MO natual spring ride/campout pics

[goodie]

I talked the wife into letting me out one last time before our baby comes along in March for a weekend ride/campout. Decided to make it a bit of a natural spring theme ride since there is so many in the Eminence, MO area where I was headed. I kept to mostly the two lane letter highways that twist though the hills only to take the "bigger" numbered two lane highways in order to get to the next letter road or unless it was the only other option to get where I needed to go. Most of the roads I had never been on before so I was hoping that they turned out to be in OK shape. I was not let down.

Bring on the PICS!

Just before I reach Jewet, MO on highway C as I come up to the St. Francis River I have this overwhelming feeling that I need to make a left turn for some reason.
When your out in the middle of nowhere signs this big seem kinda rare.

If the sign doesn't get you the rock wall will!

Looks like someone cut it a bit close (tire tracks)


St.Francis River

[goodie]

In 14 years of riding I've never dropped my bike at a standstill. Saturday was the day. Trying to make a uturn at the campground i stalled the bike with the bars locked. I was caught off balance and the bike was tipped over past the point of no return, I had to just set it down gently. No damage besides a little dimple on the slider.


After I setup camp at Alley Springs campground I headed out for ride. The first spring I came to was Round Spring just north of Eminence on 19.

This is the mouth of the spring, but the actual spring is just behind it over the hill.

Round Spring

Bleeding Shiner fish. In the spring time their fins are red.

[goodie]

19 is a very nice road with hills, good turns and nice overlooks. If your in the area don't miss it. I think I saw more bikes than cars while on it.

There where a few places that I missed along the way.
1. Pulltite Spring
I found the campsite just not the Spring. It was most likely very close, but I was on a bit of a time schedule and didn't feel like hunting to hard.
2.Cave Springs & Devils Well
I made my way down the rough gravel road to find that they must be giving the place a face lift because all of the park signs had a fresh coat of paint, but no information about wich trail I need to take. Just basically a blank board. No time for this I'll be back another day with the family anyway.
3.Welch Spring
This is a easy find if your floating the river. I had been there before so I opted to skip it. There is an old Hospital ruin where they would treat respiratory ailments in 1913.

Well after coming up empty handed a couple of times I cut across hwy KK to get to Akers Ferry on hwy K. It was kind funny. The ferry was attached to cables to keep it on track and from being washed down stream and it was powered by a small outboard engine. I thought that it would just go straight across but as from the picture you can see that straight was far from the idea.

[goodie]

Once down hwy K, I took 106 back into Alley Springs. I came across this tower and figured that since I missed the other spots.... I think it was called Flat Rock tower or something. I didn't remember to get the name.

View from the top

[goodie]

After the tower climb I was thinking to myself that I wish the view would had been more rewarding for the climb. Yeah, I'm not in the shape I used to be in in my 20's its sad to say. This view was much better and it was right off the road before I made it back to Alley Springs on hwy 106.


Alley Springs Mill

Alley Spring. Yep, it's that blue, clear and COLD.

[goodie]

Yours truly at Alley Spring


I ran back into Eminence to grab dinner since I don't bother packing much food while riding. This place was pretty cool I thought. Old time soda fountain/restaurant. The Pizza was great!

The guy behind the counter was not an amputee as it appears. The photos where stitched together and he happened to be on the seam.

The fans are all connected by belts and ran off a drive at the back of the building

Outside of Winfields


After dinner I made a quick call to the wife to let her know that I wasn't dead and off to bed I went.

[goodie]

The next morning I thought that I would do a little fishing. Gotta get up early to catch big fish like this!

Sunrises



Back at camp

[Scuba Kid]

Beautiful pics! Looks like quite a nice ride. I love going out in the off-road areas like that. Its very quiet and calming.

[goodie]

At the advise of kirkeb I had to ride hwy E. It has a very nice tree canopy and was told that it's quite a rollercoaster of a road. I smiled the whole way. Once I came to hwy 60 i followed it untill hwy 19 went north so I could get on hwy H to take me towards Rocky Falls. This place is really cool. The pics do not show how tall the falls are. I can imagine what it would be like during the wet spring time.

[goodie]

I almost passed this next place up since I had to go on another 2.5 mile gravel road. The first one was a bust and I didn't feel like coming up empty handed again. I'm glad I did because it was my favorite of the trip. The road was pretty good until you had to make your way straight down the steep azz hill. The combination of the washed out road, BIG rocks, DEEP washboard ripples from cars made it nearly impossible to stop once you started down the hill. By that time it's too late to turn around. The good thing is that your guaranteed to make it to the bottom (one way or another). Once at the parking lot it's a .4 mile walk to the spring along the Current River.



Notice how deep you can see. You can see about 25-30 feet and it just keeps on going. The water line starts at the upper left coner.



Run off from Blue Springs headed to the Current River

[goodie]

My last stop of the trip was in Van Buren MO at Big Springs. Its the largest spring in MO and it puts out between 152 to 840 MILLION gallons of water a day depending on rainfall/season and gets its water up to 40 miles away.



This is one of the water boils that are visable coming out of the rock.



After that I headed home on more great twisting roads.:banana

The total miles where just under 500 and the smiles just as long....except for dropping the bike and all:dunno