Day 9 of my Ozark Trail Thru Hike and I'm hiking 13.4 miles on the Karkaghne Section from Grasshopper Hollow to just past Sutton Bluff Recreation Area. The highlights of this section of the Ozark Trail are definitely the Bee Fork creek crossing and Sutton Bluff Campgrounds.

My first real water scare on my Ozark Trail Thru Hike. It’s still Day 8 and set out on the Karkaghne Section from Hwy 72 to Grasshopper Hollow. Water was scarce along the way and it wasn’t where it was supposed to be at Grasshopper Hollow. I had to walk deep into the fen to find it.

It’s the morning of Day 8 of my Ozark Trail Thru Hike. I have 11 miles left of the Blair Creek Section before reaching Highway 72 Trailhead, where I originally planned to camp for the night. Do I stay or push onto the Karkaghne Section?

It’s Day 7 of my Ozark Trail Thru Hike and I embark on the Blair Creek Section which starts with a climb to an amazing bluff view of the Current River just above Powder Mill Campground.

If you’ve been following along my Ozark Trail Thru Hike in Missouri, you remember in the Day 6 video that my wife Abby and I found a puppy at the OT Trailhead in Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The sweet trail puppy crawled out from under a car and into our hearts. She was cold, shaking, and covered with ticks and burs.

A puppy on the Ozark Trail?!! It’s Day 6 of my Ozark Trail Thru-Hike and Abby has just dropped me off at the trailhead in Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The plan for the day is to hike roughly 16 miles from Peck Ranch to Powder Mill Campground on the Current River Section of the Ozark Trail. But what do we do about this sweet puppy on the trail?

Planning on thru-hiking Missouri’s Ozark Trail but don’t know where to start? Here’s the planning, packing and resupply system I used on my Ozark Trail Thru Hike. Everything I packed and carried in my backpack, and the resupply strategy I used while backpacking the Ozark Trail.

It’s Day 5 of my thru-hike of Missouri’s Ozark Trail and I’m on the Current River Section just north of the Hwy 60 trailhead. The plan is to hike 15 miles to Peck Ranch where my wife Abby will meet me for my first resupply. By all accounts the Current River Section is one of the most beautiful sections of the entire OT, but as I’ll soon find out, it also harbors one of the most sparse, overgrown, and thorny sections of trail… Hunter Camp.

Day 4 of my thru-hike of Missouri’s Ozark Trail and I’ve arrived at my first big question… Do I hike to Big Spring Campground, which is 5 miles off the trail, or do I pass by it, shaving a day off my total hike?