Ouachita Trail Trip Feb. 19-23, 06

“OK, Folks, my pics are up in the pictures under "view new albums".........enjoy. I'll fill in the blanks later in this thread. (yeah, I'll tell you all about the flying squirrel incident too)”

“Thanks, Chappy. Hiking in snow/rain isn't the most fun, but it beats staying home.”

“Amen...........”

“Hey Chappy great looking trip. I've never been to Queen Wilimena. I've gotta check it out, it would make a good place to bring my sons 11 and 12. We are from Louisiana so Arkansas is one of the closest mountain destinations for us. Would love to get to hike with you one day.

Take care,

Bateaux”

“Hey Bateaux, the trail is 229 miles long and has some great sections on it. We hiked the hardest section, and it was a bugger. Sections closer to you would be better, probably. Get Tim Ernst's book "Ouachita Trail Guide" as it is the best source for the trail. Queen Wilhelmina SP is a great place for a family outing with really nice tent pads/parking spots up on top of Rich Mountain.......I'm planning on taking my wife there for a visit....
It would be nice to get together some time for a hike since you are next door to me. I'm in Deep East Texas....Lufkin.”

“This section (#2) of the Ouachita Trail is known as the toughest section on the whole trail. We all packed up on Sunday after lunch and drove the seven hours to Queen Wilhelmina State Park on top of Rich Mountain outside of Mena, Ark. When we left Lufkin, Tx. an ice storm had moved in and the cold had frozen overpasses in the area but as we drove north the roads cleared and the whole trip was on dry roads, so the drive was good. We arrived at QWSP at 7:00 that night and after parking in front of the Lodge went in to sign for our room. Nice place too with a big fireplace that was being tended to by the manager. The ground had snow on it from the storms that had moved in a couple days earlier. Inside we confirmed the room I had called about the week before. It was 81 dollars for the night, not bad. The manager told us the restaurant would close at 9:00 so we got our packs and stuff into the room and went down to eat. There were two older couples and a young couple in the lodge along with us that night, that was it, so we had the place to ourselves. We ordered 14oz. ribeyes with baked pototoes, a full salad bar, drinks, and six kinds of deserts (my fav was the strawberry shortcake contraption in a big bowl....man, that stuff was deadly. We were schemeing how to stuff some of it in a baggie to take along. They also had bread pudding and chocolate cakes, pecan pies and some other stuff. It was only 12.95 per person, what a deal. Now Rocketman and Lumberjack eat like horses anyway so they were in their element. After eating we all sat around the campfire drinking coffee and talking about our packs. (Saturday night my wife and I were over at Lumberjacks house to go through our packs to see who would carry what and to discuss milage and meals.)
After a couple hours by the fire, with Rocketman reading his novel...he reads alot...we went up to the room to empty our packs and repack em to remember where we were putting everything, then to bed.
Day 1:
We got up at 7 or about and Lumberjack and I went down for coffee while Rocketman slept for another hour. When he woke and came down, we had breakfast omelettes in the restaurant. We got our packs out of the room, closed the bill, and waited for Jim Fite to come shuttle us to Winding Stair to start our hike. Jim built the Country Store at the bottom of Rich Mountain where the road meets hwy 270. He also ran the Lodge for 25 years and worked in the area. He charges 25.00 to shuttle folks around that area of the trail, so contact FoOT to get his number, or call the country store or lodge, they all know Jim. Jim picked us up at 9:00 and dropped us off at Winding Stair. At 9:40, after pics, we started our hike up Winding Stair mountain. It was about 33 degrees out and cloudy that morning and the trail followed an old FS road that was a climb. With snow all over the place it took us about 45 minutes to climb up the road and a short bit of trail to the top, about a mile....seemed like two though. When you get up there, there are great views in leafoff of the surrounding hills and valleys. There is also a rock cairn (pics) that is about eight feet high. We dropped our packs to rest and take water. I put a rock on the cairn, horsed around a bit (actually, I had read of a geocache up there about 20 feet off the trail under an oak tree with a rock leaning against it, and we were looking for it, but couldn't find it), then put our packs on and started the trail down to a saddle between Winding Stair and the next hill on the way to the bottom at Big Cedar Creek. The forest was layered in snow and there are about 33 switchbacks coming off that mountain. The trail is littered with rocks and leaves so you really got to step carefully. I busted my ass once so I got a bit more careful. :)
Rocketman always stayed in front, I mean, hell, who was gonna hold this kid (25) back?
The weather was just there, no rain or snow, but just overcast and cold. When we got down to the saddle between the hills there was a campin spot there with a rock fire ring and a two person shelter/leanto made of limbs and sticks/leaves.....looked to me like a BoyScout survival badge project. We had some more water and hit the trail again. It was a climb up this time to go around the south side of the hill near the top (we spotted this trail as a white line on the hill from near the top of Winding Stair). Nice views south to other parts of the Ouachita Range thru here. Then we started a few more switchbacks as we started down the other side. Along the way down, there was a FS road that we came onto with a campsite and fire ring. We stopped for lunch there, having peanutbutter/jelly on Pita bread, Hershey's chocolates, and water. Across the road where the trail went was supposed to be Red Spring. We could see it on the map but never noticed/found it as we then traveled down the northside of the hill toward Big Cedar Creek. The trail had plenty of rocks (did I mention that?) and a couple rock glaciers on the way down. It was tough with all the leaf litter on the trail to see the rocks and roots, so we went slow and easy. We got to Big Cedar Creek about 2:30 or so. Now this place is really nice and you can come up Hwy 259 from Texas and pull off the Hwy at the sign and drive right down the dirt road across the creek from where we camped. I plan on bringing my wife back to this spot for a picnic some time. The trail stays about 15 feet above the creek bed so you gotta climb down the steep grade to get on the camp site, and likewise to get back on the trail to leave. See pics on this site. There is a fire ring there so we made fire first, then pitched the tent and explored a bit. We usually started cooking at 5:00pm. Lumberjacked told me now was a chance for a bath...a really COLD bath, but I declined and told him to try it first to let me know how refreshing it was. ha. Rocketman sat and read. Later, we set up the Whisperlite and cooked. We had Teriachi noodles with a pouch of Salmon thrown in, Idahoan "loaded, baked" pototoes (mmmm), and more pita bread. After doing dishes, I fitered some water (Katadyn Hiker Pro) and filled our Platypus bladders and bottles for the next day. That night it was 19 out and a lot of condensation in the tent. We hadn't figured out that the sides of the tent had clips to clip to the rainfly inside which would guy out with the fly to make the sides staighter, so I kept rubbin against the side of the tent and gettin my arm and bag wet. Rocketman slept in the middle and got away with the best spot on the trip. He also kept his bag zipped completely shut at night and made me wonder how he didn't suffocate in there. Damn kids. Since we had our heads at the door end, I woke that night to pee and, going out the door lost my balance and darn near stepped on Rocket's head, lol. But I only stepped out once. Lumberjack being older than me by 15 days (so I called him the old fart) would step out about three times every night. All I heard between naps that night was the creek running over the rocks, and trucks running up and down Hwy 259. The stars were awesome since the clouds had cleared out about 6:00 that afternoon. Nice, cool night.
End of our first full day...................”

“Trip report to continue after I get back home on Wednesday........gotta go feed a bunch of preachers at a 'retreat' in the woods for a couple days....................havin, bbq ribs, chicken, sausage, and dutch oven beans..mmmmmm.”

“I look forward to reading the remainder of the report.”