Best. Day. Ever.

This was Sunday July 23.

I was fortunate to have a backwoods Missouri mountain man as my personal tour guide.
Just kidding Mike.
Kind of.
Lol.

He knew the short cuts, fire roads, secret spots, forgotten tiny mills, and non-public cold spring access.
At one point a bobcat or lynx crossed our path. I saw armadillos for the first time.

Today he took me to Two Rivers, Rocky Falls, and Big Springs.
Did I miss anything Mike? :)

Two Rivers.

Tiny forgotten mill. The bobcat ran across the gravel road just before we stopped here.

Covert guerrilla camping spot.

No photo at Rocky Falls. It took me forever to peel off my sweat soaked clothes and change into my swim suit. We sat in the water at Rocky Falls a long time. When we left, I geared up with only my suit under my riding clothes. We had a heat advisory WARNING today from the National Weather service: "temperatures will warm into the mid 90s area wide this afternoon. Combined with abundant humidity, heat index values are expected to range from 103 and 107 degrees during the

  afternoon hours."

Yeah, we rode in that, and me in full gear.

Big Spring. 286 MILLION gallons flow up out of the ground from a subterranean river.
Ozark National Scenic Riverways is home to more first-magnitude springs in one area (springs with daily flows over 65 million gallons of water) than anywhere else on earth.