Updated 8/31/03 The LAST hike of summer! (LOTS of photos)
2004 Arkansas Wild & Free wall calendars
8-30-03, 7:03am |
8/4/03 It was the spring of 1975, and I was adrift in a row boat, rudderless, and without oars, out in the middle of the giant sea of life. No where to go. No direction in my life. I was a sophomore at the University of Arkansas, and hated school. Every minute of it. A couple of failed romantic relationships had left me soured and terrified of women. Yet I adored women. My life was basically meaningless. Then I read a one-line ad in the school newspaper: "Guaranteed profits photographing beautiful women." I called the number, and within two weeks had begun a photography business - taking pictures of beautiful women. The very first hour of my professional photography career was spent with about 80 sorority girls - just the 81 of us, drinking, having a good time, and taking pictures. That single line in the newspaper led to a successful and lucrative party picture business, which eventually gave me the confidence and funds to pursue my real love - the wilderness. The reason I mention all of this is that the guy who placed that ad in the paper, and another guy who I met through the party pic business who has spent countless hours with me taking photos in the wilds, were both at the cabin this past weekend. We three became fast friends a long time ago and formed the OAK Photographic Society, and our "convention" was held here this weekend. The three of us have moved on to many things - Joe, the original, now teaches Spanish and photography in Texas, and is a first-rate commercial photographer; Greg, at one time one of the largest party pic gurus in the entire United States, now flies jets; and me, well, you know me - I've just been hiking around ever since, but still keep company with a pair of the most beautiful women I ever met.
We had a terrible storm blow through in the middle of the night Friday - some of the loudest and longest howling winds I had heard in a long time. Over the roar of the winds we could hear furniture and tree limbs crashing in the night, along with the steady rumble of thunder and explosion of lightning. It took its sweet time getting here, but finally there was a good shower just before daylight. I was concerned about our guests snoozing in the basement, yet none of them ever heard a sound during the night! We always get reports from guests about how great the beds are here, but I think it is much more than that.
The daylight hours and long into the night were spent with the three of us huddled around the computers or tripod-mounted cameras, with steady streams of photo jargon being exchanged. It is a time for us to catch up, to learn, and to reminisce. Our poor ladies often had to simply sit back and shake their heads, although this batch of ladies seemed to quite comfortable with it all, and I think enjoyed the spectacle, and each other.
Sunday morning arrived with little fanfare, but an hour after daylight they sky turned deep black, then GREEN, and finally produced nearly 30 minutes worth of quarter-sized hail and heavy rain. We sure did need that rain! Although I've never seen it hail that long before.
All too soon it was time for everyone to leave, including us. We took Amber to the Junior Naturalist camp at the Ozark Natural Science Center - her third year there. What a wonderful way for a kid to spend time! Of course, I guess this big kid is still at camp, and I plan to remain here for a good long while.
On the way back to the cabin Pam and I saw one of the most beautiful wild critters I had ever laid eyes on - a great big old bear. Actually he wasn't too old at all - probably three or four years - in the prime of life, and it showed. This guy was the purest BLACK we had ever seen - I mean just beautiful, and shiny, and lush, and healthy. He was on the road, and not near the cabin, but up here on the mountain. He probably is the bear that has been dining at Bob's garden. With the exception of the Yellowstone bears, he was the first bear that Pam and I have seen while together.
This morning the sun made a brief appearance on the eastern horizon, but quickly slipped into a sea of clouds. At first light it was still out, with not a breath of air to be had. But an hour later now the trees are thrashing back and forth, and it would appear a storm is brewing. Seems like a lot of unstable air up there, and I'm hoping for something to happen, although my day today will be spent mostly at the computer.
8/5/03 No rain yesterday to speak of - the clouds early on were just taunting me. But we did get a bit this morning, which was great. I was out hiking, just rambling through the forest not going anyplace in particular, when the air just got damp all of a sudden. You could just tell there was moisture in the air, but nothing was really coming down. The deep I got into the woods the heavier the air got. Soon the small trees and bushes that I was rubbing up against seemed wet. And then the air got too full of moisture and began to release a bit of it, just a little bit. It was really more of a mist, ever so light and soft and quiet. Minutes later the mist turned into very light rain, and a hush fell over the wilderness. Was it making a sound, or not? I could not tell. I think all the critters of the forest were listening too because there was not a sound to be heard anywhere. The temp dropped about five or ten degrees, and then a breeze began to drift through the trees. It was quite delightful being out there in the middle of it, here on a hot and horrid August day in the Ozarks!
Pam is down in the flatlands of Arkansas hiking trails for her book. It is about the worst time to be there doing that, but we have a deadline to meet. She is a trooper, and I know is miserable. But she is getting a great deal of good information about the trails - finding some really nice trails, and also find out that many of them that are listed by the state tourism folks simply do not exist, or are in terrible condition. And both of us were really surprised to discover that some of our STATE PARKS in Arkansas are CLOSED on Mondays!!! Can you believe that - CLOSED IN THE SUMMERTIME???!!! I guess that is what we get for spending tens of millions of our new tax dollars - they simply take the day off. A state park closed ANY day during the SUMMERTIME? Really? Good grief.
Pam has reported hearing an alligator along one of the trails. She did not know exactly what it was until she saw one at a visitor center in another park, and the naturalist there got the alligator to make the very same sound she had heard. Seems we have more of the little fellows down in the swamps than we think!
It has been very quiet at the cabin with Amber gone to camp and Pam out working. The dogs have been spooked a lot though, and will both jump up and tear off growling and snarling even before getting outside. I think they probably smell a bear circling the cabin. They did it just now as I was in the shower - it is pitch black outside, and they are out there somewhere.
Just as it was getting dark I looked up from the computer and realized that I did not have enough time to hike down to the river and back. So I quickly put on my boots and shot out the door myself. I've been eating a lot of carrots so figured the darkness would not bother me too much. Once I got into the deep woods it was a lot darker than I had planned on, but I could still see my feet, so what the heck - I pressed on. (Lightning bugs were out.) Then I passed through one bench and it was like someone closed the blinds - I mean within five steps it got that dark, and remained that dark until I exited that particular bench and started down the hill to the next one - then it lightened up a little bit. When we got to Whitaker Creek I was surprised to find it running pretty good - we only got about 1/4 inch of rain this morning. The Buffalo was up a little bit too. I guess that is all from the two inches of rain we got over the weekend.
As I turned around I realized that I had not eaten enough carrots this week - the steep and forbidding hillside in front of me was very dark, and I could hardly see my feet. But what the heck, it's only a little darkness. I leaned into the hill and pressed on up the trail.
That one bench was REALLY dark - I had trouble seeing my feet at all, and in fact probably did not see them but rather felt my way along the trail. I used to do that all the time when I hiked around at night without a flashlight. But these days I am a scaredy cat since being bitten by a copperhead last summer, and so won't go out at night without a flashlight much. That's too bad because it really is a neat thing to do - feel your way around in the moonlight, pull your way through the forest with the aid of the trees. But I'll have to wait until November when all the snakes go underground.
As I made my way up and up and up, I could sense some light above me. Looking through the blackness I could see a glow up ahead - the darn bluff was actually glowing!
Tonight there is a half moon shining down. It is straight up, but in the Southern sky (is that possible?). The forest is alive with sounds - mostly tree frogs, but also a hoot owl off in the distance. Lots of lightning bugs out, their short yellow streaks are everywhere. I can hear some heavy sounds out on the deck - a bear perhaps? Either that or a VERY large raccoon! Hum, should I go investigate?
8/7/03 Turns out that it was a bear on the deck, although he made a quick exit as soon as I opened the door. And this guy did a very odd thing. The next morning I discovered a half-eaten ear of "Indian Corn" that Mr. Bear had placed carefully in the middle of the trail that goes from the cabin up to the office. That ear of corn came from Benny's corn patch over in the East meadow - a distance of nearly a half mile! Why in the world did Mr. Bear carry that ear of corn all that distance, and then only eat half of it? Very strange.
After the bear had left I eventually went to bed near midnight. I struggled to get to sleep, and kept rolling over and over and over again. While that is normally the way I have been most of my life, since I take melatonin and have a Tempur-Pedic mattress, I seldom have trouble falling asleep anymore (I HIGHLY recommend both!). Anyway, it wasn't the thought of the bear that kept me awake, but rather this bright light shining in window - the half moon was producing quite a bit of light, so I did the only rational thing that I could do (no, not shut the blind - that would have been too easy!). I got up and grabbed the camera and tripod and went out onto the back deck to take a few snapshots.
The moon was hovering just above the western horizon, and just beginning to take on a little alpenglow (or is it Moonglow?). While the setting moon is always a magical moment, it was really something to see this night. That is because of two other items of interest going on at the same time. First, there was a huge thunderstorm raging that was spread across the southern horizon and really lightning up the sky - nearly constant flashes down low, which sent pulses of light shooting across the rest of the sky. And then down in the canyon below, there was a constant parade of clouds being formed and moving on up to the cabin, often engulfing my position and obscuring the moon. Those two events, along with the setting moon, produced a rather odd yet beautiful scene all around me. I stood there in my underwear and enjoyed it all for ten or fifteen minutes, taking a few snaps with the camera when the moving clouds allowed me a clear view of the moon, until the moon finally sank into a heavy cloudbank. Then I was able to get some sleep! Some things in life are just worth staying up late for.
It is in the wee hours of the morning today, and I have been up a while spending yet more time at the computer reading. I have really fallen into all of this photography stuff head first, and find myself wanting to read and learn everything there is to know, which is a LOT. Seems like every day I discover a new concept or technique, and I don't think any of this will let up soon. I've only been doing this for 28 years, yet learning to do it all in the digital world requires that you go back and start from scratch for a lot of things. Also, the digital world is so much more powerful than simply pointing a camera and pushing a button. Lots of folks will settle for less, but I am kind of picky when it comes to my images. And not for only the actual image itself - I've spent much of this past couple of weeks simply trying to find the PERFECT combination of print sizes, archival mat and mounting material and techniques, and other things related to matted and framed print presentation (8-ply 100% rag mat and mount board w/100% rag backing board, all acid free, linen tape hinge mounted; all packaged in a special clear bag or framed). Heck, I've spent probably eight or ten hours just trying to find the ideal size, darkness, style, and placement of a print title (actually I don't title my prints like most people - "Sunrise Serenade" etc., but rather want to add a location or ID caption for general info purposes - "Roark Bluff, Buffalo National River, Arkansas"). And after playing around with different ways/sizes/colors/placement to sign my name to the print digitally, I have finally come to the conclusion that the method that I like best is to simply sign each original print with a pen (for my matted or matted and framed prints there will be a narrow white border around the print that contains the caption and signature). But not just any pen - this one is specially manufactured in Germany and guarantees the signature will last many lifetimes, just like the print itself. Late last night I produced and packaged my very first matted and packaged print that incorporates all of that. It was the most beautiful print that I had ever held in my hands. I think in the end you will like, no LOVE any print that you order from me, and the fact that I have gone through so much trouble to make it perfect. If not, simply send it back for a full refund, including shipping! Of course, I've still got another 20-30 years worth of learning to go as far as taking and processing pictures go - the absolute best photo of my life will no doubt be the last one that I take.
OK, enough of the sales talk.
My lovely bride finally made it home last night after three days of hot, miserable, buggy, frustrating, and often wonderful hiking in southern and eastern Arkansas. I know it was an exhausting trip for her, especially in all of the heat and humidity down there. But when she got home she went on and on about all of the great trails she found and will include in the new guidebook. I just sat there and smiled - what a terrific feeling it is to be part of something like that - to be able to go out and create something that will help so many people. She has found dozens and dozens of trails that I knew nothing about. She continues to find that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers trails are dismal at best - most of the time they are simply unhikable - what a waste of our tax dollars (few will be included in the book); BUT that our state parks are some of the best in the country, and even the smallest of them with few facilities often have really neat trails and park staff willing to help out. Seems that a lot of the parks down there also have alligators!
It is hazy and cool here this morning, and the wilderness doesn't seem to know what it is going to do today - kind of in a holding pattern waiting for a weather system to sweep through I guess. The critters are really active outside - tons of birds all over the place, creating lots of music. Actually, this is the time of the year for waiting - waiting for fall to arrive. Although we have had so many storms roll through of late that it has been a pretty nice summer here. We hardly ever have mosquitoes, but the no-see-ums have been their usual bother. Very few ticks or snakes. Of course, there is that bear...
8/8/03 The alarm went off at 5:05 this morning, and I was kind of surprised to see it still totally dark outside. I wanted to get down into Boxley Valley to see if I could find any of the big bull elk that were still in velvet. By the time I reached the valley floor it was getting light, but it was foggy down there and the light was quite dim. I located the herd of bulls right off the bat (13 bulls in velvet, including three really trophy bulls), and pulled over and got out my camera gear. I felt like a Yellowstone tourist, but what the heck - this was the only way I was going to get a photo of these elk.
The elk kept their distance, so I had to really reach out with the longest lens that I had in order to see any detail in them at all. And the really super-soft light didn't help matters any. No problem, it was great to see so many of these big boys out enjoying a morning snack. While it was still dark and dingy they wandered on off into the brush. I'll have to get my classic portrait of them some other day. (These were shot at ISO 400 film speed at 460mm.)
The sunlight never did penetrate the heavy fog, but it did come through just enough to light up the Boxley Valley Church just over my right shoulder. So I crossed the highway and started taking a few shots of the church. This is undoubtedly one of the most photographed and published buildings in Arkansas, and while I have driven past it literally hundreds and hundreds of times over the past - well heck, ever since I was in high school in the early 1970's - I have never taken a single photo of this church. So today was my day. So VERY nice to shoot and shoot and shoot and know that every single exposure is FREE! That's the way it is with digital.
This little church is nestled among the rugged hills surrounding Boxley Valley, and was glowing in the soft light - the entire scene was very pastoral. I highly recommend an early-morning or late-evening drive through Boxley at any time of the year.
8/11/03 The sun is up this morning and casting a soft glow of yellow and orange into the wilderness. It is dead still outside, and the air is filled with blue haze. The temp is cool to the touch. Looks like a lazy summer day ahead.
We had an intense weekend of photography and Photoshop classes here, and by the end of it I was totally exhausted and could hardly keep my eyes open. I learned a great deal, plus was able to secure that special bull elk photo that I had been after for some time.
It was well before daylight when cabin guest Jay McDonald (one of the premiere laser eye surgeons in the country and a first-rate photographer) and I loaded up the truck and headed to Boxley Valley. We met Glenn Wheeler there for a bit of elk photography. The big bulls were out, but were way over at the far side of the pasture, making any sort of good composition impossible, even with very long lenses. The light was quite dim, and fog rolling in made the scene even darker. But we were patient- as any successful wildlife photographer must be. In the end, after a bit of savvy outdoorsmanship on our part and LUCK we were granted a rare view of the largest bull in Boxley Valley, up close and personal. Just like that we were all face to face with this monster - not a sight you would have seen from the highway! The three of us worked silently and at a fever pitch for about 60 seconds - I don't know how many photos were taken, but probably hundreds. To me this was a rare connection with a higher power - a connection that was a two-way street. This guy allowed us to photograph him - he knew full well what was going on - then vanished into the thick brush. That was it - just 60 seconds.
By the way, I must pause here and make a point for digital cameras. Jay and I were shooting digital, but Glenn still had a film camera. At the precise moment that the big bull came into view, Glenn realized that he was on frame 36 (the last photo on the roll). That's every photographer's nightmare - being presented with a great photo and be out of film! While Jay and I fired away (with the cameras, of course), Glenn had to reload a new roll of film. That is one of many things that separate a pro with an amateur - being able to remain calm and collected and go about your job with speed while under a great deal of stress. That big boy was staring us right on down and Glenn knew that he HAD to get some film in that camera QUICK or the moment would be lost. And he did - probably didn't take him more than 20 seconds to unload and load a new roll, then point the lens at the Big Boy and commence firing. I'm sure he got some good photos, and will always remember that moment.
The rest of the day was spent back at the cabin - processing our elk photos, and then working with Photoshop gurus Mark and Becky Hardgrave of Knoxville. (Becky is a Photoshop genius, and Mark is one of the most talented grizzly photographers around - not his appearance, but the bears!) A long day of high-powered and super-charged conversation and demonstrations (there were four computers set up and running in our little cabin office). This digital stuff is just so amazing. At the end of the day we all went home with some nice prints from my big printer, and a great deal more knowledge.
And speaking of wildlife photographers, I wanted to attach a link here that was sent to me by Journal reader Mary Alice Beer that is a series of photos of a hummingbird nest - it may take a while for you to load, but I think you'll find it enjoyable!
8/12/03 Yesterday evening, as I was on my way back up from the river, I heard a tremendous blast up on the hill in the direction of the cabin. I wasn't too worried though - it sounded like thunder. It had been awhile since I got stuck in a summer thunderstorm out in the woods, so I figured my time was up. Low and behold I made it all the back to the cabin without a single drop landing on me.
While I was doing sit-ups and trying to cool down from the climb (we figured out that the hike I take each day down to the river is like starting out on the 70th floor of a building, going down all 70 flights of steps, then turning around and climbing back up all 70 flights of steps - only this skyscraper isn't air conditioned), Pam rushed out on the back deck and said "Listen!" There was no sound at all, but in a few moments it began to rain ever so softly. Oh that sweet sound and smell of raindrops in the trees. But that is not what she meant. She said that when it rains in the summertime green tree frogs will sing. And son of a gun, as soon as the rain picked up and began to come down hard, the volume of the downpour was matched and even exceeded by hoards of tree frogs, singing at the top of their lungs (I don't know for sure if they were green or not, but I'll take her word on it). We sat there on the deck and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the rain and the frogs.
I got up really early this morning and drove out to the end of the Cave Mountain and hiked down to the top of the 100 foot tall bluff there. I sat down on the moist sandstone next to an ancient and twisted cedar tree that hung out over the bluff and waited. There really wasn't much to see - both my position and everything else around me was engulfed in a heavy fog. But man oh man could I hear a lot. There was a great deal of moisture coming out of that fog, and it was raining pretty good down in the forest below me.
I sat there for perhaps 30 minutes. My plan was to photograph the sunrise. This spot is one of the few that I know if in the entire Buffalo River area where you can see the sunrise directly. I actually didn't know for sure if I could even see it at all - not because of the fog (although that was an issue too), but because the sun is still far to the north when it comes up, and this bluff faces east. I dare not fall sleep, or even doze off, because when and if the sun did appear in the fog, it might not be around for long. At least a photo might not be there for more than a minute or two.
And sure enough, up to the northeast, there was a break in the clouds for just a few seconds. I could see all the way across the upper end of Boxley Valley and far up into the Smith Creek drainage and to the dark ridges beyond that stuck up out of a sea of clouds into a blue sky. By the time I was on my feet and next to the tripod, the clouds closed up and I was once again in fog.
I did not return to my perch, but rather remained posed next to my tripod, ready for the next break in the clouds, if there were any. OK, so I finally gave up and put my camera away. Sure enough, just as I was zipping the bag closed, the sun just popped up above the cloud bank and lit up the surrounding wilderness. I got my camera back out and shot about 100 photos. The sun was indeed visible from that bluffline at sunrise, but just barely.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention, today is the full moon, and it was huge and gorgeous, hanging over the cloud banks in the western sky, just about to go to bed for the day, as I drove through the darkness heading for my bluffline sunrise.
Pam and I took a quick hike around the loop this evening after dinner, with both dogs and both cats. It had remained on the cool side most of the day. There was a smell of rain in the air, and more loud crashes off to the north. Weather hardly ever comes from the north here, so we ignored it all and went on our merry little way.
As we turned the loop and headed back towards the cabin the wind began to blow and the blue sky above turned dark, really dark. At the very moment that we picked up our pace, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this incredible spot of RED color on the forest floor. It was a single mushroom, freshly popped up out of the leaves. The setting sun (no clouds in the west, just to the north, and directly overhead) lit up this little guy with a brilliant shaft of light. Even though big drops began to fall, I just had to take a photo or two. The only way I could get a mushroom's eye view of it was to lay flat on my belly, with my outstretched arms holding the camera securely on the ground.
By the time I reached the cabin my young bride was safe and sound and had made room for me next to her in the front porch swing. I just love summer thunderstorms! No full moon rising tonight...
8/13/03 Another trip down to the river early this morning, and it was wonderful, as always. The air was moist and full of wetness, and it was delightfully cool. The river has plenty of water in it, especially for mid-August. Normally there is still water, but it is not flowing too much, and mostly just pooled up. It has continued to flow up here all summer, and remains three or four inches deep in most parts of the moving water. I remembered to take along the snapshot camera so you can see what it looks like down there.
One thing I have failed to note about all of these hikes is the ever growing number of spider webs across the trail, and the increasing size of the critters who reside there. Early in the summer there were only a few thin webs on the trail. A couple of weeks ago those webs began to get thicker and more complex, and the spiders patrolling them got to be pea size. Now the webs often encompass the entire trail corridor, with big, juicy orb weavers just waiting to pounce on whatever happens to wander into their web. I haven't seen any of the really colorful ones yet though - they normally come out in September. Few things are as uncomfortable to me as a face wrapped in a sticky spider web, not to mention the thought of the spider crawling around on me. But I must give the guys credit for one thing - they will normally release themselves from the web and/or your skin as soon as they realize what has happened - they know they are not going to eat you, and they don't want to be carried away from their home territory, so I simply drop off and trot on back to begin building a new nest. I now carry a headnet to use when there gets to be too many of the webs on the trail. And, of course, the best defense against spider webs is to hike with a TALLER person and let them lead!
As soon as I got back to the cabin this morning those web clouds released their load - or should I say gently squeezed out some moisture - the rain that fell was soft and nearly silent.
I've got a date in town at Red Lobster today with my bride. I'm down 13 pounds so far in my quest for my old physique (11 or 12 more to go!), and I have promised to limit my intake of cheese biscuits to only one. Well, perhaps two - they are really good. I figure for each one I eat it will cost me a trip down to the bottom of that 70 story building and back up again...
8/18/03 Whew, we had a long and exhausting past three days, and today just flew by - I LOVE Mondays, but can never find the time to get enough done! Right now the sun has gone down, Pam and I are working at the computers, Amber is in her new room recovering from the first day of school (which she loved), and the dogs are laid out trying to get cool.
We took off on Friday and headed for the Blanchard Springs area to research trails for Pam's guidebook, and to shoot some photos for a possible cover. Her parents and Amber's cousins came down from Missouri to help out. I spent four years working at Blanchard Springs Caverns, and while the administration and management of this great cave system has gone to the dogs, the area is still quite beautiful and unique. We spent a lot of time hiking around, and playing in the two swimming holes on the river there. We mapped out a neat loop trail that will go into the new guidebook, and shot some good photos.
That evening, after the kids had gone to bed, the adults were sitting out in the darkness enjoying a bit of peace and quiet - wonderful campground there. In the dim light we were able to make out what sort of critters were running around under our camp chairs and brushing up against our legs - SKUNKS! We sat there horrified off and on for 30 minutes while several of the critters wandered around. They seemed to have no fear whatsoever, and we certainly were not going to say anything to them. Few things in life are as terrifying than a skunk! And right there at our feet! We were also joined by a fox and a couple of raccoons.
Pam and I were up and on our way bright and early the next day - off to other parts of the state to visit other trails for the new guidebook. Seems like every place we went we were pleasantly surprised by the trails that we found. It was hot and humid for sure, but we were prepared with several sets of dry clothes, and plenty of towels for the car seat. While we were screaming across the state we managed to go by and restock Hastings bookstores in Russellville and Conway. We visited several trails at Greers Ferry Lake, also went to Toltec Mounds State Park, and the Delta River Heritage Center in Pine Bluff, before coming to rest for the night at a motel in Glenwood. The next morning we hiked a new trail (for me) that climbed up from the Little Missouri River to a craggy bluff with a terrific view. Then we found this really neat interpretive trail at Shady Lake that is often overlooked, before heading back towards the cabin once again. By the time we got back home, we had traveled more than 700 miles. It was great to be home in the mountains, where the temp was in the low 80's!
While Pam still has a few trails to go out and hike, she has compiled more than 80 trails for the book. We spent much of today working on the organization for the book, and figuring out which trails still needed to be added.
In the middle of all this hectic rush to get the book completed by the end of this month, we have completely re-modeled the office here at the cabin, and I am in the middle of revamping our computer software - there is a lot of neat stuff just now coming out, and I always like to be on the cutting edge. Some of that will be good news for you, and will include a complete re-design of our web pages (still simple though, and quick to download), AND, I am happy to announce that soon we will have SCREEN SAVERS available! I have finally found a software program that will let me produce simply screen savers of my work for both the Mac and Windows platforms (we are in testing now). I hope to be able to offer a number of different ones, including wildflowers, Arkansas nature scenes, each one of the calendars, a special one of just Hawksbill Crag photos, etc. More on this later.
In the middle of all this our GPS computer (an old windows machine) has bit the dust. National Geographic is supposed to make their topo software compatible THIS summer, but so far, nothing. I may have to borrow a computer for a few hours to complete the initial map work that will be necessary for Pam to be able to draw all of the maps for the new guidebook. I have also been working hard trying to find the necessary software/hardware to convert my slide programs over to digital, which also means they can be made available for home use on your TV. So far, not so good, as we have been unable to find the correct software (NO, NOT powerpoint - it really SUCKS and I refuse to use it!). One of these days it will happen. I have also been using a completely new software program for all of our page design and layout uses (which is about 90% of our work here), and that seems to be going slow.
Do you get the idea that we are spending most of our time at the computer these days? Yep, you would be right. Although I still find the time to hike down to the river each day, and Pam has been hiking around up on top as well. And today, the girls started getting up at 5:30am to go catch the bus to school. It is nearly 9pm tonight and we all are still working. I must tell you that this new guidebook is going to be one TERRIFIC product - nearly 100 trails all over the state!!! And it will be worth all of the hard work we are putting in on it.
8/21/03 Just like the daily Cloudland Cam, our days have become somewhat routine here. We all get up at 5:30am - in case you don't see that time of day it is still completely dark outside. By about 6 the Cloudland bus is rolling out towards the main dirt road to await the arrival of the first of two school buses that Amber will ride on to school. She won't arrive at school until about 8 o'clock. Two and a half hours to get to school. Jasper is a great school system, so the long travel time is worth it. And on the other end - coming home - Amber quite often has all of her homework completed by the time we get her back around 4:30pm. In between those hours Pam and I have been working hard at the computer. Pam is still transcribing tapes of her hikes while I am working on the design and layout of the book. When Amber gets home, she too pitches in and works - she is compiling tips and bits of woods lore that will be included in the guidebook. At some point during the day - usually in the heat of the afternoon - I take a quick trip down to the river and back, then do a few sit-ups. That allows me to consume a Starbucks Mocha first thing in the morning and not worry about the calories! The computers remain on long into the night - often past midnight. Then we get a few hours shuteye and start is all over again at 5:30am the next day. This will be our schedule for the next month or so. By then we will have completed Pam's new book AND Glenn's swimming hole book, which we won't really start working on until Pam's is finished and out the door to the printers.
I'm telling you all of this so that you will know not to look for much in the way of wilderness updates here on the Journal for a little while - there isn't much time to write, nor much to write about, other than our daily routine above. I will tell you that the OHTA newsletter has been completed and is no posted online (you need Adobe Acrobat Reader since this is a PDF file). Oh yea, besides all of the normal stuff we have to do in order to produce these books, the rest of our business life goes on, which includes processing book and print orders, answering the dozens of phone calls and hundreds of e-mails that come in requesting trail information, and my continuing process of education about Photoshop, screensavers, and digital slide shows. Needless to say our plates are full right now - good thing all of us enjoy eating!
I did get a few moments late last night (or was it early this morning) to sit back and relax and look over the wilderness. I couldn't see much because it was pitch black out. However, the night sky was lit up with the Milky Way and a billion other stars (really only several thousand other stars, but you know what I mean). And then I had one of those Cloudland moments, a rather dim one, but one just the same. I suddenly became aware that there were bats flying around above my position in the hot tub. Bats? We LOVE bats around here - they eat their weight in bugs each night. But it was so dark how could I be seeing bats flying around? All of the lights in the cabin were off. But there was one pretty good light in the sky, and it was illuminating the erratic flight of the bats with a soft, red glow. Yep, it was MARS! Goodness that thing is BRIGHT right now! And it was shining through the branches and leaves of the big red oak tree that towers above the lower deck. Mars. Who needs a telescope?
Today it was my turn to take Amber to the bus - Pam got up and left early to head out and do a few more trails. Amber drove out to the main road, then sat in my lap and told me all about a book they are reading in school. I had rolled the windows down to get a little bit of cool morning air in, but I also let in a few mosquitoes - we need MORE bats around here! Now I am back at the cabin and the sun has not arrived yet. The canyons far below are beginning to lighten up a bit, and there is a slight haze hovering down low. The ridges are turning from pure black to dark gray, and will soon be light gray, and then dark green as the sun peeks up over the far hillside. Looks like another warm day in the wilderness - it will probably hit 90 degrees today, which is about as hot as it ever gets - sometimes a little bit hotter, but not too much. Goodness, I just looked out to the east and discovered that the sun was indeed awake and up - it is a bright orange ball, but dim enough that you can look right at it and not get burned. It will soon turn yellow as it climbs higher in the sky. Time to put this post to rest and get to work! Hope your AC is in good working order...
By the way, for any of you in the Fayetteville area, there are several of my color prints now hanging at the Bedford's Camera store on North College - these are all from the new big printer out here. Stop by and have a look.
8/22/03 My day began around 5:30am today, and I have been at the computer just about every minute since (8pm now), trying to get the Journal up and running once again. It seems the server in Fayetteville ran out of space on their hard drives a couple of days ago, and we had to move more than 2,000 files in order to make the darn thing work again. I don't have anything to do with the server, nor any control over it, but they don't charge me much so I can't complain too loudly. Some of you had the Journal up today and some did not. Right now I think it is working, and hopefully it will remain so from now on. Good grief, my eyes are tired!
We had one very interesting thing happen yesterday. While we were driving into Jasper to meet with Amber's teachers, the temp dropped from 99 degrees in Boxley Valley to 74 degrees just a mile down the road - 25 degrees drop in one minute of driving! There were a number of giant thunderstorms whirling around, although we didn't get a drop of rain out here at Cloudland. That's OK - we've had our fair share this month already!
As you can see from the two photos at the beginning of the page the days are beginning to all look alike here, which is typical for August. Right now it is just about dark, and those gray ridges are fading into the haze and soon will disappear completely. Even though the windows are all closed, I can hear a lot of frogs and bugs and birds outside. I can't tell if they are hot, singing for rain, or just plain glad to be alive.
Pam discovered and hiked a really nice new trail this morning that will go into the kid's book. There will be a lot of those in this guide, and I know you probably are already tired of hearing about it, but after nearly 30 years in this hiking trail business I continue to be surprised at how many good hiking trails we have here in Arkansas. Most of these I have ignored all these years simply because they were too short (all of the trails in her book will be three miles or less in length, most of them a lot less, and all great hikes for kids, of course!).
We will be headed out of here at 4am Saturday morning for a marathon drive and hike session that will take us to at least six trails across the northern top of the state. We'll swing down and end up near Memphis, then make the long haul home, only to wash off and get up and do it all over again the next day.
I must admit that I am getting tired, physically exhausted from the long hours. I know Pam must be getting there too. It will all be worth it though, if we survive. And especially because about the time we get this and the new swimming hole guidebook that Glenn is working on wrapped up and off to the printers, fall will be close at hand - and there are few things in life better than autumn in the Ozarks!
8/24/03 Our day began around 4am yesterday, and we didn't get home until almost midnight, but we had one incredible day, and in fact were able to cover TWO days worth of travel and trails, so we are home today. It is not often that you get to actually do more than planned (of course, it took a 20-hour day to do it).
We started off visiting a pair of wonderful new trails, one of them along the banks of the White River. I have known about this trail for a while, but never been to it because it was so short and easy. That seems to be a recurring theme for me with Pam's new book - so many great trails out there that I have ignored. No more! I don't recall any trail in the state visiting so much wildflower territory and wildlife opportunities before.
Later we found not one but two Corps of Engineers trails. Their trails in general have been dismal at best, and so we were really surprised to find not only trails in good shape, but interesting as well. One of them as at Lake Norfork, and the other at Lake Nimrod down in the Ouachitas.
One down side to the trip was the fact that we got trapped in the town of Newport - we kept driving and driving around and could not find out way out of town! I'm glad I'm not the one that has to write up directions to the state park near there.
By the time we got home we were both exhausted, and out of laundry. I went through seven different t-shirts. Only took a few minutes to be completely soaked while hiking on these trails, even the ones up in the mountains that we hiked. A lot of folks complain about hiking here in the summertime - and they are correct that it can be miserable - but if you are prepared for it with extra clothes, bug dope, head nets, and LOTS of cool water, you can have some great hikes. The very first hike we took yesterday as the sun was just beginning to rise along the river was one of the most magical hikes I had done in a long while. You just have to get up and get out there and hike!
Since we did today's hikes yesterday, we both slept in a little bit today - at least until first light. I spent the first couple of hours working on an idea that Pam came up with while we were on one of the long drives in between hikes yesterday. She thought it would be neat to have a "scavenger hunt" of sorts built into this new guidebook for the kids. There will be a series of hints in the book about bits of information that kids can find while on a number of the hikes. Once the kids collect enough of this information, all they have to do is mail in the answers to the questions and they receive a free multi-color patch that says I HIKED ARKANSAS. We all three will be working up the exact details of all this for the book, and I designed the patch this morning. The patch will be available as a sale item to anyone as well, but the kids will get it for free. (I'll post the patch info here later.)
One of the things I realized yesterday is that even though the summer heat and yuckiness is in full swing, if you look close, there are a ton of great things to be seen both in the forests as well as out in the meadows around. I took off on a short hike this morning to see if I could find a tomato for our lunch, and found the East meadow full of wildflowers of all sorts. These late-summer treats are normally a lot smaller than other wildflowers, often only being the size of a dime or even smaller. But the color, my oh my, the colors are really nice. TINY flowers of bright blue, pink, yellow, lavender, and red growing on short and tall stalks. The best way to view them is to get down on all fours and crawl around through the meadow, but it was already too darn hot here to do that by the time I went on my hike - perhaps another day this week or next.
I also found the wild plums just about ripe - the fruit has gotten a lot larger in just the past couple of weeks, and some of them are falling off of the tree. Still not nearly as large as a domestic plum, but bite size, and very colorful. The pawpaws are still green and I have not smelled any of them yet so it will be a while before they begin to ripen.
The forest floor is covered with poison ivy and Virginia creeper, and many of those plants are beginning to turn bright shades of red and yellow. Still lots of spiders out, and they continue to get larger.
While I prefer a bit cooler temps, and less webs across the trail, I look forward to the season beginning to change from the sultry summertime to one of the most delightful times of the year - and some of the best places to experience this change will be in the fields, meadows, and other open areas in the Ozarks. I'll keep you updated, and try to post a photo or two along the way.
Pam still have a couple of trails to go hike for the new book, and then she will be all finished with the field work. The final count of trails will be somewhere between 80 and 90 - goodness that is a LOT of trails!
8/26/03 A very soft, still, quiet day this morning, and the temp was 75 at daylight. There is a thick blue haze in the air. It is now two hours after sunrise and the sun has still not made an entrance yet. No real clouds blocking it, just the thick haze.
TODAY IS CALENDAR DAY! Our shipment of the new 2004 Arkansas Wild & Free wall calendars have arrived in town, and we will pick them up this afternoon. That means we'll begin shipping them out tomorrow. I have posted them in the online store, along with a gallery where you can go to view all 13 images. You can also purchase color prints of any of these images in the store too. Here is the direct link to the store page with the calendar info (and link to the gallery) - just click here. The calendars will also be filtering into your local outdoor and book stores in the coming weeks. If you happen to be in one please ask for the calendar - their standard answer might be that they can't get them, but they CAN - but they have to order direct from us.
Pam is off once again this morning to go hike yet another trail - she only has TWO left to do and then all of the field work will be complete! She is headed to the national historical site in Ft. Smith. The trail there visits the old gallows of Judge Parker, plus goes down along the river for more historical info about the old fort and the Trail of Tears, plus the scenery is not too bad. There will be a number of historical trails in this guidebook - what better way for our youth (and their parents and grandparents) to learn about our great state and country! She will finish all of the tape transcription tomorrow (along with that last trail), and then we will begin the process of creating 90+ maps, plus editing the text and doing the actual layout of the book. Many long hours and sleepless nights ahead, but this is the part of the process that I really LOVE! Of course, we'll have to throw in all of the new calendar work too, but it's all part of the job.
One note from yesterday evening. As I was sitting on the upper deck trying to recover from my quick hike down to the river and back up, I saw a pileated woodpecker land on a nearby polk berry bush - these birds are giants (woody woodpecker was drawn from one of them), and weight a lot, so that polk berry bush was really strong! Anyway, I watched this guy eat the berries for several minutes - I didn't know they ate berries!
8/28/03 The sound stopped me dead in my tracks. I could not believe what I was hearing, but it was so real. It was hot - dripping hot - and the air so thick I could hardly suck in enough air, and I was on the way DOWN the big hillside, almost to the river. But there it was again - the clear and indistinguishable sound of an old-fashioned telephone bell ringing. What? Certainly no cell phone would work down in this jungle (the map on the wall in cell phone stores is really quite absurd you know - cell coverage is perhaps only 5% of the state of Arkansas at best). No other way for a telephone to be ringing way down there. And then a third time it rang out. Good grief! I had been bested by none other than a pileated woodpecker!!! What a strange sound for this guy to make - I wondered if it was the polk berries he had been eating the other day?
I continued on my way to the river. When I stepped out onto a completely dry gravel bed, I looked upstream and saw a fox standing there right next to a small hole of water far away. He looked up at me for a moment, then dashed off into the thick brush. It is always nice to connect with a wild critter out here, no matter if he is getting a drink on a hot day or ringing like a telephone!
I was a little surprised to find the might Buffalo River so dry - ALL the way across. I've been coming down to this spot for many years during all months of the summer and had never seen it dry before. Not even a trickle. And just a couple of weeks ago it water levels were unseasonably high. That happens sometime out here in the wilderness - high water disappears underground in a hurry, often creating a vacuum in its wake.
Cardinal flowers pop out in late summer, and there were five or six of them shining brightly today - which is an understatement - they are the loudest RED I have ever seen in the wild! Other colorful flowers were sharing the spotlight - pure yellows and blues and some tiny purple flowers. Great to see so much color out in the middle of the barren landscape. Of course, the jungle is always only a few feet away - an impenetrable sea of green for miles and miles in all directions.
I have to brag about my kid just a moment, a kid that came home from school today covered with dirt from head to toe today. We just found out that she not only has been selected to participate in the Gifted Students program, but also won two free days from school because she tested so high in these huge tests that her class took last spring. Way to go Amber! We've been shooting hoops for a few minutes after school these days - she is on the b-ball team, a first for her (she has played soccer for many years, but never b-ball). Then she sits down at her desk and works on the "Amber's Tips" section in the new guidebook. I am amazed at what interesting facts she and Pam are able to pull out of the air - some really neat stuff that will be in the book! Like how you can tell the difference between toad and frog eggs (one of them lays them in rows).
I know Mars is out there somewhere tonight shining brightly, but we have a heavy cloud cover right now and so probably won't be able to see it tonight. I did get to bask in its glow for a little bit very early this morning. By the way, there was no CloudlandCam this morning because I left the cabin long before daylight - I'll post one tomorrow morning.
I hiked up to the office in the blackness this morning, following the illumination of my flashlight through the forest (in years gone by I would have relished the challenge of hiking in total darkness, but when Mr. Copperhead bit my toe last summer he changed all that). There was a crispness in the air that I had not felt in a while - the temp was actually below 70 and it felt just wonderful.
Speaking of FALL on the way, here is an early FALL COLOR REPORT. The black gums have already begun to turn blood red, and many entire trees both large and small are turning from top to bottom. The brilliance of the leaves is one signal that we are going to have a very nice fall season indeed. Some great ivy turning scarlet and yellow as well - same thing there - not just a single leaf, but the entire plant is colorful. Of course, you will hear many folks say that we are going to have a dismal fall this year because of this and that and other things, but I'm here to tell ya that we are going to have a GREAT fall this year - mark my words! At least it will be great somewhere in the Ozarks - it always is. And one thing that will make the color even more vibrant and intense will be if we now have a DRY fall leading up to October - we've had lots of water, and the forest is very healthy. And while it would be great to have a lot of rain, it will be better if we get some good rains every now and then (like we are supposed to have in the next few days), then dry up for several weeks at a time. The trees just seem to do better that way.
We had to make some serious judgement calls about trails that are going into the new guidebook tonight. After looking at and reviewing all of the info and maps, we decided to remove a couple of trails from the list. We had high hopes for them at first, but they just didn't stack up to the rest and so did not make the grade. That is a process we have gone through several times with this project - actually an ongoing project. No telling how many trails Pam has hiked and not included. But I think we are about set with our final number now. The next big job before us will be to create the maps (90 of them!), and we'll be spending most of the next several days at the computers doing just that. I will do the prep work on each map - either outputting our GPS tracks on special topo software or scanning original maps. Then Pam will take over with a Wacom drawing tablet and special pen and draw each and every detail for the maps, using the temple that I created as a guide. Then she will send that file back to me for tweaking and final placement in the book layout. Each map will take us an hour or two or sometimes three or four hours to complete. And I'll often re-open each map several times to tweak something I see that needs it. Nothing in this book is sacred or complete until the very last moment when the final PDF file is created and the CD burned for the printer. I love each and every step of the way!
By the way, quite a few of you have already ordered the new 2004 calendar and I want you to know that while we might be burning the midnight oil around here, book and calendar orders always get processed, and everything is already in the mail and on their way to you.
Hum, I wonder if there are any breaks in the clouds out there - think I'll go hop in the tub and let me blurry eyes focus on darkness for a few minutes...
8/30/03 After nearly 12 hours of intense computer work today, our eyes blurred and we decided to take a much-needed break before our marathon final week of book production. Also, I really wanted a corn dog. So we all loaded into the truck and headed to the Newton County Fair in Jasper. It had rained a little bit during the day, but not too much, and we had a feeling that the predicted gloom and doom of raining out the fair would not materialize (never rained another drop).
It was a Friday night at the fair, the rodeo was about to begin next door, and it seemed that everyone in the country was there. Amber met up with a bunch of her buddies from school, and while we followed them around at a safe distance we chatted with many of our neighbors like Lytle James (one of the two heroes that found little Haley), and several of the Woods Boys gang. Many local notables strolled around the midway greeting folks, including the country judge, and beauty queens Miss Newton County and the Queen of the Rodeo. Miniature cowboys fully dressed to the hilt with big hats and leather chaps were there two - some of them so young they had to be held up by parents. Clusters of young girls formed and giggled and paraded about and made eyes at similar groups of young boys. And me, heck, I was busy with a corn dog in one hand, a funnel cake in the other, and the best looking lady at the fair on my arm! Amber remarked later that she really enjoyed this fair so much more than the ones she used to go to up in Springfield - this one was small enough that she actually knew a lot of folks, and she didn't worry about getting lost - there were only about a dozen rides, all in a tight circle. It was a classic small-town county fair, and everyone seemed to have a great time. It was a well-deserved break that we both needed.
It was cool enough when we got home to open up the cabin windows and get some good old fresh air inside. That would prove to be a mistake. Around 3am this morning we were awakened by the sound of snarling dogs, loud noises out on the back deck, and a terrible odor in the air. I got up to investigate while Pam tried to hold the dogs back - I didn't want them to run out in the middle of the night and come face to face with an angry bear, or even worse, with a mad skunk! That's what the smell was - pure skunk, and a wall of it hit me in the face as I stepped out into the darkness. I don't mind messing with a bear in the dark, but the thought of a skunk terrifies me! It was very odd, and obvious that a skunk had just sprayed the front of the cabin - the air in the back of the cabin was pure and sweet. I could not find any skunk, nor locate a reason for one to be spraying. Contrary to popular opinion skunks don't walk around stinking - only when they release their foul spray does the air stink up - as we noted a couple of weeks ago when three skunks paraded around under our chairs and between our legs while we were camping at Blanchard. The dogs were not sprayed, nor the cats. Very odd. And it kept us ups for several hours as each time a new wave of stink came into the cabin the dogs would wake up and snarl and growl and bark like the devil himself was trying to break into the cabin. There was also more noise down on the decks - perhaps a bear was being chased by the skunk? Who knows. This is the third time this has happened in the past year.
I normally jump out of bed and attack the computer, but it took me a few minutes in the hot tub and a full container of Starbucks Mocha to get my eyes open this morning. When they did open, I saw a beautiful and classic Cloudland sea of clouds laid out across the wilderness below me. Skunk or no skunk, it was wonderful to be /here.
Today begins our final push for the book (have I said that before?). Pam finished all of her transcribing and writing yesterday, I completed all of the scanning for the maps. We will spend the next three days creating all of the maps, then tweaking them for final placement. At some point I will also have to begin importing all of Pam's text into the final layout of the book. Later in the week we will put it all together, spend a couple of days going through everything with a fine-tooth comb, send the text out to our editors so they can do the same, and FINALLY put the wraps on it, burn the CD and send it all of to the printer. Then we can get some rest. Early the next morning we will start on Glenn's swimming hole guidebook!
8/31/03 The last day of summer! Well, at least that is the way I look at it. We got about a half inch of rain yesterday, but it remained quite warm. There were not clouds in the valley today, but the temp began to cool off and stayed in the low 70's all day. By early afternoon Pam and I had blurry eyes from staring into the monitors since the wee hours of the morning, so we decided to get out and take in some fresh air. As we began to move away from the cabin I realized it would indeed be my last hike of the summer.
The air was cool, a breeze making it feel down right terrific, and clouds overhead created soft lighting. Man, oh man it was NICE out in the woods! Not even a single spider web to block the way. Almost immediately we began to find interesting and colorful things to look at and take photos of. Yes indeedy, the forest is beginning to slowly shake off the dull mono-green of summertime and sprinkle on a little bit of brilliant color for fall. Since I ended up taking so many shots that I wanted to post here, I won't make you read any further text - only will say that it has been one great summer here at Cloudland, and I hope you enjoy the photos. Yes, summer was wonderful, but COME ON FALL!!!
Here are the snapshots from the last hike of the summer, in no particular order, some with captions, some without. Enjoy...
(Moments after I shot my last picture, when the cabin was in sight, and as I was taking my very last steps of the summer, my ankle popped, throwing me face-first onto the gravel road, camera and daypack and limbs hitting all over the place. Within minutes my ankle had swelled up double, and I could hardly put any weight on it the pain was so intense. GOOD thing summer hiking was over! OUCH, it hurts now just thinking about it. It is beginning to turn this most remarkable shade of purple tonight...)
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