What to do on a beautiful April day???!!! Take a hike!!! So cliché, I know. After trying to coax my son Cole and my coworker Laura out for the morning, I gave up and shoved my German Shephard, Sammy into the car and took off for the 50-minute drive to Pomme de Terre State Park. Why 50 minutes for a 28 mile trip you may ask? Well I headed out in the wrong direction!!! I don’t know what I was thinking but I headed West instead of North. Just goes to show you that you can live somewhere for years and still get turned around especially when distracted by loading an excited animal into your vehicle and forgetting to check Maps.

Much to my dismay, Sammy gets carsick. She’s about 10 years old and hasn’t done much traveling, only short trips to the vet. So, I’m driving along, and she is puking in the backseat. Now normally I would have not been pleased, and may have had a few choice words for her, but this was my bright idea to take her for company so it’s on me.

Pomme de Terre is located in Hickory County north and slightly west of Buffalo, Mo. It’s a two-finger lake, beautiful any time of year and generally crowded in the summer with campers, boaters, and lake people in general. The Indian Point Trail has several trailheads, a map may be accessed here: https://mostateparks.com/page/89776/pomme-de-terre-state-park-trails and is a 3 mile moderately rated hike. The trail was generally well blazed with blue markers except for the jaunt out to Indian Point. Blue blazes were nowhere to be found, but the trail is well used and being on a point, well we just went with it.

One of the best things about hiking in the middle of the week in the spring is the absolute absence of any other person on the trail. We encountered no one, not one single soul. It was glorious, quiet except for birds and the occasional boat motor of enthusiastic fishermen and women. I found the trail easy to navigate and not difficult at all with a few damp spots from recent rains. Generally, I wear tennis shoes when hiking and a good pair of boots would have been welcome with this terrain which was also rocky in areas. I did remember to take my snacks this time and plenty of water for me and the dog. She does not like to drink out of the bottle, but I managed to get some fluid into her mouth during our rest breaks. 3 miles was a good prep for the Mother’s Day hike I’m taking in Arkansas this year to Hemmed In Hollow. I was hoping to get there last year, but circumstances with my car prevented that trip.

One thing I love about the Missouri State Parks website is that you can click on an icon for whatever you’re interested in doing at a particular park like hiking, fishing, or boating and it will immediately take you to that particular page on the website. Pomme de Terre has two hiking trails listed for their park, but Indian Point was the longest. Stockton Lake is my favorite along with Bull Shoals in Arkansas, but Pomme de Terre in the spring is quiet, waiting to come to life and ready to welcome us all.

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