I followed a vague map

to a treasure in the woods of Missouri.

To walk through the forest, following a little-used trail in complete solitude, and discover something interesting to explore - it’s rare for me. Most trails I visit are busy and near a city and are well documented.

This week, I had a great experience where there were no other people and no interpretive signage along the way to take away the sense of discovery. I took a picture of the map posted at the trailhead and decided to see if I could find the small spring marked with a tiny and mysterious blue dot, far from the river, following three turns of the trail. I thought it might be dry at this time of year as most of the smaller streams are.

When I have more internet bandwidth I’m going to upload three narrated videos to show you where I was and what I found on this five-mile hike. In the meantime, photos showing the river and the large spring at its edge.