Flying by the Seat of Our Plans

We decided to take a weekend for adventures, stargazing, and to take pictures of Laura in the wild.  Our first stop was a 40-minute hike into the Shawnee woods near Kinkaid Lake to a waterfall that we had found this spring while hiking.  We chose that waterfall because we knew it would likely not have any traffic.  We spent several hours at the waterfall, me behind the camera and Laura striking poses under the cascade in little to nothing.  Some of those pictures were edited later and can be found in this future post .  The outcome was incredible though and it was up there for the best I've ever seen Laura look. (addendum: Trail 390B to the waterfall is about 1.6 miles from Buttermilk Hill Road with several hill crossings.  It's a slightly shorter hike from John Lee Road, but that road was washed out when we went.  Coming from Buttermilk, the trail crosses several other little rain-fed brooks along the way.  They were a mere trickle on this t...

What a beautiful day to be outside!  Laura had been wanting to check out Elephant Rocks, a region of 1.5 million year old granite bounders and bedrock that form the base of this region of the Ozarks.  It was in the upper 70s when we got to Elephant Rocks midday.  I was surprised by the dozens of cars when we got into the parking lot, but then I remembered that it was a state park.  Funny how the designation can make such a difference.  Honestly though, the people were well-dispersed throughout the park and trails and we didn't feel like it was "too crowded". Actually, there was one "crowded" spot: at the namesake rocks.  The first picture below is from my phone.  The second picture was my solution to the crowd: a 292-second shot (technically four shots at 73-seconds each).  There are still a few "ghosts" on the left side, but it's almost like no one was there.  Folks kept waiting for me to take the picture and I told them that they...

  The turkey hunting proved difficult.  We had scouted for several days and found plenty of tracks in the sugar sand and mud, but few turkeys.  They were mostly quiet, even at first light.  We heard some here and there, but not enough to pinpoint.  Micah did find a roost and watched a few fly down and strut, but word was that the area he found it in would be a popular one among hunters come opener.  At least three different people we ran into mentioned the area by name without prompting. Strut marks from a gobbler dragging his wingtips along the ground while strutting for the hens We decided to forego the area with the only solid birds to avoid the crowd.  We picked an area that had no other vehicles around, but plenty of tracks.  I had also seen a hen while hiking and Micah saw a hen and jake.  We split up to maximize our odds.  I heard one distant (or so I thought) gobbler, but Micah heard three.  One was respondi...