OTSHAB Winter BB Trip Jan24-26 2025

Another OTSHAB Winter Backpacking Trip. I do like these. This year the candidates where not completely new to camping, just camping in winter conditions. I do like sharing what I have learned over many years of freezing my butt off while camping during the winter! 😂⛄

This year our group (there were three groups this year, each with a few "subject" and a few EB (Experienced Backpackers) with them, were down on the Victory Section of the Ozark Trail. A section I must confess I don't remember ever being on this section. 

The weather was going to break kindly for us this weekend as it was still going to be cold (must give the group what they came for) but with no precipitation for the entire weekend. 

Temps would be low 20's at night and get to the mid 40's during the day. 

The plan was for everyone to meet at the Wrangler Trailhead on Friday, late afternoon, and then hike 8 miles west to Upalika Pond trailhead.  Spend Saturday night and return to Wrangler Sunday morning.

                                   

As is usually the case I am excited for these trips and arrived early around 3 pm. The temps were in the 20's and there was a crisp wind. 

The trailhead had parking for about 8 cars and fire rings for each site. The animal pond at the campsite was frozen solid.

Soon Dean and his wonderful dog Blue appeared out of the East. Dean and Blue had hiked the 1.5 miles from the actual beginning of the Victory Trail section to here. The actual starting point has no parking and is just a trailhead sign off a gravel road. I gave them a lift back to Dean's vehicle and we both returned to Wrangler. 

When we returned Denise (one of the participants) and Cindy (EB) and Cathy (EB) had all arrived followed shortly by Karen and James (Participants) 

We were all there and everyone started putting up tents and talking about gear and what they brought and if it would be warm enough. I went with my tent this weekend as everyone would also be in a tent, so my normal hammock set up would just introduced more unnecessary gear talk, when we were trying to dial in their normal winter set ups. 

Only Dean can wear shorts in 20 degree temps! Kiwi's are a hardy bunch

We got around to seeing everyone's set up, and I must say they all had first rate gear for their big three. Many were using the Durston tents and really fine down quilts, it was emphasized that it was not important to buy any new gear for this trip, but I am sure the excitement made a few purchases happen.

We all made food and we did have wood to make a fire for tonight. 

Long abandoned turtle shell

The temps did fall, so the first night fire was very welcome. 

The morning could not have come soon enough for a few. The night was COLD, low of 18 and despite good gear, sometimes implementation is more important. A couple of our charges spent the night warming up in their cars and in the morning decided that they just were not prepared for what might be another cold night. Even after the assurance that it would probably be warmer and we had more gear and more time to work on technique, felt that this was not the weekend for them and decided to depart this morning. 

The rest of us lingered, with no real hurry to get going, until everyone felt prepared, we left camp around 10:15. Temps about 24 f.

As is often the case on cold but clear winter days the ice and frost make the woods beautiful in the cold sunshine. the creeks with plenty of water had awesome patterns of ice along the edges with some being completely frozen over. 

However no snow remained from the 12" dumping that Missouri got a few weeks ago. 

A low water bridge (below) made of paving stones, along a forest road

no leaves means that the views are as open as they will be all year. Another excellent reason to hike in the winter. 

Interesting that there were many trail signs for Upalika Pond in the beginning, but the closer you got to the pond the fewer signs appeared. 

a minor creek to cross, no wet feet.

A large section trail has been bulldozed. We were not sure why as we could not see any signs of logging (we would see some later). It turns out we had missed the official OT trail but we would find it on our way back tomorrow. 

An armadillo rummaging in the undergrowth totally oblivious to me moving closer for a picture. 

Halfway we stopped for a rest and a snack. A good time to talk about how the first few miles had been and any feet or cold issues that might have come up. In general everyone was fine. A bit taxing on some, not used to carrying the weight of more gear in winter, but everyone was having a good time.

Starting up again after 30-40 minutes, Blue waits patiently for us "Humans" to catch up. 

There would be several times Blue showed just what a great and well trained dog she is. 

The first, while she was aware of the armadillo, she made no move to chase it and stayed close to Dean.

Several of the fields in this area have been cleared for walk in Turkey hunting

This is the area that looks to be designated for logging. You can see the blue and orange strips on the trees. Orange paint marks trees that will be spared or the edge of the boundary of cutting. Blue are trees to be harvested. The blue at the bottom is to remain on the stump so an inspector can see that the correct tree was taken. 

We arrive at the spur to the Pond,

The Story of the Upalika Pond 

The same ritual repeats itself nightly for hikers. Get to camp, set up tents, get water and then eat. 

In the case of getting water that required a bit of work tonight. the Pond was frozen and required some doing to get not only water, but some that wasn't filthy after breaking through the ice. 

Saturday night did turn out to be warmer 28f . We managed enough wood to make it a pleasant evening to relax and chat. Many trail stories were told.

The amount of wildlife noise here was amazing. Coyote, Fox, Owl, Cows. There seemed to be something going on most of the night. The stars tonight, like last night were spectacular. This is within 40 miles of the darkest site in Missouri.  

Sunday morning. Everyone survived the night, some a bit stiff and sore, but all good. A few lessons learned and a better idea of what today would bring. 

Purple paint is the universal symbol for No Trespassing, etc, but I had never seen it in a roll of tape before. 

More information about the area of Pine restoration and the areas of native grasslands for hunting.

more frozen animal ponds

Historical trash (aka truck fuel tank) 

Larger animal pond, almost chocked with saplings. Right after here we stopped at the same spot for early lunch and a rest. We also encountered a pack of dogs running down a coyote. (not something I am a fan of!) The dogs came within a couple hundred feet of us. Blue was as calm as could be, just another hiker on the trail. 

not everything survives the winter (deer skull)

Taking the opportunity to walk in the sunshine the last mile done on a lonely forest road back to Wrangler Trailhead and the cars. 

Victory Section Ozark Trail

Day 1 

Wrangler Trailhead to Upalika Pond 

Day 2

reverse Day 1 (change at the end)

Thank you to Cathy, Dean/Blue, Cindy, Denise, James, Karen for making this a fantastic winter weekend out in the woods. 

A Walk Around Daniel Boone Conservation Area- Multi-Use Trail Dec 22, 2024

I finally got around to going over to the Daniel Boone Conservation Area, which is only 7 miles from my house. It was one of the first things I planned to do when we bought the new house in Hermann, but it has taken me almost 6 months to actually get over here to see what it has to offer. 

There is a large loop trail, on the AllTrails app. It is about 10km (6.7 miles) but as you will see below, it is no longer accurate to follow and the new trail is a bit more, but considerably easier at the end.

The road leading to the conservation area is off Hwy 94 and crosses the Katy Trail. you use Case Rd and then veer left on Tower Rd. I parked at the primitive RV campground area. There we actually 2 cars and a van parked here overnight when I arrived. The temperature this morning was 28F. It was a crisp blue sky day. 

I have a habit of taking a picture of where I parked the truck. 😀

I decided to go counter-clockwise. The first bit of trail was just a short road walk on the gravel you can see above to meet the trail. The trail will actually end back at the campground. This is a loop and their are 4-5 places to park that you can pick up the trail. 

This section has quite a bit of forestry work and logging going on. Even with the trail being frozen, it was a bit of a mess and I would not want to be through here if it was really wet. 

The multi-use trail is marked with a purple circle. 

A deer skull 

This trail actually walks along the ridges. There is not much elevation change, so you do spend about 80% of the trail walking ridge lines, without the leaves on the trees you can get some nice vista views. This is really the first significant elevation coming from the farm/flood plain of the Missouri River. 

The only significant elevation change is one dip into a hollow with a creek. 

Of course you do have to go back up again. I would suggest this counter-clockwise direction as going up was a much better grade than coming down. This trail is used mostly by horses and the down section was significantly more straight down, rutted and also scared by lots of water run off. 

Lots of animal ponds around the entire loop. Perhaps made for the horses 

A section of young pines

A much larger animal pond that is starting to freeze over, but getting water from here would be easy. 

I actually used most of my liter of water on the trail today, much more water than I usually drink for this distance. 

(Below) This trail has probably been used by hundreds maybe thousands of horses over the years. they have pounded into very fine soil. 90% of this trail looks like the dirt you see from diggings of feral hogs on the side of most trails. It is soft and wet, so I would not be doing this trail unless it was really dry or like today, a bit frozen. 

This is the spot where my AllTrails GPS track varied from the actual purple marked trail. I chose to stick with track I had on my phone. The sign says no horses beyond this point, probably should have taken a hint from that. The path that was marked was an excellent old forest road. 

Very quickly I find out why no horses. This area has suffered significant blow downs and trail damage, in fact, there is no trail. All I could do is bushwhack following my GPS track here and there around the debris. 

Looking back up the hill as I followed the "track" down, you can see the blowdowns with not clear path. 

It wasn't very long going down the hill but I wished I would have carried on the purple path, but without knowing where that would go, I went with what I had. 

Once I hit the bottom of the hollow, you can pick up an old path, right on the GPX line. It was faint but there, but clearly nothing has been done down here for a long time. 

Contouring along the creek bed, I found the spot to climb back up. The climb out shows years of both water run off and horses making a deep ravine in the path. Not a pleasant few minutes 😉

Once on the top of the ridge again, it was a short walk back to my parking area. As I finished and looked back,

 I saw a sign saying this section of trail was actually closed for rehab. Obvious given what I just walked through, but no sign exists on the other side to say the same? 

I looked at the sign board and nothing more was posted. 

After I got back, I did grab a paper black and white map that are available almost every conservation area. It does show the re-routed trail (in purple) deviating from the Alltrails GPX track (in Yellow). This purple route was the route I was on until I jumped off at the sign that said "No horses beyond this point" 

This is the actual GPX track I recorded on my Garmin watch. It shows the little extra lollypop loop I did at the top as well as when I continued on the Purple route and then seeing it had deviated from my GPX track, back tracked and went on the original route (Marked in Blue above = Don't go this way! ) 

The new official trail ends on Forest Road 1220, not on 1221. It will also make it about .5 mile longer. 

Not bad time though for a 10K with a little extra trail miles and some bushwhacking! 

I will be back here to do some more training when I don't want to use the big hills around my house 😂