The clouds had rolled in again over night. It hadn’t rained yet, but it looked like it could at any time so we ate and packed up in a hurry. It was almost a 3 mile hike all uphill back to the cars. We made it without incident in less than 2 hours. Once we got to the parking lot and were putting our stuff in the cars, a guy on horseback came roaring into the lot up the same trail we had just hiked up. He asked frantically if anyone had a cell phone that worked in the area. We all checked our phones for signals and Karen’s was the only one that had any.
This was a trail guide that was leading another couple out. They were down on the same flat rock on Sneeds Creek that we were on yesterday when a small deer popped out of the weeds in front of the husband’s horse. The horse bucked and threw the man off and he couldn’t move. The wife stayed back with him while the guide rode out. We called for an ambulance but then took off because we were too far out to be of any assistance. I imagine they were going to have to carry him out strapped to a backboard riding on a 4 wheeler. I feel sorry for the hell he’s going to be going through on that ride.
We drove on down to Ponca to see what was there—not much. Just one snack/gift shop. When we walked in, there was an entire rack of National Geographic topo maps of the area. For grins, I checked one out to see if it was accurate. Unfortunately, it was.
Brad still had to drive back to Nashville once we got home so we decided to make tracks. To make the best time, he headed north to Branson then Springfield. We cut a couple hours off of our drive time. The trip was fun but not much exercise to get us into shape for tackling the Wonderland Trail later this year. We’ll probably do a couple more weekend outings just to get us used to carrying a pack.
