Anyone hiking in Arkansas this weekend?

“Might be able to go hiking this weekend. Anyone going or have any ideas?”

“Modern gun season for deer opens this Saturday. You should be able to find plenty of people in the woods.”

“You might even see stikmon taking his canoe for a walk...”

“Buy a license & carry a gun. That way you can defend yourself. Actually, the biggest danger would be getting run over by a 4-wheeler.”

“Caltrops, anyone?”

“back up.”

“I learned my lesson and will forego Ark for a bit. As for taking my canoe...Im gonna backpack with it elsewhere...who needs water...I can carry it anywhere now...Im strong.”

“Mozark and Firestarter are going to the Ouachita Trail at the OK and AR border this weekend. E-mail Moz for details.”

“that's some killer stuff down there , mather. i drive through that area alot. same deal there though, lots of hunters.


we're gonna hike cecil cove from erbie this weekend.”

“Jgiles, take Friday afternoon off and drive down to Sherwood Forest. I'll drive from there...

Moz”

“I have to work a little late on Friday. How many miles you guys plan on doing? Is it a pretty good trail? I've never been down in that area.”

“I'll have to catch up with y'all down there. I have a good friend who has taken a permanent job (for Whirlpool) in Arkansas. I'd like to go visit sometime.”

“what part of arkansas, smiley?


jgeiles, it's national forrest lad(pine farms) pretty big mountains, good trails, fairly we, ,and there's lots of awesome leaves right now, i just went through there the other day, it was awesome.”

“I heard that campaign for the Dem candidate for Ark's senate seat made him look like he was either 1) in camo and outdoors hunting, or 2) inside reading the bible, (NOT doing work for senate issues). So you just may see Pryor out there in the woods this weekend.”

“Jgiles,

22.5 miles of Section 2.

We will hike the Oklahoma side. Their deer season hasn't started yet!

Great weather is expected.

Email me and I'll send you details.

mconner@varco.com”

“Smiley you come on down anytime and we'll show you a few mountain trails.

There is a trip planned on the Buffalo between Christmas and New Years. That'd be a good time to meet some folks......

Moz”

“Tex,

Are you out thar girl? This weekend might be a good trip for you. I'm guessing it is 1-2 hours closer for you than the Buffalo.

Moz”

“My friend is in Fort Smith.

I'll be sure to post if I ever get my butt down there! I'd love to do a little hiking!”

“these guys from Ark are really really weird...into some really freaky stuff...they played stuff the pig with one of the newbies onthe hike.,..not me...cause I carry a big stick and a sharp knife with me...but it got pretty ugly.”

“i only play guitar!”

“Yo' mama plays the swinette...”

“From what my friend Cristin tells me, most people from Arkansas are strange!”

“That's because she is from Fort Smith! LOL

Fort Smith is smack dab in the middle of the great hiking trails in Arkansas. I'd visit that friend often!!!!!!!!!”

“Now Stikmon they were just putting on a good "Show Me" for ya because you are from Missouri!!!

Or did I miss something kinky?”

“Hmmm, so what's Arkansas like in January? Maybe I'll check on plane fares....”

“january is usually brutally cold. noy my idea of a good time, hiking in it. i gotta feeling we're gonna get alot of snow this year.....”

“smiley girl, don't listen to stratdewd. Coming from MI it will seem warm here. I use a 20 deg bag & a 3 season tent year round here. Come on down & we'll make strat come play in the snow.”

“Yeah, I was wondering what his definintion of "brutally" cold was. I did an overnighter this past weekend, it was 26 that night. And its only November! I can't imagine ARkansas will be worse.”

“i can'y play guitar in da snow! lol. my old boney fingers get all froze up on me. she should come down for our big, spring, upper buffalo float we're gonna do. maybe stikmon can come and see what it looks like with water in it..........BOL!

come on over to erbie and say hi arky. i'll buy ya a beer. look for the dalmation.....”

“smiley, anything under 35 degrees is brutaly cold.”

“"smiley, anything under 35 degrees is brutaly cold" .......

LOL Stratdewd! You need to come up here fer a hike in January/Feburary. Hell for that matter, come up in April, I'm sure we could find some place that's got 8 inches of snow on it! :)”

“you wimps! it was 33 when i got into work this morning! :)”

“Yeah smiley, it rarely gets below 20 deg at night. Strat are you going to be at the caver's campground?”

“Remember last March 2 it snowed all day and dropped to 5F that night. Most memorable trip on the entire Ozark Highlands Trail.

Now the wind was brutal every now and then.

Moz”

“Yeah, I remember. We were in Hurricane Creek Wilderness when it started sleeting then snowing. Look on Phil's photo page to see our frozen rear ends. The worst parts were the little creek crossings that you can usally walk across but we had to wade that weekend. We didn't even try the Hurricane, it would have been too dangerous. Waist deep and rolling. We took the high water bypass. It was probably the only time I went to bed with all my fleece on.”

“I just tried out my new -5 degree bag this past weekend. Winter hiking with the Michigan gang was fun last year, except I was so cold at night with the bag I had. I feel much more prepared this year. :)”

“hmmm...dunno bout that cold azz hikin business......although, i think it would be cool to hike immediately after a good snow, or maybe even during a snow if the wind wasn't too high. i like it when it snows and everything is quiet cause it absorbs up all the sound.


anywayz arky, i dunno. what do you recomend? is it better than the erbie campground? what if there's people there? is it near the road? i've been to erbie alot but never checked it out before. i like the erbie campgroung alright.”

“Geez Arky we were just about 30 miles west of you on the OHT that day!”

“hey moz, we're you talkin bout a hike in nov with some people round here somewhere?”

“Mozark, The snow in the mtns. was a beautiful thing. Were you guys over by Oark? Strat, Erbie campground is better. Caver's Camp is closer to the Cecil trailhead I think. It's been awhile since Iv'e been there. Are you guys still going to Fitton Cave?”

“Moz:

Remember how one of our group hiked two hours in the dark to join us on that snowy evening?

Although it was 5 degrees the next morning, we were lucky it warmed to 20 by the time we had to wade Indian Creek.

One of the best hikes I've ever had.”

“change of plans. were gonna camp at kyles and hike down indian creek from the top. check out arkansas cave.

the fitton cave thang fell through. my buddy couldn't get the permit but it still looks like we'll be able to get one soon. i'll definately letcha know if we're goin.

so that's where we'll be, at kyles. we're leavin in the morning. i better get ta packin. if you see a dalmation, you'll see us. we'll have lots of boys with us. my 3 and maybe 2 of their friends. the heavy drinkin starts as soon as they crash, which is 9:00, no exceptions, lol.”

“we did it. parked up over indian creek and hiked all the way down to kyles. breathtaking would be an understatement. i'm sore as heck, but it's a good sore.....”

“Another short trip report, but it sounds like you had a great time of it:)”

“The wind threatened to tear the tent apart at times through the night. The pine trees whisper seems like when the wind plays havoc on `em like that and the hardwood trees seem to creak and pop as they sway back and forth with the strong gusts of wind that batter against them.

Through the night we hear tree limbs falling and a few widow-makers bite the dust and when they do the ground shakes, as if they had fallen right beside us, it made for a long night.

First light was long getting there as we scrambled about in the early hours of morning, getting a fire up and coffee on, a pan of bacon going and eggs waiting their turn. What is it about breakfast cooked over an open fire like that, that makes it seem so special?

Breakfast was great and the coffee had a kick to it that`d jump start a log truck, but that over with, everyone hurried up and went their own ways off into the still darkness and dim lights trailed away ahead of each as they parted.

The wind was still going at it and the tree limbs were swaying back and forth casting strange shadows ahead of my flashlight. I made my way back off into the hardwood draws a few miles up the ridge from camp and got set up on a stump and waited for daylight to catch me there.

I took the time I had waiting to reflect on things and to dream a bit about the day ahead of me. I remembered many different dark days starting out pretty much like this one was doing and how I had felt greeting each of those and my excitement was almost as high this time as it started to get light.

I guess I`m just a big kid at heart because I`m always surprsed at how beautiful sunrise is in the fall and as the shadows fade away to the light and the grey goes away, how the color of the leaves seem to come alive and look as though I had just missed getting to see the painter as the colored leaves seem to be fresh dripping paint falling to the ground.

I get lost in that and just watching everything come into view and my heart about jumps out of my chest as a shadow seems to glide towards me and for just a moment I`m caught off guard before I can make out the form of a deer and his rack gleaming white in the morning sun as he walks amoung the white-oaks searching for acorns.

The buck drops his head to feed and I use this time to ready my gun and I get it brought up and the scope setteled in on him just behind the right front shoulder. The wind is still kicking up and the buck is spooky and he darts a few yards away when he hears a distant limb fall and it comes crashing to the ground, but getting a bit further from that danger brings him even closer to me.

I look through the scope at his horns, he has a nice rack, but he`s a young buck, there`s no real mass to his beams, though the tines are long and the eye-gard tines even fork on the left one. I took my gun down and just watched him feed along the draw and saw a few does join him on another ridge over from me and I watched them scamper about for a time before they fed off out of my line of seight.

I saw a young fork-horn buck and two spike bucks during the course of the morning, but they can`t be hunted, it has to be three points to the side or better. I didn`t kill anything but time, but that`s okay. I spent the morning in the woods with some deer, they weren`t the only ones that got away:)”

“good weed in arkansdas
wierd people but good weed”

“i'm gonna do a thread on it, called indian creek.”

“What 'bout this weekend?”

“i may actually have some time this weekend jgeils. whatchu got in mind?”

“Don't know yet, maybe the old river trail or somewhere near Sylamore. I didn't get to go last weekend. The good thing about not going last weekend was I got to watch the hogs win an important game for a change.”