New Mexico Tour, Day 1
Earlier in the year, a 60th-birthday trip to Albuquerque, NM with my family was cancelled due to COVID. With the start of fall, I was desperate for an adventure and New Mexico was still on my mind. With a 8-day itinerary to New Mexico, I left Mount Prospect at 8:05 am.
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| Two bikes and a mini-van! |
I arrived in Missouri at 3pm at the Berryman Campground in the Mark Twain National Forest. The small campground has only 8 sites, vault toilets and no water. The camp sites are first-come-first-serve and free. As I arrived early on a Friday, I had my choice of sites. A few hours later, all the sites were full.
With only a few hours until sunset, I didn't have time to ride the 27-mile Berryman Loop. Instead I headed south on the Ozark Trail as an out-and-back to be sure that I'd be back before dark.
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| Berryman Loop/Ozark Trail |
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| Berryman Loop/Ozark Trail |
The Ozark Trail is a 230-mile backpacking trail running through the Missouri's Ozark mountains and most of it is open for mountain biking.
The trail started right from the campground. I felt a little stiff after the long drive, but it didn't take long to loosen up on this really nice single track. It also didn't take long to collect more than a few spider webs. How a spider manages to rig a web across a trail is really a miracle. Do they swing from branch to branch or wait for a breeze to blow them across the gap? And they do it quickly too. On my return leg, I gathered almost as many webs as the outward leg. I only had time for a taste of this trail. I'll have to come back and ride the entire Berryman Loop.
Back at the campsite, I set up camp, collected firewood and cooked dinner. As the autumn evenings can be long, I brought my guitar to entertain myself (and hopefully not annoy anyone else). Just as I started to strum, something bumped my foot. Looking down, I discovered a Copperhead out looking for dinner in the early dusk. He seemed unbothered by my guitar playing and stopped long enough to pose for some pictures.
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| Aww, a Copperhead welcomes me to Missouri |
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| The Copperhead bite is painful but rarely fatal. |
I followed the snake around my campsite until he slithered off into the bushes. I resumed my guitar playing until again I felt something on my boot. This time it was a walkingstick. WTF, is it my guitar playing or maybe I should light the fire?
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| Northern Walkingstick |
Once I lit the fire, I didn't have any more visitors in my campsite. I did hear a fair amount of commotion coming from the picnic area -- loud voices, car engines. When I left the next morning, I noticed many more folks had set up camp in the picnic area. Usually camping in a day-use areas is discouraged, but on this morning no one seemed to care.
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| Ozark Trail route |
Next stop, Arkansas!
| State: | Missouri |
| Date: | 2020-09-25 |
| Route: | Berryman Campground to Ozark Trail (south to MM 39) |
| Distance: | 10 miles |
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