Trip over. I had spent three nights in the wilderness and hiked over sixteen miles. And a large number of those miles were spent bushwhacking. I confirmed two water sources and a couple of old, but new to me, trails.

Maps & Stats

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

End of hike thoughts

It was a good, enjoyable hike with no major issues. I didn’t even need the first aid kit, which makes a change after the last couple of hikes. I’ve definitely got some more exploring to do south of the Whites Creek Trail. There’s a hint on the maps that there might be some more old homestead ruins to be seen.

I reckon I’ve already found the best campsite overlooking the Eleven Point River, but without checking every ridge I’ll not be sure. Maybe that’s a target for next winter.

What worked

It seems I’ve got everything pretty well dialed in. I’m still looking to lighten my pack weight, but thus far, all I’ve managed to do is nibble away a few grammes while I cannot part with some of the heavier items.

• Peak Refuel dehydrated food. Overall, it was tasty, used less water than the Mountain House meals, and seemed to fill me up more.
• Taking water from a pond. In fifteen plus years hiking in the Ozarks (and elsewhere), I’ve not taken water from a stationary water source, unless you count Table Rock Lake. The water from both the ponds I encountered, filtered and treated, was fine if a little tannin colored.
• 10°F Under quilt and cold weather clothing. It was very nice to be warm right through the night on the coldest day of the trip. The mornings and evening were also chilly, and I was pleased to have layers to put on as it got colder.
• My pre-trip research. Spending time pouring over the maps on gaiagps.com and studying the aerial views over time on Google Earth certainly paid off. In particular looking at the older maps hinted at where more prominent trails might still exist today.
• GPS and Compass. Getting a bearing to a waypoint from the GPS and then using the compass to keep me on track has worked well over the years and did so on this trip too. There’s another technique you can use, where you go in the general direction you want until you hit a geographic feature — like a creek — to get a rough position fix. I find the Ozarks woodland so samey that I do not use that method, unless there is a ‘whack you round the ears,’ unmistakable and obvious feature to use.

What didn’t work, and what I didn’t use

• GPS and Compass. There appears to be a disagreement between my Suunto compass and my phone’s onboard compass. I paused writing this to run some tests, and discovered the Phone is between 15°-5° off, even after I recalibrated it. Just as well I don’t use my phone’s compass for navigating. Hopefully the GPS software doesn’t either. There is a 2°-5+° error in my compass, but further investigation found that to be down to me — see the Updates below
• Ground sheet. As an experiment, I didn’t use it, and I didn’t miss it. Next to zero weight saved, but it does take up space in my pack’s back pocket.
• Camp Light. I didn’t take my camp light, and I didn’t miss it. That’s a few ounces saved.
• Wood Stove. Yes I took it again. See below for what I’ve learned.

Lessons

• Using a creek marked on the map as a way point. Yeah, the creek didn’t exist anymore.
• Check you are following the correct GPS route. It didn’t do any harm, but I followed a route I’d set which led away from my campsite, when I should have been going back to my campsite. That was a rooky mistake. Zooming out and checking the map would have caught the error.
• If you value your sleep and your hearing, don’t stop too near to a body of water in the spring!
• I realized why I’m not using my wood stove. I’m taking far too much alcohol fuel (a full winter loadout), which results in me being lazy and not lighting the wood stove. I can save weight by switching back to my warm season fuel bottle.
• Using the GPS for navigation there’s another area where errors can be introduced. Which is down to the accuracy of where I place the pins, and where within the pin image the actual coordinates lie. I’ve always assumed the bottom center of the image, but if it’s the center, then some fairly large errors can be introduced (some research is required).

I managed to get everywhere I planned for this trip, and despite the disappointment of not finding another Eleven Point River Overlook campsite, successfully bushwhacking my way around and discovering ‘new to me’ trails was well worth the effort.

I’m already thinking about the possibility of fitting in another trip before the vegetation, heat, and ticks get too out of hand.