We started out our Adventure day in Branson, Missouri at one of our favorite eaten spots. https://www.farmhouserestaurantbranson.com/ @ THE FARMHOUSE RESTAURANT.
It is our go to when we want homemade, stick to your rib's food. We couldn't decide on just one thing so we got everything.
Then it was time to get on the road to a hiking trail near Ponca, Arkansas. Just about an hour or so down 65 Highway. We never seem to realize when we cross the border, we always miss the sign, but for some reason we can start to tell we are there. The scenery just becomes gorgeous.
We stopped at the trail head Kip had picked out for us to hike on our 11th ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND ADVENTURE HIKE!!
But that was a no go, Arkansas had gotten some ice and snow a few days earlier and the entrance and parking was ice covered and on a downhill slope. While we had brought a shovel and kitty litter in case we got stuck we didn't want to actually go into a situation stuck, right off the bat. Plus, there is no cell service in many places we hike so calling for a tow truck would not happen.
We decided to just Adventure On and started driving down the road and what a WONDERFUL little discovery!!! We saw a tiny little shop that looked so rustic and quant. At first, we thought it was closed since it was off season for kayaking and canoeing but we saw the flashing OPEN sign as soon as we drove past, so we reversed into the parking lot.
IF you have NOT been to http://www.lostvalleycanoe.com/?page_id=71
THE LOST VALLEY CANOE & LODGING general store you must stop by if you are in that area. We visited with the most helpful lady, and she gave us maps and talked about all the trails in the area we did not know about, plus gave us some insider info that was great. I of course got my vacation T-shirt and Kip always gets a coffee mug from where we travel too. Our plan is one day to have a shelf in our kitchen dedicated to all his mugs from our hiking Adventures. We will be stopping there on all our trips in that area for sure.
Kip decided to pick the Lost Valley Trail a few miles down the road from the General Store. It was easy to find, and he thought would have some neat things for us to see and Adventure.
Once we got parked and got all the snacks loaded in my backpack and Kip loaded down with all the water, coffee, hot chocolate & Gatorade we set out to Adventure.
We started down the trail and ran into a Park Ranger. She was so friendly and shared so much information with us. We noticed she carried some spikey things for her boots and after we did the hike and had to go super slow on the icy and snowy parts, we will now be adding Hiking Shoe Spikes to our arsenal of hiking things we always keep with us.
I am fond of these pink ones :) https://a.co/d/bDEAhVc
We did bring flashlights with us and were able to hike about halfway back into the cave. Once you get through a snug part it really gets little and we would have had to belly crawl about 40 feet on our stomachs and me, myself gets a little claustrophobic so we headed back to daylight. You can hear at the very end my dismay when I saw how small the opening had gotten.. hahaha.......
After we left the cave, we traveled back down the pathway to the Subaru & headed back to our cabin to get ready for Day 2 of our hike.
Happy Hiking
Kip & Elizabeth Stetzler