NEOS Overshoes

Santa Claus was good to me this year and got me a pair of NEOS Overshoes, the Adventurer model. I intend to use these this winter for backpacking.

I had been thinking about getting a pair of winter hiking boots. But I chickened out because boots are expensive considering how much snow we get here in Missouri. Also I'm not used to hiking in boots and I was concerned about getting some that felt comfortable without requiring a long break-in period.

Overshoes fit the bill because you just wear your normal hiking shoes inside.

The inside sole of the overshoe is rubberized so that your own shoes don't slip and slide inside the overshoe. This works remarkably well.

The overshoes close with a velcro strap around my calf and fasten with a strap over your foot.

Another very nice design feature is that the only opening is at the top, 15 inches from the sole, so it is waterproof. I put this to the test on my recent hike of the northern Trace Creek section of the OT. I had to ford a river that would have been REALLY cold to cross in sandals or water shoes. The overshoes worked like a charm.

When I didn't need the overshoes I collapsed them and packed them away. They collapse down quite small and weigh very little.

Recently we've been blessed with some snow here in St. Louis so I took them outside to walk around in the snow for 45 minutes or so. Not only are they well suited for this purpose in terms of keeping my feet dry but my feet were amazingly warm as well. The NEOS website was suggesting they would be comfortable down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit. It was in the low teens when I was walking around and my feet were more than warm enough.

I'm looking forward to some nice hikes in the snow in these babies.

North Trace Creek

On Wednesday, December 30th, I joined 3 other hikers from the motrails group for a day hike of the northern half of the Trace Creek section of the Ozark Trail. It was fun to finally be able to put a face to some of the names of people I'd met online. I was finally able to meet Danny McMurphy face to face. He is the expert on hiking trails in Missouri. His website is the go-to source for information on Missouri hiking trails.

We parked at an Unofficial parking spot off route DD near Council Bluff lake (about the half-way point of the Trace Creek section) and then shuttled up to the Hazel Creek campground and hiked south back to our cars.

I went up the night before and camped near where we left our cars so I would be sure to be on time in the morning (we were meeting at 9am). It snowed all night a very dry kind of snow. Really more like little balls of ice. I used my bivy because it's a perfect shelter for that kind of thing. I pitched my poncho over my head to keep snow out of my face.

The Trace Creek section, like the nearby Middle Fork section which I hiked last year, has many small creeks and rivers which beautify the trip. During the leaf-off time of the year there are nice views of the river valleys. The light dusting of snow added to the beauty of the woods.
One of the fun things about winter is the interesting ice formations you see on the creeks. I really can't imagine how some of them form. This one looks for all the world like "ice bats" hibernating or something.
The Ozarks is a great place to be in the winter.

Thermal Regulation

I've been thinking about thermal regulation while hiking this winter. During a hike your need for insulation can change quite quickly depending on outside temperature, wind speed, humidity, and exertion. Being too cold is no fun of course but being too warm can be a problem as well because perspiration can quickly chill you once you stop hiking.

Conventional wisdom says that the right thing to do is to dress in layers and remove layers as you get warmer or put them on as you get cold. However this is a lot of trouble because it involves stopping and taking off your backpack to put away or take out a layer. To avoid this nuisance most hikers don't vary their insulation enough.

I've discovered a better solution. It turns out that most heat lost you experience is through your head and your hands. I used to take my hat and gloves off when I got warm but I ended up having to try and shove them in the pockets of my pants (which were already full from my GPS and snacks). For the past few hikes I've instead worn my Sugoi Speedster 2 hoodie. I originally bought it for winter running and biking but now I'm finding it very useful for winter hiking as well. The fabric is a full stretch, wicking, midweight base layer with fleeced inner side so it's comfortable and warm. But the best features are the hood and cuff gloves. If I'm warm I can keep the hood off and my hands bare.

When I begin to feel cold I can pull the hood up and tuck my hands inside the cuff gloves. They aren't really gloves, just a fold of fabric that encases your hands. It doesn't allow for any dexterity but this is a feature I use while hiking, not while setting up camp or cooking.

I've really been loving how easy this makes it to adjust to my changing needs for insulation while hiking. In previous posts I've sung the praises of merino wool and of course this top is synthetic. The tradeoff is that the synthetic tops have a problem with odor while wool seems impervious to body odors.

On my most recent trip to hike the Trace Creek section of the OT I made a mistake when it comes to nighttime thermal regulation. I went to bed with little insulation on my legs. When I went to Sam A Baker state park a few weeks before I had worn very good lower body insulation to bed and found that it was too much and so removed it. I had brought that same insulation with me on this trip but left it in my pack. Once I realized I was a bit cold in the night it was snowing and blowing quite hard and I didn't feel like getting out of my quilt to rummage through my pack to change so I just settled for being uncomfortable.

The lesson is that you should always wear you warmest clothes to bed. It's easy to take things off in the night but it's hard to add insulation that you didn't take to bed with you. Oh well. Lesson learned.

Sam A Baker State Park

View Mudlick Trail in a larger map

After I had graded the final exams I decided to spend two nights on the Mudlick Trail in Sam A Baker state park. I had heard good things about it. I enjoyed my trip but I ended up spending only one night because I finished the trail sooner than I thought I would.

The Trail
Above you can see some waypoints I uploaded from my GPS after I got home. I started the loop at the trailhead on the right side and went counter clockwise.

I arrived Wednesday afternoon about 4pm and hiked north until I came to the hiking shelters. I had heard mixed reviews on them. They were actually really nice for a winter hike: 3 sided stone shelters with stone floors and fireplaces.
I stayed at hiking shelter 1 because it was perched right on the cliff facing East over the valley where the Big Creek runs and I thought it would provide nice sunrise views. I wasn't disappointed.

After leaving the shelter I hiked north along the ridge and then down into Mudlick hollow where Mudlick creek runs. Along the trail down into the hollow I found some really nice frost flowers. Some of the pictures didn't turn out and even this one isn't very well focused. But you can see the delicate structure of the ribbon of ice that comes out of the stem of a plant when the ground is moist and the air termperature drops to well below freezing.

The creek itself is really pretty. The highlight of the trip in my mind. Notice the icicles hanging from the moss-covered rock wall over the creek.
I love this picture. It was just a little waterfall but the combination of rushing water and ice on the rocks made it seem magical.

The rest of the trip was very pleasant. The forest must burn regularly because it was quite open and free of undergrowth. There are significant changes in elevation so it's a good workout. The only really difficult part was the downhill on the bottom right of the map. This is a `hiker only' section of the trail because it is too rugged for horses. It's almost too rugged for hikers. You are traveling down and along a steep hill side covered with rocks about the size of your head. Lots of opportunities to twist your ankle. I never fell but the constant twisting of my foot made my Achilles tendon hurt.

I had planned on spending two nights on the trail and camping the second night near Logan creek (bottom left on the map). But I made better time than I thought and so continued on to the trailhead. I reached my car almost exactly 24 hours after I had parked.

Thoughts on Gear for Winter
On every trip I learn a little more about backpacking. This trip was cold but dry and I brought my bivy and air mattress. People tend to like bivy bags for two reasons: protection from mild precipitation, and extra warmth. I think the first of these makes sense but I don't buy the second reason any more. During the night I was plenty warm on my legs and body but I had trouble with condensation from my breath when I slept on my side. I think I would have been better off to add warmth with a small liner bag and avoid the condensation problems. Now if there had been rain or snow forecast (and I wasn't in the shelter) then the bivy would have been perfect. The small amount of condensation is a small price to pay for keeping your bag from getting wet.

I've occasionally had fires on my backpacking trips and so I began thinking about carrying some kind of tinder. Well I think I have found the ultimate fire starting material -- cotton balls smeared with vaseline. Other hikers had recommended it but I had never tried it until this trip. You get a nice hot flame that lasts a long time, plenty of time to get your fire started.

Hawn State Park

This past weekend I returned to Hawn State Park. Kimberly and I had visited it a few weeks ago and I was quite taken with the beauty of the place. We hiked mostly in the area near Pickle Creek. That area is very nice but I wanted to see more of the park so I hiked the Whispering Pines Trail south loop to get an idea of what the other side of the park looked like.

The trail is very pleasant and, as you can see below, quite rocky. There are large sandstone boulders everywhere. (I mistakenly referred to these as dolomite but was corrected by my friend Ted MacRae of Beetles in the Bush. Dolomite is a kind of limestone. The sedimentary rock in Hawn is apparently part of the Lamotte sandstone formation.) The terrain is quite steep in places as well. This picture was taken near the top of one of the two peaks I crossed during the hike.



The views of the surrounding area from the top were magnificent. The peak of fall color was just coming on.



As it began to get on toward evening I began looking for the campsite I had seen on the map. I found this spot right near a small creek which was quite lovely and had a fire ring and some sawn logs for sitting on. So I set up my hammock and made a fire. Interestingly the next morning I found the actual campsite a few hundred yards further down the trail. It had a sign that said "No Fires". Whoops! Oh well.



Below my hammock you can see a green underquilt that Debbie made for me. An underquilt keeps heat from escaping beneath you while you hang in the hammock. This one uses synthetic insulation and worked wonderfully.

The next morning I continued on to the other river that runs through the park, the Aux Valles. It runs alongside rocky cliffs for quite a while. Really gorgeous.



I had to get home fairly early so I bushwhacked to cut off some distance and get back sooner. That was fun but it ended up leading me to the edge of this cliff rather than to the parking lot. You can't tell the difference between a cliff and a hillside on a topographic map.



So I ended up having to climb down. Kind of scary actually. But I made it all right. At the bottom was Pickle Creek which I waded and then walked back to my car. I took this picture from the bottom. Does it look like a fun climb to do with a backpack on?

Pickle Creek

This past weekend I took my oldest daughter, Kimberly, to Hawn State Park and we hiked the Pickle Creek trail. The Pickle Creek Natural Area, which is within the borders of the park, is apparently very special because of the variety of plants, birds, and animals that live near the creek. The trail begins at a very nice picnic area in a stand of pines.

Then the trail follows the creek for about a mile. The creek bed is very boulder-strewn and quite pretty. Apparently there are few places in the state where so many types of rock formations are visible. The creek itself is described as "tea colored" which is a very good description. However the water is also described as "high quality". We couldn't figure out whether it was the water or the creek bed which gave the color. We were carrying plenty of water so we didn't bother tasting it for ourselves.

The terrain is quite rugged and so there are some nice views to be had. The forest is also very pretty and apparently has been managed using occasional burning so it is comparatively open and free of invasive species.

At the end of the trail we decided to bushwhack to a campsite we saw on the map. The camp is along another trail which picks up at the end of the pickle creek trail but we would have had to follow it around a loop which was several miles long and it was getting dark. Finding the camp took us a while because the map was only approximate. But then we realized that our GPS did show the trail which leads to the camp. So we used the GPS to intersect the trail near where we figured the camp must be and then followed it to the camp.

Often I just camp wherever the mood strikes me. But there are advantages to an established site, even a backcountry site like this one with no services. One advantage is that there is open, flat space. We were sleeping on the ground under a tarp rather than in hammocks so the flat space was welcome. In addition an established camp has a fire ring and so you can make a fire. That helps to make the night seem more cheery. We ate our dinner by the fire and then watched a movie on Kimberly's iPod and went to sleep.

I did get one shot of our camp the next morning. I pitched our tarp between two trekking poles. I really like this pitch because it's so easy to put up and provides 360 degree views. In the picture below our bug bivies are draped over the trekking poles to dry.

We didn't hike a lot of miles on this trip but we had a nice time.

Arachnids

My brother came to visit me over Labor day weekend. He is a tarantula enthusiast and so we went hiking around various places in Missouri looking for them (they aren't found in northern Illinois where he lives). I like to think of our trip as the tale of three arachnids

1. Aphonopelma Hentzi, the Texas Brown Tarantula. This is what we were looking for. They appear in glades in southern Missouri under rocks. At least that's what we heard. We failed to uncover any even after flipping many rocks.

The first place we looked was fairly close to home. The Valley View Glades Natural Area in Jefferson county was rumored to have tarantulas. It's a small glade complex but it did offer us with a view of the second arachnid.

2. Centruroides vittatus, the Striped Scorpion or Plains Scorpion. This is apparently Missouri's only scorpion. They were quite plentiful under the rocks in the glades. However I think we only saw young scorpions because they were sort of a yellow color rather than the dark brown color that the adults are supposed to have. We also saw several skinks and several small snakes which I think are Western Worm Snakes. They are really small and hide under rocks.

After spending several hours we decided to head to southern Missouri to the Hercules Glade complex. Here is a picture of the glade top trail which I stoke from the forest service web site.

We camped in an area called the Tidwell area which is very nice. During the night it rained really hard. So much so that we had to abandon our tarp and retreat to the car. Wind blown rain was getting in. We were trying to share an 8x10 tarp with me in a hammock and my brother on the ground. The tarp didn't provide enough coverage for two.

Although the Hercules Glades are nice looking we thought we might have better luck a little further east at Caney Mountain Conservation Area. We enjoyed hiking in this area but failed to find any tarantulas. We saw a few more snakes but I'm not sure which species they were. However the patches of grasslands provided an enounter with the third arachnid.

3. Trombicula alfreddugesi, Chiggers! I don't normally encounter many chiggers when I hike. But that's because I tend to stay in woodlands. Chiggers infest grassy areas. You never see them (they are tiny) or even feel them bite. You just begin to itch after a few hours. This scratching dislodges the chigger but that is just the beginning. Chiggers do not burrow into your skin or suck blood. They pierce the skin and inject a saliva that dissolves skin cells. It also causes the nearby cells to harden into a tube that the chigger can drink through. It is this tube that causes the discomfort later on. Your body will eventually break down this tube but until then you have an itchy welt. At the moment I have something like 100 on my feet, ankles, and the backs of my knees. Oh well.