision to camp here was based on an article I read describing the North/South Trail which is a 31 mile stretch of single track running from the Golden Pond Visitor Center in the middle of the National Recreation area to the North Welcome Center on, you guessed it, the north end. The trail in the article was described as smooth, flowing and buffed out trail for its entire 31 mile length. That description was not quite accurate. We'll discuss that further in the pictures below.

The following shots were taken upon arriving at the Land Between the Lakes on Saturday Oct. 15th. I quickly set up my tent at the Hillman Ferry Campground and took the 3.5 mile North/South Trail north out of the campground to link up with Canal Trail. The first picture is of Kentucky Lake looking north. The following two pictures are of Lake Barkley.

The Canal Trail is an 11 mile loop around the far north end of the peninsula. The west side of the trail goes up and down bluffs along the lake before turning at the canal pictured below. From this point the trail becomes much more mellow and flowing through the woods.

Canal Trail riding the bluffs above Kentucky Lake.

Canal at the north end of the peninsula from which the Canal loop gets it name.

A few obstacles to keep things interesting on the Canal Loop.

The above two pictures are typical of the Lake Barkley side of the trail; smooth, fast and flowing through the woods.

Sunday was warm, mid 80's in western Kentucky, and my plan for the day was ambitious. I drove from my campsite at Hillman Ferry south to the Golden Pond Visitor Center with my mountain bike in tow. From the Visitor Center I would ride 28 miles back to my campsite on the single track North/South Trail, eat lunch and rest for a bit at my camp site, and then switch to my touring bike to ride 18 miles on the road back to my truck at the visitor center.

Now for folk who aren't cyclists a mile on a mountain bike is much different than a mile on a road bike, and a mile of climbing or up/down riding is different from descending or riding flats. Yes it takes more energy to climb on a road, but it also take more energy to complete your average mountain bike mile compared to your average road mile. Yes, I'll admit to a bit of hubris here. This is "flat" land, I'm used to riding my mountain bike up and down mountains in the southern Appalachians. This 28 mile jaunt should be no problem, right?

Well the first hint I had that things weren't going to go quite as I planned was the fact that the Visitor Center closed at 5 pm and they would be locking the gates. I was leaving the parking lot to start the ride around 9:45, so my time was a bit more compressed than I would've liked. No problem, I just won't rest as long after lunch. So hitting the trail I my mountain man bias was initially confirmed as the North/South trail rolled along a dry stream bed for about 2.5 miles fairly flat and smooth. After this, however, the real fun and pain began.

The first couple of miles of the North/South Trail follows this dry seasonal stream bed along a relatively flat grade.

A lot of new, expensive, bridge work has been done on this trail thanks the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I would personally like to thank each and everyone one of you for your tax contributions which has made these huge out of place bridges out in the middle of now where possible.

After those initial two miles the trail began to steeply ascend and then descend the hills and hollows, and by steeply I mean 80-100' up the side of a hill and then down the other side. Every once in a while you would get a reprieve for a half mile or so as the trail paralleled Lake Kentucky or would shoot through a river bottom hardwood forest.

While it may not seem like much compared to the 1,000 to 2,000 foot climbs I'm used to the cumulative nature of these mini-hills began to take their toll on my legs, further complicated by the fact that these trails did not switch back  up the sides of the hills. Instead they went straight up and down, where highly eroded, and the trail bed often changed to small loose gravel which conspired to further increase the effort and energy needed to climb. Balance, power, endurance, mental concentration and a touch of luck all go into clearing a tough technical climb.

The constant nature of these multiple climbs had taken their toll on my body by the time I made it back to the camp site. In total it took about 3 1/2 hours to ride the 28 miles back to the campground. I was spent. I fixed my lunch and reclined back and rested for about an hour. When I stood back up my legs felt like lead, but I had no other option than to climb on my touring bike for the 18 mile ride back to truck (well I could've went and picked up my truck the next day, but I'm stubborn). Here is where the agony began. The road back, while not as steep in grade, was just as hilly and I had the further benefit of a headwind the entire way. It took me about an hour and a half to ride those 18 miles back to my truck, and finishing about 4:30. Loaded my bike on the truck and headed back to the campground, fixed dinner, and settled in by the campfire to rest.

That would've been the end of my evening, but as I settled into bed I heard some crunching in the leaves close by. I assumed it was the deer I had seen the night before and earlier in the evening, rolled over in my sleeping bag thinking nothing of it. The crunching sound of leaves kept coming closer to my tent, causing me to get up, peer outside, and startle the skunk who was sniffing around not 7' from where I was sleeping. Needless to say we were both nervous, skunk with tail high in the air and myself using my calmest and smoothest voice, which I normally save for the ladies, to calm him down. After a tense stand off that seemed to stretch on for eternity said skunk returned his tail into the downward position and ambled off back into the woods.

Monday the 17th I spent recovering from the previous days ride by reading and doing a light 5 mile ride around the campground to work the stiffness out of my legs. Around 7:30 that night as I was sitting down to relax by the campfire and read a bit more of my novel who should appear once again peeping around the oak tree on my tent pad? Mrs. Skunk (I'm assuming its a she as she must of liked my sweet talking of the night before). She looked at me, and I her, till she turned around ambled off my tent pad and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes walking around the area eating bugs before strolling back into the woods again. How she'll fare tonight in the cold and the rain I don't know, as I'm typing this from a hotel room to stay out of the elements, but I hope she's not too disappointed that I'm not there to strike up a conversation.

In closing here are a few pictures I took on this rainy day of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers just south of Cairo, Illinois. I can now say that I've been there and never need to go back. The state park is weedy and overgrown, and Cairo is the picture of a rotting midwest town who's heyday is long in the past.

The mighty Mississippi with the far bank being Missouri.

Coal barges on the Ohio and the far bank is Kentucky.

Cass Scenic Railroad

Monday Oct. the 9th turned into an off day as I decided to ride the Cass Scenic Railroad 11 miles up the mountain from Cass to Bald Knob. Not a bad way to spend time with my grandparents as I was away most of the prior two days riding, and this would be one of my last days to spend some quality time with them prior to my 2ish month adventure. The train ride starts in the old logging company town of Cass, WV. I'm not going to give you a history lesson, if you're interested in the logging boom in West Virginia you can Google it yourself, or even better visit Pocahontas County on your own one day (I'd recommend early to mid October). Anyway without further ado here are some pictures of the old company town of Cass.

The ride up the mountain is provided by a Shay locomotive pulling open air passenger cars. The Shay is a steam powered engine with the heat provided by West Virginia's other famous natural resource; coal. Was a bit smoky at times behind the engine, and had some ash land in my eyes a few times. Otherwise a pleasant means of locomotion (see what I did there?).

Train pulling out of the station at Cass. You have two options for riding the train: the first a two hour trip to Whittaker Station or a 4 hour trip to Bald Knob the third highest peak in West Virginia. The train isn't backwards. It pushes you up the mountain, and then controls the descent in front coming down.

Shay number 6, the last one ever built in the early 1940's,  pushing us up the mountain.

The rail line switchbacks a couple of times going up the early part of the mountain requiring sidings as the turns are too tight. In other words the train is no longer pushing us from behind at this point, but is rather now in front pulling us.

Most of the land on the lower slopes is privately owned, but still heavily forested. This is the road to the Shalimar "Horse Resort." Sounds like a good idea for a horse lovers vacation. Keep the post hole digging trail crappers on private land and off public multi-use trails.

Train back to pushing us up towards Whittaker Station.

Pulling into Whittaker Station, around 3,700' in elevation.

Train at Whittaker Station, and the following two pictures are from the station as well.

Peak color as we climb the mountain.

Into the coniferous Red Spruce forest. These trees are what the logging companies built the railway up the mountain to harvest. Only another 120 years and the trees will be full grown. Sorry I don't have any better pictures of this section of the line.

 

Bald Knob, 4,800' above sea level, and end of the line.

The following pictures are the from the viewing platform at the top of the mountain. As you can see the weather is starting to move in, a prelude to three days of rain through the middle of this week.

The white disc popping up from behind the ridge in the middle of this picture is the largest moveable radio telescope in the world located in Green Banks, WV. This telescope is the reason why Pocahontas County is a National Quiet Zone, no cell phone service in the county.

The logging town of Spruce was located on a rail spur in this valley. Only way to reach this town when it existed was by rail as no road were ever built into it. Trivia: The coldest temperature ever recorded in WV, -47 degrees, was recorded in Spruce. Snowshoe resort is on one of the mountain tops surrounding this ghost town.

Brakemen doing their job controlling our speed descending the mountain.

Heading down the mountain.

Close ups of the iron horse that pulled us up and down the mountain.

Old company store, built in 1907 if I remember correctly.

That's it for now. Rained out through the middle of the week and no pictures of today's ramble through Mammoth Cave, my camera doesn't take pictures well in low light. Next stop Land Between the Lakes.