This is the first Paddy Creek Road crossing if you are hiking the trail clockwise. To the south of the road is Paddy Creek Wilderness, to the north, Mark Twain National Forest. We’re about to cross over into Mark Twain National Forest.

Where the trail continues is easy to see across the road. Not so much the second crossing of Paddy Creek Road, above the Paddy Creek Campground. There you have to go up hill a few yards to find where the trail picks up.

South Loop/North Loop Short Cut, Big Piney Trail — just a short way further along the trail it drops down towards Little Paddy Creek. In that section I encountered some very thick wood smoke. Even though I know from experience that smoke can travel miles and still be very thick, it was a bit disconcerting!

This is my last picture of the day, and I didn’t take any pictures of my camp in ‘Spring Hollow’ either. The light was fading as I got to the point where I leave the trail, and rather than scrambling over huge boulders and down very steep hillsides in the diminishing light, I tried another route cutting into the hollow from the south after I had passed the shut-ins and spring. That worked, and I arrived just as it started to get dark. I was very pleased to see water running in the creek. The spring must still be running, despite the drought.