February 2

Jim and I got up and moving not long after 06:00 on Groundhog Day. We had slept acceptably well at the Economy Inn near St. James (?), Mo. and were ready to travel the last couple of hours to reach the Irish Wilderness in the Mark Twain National Forest. The day was looking like it was going to live up to the weather forecast: sunny, clear, and cold. As we passed a bank thermometer we noted it was reading 1*F and this was just a little before sunrise (I did not really believe the reading). Later that morning, after we had had breakfast at a small smoke filled diner, we came across another thermometer that was reading 14*F perhaps a good 90 minutes after sunrise.

We paused at the forest service office to get USGS maps and chat with the staff lady there (she had an interesting accent. It turned out she had moved here 40 years ago from England and her now faded English accent was mixed with a tinge of Missouri drawl). We wanted to know how well the water was running. She did not know. She said she wouldn't wan to drink the water, but we have filters-so that is hardly a concern. We left the office and drove the remaining dozen or so miles to the wilderness entrance. I suppose it was about 10:00 when we arrived and the temperature had warmed t the low 20s by them.

We began to hike the rolling hills and shallow gullies that make up this region. The trail was easy to follow and we felt we were in

The trail was easy to follow and we ambled at a leisurely pace soon coming up to a sign that informed us that we would not be able to go into the Whites Creek Cave. The cave is off-limits during this time of year for the use of the local bat species. Oh well. We continued on the north loop of the trail slowly climbing and descending through the forest. The trees here are most not evergreen and so things are pretty bare. We were also struck by the lack of animal sounds. We heard no birds or rustling of leaves as animals disturbed them. In fact, it was quite some time before Jim saw, and I heard, any animal. We came upon an armadillo. Those little creatures can move quite quickly when they want too.

There was no one else around on this cold crisp clear day. We continued to stroll through the wilderness that owes its name to the Irish Catholic Priest who established a settlement here around the time of the Civil War to flea persecution in St. Louis. He and his flock vanished after Union and Confederate raids never to be seen again.

Perhaps a couple hours into our hike we decided to take a lunch break. We were at the top of one of the many hills and were able to set ourselves down on a small promontory for the midday repast of sandwiches and hot tea.

After lunch we came upon Brawley Pond Trail Junction. This trail lead to a pond that we did not check out. I suppose it is pretty small right now. The streams w were supposed to cross have all been dry. Not long after passing the pond junction trail the Whites Creek Trail became harder to locate. I am not sure why it got so much tougher to locate the trail but it did. I kept veering off, not far off, but off the trail. Jim would pull ahead and wait for me to regain the trail and catch up. He was a trooper.

It seemed like I lost the trail quite often between the aforementioned pond to not long before Bliss Spring was full of places where I lost the trail.. It was slab across a hillside, dive into the sun (i.e., go west), and sometimes travel though a wide area where it was just hard to tell where the trail was. But, I made it.

As we neared Bliss Creek the vegetation changed to a greener sort since we were clearly near more abundant water. The spring itself is a babbling stream that gurgles out from the side of a hill. Quite pretty. By this time the trail had gotten easier to track and we had come to realize it was creeping up on 16:00. We decided to find a spot near the river to camp and so struck out on the spur trail to find a campsite.

We got to the campsite a bit after 16:00 and slowly set up camp. We were in no hurry. Jim gathered wood for a lovely fire later on. We set up our Sil Shelters near the remains of the foundation of an old home that was once here. A section of the chimney still remains (I think that is what it was), but in time that will be gone too.

The previous paragraphs are a bit disjointed. I was really sleepy and lost my train of thought a few times and since I did not want to actually review what I was writing I just let the train stay off the track rather like some of the hiking I did yesterday afternoon between Brawley Pond and Bliss Spring.

The trail in that area was, for me, a good deal tougher to follow. I am not sure why: maybe it was the hiking into the sun that did it or the leaves on the trail obscuring the treadway but I did stray several times. I probably took the steepest route between two points a couple of times and Jim said I did not stray far, but I did stray. I hope he did not mind waiting for me.

During the afternoon we saw (well I heard) more wildlife. Another armadillo or two made an appearance moving quickly across the path and Jim spotted a white tale deer on top of a hill we had just come off of. But, we saw no signs of squirrels or other small mammals and heard few, if any, birds.

After fetching some water at Bliss Spring we decided to camp near Eleven Point River. True to form I lost the trail and started to just follow the creek that was flowing towards the river. I caught up with Jim and we moseyed down to the river through the broken trees. This area has seen a lot of beaver activity. They've brought down many trees and we took advantage of that. Jim gathered up a fair amount of wood and built a lovely warming fire. As the sun went down and the temperature plummeted that fire added its modest warmth and comforting feel to our little campsite. There may be a house nearby since two dogs came within a few dozen yards of us and barked a bit. We don't know if they're strays or belong to someone but they did not hang around. There certainly are people on the other side of the river since someone parked and idled a truck on the hill across the river.

The evening was cold and clear. The moon, more than half full, was brilliant and eventually some other fast moving large body rose and was noticed by us. It's a UFO of some sort since neither of us knew what it could be. We also saw many stars come out.

It has been a goody day.

February 3

The dawn came clear, bright, and cold. I expect the temperature during the night dropped to close to 10*f. At dawn it was hovering in the upper teens though it began to rise quickly. Of course, I was quite a bit warmer in my double sleeping bag and bivy sack arrangement. I was far more comfortable than Jim was since his Therm-a-rest had deflated and he had gained an intimate cold knowledge of the local ground. The ground just sucked the heat out of him. -o, while he stirred around 07:15 trying to get blood flowing again I stayed in my toasty sleeping quarters. I did begin to stir some fifteen minutes later and I slowly made preparations for breakfast. We were in no hurry to leave our campsite, a former homestead I believe judging by the remains of the chimney, and we were happy to linger other such chores as breakfast. I suppose we dawdled also to give the sun a chance to rise and begin to really warm the day which in time it did. As we relaxed during the morning a flight of geese flew by honking all the way. Jim said he had also heard some dogs barking in the distance very early in the morning, but I missed that.

We departed camp around 11:00. It had been a vary nice morning, but the trail had other plans for me. The trail climbed up to the top of a bluff that overlooks the river and the footing was not the greatest for me. It was also tough finding the trail though perhaps not as bad as yesterday. When we eventually came to the area of Orchard Hollow and High Ridge Top things were much easier and I actually lead for a time. The trail has a tendency to make little hairpin turns that throw me off, but I made relatively few micro detours today and we made good time and enjoyed each others company as the sun passed its zenith and the temperature rose into the 50s.

We passed two backpackers heading in the opposite direction. They had parked at the same trailhead as us and asked if we from Illinois. We took a break shortly after meeting them before continuing on. The trail for much of this section seemed to follow the high ridge and it was mostly open forest with the occasional large sinkhole.

In time we descended and began to follow Whites Creek. We came upon a wall of caves with icicles dripping down from them. These were not Whites Creek Cave. There were many of them and they seemed to extend back a fair distance into the living rock. They would make superb emergency shelters. They were cool.

Whites Creek Cave was just a little further down the trail but it did not leave much of an impression on me. It is gated shut so people can't go in and disturb the bats that live there. Even when it is open I suspect the gate would detract from its appeal.

we left that single cave and headed the 1.5 miles to Fiddler Spring where we had lunch at 15:00 or so. (14:45 we made great time - 45 minutes). As lunch spots go it wasn't a bad one though not as nice as the one we had yesterday. We finished lunch and decided to start looking for a campsite. We had relatively easy walking even as we meandered around a creek after leaving a woods road. We soon came upon a side trail that turned out to lead to a horse camp where we found ourselves the only visitors. Since it was now 16:20 we decided that this would have to do for a campsite. We found a level area and began pitching our shelters. Jim deserves a bunch of credit for getting the shelters up in this rather rocky are. I deserve far less credit since I did not have sufficient , read really any, lengthy tie downs that would have made the process slightly easier. We got the shelters up in due course and proceeded to enjoy an early dinner around 17:25 as we were able to eat and chat about various events of the day.

We returned to the shelter where Jim promptly and accidentally tripped over the very cord he had warned me about. The shelters suffered a mild collapse but that we soon fixed and we began crawling into our respectively cocoons of warmth. The house chores before bed seemed to take a rather long time but considering how early it is in the evening that is not a big deal. I am now lying here typing this journal at 20:20 as Jim seems to snooze near by. I hope neither one of us trips over the cords when we have to answer nature's call tonight.

Tomorrow we'll hike the last 3.5 miles or so to the car and begin the journey home. It has been a good trip even if I did make quite a few wrong turns. Jim was great about the whole thing and we have had a lot of fun together. If nothing else he got to get a better understanding of what it is I do and do not see as I lead for a few miles today.

February 4

It was considerably warmer last night. I doubt the temperature dipped much below freezing although it certainly did that since both Sil Shelters were covered with ice. The clouds remained throughout much of the evening obscuring the moon and that made it a less pleasing evening than the night before. Those clouds also released a modest amount of rain partway through the night. I don't think it was a substantial shower, but it was more than enough to moisten the ground and fill the air with moisture making the evening feel worse than it would have otherwise been. I actually think I slept a little less well than I had the previous night mostly because the air was so damp. However, I certainly slept enough. Jim slept far better than he had the night before. His emergency repair of his Therm-a-rest worked splendidly and I suppose the Benadryl didn't hurt either.

I think we both started to pull ourselves together not long after 07:00 as it was lightening up. The dawn air was cold and damp making the near freezing temperature feel much worse than it would have normally been. I definitely did not like the early morning weather this morning as much as the day before. Neither of us seemed disposed to linger in camp. We left around 08:40 as the sun was peaking over the hills and starting to burn the clouds off.

As we struck out upon the trail we quickly discovered a lovely flat area that would have made a fine campsite had we only walked a few hundred feet further. the hills and starting to burn the clouds off.

The trail wandered through the hollow we were in and then began to climb up to a ridge top. That got the blood flowing and we found ourselves making excellent time as we walked down the trail. The trail was again easy to spot and although Jim was setting the pace I had no trouble seeing the treadway even when I was not watching him (for a time I was in the lead too and did fine). The morning warmed up and the sky cleared and it looked like another fine day. We walked through ridge top land predominated by bare deciduous forest, but now and then we entered a lovely pine grove. I enjoy pine groves. The quality of light is different and the trail becomes much quieter as you trod pine needles instead of leaves. That quiet gives me a sense of peace that you just can't get when each step is accompanied by a loud rustling sound.

During the hike I don't think I saw a single blaze. There were a couple times I came close to missing the trail as it seemed to cross what may have been old woods roads. There was one micro detour that cost me a little time and as Jim noted blew my average to hell since I missed the trail by a wide margin.

We both had trouble finding the trail right near the end. The trail entered a wide area that looked like a junction and should have had a blaze. The trail went off in a direction that seemed to not match what the map was indicating and it then lost altitude more rapidly than the map suggested it should. We walked a few hundred yards, turned around, went back to where we knew the trail was, looked around, and then turned around again. The maintenance in that section was not as good as we would have liked. It turned out the trail was supposed to go that way and we soon came upon the signs that marked the north and south loops of Whites Creek Trail. We reached Five Point Pond where I took some photos and proceeded to get temporarily misplaced one last time as Jim headed to the truck to pack up his stuff. . We ended our hike around 10:15 on a bright, warm, sunny day. It had been a good morning indeed.

At the trailhead we met the two backpackers we had encountered the day before. Besides them and the other fellow we met the day before only one other pair of backpackers were signed in and doing the trail following in our footsteps but a day behind us. There had been some day hikers too, but they must have hiked the northern loop of the trail since we did not see them (or just short hikes on the southern loop that did not reach us). We said goodbye to the other two backpackers and everyone drove off. Just a few miles down the road we found them pulled off to the side. They had run out of gas as they indicated to Jim they might very well do. We took on of them into Wynona (we had hoped Freemont would have gas station, but it is just a collection of trailers from what we can tell) to get gas. That town is a good 20 miles away. We took the fellow back to his hiking partner and said goodbye again before drying off. The rest of the drive back to Bloomington Normal was uneventful. The weather took a turn for the worse and if it did that in the Irish Wilderness I am glad we finished when we did. Another gray overcast day would have not been all that exciting to hike through.

This has been a good trip. I enjoyed Jim's company and learned more about what gear works and what does not. I wish I had brought my PUR Hiker instead of the SWA inline filter. Somehow using the inline just did not seem appropriate on this trip though I cannot quite explain why. I also need to bring more tie downs for the SIl Shelter and do a better job of tracking my stakes (I lost one at the horse camp campsite). Also, when it is cold it is even more important to be sure the fuel you bring is an isobutane based fuel since that burns better in the cold weather. The Nikon also seems quite picky about batteries. Once alkelines dip below maybe a third of their capacity the camera just does not work well. They Batteries seem to hit that point pretty quickly too. I don't think I took more than 30 pictures with the fresh set (LCD mostly off). Maybe the cold affected the batteries but I must either get good, assuming they exist, rechargables or stick with lithium cells. I hope the photos I took come out well.

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