02/01/01 It was a most uncomfortable night for me, mostly because of the throbbing at the end of my left leg, but also because I was so exhausted that I could not sleep too well. What a wimp. We were out working well before sunrise in the crisp air. It did warm up quickly though, and the work went fast. We finished putting on the plywood floor, then got one, two, three, and then all four walls built and up.

Much to our surprise and delight everything seemed to turn out plumb and square. Part of the reason was that we would often spend a long time going back and forth trying to figure out which would be the best way to do something. And then we would measure, measure, and measure again. You see, we are trying to built something out there in the middle of nowhere without a parallel to square on - we are aligning the shop to an uneven rock wall 14 feet away. But so far, so good.

The supervisor looks on

My foot continued to throb all day, and while I continued to hobble around with my club foot, I did manage some mobility and was able to haul the wood around without too much trouble. Although I would let out a loud scream every now and then when my foot twisted any little bit. What a wimp.

It was well after dark before we finally realized it was just too dark to work any longer. The moon high above did provide a bit of light, but not enough (we also had a couple of lights from the cabin pointing at us). We quite for the day after the first several rafters for the shop were cut and put up. We will have two sets of rafters - one for the shop and one for the carport - that will meet at the front of the shop wall. Each will be at a different angle.

Towards the end of the day my foot did get somewhat better. It wasn't until I took a shower and actually took a look at my poor foot that I felt OK about screaming and hobbling around and being such a wimp. It was the strangest shade of purple!

2/2/01 HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!!! And since the little critter did see his shadow, I guess that we are in for, well heck, I really have no idea what that means - it honestly means nothing, except that the little down wherever Phil lives gets a great deal of exposure each year. It was clear and 16 degrees when I limped on up to the office in the dark at 5 this morning. The sun is almost up now, and I need to post this journal update and hop on down to the cabin and get back to my real work. The foot is somewhat better this morning, and I just made a test hike on the little trail leading up to here - I have to lead a long backpack trip this weekend, and hope that I will be able to make it on my rotten foot.

We got quite a bit more work done today, including getting the sheeting put on the outside (well, most of it anyway), and all of the shop rafters installed. It took quite a while to get those back sheets put up because the hillside drops off quite literally at the edge of where the posts are resting - Terry got to do most of the ladder work out there hanging in space. It was a grand day, although quite cold.

We worked pretty late once again, then I had to run into town and pick up a pallet of guidebooks from a truck lines (and run by Wal Mart to get a brace for my foot). It was really late when I arrived back at the cabin. Roy and Norma showed up at the same time. They were going on the hike.

I spent a bit of time trying to get my stuff together for the overnight hike - trying to shed as many pounds from the pack as possible so that my poor foot would survive. Without really doing without too much necessary stuff, my pack topped the scales at 14 pounds, including a bivy sack, a new 5 degree down sleeping bag, and plenty of clothes and food. Most people carry WAY too much into the woods, and they pay for it all during their hike, as well as afterward. I did not carry a tent because I knew of a great bluff shelter near where we would be spending the night. I did get a backpack all rigged up for Aspen - he would be carrying his own food, and a little sleeping bag of his own (he is not used to sleeping out in the cold).

It was a very long day and late night, and I fell into bed exhausted.

2/3/01 Then the alarm went off and I jumped up out of bed. We all ate a quick breakfast and headed out to meet the group at Big Piney Trailhead. There were twenty something folks signed up for the hike. We normally limit all overnight hikes to ten folks, but this one was part of the special series of hikes that we are doing this year to do the entire trail one section at a time. It was 20 degrees when we arrived at the trailhead.

After a long shuttle back to Ozone Campground, 21 folks and two dogs stood in the parking lot shivering and anxious to hit the trail. But before we could take off I weighted most of the packs to see who was carrying what. Norma and I tied at 15 pounds each. The rest were actually not too heavy - most in the 30-40 pound range. You will often find people hiking with 50-60 pounds and really having a tough time of it.

With the new elastic brace in place I inched my way on down the trail, with a long string of folks right on my heels. I had to watch and carefully place each and every step and keep my left foot straight without twisting it at all, so my pace was slower than normal. I also had along a new pair of hiking sticks which I had purchased at the Pack Rat in Fayetteville the night before. I often enjoy using a walking staff, but had never used these new fangled things with adjustable shock absorbers before. I got them mainly to try to take some of the weight off of my poor ankle.

After a few miles of walking with the new sticks, they did seem to work pretty well, although they feel a lot better on level ground when you can really stretch out and go. Not so good on steep or rocky terrain - I am used to being able to use my hands for balance and stuff, but you just can't do that when using these things.

Aspen did very well himself. First time for him with a backpack. I had loaded his sleeping bag in one side, and his food in the other side to balance the load. First thing that he did was to go swimming in Little Piney Creek, and I soon discovered that the dog food bag had a hole in it. Within a few minutes of putting the backpack on him, he had forgotten all about it as was his normal self, and being a very good dog I might add. This would continue for the entire hike.

We made pretty good time along the trail and most everyone was doing OK (most of us were wearing shorts). I was using this hike as another practice run for my GPS unit - to see how accurate it was at showing locations on the downloaded topo maps, and at measuring distance that we were covering. I discovered that it was dead on as far as location was concerned, yet way off on the distance. I was hoping to be able to use it for that distance thing instead of having to push a measuring wheel in front of me all the time when doing new trails or waterfall calculations. But it does not look like that is going to work.

We came across this neat big tree next to the trail that had obviously been attacked by a bear. Probably had used it as a scratching post. When I announced to the group that a bear had done battle with the tree, Tom R. from Russellville (an old grade school/hunting/football buddy of mine) commented that the "tree had won!". For sure. Trees do have a habit of winning a lot of battles, although they are usually helpless against a chain saw.

We ended up with 24 on the hike, including folks from Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. There were two groups at the camp area - we wanted to spread out as much as possible to minimize the impact.

After dinner and a bit of campfire chatter, I shouldered my pack and headed on up the trail and into the woods for a solo camp spot. I found a neat little flat spot that overlooked the rest of the campers, with the soothing sounds of Cedar Creek floating up from below. It was well after dark, but there was good moonlight for travel. I laid out my bivy sack and crawled into the new down sleeping bag and gazed up into the heavens. I was camped at the foot of several very large pine trees - I thought they would look after me and the Superdog during the night and keep us from harm.

I feel some sort of kindship with big trees, and can often be overhead carrying on conversations with them. And when the wind blows they even talk back. But tonight there was no wind at all, only the towering giants and a beautiful moon that was straight overhead. It was one of those magical moments in the wilderness, and all was at peace in my little world. The only thing that I longed for was the future Mrs. Cloudland - she would compete the picture. I have no doubt there will be many hundreds of magical moments with her in the decades to come.

2/4/01 We all broke camp early and headed up the hill and out of the Cedar Creek valley. My foot was a bit sore and stiff at first, but quickly loosened up. I normally always prefer uphill to down, and today was no exception. That give me a chance to really lean into the hill and give my body a good workout. It felt great hiking at a good speed in the crisp morning air.

The rest of the hike was mostly either downhill or level, and we all made good time. Oh yea, I forgot to talk about Aspen and his pack. Whoever designed this thing had no idea what they were doing because one of the zippers closed the wrong direction - it was easy to unzip that compartment by brushing up against a tree or rock, which Aspen did on numerous occasions. It never ceases to amaze me that things can be designed and put on the market without any real world testing. Hey, if you design a DOG PACK, you had better put it on your dog and go out in the woods with it before offering it to the public!!! Really stupid.

Anyway, Aspen lost his food out of that compartment once (chasing after wild turkeys), but I found it nearby the trail. But the second time he lost it I could not retrieve it. That made it pack unbalanced, so I ended up simply carrying his pack and sleeping bag. Not his fault, but that of the manufacturer. I did have to clip him to my own backpack to keep him from running all over the place once, and as luck would have it, we were going up a pretty good hill at the time and I was able to let him pull me up a bit - he was a great sled dog!!! Mush......

Everyone survived the hike, and my sore foot actually got better this second day. The swelling is down a lot, and that neat purple and blue and black color moved down to the toes. I just got out of the hot tub back at the cabin, and the foot is doing fine. The sky is filled with puffy white and black clouds right now, against a beautiful blue sky, with the sun just about to drop behind the far western hill. It was a fine weekend hike with wonderful people and the perfect trail dog.

The old man and the Superdog taking an afternoon break on a big rock. Photo by Mark Hardgrave
(see some of Mark's terrific grizzly bear photos at the following site: http://www.geocities.com/m_hardgrave)

It was tough getting to the back side of the shop to put on the siding - a long ladder helped!

Putting the old tractor to work - Terry is up in the bucket with the nail gun - you can just see his legs in the 1st picture

The shop/carport early this morning all ready for the new metal roof - please pardon all the construction junk!

2/5-7/01 These last several days have been mostly a blur to me. Up early and working all day and into the night until exhaustion. Terry has been out every day working with me. We finally got the rafters and cross-members for the shop and carport all finished, then got the metal roof on. There was a terrible high wind all day for the last part of the roof work, which made things most interesting working up there on the roof. You see metal is very slick to begin with, and when you have a 35mph wind blowing you around, the back edge of the shop - where there is a severe dropoff - comes at you very fast! But no casualties and we got everything on just fine.

Got to do a lot of cement mixing too - put 15 bags into the holes where the eight 6 x 6 posts that hold up the shop are. That baby is being held down now by nearly a ton of cement, so I doubt it will be going anywhere.

My future father-in-law Ron made a great suggestion that has already proven to be very smart - that was to put a couple of clear panels in the roof of the shop to allow natural light in. Man, what a difference they make! No need for light during the day at all in there. And we don't even have the three windows cut out yet. Way to go Ron!

I got to use the tractor over and over for quite a few little chores that were made so much easier. Even simple things like getting the last load of wood out of the way - it was all treated wood for the two new decks that will be built soon. The truck dropped them right in the middle of the driveway, but a chain and a tractor picked up the entire lot and moved them to a resting spot out of the way.

We have had some great weather, and even the wind was OK once we got off of the roof - it helped blow away the cement dust as I was pouring it out of the bags - I HATE that dust! Bright blue skies most of the week, and downright warm a day or two. One highlight was when we both looked up and saw the pair of mature bald eagles circling overhead - and they were pretty down close too. It was an amazing sight, all that pure black and white against the incredible blue sky. We just had to stop and stare.

Poor Aspen. He has been pretty much bored through this entire process. Especially when Terry and I are both up on the roof - he literally has nothing to do, and has either been simply laying out in the sunshine, or destroying anything that he could find (lots of shredded plastic all over the yard). But I made sure to take plenty of time outs to stop and give him a bit of attention. Hurry up Pam, Amber, and LUCY!

As dark hit on Wednesday we had just finished the concrete work, and spent an hour cleaning up the place, including picking up all of Aspen's toys (or what was left of them). Then I was able to pull the truck into the original carport for the first time in a while (lumber and construction stuff in the way), and put the tractor in the new carport. The place is looking much better all the time!

My foot has not gotten any better since I finished the hike last weekend. I've had to keep the brace on it all the time - even at night. I can put full weight on it, but can't turn or twist it in any direction without severe pain. All of that neat color is gone though, so it must be getting better.

PICTURE PROBLEMS. I have no idea what the problem with the pictures has been. I've not done anything different than I have always done, but the new pictures from this week have not been coming up on the web page (as you probably know). And I have not had the time to do anything about it, but hope to be able to soon.

2/8/01 Terry had to get up and leave very early to get home to fix a problem with his chicken houses. He has been staying out here some nights, which saves the three-hour round trip home. I awoke as he drove off, and soon got up myself as it looked like dawn was breaking and I needed to get up anyway. I had a good long soak in the hot tub. The temp was 57 degrees, and it felt like rain (hurrrrrrraaaaayyyyy!!!). It wasn't until a while later that I realized sunrise was still three hours away - the breaking dawn that I saw was just the full moon behind the clouds lighting things up - it was 4am. No matter, I was awake so I made my way up here to the office and have been attacking the mountain of mail piling up on my desk. Sunrise is still thirty minutes away. Boy, you get SO MUCH done when you get up early!

One of the things that I worked on was the web page pictures. Something is quite different today, so perhaps my server in Fayetteville was changing things around this week - I hope that is why the pictures did not load. I have reloaded them this morning and hope it will all work now. If not, the problem may be a larger one without an easy solution. Someone once told me that my writing was not nearly as good once I started posting picture here - because I was simply posting a picture of something instead of describing it with words. I've never really considered myself much of a writer anyway though, and think that the pictures add a lot, so will continue to post them if I can ever get the system fixed.

There is still a great deal of work to be done on the shop and carport. In fact, the shop won't be finished for a month or two - the log siding that I'm going to put on it had to be special ordered from the Amish in Montana, and it will take a while to get here. There are three windows and a door to install, plus lots of shelves and stuff to build inside, and all of the electrical wiring to do. The carport floor needs to be leveled, and before I can do that (with the tractor!) I have to dig two trenches and bury a telephone cable (which comes up to the office) and a power line (that will power the shop). Then I will have to dig out and cut off three or four stumps. After the tractor gets finished leveling it all, I will have a load or two of gravel put on top, and it will be all ready.

The next building project will be two decks - one across the east end of the cabin at ground level, and a second across the west side of the cabin which will join the front porch deck with the upper back deck. It will be 50 feet long. Other project include a nice gazebo in the meadow below the cabin, landscaping that meadow and the trail down to it, and then finally some sort of water garden in the front of the cabin. I've had all of these ideas for a long time (although the gazebo idea was one that Pam and I came up with a couple of weeks ago and will REALLY look neat!), but am just now getting around to finally doing something about them. And oh yea, the tractor shed - that is on the list for this spring too!

By the way, I know so many of you have been asking, and we finally have a date for the big event! Pam and Amber and I will be getting married this summer, and there will be a fair-sized party to go along with it. Actually it will simply be the summer bushwhacker party with a wedding ceremony thrown in. We will have it down at the new gazebo site, and it should be a very nice event. I hope to have the picture posting problem fixed by then!!!

Terry putting on the steel roof

The white panels and semi-finished project in the fog this morning

There has been a humidity problem at the cabin this winter - it has been around 20% for a couple of months now, and this dry air is beginning to shrink the pine floor. I finally got a large enough humidifier yesterday that could handle the entire cabin. The level went up to 33% in just a few hours, and the air in the cabin just feels so much better. But this morning the humidity outside was 98%, and the temp was warm enough, so I simply shut down the electric humidifier and opened the windows - it shot up to 75% in a matter of minutes! You could almost hear all the wood inside breathe a sigh of relief!

As I was sitting at the computer at the cabin, I hear a loud rush outside. I looked up just in time to see a wall of thick fog approaching. Within a few seconds it engulfed the cabin and there was nothing but white all around. I love days like this! No rain yet, but the air is so wet it is just a matter of time.

2/9/01 It was a wild ride all night. Way out there in the darkness I could hear a giant force building up, inhaling a great amount of wind and rain, then it would exhale and release tons of atmosphere and it would all come rushing towards and slam into the cabin with a loud roar. It was a genuine giant thunderstorm, and dumped more than an inch of rain, with winds above 45mph. There were many loud noises - some obviously deck furniture being picked up by the winds and slammed down elsewhere. Others must have been branches hitting the cabin. But there were dozens of sounds that I could not figure out, and hesitate to imagine the origin of. Was the new building holding up? Where there entire trees on the roof? I had no idea, nor any intention of getting up and venturing out in the storm in the middle of the night.

I almost never have dreams that are set in reality, or with any recognizable people in them. But after being awake most of the night with the storm, I finally dozed off sometime after 4am and had a dream with real people in it - Pam and her dad. And it involved the Concord Jet - hum, I wonder where the seed for a supersonic craft came from? That old wind that began way out there in the wilderness came crashing right on through the cabin and into my brain.

It was quite foggy at first light, with mist in the air. A quick look around revealed no damage to the cabin, decks or the new building that I could detect. I was a bit surprised to find that the Buffalo River had not risen a bit. When we had that 1.5 inches of rain a couple of weeks ago the river came up and ran wild for several days. But today after one inch of rain, nothing. I guess that just goes to show how thirsty the forest really is - we need more rain!!!!! It probably is a good thing that the river and therefore the waterfalls are not running full blast today - my ankle is in no shape to go out bushwhacking up and down the hillsides looking for waterfalls, especially with camera gear along.

Today will be mostly indoor work - at the new shop and up at the office. I spent a bit of time last night digging a trench from the cabin to the shop and buried a power line in conduit, then hooked up the first power outlet in the shop. Today I need to do a lot more wiring, plus dig into the main breaker box here at the cabin and connect the new power line. Lots of shelves to build too, and a door and windows to install, but some of that may have to wait for later. There is still a pile of unopened mail at the office!

Oh yea, while I was sitting in the steaming bubbles just after first light, with many black clouds still swirling all around and high winds, I noticed a tiny bird way up there. He was having a great deal of trouble maintaining a steady course in the wind, and would often give up and let the winds carry him where they may. Then he would muster strength for another try, only to be swept away once again. The little guy sure was trying hard! I bet he ends up someplace nice and is rewarded for his efforts. I guess the same thing happens to people too - we will often struggle against terrific odds, and are blown back off course many times. But the ones who get right back up again and keep on struggling will often achieve great rewards. You don't really have to have a great deal of smarts or talent to succeed - just the determination and focus to keep on going no matter what. I think sometimes it is the struggle along the way and the obstacles that we overcome to accomplish something that builds character and makes us feel more alive and worth while. The easy things in life we attain don't really teach us much, nor build character. And heck, climbing the tough mountain is usually a lot more fun than the easy ones anyway!

There are two places that leak in the cabin, but they only do so when high winds force rain through a tiny hole somewhere - like this past storm did. We have been unable to locate the source of the leak, and my Amish friend have even chalked around every conceivable thing outside. Hum, I guess those tiny water droplets are just like that bird! Only their reward is being wiped up with a bear-pattern towel...

After close inspection I found that the new shop and carport did not sustain any damage from the storm, but there are SIX leaks in the roof! That is, of course, six too many. We'll have to wait until it all dries out before we can go on top and see what it up.

The temp dropped 14 degrees in less than an hour - I guess you can say that a cold front arrived! It is 44 now, and the wind is still blowing pretty good. The wind chill is down in the teens. Just a spit or two of rain, and still heavy clouds.

The river has come up dramatically in the past hour as well - means that inch of rainfall has finally reached it. I am heading out here in a few minutes to hike into and photograph three waterfalls over in the Boen Gulf drainage. There are probably a dozen good ones in there, but I'll only have time today to get to these three. It will be a good test for my foot, although I will have it heavily secured inside my boot.

Aspen is kind of weird this morning. While I have been working in the shop - getting some more electrical outlets wired up - he as just been sitting out in front of the cabin staring at me, out in the rain and the wet and the cold. And then when I come into the cabin, he does the same thing - just sit and stares inside. I wonder if he is trying to tell me to forget about all this shop and electrical stuff and get the heck out of dodge and into the woods?

Just as I was packing up the car it began to sleet pretty good. The temp had dropped another 12 degrees and it looked like winter was back once again. I decided that I did not want to test my weak foot on slick ground, so opted to stay here instead of go waterfall hunting. Besides, there was so much work to do!

I spent a couple hours digging out and sawing down five stumps that were in the way of the new carport - the largest of them was literally right in the middle of the carport - had to dig down more than a foot to get at that one. Plus I dug the long trench to bury the main telephone line that runs from the cabin up to the office - it had not been dug deep enough the first time.

Mud, mud, MUD! I was covered with it, and so was the superdog. No, I take that back - it was mostly clay, thick red clay. The kind that you have to reach down and peel off of your boots before you can move on. That will all be covered up before too long with gravel, but for now it will be a big mess.

The power went off for about an hour. I was forced to lay down in the leather couch in front of the big fire and take a nap. The temp dropped another 8 degrees, and it is 24 now, with a brisk wind still blowing - that puts the wind chill at below zero. I just looked at the journal for a year ago today and found that the wind had been blowing at 40mph then too.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry and cleaning up the cabin. There will be three young ladies arriving here in a few minutes to spend the weekend, and I need to put on a good face. Oops, better go scrape some of that clay off of Aspen!

The fire has warmed up the cabin to a toasty 71 degrees - the heat pump has not been on all week. Outside the evening sky is filled with bands of multi-colored clouds and blue sky. No sunset that I can see, but it is a wonderful scene just the same. Just a few minutes left before the ladies show up - I had better go split a bit more wood!

2/10/01 It was a lazy morning with bright sunshine when the three of us splashed into the steaming bubbles out on the back deck. Later Amber and I hiked on up to the office to get a bit of work done while Pam and the dogs wandered through her favorite spot in the forest. It was crisp outside, but not too cold.

Once we all returned to the cabin an official "Amber's Room" sign, complete with a colorful dolphin image (one of her favorite critters), was installed on her bedroom door. She is really beginning to get the hang of the place, feel more comfortable here, and wants to contribute to everything that goes on here. Warm vibes radiate out of this young lady all the time, and she will be a wonderful addition to Cloudland.

We all spent some time later in town at one of the best jewelry stores in the country and picked out our wedding bands. Much to my surprise and delight, ALL THREE of us liked the very same style! They will be simple and strong, with a touch of elegance, and handmade in Germany. I guess there are really few things in life that you pick out that will be with your for the rest of your life - your mate and wedding ring are two of the few. I did especially well with both!

Back at the cabin, we danced and sang songs and enjoyed the blazing fireplace until it was time to retire. But just before we went to sleep, Pam inquired about the ankle brace that I had been wearing non-stop for a week. My ankle was still very tenter and sore, and even swelled up a bit. I took off the brace and she gave my ankle and foot a good massage (I only screamed a couple of times), then I kept the brace off all night. Man, what a difference that made! The swelling went down and I was able to get a good night's sleep for the first time since the accident. Her hands worked magic. Hum, how about my aching back?

2/11/01 Another lazy morning, but no sunrise, just clouds. When we did hit the ground, our little feet were working fast. After a hearty Cloudland breakfast of fresh biscuits and gravy, we spent the morning working outside, cleaning up the east side of the cabin to make room for a new deck that will be built soon. This side of the cabin has always been the junk side - the place where you don't want anyone to see. You know, there are just some things that you need to put SOMEWHERE, and this area is where most of those things have ended up these past few years. But now the new deck will surround that side of the cabin, and all the stuff will live elsewhere - most of it will be burned up in the fireplace.

The big storm the other night took apart a rubbermaid shed, tossing parts of it and its contents way on down the hillside. While my foot was feeling much better this morning, I elected to not risk slipping on the steep slope and sent Pam and Amber down to gather up the pieces. Then Pam fired up the tractor and her and Amber went for a little ride. I heard later that Amber got to take the controls for a bit.

We spent the rest of the afternoon inside, playing board games, dancing and singing John Denver tunes, reading, and simply enjoying each others company. This seemed to be the weekend where Amber really got comfortable here. And I swear she does things that I had no idea eight-year olds did - like coming up to me and asking if she could vacuum up all the dead wasps on the floor. Then she wanted to know if she could invent some new type of snack from the stuff that we had in the cabinets. Hum, I love SNACKS! What she came up with was AMBER'S BUFFALO RIVER APPLE SNACK - slices of apple (Fuji ones work best) dipped in a mixture of two parts sugar and one part brown sugar. I was a bit sceptical at first, but the things are darn tasty!

Then she wanted to go out and sit with me on the swing. That was really no big deal, except for the fact that the wind chill was BELOW twenty degrees! So we spent some quality time under the down comforter, just Amber and I and Aspen. Pam was busy in front of the fireplace doing research on what wildflowers would be good to plant here. She had a long list by the end of the day - once Pam moves in Cloudland will become what it is supposed to be.

And oh yea, one of the highlights of the day was when the three of us were sitting at the game table playing some card game, and a mature bald eagle came zipping past the window - he was soaring right over the little meadow below the cabin - the closest I had ever seen an eagle here. It was quite a treat for sure!

All too soon the weekend came to an end for me, and I had to run into town for a couple of meetings, and Pam and Amber returned north. But when I arrived back at the cabin near midnight, I found that the two little darlings had decorated the cabin with big red hearts - they are my sweethearts for life.

2/12/01 Heavy fog this morning, and freezing temps. My bare feet stuck to the thin ice coating on the back deck when I disrobed to enter the hot tub. I hiked up to the office before daylight, and now that it is light outside, the forest is still monotones of black and grey, with a under-layer of brown - I guess that would be a tri-tone! Lots more outside work today, as Terry comes back out and we work on finishing up the shop (fixing the leaks in the roof, installing the door and windows, putting on some trim). The final touches will still be a few weeks or months away - putting on the log siding.

By the way, in case you have not heard, the new Pack Rat Outdoor Center in Fayetteville will be a 15,000 square foot version of Cloudland! Well, at least the logs will be the same and built by the same Amish folks in Montana. It will be a showplace for hundreds of miles around, and a destination in itself along the same lines of Bass Pro in Springfield (although it will have SO MUCH MORE character, and not quite as many fish...).

Speaking of Bass Pro, I just have to tell you something about them. I sell books direct to more than 150 retail stores all across the United States. Yet only one of them REQUIRES me to sign some long and complicated legal document each year before they will buy my books (20-30 pages long - I've have never actually read it all, nor can afford to pay a lawyer to give an opinion). It is all quite silly, and a giant waste of my time and their money (I'm sure it costs them tens of thousand of dollars a year to force this requirement on their suppliers, which by the way they pass right on to their customers). They also REQUIRE me to have a ONE MILLION DOLLAR liability insurance polity payable directly to them. Dah, so if you are in Bass Pro and you are looking at one of my guidebooks and you happen to drop it on your foot, I guess they might expect you to sue them over it. If you ask me (and no one did, but what the heck), there is way too much of all this ridiculous stuff put on us by large corporations these days, and we the customers ALWAYS get stuck with the bill. Always. OK, off of my soapbox now and out into the wonderful fog....

2/14/01 PLEASE NOTE! Due to a combination of very poor phone service here (I have only been able to log onto the net once in the past 24 hours, and this is at 3am - something is terribly wrong with both of my phone lines), and the fact that I will be out of town for a few days, there will be NO MORE POSTS to the journal until at least February 22nd (nor will I be able to answer or send any e-mails). You can always go back to 1999 and 2000 and read what was going on then (links below).

The weather has been extremely wet and muddy here. Terry and I got a bit of work done in the rain yesterday, including breaking out part of a rock wall to connect the two carports, and building the first of several new decks. That will be all of the work for a while, but I will get back to that next week. The caretakers who will be staying here will be spending most of their time in the cabin or out in the woods and not working in the mud........But for now the rain is coming down a little bit, and I am hoping for a LOT more in the weeks to come so that I can take waterfall pictures. Lots of very thick pea soup kind of fog.
 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO YOU ALL!!!

2/21/01 A large group of elk in the fields of Boxley Valley were there to greet me as I returned to the Buffalo River area today. Somehow the cows just look odd - they are all so huge, but none have antlers! It was good to see them and great to be back in the Ozarks again. We had a wonderful trip to Colorado for a bit of cross-country skiing (Pam and I and Roy and Norma). The weather was nearly perfect, with mild temps, sunshine and lots of snow. We base-camped at an old historical hotel in Leadville, and skied on several trails that either were right on top of the continental divide or led up into beautiful valleys towards it. I've been going back to this area for many years, and find it the perfect combination of a laid-back atmosphere and people, with spectacular scenery and great skiing no matter what the snow conditions. You can have the big ski resorts with their fancy people and giant prices and hectic days - give me a pair of long skinny skies and deserted wilderness any day! We did have to stick with easy trails though this time - my poor and heavily-braced ankle could not take much else.

Many people expected Pam and I to get married on this trip. Sorry folks! While it is true that we will probably have a private ceremony sometime between now and when we have the public celebration here this summer, we will wait until our little rings arrive from Germany before doing so. Anyway, I already feel like Pam and I are bonded together for life, so the actual legal procedures will just be a formality.

As I turned the truck into my driveway I found bulldozer tracks - yippie!!! I found an artist at work, and man you just can't believe what a terrific job Charles Thornberry had done. The main reason for having him out this time was to clear off the little meadow down below the cabin - something I had been waiting to do for nearly four years. Plans have always been to create a neat little meadow down there, filled with wildflowers and open space that I could mow once or twice a year, plus a small garden. Up until now it has been impossible to do any of that - just too rough to mow, and any wildflowers that have been planted have been mostly drowned out by other vegetation. It's a jungle out here, and you really have to work to keep it all back!

The bulldozer that Charles drives has a twelve foot wide blade - I have no idea how in the world he is able to use it so delicately. There were some spots in the little meadow where he only disturbed the top inch or two of soil, while taking out dozens of large stumps and hundreds of rocks and lots of other debris. He is a true artist indeed! You just can't believe how wonderful that little meadow looks now. Of course, this all means that we have a great deal of work to do to get it where we want it - lots of planting and natural landscape to do. Good thing Pam and Amber will be coming out this weekend!

It turns out that we cut into the main phone lines that lead from the cabin up to the office last week while digging a trench with the tractor to divert some water away from the front of the cabin. I don't know when I will be able to get it spliced back together, but for the time being I have had to move my office down to the cabin, including several electronic items like the fax and credit card machine - my little cabin office is now covered with stuff! It also means that I don't have the ability to upload any images to the web page.

The caretakers reported a great deal of rain here while we were gone - four inches worth! Plus a lot of wind. They spent a bit of time chasing deck furniture. Otherwise they reported all was quiet and calm with no visitors. While I don't really worry about folks breaking in out here while I am gone, I do like to have someone here anytime that I am away for more than a day or two - just to look after things. There is a long list of folks who volunteer for the job.

By the way, I have to relate this story about my house in Fayetteville, which is still on the market. Someone broke in there last week. The house is COMPLETELY empty - no furniture, no nothing! Yet someone got in and stole my bathroom sink! Good grief, how low will someone go.

Pam and I had driven most of the night from Colorado last night, then I made the trip down here from Springfield, so I was somewhat of a zombie for the rest of the day. But a new record greeted me when I turned on the computer - 268 e-mails! And 64 phone calls while we were gone. Nearly half of the e-mails were SPAM, many of the others did not require a response, but I made it my goal to get the 100+ real ones answered by the end of the day. It turned out to be a very long day.

But I did get to go out and roam around in the forest here a bit before darkness arrived. The forest was damp and soft and smelled great. I could tell that my tall friends were happy for the rain. The rivers below were singing a lively tune, although the main river was lower than normal for this time of the year. A couple of times the sky got real dark and it poured - man was that loud! While I was caught out in it all, I was prepared with rain gear and didn't mind at all. In fact the chilly rain sort of woke me up a bit.

I spent the rest of the night at the cabin computer, finishing up the e-mails and working on the OHTA hiking club newsletter. It was very late when I finally shut everything down and stumbled out into the night for a good long soak in the hot tub. The deck was covered with a thin layer of ice, and a frigid wind was blowing. In my exhausted state I did not notice until I was completely submerged that the hot tub water was not hot at all - not even warm. It was in fact COLD! I immediately jumped out, slid across the deck, and stood there shivering and nearly frozen. Silly me - I had added a bit of cold water to the tub before and had not turned the heater back on again. That is one mistake that I planned not to make again!

2/22/01 The temp is still just below freezing this morning, with a heavy fog blanketing the cabin. As I laid back in the now steaming bubbles in the tub, I swore I saw a star or two shining through the darkness. It was 5am and still quite dark, but I must have been seeing things because there was no way any starlight was going to make it through that thick fog.

It is just getting light now, and the visibility is about 100 feet. I will spend the day working on the newsletter, opening my mountain of snail-mail, and running back and forth between the office and cabin trying to catch up. It may be a day or two before I can venture out into the wilderness - since it will likely rain a lot in the next few days, there should be some great waterfalls to visit!

2/24/01 Rain, wet RAIN, LOTS of wet rain, beautiful, soaking, pouring rain! Yippie - its' raining!!!!!!! And not just a little sprinkle, but a sure-fire day or two of wave after wave of thunderstorms. I've been screaming for rain for a long while now, and finally I will get my wish. Lots of waterfalls to photograph now for sure.

But first I had a bit of family and cabin business to attend to. Pam and Amber are down for the weekend, and after we fixed up a big Cloudland Hash breakfast we all split up for chores. Amber worked on the fireplace while Pam dusted and cleaned up all over the place. I was outside with Terry working on installing the front wall of log siding on the new shop. It rained most of the time, but we were mostly under the new carport and so could continue to rain. Only problem was that about a dozen new leaks appeared in the shop. Oops.

But that turned out to be just the beginning of our troubles. The wind had been blowing pretty hard all morning, but by early afternoon it had worked itself up into a real big blow. Terry and I stopped in mid saw and ran into the cabin only to find the two ladies at the window enjoying the breeze. Breeze, ya - we all watched the weather station as the gauge went from 30mph up to 35, 40, 45, 50, and then topped out at 53!!!  The record out here is 55mph, and it has only reached 53mph a few times - it was really cooking.

And with the wind came a great deal of rain - hard rain - horizontal rain - rain that was driven right on through every nook and cranny at the south end of the cabin. Before long we had about a dozen places inside where the water was being forced to reach - all dripping into the cabin. The ladies had it mostly under control until we found that the entire lower south wall was completely soaked. I scurried around to shut down all of the electrical breakers in the area. Goodness, this blow was a big one. Then we found several more leaks upstairs - including one coming right on out of the wall and down a snowshoe. And while I was on the computer answering some e-mail, the ceiling fan/light right next to me began to run with water - water running down through your Hunter fan is not a good thing! Needless to say it was an anxious 30 minute break.

Oh yea, before our big wind came through, Pam and Amber went out for a nice long hike. They toured the newly-scraped-off meadow down below the cabin, then wandered up through the forest and out towards the East meadow and beyond. It was a lovely hike for both of them, and included a bit of heavy rain - but not to worry - they are quickly becoming comfortable with the great outdoors!

The heavy rains brought out some nice waterfalls. In fact Pam got out there binocs and spotted the two really large ones that are visible across the river. They both pour off  of the big bluff over there, then spill down the steep hillside. They were quite a sight to see! I have not measured them, but figure they are both 75-80 tall. And we don't even have to leave the cabin to see them.

Eventually the rains stopped - or should I say let up - and we finished the front of the shop and Terry went home. After a long soaking hot shower for myself, we three feasted on a bit of shrimp and pasta, then had a round of singing and dancing. It finally hit me last night while I was driving home that a friend of mine was quickly becoming an honest to goodness celebrity and great singer/song writer. I heard a little special about him on the radio - including one of his award-winning songs from his first CD. His name is Effron White, and he is booked to play at the Cloudland wedding in June! If you are from NW Arkansas and go out much, you probably have heard him - he has been playing at tiny (but VERY GOOD) restaurants in the area for a while.

Anyway, Amber absolutely LOVES his music, as do I. She has two or three of his songs memorized (well, almost), including one that we always listen to at breakfast - the "Biscuits and Gravy" song. Tonight Amber started to sing "going down curvy waves..." and was dancing all over the cabin (joined by her mom, and once in a while, me). The words are actually "going down Kerrville way" - talking about going to the folk festival in Texas. But "curvy waves" sounds pretty good to me to we went with it. Two of his songs are on my top ten list right now - they are ones that I will play over and over again while driving. He is a first-rate musician, and I hope makes it a long ways in this business. It will be great to have him out here at Cloudland for the wedding. I highly recommend his CD (go to EFFRON WHITE'S MP3.COM WEBPAGE).

Oh yea, another flashback. The Fayetteville police called me last night. "Do you have a house in Fayetteville? Have you been there lately? Has there been anything missing?" Actually, my house there has been broken into THREE times this past month - they got framed prints of mine right off of the wall in addition to the bathroom sink. Anyway, the detective told me that they not only had some of my stuff (the prints), but they had the guy in jail who did it - apparently he has a habit of breaking into houses that are for sale. I was more than a little surprised to hear from them because I had never even filed a police report about the break ins! I told the officer that he and his staff must be very good to recover my stuff even though they did not know it was missing!

It is much later at the cabin now, and the three of us are all danced out and have had out little soak in the hot tub under the clearing skies. Well, actually there were some stars out but a lot of lightening too - looks and sounds like much more rain ahead, which I will be quite happy for. The wind is blowing about 40mph right now, and Amber is standing right here feeding me popcorn - one kernel at a time. Pam is on the couch reading, and Aspen is on another couch with a peanut butter flavored bone at his feet. Life is good at Cloudland tonight!

2/25/01 It was a very long night. Howling winds kept at it - up to 48mph. I laid there for hours and listened to the songs, the voices, indeed to the very soul of mother nature. She seemed to be crying out for something, but I haven't the faintest idea what. There was no rain with this - just a great deal of very loud wind. And then all was perfectly still and quiet.

Amber crawled up into bed before sunrise and pointed out the incredible pre-dawn that was happening out the window. Brands of orange, red, pink, blue, light blue, and dark blue spread out across the western sky. It was one of those scenes that you just gawked at, knowing you could never find the words to describe the extreme beauty.

Then is was up and out the door for another big day at Cloudland. Pam and Amber got to work down in the meadow - planting grass seed and laying out mini gardens and other landscaping. Amber will have her own little spot (actually not so little) with flowers and watermelons. Boy, the girls put in a long hard day getting all of that seed out, then they outlined many of the garden areas with rock - there was no shortage of rock down in the meadow.

I packed up and hurried off to photograph some waterfalls for the new guidebook. At first the conditions were just perfect - overcast skies with no wind and PLENTY of water! I drove over to a nearby trailhead and hiked down into one of the prettiest watersheds that I know of around here. I carried my GPS this time, and held it out in front of me and level most of the time - this proved to be the way to carry it through the woods as it was very accurate and never lost track of the satellites.

Just as I approached the first waterfall the sun popped out and there was nothing but blue sky as far as I could see - rats! I really do need overcast skies for good waterfall pictures. But this first one was all in the shade, with the exception of the very top. I kind of wanted to see how my digital camera would handle the extreme contrast, so I went ahead and shot a few images. They turned out good enough I think to include in the black and white book. I also got out my measuring tape, complete with a new mesh bag filled with rocks to aid in getting an accurate height. Twenty Six feet right on the nose. Not a really tall falls, but a lot of character for sure.

The first waterfall - 26 feet tall

Next I shot pictures of a second waterfall just down stream from the first. The best view of this one is from the bottom of it, but that would require another half mile hike. So I found a good spot near the top of the falls and fired off a few shots. The measure for this one was 33 feet. Next I made my way around to the top of a third waterfall that I knew about in this drainage - it is one of the tallest in the wilderness - and my tape hit bottom right at 63 feet - that is a pretty darn tall waterfall, and the water was flowing good.

The sky remained bright blue with way too much sunshine, but since both of these last waterfalls were in total shade, I decided to go ahead and hike on down and around and see what they looked like from below. It took about 20 minutes to reach the base of #2. The hike to get there ran along the base of a magnificent bluff - some really nice stuff.

When I reached the falls I decided to shoot a picture or two with myself in it for scale. This little Olympus 3030 digital camera has a tiny remote control card that allowed me to go on over there and get in the picture without having to rush to beat a ten-second timer. That was a big help, especially with my still ailing ankle (I had to take about a dozen steps across slippery partially-submerged rocks to reach my portrait spot).

The second falls, 33 feet tall

OK, #2 done, now it was time to go find #3 (none of these waterfalls have names, but I will have to come up with some for the guidebook). This short hike was also along the base of this amazing bluff. There was one spot there where the bluff was solid rock from the very top almost all the way to the base (probably 60 feet or so high), then a very low overhang underneath. This overhang was filled with jagged rocks perhaps a foot or two long. The ones in the back were nearly pure white in color. As they got closer to the front edge they were more covered with lichens and mosses, giving them a green cast and then color. The rocks merged with a thick carpet of mosses out in front of the ledge. I don't know, it was just a wonderful little spot where cold hard stone turned into soft mosses.

And just beyond was the thundering of the big waterfall. I was a little concerned that my wide-angle lens would not be wide enough to get all of the falls in the frame, but I found a spot that had a good view and was able to get it all in. Well, most of it anyway. The very top of the falls was lit with sunshine and so would not show up well in the photograph. The viewpoint that I found blocked out the very top of the falls.

I soon discovered that the little remote control that I had just bragged about did not work at this spot - when I was over at the base of the falls I was simply out of range of the signal. So I had to resort to the old fashioned way of getting myself into the picture - push the ten-second timer and run like hell!

One of the better things about a digital camera is that you can see immediately what you have recorded on the disk. So after sailing on over to pose at the base of the falls, I ambled on back and found that I was not fast enough - no Tim in the picture. So I tried again. Another failure. Then again, and again, and again, and again. Really - I hauled you-know-what across mud and slick rocks over and over and over again and just was not fast enough to cover the distance in ten seconds. OK, I was getting tired, my ankle ached, it was getting late, but I HAD to get myself in the picture to show the height of this waterfall. So one more try. I gave it everything that I had, and EUREKA, I made it into the picture!

The big 63 foot tall falls - the top few feet are not shown

I was not looking forward to the trip back out of this steep-walled canyon. There were trees down everywhere (from a tornado many years ago), boulders and slick rocks and thickets all over the place. And I was wearing down. But I did know of this short cut up the bluff that friend Terry Keefe showed my many moons ago when we first found these waterfalls. It was a very tricky route at best, climbing up the face of this 60 foot bluff with no climbing gear. But I was just in the right mood to give it a go.

So I found it and after standing back and taking a good long hard look, decided to head on up. The first ledge was a bit of a stretch, but I made it OK. This led up to a second ledge, and then a third, and a fourth. I was now quite a ways up. And only one more ledge to scale. But this was the tough one. And there were two possible routes to take me to the top. The one of the left could be done with some expertise and a lot of luck, but if I slipped I would end up smashed on the forest floor way down below.

The ledge on the right was extremely tight and narrow - only about a foot wide - and even worse the path was barely two feet tall. But it led on up to near where a small beech tree grew at the edge of the cliff. This would be a much tougher climb, but it was a lot safer because if I fell off, I could only fall about twenty feet. I choose the second route.

But first I had to tie my safety rope onto my camera bags and tripod, then threw the rope up onto the top of the bluff. Then I got down on my belly and began to crawl across the narrow ledge. It was a tight fit, and the ledge was covered with wet moss and leaves and mud. I inched along, then when I got to the end, reached out and pulled myself up and over with the small tree. I made it! And I was covered with mud. No matter, I had escaped the deep canyon below and had a much easier hike back out to the car.

When I returned to the cabin I found my two workers lounging around in the hammock under bright and warm sunny skies. They deserved it for sure! I half expected them to be asleep there, but was informed that they had been watching a bald eagle soaring around for some time - I'd much rather view an eagle than take a nap any day.

Speaking of eagles - or rather buzzards - we discovered that the strong winds of the past day and night took out the main sitting place for may birds that pass by the cabin. An old snag that was the tip top of a large pine tree had been blown away. I'd seen as many as a dozen giant buzzards sitting there at one time, sunning themselves. Seemed like just about every type of bird out here has been seen sitting there at one time or another - large and small. But no more. And one of the big trees that the hammock is attached to was blown in two with the top half sent crashing to the ground. Man, that wind was really powerful.

Once again, and all too soon, the weekend ended and my ladies drove off to Missouri. The place certainly is a lot more like home now when there are here, and a vacuum follows their departure. Won't be long now though before their car will remain parked at Cloudland!

2/26/01 Another incredible sunrise today, only there was no adorable child pointing it out to me. It took me quite a while to get ready and out of the cabin this morning for some reason - tons of work piling up for one thing, and lots of phone calls to make and receive. But I did finally get out to take a few pictures.

The first stop was a short hike into Twin Falls, only I like to call it Triple Falls for obvious reasons. This is the one at Camp Orr and not the one in Richland Creek Wilderness. It was flowing just about perfect today, and turned out to be taller than I first thought.

"Twin"  Falls, 49 feet tall

That is one thing that I am really trying to get an accurate count of - the height of each waterfall to put in this guidebook. Most people throw out some figure about how tall this or that one is (myself included), but the actual measurement us almost always a great deal less. And while size most certainly does not matter when it comes to waterfalls - there are so many neat and interesting ones that are not very tall - it does give you some idea of how massive one is.

My next stop required a long drive down a narrow county road for access. I wonder sometimes if anyone travels this little road but a couple of times a year. Just when I had reached a point of now return, the road was blocked by a large tree across it. I parked the truck there and headed out on foot. There was another large tree across the road a little ways beyond. And then another. No one had been on this road in a very long time.

It was a nice hike and so I didn't mind, although the darn sun came out and burned off the cloud cover that I really needed for my waterfall picture. Down, down, down I hiked. This road dropped down nearly 500 feet towards the Buffalo River. I finally got to the waterfall and set up the tripod. The sun was out but I was able to get to a spot where the sun was hidden behind a hill. The composition made it necessary for me to stand in very close to the waterfall in order to get me in the picture for scale. The last couple of times that I ran and got into place the splash from the falls completely drenched me - and this was COLD spring water! This is Pearly Spring. A photo of it of mine appears on the label of ARKANSAS ALE beer. I got paid 300 bottles of beer for its use. Hum, come to think of it they still owe me a few bottles!

"99 bottles of beer on the wall..."

The trip back UP to the truck went fast, and I really leaned into the hill and worked up a sweat. Actually I dried my clothes off first, then worked up a sweat. On my way out I drove slowly past an old cabin and was nearly eaten alive by three large and loud dogs (the car was nearly eaten that is). They followed me a good ways, but eventually gave up and ran off into the woods.

I stopped at the top of the hill a couple of miles beyond to make a phone call. I truck pulled up and parked just in front of me. An old grizzled man got out and hobbled on over to me. I recognized him as the gentleman who Ray Scott and I had talked to about taking pictures on his land last spring. He was also the owner of the dogs that had chased me. He wanted to know if his dogs had followed me on out. He told me "they're crazy, and are running off all the time after something." A wonderful old gent and very nice. We talked for a minute - he wanted to know if I had been down to the river. I told him about the blocked road and that I had been taking pictures of the spring. "Well you should have stopped by and talked for a while - I'm always ready for a good talk!" I think that you will find many folks just like him who live out here in the hills - friendly and always eager to help out, or to just sit a spell and talk.

The sun was out for good now and so I returned to the cabin to work on a few more office chores before making a very quick trip into town. It was a long day, but I was glad to hear that rain was still in the forecast for the rest of the week - come on rain!!!

2/27/01 It was an early morning for me, although I must admit that I had to soak my bones in the hot tub for a while. I spent a couple of hours on the phone, then sped off to photograph Sweden Falls Natural Area.

It was a short hike into this incredible little canyon. The entrance was guarded by two nice waterfalls, but the big prize at the end of the canyon was my target today. Giant bluffs, moss-covered rocks as far as you could see, and steep terrain. The best route to the falls here is along the base of the bluff, but today there was a lot of water running off of the bluff so I had to veer out into the forest to keep from getting soaked. My poor ankle did not appreciate the tricky footing out there - I still have to wrap it up tightly and add an ankle brace before heading out each day.

I could hear the thunder of the falls long before I saw them. This is one of the most wonderful waterfalls in the state for sure. First time I had ever been to it in the winter though. I was used to seeing the floor below carpeted with hundreds of ferns, but no green today but moss.

There is a neat tangle of witch-hazel trees right at the far edge of the pool at the base of this waterfall. And those bushes were in full bloom today, and letting out just the faintest hint of their glorious scent. The waterfall was so tall that I could not get it all in from my usual vantage point, so I had to shoot it straight on. This made for a very long run/jump/fly for me to make it to the base of the falls to get into the picture. Five times, six times, ten times, fifteen times - I did it over and over and over again until I was satisfied that I had gotten a good picture.

At over 80 feet Sweden Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls in the area

'Then I hiked on out and around to the top of the falls to take the measurement - 81 feet! I have this 100 foot tape, and I have tied a little sack to it that I put a rock in. Then I can throw the sack over the edge and know when it has hit bottom. I secure the tape at that point, and either run around to get a good vantage point or hike back down to the base of the falls to see if the sack is at the correct spot. I want to make sure I get an accurate measurement.

Next stop was King's River Falls. I have always loved this little natural area, and today it was in full splendor. The main waterfall is the highlight, but today a cascading falls on a much smaller side branch was just stunning. Pure white water spilling down over bright-green moss-covered rocks, and making all sorts of racket.

But I came to photograph the main falls, and the light was good so I hurried to my task. I could not seem to find the perfect angle for this one today, so I ended up spending an hour fussing with it all. And all the while that I was tripping the shutter and running on over to get into the picture I had to plow through thick witch-hazel bushes. And every time that I pulled them aside I got a big whiff of that SCENT!!!

Not very tall but a very nice waterfall

There were both types of witch-hazel there today, and both were in bloom - bright yellow blossoms on one variety, and orange on the other. One of them is supposed to smell great and the other have no odor. Both seemed about the same to me today.

My last stop for the day was Lynn Hollow on the Ozark Highlands Trail. I could hear waterfalls running as soon as I got out of the truck. This area is rich with waterfalls, although none of them are very large. But I knew about this one spot where several small falls all came together and spilled into this emerald pool - a pool worth dipping into!

It was a magical afternoon hike - the light was perfect, the air sweet, and the sound of rushing water all around. The rocks that littered the forest floor were all covered with lichens - three or four shades of green. And all the little side canyons were full and running wild.

When I arrived at the little pool I found it to be as special as ever, although I could not figure out a way to photograph it to show this. I wanted to put down the camera and just explore around, soaking everything up with my eyes and my ears and not the camera. But it was a work day, and I had a job to do. Although I simply could not use this particular spot, so I went hunting something else.

And before long I found my spot. A two-tiered waterfall with a total drop of about 29 feet. But getting the right angle proved to be tricky for this one. I had to creep along the narrow edge of the bottom of the bluff - the leaves underfoot were very slick, but the real problem was that there was no way to avoid the steady streams of water pouring off of the bluff - it simply showered me with every step.

I did manage to find a spot on the steep hillside to place my tripod without getting the camera wet. It would have been impossible for me to trip the shutter and run into position at this place. So I used my little remote control and it worked just great. It seems that my spot was about two feet out of range for the gadget though, so I had to lean towards the camera to trip it, then get back into position and strike a pose with three seconds (I'm not very good at striking poses you know). Aspen even joined me for a couple of the pictures. This little set of falls was a very nice surprise indeed! Now, what to name it. Hum, I'm going to have to come up with 60 or 70 waterfall names.

2/28/01 No rain, sleet nor snow as predicted. Again. I'm probably the only guy in town that wants it to rain - I've always been a bit different. It was cool - actually a bit cold this morning at first light - in the mid 30's - and would remain there all day. Kind of a grey day. I was hoping for rain.

I was forced to spend the entire morning up at the office - packing up book orders, answering e and snail mail, looking for that certain IRS form that was hiding at the very bottom of the pile on my desk. It took me several hours to get to it, but I did find that form, and managed to get it filled out and into the mailbox before the postman showed up to whisk it off to Chicago or wherever. I was drained but delighted that I could once again actually see the wood grain on my plastic-coated desk. Now, it was off to the woods!

There wasn't much time left in the day, so I decided to visit a couple of easy-to-get-to waterfalls and see what happened. The first one along the way was the Glory Hole. This is one of my favorite spots on earth - another one of those magical places. I was down and upon it within minutes. Man, the side streams were running just great, and there were smaller waterfalls all over the place. I shot a few pictures from below, then climbed on up and took a look at the top hole where the creek disappears down into. The big problem there was trying to keep Aspen from following me down into the overlook spot - he would have surely slid right on into the hole and left me forever.

The Glory Hole - the top of the falls is 31 feet from this floor

Next stop was Falling Water Falls. It is located right next to a forest road so didn't require any hiking to get to. Only problem was that since the creek was up a bit, I had to wade across. I was too lazy to take off my shoes, so I just splashed right on in. I set up at the standard picture taking spot and fired away. Then I reached into the camera bag to get my polarizing filter to cut some of the glare from the turquoise pool. This little digital camera has such a small lens that they don't make a filter to fit it. I have been using the smallest polarizing filter that I had from an old camera system, and just holding it in front of the lens, or even duck taping it on. Well today I was not very good at holding the filter, because I dropped it first thing. It went right on over the edge - dropped 16 feet and landed on a large rock next to the stream. THEN it slid right on down the rock and jumped into the pool - coming to rest in about five feet of water.

And mind you, this was COLD WATER!!! I fished around for it a while - I could see it right down there because the water was so clear - but I was not able to do anything with it. In fact, I even managed to push it under another rock down in there and out of sight. I thought long and hard about jumping in and trying to find it, but decided that with the cold weather and frigid water I would probably have a heart attack if I went in. So I kissed my filter goodbye. It probably did not survive the fall anyway. I will return to this spot later in the spring and retrieve the remains so as not to be a litter bug.

Falling Water Falls - note the forest road in the background

Just about everywhere I looked today there were waterfalls. And down in this lush valley of Falling Water and Richland Creek the mosses and lichens added a great deal of brilliant green to the landscape. Winter is such a beautiful time of the year here in the Ozarks. It seems that some things try so hard right now to show how much alive they are, and they succeed admirably. You simply won't find greener greens on the rocks than now.

The next stop was at a really favorite little spot of mine. It is hidden right next to the road too, but few people ever go there (you have to wade across Falling Water Creek to get there). It is a very tight little canyon cut into hundreds of layers of black shale rock. The narrow canyon snakes around for about 100 yards - often the top of the canyon is narrower than the floor - and ends abruptly at this little waterfall. It is not the largest falls in the area, but it is one of the most impressive to me - the unique canyon guarding it adds a great deal to the personality. I used an image of it in my first picture book ARKANSAS PORTFOLIO, and that same image was published on the cover of a national magazine once.

It was 34 degrees when I took the shot below. And I had to run back and forth in that condition for twenty minutes until I got something that I liked. And the funny thing was that after most of that time I realized that I had not been wearing my hat for the pictures, so I had to start all over again! YIKES IT WAS COLD!!! But you know, the beauty of the place had my attention so that I really never even noticed the cold.

Shale Canyon Falls - about 16 feet tall

Just upstream from where this canyon empties into Falling Water Creek there is another interesting water feature cut into the layers of shale. I call it Five Finger Falls because the creek has cut channels into the shale in at least five different places, each producing its own waterfall. No way that I could photograph it in one image - it was 105 feet across. But I did play with a panorama setting on the digital camera and I will try to stitch the photos together at a later time to possibly put into the book.

Five Finger Falls - only six feet tall, but over 100 feet wide

By the time I finished with old Five Fingers it was nearly dark and I was out of disk space. So I returned to the truck - dripping wet from wading back and forth across the creek. Aspen had a good swim or two. As I drove on back towards the cabin I got to thinking about all of the country that was passing by. There were perhaps hundreds and hundreds of waterfalls within a mile of my route. You could probably stop the car and hike down any drainage in the Ozarks and find a waterfall of some sort. It sure is a nice place we live and play and work in.

It is very late at night now, and I just realized that February is over! It has been a wonderful month filled with bald eagles and cabin chores and waterfalls and time with my future wife. Winter has been unusual, but splendid in so many ways. Spring is just around the corner, and there is no season that I like better. I will continue to explore our great wilderness world out here, and report as much as I can. I thank you so much for spending some time with me, and hope that you are able to get out and discover all the wonder and beauty at your own doorstep.

March 2001 Journal