The morning ride started right away with the up and down roller coaster. Other cyclists and map notes say warn that today's leg is to be the worst climbing day of the Ozark Mountain section. It turned out to be a pretty grueling uphill with some pretty good downhills. But overall, it was manageable even though my legs were feeling it by the end of the ride. Thankfully, the traffic was light and the trucks were very courteous to move over before they would pass.
Early in the ride, I topped a hill to see a skunk across the road in a cattle pasture. I carefully pulled over to take a picture. For obvious reasons, I did not want to startle the little creature. After the picture, I quietly was on my way. Thankfully, there were no dog encounters to report, but I did see a little snake slither across the road. There were more pretty views of the mountains and the northerly route provided quite a lot of shade from the canopy of trees along the road.
About 3 miles from the campground, Walt came back toward me blowing his horn. I thought there was something wrong ahead, but that was not the case. The SAG team agreed that I would probably like to get a ride the last couple miles due to the steep grades in the road. But, I politely declined the offer and pushed through the last tough hills to make the camp before lunch time. It was nice that they were concerned about me, though! Temperature was in the 90's by noon and topped out over 100 again today.
Camp is at a newly renovated Missouri State Park. Due to the Dam breaking a few years ago, the park was totally renovated. We were able to do some laundry and explore the park a little. The term Shut-In has nothing to do with elderly people, but it describe a rocky gorge where the river is confined to a narrow channel of rock.
The Current River
People were messing in and around the shut-n Rocks.
It is us!
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