Author: Ted C. MacRae

Rockwoods Reservation, Lime Kiln Loop Trail

/ Ted C. MacRae / 1 Comment

Rockwoods Reservation, in western St. Louis Co. is one of the oldest Conservation Areas in Missouri (est. 1938). It contains nearly 2,000 acres of high quality upland forest and a small prairie restoration plot. Despite its proximity to St. Louis and the numerous hiking trails it offers, I haven’t explored this area very much. We had a winter storm move through the area yesterday, dumping about 7 inches of snow over the area. Deep snows are not common in St. Louis, which typically has more open winters, so today offered the perfect opportunity to start exploring this area in a rare wintery setting. My daughters came with me to explore the 3.25-mile Lime Kiln Loop Trail.


The first half mile of the trail follows alongside a spring-fed creek. As we enjoyed the serenity of the snowy landscape, a belted kingfisher flew into a nearby tree, where it paused briefly before zipping off in a chatter. The spring itself offered a beautiful contrast between the green aquatic plants that populate the spring’s exit and the surrounding white blanket.


After the spring, the trail started traversing up the hillside into a mesic upland forest dominated by oaks and hickories. The high canopy of this mature forest resulted in a sparse understory, affording spectacular views back down through the draws from which we came.


The girls were full of energy at this point, so they kept running ahead on the trail and then waiting for me to plod my way back up to them. Eventually they learned their lesson though – everytime they ran up ahead they would get hot and want to take their coats off, then they would get cold and have to put them back on.


There were some drier forest types closer to the bluffs where eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) became more abundant. I coaxed them to pass underneath this one, then whacked it with my hiking stick as they did so. Shocked indignation soon gave way to tenacious efforts on their part to ‘get me back’. Failing that, they redirected their efforts to ‘getting’ each other.


The games eventually gave way to quiet enjoyment of the astounding beauty of the forest. Existing tracks in the snow told us we were not the first to enjoy the trail today, but we didn’t see a single soul all day – it was easy to pretend that we were the only people in this wood. These snow-covered, hollow tree stumps reminded us of tubular sponges.


As the trail descended back down into the valley it passed through these dolomite outcrops supporting a dry upland forest dominated by eastern red cedar and blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica).


Near the end of the trail, we ran across this little spider – actively crawling on the surface of the snow with temps in the mid-20s. I half-jokingly suggested that maybe this was some kind of ‘snow spider’. My 8-yr old daughter thought that seemed likely, then suggested that when we got home we could get online and go to http://www.spider.com/ and type ‘snow spider’ to see what it said. I told her I thought that was a great idea! Alas, that website (and http://www.spiders.com/) lead to a couple of IT company websites, so that was no help. Fortunately, I was able to find something that looked similar – a wolf spider in the genus Gladicosa – on BugGuide. I told Madison her suggestion worked 😉


The lime kiln for which this trail is named was built in the mid-1800’s by a wealthy businessman, who used it to produce lime for mortar construction of homes in nearby St. Louis. The kiln, 12-ft wide at the base and 40-ft high, was built next to the hillside to allow limestone (quarried nearby) to be dumped in at the top. Locally cut firewood was loaded into the arches at the bottom on each side, which heated the kiln to 800°F, converting the stone to lime which was removed from the opening at the bottom in front. Vertical expansion joints on each side in the center allowed for expansion of the stone during heating.


This was the second hike in the past few weeks that I’ve taken with the girls, and like last time they had an absolute ball! Of course, naturalist that I am, it pleases me that they enjoy the outdoors so much, and I’m quite impressed that they hiked such a distance with no complaint. The area offers several additional hiking trails ranging from 1.5 to 2.2 miles in length. At only a 15-minute drive from our house, I look forward to exploring the rest of Rockwoods trails with them.

Ozark Trail, lower Trace Creek Section

/ Ted C. MacRae / 3 Comments

The Ozark Trail is a part of a vision, conceived in 1977, to build a scenic and varied route through the Missouri Ozarks, stretching from the St. Louis metropolitan area southwestward to the Arkansas border, eventually connecting to the Ozark Highlands trail–creating a 700 mile through-trail. Almost 550 miles of trail have been completed, with 350 miles in Missouri.
– Ozark Trail Association

My friend Rich and I have been hiking sections of the Ozark Trail for several years now. So far, we have completed ~175 miles, and we hope to eventually hike the entirety of the trail. Yesterday we hiked the 11.5-mile southern stretch of the Trace Creek Section, starting at the Hwy DD crossing in Iron Co. and finishing at the Hwy A trailhead, where the Trace Creek Section joins the Bell Mountain portion of the Taum Sauk Section. The first few miles traversed relatively mild terrain as we followed the Telleck Branch, but after crossing the upper reaches of the Big River the terrain became progressively more rugged. The trail ended with a spectacularly steep descent down to Ottery Creek at the foot of Bell Mountain.

It was a gray day with light drizzle and increasing fog. The air was heavy with moisture, but with temperatures in the upper 30s and only light winds it didn’t feel too cold. While many sections of the Ozark Trail offer spectacular vistas overlooking the regions many spring-fed rivers, few such vistas are found on this section. What we did see were bright green lichens on rocks, on oak trunks, and on the ground underneath pines, small openings in the forest eerily shrouded in fog, and a variety of ferns along stream banks and in rock crevices, dripping with moisture. It rained lightly at one point, forcing us to break out our ponchos, but the rain didn’t last and we were able to stow the ponchos for good afterwards. It was a serene, beautiful experience with not another soul in sight during the entire day. The solutide contributed as much to the splendor as did the visual beauty. Following are some pictures from the day:

A foliose lichen plasters the surface of a rock outcrop

Closeup of the above, showing an highly convoluted 3-dimensional structure

I believe this is type of “reindeer lichen” – Cladina sp. – growing in a colony on sandy soil underneath a pine tree

Close up of the above, showing the intricacies of its fruticose structure

Water hangs heavy from leafless petioles of a downed oak tree

One of the shelf or crust mushrooms, growing on the trunk of an oak tree

Closeup of the above

Hawn State Park

/ Ted C. MacRae / 7 Comments

Hawn State Park, located at the eastern edge of the St. Francois Mountains near Ste. Genevieve, is one of Missouri’s premier parks. Spring-fed streams meandering through stately pine and oak forest have cut deep into Lamotte sandstone bedrock to create canyon-rimmed valleys with tall vertical cliffs. In some areas the streams have exposed underlying igneous rock to create “shut-ins” where water rushes through granite outcrops. This diversity of rock exposures has resulted in a diverse and unique flora, with many of the park’s 660 species of trees, shrubs, ferns, and wildflowers known from nowhere else in the state.

I first visited Hawn some 25 years ago. It quickly became one of my favorite spots for insect collecting and hiking. While most of my insect collecting activities now take place outside of Missouri, it remains one of my favorite places to hike. The 1-mile Pickle Creek Trail follows the lower banks of the stream, offering beautiful views of the sandstone cliffs and granite shut-ins, while the 6-mile north loop of the Whispering Pine Trail traverses the upper bluffs and through the 2,080-acre designated wilderness area. A 4-mile south loop can be added onto the north loop to create a spectular 10-mile hike. I have hiked these trails many times throughout the years, though not recently, and my daughters Mollie (11) and Madison (8) had never been there, so I decided it was time to return for a family day trip.

Pickle Creek flows through igneous granite “shut-ins”

The girls take a break while ascending to the bluffs

Lamotte sandstone cliffs overlooking Pickle Creek

The best views from the cliffs are during winter, while in spring the area abounds with native azaleas

An old tree root wad along Pickle Creek