MAIDEN VOYAGE
One
of my goals for our Spring trip was to hike in some new states. Earlier in the week I had hiked in
Mississippi for the first time. The hike
we had planned in Louisiana had been foiled by massive thunderstorms,
tornadoes, and flooding, but we still had Missouri and Illinois on our
agenda. We broke camp Friday morning and
left the Buffalo River, driving north.
We headed up into Missouri, bound for the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. After doing considerable research on hiking
in Missouri, I’d picked this area for our hike.
This unit of the National Park Service includes the Current River and
the Jack’s Fork. Both rivers feature
numerous colorful cold water springs and caves.
Our
first stop was at Round Spring, north of Eminence, MO. There we took a short stroll on a paved path
to view the spring. The path actually
crosses a ridge that divides the spring in two.
On one side, the spring emerges from a cave into a huge green pool. The water then re-emerges on the far side in
another green pool. From there it runs a
short distance before joining the Current River.
We
took a few photos and then drove up to the Devil’s Well Trailhead to start our
hike. The Devil’s Well is a vertical
shaft leading to a flooded cave. The
lake at the bottom holds about 22 million gallons of water! Unfortunately, the entrance is gated. Even if it were accessible, reaching the lake
would require a long rappel or a huge ladder.
I did walk down the staircase to the opening and peered down into the
depths. Unfortunately you can’t see much
from there.
I’d
selected a 5 mile loop hike to Cave Spring on the Current River. As you might guess, the spring is back inside
a cave. A trail leads to the mouth of
the cave, but exploring the cave and reaching the spring requires swimming or
boating. Originally I thought we might
swim it, but that cave water is cold!
Instead, I brought my new pack raft.
Christy bought the pack raft for me for Christmas, and I’d been itching
to try it out. This seemed like the
perfect opportunity.
The
hike was mostly a pleasant stroll through the woods. There were a couple of extremely modest
viewpoints, but the highlight of the first two miles was the wildflowers. There were numerous varieties, but the
biggest thrill was a cluster of Paintbrush on an open, sunny hillside. I didn’t know that Missouri had
Paintbrush! We eventually descended
beyond some modest cliffs and followed a spur trail to a fantastic campsite on
the Current River. Just beyond the
campsite was the immense opening of Cave Spring Cave. It was an extremely sunny afternoon, and
photography was challenging. I had to
get in there.
The
pack raft is not easy to inflate.
Christy and I worked on it together, alternating between using the raft
bag as a type of pump and blowing into one of the valves. After a few minutes of hard work it was fully
inflated. I’d brought half of a kayak
paddle along, since half of a paddle is a lot easier to carry than a full
paddle. I figured I would just paddle it
like a canoe. This was a mistake. It turns out that the pack raft is difficult
to steer, particularly when you are paddling upstream against a strong
current. I had to switch sides with each
stroke to keep from spinning in circles.
Doing this meant it was difficult to generate much power. In the future I’ll bring the full paddle.
I
nearly fell in the river getting into the raft.
I paddled up into the mouth of the cave and passed under some
stalactites hanging from the ceiling. It
turns out that wasn’t the only thing on the ceiling. My presence startled a squirrel that was
doing who knows what up there. He
actually fell from the ceiling and scampered across the rocks near the cave
entrance before disappearing.
The
current got stronger as I proceeded deeper into the cave. Paddling the raft became impossible – I was
actually losing ground. Instead, I used
my hands to pull myself along the wall of the cave. This was effective, and once I got into the
actual spring the current diminished. It
is an amazing place. I relaxed for a
couple of minutes, listening to the water dripping from the ceiling. The view of the river passing the mouth of
the cave was cool, too. It seemed very
far away.
After
a few minutes I let the current push me back out of
the cave. Christy wasn’t interested in
paddling the raft, so I went back in for a second visit. Afterwards, I rejoined Christy and we
deflated and packed up the raft. We were
about to depart when a group in canoes pulled up. They were a friendly bunch of guys doing a
long weekend canoeing trip on the Current River. The current was really strong – it was
ripping along at 5mph or so. They were
way ahead of schedule, and were trying to figure out how to keep from finishing
their trip a day early! They’d decided
to camp at the lovely site near the mouth of the cave. They were thrilled to find out that we were
just dayhiking and not camping there.
We
completed the loop on the hike out. We
passed one meager viewpoint of the Current River, but there were too many trees
to get photos. We’d passed one other
viewpoint earlier, but it was equally unexciting. This hike is all about the cave, the spring,
the river, and the abundant wildflowers along the way.
EMINENCE AFFRONT
We
returned to the car and set the controls for southern Illinois. We had reservations at the campground at
Ferne Clyffe Falls State Park for Friday and Saturday
nights. We had a long drive ahead of us,
and immediately got behind someone driving 20mph under the speed limit. Sigh.
He finally turned off just before we reached the town of Eminence. Christy
was driving, and she enthusiastically sped up.
Unfortunately that coincided with the speed
limit dropping to 20mph. It also
coincided with Eminence’s official speed trap.
The officer pulled us over in the parking lot of the local ice cream
shop. He turned out to be very nice and
let us go with a warning. What a
relief! Honestly, a ticket would’ve been
justified, coming into a small town with lots of pedestrian traffic. But we’ll take the good fortune, which we
celebrated with ice cream.
Continue reading about our trip as we drive to Illinois and spend a day exploring Ferne Clyffe Falls State Park, Jackson Hollow, and Garden of the Gods.
Back to Missouri
Back to Hiking and Backpacking Trip Reports
Please remember to Leave No Trace!