No witty quote here — just a story about that time we almost got lost in the woods in the middle of winter with a seven week old.
Our son, Atlas, was born in January 2018 and changed our world for the better more than we would ever know. In March 2018 I was on week 7 of my 8 weeks of maternity leave when I started getting a bit of cabin fever. We decided to plan a roadtrip to check another highpoint off our list and start Atlas off on his own highpoint journey! We researched and found that Taum Sauk Mountain in Missouri was about a seven hour drive from Chattanooga and would be an easy hike with a 7 week old. We found a cabin not far from Taum Sauk Mountain State Park, loaded up the baby and the dogs, and made our way to Arcadia Township, MO. The drive was relatively boring in terms of scenery, it was winter so we didn’t expect too much. This isn’t a parenting blog so I won’t go into the details of traveling with a 7 week old, other than we found it to be a pretty easy age to travel with – eat, sleep, poop, repeat. Honestly, the dogs were more of a pain in the car than the baby! We arrived at our cabin later in the day so we decided to settle in and plan our hike for the following morning. It was a cold evening so we had a fire, played cards, and enjoyed being out of the house for a bit.
The next morning we drove just a few miles to Taum Sauk Mountain State Park. To our surprise the summit was about a five minute walk on a nice paved path through the woods. I read in the spring and fall the path is lined with wildflowers, but this was winter so there wasn’t much to see. There’s a plaque and an overlook with some nice views, but overall we were pretty underwhelmed to have come so far for a five minute walk.
On the same path as the highpoint is the trailhead to Mina Sauk Falls – the highest waterfall in MO. I’m a bit of a waterfall fanatic so we figured we’d get a bit more exercise and hike to the falls, which was a 2.9 mile hike out and back. The sign at the start of the trail is very specific… bring plenty of food and water and wear good shoes for the rocky terrain. I remember thinking… 2.9 miles is nothing, I’m wearing tennis shoes, and the baby is nursing so he doesn’t need anything special… we’ll be fine. See below picture, taken before I realized we were lost in the woods with no food, water, and the worst shoes ever.
The start of the trail is really nice, but it is NOT well marked and it’s really easy to get on the wrong path. Along with a few other folks we must have hiked for a mile in the wrong direction and completely bypassed the falls. We were on a path so I think there are some old or unofficial trails, and again… nothing is marked very well at all. The terrain is extremely rocky and uneven and the rocks are loose, so it was really hard to pay attention to our surroundings while also trying not to slip and fall while juggling a baby and two dogs. Once Atlas started getting really fussy (and COLD) and we realized how completely unprepared we were, we made the decision to turn around and head back in the direction we came, and hoped we would end up back on the right path. I say hoped, but Malcolm is extremely good with directions, like “by the looks of this tree the sun is shining from the north, which means we need to go this way…” good. Unlike me … I probably would have followed the other wrong directioners for another 5 miles before stopping to consider we might be lost. So, long story short we never made it to the falls and we almost gave our 7 week old hypothermia, but we did get another highpoint and all is well that ends well. And life lesson learned – when the sign says have plenty of food and water and wear good shoes, just freaking do it.
