Jack's Fork River

Back in late April I took my kayak out for it’s first real voyage. I went with a guy here at work who is a retired police officer, and we floated the Jack’s Fork River in South Central, MO. Our trip started at the Prongs and went to Bay Creek. Here is a map of the river to refer to. If I remember correctly, this was about 25 miles.

We took a pretty leisurely pace and spent 2 nights on the river. If you look closely (or not so closely), you will notice my kayak had not yet suffered it’s fatal falling-off-the-truck experience. That would have been on the way back home after this float. I can always look back on this trip as the one where my kayak was still perfect. I think I like it better now, it almost looks like it’s been in a battle!

As you can see by the pictures, the leaves had not really budded on the trees yet, which was probably due to the hard freeze we experienced around the 1st or 2nd week of April.

We only spent one entire day on the river, but it was a long day with temps in the upper 80’s. Here’s a pic of myself by a sand bar we stopped at that afternoon for a snack and to stretch our legs. (I must insert comment here about my awesome long hair!)


The 2nd night we found a nice spot to set up camp with a trickling waterfall on the other side of the river, so we had some nice sound effects to fall asleep to. We had the truck shuttled down to the take out point by a guide service around Eminence. This is a pretty good option if you don’t want to take 2 vehicles. I think it costs around $50, but you’ll spend that driving 2 hours each way to and from the river, plus wear and tear on your truck. I would definitely consider this for any other float that is a fair distance from home.

Quandary Peak Winter Hike

Some of my friends share my outdoor adventures with the same enthusiasm. Dan Kersten and Tyler Bowen joined me for a climb of Quandary Peak in the Colorado Rockies last December. Here you will read Dan’s account of that very challenging, but rewarding, climb.

Quandary Proves Challenging, Rewarding for Novice Climbers

Quandary Peak
Dec. 16, 2006

The three of us begin our ascent at about 7 am with clear skies, temps in the high 20s, and no chance of precipitation in the forecast so we feel confident that conditions are optimal for hiking.

We have arrived less than 30 hours previous from southern Missouri so our bodies are still acclimating. This makes the hike much more difficult than we initially plan for it to be.

Our array of gear includes down-filled jackets and pants, your typical hiking packs complete with multiple zippers and secret compartments (secret compartments, though not very useful, are a high commodity in our little expeditionary force), other winter gear, two liters of water each at least, and snow shoes.

We tramp through snow at least one foot deep in the alpine forest for about two hours. Along the way we notice ski tracks leading downhill (as if ski tracks would be going uphill at this point), evidence that this is a popular location for skiers to hike up and ski down. I feel a sense of envy at those who were smart enough to provide a means of swift descent.

As we emerge above the tree line around 11,000 feet, after about 2.5 hours of hiking, we look up and see the full splendor of Quandary Peak in the late morning light. A thick layer of snow and ice cover both visible slopes flanking each side of the trail ridge. Rocks jut out from the ice in large patches. We decide to keep our snow shoes on. None of us have invested in crampons and the snow shoes prove very convenient.

One other hiking party, a group of six, passes us, making very good time compared to our slog-along pace. It turns out to be a good idea to wait and let them pass because they stay in a close line and their snow shoes pack down and carve out a good trail in the ice and snow for us to follow. This makes our ascent easier.

By the time we reached 11,500 the wind gusts slightly. At this point it is about 11:30 am. We rest for a moment, hydrate, dehydrate, check our equipment, and continued on the 3,000-foot home stretch.

The incline for this final 3,000 feet climb is much steeper than we had been ready for. The going is very slow and we rested 30 seconds after every 50 paces. As we make it to about 12,500 feet wind gusts become extreme and violent, and we are forced to hunker down to keep from being blown off the trail ridge.

Tinny needles of jagged ice brushed off the slope to our left by the gusting wind fly upwards, under glasses, up nostrils, into cheeks and any other chink in our wintery armor. The stinging these ice needles bring is harsh and relentless.

I have trudged ahead to the front of our group by about 20 yards. A sudden surge in the winds propels thousands of ice bullets upwards at me. I see the white glistening cloud rising towards me from the left about 40 yards distant. I turn quickly to my right and lay prone against the mountainside. As the storm of ice sweeps over me I chance a look back down to my right and notice Nick and Tyler in the same position. For the next three or four minutes our climb is halted by the pummeling of wind and ice shards.

When the winds subside we press on with greater effort, unsure of when the next wind gust will postpone progress. We summit Quandary Peak at 14,265 feet around 1 pm. We stay up there for about 20 minutes for photos. The summit of Quandary, on a clear day, provides a stunning view of the Tenmile-Mosquito range. Quandary is easily the tallest peak for many miles.

Along the west side of the summit, one can look down thousands of feet to see the old dam and a sprawling frozen valley before it. To the east is another valley with forested highlands flanking each side. We identify Mt Evans and Longs Peak in the distance.

Standing on Quandary’s summit and observing the frozen landscape surrounding it, one can easily fantasize of being at a much higher peak in a distant land. Then you realize that 14,200 feet is nothing compared to Kilimanjaro’s 19,300 or even Everest’s 29,100.

On the descent, the winds again prove to be violent and extremely dangerous. We estimate gusts of about 70 mph sustained for as long as 60 seconds with 2-minute intervals for about 2,000 feet. We also guess that such winds combined with sleet or other precipitation or thick cloud cover would make an ascent or descent to be extremely difficult or, at the very least, dangerous.

The descent takes about 2.5 hours and we are totally exhausted when we arrive at our vehicle. Our bodies have not had time to acclimate and we end up going from about 9,000 feet to 14,200 in just 6 hours, having driven from southern Missouri’s 2,500 feet least than 24 hours before. We are stunned to calculate that we have ascended approximately 11,700 feet in just over 36 hours, which is a big deal to the three of us when you consider that none of us have put our bodies through such a test before. It is encouraging for Tyler and I because we know we will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa in less then 3 months.

We feel very good about what we have done and confident that we can do it again. However, we note that we should spend more time at Rockies altitude before attempting another climb.

We leave for home the following morning, just barely ahead of one of the biggest snow storms in recent history in Colorado. The interstate across Colorado and Kansas is closed in many areas and dozens or motorists are stranded and require evacuation. We are thankful that we chose this weekend to do our climb. We look forward to the 2007 climbing season when we will choose another challenging peak in the Rockies.