Ozark Highlands Trail-Hiking with Jesus

“Packed up over the weekend. Weather looks great. The ticks and chiggers are out. I got into a mess of both Saturday. DEET is your friend.”

“Here are the gages for Richland and Big Piney creeks. They will be good indicators since they bracket the Hurricane creek drainage.
Ready to go!
Strat you may want ot bring your water wings.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07055875
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?07257006”

“I'm bringing a PFD!”

“From what I saw on the weather channel this morning, I would say the Hurricane must be in Flood conditions.

I can't imagine trying to wade it if it is anything like the pics coming out of Ozark, MO this morning.”

“Plan to take the high water cut-off.
last edited: 3/19/08 7:30:24 AM”

“How high's the water Mama?”

“10ft high and risin'”

“To the woods!”

“The adjsuted meeting spot is Fairview campground at 0800 03/20/08. We will coordinate shuttles the 15 road miles to Fort Douglas at that point. Since we have three days to do 20 miles we are going to initially skip the high water cutoff and go to the creek. If the creek does not look safe by Friday we can back track to the cutoff and go around. The levels are dropping quickly.”

“Hurricane Creek will not be safely crossable by Friday unless you've got a boat.

Here's a link to a site mostly for paddlers that shows a number of Ozark creeks and relates the USGS levels to low, optimum, and high water levels. They're listed alphabetically.

http://www.ozarkpages.com/cgi-bin/stages.pl?ST=name

Unfortunately, the high-water bypass also bypasses most of the good scenery.

Stay safe.”

“Attendees:
The StratdOOd family including: Strat, BuffaloBabe, Griffin, Jasper and neighbor Isaiah
HillbillyHkr
Coastie
Leia

The plan was a leisurely 20 miles in 3 days. The hike was along the Ozark Highlands trail from Fairview to Fort Douglas trailhead through the Hurricane creek wilderness area. The forecast held and the weather was great, 70s in the daytime and mid 30s at night.
This area had between 6 and 10 inches of rain in the week before the hike. Hurricane creek does not have a gauge but the creek it feeds into was 25 feet higher than normal a few days before.
Between the logging in the area and flood damage, the trail down the mountain was destroyed. There was a lot of scrambling over rocks and trees. Everyone was footsore and ready to camp at the end of the day. We got to Hurricane creek and set up camp at the Chancel intersection. The sandbar along the creek was freshly washed in and very soft. There was an abundance of firewood for the evening. The boys ate and crashed at the first sign of darkness. This left the adults to visit, mind the fire, smoke cigars and consume adult beverages. We had late night visitors of some local boys that had fallen in the creek. They stopped in to see if they could bum a dry cigarette. The raging water in the rapids next to camp made a white noise generator that helped ensure everyone had a good nights sleep. The massive full moon was beautiful and light the woods up.
The next days hike was along the creek. The scenery was great and the weather could not have been better. We had concerns about the crossing that needed to be made. This section of the trail has a high water cutoff that also skips the best scenery. When we reached the crossing, Hillbilly and Coastie sandaled up and made a test crossing. The water was cold but a safe crossing point was established. Everyone made it without being wetted above the waist. We stopped and built a fire, dried out and had lunch. We explored an old house place along the trail. There was much speculation and appreciation about the toughness of the pioneer life style. The trail left the creek and climbed up the side of a hill. The recent floods had also done a number on the trail in this section. When we descended to the creek again we found the old road along the creek was just a jumble of washed in logs and trash. Coastie, Strat and Hillbilly are paddlers. The creek was at optimum level and many theories were discussed about the best lines to take through rapids. We camped at the 12 mile point along the creek. We again had nature’s night light and white noise generator going. The next morning the men and boys all went on a bushwhack up a small side hollow that feeds into the creek. The scenery was awesome and kept getting better around every corner. It was hard to turn and go back to camp but it looked like rain so we decided to go. The second and last major creek crossing was made. The water was a little deeper, but a lot less swift. It did not seem to warm up any over the preceding day. The trail left the creek and turned up the mountain at this point. The rest of the hike out was uneventful. Excellent hike and a good time was had by all.”

“They logged it down through Buck Branch? Bummer.”

“Just about half way down the mountain, not quite to Buck Branch. They were doing a salvage harvest of redoaks that the borer had killed. When we got to the bottom (at the old rock bridge) we saw a sign showing a reroute due to the logging. Someone had removed the one at Fairview. We were scrambling through tree tops and skid trails.”

“Nice Tr Hillbillyhkr”

“Sounds like a great time. I love trip reports.”

“Well, it finally happened. You see, last year, we were embroiled in building our new home, so hiking time just wasn't available. So this was the first real hike we've done in 2 years. Naturally, having moved our belongings to storage and then to the new house, everything(all me gear) was scattered and or buried under boxes and it was a real b1tch getting it all located and put together enough to go hiking. Therefore, we didn't get the early start on Thur. morning that we wanted to. Thanks to Hillbilly and Co for their patience. In the end, we made it to the trail head, and caught up with the others and ended up having a great hike.

It was great to meet you Hillbilly, and Coastie and Leia also. Great company, great scenery, great place to be. My kids loved it, and performed above our expectations. This was a bit grueling at times, especially since I haven't hiked in so long. But the soreness quickly wore off and I'm ready for more. Hopefully, I can find the rest of my gear, LOL.

You got pics Hillbilly? I left my camera at a party Sunday, so I haven't even looked at mine yet.”

“Given the title of the thread you'd have thought stream crossings wouldn't have been a problem ;o)”

“Pics are up.

http://community.webshots.com/album/562892723HKlrds”

“Great pics Hillbilly.....looks like the Ouachitas with all them rocks.............think I'll jump up there for a hike soon...maybe a two nighter......you game?
last edited: 3/25/08 7:34:55 AM”

“Sure.. If we can get schedules to match”

“Chappy, there's a Richland creek trip coming up, on the trips page.”

“nice report and nice pics. That last falls looks like a quaint little swimming hole. Is it deep enough for that?”

“You could jump in it....not too much swimming room though, if it's the one I'm thinking of...and that's assuming you had nards of steal, because that water felt like snowmelt it was so cold! LOL”

“but a one armed man could swim in it without ever hitting the bank right?”

“That depends on which direction he's going, I rekon”

“Looks like a great trip Dood - Where was Foffy?
Good to see you and the whole fam damily hiking again.”

“4-EST(that's his new "hood" spelling) was far too cool to go tromping around in the dirt, so he stayed home and watched the b-ball tourny on the big screen. We were reluctant to let him stay alone(flashbacks of pulling bongs in Pigman's loft) but all in all he's a pretty well behaved kid and we figured he's gotta pass the test some time. Strangely, the house was much cleaner when we got back home.....so I'm pretty sure he had a beer party and cleaned up the mess before we got home.”

“Garf? You there?”

“Dood - I was on the road yesterday.”

“Did you find that buffalo statue yet?”