Having been on the Blair Creek and Karkaghne sections of the Ozark Trail over the past couple months with Jenny and Gwenda and doing the usual critique of the trail conditions, as hikers do, it occurred to me that I now have enough time to take on a section of the trail as a "adopter". Kind of a "put your money, where your mouth is" type of thing! 😆A Trail Adopter is someone that will go out on a section of trail periodically and do routine maintenance; clear smaller downed trees, lopping back of brush, weed whacking, trail marker placement, trash pick up. etc. We can't do any major tree removal or extensive tread repair as that require specialized tools and trained people from the Ozark Trail Association. We do however report back our work and can then relay any major work that should be done.
The adoption sections are each about 3 miles in length. I was surprised that there is still a good amount of the main trunk of the Ozark Trail that still needs to be adopted, especially the southern sections, which are beautiful. If you are interested I have added the link, to get involved, at the end of this post.
Looking over the list, I did spot a section that I had just hiked that I was interested in. The Blair Creek section has a Fen.
A Fen is defined as: nutrient-rich, groundwater-fed, peat-accumulating wetlands that are constantly saturated, often with alkaline water. They support diverse flora like sedges, grasses, and rare orchids, as well as fauna like insects, birds, and small mammals. Fens are commonly found in glacial landscapes at the base of slopes.
The Fen in Blair Creek is slightly unusual and categorized as a "raised fen" = The fen found here is dome-shaped from the accumulation of peaty materials. A thick deposit of mucky organic soil forms a mound here higher than the surrounding land. Fens are wetlands created when calcareous groundwater seeps out to the soil surface and are typically dominated by herbaceous plants. Fens are kept open by both saturated soils and historically, occasional wildfires. These fens are created by groundwater moving down through the dolomite formation and hitting a resistant layer, likely sandstone, along which the water then runs horizontally and seeps out onto the lower slopes along the valley. The fen itself is dominated by sedges, orange coneflower, and silky willow.
The trail used to go right along side the fen, in fact, if you still look at the maps of the fen on the Missouri Conservation website you will see the trail going directly next to the fen, but the Ozark Trail map set shows it correctly moved to west and higher ground. The trail was moved many years ago, probably to protect the delicate nature of the Fen and the fauna that inhabit it. You can still see it from the current trail, if you know where to look, and the trees are still bare.
That is a long introduction to explain my choice of trail section. I think it will interesting for me to watch the fen and learn more about it on my trips to do trail work and also motivate me to make the 2.5 hour, one way, drive to get to my section. Having taken the section, that left only one three mile section left on the entire Blair Creek portion and that was the 3 miles just North of my section, so of course I had to take it as well. 😳 The section to the North is 3 miles and runs along a gravel road and is the path of an old cog railway that used to move timber from deeper in the forest to the main road for pickup. It is a super easy section to walk but as you will see is subject to lots of trash, being along a logging road that also leads to one of Doe Run's mining operations.
So my first trip out would be March 26-27. Having just hiked this section 2 months ago, I had a fair idea of what I would find and how long it might take me. Not being under any time consideration, I decided to dedicate each section to half a day and see how that went.
Thursday March 26
I drove down in the morning and parked directly in the middle of my two sections. This also works out well, because there is an established trailhead with parking at this spot. Just a field by a kiosk, but as I remarked in my summary of this previous hike, I doesn't appear too many people take advantage of these lovely sections in the middle of the Ozark Trail.
I got to the trailhead around 10:30 am. Got all my gear sorted out. I have a couple of bow saws, loppers, a long limb trimmer and hand held pruning shears. I am not used to carrying this stuff in a backpack. I decided to put the suspension and more supportive waist belt back on my Gossamer Gear Gorilla (50 liters). It is able to support, comfortably, around 40 pounds with the suspension in.
Everything strapped down, off I went around 11:15am. The temperatures today were suppose to be well above normal and there is no water on this 6 mile (3 mile each way) section, so I carried 2 liters. Normally I would cover this 3 miles in an hour, but I decided that I would do trail work on the way out and then trash collection on the way back.
Leaving the truck
Lots of little sticks and debris blown down from the pines.
Nothing really large had blown down across the trail. These are all 6ish inches in diameter and easy to cut and move.
This was a bit larger, around 12 inches and needed some time as it was under tension and I needed to wedge something under it.... It as too heavy for me to lift, so I had to work on levering it up with a larger fallen branch. It eventually came out, but took about 30 minutes.
Before
After
Got to the end in about 2 hours. It was very hot (91f) at 1:30 pm. I need a sit down and lunch.
I stayed at the northern most point of my section for about an hour before getting up and starting back. I also drank a full liter of water with some electrolytes while I stayed in the shade. I do not do so well in this kind of heat anymore.
I was able to back away my tools on the way back and just have a trash bag out and handy. If I saw trash on the way down, I just tossed in on the trail to make it easier to collect on the way back, but if I could see it from the trail, I picked it up. Blair Creek section 2a- done.
Once I got back to the truck I needed more water than I had brought with me, so I decided to head into Bunker Missouri, The small town of 400 that I have mentioned in my posts before and since I was already going to get water, they have a Dollar General, why not get dinner! The Mexican restaurant in town (La Bonita) is first rate and I deserved a meal better than the dehydrated on that I was going to make back at the parking lot later!
Enchiladas Suiza and a Margherita It was fantastic! Keep this place in mind when you hike the Blair Creek or Karkaghne Sections of the Ozark Trail.
Friday March 27
What a difference a day makes. Yesterday struggling in 91 degree weather and this morning waking up at 6 am to 40 degrees and a sprinkling of rain.
Got everything on to start out this morning. Not raining now, but it might.
Right off the bat just .3 miles down the trail a newly fallen tree.
This tree had too much tension on it for me to cut through it and nothing laying around large enough for me to wedge under it. I cut all the branches away and made it easy to step over. I will make a report and the OTA will send a sawyer out to finish the trunk
I knew I would spend most of my time at this section. This the end of the reroute around the Fen. This downhill section was in poor shape when we hiked it in January. Small trees had started to grow on the tread and loose rocks in the fallen leaves made it treacherous to descend. Unfortunetly, I didn't get a good before photos, but spent about 90 minutes here, pruning, brushing and making sure you could go up and down without twisting an ankle or getting stabbed by a sticker bush
Next one was just too big for my bow saw in the position it was in. Again might need to carry some kind of pry bar to be able to get a rock or branch under it to relieve the tension so I can cut through it, but I will add it to the report. This one is also not hard to step over, just hated not being able to clear it.
Trail looks great through here.
Next few were straight forward to clear.
Before and after
My section ends at the National Forest Boundary, marked with the red paint. It also started to rain a bit, just as I reached the boundary.
Some turkey tail has completely taken over these felled logs
Turning around and walking back, intending to just pick up trash again. I veered off the trail, did a bit of bushwhacking and found the old decommissioned section of trail that leads by the Fen. Below are some photos of the Fen for early Spring. I will post more during the Summer and Fall to compare.
Cattail
Back on the official trail, some the handy work of our excellent sawyers. The trunk makes the O=Ozark and the T=Trail. Well done team.
I took about 4.5 hours on this 6 miles section and it should be ready for a heads up walk along the trail. I finished around 1:30 pm and it was still only 46 degrees!
My Section
BC2a
If you have a few days to spare around 4 times per year (or more), this is a great way to help out. You can send an email to: otaadoptatrail@ozarktrail.com
Thanks to all the other trail maintainers and the OTA for letting me take a couple sections.
