buffalo river/indian creek revisted

“some of yu may remember a thread i did awhile back entitled "NIGHTMARES DO COME TRUE". it was about a hike from hell we took where this girl that went with us "went bad" on us and freaked out and we bout had to drag her pathetic butt outta there. well, this time we made it through. me, my 8 yr old, my brother & his friend (and of corse buckshot the wonder dalmation)went to kyles landing on the buffalo national river.. the rest of my family couldn't go for various reasons. thanks to my wife for keeping the other 2 boys by herself and doing all that housework while we were gone.

my bro and his friend went fri night to kyles and my boy griffin and I met up with them on sat morning. we didn't get there till like noon, which was cool cuz they had gotten blitzed the previous night and slept in till 11. we listened to the razorback game on the way(GO HOGS!). after quickly setting up my tent, we got all rigged up for the hike and headed up to hwy74 where the trailhead (of sorts) is. at first, there is a trail to follow for about 3/4 of a mile. it's just normal arkansas landscape, up a gradual hill most of this first stretch. after topping the hill, we came to a gate opening into a very lagre field. this is the point where we left the trail, and would not rejoin it for quite some time. we immidately turned left and went down a small drainage in the field. there were billions of saplings on either side of this crik & it was actually a little hard to weave through them. once into the creek bottom we turned left again and before long it opened up into an older forrest. lots of big trrees, oak and hickory mostly. we followed this small creek downhill, very slight greade for about 1/2 mile. it was pretty bland up to this point. buckshot was leading the way, sporting a blaze orange bandana to avoid gettin mistaken for a deer by an eager hunter(actually i insisted that everybody wore orange of some kind). the terrain was getting more and more rocky and steep. we suddenly found ourselves standing atop a 50 foot waterfall, with no way down. sheer bluffs all around. we were forced to backtrak a little and worked our way to the right and found a break in the bluff and ass-slid on down. at this point, and for quite some time, the hill was probably 60-70 degrees(VERY STEEP) once we got onto the bench below, we went back and looked at the falls and OH MY! it's was awesome! just incredible gigantic rocks all over and mosses and ferns. it was stupendous. there was a little water dripping off the falls, but not much. we moved on down and this sequence was repeated 5 or 6 more times. we'de come to a waterfall, find a way around, go back and look up at it. over and over they just got more spectacular. it was like a scene from jurasic park. we just kept going....WHOA! LOOK AT THAT! and this was just the side creek. we finally got down into the main indian creek gully and it got even better. more of the same only bigger and better. finally we came around a boulder and there it was. the infamous "needle eye" a gigantic hole carved out by the creek. through a bluff. the hole os probably 40 to 50 feet tall, and maybe 8 feet wide in the middle ans shaped like a needle eye. the creek runs through the bottom. from this point for probably a mile, the creekbed was solid smooth limestone. well, we looked down through the hole in the needle eye and there was a dropoff, probably 20 feet. no way to go dawn without a rope, and even then we realized that buckshot would be impossible. he wont go near dropoffs. there were many times throughout the day that we had to drag, push, pull, or carry him down over a dropoff. he got braver and more skilled as the day progressed and was a true boulder hopper after all was said and done. we realized this time that up was the only option. up and around the impass. and lemme tellya, it was almost STRAIGHT up. about 3/4 of the way up this 75 foot climb, you can go over to the bluff and look through the needleye. DANG! outragously awesome stuff. then up at the top, i climbed to the peak, actually standin over the needleye and could see all the way down the valley to the buffalo river basin. after a breif rest stop at the top, we did the "5-point buttslide down the other side and again, looking back up at the falls it was killer. moving on down, more of the same. we came to another falls, similar to the needleye only no hole in the bluff. it was a bigger dropoff than the previous falls. this spot was my trrue objective. arkansas cave. i have been here before, but it was in the summer, when you are not allowed to go into the cave cause of grey bats(glorified mice wif wings). the sign on the entrance said no entering between march 15 and oct 15. we really had to drag bucky into this hole, and slid down 2 gigantic boulders that were at a sharp angle. once onto the main cave floor, your in a room about the size of my livingroom. then you kindof go through a smaller corridor and BAM! it opened up into a FREEKING HUGE room! the roof varied from 20-50 feet overhead, and the walls were probably 2o-30 feet apart. it was stunning. big stelagtites all over the entire ceiling, a solid smooth rock floor. a few boulders strewn about. we were stunned. we didn't want to leave but darkness was fast approaching so i hurried everyone towards the other end. when you go arounf the last corner in the cave, you see out the other entrance. it's a hole about 12 feet high and wide and is shaped remarkably like the state of arkansas, hence the caves name. once outside, a little creative buttsliding is required to get on down to the creek bottom again. when we got down we discovered a different sign. it wasn't there last summer when i went up there. it said no enetering the cave ever! as in all year, it's off limits now. we were pretty freeked out by this cause it's a bigtime fine. i think this whole bat thing is rather bougs but hey, nobody asked my opinion. it was getting darker and darker so we moved on out and just kept going down towards the river and kyles. buckshot soon found the trail that leads you to kyles and the last 3/4 mile was in total darkness. i wasn't too worried about it because we had brought our headlights(princeton aurora) for the cave. oncec back at the camp, ,we let our tootsies rest a little while and then drove back up to get my truck at the trailhead.when we got back, my bro had a fire goin and i whipped up a killer batch of hamburger suprrise & we drank jim beam chased with red dog beer and intertained the whole campground playing guitars. i brought my 12 and my 6 strtings and my brother is a GREAT player. we had a blast playing old stuff and original stuff too. woke up early the next day and headed out, as my bro had to work at noon in tulsa.


all in all, this trip was a 10! i must say that this place is not for everyone. it's VERY VERY rugged and you get dirty and tired. the park ranger service reports more injuries from slips and falls in indian creek than in any other part of the entire river! if your after a casual stroll stay on the old river trail. bu if you wanna whole day of wrold class awesome. check it out. dayhiking is really the only to enjoy this place. you can see plenty in a day and it would be pretty much impossible to do all that climbing with a heavy pack on. we had 2 daypacks with water, flashlights and a first aid kit.

this is a place formed by the hand of God. we are already planning to go in the spring and see all those waterfalls with water jammin off of them. maybe some of ya'll can join us.

HAPPY TRAILS!”

“Cool trip report, strat. You can give me a guided tour when I come to R-Kansas. We'll get drunk and talk $hit about Tilt, LOL!”

“anytime me feathered amigo!”

“Great trip report, Thanks for sharing it with us!”

“i took a disposable. i'll post the pics later this week. i know for sure they wont do the place justice.”

“Good trip report, stratdewd, even for a republican who can't spell!! LOL!!

(hey, and work on paragraphs for next time, too!! lolololol!!)

I like caving, what little I've done of it. Very cool.”

“awee liz ,we ain't that bad really. at least we don't go runnin round the snow in our blue long johns.

re, my spelling; i went to public schools. i'm a shining example for the need for vouchers. lolz”

“Sounds like it was an awesome trip dewd! Maybe on your next trip you can avoid BRAKING THE LAW!! I'll bet GMac was havin a blast climbing those bluffs.”

“ya, g-mac was in hog heaven. he earned the name monkey-boy!”

“i forgot to mention the deer we saw on the way home. we were going through this teeny town and all these hunters were gathered around a pickup. i figured it must be a good one and it was. i was stunned at the size of this thing. he said it weighed 220 dressed out. tyhe rack was only 18 inches wide but the tines were 2 inches thick. it was a complete freak of nature. the shaquile o'neil of deer.”

“Dude, they shot a pony and grafted horns onto it...”

“lmao. i thought maybe a mulie had fell off da train on the way to da zoo...”

“I think you should lead the December hikers on this section for sure. What da ya say?”

“i'd be happy to. hopefully my schedule will comply, but i think it will.

how was your trip to the quachita's?”

“Great fall colors! Plenty of water! Too many rocks! I took my new Limey brother-in-law on his first backpacking trip and think that when I told him 22.6 miles he was thinking kilometers. Anyway, he definitely know the difference now. LOL Latest report this morning was that he is still nursing his feet.

I spoke to Jerbear this morning and he is interested in your Indian Creek trek also! So put it on your calendar as a side trip.

Strat is there are you going to the TC2?

Moz”

“not gonna be able to go to T2C. when is that again?”