OTSHAB Beginner Trip- Cancelled April 14-16, 2023

This is certainly one of the most popular events put on by the OTSHAB Facebook group. (well except maybe Cocaine Bear!) This is a trip for people that want to take their first steps into learning to backpack and perhaps save them some of the time and money wasted in learning a bit about it on their own. It is also a great social event for people with similar interests to get together and meet each other. A ton of work goes into this seemingly simple overnight event. Andi, the founder of the group, does all the logistics and planning which takes months and each of the mentors (EB's=experienced backpackers?) volunteers time to co-host Zoom calls, answer online questions, for months before the event. We cover every topic of getting started in backpacking. This is all done for free. We have about 4-6 groups of 5-7 people for 6-14 mile round trips at various places on the Ozark Trail. 

This year our group (Group 1) was to hike from Barton Fen Trailhead to the Little Creek area, a distance of about 4 miles each way. We usually try and camp the night before with anyone that wants to join and then we are ready to go by 11 am in the morning after meeting everyone in person, making sure everyone is ready, doing any pack shake downs and answering any last minute questions. 

There was to be a prescribed burn at the Barton Fen trailhead the week of our trip, so it was decided that everyone that wanted to camp on the Friday night would meet at the Council Bluff Lake campsite, which is about 15 minutes away. 

I don't think I have ever camped at Council Bluff, even though I have been to the lake and the trail multiple times over the years.

Meet up time was after 5 pm, but I finished work early today specifically so I could just head to the campsite and chill out. Work and work travel have been quite aggressive over the last few months and I took the time to be alone. 

I stopped off at the gas station/kitchen in Caledonia to pick up some chicken tenders and fried okra. Deep fried diet, yum!

Despite the forecast for rain, it was a bright sunny day today. It was actually hot in the direct sun

I grabbed one of the group campsites. The campground did have several spots taken already and more were coming in for a bike race being staged here this weekend. 

But for now, my spot was nice and quite 

Later in the afternoon and evening all the EB and a lot of the BB's started to arrive. 

It was really a nice night to sit around and chat

As it does in Missouri, the weather changed and was pushed back until tomorrow. 

This made hanging around the fire especially nice. 

with a nice sunset.

The morning dawned bright but you could tell on the Western horizon that ugly things were brewing.

We had all but decided from the change in forecast last night that the hike was going to proceed and even the early morning forecast were looking mixed but doable, after all, having a bit of weather on your first backpacking trip is a good learning experience. 

Then this forecast showed up around 8:00 am! 

This was much earlier and much more severe than expected.

It is a difficult thing to cancel an outing with some people traveling up to 5 hours to reach the location and having put in so many hours and certainly money to do this hike, but there is really no decision when you see a forecast that calls for a chance of tornadoes, high winds and hail. While Missouri's Spring weather is changeable, when it happens it can be very severe. So with no other choice, we had to make the decision to send everyone home, call anyone that wasn't already here and turn them around.

Part of the storm front hit while a few of us EB's drove to the trailhead

We were lucky we had almost our entire group of BB's camping with us last night, we were able to contact 2 who were still on the road, but one remained unaccounted for. We would need to drive to the trailhead and wait for him there to give him the bad news in person. 

The prescribed burn at the Barton Fen Trailhead

Success! Alden arrived at the TH right on time to have 5 EB's waiting for him and while disappointed, he understood the situation.

The least we could do is treat him to breakfast at the Bixby Store. A fantastic little gas station, restaurant/deli, small town market, local meet up location, just up the road from the trailhead. 

Actually Andi was there and had already bought us all breakfast sandwiches that she was going to deliver to the trailhead! - 

Thanks Andi 

Most of the EB's were going back to the Council Bluff campsite to ride out the storm today. (Hiker Trash is hardcore) Some had come the 5 hours to here and some were just thrill seekers! 😀

Either way, I could use the time to finish up chores around the house this weekend, so I headed home, but did look at the forecast later that night and wished them the best as you can see the storm pass right over them. 

I am happy to report that everyone survived with just a few stories of high wind and some rain. 

Andi did another fabulous job of immediately finding dates for everyone to reschedule almost right away. We will be taking a group out on June 3-4. 

A great first story for the BB's to tell.