In August of 2000, my buddy Ryan and I decided to go backpacking. Due to our misfortune of living in Missouri, and our lack of money we decided to make the best of our location and hike in the show me state. So I explored a few things on the web and I found an article on a hike to Mt. Taum Sauk (The highest point in Missouri). It was their featured hike of the month, the article mentioned Mina Sauk Falls the highest waterfall in the state, beautiful scenic views and it mentioned multiple water sources along the way. We were sold. We decided we would hike in one day and then enjoy a day swimming in the falls, and then hike out the third day. We packed up and left.

The first few miles were beautiful and the trail was nice, however it didn't stay this way. As we venture farther along the trail became very overgrown and there was virtually no protection from the brutal August heat. Feeling reassured that there were plenty of water sources along the way we sucked down our water quickly to help keep us cool. Before long we were walking along a ridge with weeds up to our armpits, the only way we were able to keep the trail was by the purple markings on the few trees that did exist. It wasn't long before we were both running very low on water and began to worry about these water sources. After several miles we finally receive some shelter from the sun and entered a valley with plenty of trees. We also figured our water sources were not far off. What we found instead was simply damp creeks that were full of gnats and mosquitos. This lead to numerous bites and a lot of words we wouldn't say in front of our mothers. We resorted to pulling our swimming trunks out and pulling the netting over our heads to give us some refuge from the swarm of blood thirsty insects. By the way this did not lead to us getting any water. As we slowly drug along we finally found ourselves in an area where we were climbing some large boulders, and we noticed that some of them were damp and we figured there had to be water soon, what we found instead was at the top of these rocks was a small pool of green water and a sign reading Mina Sauk Falls. We were crushed, this was the tallest waterfall in the state of Missouri and it was DRY. We lay down on the rocks and just about gave up. We finally convinced each other that we had to continue and it wasn't much farther to the camp and surely there was water there. We finally made it to the top and once we got there we had a close encounter with a copperhead snake. Once we arrived we were finally able to get some water, but we were both dehydrated from the trip and felt terrible. We neither one wanted to do anything so we just lay down on a picnic table and went to sleep. The next morning we both agreed there was no way were hiking back through that hell. So we walked out to the main road, once we got there we hitch hiked back to our truck, and we headed home.

We learned a few valuable lessons from that trip. First don't believe everything you read, and second never underestimate the danger of being unprepared in the wilderness. We laugh about it now and in some ways it is one of my favorite backpacking memories. But I wouldn't ever want to experience it again.

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