6-26-03, 8:14am, we had RAIN during the night! |
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6-26-03, 8:14am, we had RAIN during the night! |
6/1-7/03 We are on the road this week, making a quick trip to some historical and scenic spots in the West (Mt. Rushmore, Little Big Horn, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Wind River Mountains, Sacajawea's grave). The cabin will be well cared for while we are gone - several folks will be staying here, including an artist and her husband. In fact, I think they may have a party or two! The first post this month (and Cloudland Cam photo) will be after we return - look for them on June 9th. For previous years' postings go to the Cloudland Home Page for links.
To give you some idea of what sort of child I have, here is a photo of her daypack that she has all packed up and ready for the road trip - as you can see it is full of BOOKS! She reads more books in a couple of weeks than I have in my entire life! (She is taking more than 40 books on the trip.) See ya at the end of the road...
My trip began on Saturday morning with a drive to Petit Jean State Park to lead a hike as part of their National Trails Day celebration - we had 87 folks show up for the hike (it was GREAT to meet Journal readers there - seems like you guys are popping up all over the place!). By the time I returned to the cabin for the start of our family trip, I had already driven six hours and put in a ten-hour work day. We loaded up the truck and headed north, driving all night across Missouri, Iowa, and finally to South Dakota, where my lovely bride took over at the wheel sometime around 4am. We had made it to Badlands National Monument by daylight, and spent some time driving and hiking around in this wonderful and unique natural world (I highly recommend this short bypass off of the main route, but only if you are there at either the very beginning or end of the day - the light is so much better then, and really shows off the features of the park well - you can't really appreciate it all in the flat light of the middle of the day).
Next we arrived at Mt. Rushmore, which is terrific at any time of the day. While it is certainly one of the most "tourist" of all vacation spots, it also happens to be one of the most important monuments in the world, and certainly one of great historical significance that we wanted Amber to experience. In fact all of our stops on this trip were designed to give her some historical marks to refer to as she studies our great country. The scenic qualities just added to that.
Next we toured Custer State Park (this has nothing to do with the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which was in Montana, and we would visit later). This is a really neat scenic park that a lot of folks simply bypass. We ended the day at the town of Hot Springs, where the mammoth dig site is - quite an amazing place - they have unearthed 52 complete mammoths in the active dig, and they have a lot more to uncover, and you get to visit and see it all taking place right before your eyes! Amber loves dinosaurs, so this was an especially useful stop for her.
The next day we cross Wyoming and spent the afternoon at the Battle of the Little Bighorn National Monument. This is another one of the most important spots in our country's history. I was stuck by how small the actual area of the "last stand" really was. So many questions were answered and the picture came quite into focus for me while standing right there where all of it took place.
After spending the night in Red Lodge, Montana, we drove up and through the Beartooth Range and back into Wyoming. Quite a spectacular drive for sure, with the highlights being the ten-foot layer of snow still on the ground that had to be plowed through for the highway to be opened, and a first for me - seeing a WOLF in the flesh - he was running across a snowfield up near the pass.
I explained to the girls how rare a sight that wolf was, and that our chances of seeing a grizzly bear in Yellowstone were quite slim - as slim as seeing another wolf. Like many things that would come out of my mouth on our trip, those very words became a joke - within ten minutes of entering Yellowstone we saw a GRIZZLY bear chasing a WOLF! In fact we sat there and watched them for 15 minutes, along with a ranger and other visitors. We also saw a baby moose and three other bears that first day.
I've always been to Yellowstone in the height of the tourist season, but was amazed and pleasantly surprised at how few folks there were at this time of the year, and how active the wildlife was - we had to make a lot more stops than normal to view critters!
We spent the night in a cabin near the edge of Yellowstone Canyon, and could hear the roar of the big Yellowstone Falls from our beds. A buffalo stopped by and looked in the window during the night, and we all got to play with a snowshoe hare in the front yard (he was in his summer dress, except for his huge white feet!). The next day we got serious about touring the geysers and other features of the park, and I think everyone had a grand time.
Our next stop was the Tetons, which always are grand and awe inspiring. The wildflowers had already begun to carpet the meadows. Always a wonderful treat these mountains are. Always.
Next up was Sacajawea's grave in this little Indian cemetery on the Shoshone Indian Reservation. There are really no highway signs marking this place, but I happened to pass it on my way into the mountains many moons ago and found it to be a wonderful place. Her grave (and that of her two sons) were well marked, and there is now a statue of her at the edge of the cemetery as well. Amber is just now beginning to get into that part of our nation's history, and what great timing since this is the 200th anniversary of the start of the Lewis & Clark trip. We ended the day on a rooftop in Lander with my old forest service "boss" and his family, eating pizza and listening to a great local guitar player.
We camped that night next to the roaring Popo Agie river in Sinks Canyon State Park. We hiked up the river to some thundering waterfalls the next morning - hiking in the mountains is always a great treat! The wildflowers were going nuts, and it looks like it will be a great flower season in the Wyoming mountains this year.
Later that day we literally got chased out of the mountains by a horrific storm that brought with it black clouds and a great deal of snow. We were headed home anyway, so it was no big deal. However, that storm - and several others - stuck with us for the next 12 hours of driving, and included not one or two but FIVE tornadoes! It was really weird to listen to the weather band updates every ten minutes with the new info about the next tornado that had just been sighted a few miles down the road. Both of my girls are closet tornado chasers, and so were thrilled at being so close to so MUCH bad weather! It was in fact one incredible couple hours of driving as we followed the tornadoes down the highway - we were treated with the most INTENSE-colored rainbow we had ever seen, and the BLACKEST and GREENEST weather fronts! Just a minute or two after Pam noted a certain formation in one of the storms, the next tornado warning was posted - in that exact spot.
So our grand summer trip had it all - terrific scenery with lots of hiking, many major historical features, wildlife out the wazoo (what is a wazoo anyway?), and a bit of excitement and danger with the powerful storms. Oh yea, we had a lot of great FOOD too! And I always knew that my bride was great to travel with, but I was quite happy to discover that Amber is a delight to be with on the road as well - how could I be so lucky? Looks like there will be many more road trips on the schedule for the three of us!
We are back home now and already unpacked, enjoying the wonderful that we are having in the Ozarks right now. The cabin was in great shape when we got back home - THANKS to all the wonderful folks who took care of it while we were gone! Lucy got bit by something during the week - either a snake, spider or bee - and was sick for a while but is just fine now. It rained about three inches here, and the forest and rivers are just as happy as can be. Pam and Amber are off to basketball camp this week in Jasper. Aspen is sticking close to his dad. I plan to get back to my list of chores that I failed to get done in May, and map out my next major book projects. We have a fine rest-or-our-summer that is taking shape - it's going to be the BEST summer of my life!
Right now I think I'll head on out the door and soak up a little bit of this wonderful early spring that is going on. Such a terrific trip we had, but, as always, it is good to be home!
6/10/03 No sunrise this morning. Tropical-like breezes swept through the open cabin windows at first light, making it rather difficult to get up out of bed - it felt so great to just lay there (or lie, I never know which it is, and does it really matter?). While my plate is piled high with chores and projects, there are no real deadlines, no panic to get them done, so I remained in bed, soaking up that sweet air and getting in a little snuggling time.
A little while later we had breakfast out on the back deck. Those breezes were out of the southeast, which is often a sign of WEATHER coming in. Quite a few birds out this morning, all fighting against that wind, or should I say getting in a little extra play time as they were tossed from limb to limb. Oh what a great joy it would be to soar on the wind currents like a bird!
Amber noticed a flash of BRIGHT red out near the edge of Mom's meadow - it was a scarlet tanager, and few things in nature are more brilliant than he. I watched him through the binocs as he sat in the top of a large pine tree, swaying in the wind, then he systematically visited each branch, zigzagging from one side of the tree to the other, until finally he was down near the ground where no more limbs grew. He disappeared out into the thick forest beyond and out of sight. There were other flashes of color too - YELLOW goldfinches and BLUE Indigo buntings. Indeed a live painting outside these days!
Speaking of scarlet, we had another scarlet visitor yesterday, and in fact this one was named Scarlet, Scarlet the snake. I was out moving some rocks to make room for a little wading pool near the cabin, when I uncovered my only my second scarlet snake that I had ever seen. She was beautiful, and shy, but did not seem to upset that I had disturbed her slumber. Scarlet snakes seek out the night, and spend their days under rocks and rotten logs. They love to feast on lizard eggs, and it looked like Scarlet had been at the all-you-can-eat buffet all night (or was she full of little Scarlets?). When I was a kid growing up at the edge of Fayetteville, I would spend most of my summer days out in the woods, roaming around wherever my feet would take me. One of my favorite things to do was to turn over every single rock that I could find - looking for snakes and lizards and whatever else was hiding under there. Oh brother what a terrific find Scarlet would have been to that wide-eyed little kid back then! I would have talked about that discovery for months. As it was I spent about 30 minutes playing with Scarlet yesterday, and she didn't seem to mind one bit. In the end I carefully re-located her a few feet away, hoping that she would remain with us for the rest of the summer, but knowing that she probably would continue on her journey thorough life and head elsewhere. TWO scarlet snakes in one summer - I feel blessed indeed.
The air yesterday was light and sweet and just marvelous, as was the day. The sun was out and the sky blue, but the temps remained cool, especially for June in the Ozarks. I guess the humidity must have been low too - it felt great outside all day.
Late in the day after supper I took the dogs on a trip around the loop trail. It is only a mile hike, but I think they must have put in at least ten miles - so many live critters on the ground and other scents in the air to check out.
Once we got back to the cabin and the dogs got all calmed down and dried off (they always take a little dip in the creek after a grueling hike to cool down), Aspen jumped up to attention, and Lucy followed, and the two of them took off running as fast as they could, growling and snarling, with their hair standing straight up. It was obvious SOMETHING was out there, down in the meadow. I quickly followed, and Pam and Amber kept lookout for anything exiting the meadow into the woods. The dogs seldom act like that, and it was definitely not a person. Most likely was a bear who had come around to see what we were up to. We never did see anything, but then I would not stick around with the likes of Aspen and Lucy charging after me either.
It is after 8am now this morning, and the skies are gray. The wind has calmed down just a little now and I can hear dozens of songs coming from the trees. My girls have headed into town for basketball camp. Guess I need to get out of my bathrobe and get something done. Or perhaps I'll return to the back deck and see if I can spot a few more splashes of brilliant color darting across the meadow. That list of mine can wait a little while longer.
6/11/03 Wonderful, delicious rains this morning. Not the heavy thunderstorms they had been predicting all night, but instead the soft, soaking variety that keeps you in bed a wee bit longer. We've already received about a half inch by first light, and will probably get some more. The forest can stand this once or twice a week all summer!
There were biting bugs out yesterday that drove us indoors several times. Fat little buggers too, that could really take a chunk out of your skin. They were not quite Buffalo Nats, , but certainly much larger than plain no-see-ums. Their bites hung on and itched for an hour. We did manage to get Amber's wading pool erected and mostly filled with a combination of spring and well water.
I went down into Boxley Valley in the morning to get the spring water - the spring there is running quite nicely, and it didn't take long to fill up our 500 gallon tank. The big hay fields at that end of the valley were being cut, raked and bailed into large round bales. It was a pastoral scene that has been going on down in that valley for more than 100 years. Of course, they have not always been big round bales. Early on, the hay was cut and stacked by hand, then moved into whatever barn they had. Then came the little rectangle bales that I grew to love to well (I used to spend my summers on a "hauling hay" crew, and while it remains as just about the most difficult physical work I have ever done - so hot and itchy - it also goes down as some of the most financially rewarding work too - so much money in a teenager's pockets!). And now the big round bales, which require much less human work to produce and store. At one point the national park service took all of the land in Boxley Valley for the park, moving off the many good folks that had been living and working there since the dawn of time in the Ozarks. But later they realized that the Valley was much better off with people living and working there, so they sold the land back to the natives, or to others who came to take their places. Now the Valley is once again a working, living chunk of Ozarks history.
I went on a ramble just before sunset yesterday - to no where in particular, just wherever my feet took me. The wind was blowing hard and it felt great - AND no bugs! I came across this caterpillar that I could not identify - he was over by the "kissing" rock. (My Canadian friend Jeannette ID's this one for me.)
It remained clear all day yesterday, and last night the moon was out big and bright. Since Amber is now doing basketball moves on the court half the day - and on the Cloudland court the other half - her muscles are beginning to get sore. We spent a good bit of time soaking in the hot tub last night under that bright moon. When I wished on a star she pointed out that it was not a star at all, but rather a planet, and that I would have to pick a different one to wish on! When it came her time to make a wish, she started to, but then stopped, and told me that "I already have everything that I have ever wanted, so no need to make a wish!"
Speaking of basketball, I'm off basketball camp for the morning. I hope the rains continue, but if they are finished for the day, I thank the clouds above for all that they have sent down!
On our way to the gym we found a field full of bull elk in Boxley Valley - all of them in velvet and eating like crazy. "Velvet" is that stage that each antlered animal goes through at this time of the year as their antlers are growing and developing - the outside is covered with tiny hairs or "velvet" - it all eventually turns to hard bone in the fall, and remains that way until late winter/early spring when they shed their antlers and begin the process all over again. Looks like we're going to have some pretty big boys again this fall!
After I dropped Amber off at the gym, I headed up to the Round Top Mountain Trailhead. The rain had let up, but was still coming down just a little bit. I had about three hours to kill before picking Amber back up again, and I wasn't sure if I should read a book for fun (about a guy who spent more than a month lost in the Yellowstone more than 100 years ago); do some homework (I have to read a new and really fat photoshop book); take a nap; or go hiking. I decided to put on my rain jacket and head for the woods.
Just before I left the trailhead area I happened to look back at my truck and discovered a flat tire - man, I hate those things! Not only is it a pain to change them, but my flats normally cost me a new $150 tire. Having a little bit of rain coming down made changing the tire a little bit better somehow, and I got it done in about ten minutes, then it was off to the woods again.
The rain had all but stopped, although there still was a constant dripping in the forest from raindrops falling off of branches and leaves. It was very dark in the woods - the lush sub-tropical environment tends to block out the light around here.
I found myself not paying too much attention to the overall forest, or the trail for that matter. Instead I was lured along the path by several different types of flowers that were in bloom, and by mayapples. The mayapples here at Cloudland started off the spring with a bang - GIANT twin plants with beautiful flowers. But most of them never produced a fruit - I mean nothing larger than a pea. Don't know what was going on with them. And now they are all turning yellow and toppling over - looks like a miniature tornado swept through.
But up on Round Top Mountain, the mayapples were not only quite colorful as they began to get covered with splotches of color, but they had produced very large apples - in fact some of them were as large as, and about the same color as, limes. I wonder why the great difference in the two populations this year?
There were some deep blue flowers mixed in with the mayapples that caught my eye, plus several white flowers - I could not figure out what they were. (About an hour after I posted these photos the best man in the business wrote with their ID's - Don Kurz. His OZARK WILDFLOWERS guidebook is the only one that we use here these days, and a copy of it is sitting right next to my monitor. His book is SO easy to use, and I often can ID flowers without any help, which is rare for me because I don't normally get along too well with guidebooks.)
And farther up the hill I began seeing these tall, white flowers on even taller stalks - some of them rising six feet or more into the air! The flowers were in different phases of development, and I found each one interesting. I did have a problem in that since the forest was so darn dark, and I without a tripod, I had to resort to using flash to bring in enough light. That really dropped out the background and helped show just the flowers. These flowers are black cohosh, and apparently were used extensively by the Indians and early settlers in the area for a number of different medicinal purposes (you could probably say that about most plants around here!).
These tall flowers reached far up into the sky, just like the towering bluff near where they were growing, and where I eventually found myself at the base of. This trail is one of the great hiking trails in the state, and I always find lots of neat things to look at and explore. Certainly there are hundreds of species of blooming plants, but when they are all dormant, this bluffline is quite interesting.
As I got to the base of the bluff, something changed - it got REALLY dark, and the overall feeling of the moment was different. Looking up and around I realized a couple of things. First, the raindrops had almost completely stopped, and there was really no sound at all. And secondly, I was surrounded by a dense forest of pawpaw trees, and they were filled with fruit! Man, oh, man, it is going to be one terrific pawpaw season later this year!!!
Before I knew it, my time was up, and I had to hurry back down the mountain and pick up Amber at the gym. Time does fly when you are hiking in the Ozarks on a rainy day with a camera...
Tonight, just before dark, I was on my way back down to the cabin from the office and took a wrong turn, or should I say a good turn. There were no dogs with me, so I decided to take the opportunity to hike around the mountain and see if I could find any bears, or signs of them. The sky had cleared, and it was still and cool, with no rain since before noon. Things were still quite damp, and smelled and looked lush and great.
When I am out looking for bears I never know whether to concentrate on the ground - looking for tracks in the soft earth or overturned rocks and logs, or continually scan the landscape for color and movement. I normally wind up doing a combination of both, but that is a lot slower. Of course, as long as it remained light enough to see the ground in front of me, time was irrelevant.
I had rained hard early this morning, and all tracks from days past were smoothed out - that meant that anything I found tonight would be within the past few hours, and would probably photograph well.
The last rays of sunshine filtered in through the trees, and it was easy for me to see deep into the forest, at least in the parts where the forest was open. Any bears in there would be easy to spot. I saw quite a few critters moving around, but no big ones.
I love to slowly creep through the meadows, scanning back and forth for any sign of movement or irregular shapes - that is how I have seen dozens of bears out here. I haven't seen many (if any) bears lately because I am almost always hiking with the dogs, and they tend to run out far ahead and case things off.
No bears in the forest, no bears in the meadows. I did spot the tracks of one critter in the mud - Pam had jogged out to get the mail! I still had the long and winding lane that leads through the orchard and East meadows to explore. I love walking this route, especially when the light is low and the wind is quiet like today. It twists and turns and no telling what you are going to see standing in the middle of the road around the next bend. I walked slowly and quietly, peering around each corner.
No bears in the orchard or along the lane, but it sure felt like I was going to come upon one at any moment - you tend to get heightened senses while doing this, and hear all sorts of things that are really nothing.
As I always do before I enter an open area, I paused before stepping out into the East meadow - this is a really large meadow, and now is mostly grown up about waist high on me. I scanned the meadow from top to bottom, left to right. Nothing. No movement or odd color or shapes. So I stepped on out.
I had obviously overlooked one critter! I had not taken more than two steps when a deer bolted and darted off across the far end of the meadow, huffing and whistling all the while, and her pure white tail waving high in the air. Man, I sure did miss spotting that one. She disappeared into the jungle, then remained there for several minutes, letting me know she was not happy that I had disturbed her dinner. As I was crossing the meadow - looking even more carefully now - I noticed the 3./4 moon rising up above the trees into a pure blue sky - what a wonderful sight!
Leaving the open meadow behind I entered the dark and forbidding deep woods once again. Being on the east side of the mountain, it was really DARK in there! I had to stop and let my eyes adjust for a moment or two before proceeding. It was so quiet, and still, and, well, a perfect place to see a bear. Or be scared to death just because. I rather prefer these sorts of places though, and thoroughly enjoyed moving softly and slowly through it towards the cabin.
Back at home again - no bears, no wild stories to tell. But I did get to play a few rounds of b-ball with Amber before it got completely dark.
It is much later now, and man oh man the frogs have come out and are performing a complete symphony in the trees! Think I'll go grab a front row seat and soak up some moonlight and hot water...
6/12/03 Just before I went to bed last night I went out for a soak. I sat there mesmerized by the light show that was going on to the south. The moon was high and bright, and below the dark valleys were filled with white clouds. On the southern horizon there was a tremendous thunderstorm raging. I could not actually the clouds until lightning would start up, then the entire mass would light up bright orange, sometimes in waves from one end of the horizon to another. Pam and I watched the show for a good long while, trying to figure out if it was moving towards us or not. We both love WEATHER!
Sometime in the middle of the night either that storm front or another one came crashing down on us big time. BANG. BOOM. CRASH! And then heavy rain. Lots of wind too. Little Johnny Muir would have loved being up in the top of a big tree for this one, swaying back and forth with the force of the storm. The power went out for a little while.
It is just before sunrise now and the rain has stopped - we got over an inch of new rain. The sky is dark and heavy, sitting down low, right about the ridgetop. Funny, but the WESTERN horizon is beginning to light up with the new day while the EASTERN horizon is still quite dark. I guess that means clearing skies are coming in from the west. The air is filled with birds singing the glory of the new day. The temp is in the upper 50's and feels GREAT!
Cloud formations down in the valleys are changing rapidly and moving around. I took a series of five photos a little while ago and they all were quite different. Those new clouds being born down there are having a great time at their birthday party!
6/14/03 We had one of those special Cloudland moments here today. The flag that we use on Flag Day is the one that covered my dad's coffin at his funeral - fitting since Dad's day and Flag Day are always so close together. While I was unfurling the flag over the back railing today I whistled the National Anthem, and did a pretty fair job of it I might add. The tune drifted out into the wilderness, and the whole scene, along with thoughts of the greatest man I ever knew, all brought a tear to my eye. Pam could hardly believe that this actually happened, but while I was in the middle of the tune, a coyote struck up a fine tune of his own across the valley, and then was joined by a chorus of little ones - I swear they were also doing the National Anthem. It was at once a stirring, emotional, and rather funny moment.
We had dark clouds and rumbling thunder all day long, but not a single drop fell from the sky. It was cool and felt great, although the humidity was quite high. Lots of hungry no-see-ums. It is well after dark now, and we didn't get to see the full moon rise - too many clouds. There is a nice light show going on to the south though, and we have a fine view.
6/16/03 There is a light mist falling and the air is wet and heavy at first light this morning. Distant ridges out in the wilderness slowly appear as ghostly gray shapes, then fade back into white. There is no breeze. It is cool. The only sounds are from a few heavy drops that have accumulated on branches and fall to earth, or an occasional goldfinch song. The world is at peace as we begin another week.
We had a big time yesterday, spending it on the road/trails all over the Arkansas River Valley area, doing research for Pam's easy trails guidebook for kids. Our first stop was at Lake Dardanelle State Park near Russellville. It was early, and things were just waking up. We found two very interesting things right off the bat. First, the air was filled and EVERYTHING covered with giant mayflies! I had never seen anything like this. Not only were the bugs HUGE (like two inches long), but there were millions of them. Walking around you had to be careful to cover your mouth when you spoke because chances were likely you would inhale a couple of them. It was really weird, although the flock of Canadian geese that lined the shore did not seem to mind - they were busy sucking in a few of them for breakfast.
The second item was the new visitor center there. The state had pulled out all the stops to create a first class facility, with great exhibits and many fish tanks filled with native fish from the reservoir. The center had only been open for two days. If you are near Russellville and enjoy this sort of thing, I highly recommend that you take a short detour and go see this place.
The hiking trail at this park was a short, easy one (like all of them in the book!), however we found that either someone had moved the numbered posted that indicated specific stations along the way (and keyed to the brochure), or the park staff was simply nuts when they laid it all out (or wrote up the self-guided brochure). The numbers simply did not jive with the brochure. And at one point, a sign pointed us to a mowed path that lead right out into the middle of an open field and off of the trail. It took us a while to figure it all out, but we finally did, and I ended up moving several of the numbered posts to their correct positions.
This trail went through dense forest areas where vines had covered up much of the terrain. There were a lot of "viney" flowers blooming, which added a great deal of color along the way.
At one point we rounded a curve and the entire area began to smell like dead fish. Soon we found some brightly-colored and oddly-shaped mushrooms that were growing all over the place. Pam went on while I got down on my belly to photograph them - I'd never seen them before. They looked like three octopus arms poking up out of the ground that eventually grew together at the very ends. While I was down there the stink got worse, and began to smell more like something that would come out of a dog's behind rather than dead fish. Man, that smell was pretty bad! At one point I reached out and handled one of the mushrooms. What came back on my fingers nearly made me gag - I swear it was like a dog had diarrhea all over the mushroom! Upon close inspection I realized that this stuff was only on the INSIDE of each of the little octopus arms. How could something like that smell so BAD? Very, very strange indeed. I don't even attempt to identify mushrooms and don't have a guidebook here, so if anyone has an idea what these might be, please let me know. I had to clean off my hands with antiseptic wipes three times! YUK!
Our next stop was at the nearby Bona Dea Trails system, which is one of the best easy trail systems in the entire state. Since most of it is paved, it easily got Pam's "stroller accessible" rating.
Up and up and UP we went to the top of Mt. Nebo, one of the mountains that pokes up into the sky and overlooks the Arkansas River. There are a couple of easy trails up on this hilltop, but they are too long to be included in the book. We picked a shorter trail - the Summit Park Trail - but knew it would be a little more difficult than the others. It certainly is not stroller accessible, nor will be good for younger kids, but it is neat and scenic trail, so she'll probably include it anyway - for older kids who want a challenge. We found out that the state park's brochure about this trail was WAY off on the distance. We push a special measuring wheel along to get the exact mileages (I've pushed this very same wheel on every trail in my guidebooks, even the 165-mile Ozark Highlands Trail - three times - and the 223-mile Ouachita Trail). The brochure listed the trail at 1 mile and the actual distance is 1.8 miles - quite a big difference on a trail that short (the sign at the trailhead has it listed as 1.5 miles).
We have found the far and away most U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trails are miserable at best - I'm talking about their construction, maintenance, and signage. In fact, many of their advertised trails no longer exist. It is like this government agency could care less about trails - and that is fine with me, but why do they spend our taxpayer's money to build these trails in the first place? Anyway, there are a few really good Corps trails, and the Bridge Rock Trail on Lake Dardanelle is one of those. It too is getting a little bit long in the tooth and in need of some maintenance, but at least there were signs directing us to the trailhead, and the trail was easy to follow. There is one really neat spot on this trail that makes it especially fun for kids.
We climbed up another tall mountain - in fact the tallest spot in Arkansas - Mt. Magazine. This brand new state park has many trails, but most of them are simply old roads that lead through the woods. Granted, they are lined with wildflowers and butterflies at this time of the year, so are good hikes. I find it odd that there are no trails around the top of the great bluffline there, where all of the stunning views are. Actually there ARE many bluffline trails there that were built by the CCC's back in the 1930's, but they have long since grown up and are lost. It will take a tremendous effort on the part of the park staff to open them up, which I don't see happening for a while (parks tend to shy away from trails along the TOP of blufflines because of the danger factor, but this is one park that really screams out for them!). I must say that the trail up to the top of the highest point in Arkansas was in great shape, having recently been widened and improved. And for those of you who have been to the top, you should make a point to go back - they have paved an area on the ground with stones in the shape of Arkansas, with the actual survey marker being incorporated in the design right where it should be in relation to the rest of the state. This stone structure was too large to photograph without being about 20 feet tall. There is no view at all from this flat-topped "peak," but it is the tallest point in Arkansas, and it is fun to take kids and adults alike up there.
The next trail on our list was an Army Corps trail at Blue Mountain Lake - uh, oh. The directions we had that are given out by the Arkansas Tourism department were all wrong, but we managed to find our way into this interesting park at the edge of the lake. It took us nearly 30 minutes to find where the trail began - not a single sign anywhere in the park noted this trail, or on any of the location maps they had posted. The trailhead is actually a dump station, so when there is an RV dumping, there is really no place to park. That was not a good sign! As we headed out up the trail both of us knew within the first 100 feet that this trail would not make the grade. There really wasn't much of a trail there at all, but it looked like there might have been one 20 or 30 years ago. One way we could tell the age was the fact that all of the treated lumber boards along the way had almost completely rotted out! And while this trail headed up a and across a very steep hillside, there was no tread at all. We didn't even bother to hike any further - it got an F and will not be in the book. I can understand why they did not have any signs to it - no one would want to hike it! I don't have a problem with letting a trail go to waste, but they need to completely illuminate it from their system.
Then we really got into trouble. There are actually three or four different parks in this complex, each with a different name, camping areas, etc., including some very nice areas. But we ended up getting into a revolving door of sorts and spent what seemed like a very long time trying to find our way OUT of the park complex! Every road we took ended with a circle drive. At the end of one of those drives there was a bright red stop sign about 100 yards out in the woods, on a post - there had been a road going there at one time, but it had been closed a long time ago. I think this park area has seen better days! When we FINALLY found our way back out again, we both breathed a sigh of relief.
One thing that was very odd about this spot was the dam and the spillway, or the lack of a spillway. There is no spillway or river coming out where the big dam is, yet there is a large, mowed corridor coming from the bottom of the dam and continuing what used to be downstream. There was a large bridge across this corridor - obviously the river used to run there. Two of the roads that we took dead-ended on opposite sides of where the river now emerges - not from under or to one side of the dam, but from the base of a nearby mountain! I guess they did not want the normal dam/spillway setup, but instead drilled a tunnel through the mountain and rerouted the river. Actually it is all quite interesting, and if you don't go there attempting to hike this horrible trail, or have plans to make a quick exit, it might make a nice place to go camp.
By the time we made it back out to the main road it was getting late, but we still had one more trail to visit. This one would be a forest service trail at a little lake that is tucked into the mountains. I had always heard good things about Spring Lake, but had never been there. We were really surprised at what a neat place this is! There is a great swimming area there, and a small campground at the very end of the road where you would like to camp all week. We both really liked this place. The brochure from Arkansas Tourism said there was a two mile loop there but we could not find a trailhead, nor any reference to the trail on any maps or brochure. The campground host was not aware of any trail. And when we flagged down a forest service enforcement officer and asked him, he drew a blank as well. This was such a nice little park that we HAD to find that trail! The forest service guy was really great and took the time to stop his truck, get out, and go through all of the literature that he had in the back, searching for any clues about the trail (he was new to the area). Sure enough he produced a forest service map that showed the trail - great, a clue! Unfortunately, after the three of us scoured the areas shown on the map, we did not come up with a trace of the trail. Oops, I take that back - we did find a little trail directional sign that was out in the middle of the woods (laying on the ground and half-buried), but no sign of a trail in any direction. We were at once disappointed in not finding an actual trail, but relieved that this trail must have existed at some point. This park was constructed in the 1930's by the CCC's, and they no doubt had built this trail, which means it was probably a nice trail at one time. While we would not be able to put a trail in the guidebook, we decided that we would stick with this project and find this old trail at some point, perhaps even try to get it reestablished again - it really is a nice park.
Just as we were leaving, I spotted a bright flash of color in the woods. It was a cactus bloom that was completely open and one of the most beautiful cactus flowers I had ever seen. It was a fitting end to our search at this park.
With our trail list complete for the day (it was nearly dark by then anyway) , we headed back to Cloudland. Pam got several good trails to add to your list, and she was able to cross off many trails that either did not actually exist, or were so bad they could not be included. As we do these guidebooks we see more and more that the info that is published out there is often simply WRONG. This is why we go to such great lengths to carefully inspect each and every trail and fact that goes into our guidebooks - we run into a lot of dead ends so that you don't have to!
6/17/03 I've gotten to spend a good bit of time in the woods this past couple of days. A great old friend of mine came out yesterday to spend the night, and I showed him around the area a little bit. Peter Van Den Heuvel (he is Dutch) and I worked and lived together 30 years ago in Fifty Six, Arkansas. We did a lot of "wild" caving together - exploring many holes in the earth for the very first time, and making a number of discoveries. We dove deep into the lakes of Arkansas, and also into the great depths of the water-filled chambers of Blanchard Springs Caverns and Cosmic Caverns, and also explored other springs in the area with scuba gear. We drove up to Alaska in 1980 and spent most of a month chasing grizzly bears and giant moose. While on our way back aboard a ferry through the Inside Passage I shot a photo that would eventually be picked to grace the cover of the largest selling calendar in the world (I saw the scene while doubled over the back deck of the ship, throwing up and sick with food poising - I paused long enough to shoot one of my favorite pictures of all time). He moved out of the country soon after that trip to spend a career hunting oil around the world as a geologist for some of the big oil companies. I had not seen him since, so it was great to get together and swap stories - probably some of them were even true.
Our first hike took us along the top of the big bluff towards the Crag and Haley Falls, with the dogs and the Trail Cat in tow. Looks like it is going to be a great year for wild blueberries - the huckleberry plants are heavy with fruit, and it won't be long now before we'll be spending time on our hands and knees filling up pans with these sweet treats.
Since Peter is a geologist, and there are few places in the region better suited to show off our rocky past than the Buffalo area, we toured the big bluff from below, where we could get a better look at the rock layers. On the way back towards the cabin we came across a large cactus that had many flowers in bloom. I guess I really hadn't looked for cactus flowers much here in the past, and don't recall seeing them before. Both Aspen and the Trail Cat ran right through this batch of cactus without any obvious consequences.
This morning the skies were gray and damp, and a heavy mist and even a few raindrops came down. No problem for a couple of deep-cave explores like us, so we loaded up the packs and headed out into the wilderness once again, this time taking the big plunge down the big hill to the river. Peter is a big guy - at least 6'6", and I was a little bit concerned how he would be able to negotiate the hill, but he was a trooper and did great - in fact I think he did better than I!
The river was marvelous, with its beautiful green color. And it was running up at about April levels - normally much of the creekbed is bone dry by now, but today we could not even get out away from the banks and onto the gravel bars because they were all underwater. The entire river system looked quite lush and healthy. Peter has spent a great deal of time these past 20 years in the jungles of the world, and he agreed the forest was pretty "jungle-like" around here!
We got rained on a time or two, but neither of us bothered to put on a raincoat - it all felt just great, and we enjoyed tramping around through the brush. Even the steep and difficult trip back UP the hillside was OK, and we made it all the way without stopping, except for once when I had to take a photo. Of course, once we made it to the back deck of the cabin we both collapsed.
After lunch Amber and Pam challenged us to a game of b-ball, and all four of us hit the court for a bit of fast and furious dribbling. It was kind of funny because it rained most of the time we played, and no one seemed to mind! The final score was 16-14 but I don't really know which team had 16 points.
It was a good visit, and I hope to take this world traveler on many more hikes in the years to come.
It is getting late now this evening, and I just stepped outside to see what the night sky was going. The full moon came up several days ago, and I have not seen hide nor hare of the moon since - it has been cloudy each night, as it is tonight. No problem - I remember what the moon looks like, and suspect I will see it again many times. We continue to need the moisture, and it has been one great month so far - keep on coming rain!!!
6/18/03 It was a rather hot and humid day today, at least in town, which is where I spent most of it. But I did get to take a quick hike with a wilderness goddess at the end of the day, and it made the visit to the concrete and steel jungle fade into the back of my memory banks. The air was heavy, the quality of light good. Both dogs and cats went with us. As usual, I found things to photograph at almost every turn.
6/19/03 We all got to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Camp Orr today, the Boy Scout camp on the Buffalo River (the only scout camp within a national park). While I had been around the edges of Orr many, many times over the years, this was my first visit to the main part of Orr since I was a wee little scout myself, way back in the 1960's. I had many fond memories of swimming in the river (I got my mile swim merit badge, and still have a little scar on my toe where I kicked a rough rock in the shallow water), and assembling for taps around the flag in the evening, all of us in uniform. While I expected to see the 500 or so scouts that were there this week, it was sort of funny seeing all of the ADULTS in uniform - there were hundreds of them from all over the place, who had come back to join in the celebration. I gave a couple of slide programs, and was thankful to be able to use a large basement - it was dark and cool. My bride and daughter remained outside selling books, and while the temp was cooler than normal, it was still hot and humid.
6/20/03 I got up early this morning and hiked down to the river with Aspen. Each step I made took me deeper into darkness - up on the top of the hill where I started, it had begun to break daylight, but down in the valley, it was still dark twilight. I was surprised to find Whitaker Creek still running well and making noise. The Buffalo too had plentiful water. Seems like most of the other creeks in the area are very low, or nearly dry - which is normal for this time of the year. I guess the upper Buffalo river has been holding onto its water.
After spending a few hours at the office working, I made another quick trip into town (a "quick" trip for me is five hours or less - the drive time is about three hours total). I got back just in time to load up the truck and head up north to a private home on the Kings River. Here I met with a group of 30 or so gifted high school students who were in a summer program at the Ozark Natural Science Center. It was a tight fit into the living room, but we all managed to squeeze in (along with about a dozen adults) for a slide show. When I first started talking with the kids I asked how many had come from other states (they all lived in Arkansas now). I was able to relate some sort of enjoyable hiking story I had been on in every single state (about 14 or 15 different states were represented) - with the exception of Mississippi. While I don't have anything against Mississippi, I have only been there in the height of the summer, and I suspect you don't want to do too much hiking there in August!
It was very late (almost midnight) as I rolled up our bumpy lane to the office. After I unloaded all of the program gear, I hiked on up to Aspen's meadow to see what the night sky was up to. Man oh man was it SPECTACULAR!!! Not only was the sky clear, but the "transparency" of the air was very good - that means there was little or no haze in the atmosphere, and there were many more stars visible than normal, and each one of them sparkled in a sky of pure black. The Milky Way was out and spread across the entire sky from horizon to horizon. When the sky is that clear, and you are out away from city lights, it really does seem like you are a lot closer to the heavens. It was a great way to end my 19-hour work day.
6/21/03 I slept in until almost sunup this morning - it had been a very long week and I was a bit exhausted. The girls got up and headed out for an OHTA Otter's Hike to Kings River Falls. I spent most of the day working at the cabin, but did manage one hike out to the mailbox and back. Not too hot, not too cold, just right! As darkness fell on the longest day of the year, I curled up in a big fat leather chair in the corner and opened up an 800 page book about one of my heroes - Theodore Roosevelt. I have not been able to do much reading for pleasure of late - all of my reading time has been spent pouring over volumes of work dealing with Photoshop, the computer program where all of my photography of the future will reside. I'm heading out to San Francisco soon to attend a special workshop with one of the guys who helped invent the Macintosh computer, and who has written some of the software for the big Epson color printer that I have here.
Oh yea, it was just Aspen and me alone in the cabin tonight, along with five women! (Amber has a couple of friends over for the night.)
6/22/03 It was another early hike for me this morning down to the river. The air was cool and crisp and clean and wonderful. Temps in the low 60's each morning feel great, and sometimes there is a hint of all in the air. But I know this is left-over springtime and not really fall on the way - we still have a brutal summer to get through before the really sweet smell of October air.
There was a big woodpecker making a lot of noise on the hillside across the way as we headed down the hill. He seemed to be working the same tree for a long time. It was interesting how different the sound was the farther down the hill we went. At first, it was just normal-sounding woodpecker sounds below us, spreading out into the wilderness. Then they were loud cracks right in front of us that seemed to stop immediately. By the time we reached the bottom the sound was booming and it echoed over our heads and bounced off the canyon walls around us and seemed to go on forever.
The dogs and I lingered at Whitaker Creek for a while - them playing in the cool water and me enjoying the visual delights of a new day in the wilderness, and those deep base notes.
By the time we made it back to the cabin, my lovely bride and the girls were all out on the basketball court making tie-dye t-shirts and pillow cases. I love the fact that this new generation that is coming along likes many of the same things as my 60's generation - like the best band ever (the Beatles, of course) and tie-dye clothes. Makes me think there is some hope for the future of the world!
It is mid-morning now and the air is still cool, with a steady breeze blowing. I've got a lot of work to do today, most of it inside, so I will just have to enjoy what breezes make it through the windows. If I work hard enough, I bet I can find the time, and convince my bride to hike the loop trail with me this evening. Morning and evening hikes - that will be the order of the day this summer. Of course, once we do begin to get really hot temps, my afternoon schedule will include a trip to the swimming hole!
6/25/03 Kind of hazy this morning, with a nice breeze blowing. I've been doing a bit of climbing up and down the mountainside lately, and my legs are aching from top to bottom. I've dropped seven pounds this week, so the hill must be doing me some good. The forest is lush, dark, and really jungle-like, even the trails. Mornings are cool and damp, afternoons getting a wee bit hot and muggy, and evenings are just wonderful as the heat of the day drafts off up into space.
Pam called me out onto the deck the other day. "Shhhhh. Listen." And there he was - the very first ACTUAL cicada of the summer, singing away in the afternoon warmth and calling out for a mate. Another joined him. Then a third. They live in the ground for many years, then emerge and climb up into a nearby tree to find love. Imagine, spending years and years just waiting for love? Been there, done that. Thank goodness I climbed up into my treehouse at Cloudland I found my own true love - no more crawling around in the dirt for me (of course, sometimes I enjoy doing that, if there are good photos to take).
The cicada songs mingled with the sounds of splashing water - Amber in her little Wal Mart pool, which she just loves. Yep, it must be summer.
We've had a good number of birds around the cabin of late - some really brilliant colored, others acrobatic. Bright blue Indigo buntings have been playing in the trees and in the meadow with goldfinches - and those goldfinches get lost once they are down in the meadow - they are the same brightness and hue as about a zillion yellow wildflowers that have taken over the meadow. High above we've had as many as seven or eight hawks riding the wind currents, dancing and playing and generally having a good time of it all. These are not red-tailed hawks, but some other breed, smaller and rather swift. And the old buzzards float by all the time, and even though they are just buzzards, it continues to be interesting to watch them closely, and we all do.
It is nighttime now - my days are filled with more work than I can keep track of these days, and I can't seem to find the time to write much here. Pam and I were just sitting out on the back deck, catching some of the cool breezes coming in from the west. Enjoying the peace and quiet. Ya, right. There were several large frogs in the front yard making all kinds of noise, then the cicadas screamed out from every tree, and right in the middle of all that, a whip-poor-will started singing at the top of his lungs from a tree right at the edge of the meadow. Aspen had had enough, jumped up, and ran off into the darkness barking at the top of his lungs. Probably was a bear circling, and he went off to check it out.
Speaking of bears, the dogs have caught the scent of something off a number of times lately, and have gone off snarling and growling. Yesterday when I was down in Mom's meadow I found where a very large animal - obviously a bear - had made it way through the tall growth. And right at the edge of the meadow, only about 200 feet from the cabin, there was a small pile of bear scat, made up almost entirely of berries. No doubt a bear had been around to see what we were up to.
Speaking of the meadow, good grief there must be 25-30 different species of flowers growing down there, and many of them are two feet or more tall. You really can't walk through there without trampling the poor guys, but one of these days I must make a path with the weed-eater. While there is just about every color in the rainbow represented, the predominant color now is YELLOW. And yet the wild sunflowers have not even started to bloom yet - once they do it will really be yellow!
I did find the time to hike down to the river this afternoon, and just for fun timed myself. The hike is not really very long, but the altitude change is dramatic. And while most people would not believe me, I MUCH prefer the hike back UP the hill versus the steep one going down. Both are steep - nearly straight up the hill - but going downhill there is a good chance you are going to slip and loose your balance, which could send you sprawling all over the place, and into some serious trouble with broken bones or torn body parts. My time to the edge of the river from the upper deck of the cabin was 16.5 minutes, which included probably a full minute to help the dogs over the ladder (I don't let Aspen jump over the bluff anymore - now he must wait for me to hoist him down).
Whitaker Creek is still running, but not making any noise, and the water is getting pretty shallow. Same thing with the main Buffalo River - still running water, but the old gravel bars are dry now, and river flowers are growing and blooming in the shallow water. Aspen loves to charge out into the water after some of the minnows, but it is really just for fun - I think he KNOWS he will never actually catch a fish!
The trip back up the hill took me about the very same time as the trip down - also including another minute to hoist the dogs up the ladder (all three of us really gasping for breath). I really do enjoy that climb out, no matter how hot and humid it is.
A couple of unrelated notes. First, I finally got confirmation of what those stinky mushrooms were - this from Journal reader Nanette Crane from Hot Springs: "In my Audubon Society Guidebook to mushrooms, that one you came across appears to be Stinky Squid. It has spread from the New York area down to here. The book describes the stink as "fetid", not butt of dog!" THAT IS IT EXACTLY!
And since so many of you ask, I will pass on a bit of info about what camera I am going to buy in the near future. Or should I say, which one I am not going to be buying. Right now the pace of change and new innovation in the digital photograph world is simply mind boggling. As an example, there were more than 2200 new models of digital cameras introduced at a single show this past spring! The high end of the marketplace is changing a great deal, and I have been having trouble trying to decide exactly what I am going to buy. The exact camera system that I have been dreaming of had not been invented yet, and I have been hesitant to jump in until the pool is fully full. Then a few days ago I discovered that there was indeed my dream camera system available, or at least it would become available this fall. EUREKA! And let me tell you, this system would produce images far greater than anything I have ever produced before - I'm talking about pure image quality of course. I had to have one! It has taken me several days to actually pin down what the cost of the critical new component is going to be. Hum, it just might be a little bit out of my reach in reality right now. The cost of the entire system would be about $40,000. You read that correctly - forty thousand dollars. (Just in case you were wondering, and know about these things, it is a Contax 645 system - just like I used to use - with a brand new 22 megapixel digital back from Leaf. It is self-contained, and can hold more than 200 RAW images, plus has a 6/7cm color screen for viewing. And while it produces twice the pixels as the current top-of-the-line 35mm digital camera system from Canon, each of those pixels records a great deal more information, so the results would be absolutely stunning indeed. But 40 grand? Come on. Get real. (the back itself will sell for $27,500) Maybe in my next life!
So much for my dream camera system. I'll just have to wait a few more years for that one to become a little bit more realistic.
On the other side of the coin, I just spent most of today making very large prints here, and I must tall ya that the results I am getting are quite remarkable. For the most part I have been printing the images that I have shot over the past 28 years in a variety of camera formats. But just for kicks, I also printed a few really large photos from my little point-and-shoot camera - at normal viewing distance they are just marvelous!
One more business point and then I will move on, or actually put this update to rest. Pam and I sat down the other day and made up a list of major book or photo projects we want to do. Some of them will only take a few months to do, others will take a year or two or three to finish. We came up with 14 new projects! Good grief. I am going to put each project on a 3/5 card and tape it to the wall around the computer. Then when someone asks me what my next project is, I can just point to the wall! Oops, I just thought of another one - make that 15. Thank goodness I have Pam to help out!
6/26/03 We got a WONDERFUL 3/4 inch rain during the night, plus plenty of wind and thunder and cool temps. Those cool temps stuck around all day, and it was been simply wonderful to be alive in the wilderness today. I have a 22-hour work day scheduled tomorrow - beginning at 2am, and going until midnight, only to begin again early the next day, and then again the next, and then again the next. I hope to get two or three hours of sleep tonight before my marathon session begins. It is going to be a very long day and weekend. I will not be able to make any further posts in June, so check back again on Tuesday. And if I miss ya, have a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
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