Backpacking

Everything backpacking: our gear, trip write-ups, and individual pictures.

Another visitor — This time a Stick Insect, or Walking Stick, as Ginger calls them. Piney Creek Wilderness, Missouri.

Clearing skies after rain. Piney Creek Wilderness, Missouri. +1

Lil’ friend — Unlike all the other Harvestmen in the area who were busy doing their harvestman things, this one chose to come and sit by me for an hour while we watched the rain fall. +1

Cue the ‘Twilight Zone’ music — Last night, stumbling around in the dark, my headlamp picked out a glint in the rocks that make up the campfire surround. When I went to investigate, I found a Pilot pencil, just like the one I lost in February some 2½ miles away near the stock pond on the Lake Trail.

The view from my hammock. Piney Creek Wilderness, Missouri.

Rainbow at sunset. Piney Creek Wilderness, Missouri.

Sunset at Piney Creek Wilderness, September 2024.

Back at my Lakeside Retreat — Time for five days R&R by Table Rock Lake. +2

Journal: Two days solo backpacking in Hercules Glades Wilderness, April 2024 — I decided to get out for a one-night trip to Hercules Glades. Apart from our Eclipse Trip I’ve not been out this month. An overnight stop at my camping spot near Deep Hollow would be just what the doctor ordered. Journal: 2   8

It’s that trail cairn again — By one-thirty I had camp squared away, and I started an uneventful hike back to the trailhead. +2

Jus’ Chilling — The six-mile hike back to the trailhead should only take three to four hours (depending on if I stop for lunch), so I can sit back, take it easy, and enjoy the forest for a while. +1

Day Two. Late Breakfast — Biscuits and Gravy, and a cup of Rosie Lee.

The pollen was prodigious — As the green-yellow dusting of pollen on my feet attests, the pollen was indeed prodigious. No wonder I was coughing and sneezing.

There was a trickle of water coming from the spring — With camp set up I headed off down into ‘Deep Hollow’ to see if the spring was running. Much to my surprise it was — just a trickle but enough to have saved me from having to lug in three liters of water! Not to worry, I need the exercise!

Day One. Back at ‘Deep Hollow,’ Hercules Glades Wilderness — I decided to get out for a one-night trip to Hercules Glades. Apart from our Eclipse Trip I’ve not been out this month. An overnight stop at my camping spot near Deep Hollow would be just what the doctor ordered. One-minute read.

Journal: 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Ginger, Lanie and I camped in Mark Twain National Forest to see this, my third and (most likely) last total solar eclipse. 1999 in France and 2017 in Missouri being the first two. Journal: 5 12

All over — That’s it for twenty years. 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Now for the long drive home.

2024 Total Eclipse — Not too bad for crop of a hand-held picture taken with a seven-year-old mirrorless camera, using the kit lens.

2024 Solar Eclipse — Composite — Eclipse detail merged with an image of the corona.

Doing the ‘Eclipse Dance.’ Just before the totality. 2024 Total Eclipse. Just four minutes to go…

Pre-Eclipse Shenanigans —Gary & Ginger — 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. +3

Pre-Eclipse Shenanigans — Lanie & Ginger — 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Notice how the light in the background is already fading.

2024 Solar Eclipse Camping — Eclipse Day, and the weather is looking wonderful. Warm with clear skies. We spent the morning chatting before breaking camp around midday. Two-minute read, +1

2024 Solar Eclipse Camping — Sunday. Two-minute read, +1

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