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Gary at the start of the Berryman Trail — Berryman Campground, Missouri
The start of the Berryman Trail — Berryman Campground, Missouri. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This will be my last backpacking trip of 2024. I’m nowhere near my goal of hiking 240 miles in 2024, but I’ll be spending the next four days hiking the twenty-seven-mile Berryman Trail near Potosi, Missouri, which will get me a bit closer.
The Berryman Trail
I’ve hiked the Berryman Trail twice — in 2011 (clockwise) and 2020 (counterclockwise). When I hiked it in 2020, the trail had been substantially rerouted and extended to its current length of twenty-seven-odd miles. In 2011, it was 24 miles. On my last visit, it was in excellent condition, well-graded, blazed, and easy to follow. That will make a nice change from the Whites Creek Trail in Irish Wilderness!
The trail runs through short-leaf pine and oak forests and generally follows the contour lines into and around the hollows. You’ll enjoy this trail if you like the Ozark’s crinkly bits with deep hollows. The Berryman Trail is not in a designated wilderness and is open for hikers, equestrians, and cyclists. Motor vehicles are not allowed on the trail but can be encountered at the trail’s many forest road crossings.
The trail is divided into east and west segments. When I last hiked it, water was available on the West Segment at the spring at the abandoned Beecher Campground, Harmon Spring and Trailhead, Little Brazil Creek, and Brazil Creek. The East Segment has a reputation for being dry — I’ve seen caches of water at the point where the trail crosses Floyd Tower Road. However, I have found a low-output spring on the trail a mile or two south of Floyd Tower Road.
According to signs at the trailhead, logging and road-building operations are in progress to the south and west of Berryman Campground.
Logging and road building — but it’s all to the south of where I am heading. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Logging and road building — but it’s all to the south of where I am heading. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Weather
The weather should be warmish, mid-thirties to mid-fifties, mostly overcast, and there’s even some overnight rain in the forecast. There will be some gusty winds on a couple of nights, so I’ll need to pay attention to how I set up my hammock.
Gear
Basically, I’m going with the same gear I took on my recent Irish Wilderness hike: my summer quilts and tarp, backed up by winter clothing, just in case it turns chilly. This will allow extra water to be carried, if necessary, on the East Segment. This time, I remembered to pack my Pop-Tarts, and I have a nice thick book to keep me occupied through the long dark evenings.
I’ve swapped out my LED light string for my LED camp light. It’s much quicker to set up and put away, and I want to see if I miss the light string.
The Plan
Dawn is around seven-thirty, and sundown is around four-fifty, so daylight is in short supply.
- Day One. I’m hiking the trail clockwise, so my stopping point will be the abandoned Edward Beecher Campground with its handy spring. As that’s some seven miles from the trailhead, I’ll need to get moving to get there before dark.
- Day Two. My shortest day, at around five and a half miles. I’ll hike to Little Brazil Creek and camp there somewhere, probably on the ridge to the west of the creek.
- Day Three. My longest day of over eight miles. Hike to Brazil Creek Campground, top up with water for the East Segment and the remainder of the trip. I’ll stop at the spot where I camped on the first night of my previous visit.
- Day Four. Hike the remaining six miles back to the Berryman Campground Trailhead.
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Berryman Trail Mile Marker
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Trail Signs
The Berryman Trail forms part of the Ozark Trail, and the entire loop is looked after by the Ozark Trail Association, and a very good job they do too. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Day One
For once, I was ready to get on the road before nine. That was just as well, as it’s 160-miles to the Berryman Campground and Trailhead.
By the time I was ready to get on the trail, it was eleven forty-five, overcast, and damp. I wanted to get to camp well before dark to find a spot reasonably close to the trail and spring, but far enough away not to have to deal with or be seen by anyone.
After taking some pictures of the trail signs, I set off at a fast pace (for me). I kept a check on my heart rate, which didn’t go above 130 BPM, which was good.
I love how this trail winds in and out of the hollows through the mixed oak and short-leafed pine forest.
The trail was just as I remembered it: an easy-going surface that is great for bikes and hikers alike, easy to follow despite the leaf-off, and with regular Ozark Trail blazes and Berryman Trail mile markers. However, it would seem that many blazes and mile markers have been damaged or destroyed by animals chewing on them and the effects of wildfires and prescribed burns.
I love how this trail winds in and out of the hollows through the mixed oak and short-leafed pine forest. It makes for a much more interesting hike than, say, the Whites Creek Trail, which features long straightish runs through oak woods with little variation. The inclines are generally easy with well thought out switchbacks that make keeping up a good pace simple.
I noticed my heart was skipping every now and then
A couple of hours into the hike I took a break for a drink and snack, and I noticed my heart was skipping every now and then. I’ve recently adjusted my meds, and my heart has not been running as fast during exercise and has been recovering (slowing) more quickly since the change. I had run over three miles twice earlier in the week with no ill effects, so I was confident I was fit enough to hike at a respectable speed. My watch heart alarm hadn’t triggered either, so I decided to press on regardless and run an ECG check once I’d found a place to camp.
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Berryman Trail — Day One stats and a packing omission
At two forty, I passed the 6.5-mile marker and arrived at the Edward Beecher Campground just after three. I filled up with water for the night from the spring. With four liters in hand, I backtracked a couple of hundred yards down the trail to a low ridge to the east of the trail I’d noticed on the way in.
It looked like a good spot, and I found some trees that would let me set up camp with my hammock across the wind. While I was making camp I heard an ATV stop at the spring and then continue up the forest road that passes through the abandoned campground. I was glad I’d decided to camp well away from the road and spring.
The “Bad Decisions make Good Stories” patch on my backpack was silently mocking me
Camp sorted, I ran an ECG, which informed me I was in AFIB. It must have been very mild bout, as I could hardly feel it, but it confirmed my suspicions. I immediately took one of my pills, and then the extent of my potential problem dawned on me. I usually pack a couple of extra pills to cope with a bout of AFIB. But this was Day One, if I had AFIB every day, I didn’t have enough pills with me to keep it in check — assuming it responded. Also, I’d somehow managed not to pack enough of the coated Aspirin tabs I take each day to reduce the risk of a stroke from AFIB (I don’t take more aggressive anticoagulants because of the amount of scratches and gouges I get backpacking).
This was a dilemma. Should I turn around and go home in the morning? Carrying on would take me further from the trailhead.
The “Bad Decisions make Good Stories” patch on my backpack was silently mocking me. I decided to sleep on it and see how my heart was behaving in the morning. If I was to carry on, I would have to come up with a way of mitigating the risks.
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Day Two, breaking camp
Day Two, breaking camp. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. And once again I forgot to take a picture of my campsite. At least I remembered before I’d taken the tarp down. I camped a couple of hundred yards southeast of the spring at the former Edward Beecher Recreation Area.
Decision Time
I checked my ECG when I woke up, and it was clear. That was good.
I double-checked my heart rate while I was hiking yesterday and confirmed that it was low. I maxed out at 129 BPM. I was well hydrated, so why had I gone into AFIB? Well, that was puzzling, but there was nothing I could do about it. Now what to do? I had several thoughts overnight.
- I’ve never had a second bout of AFIB immediately after it’s cleared. If I carried on, maybe, at worst, it would reoccur on Day Three, by which time I’d already be heading back towards the trailhead. I had one extra pill left, and normally, that would be enough to bring it back under control.
- There are many forest roads crossing the trail. If I needed to bail out, I could use them as a shortcut back to the trailhead and, if I was lucky, hitch a lift.
- I was sure missing a couple of days of the coated Aspirin would not significantly change my blood’s clotting ability.
- I could cut my hiking speed considerably and take things a lot easier on the trail with frequent stops.
- Today was going to be my shortest mileage day, so if I went further, I could cut down on the distance I had to travel the following two days.
- Of course, I could take the most sensible option and head straight back to the trailhead.
I checked the map, and found a flat area on a ridge to the north of the trail between Little Brazil Creek and Brazil Creek that would make a good place to stop. It would push the day’s mileage up from five-and-a-half miles to more like seven, but I could make that decision when I got to Little Brazil Creek.
Stubborn Gary took over, and I decided to carry on. I’d regret it if I went home without at least trying to get further along the trail. Once I was hiking, I’d check my ECG again, and if there was any sign of a problem, I’d turn around immediately and head back to the trailhead.
By ten-fifty, I was packed and ready to get on the trail. I’d heard a couple of horses go by, and that was it. I headed down to the spring, grabbed enough water to last me until lunchtime, and headed north toward Little Brazil Creek.
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The trail is well-maintained and skirts around the hollows
The trail is well maintained and skirts around the hollows. There are a lot of hollows on this trail. The topography is very crinkley; the hollows steep and deep, but the trail is very well graded. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This is a view of the trail looking north, just north of where it crosses FR 2274. I spotted a chipmunk on the trail a few minutes earlier, but it ran off too quickly for me to get a picture. That’s a shame because I very rarely get to see chipmunks. Look carefully, and you can see the trail in front of me taking a right into the hollow. You can make out its line behind the trees as it winds back out again. FR 2265 (aka Floyd Tower Road) is on top of the ridge, so it’s very close.
I crossed FR 2265 around midday. I’d just checked my ECG and it was fine. I met two cyclists at the crossing. One of them quizzed me on my Bedrock sandals. Before we could continue chatting, seven cyclists came up the trail behind me. I left them to it and carried on. A few minutes later, the seven cyclists overtook me.
In this section of the trail, there has been some significant thinning/harvesting of the trees, which explains all the blazes I saw on the trees back in 2020. It makes the forest look very ‘thin.’ Another thing I’d noticed, was, like all the other Ozark trails I’ve been on this year, there was a huge number of trees down. The difference on the Berryman Trail is that nearly all the trees that fell across the trail have been cleared. I only saw one tree across the trail in the entire twenty-seven-plus miles.
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Witness trees and survey marker
Witness trees and survey marker. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. This survey marker is located at a point where the trail runs just a few yards from FR2436 (to the right as I took this picture. You can just make it out at the top right of the frame). It was around here that I encountered my last cyclist of the day. 🙂
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Stopped for lunch at Little Brazil Creek
Stopped for lunch at Little Brazil Creek. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I arrived at this primitive campsite by Little Brazil Creek at one-forty. Since the Survey Marker, I’d met a group of eight day-hikers heading south on the trail. We didn’t stop to chat, so I have no idea where they started their day, or where they were heading.
Lunch was noodles and a cup of Ginger and Orange tea, plus some nuts, M&Ms and rasins.
I felt fine. I had been taking it easy, hiking slowly and stopping regularly. The spot where I camped when I last stopped here was not going to work, as two trees had fallen pretty much right on it. You can see one of them in the background of this picture. There was also a lot of noise coming from ATVs/Side-by-sides having fun to the south where there’s a forest road to Hamon Spring, and then along and up along the ridge near this spot. That decided me to load up with water and head on to a spot well off the trail nearer to Brazil Creek.
All cleared up after lunch and ready to move on
There are lots of trees down — but I only saw one down across the trail that had not been cut away. All cleared up after lunch and ready to move on. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Tree down across Little Brazil Creek
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Berryman Trail — Day Two stats and the rest of the day’s hike
USGS Map. 20 ft. Contours. Well, that was a bit further than I thought 🙂 That will teach me not to try and eyeball distances along ‘crinkly bits.’ My Little Brazil Creek lunch stop is at the top left of the above map. From there it’s a 200 ft. climb over around three quarters of a mile to the top of the ridge.
What the above USGS map omits is a newish forest road (they were putting it in when we hiked the original trail in 2011), which runs up the ridge and joins FR 2436. Who knows why, but the forest road is also called Berryman Trail… One thing about the USGS map is that it shows the original route of the Berryman Trail, so you can see how it has been moved and extended.
I keep several different map versions in my Gaia GPS App, including older and newer less detailed maps, private property, and sometimes geological maps for times when I need more information than is provided by USGS.
I started slogging up to the top of the ridge at two-thirty, and the noise of the ATVs/Side-by-sides was increasing. By switching and overlaying maps I was able to find the road they were on and could see that there were four places where the trail crossed the forest road. I sped up so that hopefully I’d get across the first two crossings before they did, and then they’d be in front of me, and I’d have the remainder of the afternoon to myself.
I beat them to the first two crossings, after which the trail runs close to the forest road. As they filed past, I discovered why so much noise had interrupted my lunch. There were twenty of them in a convoy, complete with colored lights and music blaring. Oh boy, but it’s not a wilderness, and they can have their fun too. I just wasn’t prepared for around $400,000 of noisy recreational vehicles to be in the same bit of the Mark Twain National Forest that I happened to be in. The next two road crossings were a fair way ahead so, I was hoping they’d be well on their way by the time I got to them.
Gaia Topo (feet) 40 ft. contours The noise suggested something different. They’d ground to a halt. I thought a downed tree across the road might have temporarily slowed them down. Nope. they were parked two abreast, bumper to bumper blocking the point where the trail crossed the road. I maneuvered my way between the vehicles, in the process making friends with a couple of dogs who were very interested in my hiking poles. Finally, I had to ask someone to stand aside so that I could get through. Once through I hoped they wouldn’t move on before I made it to the final road crossing. They didn’t. I met another south going day hiker and wished him luck getting across the road 🙂
I carried on towards my goal, arriving at the point where I wanted to leave the trail at three forty-five, leaving me about 90 minutes of light to find a spot to camp and then set everything up. There was wind and rain in the forecast, so I’d need some trees that would let me set up my tarp across the wind. By four I’d got to a good spot and was getting everything ready.
As for the ATVs/Side-by-sides? Well, I could still hear them driving through the forest at seven p.m.
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Day Three — Planning the day’s hike
Day Three — Planning the day’s hike. There was six hours of rain last night, which bodes well for water being available on the trail. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It was a wet and misty morning. Last night, six hours of rain fell, which bodes well for water availability on the trail.
My plan? Hike to the Brazil Creek Campground, fill up with enough water to last me through the night and the next day, and then stagger along the trail until I reached the place where I camped on the first night of my 2020 hike of the trail. That should be around six and a half miles, with a decent climb out of the Brazil Creek valley.
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A tiny bit of sunshine
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Packing up camp
Packing up camp. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy and a cup of Ginger and Orange tea, I packed up camp and was back on my way just before eleven-thirty. It felt cold, with a brisk wind and damp air, even though it was a balmy 48 degrees. I was wearing shorts yesterday. Not today!
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Brazil Creek
Brazil Creek. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I arrived at Brazil Creek at twelve-fifteen. I thought I’d seen the last of yesterday’s ATV/Side-by-side convoy. But no. As I dropped down the hill to Brazil Creek, I watched all twenty-one of them (maybe I miss counted yesterday), cross the Brazil Creek Bridge on State Highway W heading north.
I stopped and ate some trail snacks while I toyed with the idea of not taking on any extra water and relying on the small spring where I’d be camping. I decided that wasn’t a good idea, because if there wasn’t any water, I’d be quite dehydrated by the time I finished the hike. I’d not had a reoccurrence of my AFIB so far, and dehydration equals AFIB, so why risk it?
Lunch and filtering water at Brazil Creek. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Seventeen miles down, another ten or so to go
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The things people leave behind
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Trail conditions on the East Segment of the Berryman Trail
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A trail marker for the original Berryman Trail
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Trail conditions on the East Segment of the Berryman Trail
Trail conditions on the East Segment. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The section of trail from the road crossing of State Highway W to Floyd Tower Road (FR2265) is a bit more isolated than the West Segment. Parts of it run along the original trail route.
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Gary crossing Floyd Tower Road
Gary crossing Floyd Tower Road. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Now it really feels like I’m on the last lap. I arrived at Floyd Tower Road just before three p.m. only a couple of hours of daylight left, and I have still got to get to my campsite and set up camp.
In other news, I can hear the distinctive sound of the ATV/Side-by-side convoy getting closer. Are they chasing me?!
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Trail-side pretties
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Setting up camp
Setting up camp. I camped here in 2020. It’s a good spot on a ridge above the trail. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I don’t believe it, but I can hear it, so it must be true 🙂 The ATV/Side-by-Side convoy has stopped on a Forest Road along a ridge to the west of me — probably Smith Mill Hollow Road. Engines, loud voices, and music are wafting over the air.
I’m hoping they don’t decide to drive along the disused roads that run along Smith Mill Hollow. There’s an unmarked Forest Road twenty yards from where I’m camped!
For the first time ever, I’ve seen water flowing in the creek in Smith Mill Hollow, and the spring below my campsite has water, too. So much for carrying all that water from Brazil Creek for the last few hours.
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Camped at sunset
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Camped at sunset
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Berryman Trail — Day Three stats
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Day Four — Making breakfast
Day Four — Making breakfast. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It was quite cold last night — 36 Degrees — and it’s pretty damp, too, so it feels colder than it is. A Pop-Tart, ginger and orange tea, with biscuits and gravy will soon warm things up.
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View from my hammock. The Berryman Trail, December 2024
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Breakfast treat, a Pop-Tart
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Bad Decisions Make Good Stories
Bad Decisions Make Good Stories. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It’s coming up on midday, and I’m packed, ready for the last six miles back to the trailhead. It turns out my ‘Bad Decision’ to carry on with my hike on Day Two was a good decision after all.
I’ve managed to keep my hiking pace down the last couple of days, and I’ve stopped frequently. My heart rate has remained below 115 BPM most of the time. Now, I need to get back to the car without bringing on my AFIB, and everything will be good.
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Gary ready to start out on the last leg of the trip
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The Berryman Trail, December 2024
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Hike over back at the Berryman Campground Trailhead
Hike over back at the Berryman Campground Trailhead. The Berryman Trail, December 2024. Copyright © 2024 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. I went a bit faster today and arrived back to the trailhead at two thirty-eight. It was a good hike out, and I encountered one cyclist on the trail. That’s the first person I’ve seen in a couple of days., and that’s how I like it!
Now for the two-and-half hour drive home.
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Berryman Trail — Day Four stats and a summary of the trip
USGS Map. 20 ft. Contours. Despite the health scare on Day One, in four days, I hiked a total of 28.7 miles and climbed 1,995 ft. I very much enjoyed the hike, though I would have preferred the trail to have been a bit less populated, and definitely could have done without the ATV/Side-by-side convoy. But everyone else is just as entitled to be out enjoying the forest as I am so I cannot complain.
Health
We know I have AFIB and other health issues and that’s just a fact of life. I have medications and best practices that ought to but don’t always keep things under control. I put off changing my medication before my last trip and made the changes when I returned. I wasn’t planning on going out again this year, but when the opportunity arose, I wasn’t going to turn it down. I carry my InReach Satellite Communicator and SOS beacon with me, so if I cannot self-rescue, I can call for help.
Solo backpacking during the winter season, in particular, provides many opportunities to consider one’s mortality. Ginger and I are well aware that a heart attack or stroke out on the trail cannot be ruled out, and if it happens, even if I manage to get out an SOS, I’ll not survive. And we are okay with that. It would be much better than ending my time in a hospital bed.
In a few years, my cardiologist is going to insist on aggressive anticoagulants. I’m going to have to radically review my strategy when that happens, but for now, I’ll keep taking the pills and carry on backpacking.
What worked & Lessons learned
- My summer quilts were fine in the temperatures I encountered.
- My clothing was fine, though once again, I took and didn’t wear my spare base layer top and spare pair of undies.
- I love my Fancee Feest alcohol stove1, and as usual it worked impeccably. I took my wood stove and didn’t use it. It may be better to leave it behind when it’s cold and damp.
- My summer tarp kept everything dry through several hours of gusty rain.
- My decision to carry on was the correct one. We’ll never know if my contingency plans would have worked.
- On the past couple of trips, I’ve been carrying an extra half-liter water bottle just for my electrolytes. It fits comfortably in the side pocket of my pack along with my one-liter plain water Platty.
- The LED camp light is a better option for winter camping than the LED light string.
- I found a better way to attach my Hunter orange vest to my pack. The key element was a small bulldog clip that held the collar in place on top of my pack.
- I shall double the number of meds I take with me. I don’t want to have to consider bailing on a trip because I’m low on meds ever again.
- Make absolutely sure any changes in my medication regime have fully bedded in before going out for several days.
- In future I should use the tools on my GPS to work out distances rather than guessing. Failing that I’ll have to carry a compact pair of navigational dividers (I have a huge pair I used to use when sailing).
All in all, for a last-minute trip, it turned out much better than I would have thought at the end of Day One. I like the Berryman Trail and may need to hike it more often.
Notes: 1 It looks like the Fancee Feest stove is no longer available. The website has been down for over a month now. I found a message from the owner posted in June 2024 saying he had plenty of stoves in stock, but there’s now no way to get them. That’s a shame, but at least I have three on hand!