I didn't really have a specific route in mind as I made my way down the steep slope into Whitaker Creek Valley, but I eventually wanted to end up at the ladder trail and hike back up to the cabin. About half way down the slope I realized that I was walking along the old mule trail that headed that very direction, so I just decided to follow it along and see how far I could take it. This old trail was once used by folks who lived at the mouth of Whitaker Creek and along the Buffalo to ride on up and out to Cave Mountain Road and to the post office and community up there. There are only bits and pieces of this old trace visible now, and you have to look pretty hard to find them. Andy Friend told me all about this mule trail - he spent his very early years in one of those homesteads by the Buffalo and used to ride this trail often. I have found quite a bit of this trail, but never the entire route - one of these days. As I followed along I passed by some giant boulders, massive trees, and finally, the trail landed right on down next to the creek. And what a beautiful landing it was! Man, oh man was a magical spot! The creek came tumbling down a narrow shoot between two giant moss-covered boulders, and spilled into an emerald pool that I could not see the bottom of - I bet it was over my head easily. The entire area was surrounded by more giant moss-covered boulders, and towering beech and old and sycamore and sweetgum trees as far as I could see in all directions. I have decided that when I am out on a ramble like this that I will find at least one spot along the way where I will stop, and just sit down and soak it all in for several minutes. I am almost always in a hurry to get someplace (even if I have no idea where that is), and while I DO take in a great deal of the country that I am hiking through, it is nice to simply SIT AND DO NOTHING now and then. So I have made it a rule on my rambles. Today I climbed up on top of one of those mossy boulders and just sat there for about five minutes while the rest of the world went on without me. Nice, very nice. 
Whitaker Creek from my perch above
The sun was getting low in the west, and the rays lined right up with the direction of the creek - just like yesterday morning, only in the opposite direction. From this point on I did not know where the trail went, but I decided just to wander on down alongside the creek and see where it took me. I bet I have taken this route 30 or 40 times before, and never once the same way twice - there really is no clear cut way through the jumble of briars, downed timber, and piles and fields of mossy boulders. I was surprised to discover in several places the old trail, right along the same path I was taking. I also continued to notice a pretty tall bluffline off and up to my left - nearly as tall as the main bluffline up high. One never really thinks of this bluffline being down in here, but there it was, and it just kept right on going. There was a nice waterfall along the bluff, and it was actually running pretty well. Then I began to spot trout lily leaves - no flowers, just the leaves. And they were everywhere in the soft, moist earth along the creek. And then all of a sudden toothwort flowers began to show up, in full bloom. Sometimes you have to look close to see if these guys have any color to them or not, but I find that they normally do, sort of a pink/lavender sort of color. With a name like that they really don't ever get much attention, but I rather like them, and spent some time down on my belly taking a photo of this one little batch that was just beaming in the late afternoon sunshine. 
toothwort wildflowers
Later on the trout lily leaves returned, only this time there were HUNDREDS of flowers! They seemed to spread out about as far as I could see down there in the bottom. They were all the pale ones, not really white, but certainly not the yellow ones that I know to grown at the far downstream end of this creek, as well as further upstream. I wonder why all of these in the middle, and indeed on the ladder trail, are the pale ones? Anyway, I could have shot a thousand photos of these little jewels, but I only stopped to make one photo, and when I processed it I realized that you probably had already seen enough of trout lilies so it remains in the folder. Seems like every step of the way along this creek was magical - the darn scene right there next to me was just glowing in that evening light, and with the greens of the mosses, and the delightful melody of the water, well, it was just pretty darn nice. Have I already said that before? I stopped at another point along the creek and hopped out onto a rock in the middle of the water and shot a photo looking upstream at the water and the boulders and the sunshine through the trees and this single beech tree way on upstream that was just on fire with color. 
Whitaker Creek
Adam & Eve orchid leaves
I managed to myself into some pretty thick brush, and I nearly had to get down on all fours to make it through. In there someplace I came upon a low spot where water had been sitting. It was dry now, but parts of the depression area (which was perhaps 30 feet by 15 feet) was covered with what looked like a layer of pollen-covered leaves. You know, what you see on the water when the pollen is really heavy, and then everything dries up - kind of odd to see it at this time of the year. I'm sure it was something else, but that is what it reminded me of. In that same little depressed area I found three spice bushes that were indeed in bloom. The bushes were bursting out with these really BRIGHT little bits of color, and they were really lit up by that sun. I had to look closer, and when I did, I found all sorts of bugs on the blooms. I counted seven different types of bugs, but my favorites were the lady bugs - I found four or five of them on one bush, and that is what I spent about ten minutes taking photos of. You must realize that this photo is actually just a TINY part of this bush - you know how large a lady bug is. In all that time I really only got one good photo of the lady bug and the bloom. 
the lady bug on the spice bush
Still in the middle of the thick and tangled brush, I happened to look up and see something that I had been looking for for a couple of years - an old CHURCH! What? When Andy Friend had been down to his old homesite with me he pointed over into the woods from his root cellar and remarked that there had been a small church "over there" somewhere. Well heck, I have been "over there" many times and never saw anything of the sort. But today, I literally stumbled right into the middle of said church - of course, there was nothing left but the stone foundation, but this had to be it. Later in the evening after the sun had gone down I wandered on up to Aspen's meadow to have a look at the evening color in the sky. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but something up there in that meadow was calling out to me to be there. I just sat down and gazed up at the heavens. A few moment later there was movement up in the dim light, coming right at me. It was my little buddy the snipe, gliding along just above treeline. He made a 90-degree turn and came down about 20 feet in front of me! I know he saw me plain as day. He sat there on the ground just looking at me, then began to make his call - gosh darn it was the oddest bird call I had ever heard, in two parts, and neither sound was anything like the other part! As I just now looked up this bird to see what the book had to say about this odd song, I realized that my good little buddy the snipe is actually a woodcock! Probably what I have been seeing all along out here - woodcock instead of a snipe. Oh well, I KNOW there ARE snipes in these here hills, and I will find one some day! Anyway, this bird sat there for like ten minutes making these noises, until I finally eased on off the hill and left him (or her) alone. About an hour later Amber wanted to go for a drive, so we returned to Aspen's meadow in hopes of seeing the snipe once again - no such luck. But we did get to spend a little while sitting out in the moonless night gazing at and picking out the millions of stars that were out - very black sky tonight, so we could see really well. But now snipe, I mean woodcock.... 
Pre-dawn from the loft, 3/10/05
3/11/05 It is not often that I say this, but my last few days at Cloudland have been pretty miserable. Not because of the location, or the company, but due to the fact I have come down with something and just feel miserable. I've not had much sleep in the past 72 hours. I have also had to deal with a bunch of arrogant forest service clowns every day (oops, did I say that?), and much to your delight, I am somewhat of a zombie right now so I am afraid to get up on my soap box to discuss it for fear of falling off! I'll save that for another time - perhaps when I am not at the keyboard. OK, enough of that. I DID get to break free from the confines of the cabin today and spent almost the entire day outside working in the woods on a new trail project. Normally I would have remained in bed another day, but this was the last day I could get this particular trail job done so I had no choice. And boy was it a good choice! The sunshine and fresh air helped me out a lot, at least during the time I was outside (now that I am back indoors my creeping crud has returned, and I look forward to another long and sleepless and miserable night). The WIND was cold but mostly HIGH all day today. I was laying out some new trail that is going to be constructed by volunteers of the Ozark Highlands Trail Association this next week - they have a nine-day spring break base camp starting tomorrow that will include dozens of volunteers from several states doing all sorts of trail maintenance jobs, and this new little section of trail. Today I scouted and flagged the new trail location, then went through with a heavy and powerful backpack blower and blew off the trail tread so the volunteers can construct the actual tread. This blower put out air at 235mph, but sometimes today it was no match for the howling winds! Actually it was kind of fun to maneuver around in the thick brush and try to figure out a way to get the thick leaf and tangled vine mess off of the ground and up in the air and watch the wind carry it away. I was able to actually BREATHE much of the day, something I have not been able to do since Tuesday. One really painful thing happened during the day. I got something in my eye, and it was so large and hurt so much that I literally was unable to open that eye at all - the pain was just too intense when I did. After several minutes trying to get rid of it in all the usual ways - including stepping on my own foot to make myself cry (didn't work - I just felt worse but the item was still in my eye!) - I came up with a plan. I decided to seek out some water and dunk my head underwater then open my eyes - I hoped that whatever we in there would just float away in the water. Only problem was that I was not near any sizable creeks. However, there was a pretty small creek nearby, but I didn't know of a hole of water deep enough for me. But what the heck, I had no other choice but to go have a look, so to speak. It must have been really funny to see my stumbling around out there in the woods with one hand over my eye - when you do that you lost all sense of depth, and it is not very easy to bushwhack through the thick forest without it! It took me probably 20 minutes but I did locate the little stream, and after slipping and sliding upstream for a little while, found a small hole of water that was deep enough. I laid down next to the water, then plunged my head into it - IT WAS FRIGID!!! My head had been pounding most of the week, but this brought on a new level of severe pain. I managed to open my eyes underwater for a few seconds, and while I didn't see much of anything but blurry water, when I pulled my head out it was GONE! Yippie coyote away! SO NICE to get that darn thing out of my eye. At the end of a very long day I loaded up all of my junk and hiked the trail on out back to the car (I looked like a fat cow with items stuffed into my pockets, a full fanny pack on my belly, this giant blower on my back, and a hammer in hand to put up blazes with), passing a couple of backpackers along the way. So very nice to see folks out enjoying our public trails on such a spectacular spring day! Pam and Amber have ventured to Mt. Judy for a b-ball game tonight - I don't dare stumble into a crowd of folks in my condition. Amber has two more b-ball games tomorrow, but I don't know if I will venture to them or not. When I am sick like this I only want to just go curl up and hide, or head out into the woods and work. Seems like working outdoors will normally cure what ails me, if only for a few hours... By the way, a bit of great news for anyone within reach of the Mountain Home area - I will be presenting two slide programs at the college there on April 5th as part of the Gaston Lecture Series. I will also be at the community college in Harrison a couple of days later on April 7th, and will be sharing the spotlight with Glenn Wheller for that one. I just received a brand new and higher resolution digital projector to demo for a few weeks, and also just discovered an even better slide program software than I had been using - I'm hoping my new shows will improve this spring, and that I will see you at one of them (we'll have books and prints at special prices at both). 3/15/05 3:30pm. We have snow coming down at Cloudland - at 42 degrees. It has actually been snowing a little bit on and off much of the day, but now is coming down a little heavier. I have been outside digging holes, mixing concrete, spreading gravel, and trying to break loose from this nasty condition I have had for a week now. I am feeling much better today, and I think am well on the way to full recovery. I got to spend half of the night last night with my bride before I had to leave - first time we've been in the same bed in a week - sick people are not any fun to sleep next to, especially when the sick person is not sleeping! Aspen is doing very well and went on his first long hike the other day with his new bright orange vest. Many thanks to all of you who sent him well wishes. So far a very odd spring here in the Ozarks this year, with some days up in the mid-80's, others down in the 20's. NO moisture at all in a good long while - the snow really isn't contributing anything. We are already getting into a critical situation with the water here and need some rain, long soaking rain - a foot or two ought to do it. I would even trade that foot of snow that I still want for a few inches of the liquid stuff. It will come I'm sure. Pam is out today blazing trail once again. She called in to say that she came across a section of the trail that was closed off by the forest service, but they are not burning today - guess they just want to keep hikers off the trail for no good reason - seems to be the way they operate here lately. There has been a lot of bird activity going on in the forest all over the place of late - so nice to see all of them flying and climbing and running all over the place - lots and lots of robins and bluebirds and finches and other small birds and GIANT woodpeckers. Milancy McNamara stopped by the other day and had me work on a portrait she had taken of William McNamara for use in a new brochure. Then Billy came by yesterday to autograph all of the remaining copies of the Buffalo River Wilderness picture book that we did together - we only have a few cases left and then they will be all gone. Always so nice to spend time with this remarkable artist and outdoorsman - he always has stories of life out here in the woods that span from early native Americans to recent pioneers. Billy doesn't get out too much in the public eye - and that's the way he likes it - which is a shame because he is just a wonderful character and has to much to give. He is working on a large oil painting right now - something he has not done too many off - and he also has done some very unique woodcut prints this past year that must have taken him hundreds of hours to produce. If you ever get the chance to enjoy a McNamara original of any of this art, soak it up well. And if you ever see Billy out in his yard or hiking along the road up here on Cave Mountain, be sure to wave and say hi. He is the genuine article. Amber has been BUSY with her second season of basket ball - in fact a little too busy if you ask me. They had one run of five games in 48 hours, and just this past weekend another three games in 24 hours. She love to play, but when you get up at 5:30am each day to go to school, then are out and don't get back home until after 10pm or even later because you are playing basketball in Mt. Judy or St. Joe or where ever, that can sure tire a kid out - and her parents. She spends most of her waking hours off of the court buried in books, and has turned into one smart little potato. I never, ever, in my life expected to be a parent, but now that I am I continue to count the blessings. A particular high point in my life happened just the other day. Amber and I were discussing her future wedding plans, and the fact that she probably would not want a big fancy wedding, and that she would rather simply run off and get married. I told her that would be great, and that I would gladly front them the money to jet off to the mountains or the sea or wherever they wanted to go. With that she got just a little teary-eyed, then reached out to me and gave me a big hug, and said that no matter when or where it happened, she wanted to make sure that I would be there to walk her down the aisle. It just doesn't get any better than that..... YIKES, I'm getting ready to head outside and go pick up Amber from the bus and I see it is snowing HEAVY outside - almost a BLIZZARD! Come on snow!!! 
The Trail Cat wants in - if you look close you can see the snow blowing across the scene behind her.
Goodness did we get some snow. I wandered around for about twenty minutes waiting on the bus being pelted by these giant snowflakes that were blowing hard. Within a few minutes the ground was beginning to turn white, and flowers and flowering bushes had snow crests on them. I knew it wouldn't last long - the temp had dropped a little, but was still in the upper 30's. Later, back at the cabin, I got engrossed in an e-mail discussion with a big company that owes us fifteen grand and we are having trouble collecting from (the Books-A-Million book store chain - I absolutely LOATHE doing business with them!), and right in the middle of the most heated part of the discussion, I said to myself - man, I can argue with idiots any day of the year, but it is SNOWING outside and the light is about to be gone so I need to get with it and take some pictures! So I left the cash on the table and literally ran out the door. The snow was blowing out of the northeast right to left, not really landing on the ground at all, but rather blasting everything that stood tall and straight - namely the trees in the forest. There was snow packed all the way up one side of the trees, then a distance line and nothing but bare bark around the rest of the tree. I really only wanted to get out and take a single photo, but I soon found myself a half mile away from the cabin, trying as best I could to shelter the camera and lens from the blowing show as I set up and shot about a dozen different scenes. It was getting dark, and most of my exposures were in the 5-10 second range. The dogs were out there with me and having a ball, running at top speed in no particular direction, then stopping and turning on a dime and tearing off in another direction, leaping and playing and, well, they were acting out exactly the way I was feeling inside. It was a marvelous snowfall, and perhaps the last one of the year. Kind of weird though, with it being so dark and all, and the snow just wizzing by at such a high rate of speed. As I tromped around I guessed that we had two full inches of snow on the ground - and it was still almost 40 degrees! 
The last snow of the year at Cloudland (?)
It was a terrific little snowfall, although I'm not sure I got a really good photo out of it, but like the dogs, I had a blast just being out there. 
It is several hours later tonight and I just got back from a quick hike up to the office and back. Still lots of snow on the ground and the trees remain covered - I figured everything would have melted off by now. I guess we may actually have some white stuff still on the ground at daylight, and you know what that means! While I don't expect to find any really good snow scenes, at least it will give me an excuse to get out and roam around a little bit. OK, we got some snow, now how about 3-4 inches of rain? 3/16/05 Just wanted to add a couple of flower photos from this morning in the snow - everything remains white up on top of the mountain, but below about 1800 feet there was no snow at all and everything is brown, just awaiting the melting snow to come refresh it! 
3/20/04 HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING! It was four years ago today that I made good on a promise to go through with the best decision I have ever made in my life - to say I DO to my bride. No way I could have been prepared for the incredible life she has given me since. No one deserves to be so lucky. I am grateful to this marvelous young lady with every breath that I take. Those breaths have been hard to come by and painful this past few days as I continue to struggle with whatever it is I "have" that keeps me down. I've not been able to do too much work lately, although I did manage to make it through a photo workshop on Saturday, and meetings Saturday night and Sunday morning, and then a long drive into Ft. Smith for a big program to a regional meeting of park interpreters (I was able to find and use some industrial-strength drugs to get me through the program - didn't cough a single time). I didn't get home to wish my bride happy anniversary until after 11pm. Before leaving for the program I got to spend a little while out taking photos of some trout lilies near here - the poor little fellows have been nearly starved and frozen to death since first coming out, but warm sunshine and a promise of rain later on helped perk them up a little bit. Here are a couple of photos... 
3/21/05 This morning it began to rain a little bit, and we now have had about 1/2 inch of this wonderful wet stuff so far today (it is about noon now). The radar shows all these huge storms approaching, but I'm not holding my breath - we need the rain too much. We have three basketball games to go to in Jasper this week, plus a ton of office work to get done, but next week I plan to hit the road some and get out and take a few photos in southeast Arkansas for my new coffee table picture book that will be out this fall. I'll also use some of the newest images in the next slide program - three public showings coming up the first full week in April - more news on them later. AND if any of you have been interested in taking the digital photo workshop but could not get in, we have had three folks had to transfer to other workshops and now have openings in both the April 23rd and April 30th sessions - let me know ASAP if you want to sign up. We had a terrific time this past weekend, and had workshop folks from Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee in attendance. It is a very long and hectic day, but also includes some great BBQ, pizza, and homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies! OH, and speaking of the workshop on Saturday, goodness were any of you up around this area on Saturday? If you were you saw the incredible cloud of smoke that nearly blocked out the sun. It was VERY strange in that the sun turned a bright RED, as did all sunshine that was able to make it through the smoke - the ground and even inside the cabin was flooded with bright red light. It was very strange. A quick look on the web showed the forest service was doing a 1,000-acre controlled burn over near Red Star, and that was the source of the thick blanket of smoke. I suspect it scared the devil out of a lot of folks! IF WE DO get some of the heavy rains they are predicting for later today, and they produce some nice waterfalls that stick around tomorrow, I may try to get out and take a few photos to post here. Back to top | 
