Mon 18 Jan 2010

McGee Creek NSRA Hike

Posted by Shawn under Family, Hiking, Kids
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The McGee Creek Natural Scenic Recreation Area (NSRA) in southeastern Oklahoma is a very convenient place for us to hike, since it is not far from where we live. The NSRA is located near Atoka and Antlers in Oklahoma, and it offers backpacking, hiking, and equestrian camping opportunities with many miles of trails.

I am working on developing a trail guide for the area, since little information is available. The brief trail map offered at the trail head is generally accurate as far as the trail location, but many of the distances are incorrect. I use a GPS data logger as I hike to correctly measure position and distance along each trail.

When doing a short hike with our kids back in December, the map at the permit station indicated that two new trails had been opened. We were anxious to try them out, and this holiday gave us that chance.

For this hike, it was just Jana and I with a light day pack. Temperatures was 45 to 60 degrees, and it was partly cloudy, which provided very good hiking conditions. From the trail head, we hiked north and then took the South Rim trail.

Before we reached Box Spring camp (near the junction of South Rim and Bog Spring trails), a new trail left toward the east. I will call it the Bog Spring trail, although no name is listed at the permit station. This trail provides much easier access to the east side of the McGee Creek NSRA, which had been a long hike north and around to a couple of camp areas on the southeast corner in the NSRA. The Bog Spring trail was in good condition, and allowed us to hike side by side for much of the trail. This new trail connects to roughly the middle point of the Hog Camp trail, near the equestrian camp E2.

We turned north onto the Hog Camp trail and followed it up until it came to a junction with the Hunters Cabin trail and short trail to the east which went to the east boundary. The boundary trail now is also open around the northeast corner of the NSRA boundary. We did not take this boundary trail, but it looks to be in decent shape and well blazed.

From the junction, we followed the Hunters Cabin trail toward the northwest. You will notice on our map a very small spur trail we took near the middle of the Hunters Cabin trail. This used to go to an old hunting cabin and outhouse. However, the cabin and outhouse have been demolished and removed. The area is now cleared, with two picnic tables and charcoal grills. I wonder if there are plans to put another equestrian camp here, but no information was available. The Hunters Cabin trail was in good shape, mostly double track, and nice hiking.

We continued on the Hunters Cabin trail until we came to the junction with the Coon’s Way Trail. This trail leads to the northern boundary of the NSRA, and it also connects with another trail called Wolf Creek as indicated on the state of Oklahoma map. However, as we hiked the Coon’s Way trail, there were no indications of the Wolf Creek trail, so it apparently is no longer marked or used. After reaching the northern boundary, we returned south on Coon’s Way, back to the Hunters Cabin trail and continued west on it.

Hunters Cabin connects to the northern end of the South Rim trail, and there are good backpacking camping areas there as well (B5 on the state map). We took the South Rim trail south to return us back to the parking area. The South Rim trail is also in good shape, with easy double track hiking through pine trees. The trees at the edge of the Bugaboo Canyon were too tall to see much from the overlook, but it was still very enjoyable as we made good time along the trail.

There had been some rain the previous week, so most of the creeks and streams were flowing, which is somewhat unusual for this area. Water sources are often limited to the lake on the west side of the NSRA, the Box Spring near Box Spring Camp, or the permit station at the trail head.

Our overall hike was 12 miles. We saw a few horses near the trail head, but once on the trail, we did not see anyone at all. Another great feature of the NSRA is the wooded environment. The tree cover helps to keep the hot sun off of you when hiking in the warmer months. The NSRA also does not have large elevation changes, so hiking with your family or kids would be an option as well.

Click on either graphic below to see a larger overview of our route on either a topographical or satellite map.

Happy Trails,

Shawn

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Sun 10 Jan 2010

Phoenix Area Hiking

Posted by Shawn under Family, Hiking, Kids
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What do you do when the temperature in Oklahoma drops to below freezing for days on end?  Well, if you happened to get some great airline ticket pricing several months ago, you head for sunny Phoenix, Arizona.  We had planned to go visit our good friend Bob of Click and Learn Software in early January, and the weather could not have been nicer.  It was sunny and about 70 degrees every day of our trip to the Phoenix area.

We decided to take advantage of the trip out and the great weather to get in some good hiking in the Phoenix area. First, we stopped by the Arizona Hiking Shack. The helpful folks there provided some great advice. They also sell maps and other hiking and adventure gear. The Shack is well worth a stop when in Phoenix.

Our first hike was at the Phoenix Mountains Park and Recreation Area. We wanted to get high enough for some great views of the area, so the Summit Trail to Piestewa Peak (formerly Squaw Peak) was our trail of choice. This 1.1 mile (one way) trail from the parking area to the summit at 2608 feet was steep but manageable. We saw people of all ages hiking up and down from the summit. As you can see in our photos, the view from the summit was great!

For our second hike that day, we chose a trail with less elevation change, but very representative of the desert environment and landscape. The North Mountain Preserve area offers some trails to higher peaks, but many of the trails are fairly level. This allows hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers of all ages to enjoy the desert surroundings. We hiked portions of a few trails resulting in a 2.35 mile outing in this park.

Between the previous two hikes, we stopped by REI for some quick bargain hunting (I’m in the market for new trail runners). The next morning, we headed to the west side of Phoenix. White Tank Mountain Regional Park on the west side of Phoenix offers 25 miles of trails ranging from less than a mile to about 8 miles in length. The nearly 30,000 acres include peaks rising to about 4000 feet from the desert below. We would have loved to hike some of the longer trails in the White Tanks, but due to time restraints could not do lot of hiking that morning. We decided to try out the Mesquite Canyon trail. Although the trail can be hiked for many miles, we ended up doing a 2.1 mile round trip hike. The morning air was cool, and the sun was shining. Once we started up the canyon, it felt like civilization was far away.

We had a great few days in the Phoenix area, and we would love to have had more time for hiking and shopping ;-) We discovered Trader Joe’s food store, and we ended up buying a bag to carry back some of the items we purchased there! We bought a daypack by ChicoBag. It is a uniquely designed daypack made of 89% recycled content, and it weighs less than 6 oz. Not far from Phoenix, Arizona are many other hiking opportunities including the Prescott National Forest and Coconino National Forests north toward Sedona and the Tonto National Forest northeast of Phoenix.

Happy Trials,

Shawn

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Fri 27 Nov 2009

Ozark Highlands Trail – Sections 1 & 2 – Trip Report

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Camping, Family, Hiking
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With Jana and I both being off for Thanksgiving, we wanted to try to get in a few nights of backpacking during the week. Due to other plans, the Ozark Highlands Trail was close enough to fit the bill. We have hiked part of the trail, but had not been on the OHT since the new section starting at the new Lake Fort Smith State Park was opened. We decided to hike sections 1 and 2 of the OHT for our 3 day, 2 night backpacking trip.

As with many longer trails, if you are not backtracking or hiking a loop, then some sort of shuttle or extra vehicle is necessary to return to the starting point. We did not want to backtrack or drive two vehicles, so we researched our shuttle options. I contacted both Paula White at White Rock Mountain and the Turner Bend store. Paula was available, so we had her reserve a slot to shuttle us on Saturday, November 21, 2009. Her shuttle pricing is one dollar per mile driven. We also called Paula the day before to make sure that all was in order for the next day.

We left our vehicle at the Cherry Bend parking area on Highway 23 just north of Cass, Arkansas. Coming from I-40, the Turner Bend store was on our way to the parking area, so we stopped and had a couple of wonderful home made sandwiches there Saturday about noon. The Turner Bend store has been open for many years, and only closes on Christmas. We highly recommend a stop there when traveling Highway 23. Paula met us at the Cherry Bend parking area and shuttled us back to the Lake Fort Smith State Park visitor center. The Ozark Highlands Trail starts behind the visitor center, and it was well marked with a sign next to the visitor center. We had a nice visit with Paula during the drive of more than an hour. She has been running the White Rock Mountain area for 19 years now. On several occasions, she has been iced in or lost power up there for weeks at a time!

We started hiking about 2:30 PM, hoping to get well past the north end of the lake by dark. The weather was overcast, but around 60 F, so it turned out to be wonderful hiking weather for the afternoon. The original start of the trail was at the old Lake Fort Smith State Park site, so not a lot of information was available about this new route. The trail runs north along the lake to the north end of the lake, where it crosses Frog Bayou. Since it is not very far from the lake, the elevation change is minimal for these first several miles. We passed two old rock chimneys fro

m old homesteads within the first two miles of the beginning. We passed a couple of day hikers on this stretch, and almost thought that their large black dog was a bear when we first saw it from a distance! The crossing at Frog Bayou (about 2.5 miles in) was wide, but not too deep. The water was quite cold – somewhat expected for late November. This would be a difficult or impossible crossing if the water was very high. The trail then turns south and follows the lake shore again, but not as close this time. Before long, the trail turned back east and left the lake. We did enjoy seeing a beautiful sky and sunset as we hiked into the Jack Creek drainage.

There were not any mileposts after mile 3, so it was hard to know exactly how far we had gone. We hiked until just after dark, hoping to find a good camping location. We boiled water on the alcohol stove for our dehydrated meal, and then setup the tent while the meal cooked.

Once inside the tent, we made notes about the day and looked at the maps and trail guide again. We were using the OHT Guide edition #5 by Tim Ernst. This guide is a must have for anyone hiking the trail. Both Tim’s guide and a few other things I found indicated that the new start of the trail was about a mile shorter than the original trail start. Based on the guide, our topographical map, and looking at the terrain around us, we estimated that we made it to about milepost 7.5 – or about 6.5 miles of hiking. Once back at home, the GPS track we took showed 6.43 miles of hiking this first day in about 3 hours – not a bad pace. Since it was dark so early, we turned in about 8 PM to try to go to sleep.

It was not hard to wake up early the next morning, having gone to bed so early the night before. It had gotten down to 39 F last night, but we stayed pretty warm under the Jacks R Better down quilt. We had also purchased two ¼” insulating pads from Gossamer Gear that we used under the Therm-A-Rest Neo Air pads to insulate us from the cold ground. We started to pack up about 6 AM, while it was still dark. I boiled some water for hot chocolate, while Jana packed up what she could in the tent. There was some condensation on the inside and outside of the tent, so I shook the water off as much as possible and stuffed it into the stuff sack for travelling. We finally got back on the trail at 6:50 AM, and it was getting fairly light. The clouds lifted during the night, and it was now clear this morning. Our plan was to hike nearly 17 miles to camp at Spirits Creek for the second night. We were not sure we could cover that distance with the short amount of daylight we have in November.

Soon after starting, we passed milepost 8, indicating that we had camped near milepost 7.8 the night before. So, it appears the new trail start is a little more than a mile shorter than the original route. All future milepost references will be relative to the trail markers, not our actual distance travelled, which will be slightly shorter. We were able to cross Jack Creek dry by rock hopping at milepost 9.4. We met a father and two sons who had camped there the night before. There were a few nice tent spots near the creek. From Jack Creek, the trail climbs about 500 feet in the next mile or so to cross FR 1007 near Dockerys Gap. There is a small parking area here if needed to access the trail. The trail immediately drops off the ridge again, losing the 500 feet over the next mile or less to reach Hurricane Creek. We met two other backpackers at Hurricane Creek that had camped there the night before after hiking down from White Rock Mountain. We managed to cross dry here as well on some rocks, and we started the 1000 foot climb over the next 2 miles on our way to White Rock Mountain. We definitely had to slow our pace for this climb, as many short sections were quite steep. Once we had reached an elevation near 2200 feet, the trail continued to have short up and down sections as it worked its way around the south side of White Rock Mountain. We stopped at milepost 17 for lunch that day. We could see the bluffs, still high above us, through the trees that had lost their leaves. Although the leaves were gone, and there was not much fall color, the leaf off did provide nice views out across many valleys and hillsides.

After lunch, we continued down the trail, encountering a Boy Scout group of about six people near milepost 18. They had stopped for lunch, so we talked to them briefly. They were here from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The day had warmed up nicely, and it was 60 to 65 F and sunny for much of the afternoon. We did not need to actually hike up the spur trail to the White Rock Mountain campground, so we continued on the OHT at the spur trail and headed downhill toward Salt Fork Creek. We are now on section 2 of the OHT, as described in Tim Ernst’s guide. The trail descends about 1200 feet over less than 2 miles to the crossing at Salt Fork Creek.

This was a wet crossing, so we removed our socks and insoles to keep them dry. We refilled water, which had been exhausted by now, and started up toward Potato Knob Mountain. This is a climb of about 1100 feet in 2 miles to the crossing of FR 1510. After a break here at the top, we started our descent back down toward Spirits Creek. It was on this section of trail about 18 months ago that we saw a black bear cub in a tree and heard the mother in the bushes below!

We did not see any bears, or other large wildlife for that matter, on this trip. In fact, with so many leaves on the ground, I am sure that animals could hear us from a mile away. It was also deer gun season in Arkansas, so we wore blaze orange while hiking, just to be safe.

The trail down to Spirits Creek was not too difficult, and we arrived at the creek crossing at milepost 24.6 at 4:45 PM – so it was still light this time! We found an established campsite not far from the crossing with a rock fire ring, so we setup camp there. This is a wonderful area with the creek down in a small valley, and many rock ledges and shelves all around. Many of them had water trickling over them, which then fell ten or twenty feet into the creek below. If the water had been higher, there are several waterfalls nearby, but this area had not had much rain in the last week or more, so the waterfalls we had seen were barely running.

We boiled water for our dehydrated meal, and I started a fire in the fire ring to dry out our damp socks and shoes. It also was nice to have the fire going while we ate dinner and took care of our tasks around camp. According the GPS track, we had covered 16.6 miles today in 10 hours of hiking. Jana’s knees were feeling much better after this day than they did on the Ouachita Trail last spring. We had been more diligent about taking glucosamine for several weeks before this trip, and we were taking ibuprofen at our meals as well. We went to bed again about 8 PM, with plans to get up at 5:40 AM and be on the trail the next morning at 6:30 AM.

We slept better this second night, and got up fairly easily at 5:30 AM or so. The temperature only dropped to 49 F last night, since clouds had moved in during the night. As a result, we did not have any condensation on the tent in the morning. I again boiled water for hot chocolate, and we started packing up gear from the tent. However, with the cloud cover and being in the valley, it was not light enough to start hiking at 6:30 AM. We waited a little longer, and were able to see well enough to hike by 6:50 AM. We would have to cover approximately 12.5 miles in order to reach our vehicle at the Cherry Bend parking area.

From Spirits Creek, we had to climb again up, but only about

600 feet this time to FR 1509 (Ragtown Road).  A few miles later we are at the start of my favorite trail section so far – and not just because it is flat and level. At milepost 27.2, we are at the start of a section of trail on old railroad bed. Yes, I said railroad bed – even in the middle of the Ozark Mountains! Back in 1915 or so, there was a Cass to Combs railroad spur. This was a narrow gauge railroad line that was used for logging in this area in the early 1900s. The rails are gone, and the ties have been removed or have rotted, but you can clearly see how the railroad bed was built up or cut down through the hills. At milepost 27.2 where the trail joins the railroad bed, there is a wonderful rock retaining wall, and many concrete piers and large bolts from the trestle bridge, which are still visible as you hike around a ravine to join the railroad bed. We follow this old bed for more than 2.5 miles, leaving it occasionally to go around an area that used to have a trestle bridge.

The hiking is still pretty good after leaving the railroad bed, but does work its way downhill and a good pace sometimes on the way to Fane Creek. At mile 31.6, we came to Fane Creek. We did look around for rocks to cross on, but even when low, this creek turned out to be a wet crossing. Where the trail meets the creek, there are large slabs of flat rock. So, we decide to just cross barefoot on this flat rock, rather than get our shoes wet. We wanted to keep them dry for the big climb coming up later in the day. We did take a short break here to enjoy the creek, refill water bottles, and snack on trail mix.

Soon after leaving the creek, we cross FR 1520, and begin the 1500 foot climb up Whiting Mountain. It turns out that this climb is broken into two parts. After about 700 feet of climbing, the trail does run generally level for about a mile, before turning up again for the last 800 feet of elevation gain. We stopped for lunch at milepost 33, which was in this generally level area. While enjoying our tuna on crackers, we did encounter another day hiker and his beagle. He said he would drive his truck out and park at a trail access point, and then he would hike out so far and turn around and return. He had done several portions of the trail this way.

We finished lunch and headed off again – dreaming of a fresh sandwich from Turner Bend! The additional climb this afternoon was strenuous,

but manageable. However, there was one area of the trail, near mile 34 to 35, that was very overgrown and in worse shape. There is an area that I would definitely not want to hike in the summer when the weeds were growing well! By mile 35 the trail had improved. It was obvious that some major work had been done to trim things back. Before long, we could hear Highway 23 in the distance.

Our last interesting landmark was a rock house shelter at mile 36.7. This is a large overhanging rock shelf that had been enclosed by loggers in the 1920s to serve as some sort of shelter.

Soon after this pause, we arrived at the spur trail to the Cherry Bend parking area. We were at the truck at 2:30 PM, exactly 48 hours after we started! This last day turned out to be 12.11 miles from Spirit Creek back to our vehicle. Very soon, we were stopping again at the Turner Bend store for bottles of soda pop and a turkey sandwich. We were tired, but not exhausted – success!

I always like to take a look at our hiking speed, including breaks, as this allows for better planning on the next trip. I compiled the table below to summarize our three days.

Day

Distance

Time

Speed
Nov 21 6.43 miles 3:00 hours 2.14 mph
Nov 22 16.6 miles 9:55 hours 1.67 mph
Nov 23 12.11 miles 7:40 hours 1.58 mph
Combined 35.14 miles 20:35 hours 1.71 mph

 

I am a tester for backpackgeartest.org, so I took a few items on this trip that were being tested. These were the PROBAR fruition bars and the Montbell Extremely Light Down Vest. See the link above for more information on those tests.

After the trip on the Ouachita Trail last spring, Jana was not sure how she would do on these long backpacking trips. Our first day last spring was very hard on her knees, so there was some concern about this trip. However, it seems that the glucosamine and ibuprofen help tremendously, and we both did very well regarding our knees and legs. I also wanted to reward her for her willingness to travel with me, so I arranged for a night at the Beland Manor Inn Bed and Breakfast in Fort Smith. I knew that a shower and hot bath soon after leaving the trail would help both of us to feel much better. This was a great alternative to just jumping in the car and driving for several hours after hiking. For those of you with a spouse that may not be as enthusiastic about backpacking, consider a night at a hotel or bed and breakfast after leaving the trail.

Mike and Suzy at the Beland Manor Inn were wonderful hosts and very understanding of hikers. Mike told of some other great hiking locations in Arkansas that we plan to check out when we can. Suzy made a wonderful breakfast with fresh fruit, sausage, and French toast with homemade bread, maple glaze, and pecans. Delicious!

If you are considering a hike on the Ozark Highlands Trail, I can certainly recommend it as a beautiful hiking destination – after all, the journey is the destination. In fact, we are planning a hike with the whole family, kids and all, on the OHT early next spring. Maybe we will see you in the woods sometime!

Happy Trails,

Shawn

PS: Topo and satellite maps follow for those interested ;-)

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Sat 10 Oct 2009

Craven Nature Trail – Tishomingo Wildlife Refuge

Posted by Shawn under Family, Hiking, Kids
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Well, it turned out that all of the recent rain made the Mountain Fork River unsafe for our planned whitewater canoe trip. Instead, we enjoyed a morning hike around the Craven Nature Trail a couple of times. Located on the north side of the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge, the Craven Nature Trail is a mile-long hike through woodlands and out to an overlook walkway on Dick’s Pond.

Birds are common along the trail, and waterfowl can be frequently seen on Dick’s Pond, including herons, ducks, and geese. This is an easy family hike and taking children along for the hike is not a problem. The trail has minimal elevation change, and the wooden walkway and overlook provide an interesting break in the hike.

 

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Mon 7 Sep 2009

Chickasaw National Recreation Area

Posted by Shawn under Family, Hiking, Kids
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We were out hiking this morning in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area near Sulphur, Oklahoma. This area was given to the Department of the Interior by the Chickasaw nation in 1902 for protection. In 1906, it became Platt National Park. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built many features in the park, including pavilions, trails, waterfalls, and roads. In 1976 some additional land and other areas were all combined into the Chickasaw National Recreation Area we know today.

Travertine Creek, a major park feature, is fed by many springs, some of which are mineral and sulphur water springs. Our hike followed Travertine Creek toward the east from the Travertine Nature Center. We hiked a total of nearly 4 miles on trails including the Antelope and Buffalo Springs Trail, the Prairie Loop Trail, the Tall Oaks Trail, and the Dry Creek Trail.

The trail to Antelope and Buffalo Springs is a wonderful, wide, and easy walk. These two springs produce a flow of about 5 millions gallons a day that flows into Travertine Creek. Branching off of the Antelope and Buffalo Springs Trail are 3 other trails to allow a wide range of hiking distances to be taken.

Buffalo Springs has a circular rock walkway and seating built around it (by the CCC), while Antelope Springs is unaltered, coming directly out from the rocks in the hillside.

The Prairie Loop Trail crosses the Travertine Creek and up the hillside into an area that once was a large mixed grass prairie. Most of the dominant vegetation  now is hardwoods and cedar.

The Tall Oaks Loop Trail also crosses the creek and meanders through an area with stands of cedars and hardwoods, including oaks, elm, sycamore, and others.

The Dry Creek Trail crosses a large rock bridge built by the CCC and up through limestone covered slopes and into an area with patches of mixed-grass prairie and invasive cedars.

Nearly all of these trails are in the shade under wonderful hardwoods, and the proximity to the creeks provides a cool walk in the morning hours, even in the summer time.

 

I have hiked this area many times, and there is always something new to see. Our trip today did not provide any views of big wildlife, but we did encounter several turtles, frogs, and small snakes. If you are ever near the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, it is definitely worth a visit. The spring-fed creeks are even good for wading and a few deeper swimming holes are waiting to be enjoyed.

Happy Trails,

Shawn

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Fri 3 Jul 2009

Phelps Lake (GTNP) – Backpacking Trip Report

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Camping, Family, Gear
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Phelps Lake Backpacking Trip – June 14-15, 2009

We were recently in Grand Teton National Park. Since the high mountain passes were still snow covered in June, Jana and I decided to do an overnight backpacking trip near Phelps Lake. We prefer doing some sort of loop or shuttle hike to an in and out hike, so we arranged to be dropped off a the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve near the south end of Grand Teton National Park. Overnight parking is not allowed at the LSR Preserve, so we opted to leave a car at the Death Canyon trail head, and get a shuttle from someone we were travelling with to the LSR Nature Preserve. As with all backcountry campsites in GTNP, permits are required for overnight backpacking trips.

From the nature center building, which is a wonderful new facility in Grand Teton National Park, we hiked the Lake Creek trail to Phelps Lake. This trail follows Lake Creek north to Phelps lake and is very nice hike with good views of the creek and some open meadows. Once at the south end of Phelps Lake, we hiked the Phelps Lake trail around the east side of the lake to backcountry campsite #1. The backpacking campsites at Phelps Lake have recently been relocated to up the hill from the lake, further off of the trail than the old campsites. Campsite #1 has a nice view of the lake below, and is beside an open meadow as well. Both trails were in very good shape and had good signage. The hike to Phelps Lake was 1.5 miles, and the hike around the lake to our campsite was around 2 miles.

 

We set up our Tarptent, and left some gear (no food) in the tent to explore the area. We went back down to the edge of Phelps Lake to enjoy the view and boil water for dinner. This also kept food and cooking odors away from camp. We added our boiled water to a package of Mountain House Hawaiian Chicken, and then stowed it in a backpack to finish cooking. We carried it with us and hiked up the trail above the lake to near the Phelps Lake overlook. This area has a very nice view of Phelps Lake and the valley and mountains beyond. We ate our dinner and enjoyed the beautiful view.

On the way back to camp, we saw several marmots among the rocks. We also saw a large aspen grove, and very large fir tree – at least 4 feet in diameter! Back at camp, we unpacked a few things and then noticed a mule deer in the meadow nearby. The deer grazed for a while, then laid down. Shortly, it got back up and grazed calmly as it moved off into the woods. The deer saw that we were there, but was certainly not concerned. It was getting dark, so we got ready for bed, stowed our food and smellable items in the bear box, and turned in. With the exploring, we had hiked around 6 miles that afternoon and evening.

Like our other trip in GTNP, some of our main equipment included the Tarptent Rainshadow 2, Therm-a-Rest Neo Air pads, a Jacks R Better Mt Rogers down quilt, and our new Montbell Extremely Light Down Jackets. Everything worked very well for this trip and we slept pretty well that night. It did rain during the night, but we stayed warm and dry. The low was around 40 F.

We woke up soon after daylight and packed up our gear. We went down to the lake to collect water and eat breakfast. From on up the shore we heard some splashing in the water. After watching up that direction, we saw that it was a moose walking in the water along the north shore of Phelps Lake. I guess he was having breakfast near the lake also, since he ate from the willows near the shore. No one else was around, and we watched the moose in silence for at least 20 minutes. We finished breakfast, loaded our backpacks, and headed down the trail.

We hiked north from the lake and arrived at the Death Canyon Trail junction. We wanted to hike up into the canyon as far as time allowed, and then we would hike back out and continue on to the Death Canyon trail head. We knew from the topographical map that there was a fork in the trail about 2 miles up the canyon. Death Canyon is a narrow, glacier-carved canyon in mountains, with steep granite rock walls on both sides. The trail was empty and we enjoyed good views of the canyon walls, the stream below, and areas of unmelted snow. After backpacking about 1.9 miles up into the canyon, we came to a large snow field covering the trail. It appeared to be 75 feet or more across, and we could not see where the snow ended. The sides of the canyon were steep, so the snow sloped quite steeply above and below the trail. It was obvious that without crampons it would not be safe to cross, so we were satisfied with our progress and turned around.

The hike back out of Death Canyon was as much or more beautiful, since the trip out of the canyon rewarded us with views of Phelps Lake and the mountains beyond. We saw both marmots and pikas among the rocks during our hike. The tall, sheer granite walls around us were very impressive. We had hiked in and out of the canyon before we met our first other person that morning. The trail became more crowded as we continued to toward the trail head, and we were glad that we had our time in the canyon all to ourselves. Our backpacking trip out this morning had been about 6 miles, for a total trip distance of 12 miles. Not all of this was logged on the GPS, especially the areas in the canyon where the GPS had trouble receiving consistent satellite signals.

The trip up to and around Phelps Lake had minimal elevation gain, so it would be a good backpacking or hiking option for families with younger kids. The hike up into Death Canyon is definitely more strenuous, but the views along the Death Canyon trail were wonderful. This was a great trip with views of the lake, mountains, and creeks. Wildlife was certainly visible, and the trails were not too crowded. We had a great time on this backpacking trip.

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Sat 13 Jun 2009

Trapper Lake (GTNP) – Family Trip Report

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Family, Kids
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Trapper Lake Trip – June 12-13, 2009

This trip was the first backpacking trip with all three kids, and they would be carrying much of their own gear. We were in Grand Teton National Park for a total of 10 days, and we had already done several day hikes before this trip to get acclimated. This overnight trip began at the String Lake trail head. Backcountry permits are required for overnight stays in the Grand Teton National Park backcountry, and we had picked up our permit the day before for the one campsite (#18) at Trapper Lake. The hike to Trapper Lake is relatively level and 4.5 miles from the trail head to the campsite. The minimal elevation change makes this a great trip for families with kids or for those new to backpacking.

We left the trail head Friday afternoon, June 12, and the weather was cool and pleasant. Jana and I regularly use trekking poles (Backpacking Light Stix for her and Gossamer Gear Lightrek 4 for me), so as we hiked the kids decided they wanted a hiking stick too. As we continued hiking, they looked along the trail for that perfect stick – and this gave them something interesting to do as we went along. The boys both had sticks selected in just a short time. (Note: In an effort to ‘Leave No Trace’, the sticks were dead wood found along the trail on the ground, and the next day the sticks were left near the trail not far from where they were found.) Something else that kept them interested was to take turns letting one of the kids lead the group. An adult was always second in line to help watch for bears and other wildlife, but they certainly enjoyed taking their turn at the front of the line.

The hike followed the shore of String Lake, then along the shore of Leigh Lake. It went around Bearpaw Lake, and then finally ends at Trapper Lake. Being so close to several lakes allowed for great views over the water and into the woods, and the kids look for and saw several different birds and small animals. We bought each child a disposable camera for the trip so that they could take pictures of anything that they wanted without risking damage to our nice digital camera. Giving them control and letting them make choices in this way allowed them to feel more in control of their experience.

All three of our kids weigh under 100 pounds right now, so we kept their pack weights low. The lightweight backpacking philosophy works so well for Jana and I that it only makes sense to help the kids go light. They each have their own pack – the women’s size small GoLite Jam2 pack – which is a good size for their body right now, and their empty pack weigh less than a pound. I have seen so many "kids" packs that weigh three, four, or five pounds, and it just does not make any sense to me to start with an empty pack that is so heavy. We found synthetic sleeping bags for them at around 2 pounds (and under $100) for a 35 degree bag. This is a lightweight bag, but is still durable and inexpensive. As they get more experience and do more backpacking, then we can look into a lighter down bag. So, they carried their backpack and sleeping bag, along with a coat, jacket, poncho, base layer, extra clothes, LED light, and water bottle. Even with this amount of gear, their total pack weights were still under 8 pounds, or less than 10% of their body weight. Jana and I are just over 10% of our body weight with our pack (fully loaded with 3 days of food and water, so keeping them under 10% of their body weight was a good target. I have read other sources stating that kids can carry 20 to 25% of their body weight, but with a 20 or 25 pound pack, they would almost certainly be miserable. Jana and I carried their sleeping pads, both tents, cooking gear, and all of the food. These light packs let all of us travel faster and more comfortably – ultimately increasing our enjoyment of the trip. We covered the 4.5 miles to Trapper Lake in about 3 hours – not a bad pace with kids.

On the way to Trapper Lake, we stopped on the shore of Bearpaw Lake to boil water for dinner. Our philosophy has been to eat dinner on the trail before reaching our campsite for the night. This keeps food and cooking odors away from camp, and greatly reduces the likelihood of bears or other wildlife being attracted to our campsite. We let the kids pick out which Mountain House dinners that they wanted before we packed for the trip. This was a way to include them in the trip planning process, and it helped to avoid cooking something they did not want to eat. They also each have their own spork, in their color choice. This lets them have equipment that they feel like is their own.

As we hiked past String Lake, Leigh Lake, and Bearpaw Lake, we had great views of the Teton Range. But, we really enjoyed seeing Trapper Lake and camping there. The small lake is at the base of a mountain, and it has a stream with a couple of small waterfalls that runs into the lake. It was just a wonderful, beautiful setting. It is also very secluded, being the last campsite on the trail, so we did not see anyone else during our time at Trapper Lake. Two beavers were active and swimming all around the lake – our kids affectionately named them Roseanne and Clark. Several Canadian geese were at the lake when we arrived. The kids really enjoyed being able to explore the area around the lake and near our campsite. This gave them some freedom after being restricted to the trail for the previous several hours.

We took a card game with us, so as it got darker and the mosquitoes came out, we all went into the larger tent to play cards for an hour or so. This allowed the kids to wind down and gave all of us a chance to enjoy being together as a family. It was a relaxing end to our day of hiking. I would suggest to others that are planning a family camping or backpacking trip to take a game or cards or something for the kids to do in case you need to spend some time inside a tent due to weather or darkness.

Although there are 5 of us, we are able to fit into two tents. We have an older Kelty Teton 2 tent that weighs about 4 pounds – this was a tent we bought sometime back when we started backpacking again. At about $100, it is a good first tent that does not weigh too much. We also have a Tarptent Rainshadow 2. We purchased this tent when we transitioned to lightweight. It weighs around 2.5 pounds and is a cross between a tent and a tarp – basically a tarp with netting and a floor. It can sleep three people if they are not too large. With this setup, we can sleep our family of five. The boys used the Tarptent, and the girls were in the Kelty Teton 2. I used a Therm-a-Rest Neo Air pad with a sleeping bag, and the boys used foam pads and sleeping bags. The girls used our Jacks R Better Mt Rogers down quilt and silk sleeping bag liners – this is the lightweight setup that Jana and I use when we are by ourselves.

We woke up early Saturday morning (June 13), since it started getting light quite early. I think that waking up early and getting on the trail early are some of my favorite things about backpacking. After getting up, the kids enjoyed watching several Pikas scampering around the rocks near camp. We made breakfast (bagels and hot chocolate), broke camp, and were on the trail by 7:30 AM. We enjoyed wonderful views of the mountains across Leigh Lake and arrive back at the trail head around 10:30 that morning. The kids really enjoyed the trip and had a positive experience – so it was certainly a success in my book. I always want them to have a great time in the outdoors, so that they will want to go backpacking, hiking, or camping again.

Jana and I were testing some new equipment on this trip. The most interesting new item was the StickPic. The StickPic is an ingenious device to let you take self-portraits with your camera at the end of an extended trekking pole. After using it, I said to myself "Why didn’t I think of that!" It works great. You simply attach the StickPic to the threaded tripod mount on your camera, attach the StickPic and camera to the bottom of your trekking pole, set the camera’s timer, and hold the pole at arms length. You can get a picture of everyone in your hiking group, or you can get a picture of yourself even if you are hiking solo. The other item that Jana and I were testing was the Montbell Extremely Light Down Jacket. Knowing that it would be cold in GTNP in early June, we had been searching for a warm down jacket that was also lightweight. After some research and looking, we both purchased one. These jackets worked very well. They kept us warm, but stuffed small and weighed 4 to 6 ounces, depending on the gender and size.

I carry a GPS data logger on our trips, so here is the track displayed over a topographical map.

Overall, I thought it was a fantastic trip – both for us, and for the kids.

Happy Trails,

- Shawn

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Thu 28 May 2009

Ouachita National Recreation Trail – Trip Report

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Family, Hiking
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The Ouachita National Recreation Trail is a 223 mile (59 km) long hiking and backpacking trail through the Ouachita Mountains of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The trail starts on the west end at Talimena State Park in eastern Oklahoma, and the east end is at Pinnacle Mountain State Park in central Arkansas. The trail is maintained by volunteers, so some stretches can be overgrown or contain obstacles at times. The highest point on the trail is 2610 ft (800 m) on Rich Mountain near the Oklahoma – Arkansas border, and the lowest point is 270 ft (82 m) at the entrance to Pinnacle Mountain State Park in central Arkansas.

Being in the south, and at low elevations, the weather becomes too hot and dry for July and August overnight hikes, so plan to hike the ONRT in spring or fall for a more pleasant experience. Water sources can completely dry up during the summer months along this trail. On the plus side, if you like solitude, this trail is just for you. It is very lightly used and is rarely close to civilization along the entire route.

The best, and perhaps only, trail guide for the ONRT is by Tim Ernst. Check him out at cloudland.net.

Jana and I recently did a backpacking hike of the first 2 sections of the ONRT in May. It was a tough hike to cover 50+ plus miles in only 3 days, and we only saw six people (a group of 2 and a group of 4) on the entire trip.

Sunday, May 17, 2009:

We left our vehicle at the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge after filling out paperwork at the reservation desk inside to let them know our trip plans. We called Jim Fite for a shuttle back to Talimena State Park in Oklahoma. We had talked to Jim some weeks back to let him know when we needed a shuttle for this backpacking trip and to make sure that he was available. We started hiking at Mile 0 on the trail around 6 PM. I was disappointed that the trail registry in the park was empty – no pencils, forms, nothing. It was my understanding that the forest service used these trail registry forms to help determine use of the trail, allocate resources, etc. We took a break for dinner around 6:50 PM after hiking about 1.6 miles. We tried a new meal for this evening: Hula Wraps. The ingredients included tortillas, tuna, cream cheese, dried pineapple, and various spices.

We continued hiking after dinner, and stopped about 8:10 PM to setup camp near mile 3.4. I really prefer to eat dinner along the trail, which keeps the strong food odors away from our tent and campsite. Although the trees did not allow for many good views out over the valley, there was a good view about mile 3. Most of the climb at the start of the trail is in the first couple of miles, so we had most of the initial climb behind us on this first evening. I was hoping for a good sleep, since I had a new Therm-A-Rest Neo Air to try out. This was a new sleeping pad for me, although Jana had one on the last trip. As I fell asleep, I watched fireflies landing on the tent, and listened to an armadillo rustling in the leaves.

Monday, May 18, 2009:

We awoke about 6:15 AM to slight daylight and a temperature of 50 F. We had breakfast – bagel, peanut butter, and coffee – and we were on the trail by 7:10 AM – not bad! We took a break near mile 4.9 at a campsite with a fire ring at 8:00 AM. We refilled our water bottles near mile 7.4 around 9:30 AM at a nice stream. Water can sometimes be a real problem on the Ouachita Trail, but we have had so much rain in the last few weeks that water was plentiful during our hike. We reached Deadman gap – and crossed the Scenic Drive highway about 10:00 AM. We stopped for lunch near mile 9.9 at 11:15 AM next to another nice stream. The overgrowth was much worse on the this (north) side of the mountain. There was a nice campsite near mile 15 where we took a short break. We had just passed four other hikers, which was the first people we had seen on the trail so far. We reached Horsethief Springs about 5:40 near mile 20. There was water, but it did not look too good. I carefully collected some, and it did not look as bad in the bottle – I had been quite careful to only get clean water when filling it. We ate one of our freeze dried meals here – Sweet and Sour chicken. Horsethief Springs is also a stop on the Skyline Drive, so there were picnic tables and pit toilets – real luxury for today!

We had hiked 16 miles so far, and Jana’s knees were pretty tired. It would have been best if we could camp here, but the mountain side was too sloped for a tent, so we decided we had to move on. We hiked a couple more miles, but the hiking, especially the descents, were painful for Jana. We took a break at a forest road, and decided to hike along the Skyline Drive for the next two miles to reach Winding Stair Campground. The Skyline Drive was still hilly, but the smooth grade was easier on the knees. We arrived at Winding Stair Campground, which would allow us to tent camp for a fee. However, we discovered that there was a very nice backpacker’s camp setup just outside the Winding Stair Campground for Ouachita Trail hikers at mile 23.7.

It had a pit toilet, but the water at the camp was turned off. We just walked a short distance to the campground next door to get water.

Note that in winter, Winding Stair Campground is closed and no water would be available at either area. The backpacker’s camp was quite nice. The view into the valley to the north was great, and it had several good tent sites and picnic tables. We were really tired after hiking 20.5 miles that day!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009:

We woke up as it started getting light around 5:40 AM this morning, so we decided to go watch the sunrise. We took our down quilt with us and walked a short distance to find a good place to sit down and enjoy the sun coming up of the hills.

We ate breakfast, washed out some clothes at Winding Stair Campground, filled up on water, and headed out around 8:00 AM. We had a moderate climb ahead of us, and then an amazing 33 switchbacks on the descent, so we where hoping that our knees would be better today. It was 8:45 AM when we reached the top at 2451 ft – the highest point so far on the Ouachita Trail. This was the location of an old fire tower, and you could still see the concrete foundation blocks on the hill. There was also a very large rock cairn constructed on the top. We took a break here, at about mile 25 – almost half way through our planned hike. We descended the other side of the mountain through the 33 switchbacks down to a saddle and nice camping area near mile 26.3 – we took a break here, since we were about to climb again. We had an early lunch around 11:00 AM near Red Spring – at mile 27.4. The spring water has so much iron that it has turned the ground all around it a bright orange. We had started to descend again and would be working our way all the way down to Big Cedar Creek and Highway 259. We had been following the Skyline Drive for all of yesterday up on top of the mountain, but today we would be dropping down into the Kiamichi River valley – far removed from the Skyline Drive along the ridge of the Ouachita Mountains. We crossed Big Cedar Creek at 12:45 PM at mile 30.3. It was definitely a wet crossing, as the creek was really flowing.

We met two other guys hiking that crossed just ahead of us. They had taken time to try to dry their shoes, but I knew it would take a long time, so we changed into dry socks and pushed on. We were hoping to go up and over Wilton Mountain, so that we could camp near the Kiamichi River tonight. That would put us ready (we hoped) to make the big climb up Rich Mountain on Wednesday – our last day. We found that Wilton Mountain was poorly blazed, very rocky, and in some places extremely overgrown. It was a lot of work to get to the top, but we made it around 5:30 PM and made another of our freeze dried meals – Chicken Stew. There was a campsite up there that would have been good, but water is not available up top – it would have to be hauled up. We continued on, down Wilton Mountain, towards the river valley below. Our knees hurt worse when descending than they did when climbing, so it was not much faster than the climb up. By 7:30 PM, we were next to the Kiamichi River at mile 39.5. We found a good campsite next to the river, so we called it a day. We had covered about 16 miles today. The cold water was very refreshing as we tried to clean some of the trail dirt off. We hung our food PCT style (an easy and secure bear bag hanging technique), and let the sound of the river lull us to sleep.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009:

We woke up around 6:00 AM to a temperature of 47 F. We ate breakfast in camp, then packed up and were on the trail by 7:15 AM. We knew that we had a big climb up Rich Mountain today, so we wanted to get an early start. We made the first crossing of the Kiamichi River at around 8:00 AM, and crossed the river for the 8th and final time around 9:30 AM. Wet shoes were unavoidable this morning. We did take a break to dry out our shoes and insoles somewhat, and to change into dry socks. We took breaks every so often during the climb, and decided to eat lunch once we had climbed half of the elevation gain for today. Lunch was at a nice saddle area at 11:20 AM near mile 45.3.

We finished the climb and reached the Oklahoma / Arkansas state line at 1:00 PM. This is the highest point on the Ouachita Trail at 2610 feet.

The weeds and brush were really thick along the top of Rich Mountain, although the grades were fairly gentle. We reached Queen Wilhelmina Lodge right at 4:00 PM – check in time! We had reserved a room, so we knew that a hot shower and good meal would be our reward at the end of this trip. We had hiked 13 miles today.

The official mileage for our trip was 51.6 miles, but with reroutes and detours around downed trees, etc. our GPS track showed that our total mileage was 54.4 miles on these two sections of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail. We made detailed notes of trail conditions, missing mile markers, and other issues along the trail. This will allow us to report to the ranger districts responsible for these trail sections as well as the Friends Of the Ouachita Trail organization that organizes volunteer trail maintenance.

We put a lot of equipment through some good testing on this trip, and I plan to have more equipment reviews coming soon. This trip was long and challenging due to the mileage, but the experience and information coming out of it will be very useful down the road. I hope that if you are near the ONRT sometime in the future, you will take the time to hike a section or two of this remote trail.

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Sat 2 May 2009

McGee Creek NSRA – Trip Report

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Family, Hiking
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On this backpacking trip, Jana and I wanted to see what kind of good mileage we could make, now that we had reduced our pack weights greatly. We were both in GoLite Jam2 packs, and using 2 trekking poles each. Shawn’s pack was at 16.5 lbs total – with gear and food for 4 meals. Jana’s pack was at 11 lbs. These were drastic weight reductions since our summer 2008 trip, where we both had packs over 20 lbs – actually closer to 30 lbs.

We carried 1.5 L of water each, since we had to hike over 7 miles to a campsite near the lake. Jana had newer trekking poles, fewer than 9 oz for the pair. Shawn’s poles are cheaper, and should probably be replaced, weighing in at over 22 oz for the pair. We did receive the new Thermarest Neo we ordered for Jana just before the trip. This new inflatable sleeping pad can inflate to over 2 inches, but only weighs 9 oz for the short (4 ft) version. This is only slightly more than our closed cell pads, which are just over 8 oz for a trimmed 4 ft length, but the closed cell pads are much harder to sleep on.

We took the GPS in order to track our distance very carefully. We are planning 3 nights on the Ouachita Trail in May. We intend to cover over 50 miles on that trip, so knowing our hiking speed is necessary to plan correctly.

April 9, 2009

We left the parking lot at 3:45PM, which is at 835 feet elevation. We are trying a new routine where we hike for 45 minutes or so, then take a 10 to 15 minute break. During the break, we remove our shoes and sometimes our socks to help keep our feet from getting too sweaty or damp. Damp socks and feet will cause blisters much more quickly. We used a 2 layer cool mesh sock that should allow rubbing within the sock layers rather than between our skin and the sock. So far, so good – no blisters that evening.

We hiked the Little Bugaboo trail, the South Rim trail, the North Rim trail, and finally the North Fork trail. The North Rim trail ran along a ridge on the north side of Wildcat Canyon. The elevation was around 950 to 1050 ft for most of the North Rim trail.

As we hiked west, we saw clouds building in front of us, but they ended up moving north and we did not get any rain or close lightning. Also, we saw and smelled significant smoke from the south. We were concerned about where the grass fire was located, but it seemed to be several miles south. Since we were on the north side of the lake, we felt like we were pretty well protected from it moving our way. We decided that camping close to the lake shore, but still on the north side of the lake, would provide a good buffer from the fire possibly moving our way. However, we did notice at our dinner stop that when we unrolled the tops of our packs, some small amount of ash had accumulated in the rolled top. The weather forecast called for a wind shift bringing winds more out of the north and west, rather than the south, which would push the smoke away from us. It did stay quite windy both days, with gusts to around 30 mph. Most of the hike was in tree cover, so the wind did not blow directly against us too hard. Hearing the wind through the pine tree tops was a wonderful sound.

We stopped along the North Rim trail for dinner. We heated 2 cups of water on the aluminum can stove and made freeze dried Chicken Teriyaki. Our snack earlier that afternoon had been cereal and trail mix.

Our total mileage of 7.6 miles over 4.25 hours that first afternoon gave us an overall speed of 1.8 mph. Once we left the north fork trail, we had to hike off trail through a lot of thick brush and briars and this hurt our time quite a bit. This leg of the trip broke out to be about 1 hour and 10 minutes of rest and just over 3 hours of hiking.

We did not have to camp at C2, but we put that on our permit, so we thought it would be best to camp very close to C2. On future trips, there were some considerably nicer campsites near the North Fork trail that could be used. It was dark by the time we found a place setup our tarp tent, but we were able to find a suitable tent area, although it was more sloped that we would like.

We filled a 1L bottle with water at the lake shore and added a Katadyn MicroPur MP 1 tablet. This is a new water treatment method that we are trying. One tablet will treat 1L, and the tablets are extremely lightweight. They release chlorine dioxide, which is supposed to be effective against viruses, bacteria, giardia, and cryptosporidium. The only down side is that you must wait 4 hours for them to be completely effective. In our situation, we just added it before we went to bed and let it sit all night.

Jana used the new Thermarest Neo sleeping pad, while I was still on a shortened closed cell foam pad. We used the silk liners as a bag for each of us, and then covered those with the down quilt. Temperatures got down to about 45 degrees that night, and we stayed pretty warm. The wind did pick up and start gusting, so from time to time it would blow up under the quilt. Had it gotten much colder, we would have simply put on socks or cinched up the foot area of the quilt. Jana used foam ear plugs, which really seemed to block out the loud frogs and other noises. Shawn thinks he will try that next time as well.

April 10, 2009

We woke up around 6:30, and thought about leaving camp by 7 or 7:30. We got dressed and heated water for coffee. We had some liquid instant coffee concentrate to try that morning. It was easy enough, but did not have great flavor. We plan to look at other options for our morning java juice. After coffee, we heated water to make oatmeal with raisins. After eating breakfast, we started packing our sleeping gear, other gear, and then the tent. We also needed to fill up our water bottles and treat water. Since we were going to be drinking it soon, we used our Polar Pure water treatment on water collected from the lake. Polar Pure is an iodine based product that only takes 20 minutes to work. The negatives on it are some iodine taste and a heavy bottle for the product itself. We were finally ready to start hiking around 7:55 AM. We talked about ways to improve this departure time. Possible options could be to eat a dry or non-heated breakfast or to just eat on the trail at our first rest break.

We wanted to get some extra miles in the second day. So, instead of coming back to the ranger station following the same route we took the evening before, we turned off of the Little Bugaboo trail onto the West Branch trail. We hiked the West Branch trail hoping to find another backpack campsite, but we ran out of time before we made it that far. We turned back, so that we could get some tasty Mexican food in Atoka ;-)

When hiking in the previous night, we saw a concrete structure that appeared to be the location of the spring near Box Spring camp. As we came back through this next morning, we stopped and looked at it more closely. It was a spring, and although it was flowing very slowly, it did have a concrete cistern like structure that contained 10 or more gallons of water – just an estimate. We filled another 1L bottle, and the water was very clear. We treated this with Polar Pure and then added some sugar free flavoring to mask the iodine taste.

This day’s hike covered 9.23 miles in 4.25 hours for an overall average of 2.17 mph. Combined with the day before; our overall trip average was right at 2 mph. In terrain with more elevation gain and loss, we would likely drop below 2 mph. For our May trip, we need to cover about 16 miles per day. If we hike 12 hours per day (includes taking rest breaks), then even at 1.5 mph we can cover the necessary distance.

This trip, although short, was a great test run for some new gear. It also gave us a good idea of a daily mileage rate. After returning home, we were tired, but not sore or hurting – that’s a successful backpacking trip!

Happy trails…

- Shawn

 

Appendix

We really put the trekking poles to use on this trip, and as we hiked, I thought a lot about how best to use them. One school of thought is to not use them at all if you pack weight is light enough. I like using the poles to push myself along, taking some of the work off of my legs and knees. Trekking pole videos I have seen show moving the pole every time the opposite foot moves. I have tried this, and it seems to add a lot of work. A good way of using the poles seemed to be to move the poles on every other step, and push slightly as the pole tip gets behind me. This seems to help propel me along as I hike. If my arms are more tired, then I can simply push less. When going uphill, I place the pole tip a little further in from of me, and push down on the pole to help pull me up the hill. When hiking downhill, I can still plant the pole tip further in front of me, but it can help ‘catch’ my body weight as I am descending. This takes a lot of abuse off of my knees. When hiking, there can be a tendency to watch the ground right in front as I hike. But in doing so, I miss a lot of great scenery. The reason we do this is to prevent us from tripping on the rocks, logs, etc. on the path. However, when using trekking poles, if I do trip, I don’t fall because the poles are helping to keep my balance. Knowing this allows me to keep my eyes looking out, further down the trail. It helps me to look more side to side and see wildlife and other wonderful things in the forest. Trekking poles are just an aid to help make the journey more enjoyable and pleasant.

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Wed 29 Apr 2009

Ozark Highlands Trail – Arkansas

Posted by Shawn under Backpacking, Family, Hiking
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So maybe you don’t live at the foot of the Rockies, or in other locations with hiking and backpacking at your back door. If you are anywhere within a day’s drive of Arkansas, then you are in luck. The Ozark Highlands Trail in northwest and north central Arkansas may be just what you are looking for.

The Ozark Highlands Trail (OHT) winds 165 miles from Lake Fort Smith State Park on the west end to the Buffalo National River on the east end. The trail crosses some of the most scenic and remote areas of the Ozark Mountains. And if solitude is what you are after, then the OHT is your trail. It is not heavily hiked, and even on a nice weekend you will rarely see more than a few other hikers.

The OHT meanders through some beautiful scenery, with creeks, streams, and waterfalls all along its route. Dogwoods and redbuds abound, along with many other wonderful hardwoods in this scenic forest. Take a camera, because no matter what time of year, there will be something from the OHT worth remembering. Other than the extreme heat of July and August, most any other month has great hiking along the OHT.

There are more than 50 forest road and highway access points, making section hikes or day hikes very convenient. There are also nine public campgrounds spread along the OHT route. Camping is allowed anywhere along the OHT, and no permits or fees are required to hike it – unless you plan to camp in one of the public campgrounds. If you prefer a few more amenities, plan to get a cabin at White Rock Mountain or Lake Fort Smith State Park.

The trail is well blazed, and mile markers are at every mile. The OHT is supported and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers known as the Ozark Highlands Trail Association (OHTA). Consider donating to the OHTA, a 501c3 organization, if you hike the trail, in order to preserve it for future generations. Their website offers a lot of very good information on the OHT, including trail conditions and maintenance information.

Plans are in place extend the trail to Missouri and connect it with the Ozark Trail. This would create a trail system of nearly 1000 miles when completed.

My wife and I hiked a portion of the OHT in June of 2008. Although it was warm at times, then scenery was wonderful and water was plentiful. We needed to make some kind of loop to get back to our vehicle, so we started at the Shores Lake Recreation Area. We hiked north 6 miles to White Rock Mountain the first afternoon and camped at the campground there. White Rock has 30 to 50 foot bluffs around many edges that provide wonderful views. The next day we headed east on the OHT across Salt Fork Creek, up across Potato Bald, and then down toward Spirit Creek – our turn around point. Just before Spirit Creek we saw a small black bear cub up in a tree just ahead of us, and we could hear a larger bear scratching as well. The undergrowth was fairly tall, so we could not see exactly where the adult bear, presumably the mother, was at. We decided not to disturb them, so we turn around there and hiked back to Salt Fork Creek to setup camp for the night. The third day, we hiked south back to the Shores Lake Recreation area. Our total mileage for the trip was 20 miles. Although June was not the best month to hike the OHT, we found water frequently and did not see anyone else the entire hike!

Ozark Highlands Trail - WaterfallOzark Highlands Trail - Salt Fork Creek

Perhaps you are considering hiking the OHT. If so, the best, and perhaps only, trail guide is the Ozark Highlands Trail Guide by Tim Ernst. Tim has donated more than 15,000 hours of volunteer labor towards the OHT and other trails and projects. He lives in Arkansas and has hiked there most of his life. He is certainly an expert when it comes to the OHT.

As of this writing, the 5th edition of the Ozark Highlands Trail Guide, published in May 2007, was the most recent version. The paperback book is 136 pages, has a plastic laminated cover, and is notch bound. It is 5.5 x 8.5 inches and weighs 7 oz, just in case you wanted to carry it with you. I typically just photo copy the few pages I need if only hiking a section or two. The book divides the trail into 8 sections and has a detailed description, mileage log, map, and elevation profile for each section. The 5th edition added GPS coordinates for most road and stream crossings, which were not in the previous edition.

Introductory information at the front of the book includes topics such as: history, low impact use, wildlife, shuttle services, glossary, weather by month, and a complete mileage log. Following these topics, there are detailed, mile by mile, and sometimes turn by turn, descriptions of each of the eight sections of the OHT. Tim does an excellent job of describing each turn, climb, descent, and scenic view along the trail. He points out frequent special scenic spots, or SSS, as he calls them.

Whether you are out for a day hike, or plan to thru-hike the OHT, it is well worth purchasing the Ozark Highlands Trail Guide by Tim Ernst. You can purchase a copy directly from cloudland.net.

There are some other great trails in Arkansas, with the Ouachita National Recreation Trail being another long trail (223 miles) in central Arkansas. I will post more information on the ONRT soon, as my wife and I are planning to hike a couple of sections in the near future.

In the meantime, consider hiking the Ozark Highlands Trail sometime. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find.

Happy Trails.

- Shawn

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