Ozark Trail 1st week in June

My son and I will be doing the North 60 miles of the Ozark trail the first week in June. 4 days actually. Highway DD trailhead to Ozark Outdoors. Anyone have a good suggestion on a shuttle. I can probably pay to park the car at either Onondaga Cave or Ozark Outdoors. Any great places to stop and pitch a tent that can't be missed? Tidbits of wisdom about this trail?

John

I don't know that area well, it's east of where I do most of my backpacking if it's where I think you're going.

15 miles a day might be a lot though, especially if it's hot out. There are going to be a lot of ticks and chiggers out then, and the forest will be thick and there will be lot's of poison ivy.

Honestly, hiking 15 miles a day in Ozark Forests in June is pretty brutal. I think you're talking about right close to Ft Leonard Wood and I'm not sure they push their recruits that far and hard in June.

Have you considered a float trip instead? Take all the same gear you would for backpacking, plus a few luxuries, and rent a canoe and float one of the rivers here. You can still do some dayhikes and camping along the shore on sand and gravel bars, and you get to swim in some awesome swimming holes, and you won't be miserable in the thick of the forest.

Check into floating the Current River and Jacks Fork. They're not far from where you're talking about going and the scenery and water are both pretty sweet.

I'll second the Current River. It is beautiful and clear, with good fishing. (or at least it used to be so)

I never floated the Current River but I swam in it every summer for 9 or 10 years while growing up & visiting kinfolk in Arkansas. My kin had a friend with a cabin, a dock & a flat bottom boat, on the river.

Arkansas is a wonderful place & I often wish I had the time & money to just go spend a month exploring.

I have to tell a story my dad told many times.
He was born & raised in Arkansas outside a little hamlet called Bay Village and he had to walk several miles along dirt roads to school as a kid, which was normal for those parts back in the early 40's (my mother grew up in a house at the dead end of a dirt road that ended up against a long slough, and had one neighboring family, & rode a horse 4 miles to school, same area. Dad died in the early 90's, but I got to visit the area & explore mom's memories with her 4 or 5 yrs ago. It's still a 4 mile dead end dirt road against a slough, with the same old decrepit house she grew up in & SOMEBODY LIVES THERE, the neighboring house is vacant & broken down. It all looks so like the Beverly Hillbillies shack, and is just a few miles from the Clampet Cemetery.) Back to my dad... And so it was that one day my dad & a friend decided to play hooky from school and go swimming instead. There was a small bridge to cross on the way to school over a stream with a diving/swimming hole under the bridge. And that was the where they stopped & stripped to swim. My dad said he dove in first and glided under the water. His friend still on the bridge saw a water moccasin dash out from the bank and bump my dad's leg as he glided by. When he surfaced the friend called out asking if he'd been bit. My dad hadn't felt anything & didn't know what happened, but when he checked, he'd been bit. They agreed to let my dad stay there while the friend ran back and got my grandfather. Instead of getting excited about the crisis my grandfather walked out (didn't have a car, just a tractor) and took his time. Then got my dad and made him walk back to the house. My dad said it was the worst pain of his life & he was so sick for a week he just wanted to die. There was a hollowed out place on his calf from where the snake had bit him.

Water moccasins are territorial, aggressive, don't rattle or hiss or give any warning and will chase you through the grass (or water) just to bite you AND will swim out, crawl into your boat to bite you at night.

I can't stop now...
My maternal grandfather, who lived just over the state line from Ark. in Missouri, had known a man that died from multiple water moccasin bites. This man was water skiing on a lake and was tiring and wanted to drop. He saw what looked like a deflated inner tube floating just under the water and dropped near it. It was several water moccasin intertwined together and they bit him severely.

I've seen water moccasin's in Ark. while exploring sloughs & creeks in my youth and they are scary just because of their thickness. It is surprising how big they are.

Anyway..., uh yeah, I never saw water moccasins on the Current River.

I agree with Bill that June is not the best time. Last weekend was already warm, buggy, and weedy in southern Missouri, but not like it will be in June. My husband and I did trail maintenance 6-7 weekends last May through July on a small part of the trail that you would be hiking. We started at 5:30 or 6 AM and were done before 11. We did see backpackers a couple of times but I didn't envy them.

Ozark Outdoors provided us a shuttle from their place to Hazel Creek campground when we hiked the Courtois section. The DD trailhead is a longer drive than that, but they might do it if you are willing to pay their price. However, we hiked during the off-season for canoeing and I'm sure they'll be busier in June.

Not sure about great places to pitch a tent. There a lot of dead trees, so what looks like a great place often is not. I haven't been on the Courtois or most of the Trace Creek in a few years, although I'm very familiar with the 4 miles that we maintain. But you will be way past that before you want to camp the first night. There is a pretty little spring right along the trail between "Big River" (small creek) and Telleck Branch that is not on the map. That's my favorite spot on "our" section.

That time of year wasn't my first choice but he's my son and headed off to college. Will be gone all summer. I'm just gonna tough it out. I'm prepared for ticks and such. pants, shirt, socks, hat, bandana all soaked in permethrin. That should keep the critters on the run. I'm trying to find a better shuttle than Ozark Outdoors, I'm thinking they are really gonna hammer me.

john

I figured your username meant that you're an Oracle guy and I was right. Me, too, (self-employed) though not much DBA work anymore. Edit: I see I never noticed your username @ BPL. I had responded to your thread there a couple months ago.

Anyway, since this forum doesn't have a lot of traffic you may have better luck finding someone to help shuttle you by posting on the Midwest section of the forum at Backpacker.com. I'm in IN or I'd try to help you out. You can try BPL also but not too many from MO on there.

He doesn't want to do a float trip? Has he ever done one?

You didn't let him watch "Deliverance" when he was a little kid did you?

We've done float trips. We are Scouters after all. We have been trying to put a backpacking trip together for months. I'm good for some place cooler but it needs to be with in say 8 hours of Chitown and have some decent "wilderness feel". Other thing is that same week we are driving to Stillwater, OK for freshmen orientation for a new Big Orange Cowboy.

John

John, you can make it to the Buffalo River in about 10-11 hours. (For me, it's always taken about 9 hours to get to Branson, MO from Rockford, IL, my wife does it in about 8 hours )

If you haven't floated the Buffalo you've missed the best river in the Ozarks to float.

I have a canoe you're welcome to use if you want to do that float. It's a Coleman plastic canoe, and while it's not a great boat, it's fine for floating the Buffalo.

If you have a way to haul the canoe from Branson down to the Buffalo and back, that'd save you at least a couple hundred bucks on a four day float, and since you're heading to OK afterwards you'd be a bit closer if you do come here.

I can probably shuttle you too. I drive a Suzuki Samurai, so it'd be a tight squeeze with the three of us in there, but I also have a utility trailer we can haul your gear with and a rack for the boat. It'd be a slow shuttle cause that's a full load for that tiny Zuk, but you can't beat the scenery.

You'll probably want to take out at either Tyler Bend or Gilbert that time of year. You can probably do 10-12 miles a day with little problem then, but it's a lot more fun if you plan more like 6-8 miles a day and spend time parking the boat and exploring around and swimming. The smallmouth bass are beautiful there (especially to catch and eat) and snorkeling in the Buffalo is a ton of fun, so consider that too.

And if you want to spend a night or two in Branson my wife can get you a good rate on hotel rooms. That might take a little pressure off you both by giving you some time to rest up and make the trip less tedious.

I escaped from Rockford twice, once back in the `70's and again in `95, so we at least have that in common to commiserate about while we poke along to your put in

And hey, big huge congrats on getting your boy into OSU!

That's pretty exciting stuff. (I'm sure those Texans will regret they didn't try harder to bring him there )