If you’ve been following along my Ozark Trail Thru Hike in Missouri, you remember in the Day 6 video that my wife Abby and I found a puppy at the OT Trailhead in Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The sweet trail puppy crawled out from under a car and into our hearts. She was cold, shaking, and covered with ticks and burs.

A puppy on the Ozark Trail?!! It’s Day 6 of my Ozark Trail Thru-Hike and Abby has just dropped me off at the trailhead in Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The plan for the day is to hike roughly 16 miles from Peck Ranch to Powder Mill Campground on the Current River Section of the Ozark Trail. But what do we do about this sweet puppy on the trail?

Planning on thru-hiking Missouri’s Ozark Trail but don’t know where to start? Here’s the planning, packing and resupply system I used on my Ozark Trail Thru Hike. Everything I packed and carried in my backpack, and the resupply strategy I used while backpacking the Ozark Trail.

It’s Day 5 of my thru-hike of Missouri’s Ozark Trail and I’m on the Current River Section just north of the Hwy 60 trailhead. The plan is to hike 15 miles to Peck Ranch where my wife Abby will meet me for my first resupply. By all accounts the Current River Section is one of the most beautiful sections of the entire OT, but as I’ll soon find out, it also harbors one of the most sparse, overgrown, and thorny sections of trail… Hunter Camp.

Day 4 of my thru-hike of Missouri’s Ozark Trail and I’ve arrived at my first big question… Do I hike to Big Spring Campground, which is 5 miles off the trail, or do I pass by it, shaving a day off my total hike?

Hiking the Between the Rivers Section of the Ozark Trail is all about water planning. It’s Day 3 and I set out on the Between the Rivers Section hiking 15.4 miles from the 3152 Trailhead to Milligan Spring.

Day 2 of 18 of my Ozark Trail through hike in Missouri. I finish out the Eleven Point Section with a 14.5 mile hike from McCormack Lake to 3152 Trailhead. How much of the Eleven Point River did I actually see?

Day 1 of 18 of my Ozark Trail through hike in Missouri. My wife Abby dropped me off at the Eleven Point Terminus, or Western Trailhead of the Eleven Point Section, and I hike 19.5 miles to McCormack Lake Campground.

I’m still hiking in Southern California so I headed to Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve outside Julian to hike Volcan Mountain Trail (5,353ft).