In a pickle......

8:21 am - Saturday - April 28th - St. Louis, MO - 48º F, 60% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north......yup....can see the flags at the lodge flying......clear blue skies with a forecast high of 63º F......

As I mentioned at the end of my blog post yesterday we had a date to go hiking with Creig and Kay at a little place about 70 miles south of St. Louis called Pickle Springs.  It is a National Natural Landmark....the first one I have ever visited, but I get ahead of myself.

 Pickle Springs is a National Natural Landmark

We had agreed to meet up with Creig and Kay at a local Denny's around 10 am for a late breakfast, then head south to Pickle Springs to hike.  After a good breakfast and even better conversation we got in Creig and Kay's Ford Escape (leaving our VW behind) for the 70+ mile drive south, arriving at the Pickle Springs trailhead about 12:15 pm........

The obligatory pre-hike usie....

.....after a pre-hike 'usie' and examining the trail map we headed out on our hike.  Spring has not yet completely arrived at Pickle Springs, and the trees were still not sporting any leaves.....

......within minutes we arrived at the first interesting feature called the 'slot'.....

 

....next up was a water feature.......really just a trickle, but the layered limestone was everywhere......

......next up where the 'double arches''.....I say next up because it was here that we took a wrong turn inadvertently adding about .9 tenths of a mile to our original 2 mile hike.  Eventually we figured out our mistake and back tracked to the original water fall and soon found ourselves staring at the Double Arches.....

 ↑Double Arch....oh yeah, there's the sign↓

.....these stairs were provided to help us get safely down to view the Double Arch......

.....there were numerous bridges to aid the hiker in crossing the numerous clear water streams flowing across the trail.....

......then there was terrapin rock......yes, I have to admit it.....it does look like a giant turtle....

....as we neared the end of our hike we came upon the loveliest waterfall of them all gently flowing over a large ledge of limestone into a large pool full of small fingerling fish......

.....around 2:30 pm we arrived back at the parking lot after a 2.9 mile hike.  The is the first real hike I have taken since my stroke back in late December.....it was good to get my legs unlimbered!

A very relaxed 32 minutes a mile

Within minutes we were in the car headed back north to Arnold, MO where our VW was awaiting our arrival, but first we stopped off at a local BBQ place for an early dinner around 4:30......we had a lovely dinner talking non-stop about the day's adventure and our time with Creig and Kay.  By 5:30 we were back in the VW heading for the barn with big smiles of satisfaction pasted across our collective faces.

It has been a very enjoyable 3 days visiting with Creig, Kay and family with the highlight being our hike Friday.  It has also been nice sitting in one place for this time.  We'll be here in St. Louis for one more day before we pull anchor and continue our inevitable trek to Newe England for the summer.

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