Sunday, November 27

The Hoeckelmann double fireplace.

The Lost Valley Trail (10.5 miles) is located along Highway 94 about 5 miles south of the 40/94 intersection. It took me about 4 hours and fifteen minutes to hike the entire trail--including back tracking because I came out at a different trailhead from the one I started at. I heard shot guns from the nearby range while I was hiking, but deer hunting wasn't allowed this weekend (although it is o.k. to hunt squirrels and such). I learned this information from the James Bolden, Jr., the Conservation Agent for St. Charles County whose number I acquired from the Columbia Bottoms Conservation Office (314-877-6014). (Both the office and Mr. Bolden returned my Sunday morning calls very promptly.)

The trail is for bikers, hikers and some times, hunters. On Sunday, I encountered one squirrel hunter, four trail runners, one walker, three bicyclists and two hikers. The terrain includes creeks, the foundation of an old house in which a fireplace still stands, a corn field, crumbling foot bridges, yucca plants growing wild, and many ponds.



Really cool web site with a history of the land and the people who were forced off circa 1940 for the munitions plant. Complete with old photos, histories, diaries, hikes with GPS coordinates to locate remnants of old homesteads and cemeteries. Totally awesome:

http://www.thetntstory.org/

The Lost Valley Trail

Friday, November 25: Urban Hike--Carondelet

Bellerive: one of the prettiest streets in St. Louis.

Biker bar on Broadway: Cross and Bones? Bones and Skull? Something? Still warm enough for roses.

The river is low, low, low.

November 21, 2011

Clark Trail

3:08-4:55 p.m.

5.3 miles

Saw: one woman at beginning of hike talking on cell phone, ten deer

Heard: one gun shot

This was the last day of a posted managed hunt on the Busch Conservation Area Trails.

Saturday, November 19th: The Hamburg and Lost Valley Trails

Awoke Saturday morning after drinking an enjoyable amount of Pinot Noir at Ernestos on Friday night, followed by an enjoyable amount of Baileys and coffee at home. Knowing I had to go to Heritage Dental in St. Peters (my second home) to have a temporary crown replaced at 11:30 on Saturday, I decided to stave off hangover by hiking before the apppointment. The Lewis and Clark Trail parking lot was full and made me want to drive back home to go to bed, so I sallied across 94 to the Hamburg Trail. At the beginning of the Hamburg Trail, just off 94, is an interesting and relatively new interpretive center with information about the town of Howell, which was located on this spot. There is also an army training base located here, which, in my opinion, gives off a creepy, secretive vibe ala Bradbury's Farenheit 451. Periodically, large militlary helicopters will fly low over the woods as you are hiking. On a cloudy day like yesterday, I had no problem imagining I was living in a dystopian future.

Conditions: windy, 58-60 degrees. Blustery skies that went from clear to cloudy.

My brother Pat and I hiked this trail a couple of years ago--and he recently told me that it had been expanded to include the Lost Valley Trail--and it does. The land traversed by this trail was acquired by the government during World War II as a munitions area. Today, the trail consists of a couple of old logging roads--and a winding hiking/biking path through the woods. that is suitable for mouontain biking.

My two hour and twenty minute hike--from 8:48 to 11:10--was invigorating and--happily--devoid of very many individuals ("People? I don't hate people. I just feel better when they're not around." --Mickey Rourke as Bukowski in Barfly.) I came across a biking couple, one trail runner, an orange-vested hunter and a few more bikers, one of whom marveled at the presence of hunters and military helicopters flying overhead.

Advice: if you're going to hike this trail during hunting season, wear an orange vest or bike it. At least you'll be a more quickly moving target.

Thursday, November 17: Lewis and Clark Trail

Hiked to the second river vista, then back out before dark. Few people. Ran into a woman and a boy just as I started (they were finishing). He had light red hair and spectacles; she was slight but carrying a large rock--his new "pet" rock, they told me. And then crossed the path of a man with a camera on a tripod who was photographing into the woods from the trail.

Friday, November 4: Lewis and Clark Trail

The usual. This trail never gets old. Five point three miles after school on a Friday. The best way to end a work week and to begin a weekend.

A few other hikers. Group of twenty-somethings, one who graduated from Zumwalt West six years ago and asked me if I worked at one of the schools. Two very young attractive men who apparently walked out of the pages of Evelyn Waugh, one of whom was smoking a pipe and asked me what trail was the shortest.