Thursday April 25, 2019
There was only one thing on tap for the day, Taum Sauk State Park. The name comes from the Piankeshaw Chief Sauk-Ton-Qua. There’s a three mile loop trail with some others off the main loop. It’s also the home of the highest point in Missouri. At 1,772 feet it’s one of the easy ones. For those of you scoring at home, it would be my twenty-fourth.
I had seen the forecasts. Every single one of them said rain. Not just a chance, a certainty, and it would last all day. Only one gave a chance of clearing by nightfall. So, when I woke up to the sound of pouring rain, I really wasn’t surprised. The Quality Inn had the Weather Channel on in the breakfast room. Looking at their radar, the worst was past and the next band of the heavy stuff was pretty far off. South-eastern Arkansas had tornadoes. So, I couldn’t complain too much.
Here’s your roadtrip lesson of the day, learned the hard way. If you KNOW you’re going somewhere with zero chance of a cell signal, double check your directions BEFORE you leave the motel.
On my Missouri DOT map, the state park certainly looked like it was on State Road M. Upon arriving at the end of the road, I knew that wasn’t the case. I didn’t remember seeing any signs on Hwy 21 the previous day, either. So, I backtracked. Seen along Road M...
I had passed a tourism office a mile or so back. But, they wouldn’t be open for another hour and a half. They had maps. One even had a description of the park on the back. But, that was the only mention. It wasn't indicated anywhere on the side with the actual map.
Feeling a bit frustrated, I backtracked a few more miles to the restaurant where I had lunch the previous day, parked up against the exterior wall, and used their wifi. I was apparently looking for State Road C, which wasn’t even on my DOT map.
Eventually, I did find State Road C and the turnoff. I arrived at the parking area around 9A, not that surprised to be the only one in the lot. Did I mention it was raining? Before leaving the room, I had a choice to make. Bring the Canon 6D and spend the day trying not to let it get wet, or leave it in the room and use the Canon Powershot that could fit in my shirt pocket. I went with the smaller camera as it would be a lot easier to keep dry.
The state high point is a paved, wheelchair accessible trail. I could have dashed out and back in less that five minutes.
The view from the high point, all 1,722 feet of it.
It seemed a waste to just dash out and back. The rain had lightened to a light drizzle and there were a few brighter spots in the otherwise gray sky. I decided to go for it and do the three mile loop to Mina Sauk Falls. I grabbed every bit of rain gear I had and started out.
It’s one thing to walk along a mountain trail. It’s another thing to walk a trail that had become a running stream. Getting past some of it took some thinking and careful stepping.
Eventually, I did come to Mina Sauk Falls, highest waterfall in the state. The view from atop the highest drop...
The waterfall comes with its own legend. Mina Sauk was the daughter of Chief Sauk-Ton-Qua. She had been captured in a rain by the Osage, the Piankeshaw’s enemy. She was forced to marry one of their warriors and came to love him deeply.
Piankeshaw warriors organized a raid and brought her back to her people. While happy to be with her family again, she couldn’t forget her true love, the Osage warrior.
Spring came and it was time for the tribe to move. Mina was despondent at the thought of moving further away from her true love. As the tribe was preparing for the move, she was found with her forbidden husband. Since the Osage were still the Piankeshaw, he was sentenced to death. His sentence was to be thrown off this ledge onto the points of Piankeshaw spears below.
After seeing the sentence carried out, she threw herself off the ledge to the rocks below. Upon her death, storm quickly formed and a lightning bolt struck the mountain. When the storm passed, water started flowing over the rocks. Legend also has it that the red flowers that bloom at the base of the falls are colored from her blood and they only bloom in June.
From around the falls and the trail back...
As we all know, waterproof only goes to a point. By the time I got back to the car was quite wet. It felt good to just sit there with the heater on. As I warmed up, I started thinking about lunch and a small diner I had passed.
Desi’s Diner is a family owned place in the town of Acadia. When the seasons change, they redo the artwork on the windows. The special of the day was a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw. Yes, the coleslaw comes inside the sandwich. It made for a messy meal, but quite good.
One last stop for coffee and gas. Coffee for the heat and gas because I like starting my roadtrip day with a full tank. It was still raining when I got back to the motel. So, I hung up everything wet and flopped on the bed with a book. I’m working on Eric Foner’s book, “The Fiery Trial.” It’s a fascinating, yet slow read. It’s about how Abraham Lincoln’s attitudes towards slavery developed from his first experience seeing it, to the Emaciation Proclamation. Interesting, but not the kind of thing you burn through.
6P and I’m no longer hearing rain. The cars driving by the motel were no longer using their wipers.
7:45P And I see this over the motel parking lot...
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