CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - February 2010

Cloudland Journal Archives, Cloudland Cabin Info Page

Cloudland Cabin Cam, February 27, 7:50 am - sunny and a SPECTACULAR DAY in the wilderness!

February Print Of The Month

UPDATED Saturday night the 28th - HADLOCK CASCADE

02/01/10 A few photos from the past couple of days...

The Buffalo River (above) and Whitaker Creek (below)

Amber and The Fat Cat

Wolf Moon rising on Saturday night

Sonya, Amber, and Kyle

The setting moon through the trees at the Gallery early this morning

02/02/10 It is a clear, starkly, beautiful night in the wilderness tonight! The moon has not appeared yet but will soon top the eastern horizon and send its moonbeams throughout the land. Right now the black sky looks down on a landscape that remains blanketed with white. During the daytime we can see so much farther into the woods, and so much more detail is visible with the snow background. Giant chunks of sandstone that have separated from the big bluffline are well defined - and I want to go visit each and every one of them! (I have seen to several, but it has been a while.) We can see individual logs that have fallen a half mile away. If there were large critters out there moving about we could see them too.

Speaking of that, I failed to report about the tracks I saw in the snow the other day when I was exploring down along the Buffalo River in the deep snow. I saw many sets of tracks crisscrossing my path, but this one set in particular got my attention and kept it for a while. There were four prints in a set, evenly spaced, and probably that of a deer - although a deer normally will make a good impression at the bottom of the snow but I could not see any outline down in there. So four feet/tracks, then NOTHING in the snow for 6-10 feet, and then another set of four tracks. Simple - just a deer that had bounded from one spot to the next. But it continued this way - one set of tracks, then nothing for a long while, then another set of tracks. Sometimes the break was 15-20 FEET apart! And the funny part was that the tracks did not disturb the snow like they were made by a bounding deer or other animal - they just looked like a normal track. At one point there was a pile of bright red blood, but no sign of a struggle around them. More than once the tracks began on one side of a downed tree and then nothing for 15-20 until the other side of the tree, and no branches or other parts of the downed tree had been disturbed (still covered with snow). So this deer or whatever had to have jumped mighty high and far in order to completely clear these downed trees. The snow was deeper than normal for around here, but I would not think it was deep enough to force a deer to leap with every step, which is what it looked like. Eventually the trail joined with another trail and I lost the pristine nature of the tracks. I would love to have been up on the hillside behind a tree watching!

The snow has pretty much shut us down around here as far as going anywhere is concerned, especially once the county plowed the main road and then our own county road 406 - I would rather drive on snow than on scraped snow! What happens is that the plow never actually scrapes all the way down to the bare roadbed, and so there is a packed bit of snow/slush/ice that remains. When it melts a little bit and freezes during the night it create a skating rink of some really SLICK roadway! They had school yesterday but we kept Amber home - no way I was going to drive down the big hill into Boxley Valley, especially since we did not know if there would be a bus waiting down in Boxley to pick her up or not. Same deal today - the roads up here remain ice and snow covered and frozen this morning so we kept Amber at home.

But I did venture out to head into town early this afternoon. And I only made it about a mile before I got stuck - actually this is the first time I've been stuck in the snow in probably 20 years or longer (I did get stuck in my driveway during an ice storm once, but that was solid ice). Luckily I had a pair of chains with me and 30 minutes later I even managed to get them attached. I was on a slight hill that had been plowed and was solid ice. My car was going nowhere, except sideways. With the chains on I continue to slide sideways, although it was more of the front of the car moving than the back - I ended up doing a 180 degree spin in the middle of the narrow road! (NOT what I had in mind, but it worked!) I was able to eventually get turned around and back on the road again and made it into town - breaking one of the cable chains in the process.

Cave Mountain Road is a real mess right now and it is easy to slide off of it at any point. I made it home OK tonight, but the road will be a solid sheet of ice in the morning. That fact, along with Amber having to get up at 4am to give us enough time to drive all the way out the back way to Red Star, then around to Fallsville, and finally down into Boxley in time to meet the bus, we've decided to keep her at home for another day. It used to be easy to figure this out - they ran a school "bus" up here on Cave Mountain, and when the driver would not drive due to the ice and snow, Amber would not go to school. But they removed that bus route this year and so it is all up to us. I'm becoming more of a chicken in my old age I guess, but I don't think it is worth possible death, injury, or property damage just to get her to school. She actually has school projects she continues to work on here, and being the 4.0 student that she is I have a feeling she would much rather be in school anyway. (That would NOT have been the case with me when I was in school!)

Speaking of going 180 degrees, we have just flip-flopped our work stations here in the cabin and so now I am working at Pam's spot and she at mine. (And both of our chairs and computers are identical.) I get them mixed up sometimes. Pair that with the fact I continue to have issues with my left arm and can't use it for most of my computing (which I do with a pen and drawing tablet - I don't own a mouse, other than those down in the basement that we are trying to catch!). And we are redoing the individual-order shipping department that has taken over the "drawing" room next to the library/office here at the cabin. We haven't actually had to buy much in the way of new fixtures, but have been removing a lot of older ones and moving the rest around - that means our front porch now looks like it should - filled with all sorts of furniture! (although still no couches or washing machines yet!). Once the snow melts off a little bit I'm going to haul all of that up to the tractor shed for storage and we'll have our front porch back again.

On the photo side of things I am waiting for more rain so that I can head out to explore new waterfalls - I've got something like 20-25 new ones on my list already, including several that are really neat and pretty easy to get to and quite surprising locations - I can't wait for high water!!! Bring on the RAIN...

By the way, even though I think that Amber built a pretty nice snowman in the kayak the other day, it looks like a LOT of folks in the school district did a terrific job too - there are at least 100 entries in the local snowman contest, and some of them are absolutely amazing!

02/04/10 An amazingly weird and beautiful weather day out there today, all day long! It actually started off yesterday - the girls abandoned me and sped off to spend the night at granny's house in Jasper. Amber had missed a lot of school this week and really needed to get back to class (very strange kid!), but the roads up here on the mountain continue to be unsafe at 5am in the morning - frozen solid and very dangerous. So the girls decided on a preemptive strike and they drove into town while the roads were thawing - a bloody, muddy, slushy mess for sure, but they made it OK. So it was just Aspen and I alone in the cabin last night - Lucy was in her "cave" where she likes to spend a lot of time.

During the night we got a good amount of sleet and freezing rain and the roads were really bad. In fact there were at least four school buses that got stranded on the way to school! Turned out that a lot of kids did not make it to school today, but AMBER DID! And I guess they invented this word for a situation just like this - but the irony of it all was that after Amber made all that effort to get to school, she got sick and had to leave school! Luckily they retreated back to granny's house since the roads were still pretty much impassible. I tried to take the mail out and could not get more than about 100 yards from the cabin in my car before I had to give up and turn around - melting snow creates sheets of ice the next morning.

But all day today it RAINED, and the temp was above freezing. The ground all over was covered with six inches of snow that had not melted yet, and all day long the rain created baby clouds down in the canyon far below. And those babies would rise up and move around, chasing each other, playing, trying to figure out where they were going to go to live. The dramatic landscape scene was in motion and changing all day long until darkness arrived here just a little while ago.

I went out several times - up to feed the wild cats that are living in our tractor shed (the girls saw a pair of BOBCATS near there yesterday), back up to the shed to get some lumber and other stuff, back and forth to the gallery - each time felt great, almost warm, as the light rain felt quite refreshing. But the ground remained frozen, or at least covered with snow and ice and slush. Towards the late afternoon the rain had softened the ice up enough that I made a second attempt to drive out - this time to pick up the mail. Cave Mountain Road is a real mess, and I recommend that you AVOID it until things dry out - which might be another week or two.

I spent my day here trying to learn how to become right-handed, and not doing a very good job of it. I endured the most painful experience I've ever had in a doctor's office yesterday as I got two injections into the center of my ailing left elbow. The staff said the last guy show got these injections last week fainted part way through the procedure - great, that really cheered me up - I HATE needles anyway! This was just the first installment of three of these types of injections - I'm hoping if this first one does not work then we move right on over to #4, which is elbow surgery. I should know in a month. In the meantime I'm not able to use my left arm for much, and being left-handed that is somewhat of a handicap. My lovely bride already does quite a bit more then she gets credit for and should be doing, but now she is going to have to step up and take charge and start yelling at me to SIT DOWN and let her do it!

I am not able to write at the moment - with a pen that is - and hardly with a keyboard either. I'm not supposed to grip anything, especially small stuff like an autograph pen. So if you order a book this week and the autograph looks kind of funny, you will know why (that is not the actual reason - I just have sloppy penmanship - but I'll use it as an excuse as long as I can!).

One funny thing about my computer skills. I don't own a mouse - I use a writing tablet for everything that a mouse normally is used for. Guess what - I'm helpless without the writing tablet! I swiped Pam's mouse while she has been gone, but knew she would return one day and want it back. Then I remembered that I did indeed have a mouse - one that works with the writing tablet. The problem would be where to locate it - I keep everything, but that was the issue - there were at least 25 boxes from computer equipment alone on the shelves. But I did find it, and now I am able to navigate the computer with my right hand while my left arm hangs out on a pillow in my lap.

It is quiet and lonely in this big old cabin in the middle of the wilderness without the girls here. The silence is broken only by Aspen's snoring, which echoes off the log walls. Bring on the RAIN and the melody that comes with it to send me into slumber....

02/09/10 A tiny sliver of the crescent moon woke me up about 4 this morning. It hung low in the eastern sky casting a soft glow over the landscape, a landscape that was covered with an equally soft layer of up to a foot of fresh power. It was kind of like a down comforter without the outside wrappings - just piles of down. The snow was so soft and dry that if you bent down to blow on it the snow flakes flew everywhere! It was the sort of snow that you could go swoosh-swoosh through and not make a sound. In fact, unlike other snows we've had recently, this snow never made a sound as it landed.

A little while later I was standing out on the lower back deck with camera and tripod in hand. I agonized for a couple of hours over where I would travel this morning to photograph the delicate color and shape that first appears on snow like this just before and right after sunrise. I decided that one of the very best views in the country was right here, and I could ALMOST just stay in my jammies too! (I don't wear jammies, and with the temp about 12 degrees I elected to put something a little bit heavier on, but it still kind of felt like being in my jammies since I was working in the back yard.)

A snapsho from the back deck at sunrise

I spent the next 30 minutes moving around from deck to deck taking pictures. The scene all around was quite spectacular. Aspen soon got bored with it all and returned to his bed inside, but Lucy hung around and just watched - she always does that when she realizes that I'm not actually GOING anywhere - she is all about GOING somewhere!

At one point this morning I realized that the line of bright sunshine was just about to strike a colorful bluffline a couple of miles up the Whitaker Creek Drainage, and while it would make a great photo, I had the wrong camera. That sun was moving FAST. So I took off and sprinted over to the gallery building and collected another camera with a really BIG lens, sailed back to lower deck and set up the new rig - and just in time to catch the sunshine line right where I wanted it.

The end result of my morning's shoot on the back deck was two photographs that I think will work in my next picture book project - it won't be out until 2011, but I started working on it this winter (not to be confused with my Arkansas Fall picture book that will be out THIS fall). I'm expecting it will take me about a year and a half more photography work to complete (I'll tell you all about it later.). Working on a book project like this give me a reason and an excuse to get up and get out and take pictures - even though it might be a wee bit uncomfortable outside on days like today (the wind started to blow and the wind chill dipped well below zero), I absolutely LOVE to be outside with a camera trying to record the wonderful world of Momma Nature.

The big snowfall yesterday was one of those that blew in so hard and fast that a lot of the snow stuck to the sides of trees and limbs. And it all blew off those trees and limbs in a hurry today when the wind started to blow. I was out in the middle of the forest when a big gust came through - all that powder blew everywhere, and besides getting down inside my collar and freezing my back, at times it was white-out conditions with so much snow blowing that you could not see to walk. When I drove the mail out to the mailbox early this afternoon the tracks that I had made (8-10 inches deep in the snow) were COMPLETELY covered up by blowing snow by the time I returned - only ten minutes later! Some of the snow drifts got pretty deep, although the next time the wind blew that very same pile of snow blew off someplace else. Cold, dry powder. Downhill folks love it!

I hiked down to Hawksbill Crag early yesterday morning to take a few photos of all the snow and had a grand time walking through the winter wonderland. I had an idea for the cover photo of one of my guidebooks that will be updated at some year in the future, and so dawned a nice bright RED shirt and RED Santa hat to add some color to the landscape. In the good old days I would have to RUN at top speed from the camera out onto the Crag in order to get myself in the photos before the 10-second self timer went off (yes, that is possible, but I could only do it about once every four or five tries - NOT recommended!). But now with the fancy timer on my camera I set it to start taking pictures a minute later, and then to take one every five seconds for two minutes. That gave me plenty of time to do as many different poses as I needed to, with and without the Santa hat!

I drove into town yesterday and the roads out here were just miserable - not just from the deep snow, but also from the thick CLAY and mud underneath - that bottom layer was not frozen and so it all created a big slushy mess. The fact that the tires on my soccer-mom car were not very good either made it a mess just trying to get out to the highway.

Backing up several days now, I was able to get out with a camera during one of the HEAVIEST snowstorms I'd ever seen. Not only was the snow coming down hard and horizontal, but the flakes were just GIANTS! I stood there in the woods and watched and could see the snow pile up on the sides of the trees right before my eyes. I closed my eyes and listened (it was snowing too hard for me to be able to take any pictures). Snow does make a sound when it hits/lands, especially when the flakes are that large and going that fast! With a normal snowfall you REALLY have to listen hard to hear it, but there is a sound (with the exception being the soft flakes from yesterday - my hearing was not supersonic enough to hear that).

The girls continue to live in town so that Amber can get into school - of course they have not had school because of all the snow so it has done her no good! Oh well, at least the girls made the effort and are in place for when school does open again.

We had our very first $700 electric bill here in January - that was a CLOUDLAND MOMENT for sure! Wow.

It is getting late in the day here now and the sun is sinking into the western horizon. There are dozens of miniature snowstorms raging on outside - that mighty wind is blowing things around. It is cool and quiet here inside the cabin - we all miss the girls but know they are in a better place right now and will be back home soon. In the meantime, I think I'll put on my snow boots and wake up the dogs and go swooshing around in the deep powder a little while until it gets dark...

Santa on the Crag

02/11/10 It was sometime in the middle of the night and I found myself out in the woods swooshing through the snow. The sky above was filled with a zillion twinkling stars - the first really clear night we have had in a while. The landscape at my feet reflected every bit of that faint starlight and it was easy for me to move around without a flashlight. My camera was taking a 20-minute exposure back at Hawksbill Crag, and with nothing better to do, I was doing "laps" along the upper and lower parts of the trail that leads to the Crag in order to stay warm (the temp was about 20 degrees). And then I got lost. Oops! (the starlight was not THAT bright)

It was a funny feeling - I just looked up and all of a sudden did not have a clue where I was. It seemed like I was still on the trail, but the surroundings were nothing I had remembered. Perhaps I had gotten off onto one of the many deer trails that crisscrossed the path? Actually I was hiking on virgin snow - no tracks of any sort had been my way since the most recent snowfall. I could obviously just backtrack all the way to the Crag and get un-lost, but what fun would that be! So instead I stood there in the starlight for a few moments, gathered up all the internal wisdom and instinct that I could find (I don't have that much so this did not take too long!), turned and simply headed out into the woods in the direction that just "felt" right. Probably not the best time for doing this sort of thing - in the middle of the night in the middle of a wilderness in the dark! But what the heck.

A few minutes later I happened to look up and was stopped dead in my tracks, and then a chill ran down my spine. I was standing at the exact spot, ground zero, the point where the largest search and rescue mission in Arkansas history had begun. It was the spot where six-year-old Haley Zega was last seen back in the spring of 2001. She would not be seen again for three days, and was found several miles away with one leg in the Buffalo River.

That was good news for me (finding that spot, not Haley getting lost) - I knew where I was! And as I made my way on over to Haley Falls to see how well it was running, all these thoughts and emotions of that fateful day came rushing back. My initial chore as soon as we were notified that she had been lost was to search below the 100-tall bluff. No one had been down there yet and it was one of the likely places she might be found. Of course, if I did find her down at the bottom of the bluff it would have been a horrible sight - she would have fallen off the bluff and obviously not alive. So the entire time I searched that afternoon I had mixed feelings - I DID want to find her, but I also DID NOT want to find her at the bottom of the bluff! Thankfully everything turned out just fine - both for Haley and for me as I eventually made my way back to Hawksbill Crag in the snowy darkness to take more pictures!

During another 20-minute exposure I wandered on over to this big chunk of sandstone was lives on top of the bluff nearby. Most of you who have hiked the lower trail to Hawksbill Crag will know this spot - it is where that giant pine tree had toppled over many years ago but continued to grow and seems to be holding up the big block of rock and keeping it from going over the bluff. I stood there with my back up against this rock for several minutes, gazing out into the wilderness that was spread out before me and watching all the movement in the sky above. Besides all the stars there were a LOT of jets out. At one point I counted 17 jets that I could see at the same time, and I only had a small view towards the southern sky. Seems like a lot more air traffic than normal for some reason.

Once I had all the jets counted I turned my attention to the big chunk of rock. It was about 12 feet or so tall where I was standing, and it was indeed a "block" of rock with straight sides instead of a rounded boulder. I decided to make my way completely around this rock, and so I inched my way along the edges, examining the vertical walls and feeling the roughness and all the lichens that were growing on it. I could not see any color on the rock, only the shapes of the lichens, and of the rock itself. By the time I had reached the uphill side of the rock I was actually taller than it was, and I could look across the snow-covered flat top. There were more of these sandstone chunks, all lined up and sitting on the ground headed away from the bluffline. Each one in succession was a little bit smaller and shorter than this first one. And I it struck me - what an odd thing to be doing in the middle of the night out in the middle of no where - inching my way around blocks of sandstone! It seemed to pass the time and I did get better acquainted with these guys that I have always admired. Come to think of it, I don't believe that any time I've ever spent out in the woods doing things like this was ever wasted!

The photo of the Crag and the stars and of the lights from some unknown town that I present here is just one of the photographs that I took during the night - I will eventually pick a different one to process that may end up in the new book project. Speaking of the lights from the town - for some reason these light were REALLY bright, much more so than normal. It kind of looked like there was a football stadium over near Mossville that was all lit up. Mostly likely these were the lights from Russellville - was there a big party going on? I just spoke to my lovely bride (her and Amber are still camped out in Jasper so that Amber can get to school today), and she noticed the same thing - the lights were much brighter than normal.

A LONG SHOT. I need to trade some premium wheels/tires with someone. If you happen to know anyone who has recently purchased a 2010 Toyota 4Runner SR5 (this is the base model) - or is about to purchase one - I have a new set of 20" Limited wheels/tires that I would like to trade for their base 17" wheels/tires. It is a great deal for them since the 20" set is very expensive and very nice - I just need different wheels for my purposes. Have them contact me if you know anyone!

BOXLEY BAPTIST CHURCH (community building) needs your help. This is the icon of Boxley Valley that so many of you enjoy seeing, and it is in need of repair/restoration. Here is a note from the church folks - I hope you will be able to help them!

Boxley Community building is in need of some major repair caused by old age and community use. Built around 1900 it is one of the most visited and photographed buildings in the Buffalo National Park and in the state of Arkansas.

For that reason we at the Boxley community are asking for assistance in repairing and preserving this remarkable landmark.

The building belongs to the Boxley Baptist Church. In addition to the funds being donated by the church, we are in need of additional assistance in some needed repairs and restoration. In order to keep this old former school, church and community meeting place in shape for future generations, we must do some work on it now.

Your help with our restoration project will be much appreciated. Thank you!

A fund has been established at all the First National Banks of Green Forest Branches under Boxley Baptist Church Construction Account or contributions can be made to Boxley Baptist Church and marked for restoration of Community building. Address at HC 70 Box 13, Ponca AR. 72670.

For additional information e-mail or call:

Bill Cochrane 870-861-5835

02/12/10 The girls are coming home tonight, YIPPIE! It will be great to have them back! The big hill on Cave Mountain Road going down into Boxley is now free of snow and ice and is safe for us to drive down to get Amber to the bus in Boxley. The upper part of Cave Mountain Road remains a muddy mess - if you come up this way be prepared for a car wash before you go home. Some folks laugh at how dirty my car always is, but the fact is that if I wash it while in town it will be completely covered in mud/dirt by the time I get home. And then double of that by the time I get back into town again. So I wash the car one or twice a year when the mud gets to adding so much weight that it costs more in gas!

Speaking of Amber and the bus, the Jasper school system has already lost so many days due to snow that they are starting to have school on Saturdays. That is probably a good compromise - the only other options would be to eliminate spring break, or go longer into the summer.

I have a date with my lovely bride today - I'm going to pick her up from her parent's house in Mt. Sherman and take her waterfall hunting! I've got a single waterfall in mind but due to the ice damage last year there is no good way to get to this one - we'll be spending most of our time just trying to find ways around all the downed trees. I've never been in this particular drainage before so it will all be new to me.

I snuck out for a few hours yesterday to explore another new drainage and was hoping to find several new waterfalls. As I was loading up my pack at the trailhead (actually I just parked next to the road), I realized that I had left my camera battery back at the cabin so I could not haul my big camera rig with me, but I did have my little point-and-shoot so would still be able to take snapshots. That mistake actually was a good thing - turned out I would not have been able to take any waterfall pictures anyway for the guidebook so it would have been a lot of extra weight on my back for nothing.

I immediately realized that this area had received a LOT more snow then we did - it was nearly a foot deep! And that made the going slow and rough, although it did give me a lot more exercise (it takes some work to lift your boots up and out of deep snow).

I did find a beautiful waterfall almost immediately - within a half mile of the highway - but after conferring with my map and the GPS it looked like it was on private property - but only by a couple hundred feet. It was running nicely and the bluff it poured over was covered with tall ice flows. I made my way down to the bottom of the waterfall and took a few photos with the snapshot camera. I would have to do some further research to see if this was indeed on private property or not, and it turned out to be on public property then I might include it in the new guidebook.

There was another spot in the drainage that looked like a good waterfall spot so I made my way around the base of the same bluffline as it worked up into another part of the same drainage. Man the snow was DEEP! I could soon see and hear the creek below and was getting excited for a new discovery. But just as I got close to where the bluffline turned to cross the creek, I found the area completely clogged with GIANT sandstone blocks that had fallen/slid from the bluffline. In fact even when I got within 100 feet of the waterfall I could not see it due to the giant blocks!

Turned out this was not a very tall waterfall but those sandstone blocks made the area quite interesting. But they also made it extremely tough to get anywhere. It appeared that the snows had piled up all around the base of the big blocks and had not melted any. Each snowfall just added more to the piles. I estimated that is some places there was more than six feet of snow piled up! It took me about 30 minutes just to cross from one side of the creek to the other. And when I reached the other side I found more sandstone blocks.

I got up on top of one pile of snow and eased my way around the base of one block, and then came to an opening - a split in the giant block of rock. Most of the time when you find a split like this it is a straight crack. But this one was very different - it was curved! And a very graceful curve at that. I climbed up into the curvy crack and out the other side and took a few photos looking back through it. There were several streams of water that had frozen that were reflecting light, and there was GREEN moss growing inside too. I might have to return to this spot one day with my real camera.

I had spotted a spot in the big bluff just above this where I might be able to climb up through, but when I got there I realized that it was nothing more than an icy mess - I had planned to exit the drainage at that point and hike back out to the car and was not looking forward to what might be an additional 1/2 mile or more of hiking in the deep snow and ice to get out. After closer inspection I realized that the ice flows were mostly thin ice on top of piles of snow and that I was able to bust my way through the ice layer and get foot holds. And so up and up I went, crashing through the ice, and getting splashed on all along the way by dripping water from the bluffline next to and just above me.

I made it out, yippie! That was sure a beautiful canyon down in there, but I'm still not sure if it will go into the waterfall guidebook - this would require at least one more trip with less snow and ice to see what else I could find. And even though I was within a mile of my car at that point, it took me nearly an hour to get back to it - lots of deep snow and many fallen trees slowed my progress.

The first waterfall (mostly hidden behind the ice) - about 30 feet tall

Sandstone wave

This is what part of the ice climb out of the canyon looked like

A wild blueberry bush

02/13/10 Heavy fog here this morning, and I bet some of it will freeze to the trees since the temp is just below the freezing mark. I always love foggy days, unless I'm driving in them - not very safe. Speaking of driving, Cave Mountain Road is once again about as nasty as I've ever seen it - no longer snow-packed (which I like), but now it is a mixture of mud and clay - you pretty much need a 4WD to make it without issues, and even then you must drive carefully.

Yesterday I had one of my most enjoyable hikes ever, and it was only an hour or two long! It started off by picking up my lovely bride and granny's house and I took her out for a lunch date at the Ozark Cafe in Jasper. Then we headed out to go waterfall hunting in the deep snow south of Jasper, up high, along Hwy. 7. The snow was 6-10 inches deep still, but not crusty and so it was not too bad to hike in. We dropped down into a drainage and made our way downstream until we came to a brand new 42 foot tall waterfall - yippie! This was a surprise since it was so close to the highway, on public land, and so easy to get to. Well, at least it USED to be easy to get to - that was before the big ice storm last year. Now the route is clogged with thousands of downed trees and limbs, which makes the going slow at times.

Once we explored the waterfall, measured the height, and took a few photos (I'll return for the official guidebook photo later this spring when the water will be higher), we both sat down under the wide overhang and just enjoyed the view. The waterfall itself was nice, leaping over the bluff and splashing into the emerald pool below. But the bluffline was equally scenic with all the tall icicles - some up to 20 feet tall! And then it began to snow. It was just one of those times when the world turns to magic, and you feel happy all over to be alive. Funny, but I've been out in the woods at waterfalls and snow many times, but none felt as great as this time - I wonder why? It was because my lovely bride and lifemate was with me, that's why! Life is always better when she is around.

And even though it was a steep half-mile climb up through the snow and over all the logs back to the car, it did not seem all that tough. More than once I stopped and looked back and discovered my lovely bride trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue - they were GIANT flakes and she caught a lot of them.

We made a quick stop at a bluff along the Buffalo River for a few photos. The water in all of the creeks and rivers around here have been very GREEN lately. In fact I do believe that for some reason we have been seeing a lot more green this past year than ever before - last fall too (for those of you who saw my Buffalo National River slide program - the river looks just as green right now as in the opening photograph in that program).

On the way back home I buried my new car in a deep snowdrift and got stuck! Not to worry - I was able to put the car into four-wheel low and back right out of it. Later in the day the girls moved back into the cabin, but have already left again this morning since Amber had school today. As the snow melts waterfalls will begin to flow a little more - hoping we get some RAIN now...

Some of the ice damage - you gotta hike right through the middle of this stuff sometimes!

Watch out for these guys

This new waterfall will most likely be included in the new waterfall guidebook scheduled for release in 2011

02/16/10 I saw a flock of robins in the meadow this afternoon, foraging for worms. This has always been a sign of spring to me, and I suspect it will feel like spring is on the way when we get warmer temps later this week. Of course, each day that passes brings us one day closer - even though we are probably in for more frigid days and nights and more snow and ice first. The snow is gone from most of the southern-facing slopes now, but the ridgetops and north-facing slopes, along with east and west-facing slopes, remain at least partially covered with snow. And some of that snow has a SOLID layer on top - so much so that Aspen and Lucy both were able to run on top of the snow yesterday without ever falling in!

As I've been wandering around the snow-covered hillsides these past several weeks I've been paying particular attention to trails and roadways, and the fact that snow will always melt off of them first no matter which slope they are on. The snow also seems to collect last on those spots as well. I can understand this when the snow falls on a bit of bare ground, like a well-used hiking trail. The snow will melt away faster than it would on the leaf-covered forest right next to it. But what I've been seeing is that even trails that are seldom used, and still have a full depth of fallen leaves, seems to melt off first. I've even seen road traces that have not had a wheel on them for 10 or 12 years or longer, and have been covered with normal leaffall all that time, still clear off early. Why is this? Certainly a well-used trail will clear early, but I just don't understand why one that has not been walked on in a long time will do the same. There must be a scientific explanation for it, but I may never know.

Speaking of the snow, I made a 15-minute movie of the snow falling yesterday and I wanted to share that with you. It is a large file (172mb), and is very static the entire time - in fact the camera is zoomed in on a large pine tree in Mom's meadow just below the cabin and the scene does not move - at all. It is simply a soundless movie of this one specific scene with millions of snowflakes passing through it. If you are having a bad day at work or home and just need to "get away" for a few minutes, put on some music that you like and stare at the screen for 15 minutes (just don't let your boss see ya). SNOW MOVIE.

02/19/10 Nighttime view of Beagle Point

02/23/10 I got to spend a wonderful day yesterday out exploring, discovering, and photographing new waterfalls. We had several hours of hard, pounding rain on Sunday, and that filled up many of the drainages and produced lots of great waterfalls. It was kind of fun to watch the Buffalo River during all of this rain to see how it reacted. It was that beautiful emerald color, with patches of whitewater in between pools, singing a soft lullaby. Then the hard rains came, but even an hour after the rain stopped the river remained the same color, although Whitaker Creek was SCREAMING with new blood - it was pretty loud outside. I spent a good bit of time out on the back deck Sunday glassing the river corridor in hopes of seeing the lost hiker (who was wearing a red jacket - the search and rescue folks asked me to keep a watch out for him).

It was several hours after the hard rain stopped before the river started to turn color - from that beautiful emerald to hot chocolate! It took that long for the rainfall runoff to reach the main river. There is a lesson in this. Don't always expect the river to rise immediately during or after a heavy downpour. By the time the river had changed colors the sound outside was pretty loud. There were no doubt thousands of great waterfalls all over the Ozarks running high at that point, but I didn't really want photos of flooded waterfalls so I remained at my post on the back deck of the cabin.

But yesterday morning I was up and out early, and headed into a drainage that I knew had a pair of pretty nice waterfalls (thanks John Moore!). The water levels had already dropped quite a bit but the water was clear and beautiful. I found the first waterfall with ease, worked my way down to the base and took a few photos. I was even more careful while up on top of the falls - I would have been anyway, but with the death of the hiker over the weekend it made this all the more important. I carry a 100' measuring tape (I also have a 250' tape, but have only used it three times), and this waterfall took up more than half of it - 66' tall! The shape of this double-decker waterfall reminded me of Cougar Falls over in the Sylamore area of the forest (it is 77' tall). Just around the corner was the second waterfall - a 41' foot tall beauty.

On my way out of this drainage I found a much better route that would be an easier hike for everyone, so I hiked back out to my car and then drove to the new parking area to get the exact mileage. Turns out the access to these two new waterfalls is from the Ozark Highlands Trail. While sitting there recording the mileage and stuff, I noticed another drainage on the map that looked really interesting, and the access to it was right outside the door! So I loaded up my camera gear and headed out.

I was soon surrounded by hundreds of beautiful small beech trees, each one covered with bronze leaves (beech trees don't lose their leaves in the wintertime). The forest floor was covered with boulders of all shapes and sizes, each one wearing a coat of different colored lichens and mosses. Just walking through this amazing forest lifted my spirits and made me smile - it was also so bright that I wished I'd had sunglasses! The little creek grew in size quickly as it leapt from boulder to boulder, over ledges, and into small emerald pools, then out again as whitewater.

And soon I came to the first set of waterfalls. I say "set" since there were FOUR waterfalls all together (tallest was 15'), including two of them that spilled into emerald pools. This was just a beautiful spot, a jewel in itself. I found a location where I could get all four waterfalls in the same photo, although it would take more water for all of this to really show up in a photograph - guess where I'll be headed the next big rain we get?

I continued on downstream and found another great waterfall, not too tall (only 16'), but it dropped into a much larger emerald pool - the setting was quite wonderful. None of these waterfalls were very tall, but they were pretty easy to get to and located near the other tall waterfalls, so they will get high marks for being included in the new guidebook (due out early next year).

I spent the rest of the day exploring this same drainage downstream, and then hiking back up a different prong of the same drainage - found more waterfalls, but they were shorter still (less than 10'), although the area was quite scenic. At one point I found myself in a dangerous situation where I could not go up and had trouble getting back down again. Took me nearly 30 minutes to figure out how to climb up out of the little canyon.

By the time I reached my car I was one tired, beat up, and bruised puppy. If I did this all day every day it would have been no big deal, but I've spent most of the past six months sitting on my rear end, growing fat and out of shape, so this was a good wake-up call. I will do a lot more of this in the months ahead (exploring, not sitting!).

Here are a couple of the new waterfalls from yesterday:

As most of you know by now a hiker fell to his death over the weekend in Boen Gulf (David Hadlock from Springdale), which is a wonderful waterfall area inside the Upper Buffalo Wilderness (about two miles from our cabin). David did not fall off a bluff while taking photos of Magnolia Falls, which is what has been widely reported. He was downstream from this waterfall, and no one knows if he was taking pictures at all when he fell. In fact he probably was not. Since so much of this is and always will be speculation, I won't dwell on it too much. But here are the few facts we do know. He parked at the Boen Gulf access near Mossville and probably did hike into Boen Gulf and took pictures of some of the waterfalls there (I hear he was quite a talanted photographer). When he did not arrive back home on Saturday night as expected his wife called the sheriff's office in Jasper. His vehicle was found at the parking area. An initial search of the waterfall area in the dark found nothing. The search teams assembled early Sunday morning and headed in to continue the search. His body was located downstream from the waterfall area, near the base of a very tall bluff. It took the rescue teams about six hours to remove him, which included hauling him back up the tall bluff. All of this was going on during the heavy downpour on Sunday.

I've seen posts about this being the result of "bad judgement" by the hiker, that the waterfalls were just too dangerous to be at, that he should never have hiked alone, and lots of other negative things. I would disagree with all of that. Obviously this is a terrible tragedy for the family and for all who knew him. But the truth is that this was most likely a simple accident and no one was to blame. He was a competent hiker and had spent a great deal of time alone outdoors. Conditions were no worse than at most other times. Certainly the waterfalls themselves were no more dangerous than others. I have always noted that being in the woods is much safer than being just about anywhere in town, and certainly driving to and from the trailhead is much more dangerous than hiking. I guess it is possible that if you never left your house you might live longer, but what sort of life would that be? Certainly be careful when out in the woods (or at the mall, or walking down the sidewalk in your neighborhood), and be extra careful when you are around tall bluffs, but get out and enjoy life and do everything that you can to be safe. When your time comes, there won't be anything you can do about it. David spent his last hours on earth in one of the most beautiful places on earth. 'nuff said....

David's memorial service will be held tomorrow at 2pm in town. I will be in Boen Gulf tomorrow and will be having another memorial service for David, a soul I never met but whose spirit I suspect will live on in the wilderness, and flow in the waterfalls for eternity...

02/25/10 It was a BRIGHT, sunny, yet FRIGID day yesterday, with temps in the teens and a wind chill at or below zero. The temps came up during the day but the wind continued. I hiked into the upper Boen Gulf area late morning and spent a couple of hours in there. One side of the canyon was in full sun and had very little ice or snow. The other side was in full shadow and had a great deal of ice and snow - the canyon lined up in such a way that it was eventually split right down the middle like this. The waterfalls were running well and had many ice curtains around them. This was not a photo trip and I did not have any serious camera gear with me, only a point and shoot - I would not shoot during a sunny day like this anyway - cloudy days are much better for photography.

It did not take me long to find the location where David came to rest on the canyon floor - bright orange flagging tape put up by the evac crew led me right to the spot. It is located downstream from Magnolia Falls, Woods Boy Falls, and a third (unnamed) waterfall, and just upstream from where the waters from Stahle Falls joins the main stream. This is an extremely rough, rugged, and beautiful little canyon that is filled with colorful boulders, whitewater, and small pools. When looking upstream, ice to the right, sun to the left.

I could see the spot where David first hit even before I got to the creek - I looked straight across the canyon and could see his red hat and tripod, plus some other items. This area was about 25-30 feet above the streambed where he came to rest. I told David's family that I would try to recover everything that I could, and so that was my goal for the day. It took me a little while to figure out how to get up to his equipment (the hillside was VERY steep). When I finally made it up to the spot, I took a few photos to document the scene, then I sat down, and, well you know, I broke down. It was as spectacular a location as you are ever likely to see in this world, yet it was also the end of someone's life - it was David's door into the next world.

I spent a good bit of time there yesterday (from the very top of the canyon down to the creekbed) trying to imagine exactly what happened, how he came to be at the point where he fell, how and why he fell - not so much to replay the tragedy in my head, but rather to see if there was anything I could learn from this horrible accident that might prevent someone else from meeting the same fate. Exactly what happened will never be known, of course. But what I learned from my time in the canyon was that it was not as simple as a hiker getting too close to the edge of a tall bluff and falling off. He was not on top of a big bluff when he fell, but rather below it. David was on one of the steepest hillsides possible, an area with broken, icy-covered bluffs, and slippery slopes in between - and I'm sure he was using sound judgement and being extremely careful - he was a very experienced outdoorsman. (He was not taking photos at the time - I found his tripod all packed up for travel.) But something happened, and he fell to his death. We will just never know.

A couple of recent wildlife notes from Cloudland. We've seen two flocks of geese flying NORTH - not sure what they did when they encountered these frigid temps! There are MANY flocks of robins everywhere - digging for frozen worms today perhaps? And it seems like we've had a bear roaming the mountain for the past week or two. We've not seen any tracks, but several things have been disturbed that were probably done by a bear. Kind of early for them to be coming out of their winter slumber, but it is common for bears to awake and roam around during warm spells - not sure if 18 degrees is considered WARM though!

The bottom of Boen Gulf where David came to rest

02/27/10 We have a large, bright, almost-full moon shining down on the wilderness tonight. Bright enough to see a herd of deer feeding in our yard about 50 feet from my keyboard. It has been a spectacular day, filled with blue skies, sunshine, and warming temps in the low 50's. The day started with a FAT bluebird sitting on the copper fox on top of the gazebo down in Mom's meadow - I think he was trying to get the sun to climb higher in the sky to hurry up and warm the air.

This will be my last post for February, and it will go out on a high note. I've have trouble sleeping this week, in fact have had trouble doing much of anything at all. My mind has been focused on finding the lost camera bag that belonged to David Hadlock - it was a week ago today when he fell to his death while on a photographic trip into the Boen Gulf area of the Upper Buffalo Wilderness near here. All of the other equipment and personal effects that he had with him had been recovered either by the SAR team or by myself, but no camera. That has eaten at me all week. It has become somewhat of a point of honor with me I guess - not wanting to leave the camera bag of a fellow photographer, the sword of a fallen soldier, lost in the woods forever. I vowed to find that camera bag no matter what.

It was about 2 o'clock this afternoon when I saw what looked like a camera strap floating underwater in one of the many pools in Boen Gulf creek that I had been going over with a fine tooth comb - COULD IT BE? I could not see what the strap was attached to - it was a deep, dark hole and it was very bright out. I reached into the frigid water and grabbed the strap, then pulled up a black and VERY heavy camera bag - EUREKA! It had to be David's. I found it in a pool about 150 feet downstream from where David had landed in the creek. No question the camera would be ruined, but what I really wanted was the MEMORY CARD in the camera - would the last photos he would ever take be OK?

I pulled everything out of the little camera bag and spread it all out on a large slab of sandstone to dry off in the warm afternoon sunshine. A feeling of joy rushed over me at this discovery - but then a moment of great anticipation as I put his memory card into my camera and turned it on.......YES, the card was good, and there were pictures! The last one had been taken at 1:49pm, which meant he died soon after, exactly one week before I pulled his bag out of the water.

I want to go back a couple of days to the moment when I stood on the spot where David died. It was a moment of horror, and one that scared me to death - not only knowing that it was the spot that ended David's life, but also that fact that it could have been me, my last moment instead. I had traversed the same type of terrain many times in my life, but so far luck had been on my side. This feeling of my luck running out travels with me always - perhaps causing me to be a little bit more careful with each step, but also knowing, like David, that the end could come at any time no matter what. Right in the middle of all that, and as the tears flowed for this man I had never met, I looked up and saw a beautiful waterfall, only 100 yards upstream. It was a waterfall that I had never laid eyes on before, an unnamed waterfall that flowed wide and majestic, and filled the canyon with whitewater and sound and motion - and poetry. Forever forward it will be known as David Hadlock Cascade, and it will bring excitement and joy to all who gaze upon it. The next time we get a good rainfall and the creeks come up I will take a photograph of Hadlock Cascade and post it here. In the meantime, I want to leave you with one of the last photographs that was taken by this amazing man, someone who loved nature, and who touched many lives and brought a great deal of good and joy to the world.

Woods Boys Falls, photo by David Hadlock - for more of David's photos, click here.

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