For Brandon’s birthday, all he wanted to do was a hike. And that man did NOT go small with his dream. He took me on a whopping 16.1 mile hike through the wilderness of Mark Twain National Forest. I figured, no big deal. We did the Seoul City Wall Hike in Korea – and while that was only about 12 miles total, there were roughly 1.4 million stairs to climb. So hiking 16.1 miles without stairs? Cool. The blisters on my feet would beg to differ, however. The thing that REALLY killed me? It ended up being 17.5 miles AND we did it all in one day. Even so, this hike close to Fort Leonard Wood is everything that a hike ought to be: beautiful and green, incredible rock faces, intense up-hills and some treacherous down-hills, multiple river crossings… you name it! If you’re an outdoor enthusiast in the area, don’t let this hike go… well, unhiked!
The Best Hike Near Fort Leonard Wood: Big Piney Trail
The goal was to get out of the house early for our adventure on the Big Piney Trail. Then we were made aware that we had forgotten about some obligations we had made at our church, so we didn’t end up getting to the trail until just before noon. Even so, AllTrails told us that the loop is usually completed in under seven hours, so we figured we’d be good. Spoiler alert: we’re not expert hikers, so the trail took us closer to 8.5 hours to complete. This meant that by the time we got back to the car the sunlight was long gone. So do as I say and not as I do and get there early if you plan to finish the entire hike in one day.
We had learned through the AllTrails app that the ticks are especially bad throughout this hike. As we continued along the path, it became evident why. Typically we try to avoid brushing up against grass, trees, etc. to avoid any hitchhiking ticks. For this trail, though, it is completely impossible. You WILL brush up against ALL the grass and shrubs and you WILL have to climb underneath low hanging branches. However, possibly due to the cooler temperatures and recent rainfall, we only found a grand total of TWO ticks from our adventure. One crawling on my hand during the hike (which I promptly flicked off) and one embedded into Brandon’s abdomen (which we discovered when we got home). Regardless of when you visit, I recommend treating all your clothes with Permethrin the day prior to the hike.
And speaking of rainfall, be aware that if there has been any rain recently, you’re going to be met with some less-than-hospitable conditions along your path. Rain or not, you’re going to have many downed trees to deal with, but you can always venture around them or over them easy enough. It’s the river crossings that are going to make your life very interesting. One in particular required us to remove our shoes and socks and wade across mid-thigh-depth water to the other side to get to the path. Once on the other side, it’s POSSIBLE there was an easier way if we had hacked our way through some of the brush, but by that point it was too late. Still, we made it across without too much hassle, and thanks to the AllTrails map, we found where the trail picked up on the other side.
And this would be a good time to plug the AllTrails app. USE THE MAP TO NAVIGATE. I am not kidding when I say if we didn’t have access to the map and tracking where we were going using the navigation feature, we would still be wandering in the wilderness to this day. I 100% believe we would not have found our way. While the trail is easy to make out most of the time, many of the trail markers are either missing, obscured by fallen trees, or just plain old non-existent. And there were many moments when we were completely clueless as to what way we were supposed to be heading.
So take my advice, use the app, and bring an external charger for your phone too. Just trust me on this one, folks.
Along the way we saw many groups of people camping. I was surprised with how many campers there were, given that it’s still so early in the season. The hope is that soon we can embark on this journey again with camping gear in tow and make a whole weekend out of it, but it wasn’t in the cards this time. Even so, there are many designated campsites along the way – each with a firepit and makeshift benches (aka, logs). It seems like a great area to camp and it’s all free. The camping areas are considered “primitive” campsites which means you’ll have none of the luxuries we experienced while camping in Lake of the Ozarks: bathrooms, garbage cans, showers, etc. It’s truly just you and nature and it’s absolutely glorious.
Overall this hike was incredible. And I stand by the title of this post: this truly is the best trail near Fort Leonard Wood. It felt like we were truly in the middle of nowhere, but we were still afforded the comfort of passing others along the way to give us the sense that we hadn’t really wandered into the great big nothing. And it was a great kick-off point for some bigger and crazier hikes my husband is going to drag me on in the future. Ha!
But, for now, I’m going to go take some ibuprofen and massage my calves.
’til next time…
Ash
Things to know about hiking Big Piney Trail
Directions & Parking: Big Piney Trail is only about a 20-minute drive from Fort Leonard Wood, if you take the South Gate out. However, because Google Maps is really fun, it doesn’t recognize South Gate. If you’re coming from Fort Leonard Wood, I recommend plugging Palace Church (type it in, use the hyperlink provided, or use address: 36497 State Highway AW, Plato, MO) into the GPS and then once you get out of the South Gate, changing the location to Paddy Creek Wilderness and Big Piney Trail (type that in, use the hyperlink, or use address: Forestry Tr 274A, Plato, MO). That will take you to a gravel lot near the trailhead with plenty of parking. It’s free to park and visit/camp in the area, but for your own safety, please register on the sheet provided.
As far as maps go, your best bet is to download AllTrails and search for Big Piney Trail in the Paddy Creek Wilderness (or, you guessed it, use the hyperlink I provided for you). You can download the map or you can use the navigation feature to follow along. We had phone service for almost the entire hike (we have T-mobile and have heard that AT&T works as well) with it only being spotty in a few places, and we found it easy to use the navigation on AllTrails. KEEP IN MIND, AllTrails says the loop is 16.1 miles, but we found it to be 17.5 miles total (and we didn’t do a lot of backtracking or wandering). It’s possible AllTrails only tracks the loop itself, and not the distance from the parking lot to the beginning of the loop. Even so, prepare for about 17.5 miles of hiking.
Amenities: There are bathrooms located in the gravel parking lot. We didn’t use them, so I can’t speak to the cleanliness of them. They appeared similar to simple camping latrines that we’ve seen at other campsites and parks in Missouri. On the trail there were no additional bathrooms, so we used the “dig a hole and pop a squat” method. Bring along some toilet paper if you’d like, but make sure to either pack it out, or make sure to purchase biodegradable toilet paper that can be buried along with your business.
Other things to know: Whether you plan to do the full 17.5-mile hike or the shorter (approximately 8-mile) hike, I recommend bringing an external charger for your cell phone. While most of the trail is well marked, there were many areas where referring to the map on AllTrails was necessary. There are river crossings and downed trees which destroyed or obscured the trail markers. Refer to the map regularly and anytime you are confused about where to go.
In addition, bring a flashlight, even if you believe you are embarking early enough to be done by nightfall. We thought we had left with enough time, but ended up hiking the last 30-45 minutes in pitch black. Thankfully, we had our phone flashlights to light our way, but a flashlight would have been much more effective.
