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.

Hike to Missouri’s tallest mountain, Missouri’s tallest waterfall, and the Devil’s Toll Gate all in one 5 mile hike. If there was one hike to showcase all the beauty the Missouri outdoors has to offer, Mina Sauk Falls to Devil’s Toll Gate is probably it.

This week I head to Sam A. Baker State Park in Missouri to hike the Shut-Ins Trail to the top of Mudlick Mountain (1,313 feet). It’s the end of October and the Missouri fall colors were in full effect on this midwest hiking trail. Along the trail there is one beautiful Missouri bluff view, three historic stone camping shelters, and an active fire tower atop Mudlick Mountain.

White Oaks Trail might not be the best trail at Hawn State Park but it forces you to slow down and appreciate the beauty in the small. Little wildflowers line White Oaks Trail and make this lollipop loop trail an introspective Missouri hiking trail.

I went chasing waterfalls at Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park just outside Middle Brook, Missouri. I waited for a day after it rained for my solo hike on the Johnson’s Shut-Ins Trail hoping to see some great waterfalls and I wasn’t disappointed.

Missouri’s second highest point, Buford Mountain, isn’t the highlight of this 10 mile loop trail. Bald Knob at 1,575 feet is clearly the best point of interest on the Buford Mountain State Forest trail. And you can camp there!

The Whispering Pines South Loop is a roughly 6 miles extension of the trail. It’s a moderate mostly flat trail, an easy addition to add some miles to your hike. I recommend taking the Scenic Loop at the southernmost point of the South Loop as you’ll find beautiful rock outcroppings along Pickle Creek.

I closed out 2020 the best way I knew how, with an adventurous 13 mile New Years Eve hike on the Whispering Pines Trail in Hawn State Park. I had to take my shoes off, roll up my pants, and forge Pickle Creek in the first half of the Whispering Pines North Loop Trail.

I get out early and hike Lone Wolf Trail in Castlewood State Park. At 2.1 miles Lone Wolf is the shortest trail I’ve hiked at Castlewood, and while I was skeptical at first by the end I was won over and wishing it was longer. One again, Castlewood did not disappoint.