Memorial Day weekend

**Gideon** · 05-20-2015, 14:13

Not a clue but willing to go with the flow. To keep it reasonable, a nice route would be to hike the Northern Loop of the Whispering Pines trail in a clockwise direction; 6 miles total. The campsite we use alot is around mile 4-5, just past the WC1 connector. Only problem with this plan is if we get there and find that camp site taken, then we'd have to back track to find a good place.

We could also try camping along the southern portion of the northern loop, even at the backpack camp 1 on the map.

Whatever everyone wants...

Gideon

**Campalot** · 05-20-2015, 15:03

Gideon , is that the same spot by the bluff abound the creek me and my boys met you guys ?

**DiyGuy83** · 05-20-2015, 16:39

Also, I don't think there is a water source on the eastern side of the north loop. Just on the western side along Pickle Creek.

**Gideon** · 05-21-2015, 10:51

It's the same place. As for water on the East side, there's usually "some" but it depends on how much rain we've been having but you're right that pickle creek on the west side is always a sure thing!

Enjoy the day
Gideon

**Gideon** · 05-23-2015, 17:27

Sprayed the gear/clothes for ticks so I'm good to go! See you guys tomorrow at noon!!
Gideon

**Campalot** · 05-23-2015, 19:21

Bought some spray myself this week and sprayed mine to . Looking forward to it ,see everyone at the trailhead at noon .

**Gideon** · 05-25-2015, 10:23

Great short trip! Campalot, DiyGuy, his wife, and I. Perfect weather, bugs weren't bad at all and the rain held off until 8:30 pm or so, after we'd enjoyed a nice fire. It was nice settling in to sleep in the rain; love how it sounds on the tarp! Woke up around 1:00 in the morning and heard a huge crack and crash of what had to be a very very large branch; easily equal to a small tree. Other's heard a full tree come over but we all managed. Saw the largest spider I've ever seen in Missouri. My son, who collects spiders (yeah, I know, creepy

), suspects it was a species of trantuala that is native to Missouri albiet rare. Can't say but it was covered with thousands of babies that all jumped off it's back when it was scared. Hopefully DiyGuy got pics; my GoPro said it was taking videos but when I got home there wasn't anything on the SD!! Bummer.

Great get away. The trail is already grown up a lot at the edges and I can tell a lot of us will be hanging it up during the hot summer months. I'd like to do a few summer trips just for the fun/challenge of it. So if anyone is interested, let's get something up for the end of June, beginning of July.

Great to see you again Campalot! And wonderful to meet you Mrs DiyGuy!

And if anyone needs to buy some gear, you need to talk to DiyGuy; his homemade stuff is really good and getting better every time he makes something. He had a DIY TQ that was fantastic!

Enjoy the day; get out and get moving
Gideon

**DiyGuy83** · 05-25-2015, 21:21

Agreed! Excellent short overnight trip.

Here is a picture of that spider. image.jpg

I'll try and get a short video made tonight and link it to this thread.

**Campalot** · 05-26-2015, 17:11

Thanks again guys and galls for meeting on such short notice . Nice short trip . Good to see you again Gideon and nice to meet you diy and Kim . Hopefully we can do it again in the fall or maybe a car camp trip this summer .