Several of our areas have been the focus of activity, and we report on them individually by district.

Big Spring, 8th District. As you know the National Park Service is preparing a Draft General Management Plan for Ozark National Scenic Riverways. This summer a series of public meetings were held to present preliminary management alternatives. The comment period, originally July 31, was extended to September 11. Two of the three action alternatives proposed designation of the Park Service’ portion of the Big Spring Wilderness (3536 acres on Ozark National Scenic Riverways; 4512 acres on Mark Twain National Forest).

We know that there were many of you who contacted the National Park Service to support preservation of Big Spring Wilderness, and to correct the many problems facing management of the Riverways. Thanks to everyone. We hope to hear more about the results of that public comment soon and will report back.

Lower Rock Creek Wilderness, 8th District. ‘Lashley Cemetary’ is a 243-acre project within our Lower Rock Creek area. While it is billed as a salvage project it includes cutting blown down trees and developing associated roads. This would not be done when it becomes designated a Wilderness, and must not be done now. We oppose this ill-advised and unnecessary intrusion and urge that you write to the Mark Twain National Forest. Here is the web link for more specific information: http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/marktwain/projects/projects/50904/

Bell Mountain, 8th District. A splendid Wilderness, designated in 1980, with deep valleys, extensive forest, and scenic vistas of the St. Francois Mountains. Recently there have been reports that the growing scourge of feral hogs in Missouri has reached the hollows of Bell Mountain. The Forest Service has reached out to MWC for support in eradicating this menace to wildlife, vegetation, and water quality. We have encouraged them to deal with the threat aggressively. Please report any sightings of feral hogs at Bell Mountain or any other designated or proposed Wilderness to the Forest Service and also to MWC. Feral hogs are a problem Missouri does not need.

Smith Creek, 9th District. Earlier this year Wallis Warren, a member of MWC affiliate Ozarks Fly Fishers, helped set up a meeting with Ninth District Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer. Several mid-Missouri wilderness supporters met with the Congressman regarding the proposal. Photographs, a map with boundaries, written descriptions, and other background information were provided to the Congressman at that meeting. He expressed a positive interest in pursuing the designation of Smith Creek.

We are staying in touch with Congressman Luetkemeyer on this important issue and look forward to helping make this happen.

Swan Creek Wilderness, 7th District. This spring we prepared an area-specific packet for Swan Creek and had several folks from the district deliver this information and discuss it with Congressman Roy Blunt. Water quality is one of the district’s most important issues and protecting Swan Creek as Wilderness protects one of the highest quality streams in all of Missouri.

Horseback riders use Swan Creek and there has been interest expressed from the Show-Me Missouri Chapter of the Backcountry Horsemen of America regarding our wilderness proposal. Wilderness and backcountry issues are basic to their interests. In fact, horse use has always been an integral part of western wilderness and is an important use of several of our wilderness areas in Missouri as well.

This summer we participated in a discussion about horses and wilderness with members of the Sho-Me Missouri Chapter of BCHA and a couple of their national members/staff. There is no mention of specific wilderness use in the Wilderness Act of 1964 and this spring an omnibus wilderness bill passed Congress that included language regarding horse use of trails while maintaining wilderness standards. We, along with members of the BCHA, are considering how we might adopt this national language in an appropriate way for Swan Creek Wilderness, and how BCHA can help and support our campaign. Working together we can have a stronger voice for Swan Creek Wilderness and for all Missouri wilderness.

Preparing for 2010:

There are important issues on the national agenda and wilderness has not been one of them. With your help, when an opportunity arises for Missouri wilderness legislation, we will be ready.

Let’s all keep up the good work and strong voice for the wilderness of our state!

Missouri Wilderness Coalition
P.O. Box 377
Boss, MO 65440
(573) 626-1021 or (314) 602-6639
mail@mowild.org
www.mowild.org

References:

• Mark Twain National Forest – Irish Wilderness
• History of the Irish Wilderness (long!)
• The Irish Wilderness, The Curious History of an Ozarks Place, by James M. Denny (short)

The following is best read while listening to Rev. Dwight Frizzell’s Irish Wilderness historiophonic meditation “Whiskey in a Jar”: 

Trip Report:  October 3-5, 2009

After narrowing down our hike choices to distance and loops I settled on the Whites Creek Trail in the Mark Twain National Forest Irish Wilderness.  Monika and I would hike for three days and spend two nights along the trail.

We left early  morning and arrived at Camp Five Pond trail head before noon on Saturday.  No other cars were in the parking lot and the air was cool.  It would be a perfect day for a hike.

After signing in at the registration desk, and snapping our evidence photo, we headed across the the pond dam to begin our hike for the day.

After following the spur from the Camp Five Pond trail head, we reached the Whites Creek Trail.  Here you have the option to travel the North or South Loop.  We intended to camp the night at Bliss Spring so headed in that direction.

The hike was a mix of oaks and pines and the ground was scattered with green leaves that I assume had fallen the day before in heavy rain and wind storms.  An occasional mushroom would pop out from the forest floor.  I learned from Monika that mushroom is goomba (or “goombah”) in Hungarian.

The trail is in general good condition.  An occasional blow down has been cut up by the Forest Service.  Between Camp Five Pond and Bliss Spring there might be a total of 3 or 4 recent nasty blow downs but these are easily traversed.  The trail is very easy to follow and recent horse traffic may have made a difference (aside from dodging the manure) compared to earlier trip reports that I read about trail conditions.

Between Camp Five Pond and Brawley Pond trail junctions, the trail has several dips.  After crossing the dry Whites Creek and climbing out of the valley, there is a small area at the top with a few pines where people have camped.  Monika and I stopped here and had our tuna pesto and cheese wraps for lunch.

Not far from our lunch spot we came to the Brawley Pond junction.  Passing by this point to the North there is a large stand of beautiful Pine forest.

After a few more dips and a few hints of the Eleven Point, you follow the side of a steep valley to where Bliss Spring is located.  On the way down you can actually hear babbling water but it is much further than you expect to get to the very bottom.  Once to the sign-post turn right to go a few feet to the spring, straight ahead to the Eleven Point or turn left to go towards Whites Creek Float Camp and Cave.  The directions are fairly obvious, but the sign-post is rotten, and some of the directions have broken off.

The Bliss Spring comes out of the hillside here and flows down the valley.  There is a significant flow and will keep your ears flooded with the sound.

The camp area here is small but secluded and scenic next to the spring.  An established fire ring is here and we were delighted to find someone left a grilling grate.  We feasted on grilled steaks and toasted to our first day of hiking.

If you visit Bliss Spring, make sure you walk a few feet above the main spring and see the small  cave.  We took our time Sunday morning, cooking breakfast (egg, cheese and bacon burritos).  Suddenly we heard voices and a LARGE group of High School students tromped through our camp.  It was an Environmental Sciences class that camped on a gravel bar below Bliss Spring and they were checking out the spring.  Very weird to think you are all alone and then see such a large group!

This day we would be headed to Whites Creek Float Camp for lunch and on to Fiddler Spring.  As you climb out of the Bliss Spring Hollow, there are nice black rock formations along the trail.  You get a few peeks of the Eleven Point and then you head up to some glade areas to this….

The Eleven Point River finally comes into view!  It is a breathtaking view but unfortunately the only clear one for the rest of the hike.  Not far from here we found a baseball cap that someone left laying on a rock.  Maybe someone was resting and took it off and forgot it.  Either way, it looked like it had been there for a while.

Across the valley we could hear gun shots and dogs howling.  We would not find out until later what that was all about.  After more black rocks and scrambling up Orchard Hollow, we met our one and only other backpacker on the trip.  Mr. Florida (we didn’t exchange names only homes) had started also at Camp Five Pond after we did but in the opposite direction.  He had stayed last night at Fiddler Spring and intended to get past the Brawley Pond junction.  I shared with him our lunch stop the day before.

While passing around Orchard Hollow there was what appeared to be a hunting camp (fire ring and a red sled tied to a tree), sink holes, and a scared deer, the trail then flattens out into open woodlands again.  The sound of dogs got closer and closer.  I grabbed a stick for defense and prepared myself for battle.  Two little hounds came out of the woods with their tails wagging and barking as they followed a scent.  Each had a radio transmitter on their neck–hunting dogs!  I threw my stick away but still wondered where the hunters were located.  As the trail head down towards Whites Creek, we came across some nice glades with blooming yellow flowers.

Along the Whites Creek there are some small caves.  The largest cave goes back maybe 50 feet and takes a small amount of rock scaling to reach.

The grotto along the creek is scenic and Whites Creek itself is mostly dry along this section.

When we reached the turn-off for the Whites Creek Float Camp, there is a solid marker there.  We headed on a 0.3 mile spur to the float camp for lunch.

The boat launch pictured here is very nice and a short trip up Whites Creek from the Eleven Point.  The camp has multiple camping areas with fire rings, picnic tables and a pit toilet.  Monika and I enjoyed chicken salad on a tortilla and were back on the trail.  No one was in camp (on a Sunday afternoon).

Headed out of Whites Creek Float Camp you come across a rotten Irish Wilderness sign.  You can also see a registration box in the background.  This box was empty, no maps, and may not get refilled very often.

As you head up and away from Whites Creek, along the hillside is Whites Creek Cave.  This gaping hole in the ground in much larger than it looks from pictures.  Peeking through the bars (it is currently closed but usually closed this time of year to protect the bats), you can see a large cavern.  The trail meanders along the steep hillsides.  At one point we met another pack of hunting dogs but no hunters to be seen.

A very steep decline gets you to Fiddler Spring.  Not as large as Bliss Spring, Fiddler has a less rocky and a larger flat area to camp.  A  fire ring is set in the middle here.  The spring itself had plenty of water flowing and comes out of the ground directly under an 8 foot tall boulder.  We made camp just in time for some light showers.  I cooked noodles for us, reaching out from the shelter of the tent and eventually cut the wet chill of the night with a roaring camp fire.

The night was rainy and cool and we were woke up by owls and howling dogs.  I could have also sworn I heard something like a cow horn blowing–hunters calling the dogs??  Monday morning we made some oatmeal, packed up camp early and headed out to what looked like a beautiful sunny day.  The sun was flowing through the trees and making everything glisten from the rain the night before.

Shortly after leaving Fiddler Spring we came across this sign post.  I am not positive the sharp decline into Fiddler Spring was the Whites Creek Trail.  Either way, we got to where we were going.  The area around Fiddler Spring in general is worse in regards to blow downs.  It is possible the spur to the spring and the trail have kind of melded over the years but again, it is easy enough to figure out where you need to go.

The trail follows the Whites Creek and crosses in a couple of dry spots.  This particular crossing looks to be along old beaver activity.  You cross the beaver dam here.

This is some of the beaver damage along the creek.  It is really quite amazing.  Not long before the trail begins to climb out of the creek valley, there is an established camp site.  An old sign post is there but has nothing attached.  The trail begins ascending out and away from Whites Creek and mostly follows an old logging road through the flat top woodland area almost all the way to Camp Five Pond.  We made really good time on this section of trail.

A view of our final destination… Camp Five Pond.   Mr. Florida had already beat us back to the parking lot and must have found the cap along the trail as it was sitting on our windshield.  Our hike was over and the Irish Wilderness has been conquered!

View From Bell Mountain from Thomas Malkowicz on Vimeo.

Stumbling across the Internet I found a few amazing videos by Thomas Malkowicz.  All of his videos are must sees but a few of interest here are the Current River Section of the Ozark Trail, Lower Rock Creek Wilderness Area, Rockpile Mountain Wilderness Area and Bell Mountain Wilderness Area.  The videos of the Current, Jacks Fork, Eleven Point and Missouri Rivers are also very fun.  You can find Thomas on YouTube here or on Vimeo here.