Team Kakouris - Revisiting Forest City because Once is Never Enough

 

The three of us (Myself, The Beautiful Mrs K, and Eli) were so taken by last weeks ride at Forest City in St. James, we decided to do it again today. The trail system there is built really well and has so many interesting features.  Man-made features, too!  So off we went.  It only takes 90 minutes or so to get there.  And highway 44 gives us ample opportunities to marvel at Route 66 tourist traps...Uranus Fudge Factory, anyone??

The logistical member of Team Kakouris, the Beautiful (and talented) Mrs K.  I get the bikes ready and loaded, and she gets all of our stuff ready.  Snacks, extra clothing, bags, towels, directions, phone chargers, little sandwiches on Hawaiian Buns...the things we need to make an adventure successful.  She loves Forest City and had a fantastic ride today.  It's a tricky place to ride and her skills are impressive.

We could not have asked for a better day to have this adventure.  Even better than last week, I think. The temps were in the high 60's when we started, breezy, and low humidity.  And the trails were dry as a bone, which I much prefer.  I don't prefer spider webs, but I will take the Forest City spider webs over the fishing-net sized spider webs that I've encountered at Council Bluff.

                                             

We are three of the five-member Team Kakouris.  Hanna (the fitness queen) is busy grinding out college grades and making donuts and Tyson is in Alaska enjoying an amazing adventure of his own.  This photo was taken about the half-way point of the 10-ish mile marathon loop.  Mrs K and Eli traded bikes here so he could ride the full-suspension bike on the roughest part of the trail to the end.  As much as we laugh about "Randy's Crack", he appreciated having that bike in that section!  Mrs K rode his hardtail bike back to the technical loop and confirmed that hartails are, well, hard.  All said, we rode every square inch of Forest City.  Eli completed the big loop and rode things I didn't think he'd ride.  He even followed me off a cool jump, and he rode every wooden feature.  Go Team Kakouris!

Morning, Noon, or Night - A Hound Dog's Day

Let's say you get up in the morning and you're feeling, well.... a little sassy.  You might just want to find a big sponge and chew it up into hundreds of little pieces.  Just thinking out loud here.

Which will leave you a bit knackered. Chewing up sponges is hard work.  And the scolding you get for it will probably have you taking a hard nap right in the middle of the floor.

Fully energized, there is no reason to think that the hanger isn't a perfectly good toy.  On the contrary, the hanger is almost taunting you, nay, challenging you to a fight!  Naturally, you oblige.  

After going 0-1 with the hanger, good money says that you'll need to recharge the batteries again, and hopefully gain access to Dad's spot. Check that box right here.

Later in the day, fresh after other destructive ventures, it's inevitable that the teenager in the house wants a piece of you. You'll have fend off his advances, using all of your skills and savvy to outwit him.  Under the bed is a good choice, although you probably miscalculated his ability to find you there, too.

 A day of massive successes and massive failures can leave a hound dog really, really tired.  You'll need to stretch out those big, goofy legs on something soft.  Hopefully after you've had a good bath.  But probably not.

Eli and His New Mountain Bike Adventures

The plague hasn't been kind to a lot of folks on planet Earth.  But it has been kind to us, however hard it's been coping with the masks and the distancing and the angry idiots.  We have been working 100% since the start, and have made it a point to do as many outdoor activities as possible.  Along the way, Eli was introduced to the NICA team and that got a bit of fire going in his belly.  He's been bitten by the mountain biking bug, the same as I was 33 years ago, and just as the Beautiful Mrs K was.  A couple weeks ago, we just about finished a wonderful ride at Bluffview when Mrs K took a shot of us looking out over the Meramec. 

We've gone to a lot of different places now with him to get in more and more interesting mountain bike rides.  This wave ride at Forest City in St. James, Missouri became a favorite of his.  He probably rode it 20 times.  We've also been to Broemmelsick, Indian Camp Creek, Greensfelder, Cliff Cave, and Forest City.

He's started to accompany us on our weekend adventures.  We went to Greensfelder last weekend.  Mrs K took Remi for a hike while Eli and I rocked Fossil Ridge, Buelah, the Overlook Trail, and Eagle valley.  Before and after pics show that Eli fared better than Remi.

At Forest City, we all had fun things to do.  The little downhill course, the short technical loop, and the Marathon Race Course were awesome.  Beautiful weather, great trails, fun times.

On Tuesday nights, the South City NICA team is dedicated and growing.  18 kids this night....

...and 21 kids this night.  If only a third of these kids keep riding once their other sports return, it will be a huge win for mountain biking and a huge win for kids and the outdoors.  Eli records all of his rides on Strava for gym class at school, and has a massive lead in mileage.

Cliff Cave is still one of my favorite places to go.  Eli has it mastered, as he's even able to make it through the rocky bluff section.  I'm super proud of him.  Mountain biking isn't easy, but it's very rewarding and it's something we can enjoy together.

Sunday Adventure Series - Plus One in COMO

The Beautiful Mrs K and I hadn't been down to Columbia to see Hanna in a while.  That made the decision to make our Sunday Adventure Series a "PLUS ONE" with her an easy one.  We picked up brunch on the way to her house, devoured it, and headed off to Devil's Icebox.

An exceptionally gorgeous morning meant that this was going to be a great hike.  It's adjacent to the Rock Bridge mountain bike trails, which I haven't seen in a while.  It's not far at all from where Hanna lives, which is a bonus.

The small parking lot was rather full of people, but once we got into the woods it was pure wilderness wonderfulness.  

Typical of all of our hikes, the Devil's Icebox is full of rocks and rock formations.  Most of the trails we did today were ringed with a killer set of stairs.  We could have walked up a bunch of different rocky trails, too, but we stuck to the stairs.  It took us to a rather cool cave system.

Looking down as we approached the cave, we saw an awesome trench with rushing water.  Super cool and a bit spooky to think about getting down in there.

Down the stairs went.

The stairs took us down to a larger trench, where at the bottom was an access into the cave.  The water was rather high so we couldn't go very far in at all.

A super spooky panorama of the cave entrance.

I had to pose for an awesome photo, partially in the mouth of the cave.  NOPE, not going in any farther.  Maybe in another life.

After climbing out of the cave area, we went up and up and up so that we could see the sinkhole.

Not an adventure unless we take a selfie.

We kept going up.  

The sinkhole was so underwhelming that a picture couldn't capture anything interesting at all.  So we continued along the trail and as it started going down, we found the first of two silos. 

Now, the silos were interesting.  This first one, which Hanna climbed into, had as much graffiti on the wall as a college town could apply.  This one had a roof on it so the floor was relatively clear.

Although having a case of the heebie-jeebies, she was able to stay inside long enough for a very dignified pose.

The second silo was 4 times as tall, with no roof.  That meant the floor was disgusting, and there were some busted up tables and other items on the floor.  But there were cool window-like openings on the way up, which made for a cool photo.

Hanna grabbed my phone and took this one, which proves she has a better eye for photos than I do.  This is my favorite photo of the whole day, I think.

Scratch that, this is my favorite photo.  We decided to climb the stairs one more time for some more mileage, then my two favorite women posed for me.  Love.

Before we got out of the woods, I wanted to take a photo of my wonderful wife and her "Adventure Backpack."  She packs this thing full of water, towels, phones, insect repellent, and the kitchen sink so that we are prepared.

After leaving Devil's Ice Box, we still had energy so we went to Stevens Lake Park for a more urban park experience.  It's a pretty place with a great walking and biking path that circles it. After we finished there, we ate Mexican food, stuffed ourselves, and called it good.

We are so glad we could visit our baby's home!  There are so many more things we want to do in Columbia, so we'll visit again soon.

Monday Adventure Series? Why not - Old Cove Canoe

If you know me at all, you know that water is not my thing.  Sure, I fancy a couple good showers a day, but when it comes to getting IN the water, say in a lake or river or pool...I'd rather keep my feet on dry ground.  Never mind that I'm a Pisces.  But the Beautiful Mrs K LOVES the water, and she has a way of passing her love of practically anything my way.  Something we have been talking about for years is kayaking, so I agreed when our Labor Day weekend plans were being formulated to give it a try.

We drove a bit southwest to St. Clair, Missouri.  The Meramec river seems to be everywhere in our neck of the woods, and it's a very popular river to float on.  The Old Cove Canoe rental place was our destination.  Super cool people there, and we arrived early so there was no crowd.

We chose the 4 mile float.  We should have gone longer, as it only took us an hour and a half or so.  But it was a fantastic time.  The river was the perfect height.  Lots of debris, though.  Tons of trees down in the way.  I guess that's part of floating the Meramec?  How would I know?

Typical of Missouri, the river's edge was full of wonderful things.  Rock ledges, crazy tree roots, interesting bluffs, etc.  And, we got a great workout with the paddles.  I became a big fan of kayaking. So much more fun than paddling a canoe.

Mountain Biking with Team Kakouris

Since Eli started practicing with the NICA South City Composite team, he's been wanting to mountain bike more often.  The team has been practicing at Forest Park, Cliff Cave, Creve Coeur, and even Indian Camp Creek.  But apart from that, we've taken Eli to Bluffview/Zombie and Broemmelsiek to ride as well. Keeping with the theme of riding in new and exciting places for him, today we went to Greensfelder.  The beautiful Mrs K caught us finishing up our second loop of Fossil Ridge, a trail Eli did really well on.

He's got a lot of the skills he needs already to ride bikes, but his mountain bike specific skills are coming right along, too.  Greensfelder is no joke, and there are no easy trails there whatsoever.  

We rode over to Fossil Ridge from the Visitors Center via the Greenrock trail.  I figured that would warm him up enough for the tight and tricky stuff.  He did great.

I'm laughing here because the ride has been going so well.  I was constantly impressed with his abilities.  It's so fun to watch them grow as riders!  

Eli and I were trying to get together for a photo here, so in meantime I struck a proud dad pose.  The beautiful Mrs K took the photo, and although it's goofy, it's given us a good laugh.

We took the long downhill from the Beulah Trail all the way to the bottom of Eagle Valley.  Eli was having an absolute blast, and even though Deanna has been down that one before, she loved it also.  So much fun was had by all.

The saddest part of the day was climbing out of Eagle Valley back to the visitors center via the single track.  It's a gnarly climb, but we all tackled it together and paid the elevation gods penance for the uber fun downhill action.  I absolutely love these rides.  We finished before 10am, which was good because the parking lot was completely full of mountain bikers.

Don Robinson Park Revisited - Labarque Hills Trail

Back in June, our Sunday Adventure Series took us to Don Robinson State park, just a bit south and west of St. Louis.  That time, we hiked the Sandstone Canyon Trail, a really cool 4 mile loop. We knew we were missing out on the other trail there, the Labarque Hills Trail, but we didn't have the time.  We revisited Don Robinson late today so that we could conquer that one, too.

It's a shorter trail, but boy, is it packed with goodness.  The sign said 2.4 miles, but our GPS's said 2.9 by the time we were done...with 498 feet of climbing.  And we felt every bit of that climbing.  As luck would have it, we made it to the park pretty late in the day, so the sun was low and the wind was kicking.  Pretty much a perfect time to see the beauty of the trail.

A pretty random photo of me sitting on some sandstone ledges in the middle of the trail.

The rock formations were awesome.  Lots of sandstone and other rock types, shaped by water, wind, and the rest of nature.  No way to get it all in one shot.  This was a rock plateau that I had to shoot in panorama.

So much climbing.  Once we got to the top, it was breath taking.  The sun was still filtering through the trees.  

Quite a bit of the trail was literally stone.  Like it was laid down in a walkway for us.

We kind of thought of the Wizard of Oz in some places, as the trail stretched out in front of us like the yellow brick road.  So we followed it!

The sandstone was really the hero of the day.  There were too many cool features to get them all, but I knew I had to crawl into this hollow and have the beautiful Mrs K take a pic.

That same hollow was in a long line of formations that were too cool to pass up.  I took another panorama.  Absolutely a place we will visit again in the winter so we can explore the creeks and valleys.