Team Trail Monster takes a hike.

With the weather breaking for the better we decided on a midday hike at Indian Camp Creek Park (ICCP). The plan...pack and be on the road by 10am. LOL...that never happens. We are never out before 11. So like normal we loaded Stella and hit the road by 11:30. The temp was in the upper 40's and made a climb all the way into the low 50's. Not bad by Missouri standards for January 31. Side note...Digital camera batteries Suck! Every trip I hear the dreaded beep and the flash of the title to my book "Battery Empty". So the Olympus is dead but the Sony Hcam is alive so we have some video...well at least until I dropped it into a small brook...You would think they could at least make these things splash resistant...Sure glad we bought the accident insurance, now if we can only get to Circuit City and learn about warranty procedures post store closure.

The hike started off with our lead trail monster pointing out the trail and pushing us to get moving. We actually started off in an off trail hike following a lone set of "Purple Brer Fox" tracks through the woods. At one point we heard the "Purple Brer Fox", however, he was very fast and we did not see him.

Can you name the tune in playing on the IPOD w/ speaker in the background of the video?

So on with the day and the melting woodlands along Big Creek. We saw lots of fat Robins bouncing from limb to limb along the creek edge. A big fat Red Squirrel briefly made an appearance. We made our way through the woods to the single-track and followed until we found a trail that was obviously blocked off, so we decided to keep with the theme and go off trail some more. Hopefully that trail is under construction and will open in the spring...great flowy flat sections with little dips in and around the creek bottoms. It will be fast that is for sure. The trail is less than a mile but will make a nice addition to the rest. We popped out of the woods and into a small field and followed and old double track to the blacktop and back to "Stella". We spent a about 15 minutes at the park and Sydney was sure to climb on the big concrete frog and turtle statues. Time flys when you're having fun, almost missed the departure time. We have to be in Louisiana MO at 3PM to watch Julie take the Polar Bear Plunge for Special Olypics. That video is up on my facebook along with a short video of the Trail Monster leading a short hike.

Closing skies over Annada, MO.