Sam A. Baker State Park

We planned to hit the backpacking trail at 8 AM Saturday. We planned to use no technology through the weekend other than a camera: no alarm clocks, no GPS, no music. After setting up camp at 10 PM on Friday night and drifting into the land of nod with the bustling creek and open campground, we arose to the sun about a quarter way up the sky and to a friendly groundskeeper with stories for days. The groundskeeper has over 1,000 miles on his boots, a couple thousand on his skiis, and even after a pot of campfire coffee, we never quite caught his name, but his wisdom will never be forgotten.

Sam A. Baker is an equestrian and backpacking dream winding in the historic St. Francois Mountains 2 hours due south of St. Louis. The state park encompasses 5,323 acres with the St. Francois river and Big Creek winding through the upland Ozark wildlife. Acquired in 1926, the park was named for Governor Sam Aaron Baker. In the 1930’s the Civilian Conservation core (CCC), with their legendary masonry skills, came in and built out the structures throughout the park for public use. Amongst the structures they built out were three stone “lean-tos”, a typical structure built throughout the country in public parks by the CCC, for equestrians and backpackers to stay inwhile exploring the 14-miles of the Mudlick trail overlooking the Mudlick Conservation area.

The Mudlick Trail is a moderate hiking trail; the hiking and equestrian routes share a majority of the trail, and certain parts are designated for one or the other. The hiking route is marked with orange and the equestrian route marked with yellow markers throughout the trail as well as the coding on the map. The color designations mostly stay consistent throughout the trail (read: it is very easy to accidentally end up following the equestrian trail and loose the hiking route). Our plan was to use no technology through the weekend other than a camera:no alarm clocks, no GPS, no music. We hit a fork in the road about a mile into the trail and triple checked each other with the compass– we were totally going the right direction. After a couple hours of hiking, the topographic features seemed off from our planned route to the first lean-to atop the bluffs.

We stopped at the top of a peak to gain vantage while the sun was about 3/4 through the sky. The topography on the map did not match our route, and the path was leading off into miles of the equestrian route. With a lot of pain and regret, GPS was consulted: we were 4 miles out of the way with a little over an hour left of sun light. It was time to book it– and book it we did.

We made it to the lean-to 15 minutes before the last drop of sunlight vanished behind the bluff. Dexter helped us gather kindling and wood and we got camp set up. The lean-to had two separate fire places on each end; we lit one and put our tent on the other side. The fire heated the structure flawlessly and we were more than comfortable for camping outside on a cold November night.

We woke to watch the sunrise over the bluff and spent the early morning drinking our coffee and eating breakfast, taking in the vast beauty surrounding us. Consulting the map, we debated going another several miles to the backpacker’s camp and swimming hole, or hitting the shut-ins area on our way out. We opted for the shut-ins so we could spend more time exploring the trail we rushed through the day before.

After packing everything up back into our backpacks, we wandered up the hill to see the other two lean-tos spanning about a mile out. We turned back after that to go explore the parts of the trail we missed the day before. Were we to keep going past the third lean-to, we would have wandered down into the valley where the swimming hole and backpackers camp resides– which we would like to do this spring.

Sam A. Baker park was a beautiful weekend trip and we look forward to going back. The lean-to are only open to campers during the off-season so we hope to make it back before the end of May to enjoy the waterfalls and shut-ins. For our next trip, we will bring a battery powered alarm clock, and when in doubt about the trail, consult the GPS.