Harry S. Truman Lake - Exploring a Trio of Missouri Lakes

We planned to visit three lakes around Missouri on this ten-day trip. We finally got moved into our last camp site at our last lake named after a president with local ties--Harry S. Truman.

This was a cheap ten-day vacation since we enjoyed half-price senior rates on the already half-price off-season camping rates. That's just $5 per night here at Truman Lake. While the water was turned off at most of the campgrounds, we were learning more about where to get water. At Truman Lake, we camped at Sparrow Foot Campground, where the best entertainment were the local armadillos.

These animals are blessed with an armor exterior for protection because their poor eye site and hearing give them no warning of an approaching predator. They also are not warned of an approaching photographer, who got very close before the armadillo finally responded by jumping straight up into the air. This unusual movement surprised the photographer so much that by the time she finally snapped the picture, only the front legs were still in the air. Doesn't he look like he was smiling at Denisa's startled reaction to his startled reaction?

We rode our bikes around the camping areas, and visited with some very friendly campers. We also found that the campground hosts were very nice. But we never put the kayak in the water at this third lake of our trip. We thought finding pretty fall foliage was more fun than paddling at this stop.

We took a road trip one day, to the nearby town of Clinton, Missouri. This is the western terminus of the famous Katy Trail. An old railroad bed, it has been repurposed into a delightful biking and hiking trail.  Because the old trains couldn't pull loads up steep grades, it provides an almost flat trek across the state of Missouri. We noticed that the first miles of the trail run beside the highway, so we opted to drive on to the little town of Windsor to see a more remote section of the Katy Trail.

The section that led out of Windsor, Missouri, was completely shaded, and many of the trees were turning into their beautiful shades of fall. You might notice that we were not biking this popular bike trail. That's because we learned that transporting our bikes was not as easy as it used to be. They used to stay on the bike rack on the back of the pickup, so the bikes were ready to go wherever we drove. But now they are on the bike rack on the back of the trailer. To transport them to Windsor, we would have to unload the bikes, then unbolt and move the rack from the trailer to the pickup, then rebolt the rack and reload the bikes. When we finished, the whole rack had to be moved again from the pickup back to the trailer. It's a big job that we decided not to do this day. Denisa's foot was less swollen from its encounter with the distribution hitch, so she could finally put on a shoe. So we hiked on the Katy Trail.

We only walked a couple miles of the trail, then turned around and walked back. At our first intersection, we saw an interesting sign, "Horse-drawn vehicles prohibited." That's because we were in the middle of Missouri Amish country, where lots of horse-drawn vehicles are used for transportation.

We had a list of Amish businesses in the area, and after our walk we went exploring on the narrow dirt roads to find them. We have learned that the more horse poop you find on the road, the closer you are getting to the Amish communities. We stopped into several Amish grocery stores, and tried hard to remember that we had already splurged on a bounty of Amish goodies at our first stop in this trio of lakes. We were eating the Amish desserts with reckless abandon, and we even convinced ourselves that pumpkin crunch can count as a vegetable side-dish for a meal. 

It's been a great nine-nights of camping at lovely corp of engineer campgrounds on three of Missouri's lakes! But we were ready to get home. We might have been in a hurry to get back from all this camping to do some trick-or-treating with our two favorite goblins back home!

Chasing eagles at Pomme De Terre Lake

We spent three nights in the Outlet Campground off Lake Pomme De Terre. While we couldn't see the lake from our campground, we enjoyed the Pomme De Terre River that flows out of the lake. On our last day, we finally found time to kayak down this little river with almost no current.

This was the river that comes off the dam that forms Lake Pomme De Terre. If they decided to let water out of the dam this day, this glass-like river would suddenly have a current that would make it very difficult for us to paddle back home.

So we crossed our fingers and oars and hoped that we could easily paddle back to our campground when we decided to turn around. Until then, we were entertained by the animals along the river banks, like this big blue heron . . .

and the occasional turtle sunning on the logs in the river.

But the most fun was following an eagle that continued to lead us downstream. He would land on a branch over the river ahead of us, and then fly off about the time we got close enough to take a good picture. He continued to tease us so we continued to paddle.

With temperatures in the 70s and beautiful fall foliage, it was a great kayak trip. But we finally had enough sense to turn back toward home, even though we never got our picture of that eagle.

We paddled until we saw our new little trailer, hiding among the trees on the banks of the river.

On another day, we decided to kayak at the Pittsburg Corp of Engineer park at the very end of Pomme De Terre Lake. A big flock of migrating white pelicans joined us on the tip of the lake. While they look completely white when they are standing, their black wing tips show up when they fly overhead.

White pelicans with a backdrop of nice fall foliage made for a nice picture.

No motor boats can get to this tip of the lake, and we found lots of birds and turtles enjoying the peaceful solitude.

The cormorants didn't seem to mind when we coasted in close for a picture.

But we were especially interested in all the eagles that like this lake. We first spotted this one on the beach.

Then we spotted this younger eagle that was still sporting some brown feathers on its head. We were concentrating on getting close enough for a picture, and we completely lost track of how shallow the water was beneath our boat.

Mark was steering us into the right angle for Denisa to get a picture of that eagle in the sunlight framed by the red foliage. Then we suddenly came to a hard stop. We were grounded on a mud bank and we were stuck. We're pretty experienced at getting out of such jams, but this one was especially tricky. It was the kind of mud that we would sink up to our knees if we had to get out of the boat. So we worked and rocked the boat a long time before we managed to paddle ourselves out of this muddy muck. But we got the picture!

We enjoyed chasing the eagles at Pomme De Terre Lake. And we managed to "capture" this one in a picture. We have enjoyed our three days at Pomme De Terre--the "apple of the earth."

Pomme De Terre Lake - Exploring a Trio of Missouri Lakes

We are getting more practiced at hitching the trailer to the pickup. It was time to hitch up again and head to our second Missouri lake of this trip--Pomme De Terre Lake. We found a spot in another corp of engineer park, nestled in the trees and right along the river.

We were still learning about our weight distribution hitch and the best way to hook the pickup to the trailer. This day we learned a painful lesson. The weight distribution bars weigh over twenty pounds, and we had them leaning against the pickup so they would be easy to put in place. But while Denisa was loading some things in the back of the pickup, that three-foot-long bar crashed from its standing position and fell right on the top of her foot. Ouch!! If Denisa knew any cuss words, she would have used them! When she took off her shoe and sock to assess the damage, it was already bruising. Even though nothing seemed to be broken, this wasn't going to be good for our planned hiking!

So Mark had to do the rest of the hitching while Denisa hobbled around. It's a 40-minute drive from Stockton Lake to Pomme De Terre Lake, over hilly Missouri back roads. We took Road A through Donnegan, and today we had enough sense to not make any stops at Amish bakeries. Besides, there wasn't enough room in those parking lots that were designed with hitching posts for horses rather than RVs. We saw some lovely fall foliage on the drive, and found this popular river campground almost full on a Thursday. We took a picture down the Pomme De Terre River that was right behind our trailer. We decided we should kayak the river while we are camped here.

Since Denisa's foot was too swollen to put on her tennis shoes, it looked like she would be wearing crocs for the rest of this trip. But she did find that she could ride her bike. Before we left our nice spot along the river, we took a bike ride on the nearby trail.

It was a good day to ice a swollen foot, and cook out on our cast iron grill. Mark cooked a whole package of bacon, then some pork chops and hamburgers. While we really like the idea of the bracket on the side of the trailer that holds the heavy grill, we found that we don't like the grease splatters on the side of the trailer after cooking. We also found out that Denisa seemed to forget to pack a lot of the things we needed for our planned meals. She is used to traveling in a motor home where we have everything with us. The bad news was that she forgot to pack soft butter, salad dressing, hot dog buns, mayo, mustard, and hot sauce. So this day we had BLTs with your choice of either guacamole or raspberry jelly as a condiment. The good news was that we had lots of Amish desserts to eat with everything!

The next morning Denisa put on her stylish crocs, and we decided to try some short hikes. We visited another free Missouri state park. We tried the 2.5-mile-long Cedar Bluff Trail in Hermitage State Park. Amongst the cedars on the Cedar Bluff Trail were lots of maples that were at their peak fall color.

We were hiking slower since Denisa was hobbling along on her hurt foot. But this was an especially slow hike since we were stopping to take so many pictures.

We walked to the end of the trail at the swim beach, for more views of fall foliage across the lake.

That state park and that trail were so successful, we decided to try another. So we drove to Pittsburg State Park to try the Indian Point trail. Denisa's crocs made this 3.2-mile trail that was much faster because it was lined by oaks trees with brown leaves--rather than the colorful maples that we had enjoyed earlier. That means that we didn't need to stop to take so many pictures on this trail. We did have to take a photograph of some of the different-shaped leaves that we found on the forest floor. Even though they have different shapes, Google plant identifier thinks they all came from oak trees.

The turn-around point of the Indian Point Trail was a peninsula out in the water that looked over Pomme De Terre Lake. We had to look up the meaning of this unusually-named lake. We found that Missouri must have some French roots that gave this water the French words meaning "apple of the earth."

After hobbling through the first two days at Pomme De Terre Lake, we're ready for another form of transportation that will rest Denisa's swollen foot. But we'll talk about that on another blog soon.

Stockton Lake - Exploring a Trio of Missouri Lakes

We were itching to spend more time in our new Rockwood Geo Pro, so we cleared ten days on our calendar and planned a longer trailer trip. With our senior national park pass, we get half-price camping in Corp of Engineer parks. During the off-season, those campgrounds are already discounted, so we are averaging $5 per night for camping fees. This is going to be a very inexpensive vacation with some beautiful views!

We are way behind in blogging about our travels, so you should know that this trip started October 21, 2024. That's the time of year when reservations are no longer needed at Corp of Engineer campgrounds. Sites are available on a first-come-first-served basis, and arriving in the middle of the week will get you the best site in the campground with views of Lake Stockton out your window and no neighbors to share it with. We were blessed with temperatures in the 70s. The trees around us were filled with squirrels, and we watched as a hawk swooped down to snatch one very near us. We also watched eagles flying over the lake. We liked Stockton Lake!

If this sounds too good to be true, just know that our first long trip wasn't without a few hiccups. One of the reasons for the cheaper rates during the off-season was that water had been turned off at most campgrounds. Knowing that, we had researched and found that water was available at the Stockton Fire Department in town. By inserting a quarter in the machine, we could get 50 gallons of water from the fire station. We pulled into the spot beside the fire house and found the water hose. In our research we never saw anything that warned us that the water would blast out of a three-inch hose with no good way to get it into our one-inch water tank opening. But we tried anyway. In the picture below, you will see that Mark was drenched, trying to hold that water hose as it sprayed everywhere but into our water tank. It's a good thing it was a warm October, because both of us were wet by the time we gave up. We put in three quarters, using three different strategies, but only got a few gallons into the tank. We were wearing the rest of the water. We're guessing that the Stockton firemen have a hidden camera somewhere, and they were all chuckling at our watery escapades.

The next day we drove from the corp of engineer park to the Stockton Lake State Park. We like it that Missouri doesn't charge any day-use fees to visit their state parks. They are one of the few states that still has free admission. We decided to hike the Lakeview Trail and loop back on the Umbru Ridge Trail.

The loop was 9.5 miles long with only one lake view. The rest of the time we were in the trees. But we weren't alone in the trees. We saw two dozen armadillos, and heard another dozen in the woods beside the trail. We also saw three deer, a group of turkeys, and a snake.

The box turtle crossing the trail was happy to stop and pose for a close-up. With no water views, it was a rather boring trail. So we were glad to be entertained by some animal encounters. We stopped to eat our picnic lunch in the middle of this long trail.

We were also entertained by some geo-caching. We found several hidden along our trail. To the untrained eye, this might just look like any snarl of trees along any old trail. But if you look in the very center of the picture, you will see an old ammunition box filled with geo-caching treasures and a slip of paper to sign to prove that you found it.

Another geocache was hidden beside a fallen log. It's a small cache you can see in the lower right hand corner of the picture below.

Before we left the state park, we drove to check out their campgrounds. We were thrilled to see that their water spigots were still operational inside the park. So we filled every little bottle and jug we had with us. We understood how precious water was since we didn't have any for this first stop!

The second day we had beautiful blue skies, but winds that were 10-12 miles per hour. So we rowed our kayak to a part of Stockton Lake with high rock walls that protected us from the wind. If you look closely at that rock wall behind Mark, you will see some animals have made their homes there. Can you guess what animal it was?

Did you guess squirrel? We saw the movement among the rocks, and we realized that squirrels were darting along the seams in the rocks that connected their homes. Normally we see them flying around tree branches, but those same sure-footed skills were good among the rocks as well.

This old rock quarry was recommended as a good place to kayak by Denisa's cousin. It was also nice that it was ringed by leaves that were showing off their fall colors.

We were entertained by the little birds that were skittering along the rocky shore line . . . 

as well as the big birds standing like statues among the rocks.

We loved the combination of blue skies, rock walls, and changing fall foliage. We have wandered into more of God's wonders at Stockton Lake. Mark dropped Denisa off on the rocky shore and paddled out to take a picture from the water. 

From her spot on that rocky ledge, Denisa could take a picture of Mark paddling solo in the quarry.

It was another wonder that he returned to pick her up. It was a third wonder that he didn't complain when we had almost paddled home and Denisa realized that she had left her life jacket on that rocky ledge. Yes, we had to row all the way back, make the tricky landing, and retrieve the life jacket. It's the pits getting old and forgetful!

On our kayaking loop, we paddled up into the cove that housed our campground. It's always fun to find our RV from a view on the water. The campgrounds are pretty empty during this week in October.

On our drives in the Lake Stockton area, we saw some of our favorite signs. We love sharing the road with the horse-and-carriage Amish citizens.

It's a good day when you can see beautiful fall trees and a carriage on the same road.

We stopped when we saw a tent beside the road with a handwritten sign proclaiming "Fresh Pumpkin Day." We found out that pumpkin day was actually yesterday, so all the leftover goodies were half-price now. The baker kept retrieving things from the cooler to tempt us. We love buying at Amish bakeries, and we love a good deal even more. We bought a fresh pumpkin cake roll, pumpkin crunch, pumpkin bars, chocolate chip cookies, apple crunch, fresh apples, and zucchini. Our total was $20! We should have turned around and went home right then, but we were actually heading to the tiny intersection called Donnegan, Missouri, just one more mile down the road. We went to the Ozark Country Kitchen, where we found half-price on monster cookies and carrot cake. And who could resist Mark's favorite pecan sticky buns and apple butter? And Denisa loves banana cake bars. Further down the road we found an Amish discount grocery where we always stock up on the granola bars we eat when we are hiking. 

We came home with a shameful load of Amish goodies! Most of this would usually go in the freezer, to be nibbled out on a more leisurely pace. But it's too much for our tiny trailer freezer. So what should we do? Denisa set out to invite everyone in this campground to an Amish dessert tasting party. We invited all our neighbors and the ranger for a 3:30 Amish happy hour. We had a good time, but we didn't even make a dent in this stash of goodies!

After consuming way too many calories, we needed some more exercise. So we headed out on a bike ride.

The sun was low in the sky, lighting up the rock walls that surround the quarry where we were kayaking earlier.

This bike loop is called the Crab Tree/Quarry Loop. We would highly recommend this combination of lake views and shaded fall foliage paths. It was almost dark by the time we finished our loop.

That bike ride was so much fun that we decided to do it again the next morning. The quarry was lit up by the morning sun this time. 

The sumac bushes were showing off their bright red leaves as we headed back to our camp site. We have enjoyed our time at Stockton Lake--the first of a trio of Missouri lakes we explored this trip.