Ouachita Trail, Section 6

Ivy the Poodle has never gone backpacking, so we thought we should fix that problem.  Our unicycling friend Alyssa decided to make it her first backpacking trip as well.  We chose section six of the Ouachita Trail because it's an easy hike with accessible water.  And on beginner trips, it's nice to use a trail shelter and leave the tents at home. 

What a pretty, pretty weekend!  It was warm and pleasant hiking; in fact, we had to stop along the way so that Jarion could adjust Kathy's pants by cutting out the too-warm linings.

It's unfortunate that some of the best weekends for autumn hiking are also hunting weekends.  We do what we can to get out anyway, avoiding super-popular hunting areas and being sure that we wear orange.  Friends have cautioned us that we should keep bright colors on Hayduke year-round, since he looks a little bear-ish.

Jarion just looks like a guy with orange hair and a matching vest.

And Alyssa looks like a huge grin with a person attached to it.  She was great company on the hike.  Her inexperience showed in what she packed - 45 pounds of lotion bottles and glass jars of salsa and who knows what other crap - but she's strong and tough and cheerful and she sleeps like a rock.  We teased her about her ridiculous array of food and bathroom supplies, and she took it with a smile.  She and I walked alone a bit, without packs, to tag a bit of trail I hadn't hiked yet, and she just about wore me out. 

Hayduke has become a good trail dog.  He hikes reliably off leash and in line (provided there aren't streams or rivers or gross wildlife ponds to wallow in.)  He knows his place, between Bryan and I.  In fact, he's so particular about this that we've had to change our own preferences - I typically hike in the back of a group, but Hayduke makes himself such a nuisance by running back to "check on" me (crowding into the other hikers along the way) that I've had to just give up and hike behind Bryan.

Mandy's stepped into my usual role, without being asked.  She took to the back of the group on this trip, hiking with the slowest person.  "The person in the back should never hike alone" she said, and took care that they never were.

Ivy had a fabulous time.  She looks like a fussy poodle, but she really enjoys being a dog sometimes.  She wanted to be at the front, watching for creatures to smell and chase, and for the most part she stayed with the group pretty well.  She was really good in camp, though predictably sleeping in a giant doghouse with all her friends was a little more excitement than she could handle for the whole night.  There was only one "hey, have you seen Ivy lately?" scare, but fortunately, it turned out just fine.  By the end of the trip, her poodle-fur was dirty and full of leaves and ick, and she was a very happy girl.

What a nice trip.  We changed clothes along the highway and ate a good supper and were home in time for bed.  Backpacking.  Autumn.  Friends.  Dogs.  Good.

Ozark Highlands Trail, Section 2

Last weekend we hiked the second section of the Ozark Highlands Trail, from White Rock Mountain to Cherry Bend, with our good friends Britt and Debbie. 

The timing was perfect to celebrate Britt's retirement.   After a long career caring for elephants in several states, and one last sad and frustrating year at the Little Rock zoo, he said good-bye to the animals on Thursday.  We hiked a few miles together on Friday, and then set up camp near a pretty stream. We made cherry cheesecakes and hung a makeshift "Happy Retirement" banner near the campfire and drank wine together in the dark.

Congratulations, friend.  You chose a career in something you loved, something that allowed you to work hard and keep learning.   You chose family over money and you chose moving forward over standing still.  You made animals' lives better and you made people smile.  We're looking forward to your next adventures, and we hope you'll share some of them with us.

Backpacking with Hayduke and Isabel

Our friend Isabel just turned five, but she's been outside a lot.  Her parents are both active, outdoor people - they both cave, and Amy runs and backpacks, and Spike hunts a lot - so Isi's quite accustomed to sleeping in a tent, to eating noodles while sitting on rocks, to peeing in the woods.  No problem.  Isabel is comfortable in the big wide world. 



So it was no surprise that Isi's first backpacking trip was a resounding success.  We'd been planning it for months.  We met up at Fairview campground on Friday night and did a quick car-shuttle before dropping into the Ozark Highlands Trail near Ben Hur.



Isabel carried her own snacks and jacket.  She borrowed one of Mandy's hiking poles.  And Woofie came along to, clipped to Isi's backpack.  We poked along the trail looking at stuff, and the creek crossing wouldn't have bothered her at all, except that it's still early in the spring and the water's still really, really cold.  So she hitched a ride.



Since we'd planned low hiking mileages and lots of playing-around time, we thought this would be a good first backpacking trip for Hayduke too.  He doesn't like water a lot, but he was a good sport about the crossings.  Once in the water, I think he figures he might as well just swim to the other side.



Later we realized that this was very likely the first time he'd ever been in water so deep.  How many of us have a photograph of the very first time we went swimming?



We had lots of time in camp for naps and talking.  There were ticks everywhere, but the weather was pleasant and the company was good.  Isabel has a great memory for places, and the next morning when we left camp, she's the one who found the double-blazed trail intersection she'd seen the day before, and led us back toward our car, counting blazes as she went.



On Sunday, we finished our hike in plenty of time to visit some waterfalls in the neighborhood.  First we went to Falling Water Falls and splashed around for awhile.  When the creek is up, this is a popular spot for kayak people to practice (going over the falls), but in lower water conditions, it's fun to walk along the rocks above the little falls, or sit at the edge of the pool below.  This trip, we found a really neat spot where the bottom of a tree trunk has made something like a little playhouse, all open to the sky.  It even has windows.



We also visited Six Finger Falls, though due to road construction we had to walk along the road for a mile or so to get there.  Hiking and playing are hard work for a puppy, and Hayduke had to take lots of naps in the sunshine.  All in all, it was a great weekend.  We loved spending time with Amy and getting to know Isabel.  Both our 'preschoolers' did a great job on their very first backpacking trips. 

Kathy's First Backpacking Trip - Caney Creek

Our good friend Kathy is a good campground-camper, but had never backpacked. She likes being outside, but she'd never actually carried all her stuff on her back and spent the night in the woods far away from everything. So we all decided that we should fix that. We picked her up after work on a Friday and drove to Shady Lake campground to spend the night and be ready for an early start on Saturday.



We parked the car at the Buckeye Trail trailhead and started our hike. The day was warm and breezy, perfect weather for a first backpack trip. Usually, trails in Arkansas tend to have a lot of up-and-downing, so a morning cruise along a flat ridgetop with nice breeze and good views isn't very common here.



The trail stayed high for several miles before starting its steep decent to Caney Creek.



Kathy slipped once coming down off the ridge, but apart from that our hike was pleasant and uneventful. We intersected the Caney Creek trail near Katy Falls.



Kathy had been a little concerned about our water situation. She'd never used a water filter to filter creek water before, but a good explanation of the process made her feel better. Kathy and Mandy pumped water for the group while Bryan and I scouted around a bit to find a good camping spot. Click the photo to see the panorama in a larger size.



These violets were growing on the edge of the trail.



The best spot we found for camp was across the creek at a spot deep enough we didn't want to wade through. Scooting across a big fallen tree, Bryan lost his balance and scraped himself badly on the bark. He managed to land feet-first in the water, keeping his gear and camera dry, but at the expense of a lot of lost skin on the inside of his arm.



Relaxing in camp feels even better when you've worked hard to get there. I'd brought my hammock just because I knew that Kathy liked it so much.



Kathy's knee was sore on Sunday from her twisty fall the day before, but we hiked out along the Caney Creek trail without many problems. This trail has lots of creek crossings which can be good or bad depending on the time of year.



Mandy and Kathy waited at the trailhead, one resting and the other memorizing pi for bonus points on Monday. (She learned 78 digits.) Bryan and I left our packs with them and walked up the road to retrieve the car.



We stopped again at the dam at Shady Lake. Bryan stayed there while the rest of us backtracked to retrieve Kathy's glasses, which she'd left on the trailhead sign while changing into clean clothes. He took some great photos at the spillway before we returned with the glasses and finally headed home, with a well-deserved stop in Glenwood for a top-notch Italian supper.

Tent Cleaning

Seeing as how this blog's name is "Past Tents", you shouldn't be surprised to find out that we are frequent tent USERS but we're not very good about maintenance. We tend to leave our tents crammed into their stuff sacks for weeks after a camping trip, without airing them out or cleaning them at all.

Finally, we had enough of stinky tents and washed all four of them this afternoon. We scrubbed them down with soapy water, rinsed them, and even soaked each piece in Mirzyme to get rid of that wet-tent smell. We hung our strange laundry on the backyard line to dry in the breeze. Worked like a charm.

Ozark Highlands Trail: Trip 1

Last winter, we hatched a plan to backpack the whole Ozark Highlands Trail with our friends Britt and Debbie. While we've all hiked a ton, none of us has spent much time on the OHT.  One weekend trip each spring and one each fall should be enough to finish the 225-mile trail by the time Mandy graduates from high school.

We want to do the trail sections in order, from west to east.  We started walking at Lake Fort Smith State Park.

Britt is super-active and very strong - he hikes a lot, and runs half marathons.  But a stroke six years ago left him more or less unable to feel what the right side of his body is doing, so everything he does requires a lot of concentration.  This is the first backpacking Britt has done since the stroke, and he had to adjust to the additional weight of a pack.  One little moment of inattention resulted in a nasty spill that nearly knocked me down, too, and he cut his hand badly where he landed on a rock.

It's really too early in the spring for creek crossings to be pleasant, but we swapped to water shoes and got across.  On the other side of the stream, we had lunch while we waited for our feet to dry out enough to put socks and boots back on.

There were lots of little silly moments too.  Mandy's new trail name is 'seventeen' because of the shape of the scratches on her left leg from a serious altercation with a bramble bush.  Debbie injured herself while pooping - actually, the injury was incurred by some complicated problem with her folding shovel, but this is an unimportant detail.  Someone got lost outside their tent semi-naked in the dark.  We won't tell you who.  (Here's a hint:  it wasn't me.)

Mandy did a great job of being independent this weekend.  Even just a year ago, she had to be prompted to do nearly everything when we camped with her.  When her tent was set up, we had to tell her to put in her pad, and then her sleeping bag.  She had to be reminded and helped, a lot.  But this weekend, suddenly, she was almost completely autonomous.  We'd look up from setting up our own tent to find that hers was already standing.  I'd finish changing into my warmer evening clothes, and realize that she'd already changed, too.  It's nice to watch her being capable and independent.

We had a good weekend, doing good things with good people.  Sometimes I wish I could take a snapshot of a feeling, the way we capture pictures of trees and waterfalls.  I wish I could save those memories in a scrapbook, to remember feeling cheerful and content and loved and at peace.

Goals for 2010, Goals for 2011

We don't really do New Years' Resolutions at our house - we're just as likely to begin an exercise program in March, or set goals to be more organized in August, or try to eat better in October.

One thing we have been doing, though, is to set some specific goals for biking and hiking and 'bag nights' - nights spent in sleeping bags - for each year.  This means that these goals are specific numbers to work toward rather than a soft idea (camp and ride more).

You can click on the graphic below to see how we did in 2010.  Go ahead, your eyes aren't good enough to read that tiny print.

Boy Free Backpacking in the Irish Wilderness

This autumn's Boy-Free Backpacking Trip was the first weekend in November, in celebration of Amy's having taken the PE test the weekend before.  It was planned by Miss Pic the Iowa Chick, and it couldn't have been better. Well, it could have been better but that didn't have anything to do with Pic.  She chose to have us spend parts of three days in the Irish Wilderness in Oregon County, Missouri. Everyone from last spring's trip was there again (Mandy and I, Debbie and Amy, Pic and Sue) and we were joined by Amber, Kathy, and Patti.  And lots of snacks, including Godiva pumpkin truffles.

Ouachita Trail, Section 6

Several polo players have been saying they'd like to go backpacking, and somehow our schedule shifted and gave us a free weekend, and we thought that sounded like a good plan. Bryan brought maps, I brought food, and Mandy brought plastic pirate gear.

Colorado Vacation: Part 5 - Long's Peak - Foiled Again

This is a multi-part trip report.  If you haven't already you should start with Part 1. Remember that you can click on any of the photos to see larger versions of them.

"DON'T LET BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS DICTATE YOUR FUTURE" is written in Sharpie inside the left-hand stall in the women's bathroom at the Rock Inn Mountain Tavern in Estes Park.  "LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE IT" says another note on the same door.  I'm not sure I've ever seen better advice in bathroom graffiti.

Finally, we were back at the Rock Inn - Bryan and Mandy have been looking forward to this for a year.  It was still dark and friendly, they still sourced almost everything locally, and they still had great cheeseburgers.  The guy who took us to our seat was wearing swim trunks, though the bike with the crash pad strapped to it wasn't parked outside.

Colorado Vacation: Part 3 - Tonahutu Meadows, and Back

This is a multi-part trip report. If you haven't already you should start with Part 1. Remember that you can click on any of the photos to see larger versions of them.

The sites were full when we arrived at Timber Creek campground, and it seemed likely that we'd have to drive all the way back to Grand Lake and search for a place to stay.  But the campground hosts said there was someone who'd share a site, and so we met Sarah, a 25-year-old kindergarten teacher from Ft. Collins.  It turned out that she'd grown up in Mayflower, Arkansas.  As we set up our camp next to hers, we had a nice talk about her hometown, and about climbing and hiking.  The campfire program, about women important to the history of the Park, was interesting.

Boy-Free Backpacking Trip

Last fall's all-girl backpacking trip was such a success, Amy and I began planning a second one. I was busy in March, and she was busy all April and most of May, so this weekend before Memorial Day was the first we could use. I reserved the group camp at Blanchard Springs for Friday night, figuring that it would be an easy place for everyone to find. (Plus it has a cool shelter cave, and is only $10 a night, which is amazing.) Debbie and I pulled in just at dark to find Pic and Sue there waiting for us. Amy arrived at bedtime.

Saturday morning, after breakfast and packing, we ran up to the visitors center for parking passes and a map to help find the upper trailhead where we needed to start. We ended up with four maps, all of which looked completely different, and all of which indicated completely different road names for access to the trailhead. (In this area, roads have county numbers, forest service numbers, logging company numbers, as well as names involving actual words.) Any intersection may be marked with zero, one, or eleven road signs, any of which may or may not be visible above the weeds or actually have anything to do with the maps of the area. It took us awhile to find the turnoff to the trailhead. The mixup was clearly my fault, since I hadn't planned well, but the other women were great sports about it.



We were glad to be finally at the trailhead, so we unloaded our gear, threw it across our backs, and launched ourselves down the trail. Launched ourselves so fast, in fact, that we didn't have time for a group photo, and I completely forgot my poles leaning up against Debbie's truck. About a quarter mile into our hike, I sent the rest of the group ahead while I flew back to the truck for them. Starting out again, I nearly stepped on a HOLY SHIT THAT IS A HUGE RATTLESNAKE. I waited on the trail for him to move, and I told myself it was to see his rattle, to be certain my identification of his markings was correct. But really, it was because I could not move.

It was a hot, hot day, and humid, and it's happened quickly this spring, so we aren't accustomed yet to the Arkansas summer. Fortunately, four-year-old Izzy had helped Amy pack, so she wasn't as bothered by the heat.



The extension to the Sylamore trail is new and very overgrown, largely because it's been closed and underused due to damage from a recent ice storm. There were times I felt that we were walking through a rain forest.



I know Sue as a caver, but I had no idea that she's also quite an accomplished bird-person. She spent the weekend listening for bird calls and identified quite a long list of birds just by their songs. She carried a beautiful Sibley guide along.



At Cole Fork, we stopped for lunch. There's a road crossing here, though there's not much of a road. We ate lunch and rested next to the little creek, and an LEO stopped by to inquire whether to cars parked there were ours. He kept asking silly questions: where had we parked our cars? (At Cripple Turkey.) Did we have cars on the other end of the hike? (Yes, sir.) Where was that? (Blanchard.) Did we leave them in the day use area? (Yes, sir, right where we were told to, with day parking passes on the dash.) We asked him some questions, which he didn't know the answers to. We invited him to eat a plant we found. Amy said "He doesn't know what it is, he has a gun." We had the very clear impression that he wanted us to be doing something wrong.



The extension trail apologizes for its difficulty by sharing its waterfalls with those who visit it. There are two very nice little waterfalls on the ten mile extension, both tucked into pretty little shelters, both big enough to bucket water to filter, both just right for sweaty hikers to stand under.

Six o'clock found us lined up on logs, close together, in a high little pocket of cell phone coverage. Sue cursed quietly at her phone, since she'd been missing work-related calls all day. While she took care of serious business, Amy gave her father instructions on helping four year old Izzy with bathroom things, and pic sang happy birthday to her boyfriend. I leaned gingerly over Sue, deep in conversation, and tried to disentangle Mandy's earring from her pack strap.



We hiked down into the creek bottom, tired and ready for supper and a swim. The campsite we had in mind, which had looked so perfect last October, was completely overgrown and terrible. We found a likely-looking gravel bar and crossed the Sylamore to set up camp there. After cooling off in the creek, Mandy and Debbie set up a bear bag line while the rest of us pitched tents and started supper.

Of the five adults on the trip, four of us brought wine, and the fifth only decided not to at the last minute. We enjoyed cabernet sauvignon with supper and pinot grigio with dessert. I've decided that I despise all dehydrated backpacking meals, and in protest made a lovely onion/mushroom/garlic pizza on a Pocket Rocket. I also made six individual chocolate pudding pies, which I thought was hilarious, at least after drinking wine all evening.



We realized at some point that Amy was actually drinking wine out of a plastic cup with a big cross on it, from some long-forgotten church event. This, like the pie, was made much funnier by the fact that we were all drinking wine. Much later we discovered that a slug had pooped in the cup.



Pic announced during the evening that this had been her longest backpacking day ever. I was completely shocked--she'd done beautifully, even with a heavy pack, extra layers of clothes (she's very allergic to poison ivy) and a harder-than-expected trail. We pointed out that the next day, at eleven miles, would let her set that record two days in a row.



After the moon set behind the wooded hills, Mandy was the first to announce "I'm going to bed." "Why?" we asked. "Because I am a little kid." I guess she thought we'd forgotten. Later, Debbie and Amy managed to soundlessly raise all our food and trash into the trees while I bathed and Sue and Pic slept.



Morning dawned clear and pretty on our private creek.I woke to find that Sue had already retrieved our bear bags, and I put on my boots and took a few photos while our camp began to stir. Sue requested, from her tent, that we repay her by making her some coffee. I think I heard three people volunteer.



Mandy had some trouble getting started, too, but a good breakfast helped us all and it wasn't long before we crossed the creek again to start toward Barkshed. (It was at this point that, balanced strangely with a heavy pack, I almost fell off a tall rock onto my head, but I'm not going to tell that story because it's extremely stupid.)



The Barkshed campground, even with its usual redneck population and pit toilet, was a welcome sight. No stranger to pit toilets, Amy was well prepared to visit this one.



I decided to 'pack heavy' so that Mandy could be light on the second day, which allowed her to hike in sandals. She enjoyed being able to wade (or jump) into the creek anytime, without worrying about shoes and socks.



The section of trail between Barkshed and Gunner Pool is my favorite Stone County trail, and one of my top three in Arkansas. It's beautiful, and it's interesting, and it's easy. We all enjoyed it after the overgrown jungle of the extension. We stopped at the swimming hole just before Gunner to have lunch, spread out in the sandy shade above the creek. There were a few other swimmers, but it wasn't at all crowded, and most of us got into the creek to cool off before eating.



Sue started first, and we all trailed across the bridge at Gunner and through the campground to take the turn in the trail to head toward Blanchard Springs. Debbie and Mandy and I hiked in the middle, with Amy and Pic working on their wildflower catalog in the rear. Just as I caught a glimpse of Sue's pack, two deer ran down the hillside behind us, faster than I'd ever seen deer run. What had spooked them? Debbie thought they were being chased by something big, and I was glad that we were all together right then so I could be confident that everyone was safe. When we caught up to Sue she had three more birds for me to add to her list. Amy reported having seen a beaver.

We saw a turtle along the trail in this section, and a black snake. Mandy seldom hiked with me, but was usually nearby. I heard funny conversations: "Is it poisonous?" "No." "Oh, good. Can I pick it up?" "No."



Not long after this stop, the trail turned onto an old logging road and headed uphill. And uphill, and uphill, and uphill, up what must have been the longest hill in the county. It was hot, and we were tired, and grateful that we had only another mile or two to hike. Amy, Sue, and Debbie made a group and went a little faster; Pic and Mandy and I trailed behind a little. By the time we reached the top, I was convinced that we'd lost the trail turnoff, and I was right. We continued on a bit and found that not only was the condition of the road improving quickly, but that we could hear traffic noise close by. We decided that since we still didn't know where the turnoff was, we'd be best served by just hiking out to the road to meet up with our friends at the ending trailhead, so that's what we did.



The last couple of miles on pavement was hard for me. My pack was heavy and I'd been nursing a wet, sore foot for several miles. We arrived at the cars to find that our friends Paul and Dee McIntosh were there to meet us. Sue, Pic, and Amy had been there for a half hour or so, and Amy had just gone back up the trail to look for us. I dumped my pack at Mandy's feet, Debbie topped off my water bottle, and Paul and I took off up the trail chasing her.

I was relieved when, only five minutes later, we met Amy returning to the trailhead. We were all tired, and jealous of Pic, who planned to spend another night camping at Blanchard. Sue and Amy took off for Missouri, and Mandy, Debbie, and I went with Paul and Dee for a fabulous Hardee's supper (involving unlimited free fountain drink refills) before heading back toward Little Rock.

I had a great weekend. I learned that the wine store sells little tiny boxes of wine. I learned to bring better maps, and to be sure that everybody has a copy. I learned that I can make good pizza on a backpacking stove. I learned that abject and paralyzing terror is an excellent way to cope with rattlesnakes. I learned never to plan a backpacking trip in Stone County in late May.

More important than any of this, I got to watch my daughter spend a weekend with women who are like the woman I want her to be. Strong and intelligent, graceful and kind. This is what I want for her. This is what I want for myself.

Thank you, Amy, and Pic, and Debbie, and Sue. When the blisters and bug bites and sore legs are all healed, I hope you'll hike with us again.