Length/Rating: 11 Miles/Most Difficult

Other Recreation Activities: Primitive camping, birdwatching, photography, backpacking. Hunting is allowed during season. Nearby Facilities: Noblett Lake Recreation Area, North Fork Recreation Area, Devil's Backbone Wilderness, Grand Gulf State Park, Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

North Fork River Section of the Ozark Trail extends eleven miles from Blue Hole to Pomona trailhead, about a mile from the town. Blue Hole trailhead is on Ridge Runner National Recreation Trail to the west of Highway AP. At the paved parking lot, a memorial plaque informs the visitors of a fire, set by an unknown arsonist in 1971, that climaxed with a nine mile fire line which eventually burned over 1,300 acres of timber. From here to Lovers Leap is one mile of winding path through steep hillsides. Halfway, you cross the scenic Dry Creek. Contrary to its name, the creek could be filled with slow moving clean water.

You walk in the oak and hickory forest; among the hardwoods there are some gigantic shortleaf pines. An assortment of understory species are found here, including farkleberry and fragrant sumac. In deep shade near the ground, oaks sometimes produce unusually large leaves, to catch more of the scant sunlight. These leaves look like the seven dwarfs from a Waft Disney movie. You may also see many wildflowers, such as blackberry, horsemint, fire pink, and false dandelion. The Venus' looking glass is purple, the wild rose bright magenta. Flowering spurge has tiny white flowers. Fleabane daisy is also white and slightly larger. Wild sweet William and Ohio horsemint add to the joy of seeing spring flowers.

Lovers Leap is located near a section marker placed by a Forest Service crew in 1974. At this spot a few huge rock slabs jut into the air. You may carefully walk on top of them and enjoy a spectacular view of the hardwood forest underneath. Sighting of a tall tree which houses a rookery of great blue herons is but one of the many treats this remote wooded area provides. If you have a pair of binoculars, you may even see a mother feeding her youngsters under the watchful eyes of a hawk.

The trail then twists through Kenyon Hollow where the overgrowth reveals years of undisturbed vegetation. For example, one Y-shaped small tree has grown around a fallen branch about two inches in diameter. Apparently no one has touched the deadwood since it fell. In a few years, when the branch has decayed, there will be a perfectly round hole between the two trunks of the living tree. At another place, an older tree has captured a piece of rock the size of an attach case; the trunk looks like melted cheese. Here, time is measured by years, not days or hours.

The parameter of the trail offers a rich variety of pleasure. From the country roads, open fields are home for turkey, coyote and black snake. Rocks, soil and decaying matter from the top soil in many areas appears to be more fertile than that found in most Ozark areas. Ozark Trail is worth following, nature is penetrated by a ribbon of enjoyment through a densely wooded area in Missouri. It will one day connect St. Louis to the Arkansas state line in south central Missouri.

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