Saturday, March 25, 2017

Ozark Highland Trail, AR- Hurricane Wilderness area is INCREDIBLE! 4 Days, 3 nights March 16th- 19th 2017

Hiking/Backpacking
Mar 16, 2017
Duration (Total) 0h 0m , Distance 14.5 mi
This area has some challenging inclines, narrow trails, challenging creek crossings, and huge trees to go around- be careful (not really a beginner trail in my opinion)
-Tracked by kayakthemidwest, on Ramblr
This is a very beautiful part of the Ozark Mountains...and also a very rugged section- lots of uphill climbing, and scurrying around trees, with creek crossings

Day 1: Set out Thursday night- only hiked about a mile and set camp on the ridge- temps cool and overcast- great fire that evening in an incredible patch of pine trees

Day 2: Foggy, cool and misty/overcast. Hiked to Hurricane Creek- creek was up a little, but made an attempt to cross anyhow. The suggested path across was a "no way in hell" moment" - so I went downstream about 150 yards to cross. current caught foot on slippery rock (bottom is chock full of these) and ended up underwater with my pack in tow- got to other side and took off my cloths- very fortunate I had dry clothing. Had a lot to due with how I hit the water (face first) and the fact that I made my pack cover super tight just in case- should have strapped boots to pack- they got soaked. Got to other side and stripped down and put on what I had dry (long underwear and hiking boots are quite the look)...passed the natural bridge and set camp. Hung everything out to dry and was using camp stove to attempt to dry pants. Set up camp along Hurricane Creek, and made sure to strap tent down using guy lines- strong storms in area....ended up not storming, but saw lightning in distance through tent

Day 3: broke camp super late (11:00) due to incredible natural event....sunlight! Managed to dry out most clothing....hike along Hurricane Creek beautiful! Hurricane Ridge was another story- trees down all over place...pitch of trail goes straight up- quite a nice workout (and, as you might know, day 3 feels different on the legs than day 1 lol). Crossed Hurricane Creek again past high water diversion trail and camped on Hurricane creek on nice flat sandy spot. (2) coyotes ran through camp around 2 am, barking at each other into the distance along the valley. Was very warm this day (zipped the pants to shorts) and I was able to set up the temp without the rainfly, which made for an incredible star show that night after fire time...wow!

Day 4: 7 miles in front of me (almost half of the miles of the trip in one day) took the high water trail up...pretty much straight up (as expected) until it hits the main trail, than mostly straight down...beautiful waterfall about a mile into the journey back...warmed up nicely this day as well

This place is beautiful- the part between the crossings have some technical spots due to the trees down and the challenging river crossing

Wonderful place :-)
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
Click http://rblr.co/PbNj to see more details.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Ozark Highland Trail: Arbaugh Trail Head to Lewis Prong Creek and back

Hiking/Backpacking
Mar 5, 2017
Duration (Total) 0h 0m , Distance 8.6 mi
The extra pair of Teva sandals came in very handy with the two river crossings
-Tracked by kayakthemidwest, on Ramblr
Incredible 2 day, 1 night backpack trip on the Ozark Highland Trail in northern Arkansas..first creek crossing almost felt "technical"...if the water would have been a little higher, could have been more of a challenge
Day 1: Sunny and in the 60's...set camp at an established camp on Lewis Prong Creek...beautiful area, great night to be under the stars
Day 2: Rainy and cool...great chance to see how my equipment held out (always good to have Frogg Toggs on hand)...beautiful with the misty rain and waterfall on the way back to the trail head.
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
Click http://rblr.co/PItg to see more details.