Showing posts with label Hiking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiking. Show all posts

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.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Ozark Highland Trail, AR: Cherry Bend to Mulberry River

Hiking/Backpacking
Feb 25, 2017
Duration (Total) 0h 0m , Distance 14.5 mi
-Tracked by kayakthemidwest, on Ramblr
3 Days, 2 Nights on the Ozark Highland Trail in the Boston Mountains, Arkansas
Day 1: Cherry Bend parking lot to Hare Mountain- Weather turned towards the evening- 25 degrees with wind chills around 18 degrees- made breaking camp in the morning more challenging- some of these gusts I would guess got up to 20-25 mph- pretty intense cold- tent gear held up great- getting out of the tent was the challenge- beautiful, beautiful place- incredible views with the leaf off- old well made water abundant- camp site had helpful bear pole and picnic table (quite the surprise)
Day 2: Hiked from Hare Mountain to Herrod Creek- pretty much all down hill, some really incredible views coming down from Hare Mountain, and some nice rock falls on the way down to Herrods- set camp along the creek, water was running nice- cooler temps, but no wind as the previous night
Day 3: Hiked Herrods Creek to the Mulberry River- crossing over Indian Creek was a challenge- it is a pretty wet crossing- tried to not make it wet by crossing downstream in a rock bed- almost took a bath, but fortunately did not...switchback to get back to Mulberry parking is beautiful...some really nice canyons, caves and waterfalls along this stretch
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
          
Click http://rblr.co/Ozk5 to see more details.