OT on the brain

I cannot stop thinking about the OT and the tasty, epic single track that is down there. That sound of gravel under the tires is stuck in my head. I have been studying the maps on ozarktrail.com, and ozarktrail.com/planner. These are two very detailed sites. The southern trace creek section looks pretty good, but so does the northern section for that matter. I think our crew had a good plan of attack on Sunday. As I mentioned we parked at 32 and DD, rode north on Middlefork, and dropped packs at the c-bluff spur. That let us floss the lake trail, sans packs, which makes a huge difference. On the lake trail, you also get a chance to refill bottles at the beach. Caching at the spur also allows you to refuel, and head north on trace for as far as you want, or your pack will allow. One can also drop packs at the Middlefork/South Trace sign. The options are HUGE!! Can you believe this is Missouri?

If EPIC is the name of the game, you will want a pack, and bottles. With this heat, you are still most likley limited to 5 or 6 hours of water that you can effeciently carry. Research indicates that water is available on Trace, with exception relating to an 8 mile section. Your opiton there is water purification. There are many methods out there, some more effecient than others. Filter, and Iodine are the most common. I gave up on filters a long time ago. We were on a 15 day trek in New Mexico. The guy that brought the filter, didnt have room in the pack for it, so I volenteered to carry it for a few days. Nothing big, only a pound or so of weight for our water supply. On the second day, the filter became difficult to pump, due to cloggage. Unfortunatly, the shlep rock owner of the filter forgot the cleaning brush, renduring the filter useless. The remainder of the 13 days, we ran into few people, none of which has a cleaning brush. Bummer. Now that not so heavy pound, was dead weight, and taking up space. Luckly, we had two of these:



In the iodine universe of water purification, tablet are the most common. I prefer the bottle, because it will not run out, or go bad. This would be the ticket. Cant wait to get back down there, and cruise some trail.