Hiking The North Fork River Section Of The Ozark Trail

[Arofishing]

A group of us would like to do the 25 mile hike along the North Fork Section of the Ozark Trail, detailed here: http://www.ozarktrail.com/northfork.php. We would also like to do some trout fishing when possible, and the trail connects to the NFoW at mile 23, just NW of country road 362 (from hwy kk) on the east side of the river. Does anyone know where this would put us in reference to the river? I was thinking it might put us around Kelly or Lamb?

Link to the topos map for those interested: http://www.ozarktrail.com/maps/detailed/NorthFork3mile15to25.jpg.

[Gavin]

You will be several miles above the trout water...but there are smallmouth to be caugth up there...Kelly is off of CR 365 on the other side of the river.

[Arofishing]

Thank you Gavin. I wasn't sure whether Kelly was off of 365 or 374. That's a bummer. Another reason to do the Taum Sauk section I suppose.

[Gavin]

Could do the 11pt section...it starts up above Greer someplace and heads back up the hill at Hurricane creek...Some of the best rainbow water in the state. Might not be great now that the PI is out...Have fun.

[Arofishing]

Thanks Gavin! We had been looking at the 11 pt section, in fact, that was our initial choice. But for whatever reason (I guess from the pictures), I just assumed it was mostly bass water. That coupled with its scarcity of water (aside from the river) and lack of geographical features had us looking elsewhere. But it looks like you follow the river for almost 8 miles of trout water.

What is the "PI?"

Is it easy enough to wade?

[OzarksRiverman]

What is the "PI?"

Poison Ivy. And it's bad this year.

[Arofishing]

Oh, yeah it is. I already have it and I've been wearing waders and long sleeves. There is no hope for me, if I wanted to avoid it I'd just have to stay in doors all summer. Seriously, I bet there is not a week this summer when I don't have it. Most of it I've seen was already over my waist.

[Coldspring]

Arofishing, have you made this hike yet? I'm probably the "expert" of this group concerning the Ozark Trail. The actual North Fork Section of the OT only gets near the river at one point in the Devil's Backbone Wilderness south of Hammond's Camp on Hwy CC. The North Fork Loop of the Ridgerunner Trail travels along the river on the north side of Hwy CC for maybe 1/3 of a mile, with a side trail going down to the river. There would be smallmouth fishing. I don't know if it would be worth carrying fishing gear.

For Trout, the Eleven Point Section travels near the river downstream from Hwy 19 and Greer Spring for a 3-4 miles with a few accessible places.

I'm just a lightweight hiker that likes to cover distance in a hurry, and don't carry fishing gear, or anything unnesecary. I've never considered fishing very practical on most of the Ozark Trail. It depends on your speed and how much time you won't to take. It always sounds neat to think of combining a backpack with fishing, on a map, but by the time the water warms enough to not wear waders the Ozark forest turns into an insect and poison ivy invested subtropical jungle. I stay off the trail from June till late September.

I figure it's easier to do a little car based fishing before and after the hike. If you have any specific questions about the trail let me know.

[Arofishing]

Thanks Coldspring. i haven't done this upcoming hike yet, but the group has decided to the Taum Sauk section in mid May. My fly fishing friends and I still plan to do the Eleven Pt., time permitting. I'm really excited about the Taum Sauk despite there being no fishing. For one, it is supposed to be a contender for the prettiest hike in MO. And second, I'll be leaving MO in September, so I'd like to experience the best of what MO has to offer outdoors before I leave.

It's interesting that you say hiking and fishing generally don't combine too well. That was certainly my experience on the Current River section. We used our rods once, for about 40 minutes, and just ended up carrying all that extra and unnecessary fishing gear for the other 25 miles. Another problem was that the whole group was not into fishing, so they were more or less just waiting for us to get done. To top it off, the fishing wasn't good that early anyway.

I'm thinking that hiking/fishing *could* still work if we did it right. My plan for the Eleven Pt., again, assuming we get to it, is to camp for 2-3 days along that section you are speaking of (roughly McCormack to just above Turner's Mill). That way we could get a lot of fishing in to justify that extra weight. We might even be able to work it out so we can dump the fishing gear at McCormack (if we leave a car there). I think that could work well, but as you said, we are running out of time (poison ivy, overgrowth, bugs).