Ozark Trail: Current River Section | Day 5
Ozark Trail Day 5: Current River Section
My Ozark Trail Thru-Hike Gear List
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.
Current River Section (Mile 30-14)
Day 5 - October 18, 2024
Pike Creek to Peck Ranch
Rate: Difficult | Traffic: Low
Distance: 16.4mi | Elevation Gain: 1,500ft
View my route on AllTrails.
Ozark Trail Day 5 started just north of Pike Creek at my backcountry campsite about a mile north of the Hwy 60 Trailhead. My alarm clock wasn’t the birds and sun this morning, but the cars from the highway a short distance away, particularly when they’d hit the rumble strip. The site served me well as I embarked on the first half of the Current River Section of the Ozark Trail.
Current River Section
From north to south, the Current River Section spans roughly 30-miles from Powder Mill Campground off Hwy 106 down to the Hwy 60 Trailhead 3-miles east of Van Buren. It runs along the banks of the Current River south of Powder Mill, past the historic Klepzig Mill and beautiful Rocky Falls along Rocky Creek, side-skirts Stegall Mountain (1,348ft), and runs through Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The 20-mile out-and-back stretch from Powder Mill to Rocky Falls is one of the best backpacking trails in Missouri. But I wouldn’t hike that small section until tomorrow. Today I was headed to Peck Ranch, eager to see Abby.
My breakfast stop was Mint Spring roughly 4-miles down the trail from Pike Creek. The mouth of the spring only had a small pool of water by it, but just down-stream water was flowing more freely and there was a lovely backcountry campground with two fire rings. It was a nice little spot for another Mountain House Breakfast Skillet. Then things got interesting.
Hunter Camp
Two miles down the trail I reached Hunter Camp off Pike Creek Rd (a gravel road). This was a large clearing at the intersection of Pike Creek Rd and FR-4045. A spot according to the OTA maps that is often used as an access point for Adopt-A-Trail work, which is a little ironic because the next half-mile was the worst, most overgrown, sparse, and thorny section of trail I experienced throughout the entire Ozark Trail.
“Burned Area. Due to lack of mature trees and vegetation, this area can be periodically overgrown. Watch for signs.”
That’s what the OTA map says, and let me tell you it’s understated. From Hunter Camp, the next half-mile was nothing but bushwhacking through six-foot-tall brush and thorns. There were no trail blazes that I could find, nor any of the supposed cairns (according to AllTrails), nor really even a trail at all. I quite literally had my downloaded AllTrail GPS map open the entire time finding my way. Even when I was “standing on the trail” I couldn’t see a trail, and AllTrails GPS is pretty accurate in my experience. There just wasn’t a trail.
Honestly, a machete would have been helpful, but all I had to work with was my camera tripod and forearms, which subsequently got torn to shreds. Needless to say, it was slow going and rough. It took probably an hour to get through. I was very relieved when I finally found a trail blaze which signaled the end of the bushwhacking. And, I was greeted by a small box turtle as well congratulating me on my slow and steady persistence. Once through the briar the next mile was a comparative breeze to the southern border of Peck Ranch.
Peck Ranch Conservation Area
Peck Ranch Conservation Area is 23,736 acres of rugged hills and open fields. It’s also home to Missouri’s elk cohort and is a favored location for hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. There are two ways to hike through Peck Ranch, the official OT route through the center, and the OT Bypass which must be used during hunting season. I had planned, and was a little lucky, to arrive at Peck Ranch during an open window and was able to hike the trail through the heart of the conservation area.
When planning my Ozark Trail Thru-Hike I called the Peck Ranch Ranger Station multiple times to ask if I could mail my resupply bucket to them and if there was a place to recharge my power banks. I never got an answer or a callback. I was lucky enough to run into a ranger while I was hiking and learned that the ranch has an extremely limited staff who are often out in the field. Mailing supplies to the ranger station isn’t an option, and the campground is non-electric.
Entering Peck Ranch the OT follows Road 8 north alongside beautiful open fields. It was so nice, surprisingly nice, to be able to walk along an open space after spending four days under the trees. I soaked in the sunshine and space. After a mile the trail dives back into the woods and continues through the forest for five miles passing a lovely pond in Pritchard Hollow and through Mule Hollow. At Road 13, a mile south of Rogers Creek, I took a left connecting to P-159 to walk down the hill towards the Peck Ranch Campground just west of the Ranger Station off Road 1. As I was walking the final 100-yards to the campground, Abby arrived.
Trail Review
The highlight of Current River Miles 14 to 30 is by far Peck Ranch. It’s beautiful. The rough patch, and I mean rough, is the Burned Area just north of Hunter Camp. But I guess that’s part of the journey. The destination is that much sweeter because of the struggle. My reward was a night in an AirBnB in Van Buren with my wife. Nothing like a hot shower, bed, Mexican food, and some quality time to recharge your spirits.
The Ozark Trail contains over 430 miles of trail divided into 14 mostly connected sections throughout southeast Missouri. The established thru-hike covers eight of the connected sections and runs from Onondaga Cave State Park in Leasburg, roughly 84 miles southwest of St. Louis, to the Eleven Point Terminus near Thomasville, 23 miles north of the Arkansas border. Throw in the off-shoot Taum Sauk Section and you have nearly 300 miles of thru-hikeable trail.