Piney Creek Wilderness (Photo Intensive)

This past weekend, my friends Brian D., Darren G. and I camped out in Cape Fair, Missouri and day-hiked Piney Creek Wilderness, close to Shell Knob. My dog Maggie and Darren's dog Ida joined in the fun.

Friday, on the way down, we stopped for some health food at E's Inn in Republic, Missouri. Can't start a camping weekend on an empty stomach.

We got down to Brian's church friend's property in Cape Fair about 7:30-8pm. Got a fire going and relaxed a bit. Here I am playing with my new Mora camp toy... I mean knife.

Breakfast Saturday morning.

Then time to hit the trail, about 15-20 minutes drive from camp.

Honeylocust tree

The dogs had a blast. Ida (white) and Maggie (black).

Piney Creek

Checking out ice formations along the creek.

The creek emptied out onto a dry area of lake bed. Since Table Rock Lake was down quite a bit, it left an open stretch of frozen muddy bog land.

I couldn't get a decent shot of the two bald eagles overhead, but I did manage to capture the daytime moon over the hillside.

Lunch, lakeside.

Not quite "leave no trace", but...

Lots of muscle shells in the area.

Darren, high and dry, me, not quite so much. The ground was only solid in the shade. I found that out the hard way.

Old chairs, a possible eagle nest and a horseshoe in a hawthorne tree.

I got to test out my iPhone's macro lens attachment a bit.

The trail in the lowlands was pretty nice, but really went vertical on the way out. We followed the Lake Trail down, then the Firetower Trail out.

Just before the trail's end, we came across some possible homestead or other building remnants. What looked like a cistern or cellar.

Darren and the firetower,under the moon.

Then back to camp and dinner. I broke out some homebrew cider and Brian heated up beef barley stew he made earlier in the week. We sat around the Caveman TV BS-ing.

Up Sunday morning for some relaxing fireside and breakfast. Since we were so close to town, we took our time breaking camp and getting around.

All-in-all, a great trip. Nothing too difficult, but we're all in our 40's now and two of us have desk jobs. Just happy to be outside. I know I was tired and nearly useless when I got home and the dog spent the rest of the day like this, curled on the couch.

Thanks again to Brian D. and Darren G. (and Ida dog) for heading off the woods, once again. We've been doing this for almost or about 15 years. Hopefully we'll be doing it for another 15.