8/1/02 My day began at 4am with a quick soak in the hot tub, a cup of tea, and a kiss and hug for my sleepy wife - taking a cue from one of the rescued miners, I always make it a point to kiss my wife goodbye and tell her that I love her, no matter what the time.  Then I loaded up the truck and sped off into the darkness.

I met up with Glenn Wheeler for a day of waterfall and swimming hole hunting. Sounds like a lot of fun I bet, but it really is a great deal of hard, hot, miserable at times work. Really. Why can't I get anyone to believe me!

Just before we arrived at our first stop we came across an odd scene - there were about a dozen copperheads in the middle of the road - all deceased. Apparently a local was trying to make a statement, hoping the other snakes in the area would take notice. We sure did - Glenn made note of the fact that the jungle we were about to enter was just a hundred yards away from all the dead snakes. "Just that many less to bite us" I murmured.

We put on long pants, sprayed down good with insect dope, and headed down into a thick tangled mass of vegetation and disappeared in just a few feet. It was a VERY steep hillside, and I don't recall seeing my feet a single time the first ten minutes - the ground cover, vines, and brush was that thick.

I had only been to Dogwood Falls once - the object of our trek this fine young summer day. And I wasn't EXACTLY sure how to get to it, but I had this FEELING of which route to take. I'm not sure Glenn was all that humored when I mentioned that I really had no idea where I was going. But son of a gun, I led us right to the darn waterfall.

It was beautiful even today, in the dead of summer, and even had a little trickle of water going over it. I needed to lock on a GPS position, and measure it. Turned out to be taller than I had expected - nearly 40 feet tall!

On the way back UP the hill towards the truck I noticed that the GPS said we were passing through the community of Iceledo. Hum, not much of a community around there, in fact, not one for a long ways in any direction. We did find a few stones piled up that looked like the corner of a foundation of a cabin or something. Those guys who write the mapping software for the GPS units really do need to use UPDATED maps!

Our next stop was at Richland Creek Campground to photograph the swimming hole there for our swimming hole guidebook. I really didn't realize it until just this morning, but the hole of water right there at the campground is very nice indeed, and I recalled taking a dip there many times after a long day of hiking. The sun was just beginning to peak up over the distant hills, and I'm afraid that we woke up a young couple from Texas who had a tent pitched right next to the stream. Or should I say that their big dog woke them up barking at us!

Next on the list was another waterfall that I needed to measure - Keefe Falls. I named it that after Terry Keefe, who is perhaps the Grand Man of Arkansas Waterfalls - I know of no other person who has scrambled around these hills in search of ANYTHING he could find - and willing to share it all - than Terry. He is a first rate guy too, and this waterfall is fitting his name.

The hike up to the base of the tall falls was pretty nice, especially since the forest service had just completed a controlled burn recently and a lot of the underbrush had been burned back. Although it still was rather thick under there. This area is rimmed with tall bluffs that are actually made up of hundreds of thin layers of shale. When I was here last spring I did not have the time to find a route up to the top of the falls in order to measure it, and that was the main goal today. I was expecting to have to find a way to the top via a long drive and hike around - because of the tall bluff lines all around - but low and behold, we found a break in the bluffline right off the bat and I was able to get up on top with ease. Glenn stayed at the bottom of the falls to place the tape in the proper location. I had originally guessed the height of this waterfall at 80 feet (I am always way off). It came in at 78 feet, and one of the tallest waterfalls in Arkansas!

On the way out Glenn found a slab of rock that looked EXACTLY like a copperhead. Thanks Glenn.

By the time we made it back to the truck we were already soaked and needed a bath. Fortunately Falling Water Creek was right there, and so we washed up a bit at another waterfall called Six Finger Falls. This isn't a towering falls like we had just come from, but rather a unique spot on the creek where the water has eroded out five or six little channels in the shale floor. A photo of it is pictured on the cover of this year's Bank Of The Ozarks annual report.

Our next stop was an easy one - Falling Water Falls. Glenn is making a point of swimming in every single one of the holes that he is putting in the swimming hole guidebook, so we had to stop and swim in this one. The water was crisp, and actually the falls there were running pretty good, especially for the middle of the summer!

While we were heading to our next destination (Long Pool on the Big Piney River) we passed near a spot where a plane crash happened a year or two ago. Glenn was one of the first on the scene of the wreck site (he was a deputy sheriff then, but an 18-wheeler that crashed into his patrol car put an end to his career - he was in the car). He was telling me about how the people in the plane had been literally torn apart by the impact, and their body parts were scattered around the forest by the wreckage. One part was an arm and hand all by itself, and the hand had been made into a fist just before impact, and remained that way even after being torn off. I am only telling you this because when we stopped for lunch to eat a sandwich at Booger Hollow, we both noticed - but didn't say anything - an arm and hand up on the shelf sticking out of a bucket (fake, of course).

Long Pool was marvelous - a really great swimming hole with plenty of room to swim.

Our next target was a place that I just named Forever Falls. I had been to this spot once last spring and fell in love with it, but needed to return to get a waterfall measurement. I had heard that the main route into the area was being heavily logged, so we opted to approach the area from the opposite side of the canyon. That turned out to be a good thing, and we were able to drive a lot closer to the little canyon then if we had come in from the other side.

The waterfall measured 47 feet. It is located at the middle of a horseshoe bend in the creek, and dumps right into the creek below. As an after thought we decided to try to find a way down into the little canyon and see what we could find. What we found was a beautiful oasis and a new swimming hole for the swimming hole guidebook.

Once we got down to the creek both of us were a bit surprised to find a waterfall (about six feet tall) dumping into an emerald pool. The pool was about 25 feet in diameter, rimmed by a rock ledge, gravel bottom, and 6-8 feet deep! We peeled off our long pants and boots and plunged right in. The water was crisp, but felt great! The downstream end of the pool was guarded by a pair of GIANT trees - one a sycamore, the other a sweetgum.

The pool was alive with life, especially crawdads, and small fish. We both noted that the fish were hungry! (They were nipping at our TOES, not something else!) While we sat on one of the rock ledges admiring the place I noticed that a good-sized crawdad was making an attempt to climb the waterfall. The falls were at an angle and not straight up. The crawdad choose a route right at the edge of the rushing water, and slowly made his way up. Before he summited a second crawdad began the very same trek. We had no idea what was going on.

Just downstream from this delightful swimming hole we found a second one, and it too had a waterfall feeding it (actually both falls were the creek). In fact the creek had split and created a twin falls coming into this hole, then the water converged before running down a moss-covered slab of rock and into the deep pool. The water at the base of the moss slide was over Glenn's head. This pool was sort of hour glass shaped, and had a pair of large boulders out in it. The boulders were only four or five feet apart, yet the water between them was six feet deep. It was a really neat spot. I had to laugh when Glenn turned around to climb out of the water though - his bleached white underwear was dark green from sliding down the moss rock!

We continued our hike down the canyon, and passed through what I consider one of the top-ten most beautiful spots in Arkansas wilderness. Forever Falls I named it - you will want to stay at this place forever! By the way, you might have known that since both of us are photographers neither one of us had a camera with us!

The climb out was not too bad, but we were both soaked with sweat once again and changed into our third pair of cloths for the day. Then we drove on to the next location, which was Pam's Grotto.

Once again I had been to and photographed this waterfall last spring, but was unable to get a measurement. I had to make a 20 or 30 foot climb up the side of the bluff to get to where I could get up on top of the bluff here and I felt a bit uneasy about doing it alone. Actually going up it today was no problem - but I was NOT looking forward to coming back down that sheer face! I am basically a giant wimp when it comes to rock climbing (both Pam and Amber are rock climbers - I don't know how they do it). Once I got up on top of the bluff and over to near the top of the waterfall I realized that I would have to climb DOWN into a little slickrock canyon area in order to get to the top of the falls. After a few minutes of careful maneuvering, I made it to the top of the falls. 37 feet tall, and this falls is really a nice one (naturally, since I named it after my wife!).

I made it down the first part of the rock face OK, but it took me about five minutes to take the next step. When it was all over and I was down on the ground, it was no big deal. But I had to endure a great deal of heavy breathing on my part first. Good thing that Glenn was back at the waterfall washing off and did not get to witness it all.

When we got back to the truck we were once again sweat soaked and filthy. There was a creek right there so no problem washing up before putting on the forth set of clothes for the day. But I needed more than that, and ended up out in the middle of the creek, laying flat on my stomach in the foot-deep water. It felt WONDERFUL!!! Oh, man that was great.

One more stop for Glenn to shoot a swimming hole picture and we were on our way. The pool on the Big Piney where Hwy. 123 crosses it is perhaps 1/4 long, and a wonderful swimming hole. And the old concrete and steel, one lane bridge that was built in the 1930's is pretty neat too. The Ozark Highlands Trail crosses over it.

The Big Piney at Hwy. 123

On the way home I stopped at the square in Jasper to take a look at the new monument they had put up to honor Lytle James and William Jeff Villines for saving Haley Zega last summer. It is really a nice monument - actually a grave headstone - only they made a couple of mistakes in the wording, one of them a really BIG mistake. One side of the stone is a standard mountain scene, with towering peaks, and they added the two mule riders on their mules in the foreground - very well done. The other side of the stone tells a brief story about the rescue. They got the date wrong at the top (it was May 1st), but the really big mistake was that they noted the area was "dotted with 2,000 ft. tall bluffs." Hum, we don't have anything like that around here! In fact, the tallest part of Arkansas is only 2,700 feet. The bluffs in the upper Buffalo River area where Haley got lost top out at around 100 feet. I guess when you make a mistake in granite, there is no way to fix it! No matter - it is a really nice honor for our two local heroes.

It was after 9pm before I finally arrived back at the cabin, just another typical 4 - 9 work day for me! I didn't even realize until after I got home that it was a new month. HAPPY AUGUST everyone!

8/6/02 A very smoky, hazy, monochrome start to the day today. The air has been like this all week, filled with humidly and the left-over air of the hot days of summer. It actually got up to 89 degrees here  yesterday, and that is hot in the woods. Our days and nights have been filled with work, and little else. Both Pam and I are working overtime on the maps for the waterfall book - she is really doing a GREAT job on them! But there are SO many to do. We have completed nearly 60 of them so far, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Once the maps are finished, then I will begin on the writing of the descriptions and editing the photos, and each will take about as long to do as the maps have taken. Our goal is to get it all wrapped up and out the door by the end of September (hum, you have heard that before!).

The Smoky Ozarks this morning

Amber is off to a special wilderness camp this week at the Ozark Natural Science Center. She will come back here in a few days knowing more than me about the woods, and being a lot more comfortable out in them. I wish I could have attended something like this when I was growing up, but I guess that is what I am doing right now - Cloudland wilderness camp!

I got so busy last week that I failed to update the journal during the last day of July - I simply ran out of time. But I will make note of the highlight of that day, which was a visit by a frequent journal reader Joe Cooley. He brought his work vehicle by for us to have a look. I love seeing things in the air here - we've had everything from the Goodyear Blimp to powered hang gliders.

Joe flying by in his National Guard truck

And speaking of flying critters, we continue to have a hawk or two that hovers over the cabin just about every afternoon. He/they will spend ten or fifteen minutes screaming out at the top of their lungs. Still don't know what it means, although perhaps they have spotted the fish, or the cats and are trying to figure out how to get a quick meal. You would think that if they were interested in a meal that they would not announce themselves so loudly!

While we have been locked up in the cabin working away at the computers the dogs have grown lazy, especially Aspen. He has many great resting places in the cabin, but these days he prefers the over-stuffed leather chair in the great room. Good dog. Of course, all we have to do is make a motion to the front door and he is up and running in an instant.

Hey, that was MY chair!
The dog days of summer at Cloudland

We did get to take a quick hike around the loop yesterday morning. There is this giant white oak tree that I have been watching of late. It has these tiny acorns on it now that are mostly cap and not too much nut. I have not noticed acorns on this giant before, but surely they have been there. I intended to keep and eye on their progress as fall approaches. We also found a hickory tree that was full of GIANT hickory nuts - about the largest I'd ever seen. We'll have to keep an eye on them too and see if they get any larger (and will have to be careful when we walk under that tree so they don't hit us on the head!).

An acorn from a giant white oak tree (actual size)
Just kidding! This nut is really only about 1/3 of an inch across.

The fruit on some of the sumac bushes is getting so large and heavy that the bushes are beginning to droop under the weight. And this fruit hangs around long into the winter - I wonder what is going to happen to these bushes? So much to keep track of this year! I'm just the man for the job, once I get this waterfall guidebook out the door and off to the printers.

While working on one of the maps for Pam to draw I discovered that there might be an alternate route into one of the main waterfalls down in Johnson County (Spainhour Falls). The normal way to get into it is via a four-mile jeep ride that crosses the creek five times. It is easy hiking if you don't have a serious 4wd vehicle, but just a long trip in and out. This other potential route is much shorter, although since it comes in from the top would be a lot tougher hike, actually a bushwhack. I wasn't sure about the route because the map showed an old county road that ended right at the edge of forest service property - no telling how accurate the old map was, and if I actually could get to the forest boundary or not. Plus I was not sure if there was a way to get down through any blufflines from way up high. I decided to go have a look and see what I could find.

I had really just planned on going into the forest service office in Clarksville and asking them about the road, then maybe sticking my head out the door for a look around once I got to forest property. The good folks at the information center didn't have a clue about the road, so I was on my own. No problem finding the old county road, and it went exactly as was shown on the map, and right to the edge of the forest.

On my way in to the parking spot I noticed a tall bluff out there in the woods - about half way down the mountain. Hum, that looked most interesting to me, so I put on my boots and long pants and disappeared into the thick brush, and the forest closed in behind me. And man oh man did I ever disappear!

What I found was one of the steepest canyons in the region outside of the Buffalo River area. I had to hang on for dear life nearly all the way down. Usually, you can look ahead and plot a course through the vegetation and around obstacles for a pretty good ways ahead. Problem was that I could not SEE very far ahead in this canyon, and it was SO steep that I was not able to see how to proceed but for just a few feet ahead. The steepness of the canyon created a great deal of gravity on me and I was constantly being pulled downward, even while trying to stand still to get my bearings.

OK, if I cross the stream on those boulders and make my way down the slope on the far side - yep, there are several small trees that I can hang on to - then I think I can get into that pocket of moss below. Once I arrived at that spot I hopefully would be able to scramble down another ten or fifteen feet to the next level, or perhaps I would have to climb back up and figure out another route. This is the way my trip went for about half an hour, and the progress was really slow. But the drainage that I was plunging into was simply spectacular, and while it was mostly dry right now, I could just imagine how incredible it would be when filled with whitewater. Plus I found a couple of waterfalls - one of them taller than 30 feet.

Two things about this little trip I was in the middle of. Well, actually three things. First, not only was the landscape very steep and rugged, but the vegetation was SO THICK that I seldom ever actually saw the ground, and I was climbing down this jungle hillside with no way to see any snakes that I was about to step on or next to. I tried not to think about snakes, but also had to do my best to scour the ground in front of me if possible to look for them anyway. Second, the deeper into the canyon I got, the deeper into the canyon I was - it would be a LONG trip back out, if I could make it back up at all! But the redeeming factor in all of this was not only the fact that the place was simply beautiful all over, but that I was making my way down one of TWO prongs of this little creek - there was an equally steep and probably beautiful drainage just a couple of hundreds yards to my left, and the two would soon meet up.

Before long I did reach the spot where the two creeks came together - I could see that was going to happen on the map, and while it was dry, it appeared that it would be one incredible spot when the water was flowing. These two creeks fed into a canyon that I found below while hiking out from Spainhour Falls with Pam last spring (Lucy got lost on that trip, and I ended up hiking back to the truck in the dark while Pam searched for her). This side canyon of the main Spadra Creek was filled with waterfalls, and I just knew there were more neat things up above - which is where I was today.

Finally I came alongside and just below that tall bluffline that I had seen from up above. This area is not noted for its blufflines, but this one was a beauty. And then a moment later I found myself standing right on top of a spectacular waterfall, and it looked like a long way to the ground below! As I stood up there and tried to guess at the height (I was not on a waterfall-hunting mission today, and did not have the measuring tape with me), I began to realize that I had been here before - it was ASPEN FALLS! Or at least I knew it had to be, but it looked much taller than the 37 feet I had measured before. The GPS that I had with me today showed my position as being about 1/4 mile away and up above those tall bluffs! No way that could be accurate. I figured that this canyon was so steep and rugged that one of the satellites was getting a false reading, throwing off the signal and position (NEVER trust a GPS entirely!).

I thought it was Aspen Falls, but somehow things just didn't look right - the route I remembered taking last spring to get to the top of the falls seemed nearly impassable today. Then I realized the vegetation was so thick that I might be getting a false reading, so I tried to find a way down to the bottom of the falls. And sure enough, once I made my way down, I found the spot where I had set up my tripod in the fading light last spring and frantically tried to get one good photo for the guidebook before it got completely dark. While the photo will not show it (a long enough exposure will see through the darkness), it was so dark when I took it that I could not see the controls on the camera, and had to make the necessary exposure adjustment totally by feel. The falls looked a lot smaller from down there, and so I was satisfied that it was indeed Aspen Falls. That was actually a relief to me because I knew I was really deep into the canyon and would have a tough hike out, especially if I had to continue even further down the slope first.

Satisfied that this would be a good, no GREAT route into Spainhour Falls (though only for serious, experienced bushwhackers) , I turned around and began the long climb back up the canyon to the truck.

One step at a time, hand over fist, from tree to tree, and from boulder to boulder, I gradually hiked, rather crawled up the steep canyon walls, following the streambed. Once I reached the place where the two creeks came together, I decided to follow the other drainage back out, just to see what it was like (it couldn't have been more difficult than the first one, or any more scenic). I'm telling ya the terrain was nearly straight up in this place, and the streambed was choked with boulders of all sizes, some of them wet and slick, others mossy with a bit of grip to them. It was hot and humid and I was soaked with sweat, and a cloud of nats engulfed my head (I don't believe in the in wasting a "g" on this word), pestering each second of my being. It was a tough climb up, but I pressed on at a good clip - the only speed that I know - which got me to breathing really hard.

I heard a giant CRASH echo through the canyon. And then a second crash, and a lot of other noise followed - sounded to me like a large chunk of rock split off and let go from the bluffline across the way. I stopped next to a giant tree (the forest was full of them in this canyon), gasping and heaving for air, and spitting out multitudes of nats, straining to hear more, wondering if something huge was out there in the jungle and coming my direction. But the only sounds left were my heaving breathing and the buzzing from the cloud of nats. Sweat ran into my eyes and blurred my vision. I wiped mashed nats away. Hiking in the Ozarks in the summertime can be a real treat for sure!

As I continued to make my way up the slope I half expected to see a bear at any time - this was really bear country. Of course, with all the noise that I was making I'm sure any bear had left the country a long time ago.

About half way up the slope I came across a four-wheeler trail, and decided to abandon my climb and see if I could follow it out to the main road. It ran along a narrow bench that was about the only level spot on this entire hillside. The trail took me through an area where red oak borers had been working - about half of the trees were dead. This is the bug that threatens the oak population in the Ozarks, and has already supposedly infected 300,000 acres of timber here. I found one giant oak that had just fallen - there was fresh dirt all around its base, and you could tell it had just crashed into several other trees on its way down. When it hit it dislodged a number of flat rocks on the edge of the bench, sending them further on down the slope. No doubt this was the source of the crashing that I heard.

My hunch about the road was right on, and it led me on out of the jungle to the main jeep road, and after a steep hike (as opposed to a CLIMB out in the jungle), I made it back to the truck. That was one spectacular area, and a place I will return to a bunch of times.

Just before I got back to the cabin it began to rain. Actually pour. The ditches were filled with glorious muddy water! It was raining at the cabin too, but not as much - we only got about 1/4 of an inch, but any drops are welcome at this time of the year.

While I was gone Pam had completed a bunch more maps - she has taken to this map drawing like a duck on a June bug! (I've always wanted to say that.) And she is really good at it too. So good in fact that several of the maps from other guidebooks of mine that I had planned to use I had Pam draw over again - all of the maps in the new book will now look the same. She is only able to concentrate on the maps for several hours at a time though, and has to get up and out and do something else (like go hiking!) before her brain gets fried. Let's see, we've got the swimming hole guidebook and the kids dayhiking guidebook to do in this next year - I figure she has a couple hundred more maps to draw! (There are still several more maps for her to do this time, but her work on this book is just about complete, and a couple of weeks ahead of schedule too!)

8/7/02 Lots of nice clear air this morning - the smoke and haze are gone, and the hills are once again green. After spending most of the morning working on maps, I headed out the door for an afternoon of waterfall measuring (I'm about to get to the end of the list!). I needed help with the ones I wanted to get today, so met up with Glenn Wheeler at the metropolis of Nail. Thanks to permission from the land owner, we were able to save nearly a mile hike and got to drive on down to the very top of the incredible bluffline where the waterfalls I was after are located.

Home Valley Bluff is one of the most spectacular bluffline in all of Arkansas, and perhaps the largest one outside of the Buffalo River drainage (it is ALMOST within the Buffalo Drainage, which is just 1/4 mile to the north of this bluff).

Our first stop was to this neat slot canyon - the tallest and narrowest that I know of in Arkansas. There is a nice waterfall at the head of it, then the falls pour off the big bluff on the lower end, creating Tea Table Falls. An interesting rock formation that Neil Compton called "Tea Table Rocks" is located right next door. We crawled down next to the slot canyon and perched ourselves out at the upper edge of the big falls, but were unable to make a successful measurement from above - I would have to go down to the bottom of the falls later in order to get an accurate measurement.

The next stop along the bluffline was at Latin Falls. There is a really neat split in the bluff here that goes all the way to the bottom, and actually creates a hidden canyon that is accessible from below. We were able to rig up the measuring tape on this falls so that Glenn could tell me when it reached the proper spot in the bottom - it measured out at 77 feet, one of the tallest waterfalls in Arkansas.

At one point where we were attempting to get a look over the edge of the bluff, which required getting down onto an upper part of the bluff, and Glenn slipped while trying to get back up. Oops, we almost lost him over the bluff! While it would not have been a big deal to hike back to the truck and call for a chopper to come pick up the body, it would have been REALLY tough to call his wife! Glenn is a real trooper.

Our next stop along the bluffline was to a much shorter waterfall, but one that has a great deal of character (I originally named it simply Home Valley Bluff Falls, but may change that name by the time the book comes out). We were able once again to get into position to measure this one without having to get down below it. This was the last waterfall on the west end of the bluff, so we turned around and hiked back to the truck.

Home Valley Bluff is not only a huge piece of rock, but the views from it and OF it are really nice too, especially with all of the unique stone formations. You can see way down into Home Valley, which is a nest of green fields nestled into surrounding mountains - almost something you might see over in the Alps or something. And those fields seem to always be green no matter what time of year.

OK, back to the truck. We split up and I made my way down to the base of the bluffline, then on around to the bottom of Tea Table Falls, where Glenn had tossed the measuring tape over the edge. The BOTTOM of this bluffline is also quite wonderful, with giant slabs of rock sitting around here and there, and caves and overhangs under the main bluff. It is pretty tough going though, and hard on your feet. But well worth the trip if you can survive.

Once we got an accurate measurement of that falls we switched positions - Glenn came down below the bluff and I hiked along the top. I wanted to measure one more waterfall, this one located on private property (the others were on forest service land). Glenn got a taste of what life is like at the bottom, and I was treated with yet another great view off the top, and into an upper part of Home Valley that I had not seen before.

The best part about sending Glenn on down to do the dirty work was that I got back to the truck first and got to raid his cooler, which was filled with ice cold cans of root beer, grape crush, and my favorite - orange crush. I was quite cooled down and rested by the time he arrived. It was a successful trip, with four more waterfalls in the book! Only TWO more left for me to measure!!!

After I got home I took a short hike up to Aspen's Meadow with Amber's cousin Blake, who is 4 years old. His brother Tyler was away at wilderness camp with Amber, and Pam's mom had brought Blake down to spend the night before we picked them all up tomorrow (Pam was in town at a PTA meeting). Blake was a pretty good trooper and kept up a good pace all the way to the meadow. The sun was just about to go down while we were there, and it was a wonderful sight. I showed him the spot where Indians had camped out for thousands of years, which he thought was pretty cool. One of these days I will get that tent set back up again and we will all have a campout or two.

8/8/02 It was 59 degrees just before first light this morning, and man did it feel GREAT! I hiked up to the office in the twilight to process some book orders and get them set out for UPS. I had just got out of the hot tub and was still in my underwear and hiking topless - yikes, it was actually COLD in the forest! Not exactly typical August weather in the Ozarks.

I sped off soon after headed for the very last two waterfalls that I need to measure. They were located near the Ozark Natural Science Center where Amber and Tyler were at camp. I would meet up with them and Pam and her mom later.

The first waterfall was really easy to get to - in fact I parked within 200 yards of it. The only problem was FINDING the parking spot! I had been to it once before, but only with directions. This morning I was on my own, and spent about 30 minutes figuring out all of the turns and intersections way back in the Madison County Wildlife Management Area. Part of the problem is the way they have their roads marked - I'm finding this to be an increasing problem all over the state. There are actually TOO MANY road numbers and it is getting really confusing. The county has a number, then the forest or management area has a number, and often a third number or name that is just thrown in for kicks. Anyway, I made it to Eagle's Nest Falls just fine, and was surprised at what a scenic location it really was - a very nice waterfall with deep overhang underneath (although access to the bottom of the falls is very tough to get to, and requires trespassing, so I did not go there).

I made it to the Science Center just in time for the official end of Amber's wilderness camp and the little program that the campers give. There were 56 kids at this camp, plus two other groups of some sort at the Center today. They have space to park about 20 vehicles there - you do the math, it was a tight fit!

I did not have time to make it to the second waterfall before the program, so I stayed behind while the rest of our clan went back to the cabin. I had actually been looking for an easier access to this second waterfall for quite a while, and finally was able to find the right spot today. I parked in a field and had a LEVEL hike of about a mile down a wide, mostly dry creekbed.

It was still rather cool out as I began my hike, and the going was really easy - it required about zero mental thought on my behalf. So my mind began to wander. This would be the last trip and the end of my multi-year pilgrimage to locate and photograph the most beautiful waterfalls in Arkansas. It had been a long run, filled with incredible sights and sounds, breathtaking scenery, more than my share of mishaps - including a couple that were life-threatening, many long and extremely tough days for both me and Pam, lots of lost blood on my part, and many new friends that I met along the way. Once the book is completed and on the bookstore shelves, it will just be another guidebook for so many thousands of folks. But for me it will be a road map of a major part of my life, and will no doubt continue to bring back memories for many years to come for me. That's what was going on today - my mind wandered back to so many of those great waterfall hunting trips of the past several years. Wow, it has been one terrific journey! And now it was about to come to an end.

But before I reached my destination, my mind was shocked back to the present, by yet one more beautiful sight. As I came around a corner I got a really long view down the streambed. Sunshine was streaming down through the trees and shafts of light touched the gravel bottom in spots. There were several crystal clear pools of water, each teaming with a hundred small fish. And then a gust of wind came up, and tossed many hundreds of yellow leaves out into the air, and left them to float down through the sunshine to the streambed below. It was one of those magical sights and a moment I will never forget. This is a common sight in October around here, but not so much so in the middle of August.

Before I knew it I was standing at the base of one of the most unique waterfalls in Arkansas - Tea Kettle Falls. It is not a great height  - less than 40 feet tall - but what the water has done over the eons has produced a really interesting spot. The water has drilled a hole down into the top of the bluff - just like at The Glory Hole - but before the hole had broken through the roof of the overhang below, the water changed course and drilled OUT the side of the bluff. So the stream up above drops down into this hole, then shoots out pours into space, creating Tea Kettle Falls. All of it was completely dry today, and I was able to climb down into the hole, which is nearly 14 feet tall in itself. Kind of weird sitting down in there looking out at the world.

It was getting a little warmer as I hiked out, but I made it with ease and only ate a few spiders along the way. Speaking of which, the spiders out at this time of the year are not the fat, juicy ones that we will have in a few weeks, but rather smaller ones, with sharp spines on them. I don't think any have ever bitten me when I got tangled up in their webs, but as I brush them off of me those sharp spines sometimes inflict a bit of pain. I got a spider web right across my open eyes today!

So now my journey is complete - 124 waterfalls in the bag. At least the field work part of them is finished. I still have a ton of work to do at the computer, and I will probably have to make several driving trips out to confirm mileages and turnoffs in the next month. I bet some of you are getting tired of all this waterfall talk! Sorry about that, but that is what I do, a tough job that has fallen into my basket.

Twilight arrived with cool temps again, and our little family got to spend some quality time outdoors enjoying it all. The spring and pond in front of the cabin has become a haven during the hot days of summer, but the back deck, with its view out into the wilderness, remains a focal point, as it was tonight. The setting sun cast lots of shadows across the hillsides and valleys out there, ever changing as the sun moved close to the horizon. It FELT like FALL today, and I can't wait!

My bride and some of the livestock rest up after a recent hike

Just before bedtime I had to make a quick trip up to the office. Today was the dark of the moon, and while it was clear above, the starlight did not provide quite enough light for me to navigate by, so I was forced to take a flashlight along (in my pre-snakebite days I would have made my way without the light).

About half way up the hill I stopped and turned off the light just to become a little part of the night. I could hear Aspen and Lucy farther up the hill, running around all over the place chasing a hundreds scents. The longer I stood there the more stars came out - before long there were thousands of them twinkling down on me. And just about the time I felt totally at ease in the darkness, something furry rubbed up against my leg - yikes! Needless to say the flashlight came on instantly - it was the Trail Cat. She seems to go everywhere with me these days, and now nights too.

8/9/02 I got up early and ran around opening up all the windows and doors in the cabin - it was 60 degrees once again, and the humidity was very low. Another clear-air day, with blue skies and bright sunshine. Everything outside is perfectly still, except for a few streaks of pure gold - goldfinches in search of food or playmates. It is now nearly three hours after sunrise, and the windows are all closed up once again. Window management will become more important these days as I try to regulate the temp inside the cabin using the air outside. Oh yea, I almost forgot - it IS still August, with the hottest days of the year possible ahead. Normally this time of the year we keep the windows closed all the time, even at night, because the humidity is to high. It has been cheaper to keep the AC on than to run the de-humidifier (which is what the AC is anyway). But once we get more cool nights WITH low humidity like the past few nights, then the window management will continue.

8/11/02 Well, I must say that the weekend simply flew past, and I hardly had time to look up at all. I have dropped into writing mode, and don't seem to find time for much else. In fact, it is probably going to be that way for the next several weeks, and while I will type a note or two for the journal, there won't be much to read about until I put this waterfall guidebook to rest - unless you like hearing about all of the mundane details of how something like this gets created. I will make a post at least once a week - on Mondays - and perhaps now and the in between if I can.

Just to give you some idea about what is going on here, we started working on the back cover of the guidebook and a location map of the state of Arkansas that will be inside the back cover on Friday. We finally got it to where we like them this afternoon - Sunday. That's two days just to do one page of the book and a single map! One of our problems was that we have so many waterfalls going into this book, and I like to have a listing of all of them on the back cover, with some important info about each - by the time we got the type small enough for everything to fit, you needed a magnifying glass to read it. So we tweaked and pulled and tugged and cut and pasted, and now I think it will work. In the process we ended up making the physical size of the book larger - it will be 6 x 9 inches (just like the ARKANSAS HIKING TRAILS guidebook), instead of what we had originally planned on 5.5 x 8.5, which is what all the other guidebooks are. The list on the back will include waterfall number (keyed to a map of Arkansas inside the back cover that has all of the #'s on it where each falls is located), name, height, beauty rating, hike difficulty, and page number in the guide to find the map, photo and directions. Plus there is a check box so that you can mark off the ones you have been to. I like to be able to pick up a guidebook and find out a lot of info instantly without having to hunt for it!

By the end of today I realized that I STILL had two waterfalls to measure, so just before dark I suited up and headed out the door. Funny, but one of them was a waterfall nearly in my own back yard, one that I had been too perhaps 100 times, but I had never measured it - Haley Falls. It was so nice to be able to take off on a hike right out the front door without having to drive anyplace. It was a splendid hike, with cool temps, a slight breeze, and hardly any bugs at all. The mile or so to the top of the falls flew by. I stopped along the way just once to snap a quick photo of Hawksbill Crag.

Hawksbill Crag on a summer's eve.
If you look real close you can see a giant tree that has turned bright orange already -
look in the uppermost right corner. Fall is on the way! Well, two months away...

Haley Falls was bone dry, of course, but still a beautiful spot. The upper falls measured 17 feet and the lower falls was 45 feet - a little taller than I had thought (most folks will never see the lower falls). These falls will compliment the other two falls along the same bluffline quite well, Mule Trail Falls at 31 feet and Thousand Kisses Falls at 48 feet (I am enjoying throwing around these numbers right now because for the first time I have a complete listing of them in one place - the back cover of the book!).

The trip back to the cabin went fast too, as I raced the fading light. The forest got dimmer with each step. Twilight is a time of day that I cherish, especially on summer evenings in the Ozarks. When I got home I found my lovely bride sitting out next to the pond, surrounded by the livestock (2 cats, 2 dogs, 12 fish, 100's of baby frogs). Seems like all of the tadpoles from the pond have made their way out onto dry land, and we now have tiny frogs hopping all over the place. I can't wait until they get just a little big bigger and large enough to attract Aspen's attention - he will spend hours playing with them!

It is dark out now, Pam is next to me typing away at her computer working on PTA stuff. There is a symphony of summer bugs outside - who needs man-made music on a night like this!

There is a stack of maps a couple of feet high all spread out on the floor next to my desk (and up on the table, and on the desk too), piles of other notebooks filled with facts and observations about the waterfalls, and a stack of a dozen or so cassette tapes - those are the buggers I HATE to deal with! They are recordings I have made over the past several years as I have traveled around to the various waterfalls. They contain road mileages from point to point, hiking descriptions, plus a lot of other info - much of it perfectly useless. In fact most of the minutes on the tapes are worthless to me now, but I will have to listen to them all in order to extract the important information that is also contained on the recordings. I have always found it much easier - and more accurate - to simply push a button and talk instead of writing stuff down. I have already begun going through the tapes, and it is funny to hear what is going on in the background (loud music from the stereo in my truck, and lots of laughter), or my frame of mind while I was recording them (you can tell how tired I was, or excited!), or even how sick I was at times (one tape is filled with my terrible hacking all the way through). I must get through ALL of the tapes before I begin with the all-important writing-the-description phase of the book. Before I do that, I will probably go through the thousands of photos and select, edit, and place all of them. Hey, didn't I say I didn't want to bore you with all of these mundane details? Oops.

I have this one last and finally waterfall to go measure - Bowers Falls. I've been there a dozen or two times, and have even measured it twice, but I can't lay my hands on that info, so what the heck, I don't mind making another trip in there to make sure that I have it correct. I will try to do that in the next day or two, and will make a post afterward.

8/12/02 While I was sitting in the steaming bubbles out on the back deck at first light this morning, I saw something rather odd - a rainbow high up in the sky. It wasn't raining,, nor had it rained during the night. The sun was not quite up yet down where I was, but I guess there were a few rays hitting up in the clouds above. Actually there was quite a bit of color this morning - the forest and meadow all around me was filled with bright yellow wild sunflowers, and the air down low had many butterflies floating around, yellow and orange and blue and black. Plus there were a number of goldfinches jumping around from flower to bush to flower.

The sun never did come up, which kept the temps cool - in the upper 60's. I saw the cool temps as a sign that I needed to be out hiking, so I packed up my stuff and headed for Bowers Hollow, needing to measure this one last waterfall for the guidebook.

People always ask me why bears go around turning over rocks - surely a few ants can't be worth all the trouble. Here is a photo of part of a stash of ant eggs that I found under a single rock about four inches in diameter. Now multiply that by 100 and you have a respectable meal for a black bear!

Future bear food

Once I left the old road I bushwhacked on down a steep hillside, and then followed a dry streambed that would eventually led me right to the top of Bowers Falls. I came across this one patch of cardinal flowers - there were perhaps 30 plants in the patch, yet only this one was in bloom. I couldn't find any other cardinal flowers in the streambed other than at this one place. Cardinal flowers are really a burst of brilliant color in an often otherwise drab late summer landscape - I love them, and plan to put a few out next to our little stream.

Cardinal flower

By the way, after I left the old roadway, I hardly found any spider webs at all. Seems they like to string their webs across open corridors in the woods because that is where many insects will fly through, and get caught in their web. As much as I hate spiders, the little guys are pretty darn smart.

When I got to the top of Bowers Falls I was surprised to find it actually running with a small stream of water. And there was a nice, large pool of water below. There were at least seven different species of wildflowers growing around the top lip of the falls, even some growing on ledges part way down. This falls is one of the most powerful of all the Buffalo River area waterfalls - not only in the size and magnitude of the water but also the magic of the area down below as well. It measured 56 feet tall.

The hike back out was quick and easy, especially since I did not have to fight the spider webs all the way. At first, there were none. But as I got closer to the truck a few began to reappear - the spiders only had time to string one or two strands, and were usually busy and off to the side so I didn't have to eat any.

When I got back to the cabin I received news that one of the most talented and successful nature photographers of our time had just died in a plane crash - Galen Rowell. He was coming home from a trip to Alaska with his wife Barbara, who was also killed). Galen made his mark as a mountain climber, but his career really took off when be began to take his camera along with him on his climbs. He is the first of the "adventure photographers" to ever strike it big. I think he paved the way in many respects for the rest of us to follow, getting a great deal of exposure in mainstream American society in a number of different ways. I only met him once - at a nature photographer's convention in Corpus Christi, Texas. His book "Mountain Light" has long been one of the classic coffee-table picture books - a copy sits on my desk right now. For those of you who enjoy the great outdoors, or perhaps even just looking at the wonders of nature through the camera lenses of photographers, I urge you to step outside sometime today - out where you can touch trees or see mountains - and take a moment to remember Galen and Barbara. They will certainly be missed a great deal.

8/17/02 The sun is setting right now and the dark blue sky is filled with streaks of pink and gold. The wind is blowing, the temp and humidity are low, and it is one lovely August evening outside. This morning a fire-red sun rose into a BLACK sky - I could actually only see just part of the sun at a time. Then there was no more sun, just dark clouds as far as I could see. An hour or two later the wind blew the black clouds away and it was nothing but blue skies and sunshine for the rest of the morning. By mid-afternoon the sky grew dark once again, and this time the sky looked really bad. We braced for a big blow, but blow is all it did - not more than three or four drops of rain came down. Then the front passed through and gave way to the wonderful evening we have here now. The "Pickin' Post" folk music show from KUAF is on the radio (a re-run, but man the music is GREAT!), my bride is dancing around the cabin, and all is well in our world.

This is just a quick update before I get back to work on the waterfall book. Man, it has been one very productive week! Of course, like most everything that I do in the book business, it has taken twice as long or more to do just about everything, but we have made a great deal of headway. Thank goodness Pam has been here to help out on this one. She has been putting in as many hours as I have and has contributed a great deal. I have no idea how I ever would have done this project without her. It is so nice to be able to work side by side like we have been doing (and still be able to look out the window at the wilderness, and run outside every time a screaming hawk soars by - we've had to take frequent breaks too and go sit on the swing, or feed the fish). We are about half way through the production of this book - the maps and photos are mostly finished and placed in the computer file (I will go back and tweak all of them at least once more). All of the tapes are transcribed. The mountains of information has been collected and most of it input into the computer file (like all of the GPS coordinates, in two different formats - that took us two days just to get all of that together and input). Now it's time for me to sit down and write the descriptions of how to get to each of the 124 waterfalls. I will have to move Pam's old computer up into the main part of the cabin and next to my computer - I will use the topo maps on it to help with the descriptions (and to double-check my memory). We will have three computer side-by-side in the cabin, all with 21" or 22" screens. Once I begin that process, I will spend 18-20 hours a day at the computer writing. Lots of fun days and nights ahead! Few things I enjoy more than finishing a marathon and having a first rate product to put on the shelves.

We have had one incredible week of weather this past week! Cool temps night AND day, often low humidity, lots of wind, and even two days of RAIN! We got a total of around five inches of the wet stuff, and I know the wilderness loved every drop. It rained about three inches the first day - including some really hard stuff. But the Buffalo River didn't come up an inch - every bit of the rain was soaked up by the dry landscape. Then we got another couple of inches during the next and the river finally came up five or six inches, and got a bit of color to it.

Speaking of the river, I made a quick trek down to it via the ladder trail yesterday. The woods were deep, dark and cool. The trail was overgrown and I seldom ever saw my feet. I just hoped that Mr. Copperhead snake was watching my progress from a distance and not from beside the trail! Whitaker Creek was flowing - something it hardly ever does in August. When I reached the bank of the Buffalo I had to fight my way out to the edge of the water. I could not believe the sycamore forest that has grown up there in the past two years! When I started hiking down to that spot several years ago there was nothing but a broad gravel bar on the near side of the river. It remained that way for years. Then a year or two ago I noticed (and noted in the journal) dozens of tiny sycamore seedlings that had sprouted all across that gravel bar. I figured that happened all the time - the saplings had an opportunity and shot up and multiplied, only to be washed away with the next great flood. Heck, we have had quite a few big floods down there since then, and these seedlings have not only survived, but THRIVED! There are a hundred or more of them on that gravel-bar-turned-forest now, all leaved out, and standing more than head high. Each one with broad sycamore leaves.

We had a nice visit mid-week from Glenn, Stacy and Beth Wheeler. Stacy has been expecting a baby for, well heck, I guess for nearly nine months now. They have tried everything to try to get the kid to come out, but nothing was working. So they figured the bumpy ride out to Cloudland might just be the ticket. By the time they were ready to leave that evening, Stacy was about to pop - she had a beautiful, bouncing baby boy the next afternoon! (Zane Grey Wheeler). Now we can call them the Four Wheelers. I guess Glenn's swimming hole research for the new guidebook has come to a halt for awhile.

We've had a ton of butterflies out this week. Many of them are cloudless sulphur that simply drop out of the sky, almost as if they are pouring off of the roof of the cabin. They slip right on down and land on the wildflowers at the edges of Mom's meadow. Lots of GIANT yellow butterflies down in there this week too. The ground is still covered with tiny frogs, and the air is filled with music from their parents up in the trees at night.

I ran across a self-portrait that I took ten years ago this month while I was working in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. I used to spend my summers there, often being out in the backcountry for weeks at a time, flyfishing, wandering around, taking pictures, building trail. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. I love the summer air in the mountains, and what we have had here this week reminds me of that.

Hard at work in the Winds
(Those far-off clouds produced a powerful storm that nearly knocked me off the side of the mountain that night!)

It's completely dark outside now, but with a 3/4 moon lighting up the wilderness. It is also quite LOUD - we've got the windows open and I can hardly hear the folk music on the radio! Time for me to get started on the writing part of the book - I need to get a few waterfalls written before the clock strikes midnight. I'll make another post when I get a chance...

8/18/02 Boy, did I pick the wrong day to get cabin fever! After several hours of work I decided that I had had enough and packed up and headed out for a hike. Actually I realized that I had yet one more waterfall that I needed to measure and get the GPS coordinates for. It wasn't one that we forgot to do, but one I had not planned on including in the book until the last couple of days. I was not able to get a good picture of it and so was going to wait until the second edition to include it. But while going through some images the other day I came across a photo of the waterfall that will work in the book. Now I needed the other info to go with it.

The high for the day at Cloudland was 85. When I reached the Seven Hollows trailhead at Petit Jean State Park the temp was 97. I had planned to do a bit of bushwhacking and come in the "back" way to this waterfall, and save myself a mile or so of hiking. The entire loop trail is 4.5 miles long, and the waterfall is located just about half way around the loop. I had not gone 100 yards down the trail before being totally engulfed with weeds and brush that was way over my head. I'm not talking about bushwhacking now - the TRAIL was that grown up! I've seen some weeds in my day, but NOTHING like this! This area had burned a couple of years ago and I knew there would be a lot of weeds out there, but I though the trail corridor would at least be open. Turns out only this first 1/4 mile or so of the trail was that bad - the rest of the trail was not nearly as grown up.

While I was in the middle of the jungle a guy passed me that was coming out from the doing the loop - and he had a full-grown Irish setter draped around his shoulders! The poor dog was about to die from heat stroke I guess, and after carrying that heavy dog in this heat I bet the guy was too.

The trail was really quite nice. In fact as I hiked along passing bluffline after bluffline after bluffline I came to the conclusion that this short loop trail probably passes next to more total length of bluffline than all of the other trails in the state combined - I mean bluffline that is right there next to you. This trail often goes under the bluff - a great trail to hike if you get caught out in the rain without a rain coat! Anyway, I figured this trail is one of the top ten best hiking trails in Arkansas. That is an easy pick.

Just before I reached the hollow where the waterfall was located I left the trail and began to bushwhack along the top of the ridge next to the hollow. I knew that there was no way I could reach the top of the falls to measure it. From below (where the trail went). I had no trouble getting to the top of the bluff that is above the falls, but I was unable to actually get down to the top of the falls - I had never realized that the creek had carved out such a deep ravine in this upper part of the bluff.

By the way, for those of you who have never been there, the Seven Hollow Trail winds in and out of, well, and area with seven hollows. That is nothing special. However, each of these hollows is a canyon of stone, the walls on both sides rising up 20-50 feet. It is really one spectacular place, and the bluffs just keep going on and on and on.

OK, so I could not get down to the top of the falls right away, so I had to continue my hike up the top of the ridge until I could find a place to get down into the upper canyon. Fortunately, much of the top of the ridge was solid rock and therefore was not all grown up with brush and the hiking was pretty easy. Even the places in between the stone floor was mostly tall grasses and not the thick jungle that I had passed through back near the trailhead. All of the area had been burned.

I had to hike nearly 1/4 mile up the ridge before I found a place where I could safely get down through the bluff. Well, a place where I could get down anyway - the route was not all that safe, or easy, but I made it. Once in the bottom I managed to make my way along the dry creekbed OK, although the brush was really thick down in there. Finally I got to the end of this upper canyon and was about to step out onto the top of the falls. Only one problem. The land all around me was parched - still hurting from the giant fire that swept through in 2000 no doubt, but it also appeared to simply be very dry this summer up there as well. Anyway, with all of this harsh dry stuff as far as the eye could see, wouldn't you know it - there was a hole of water right where I needed to stand! There was no way to get to that spot without having to wade through the pool. The water was about two feet deep an felt really good - I was beginning to get a tad bit parched in that blazing heat myself.

I could see the "grotto" down below where the waterfall drops into, and it is a magical place indeed. I highly recommend this hike for anyone who is looking for non-stop scenery. It is OK for older kids too, as long as you think they can hike that far - the trail itself is not too tough. Over went the tape - 18 feet tall. Not really all that big (actually taller than I had thought), but the spot is just so scenic, I had to include it in the book. I took a GPS reading and then got the heck out of there.

My plan B was to attempt to bushwhack out the back door and intersect with the far end of the loop trail about half way back to the trailhead. When it was all said and done I probably would not save myself but a few steps, but it just seemed like the thing to do. So I climbed back out of the upper canyon and continued my hike along the top of the ridge, although this time I was on the next ridge over.

Same story as the other ridgetop - lots of rocks and easy walking. This was going to be a piece of cake. Uh, oh, I should never think that while on a bushwhack! No sooner had those thoughts entered my head then I came face to face with a WALL of tall weeds and thick brush! I looked around and around and could not find anyway through this mess, so I simply sucked it up and plunged right on it. Thank goodness I had long pants on (I got a stare from the guy carrying the dog because of this - but heck, he was carrying a DOG!).

After about 20 minutes of fighting my way through I managed to make it over to a rock outcrop that I had been aiming for. Once up on top I was able to look down into the next canyon - that is the one I wanted to get into the bottom of and pick up the trail back to the trailhead. Only problem was the bluffline was still pretty solid there, and no way I could get down it. So I continued my trek through the thick brush.

Since most of this time I could not see my feet, nor where I was stepping, visions of snakes flashed through my head. Just me luck to be out in the middle of no where - off trail - and bet snakebit and have to cry out for help. That wouldn't do any good - there was no one on the trail to hear! It was really snakey country. I was getting tired and a bit heat exhausted myself by the time I managed to find a spot where I could get down through the bluffline. About half way down I spooked a night hawk that was taking a nap under a rock overhang. I sat down in the leaves - lay down in them actually - and looked around for eggs. I figured that I might not be able to make it any farther and hoped to find something to eat! No eggs, but it was a great resting spot for this weary hiker.

Another couple of jumps and slides later I landed at the bottom of the canyon, found the trail, and headed back out to the truck. I was one tired puppy, but there was no one around for me to hitch a ride on.

Here is an idea that I came up with just about the time I was approaching the trailhead. On very hot and sweaty days like this one it would be a great idea to package a t-shirt in a zip lock bag and store it in a cooler. I always carry changes of clothes at this time of the year to change into (to help keep the inside of the truck cleaner), but I usually get the new clothes sweaty too. Wouldn't it feel GREAT to pull on a COOL t-shirt! I must try that next time. In fact, perhaps I will take off on a hot and sweaty hike one day soon just to test this.

Later on in the day I spent about an hour moving Pam's computer from downstairs up next to my computer. It looks kind of funny to have those two huge screens sitting on the same desk, but boy it is nice to have such ready access to the topo software. I hear that National Geographic will be making their topo maps available for Macs one of these days, but much too late for me right now. Perhaps by the time we do an update to this book it will be available for Arkansas quads. Even though it is a windows machine, this software is really nice - the entire set of USGS quads at your fingertips! And one really neat feature that I am about to use a great deal is the ability to draw a very detailed trek on the topo map, and then see the profile of the route, and the distance. After doing several tests I have decided that this method is actually quite accurate, and while I still plan to measure most things out on the ground like I normally do, this will give me the opportunity to get the distance pretty darn close on the others that I can't measure.

It is late at the cabin now, and all is quiet (the windows are closed - it is very noisy outside!). Amber is TRYING to get a few hours sleep - she is very excited about the first day of school tomorrow and can hardly stand it. I bet she gets up and gets dressed well before the sun comes up. Actually that would be normal - she has to be out at the main road waiting for the bus at about 6:15am. We will get to see many sunrises with her. Let's see, how far is it out to the main gravel road?

8/27/02 Seems like forever since I have written, in the journal at least. It has been a long week at Cloudland, but we have made significant progress and someone it out there getting ready to light the candle at the end of the tunnel, at least in another few days-week perhaps.

After several days of being on a 20-hour work day, and fighting blurry eyes and sleep much of the day and night, I decided to change my tactics. I went on a 24-hour work day, and that worked out a lot better. My plan was simple - work as long as I could until the screen began to get blurry, then lay down and take a nap. As soon as I wake up get back to the computer and work until the screen went fuzzy again, then another nap. While I probably managed still  2 or 3 hours sleep a day this way, I seemed to more refreshed and was able to get more work done. I had about 130 waterfalls to write about - the first 40 or 50 seemed like it took me forever. But once I got over the hump in the half-way point, it just snowballed. The writing came easier and my fingers worked quickly on the keyboard.

One of the biggest problems in all of this has and continues to be road numbers - not the number of them but the county/state/agency number that is assigned to each. I have probably complained about this before, but here goes again. I have found individual stretches of roads that have FIVE different road numbers! It is quite absurd. One county just replaced all of their two-digit road number by FOUR-digit numbers. Another county doesn't have numbers at all but now names all of their roads. Many roads change numbers as they go along from mile to mile. Many counties don't mark their roads at all - Newton County only seems to be able to mark some of their roads - none of them in the Buffalo River area are marked for instance. One agency ignores the county road number and uses their own - only problem is that they use the SAME number for ALL of their roads! And there have been several roads that I have not been able to find ANY number or name for. I am bound and determined to make the maps and descriptions in this guidebook as complete and accurate as any that has ever been produced (like I have tried to do with all of my guidebooks), but these road numbers have been making it tough.

My general MO has been that when I get a waterfall or group of waterfalls completed that I print them out, then put them in Pam's "to edit" file. She has been spending much of her days (and nights) doing the first edit, which has been a great help. She has made many good suggestions, some of which have resulted in me having to go back and change EVERY entry one way or another, but that is exactly what I am looking for - a great deal of input in order to make the guidebook as easy as possible to use and understand.

At some point in the early stages of this process I discovered a way that I can open and edit the photos and maps that are embedded in the text file. Normally I would have to get into another program to do that and go find each individual file that I wanted to edit. But this new way allows me to simply select and double-click the item that I need to edit, and it automatically opens that item in the program that created it, so I can edit instantly, then when I close the file it automatically updates the item in the big text file What a huge time-saver! As I knew I would, I am having to go in and tweak all of the maps and some of the photos. Just the other day I realized that I needed to change all of the creek names to italic to make them easier to see. While still time consuming, this new system I discovered makes it so much easier to do that as I go along.

Most of the time I had no idea what time of day or night it was, or what day of the week. As book orders would come in I would process them along the way and get back to business. Our club's newsletter also had to be written, a job that Pam took over willingly, with only a little bit of advice from her hubby. I absolutely love having the business computer at the cabin - Pam will probably be ready to kick me out though by the time this book project is complete!

I guess it has been hot and muggy outside for much of the week - I really didn't have much clue about the weather. However, I did manage most days to make a quick trip down to the river via the ladder trail and back, just for exercise. Some people would say it was to clear my head, but heck, by the time I reached the bottom my head was COVERED up with spider webs so I don't think it did much clearing!

We did get a nice 1/2 inch rain during the night the other day, and that really cooled things off quite a bit. At least, that's what they tell me. And I have been able to take a bit of time off now and then to play with my wife and child, but not nearly enough to suit me.

Sometime in the middle of the day on Saturday I got to the LAST waterfall description (well, except for one that I still needed to go hike, which I did yesterday). That feeling of accomplishment swept over me like a giant Blue Crush wave - I felt like I had just gone out and bought a Toyota ("Oh What A Feeling!"). Then Pam handed me the entire stack of edited text - it was several inches tall. YIKES, I had to go through and MAKE all of the changes! I sat back down at the computer with the first page and didn't get up for seven hours. Oh what a feeling!

It was some time in the middle of the night - I have no idea when - and I wandered outside for a quick dip in the hot tub. Man oh man what a beautiful sight it was out there! The moon was just over half full but still shining brightly, and below it there was a sea of pure white clouds laying low in the valleys - only a few of the taller ridges were sticking up through it. That moonlight reflected up off the clouds - producing about twice the normal moonlight. I nearly had to return to the cabin and get my sunglasses! And just when I had settled in and everything was quiet - almost too quiet - came this incredibly LOUD voice directly above me - GOOD MORNING! ISN'T IT A GREAT DAY IN THE WILDERNESS!!!!! Holey smokes I nearly wet my pants, except that I was not wearing any and I was already wet. It was a barred owl, and he was sitting on a branch in a tree right next to the deck - I could see him silhouetted in the moonlight, and he was looking down and me and weaving his head back and forth. It was one of those Cloudland moments.

While I still had a TON of writing to do (the introduction, section descriptions, etc.), I wanted to get the completed pages in the hands of the editors as soon as possible, so after printing everything out, I headed out the door to make deliveries. On the way I took a couple of detours to double-check road names/numbers and mileages to several of the waterfalls (they had changed one of the series of road numbers just this past month!). I stopped in Bella Vista and hiked this great little nature trail that I had not been on before - it goes to one of the waterfalls in the book (I had been to the falls before and got the photo, but just never hiked the official trail up to it with a tape recorder in hand). It was great to get out and do a big of hiking on LEVEL ground for once.

By the time I got home from my errands it had been more than a week since I had slept much, and even though I did not write all that much since my encounter with the owl, I had driven 12 hours during the day. Needless to say I was a but tuckered. I took a shower and never made it back down to the main floor of the cabin - I simply stopped at the bed and killed over. I did not wake up until 5 this morning. It felt pretty good.

It is still pretty early in the day here - the sun is not up yet. My girls are out waiting for the bus. And it is rather hazy outside - first time for that in a while. But that haze is beginning to take on a pinkish hue, and is quite lovely.

The view outside my window this morning.

I just stepped outside to take the snapshot above - MAN it was COOL outside! We are to the point though were we can't do much in the way of "window management" with the temp outside/inside - the humidity outside in 92% right now, and we don't need all that moisture in the cabin.

With five or six hours of actual sleep last night I think I am ready to take on the rest of the book - I figure I only have about 50-60 more hours of work to do on it. I'm trying to get it mostly all wrapped up by Friday of this week. Then perhaps a couple more days of tweaking (plus making all of the new edits) and then it will be OFF to the printers! Then I will really be able to celebrate. I plan to get back to regular journal posts at that time too. In the meantime, what is the number of that road again???

8/31/02 It has been another eventful week at Cloudland - mostly spent at the computers working on the new book. But we had a sick child and a couple of near-meltdowns town in just for good measure.

Amber has not been able to kick some sort of ailment she has had all week and missed a couple of days of school, and more importantly for her, a trip to the fair. Pam and I did get to go to the fair - we had to guard the green beans and quilts at the exhibit buildings one evening, which was a hoot. We did get to sample some of the fine cuisine at the fair (we both LOVE corn dogs!), and I even got to throw a few darts on the way out - I placed the stuffed animals on Amber's pillow when we got home.

On the same morning we awoke and discovered that we had no water to the cabin - it was easy to figure out where all the water went. There is an automatic-fill valve connected to our pond out in front, which comes on and replaces the water that is lost during the day. Apparently the valve failed and never shut off - it drained our entire water system, including the 1,000 gallon holding tank up on the hill. This is not a good time of the year to run out of water when you are on a well, and we found out quickly that the well was not able to re-fill that holding tank for a while. We were completely without water for a couple of days - with Amber home sick and her grandma here to look after her while we went to work the fair. This morning I went down to the spring in Boxley and brought up 400 gallons of spring water and put it into the holding tank, which had filled up about 1/3 of the way. So the water crisis is over for now.

Right in the middle of all the water troubles, and just as I was getting to the end of a very long day of making the corrections in the guidebook from three of our editors, the book file got corrupted, all 500 megabytes of it. Oops. Of course I backup, onto CD, as well as onto Pam's computer. But the problem was that I only do that after each session, which was the night before. I had saved the file numerous times during the day, but not bade a backup copy of it. Turns out that not all of the pages were messed up, and I was able to reconstruct the file using my backup copy from the night before and parts of the file that had gotten corrupted (starting with a blank sheet of paper - that process took me four hours to do). So far, so good, and the file seems OK. Of course, the other file seemed OK too up until it went bad. I ended up having to go back and make corrections for a number of the pages, but felt lucky it only took me four hours to get back up to speed.

EVERYTHING is now written, pretty much anyway, and we continue to edit and tweak, edit and tweak. Once we get everything just the way we want it, then we will sit down and do two major things - first we will go through and make sure all of the names and other data match - some of the info is listed in five different locations, and I often change things as I go along here and there. And then I will sit down and mentally go through every single word in the book, hiking to each waterfalls, driving to the trailheads, making sure that all of the turns and other directions are correct. Pam will be going through and reading everything one last time as well. There is not way to produce a perfect guidebook with no mistakes, but were are giving it our best shot and hope to have as good a one as possible.

THAT MEANS that by the end of the weekend (isn't this a holiday weekend or something?) the book should be burned to CD and ready to ship to the printers. I'm going to lie down and take a nap..........then I'll go for  a hike and see if I can get back to journal writing...Oops, I forgot about the next project that I need to get started on...

September 2002 Journal

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E-mail Pam or Amber