Monday 4-29-24 Rain, Hiking & Evacuated

 

Tent Campground at Big Spring

The rain came in early this morning and hung around all day. At times the rain came down hard.

I woke up at 7:00 and made pancakes for breakfast. It was nasty outside so we stayed in the Minnie. Larry read and I played Solitaire games. 

Every Monday I play extra games of Solitaire to double my points. You can choose which Solitaire game and what level to play out of Klondike, Spider, Free Cell, Tri Peaks and Pyramid. You play 16 games to open the golden ticket. You don't have to play all 16 games in the same game type. Today I played Free Cell Medium and Klondike Medium.

After opening the golden ticket I played the Daily Solitaire games and the Event. The event was Event: Medium Mayhem Mini of 15 games. It took me 41 minutes and 34 seconds to complete, which put me in 14th place in my group. 

Then I read, I started a new book a few days ago called One of Ours by Willa Cather. It was written in 1922 and takes place during WWI, so at the time it was very current. The writing is very good and so far I like it.   

After lunch we went on a 4.5 mile hike. We took the River's Edge trail (blue) from the campground to Slough trail (red). The Slough trail took us to the Big Spring. Where we picked up the Spring trail (purple), that took us along Big Spring for .5 mile to the road to the CCC cabins and other trails. Those trails were closed due to construction and rebuilding the buildings. We turned the corner and saw an old CCC building where we picked up the Stone Ridge trail (brown) for 1.2 miles. This trail took us up the limestone bluff to a scenic ridgeline, that looks over Big Spring. We started the trail by using stones steps constructed by the CCC. Then it descends through swales and hollows back to Slough trail. The trail was challenging at times while ascending because we kept going up the side of the ridge. We thought we were almost up to the top but it kept on going. While we were still ascending when the rain came back. There was nowhere to shelter other than trees, we found the biggest one we could to stand under, it didn't keep us completely dry but it helped. We waited for the rain to stop before continuing. The trail was mainly rocks so it wasn't muddy. But we still had to be careful because the rocks could be slippery. Even though we got rained on we still had a great hike. 

 

CCC steps we took on the Big Spring trail

Big Spring from the trail

 

A snail we saw on the trail

 

The CCC steps we took at the beginning of Stone Ridge trail

 

Limestone bluff formed by the Big Spring

When we were walking back to the Minnie a couple at the campground told us we may be evacuated because of the rain and the river may flood the campground.

After dinner we were reading when a park ranger came by and apologized for telling us we had to leave within the next two hours because the river is going to crest and flood the campground. After he left we got ready to go. Larry had found a couple places we could go to. One was 90 miles away and the other one was only 23 miles away. We decided to go to the one that was 23 miles away. 

The park ranger had mentioned there were private campgrounds in the nearby town of Van Buren but they were also near the river and would probably have to evacuate. When we got to Van Buren the river was already overflowing the banks.

The campground we went to was Pinewoods and located in the Mark Twain National Forest. It's a gorgeous campground with a lot of pine trees and a 31-acre lake. It has a 1.3 mile trail that goes around the lake. We didn't do it because it rained all day and places had water standing. We found a site with no problem, there were only a couple of other campers. Larry had to get the blocks out to level the passenger side of the Minnie. 

After setting the Minnie up for the night we walked down to the pay station. We have the senior pass so it cost us $7.50 instead of $15.00. The sites don't have any power or water. The bathrooms are vault toilets and are very clean. After paying we walked around for about a half hour. As we were walking around we saw a couple of Canadian geese and their four babies (goslings).  It was very comfortable because the rain cooled it off a bit and the gnats were gone. When we got back to the Minnie I stayed outside for about a half hour and finished my steps. Today I did 17,000 steps, which put me in 1st place. This is a very good start for the beginning of a new week. 

 

Camping at Pinewoods Camping

 

Pinewoods Lake

 

Canadian geese and the goslings