A Short Weekend

Well, like the title says it was a short weekend. But let me start from the beginning.

Thursday night we packed our bags and got everything set to go Saturday morning. It would be the first trip with full packs. Rosie's pack was 22 lbs while mine was roughly 26 lbs. I had the tent and extra water while Rosie had food and cookware, while we both had our own clothes, jackets, and sleeping bags. I did realize that I will eventually need a new pack as many of the straps on my old pack are slipping and not staying in place.

I didn't let the old pack slow us down as we headed for Cuvier River State Park by Troy, MO early Saturday morning. It took a little over an hour to get to the visitor center. Once at the visitor center we checked in with the ranger to let them know we were there and where we were planning on camping. Once we got to the trail head we determined the route we were going to take with an expected 8 mile distance.

Once on the trails we saw a mix of terrain from sand, gravel, and even large rocks. We were confident at this point that we would make it and hit camp before hitting any rain if it did rain. About 2.5 miles in we hit an equestrian campsite that was next to a spring. We found this to be a good opportunity to grab a snack and make sure our packs were comfortable. After eating it was back onto the trails where we saw some good elevation changes as well as more terrain changes.

Along our hike we also ran into 4 deer that were all good sized as well as seeing a really cool looking lizard (sorry no pictures he was quick). Two of the deer happened to be along the trail that saw some of the thickest brush we had seen in a while with most of it being 3-4 ft tall. Felt like we needed a hatchet to get through it. Once out of the thicket that last about 1.5 miles we did a tick check. Let me tell you that being in the lead left alot of ticks all over my jeans as well as Rosie's pants. It seems even the bug spray didn't faze them. So after working to try and get them all cleaned off we headed back onto the trail.

A little past 5 miles we heard a crack of thunder and looked towards the sky and noticed the clouds were heading away from us so we pressed on. At the finally junction we were looking to see how many miles as well as working to get our rain coats out just in case but it wouldn't be fast enough. While pulling Rosie's jacket from her pack, I looked up and saw a line of rain heading towards us and realized I wasn't going to have enough time. We got her jacket on and started trying to get her pack rain fly on with no success (made a note for later). I then worked to get my jacket on as I was getting soaked. Once we were ready to keep going came the decision to hike the 2.5 miles to camp or the mile back to the car. We decided that since we were soaked already we should just head to the car, and on top of that once we were at camp we would have had to setup in the rain and we weren't ready for that one yet. Once back at the car it was time to go, so we headed to the visitors center to let them know we would not be staying. 

As for lessons of the weekend, I need some better hiking pants and shoes. Rosie needs some better hiking shoes and we need to readjust our packs to be able to fit the pack rain fly. Also need to find a way to pack a shelter we can put up quickly just encase this happens again in hopes to stay dry. I also need to learn to slow the pace down.

All in all in the end besides getting wet, seeing wildlife, and being attacked by ticks our 6.7 mile hike in 2 hrs and 27 minutes of moving time was a great experience and we are looking forward to our next trip. We are working to plan that one now and hopefully we can camp overnight on that trip.

Till our next big adventure.