Day 1
The Ouachita Trail (OT) (formerly called the Ouachita National Recreation Trail) runs from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Arkansas (near Little Rock). For this trip I started out at Hwy 7 near Jessieville. I got a late start due to not wanting to wake my daughter up to early on the day after Christmas to shuttle me there (still much better than asking my wife to spend her morning shuttling me). Great starting out with weather in the 40s, and forecast had been for some rain, so when after it started I decided to stay at the shelter after 7 miles. I had not seen anyone on the trail all day.
The OT has a dozen shelters built in the last 10 years or so, with a few more planned. One nice thing about the shelters on the OT is that no one ever seems to use them. I have never seen a person at one. I have also never seen a mouse at one, probably because there are not enough people leaving crumbs of food. So based upon this I set up my tent in the shelter, and had plenty of room to lay things out to dry (or at least I hoped they would).
Day 2
Forecast I had been checking prior for the trip was for today and the rest of my trip to be clear with no rain. Now things had suddenly changed and the rain that had been going since yesterday afternoon would go off and on through the rest of the day. Therefor I set my goal for the next shelter 15.1 miles away. Started out in the dark at 6:30am, so slow moving originally to make sure I was still on the trail. Once the day light came so did the rain again. While stopping at a road crossing for a break I noticed my pack cover had fallen off, so I had to walk back probably a half mile to find it. This is something that had never happened to me before (and hopefully never will again).
The only people I saw on the trail today were a Boy Scout Troop. I guess everyone else with any sense knew not to be out in cold rainy weather. It was a long day with all the rain. Crystal Prong Creek which has boulders you walk across was mostly under water. I had to throw my poles ahead to the shore like spears as I jumped and crawled across. I wish I had taken a picture but I did not want to have dig my phone out of my pack at the time. It was raining hard and I wanted to get to the next shelter before dark.
Day 3
Woke up in the shelter to the wonderful sound of no rain. With temps down in the 20/30s unfortunately none of the things I had laid out had really dried. I did not have any bread bags with me so the previous day I had used a Walmart bag and a Jimmy Jam clothing bag to try to keep my socks dry from my wet shoes, they only worked for a few hours. Now the Walmart bag was full of holes, so since I really did not need my other clothing bag, since all of the clothes except what I had on were wet, so I used it. The night before it was getting dark when I saw the shelter so I made a beeline for it. Now I could not see where the trail was. So I decided to make as big of a circle as I could while still having the shelter in sight. This overall was a good idea but did not find the trail until about 270* later. Just wish I turned the other direction at first (then only 90*).
I met a hunter in a pickup at road crossing and found out that these three days Dec 26-28 had actually been a special Holiday Hunt for deer. I guess I had not seen or heard any hunters the previous days due to the rain. I learned a valuable lesson about gloves. Do not use them in the rain, because they will be soaked and useless later when it is too cold to rain and you really do need them. Mine are weatherproof, I believe this means you can play in the snow with them, but not waterproof. I guess I should have bought some of Jimmy Jam’s, but at the time I thought I will not be out when it is cold and wet (right). I went 9.3 miles to Hwy 9 where my wife picked me up.
Day 3a
Back at the house washing and drying everything up. Wife was happy for me to help put away the Christmas stuff and clean up the attic. With temperatures heading down to 20s and even teens at night decided to go back with my 20* bag and leave my new Western Mountaineering HighLite at home (it is only 35* and I really bought it for the summer on the AT).
Day 4
Had my daughter drop me off and I met Déjà vu. You may remember him from TOS. He got that name from the way he did the PCT with 2 cars. He would hike from one car to the other, those hike both ways as he leapfrogged the cars. Thus other hikers would see him going both directions. His other name is Roadkill for the way he would takes naps on the side of the trail on hot afternoons. Great day due to no rain and did 13.2 miles and set my tent up in the woods.
Day 5
Lots of creeks/streams/drains to cross today. I did dozens on this trip. I feel like I could be a ballerina with all of the spinning around I did to look for where the blazes went (trail hard to see due to leaves everywhere) and skipping (jumping across stones). A couple of crossings today I had to take off my trail runners and socks and used my Vivobarefeet to cross. Near the end of the day went over a lot of finger ridges (up and down). Probably need to do this section a few times again in the spring to get ready for the Roller Coaster in VA this summer.
Hiked 17.5 miles to finish the OT. I have now hiked 136 miles of the OT with 87 miles in the middle to go. By the time I got to Pinnacle Mountain State Park it was dark. I now had to walk a couple of miles in the dark on a road with no shoulder to get to Maumelle Campground. Not a great thing on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately a Park Ranger offered me a ride in the back of his pickup to the park.
Day 6
Took the Arkansas River Trail to the North Little Rock Greyhound station. The Arkansas River Trail is really more of a bicycle trail with highlight being going over the Big Dam Bridge the longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge in North America. Ended up doing 15 miles, the second half in the rain. Checked in with the bus station and then went on to grab some food. While walking under Interstate 30 I had interesting encounters with the local “homeless” guys. I was soaking wet with my backpack on, big slit in my pants leg from briars, and had not shaved in a couple of the weeks. The first guy was younger and appeared to be concerned I was invading on his turf and asked where I came from, so I just told him Jessieville and kept walking. Then I ran into an older guy who asked if I had eaten today, then he pointed across the street and said there was chicken in the dumpster behind KFC.
I will try to post some pictures later, but I did not take that many since most of the best views were blocked by rain and clouds due to the weather.
The Ouachita Trail (OT) (formerly called the Ouachita National Recreation Trail) runs from Talimena State Park in Oklahoma to Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Arkansas (near Little Rock). For this trip I started out at Hwy 7 near Jessieville. I got a late start due to not wanting to wake my daughter up to early on the day after Christmas to shuttle me there (still much better than asking my wife to spend her morning shuttling me). Great starting out with weather in the 40s, and forecast had been for some rain, so when after it started I decided to stay at the shelter after 7 miles. I had not seen anyone on the trail all day.
The OT has a dozen shelters built in the last 10 years or so, with a few more planned. One nice thing about the shelters on the OT is that no one ever seems to use them. I have never seen a person at one. I have also never seen a mouse at one, probably because there are not enough people leaving crumbs of food. So based upon this I set up my tent in the shelter, and had plenty of room to lay things out to dry (or at least I hoped they would).
Day 2
Forecast I had been checking prior for the trip was for today and the rest of my trip to be clear with no rain. Now things had suddenly changed and the rain that had been going since yesterday afternoon would go off and on through the rest of the day. Therefor I set my goal for the next shelter 15.1 miles away. Started out in the dark at 6:30am, so slow moving originally to make sure I was still on the trail. Once the day light came so did the rain again. While stopping at a road crossing for a break I noticed my pack cover had fallen off, so I had to walk back probably a half mile to find it. This is something that had never happened to me before (and hopefully never will again).
The only people I saw on the trail today were a Boy Scout Troop. I guess everyone else with any sense knew not to be out in cold rainy weather. It was a long day with all the rain. Crystal Prong Creek which has boulders you walk across was mostly under water. I had to throw my poles ahead to the shore like spears as I jumped and crawled across. I wish I had taken a picture but I did not want to have dig my phone out of my pack at the time. It was raining hard and I wanted to get to the next shelter before dark.
Day 3
Woke up in the shelter to the wonderful sound of no rain. With temps down in the 20/30s unfortunately none of the things I had laid out had really dried. I did not have any bread bags with me so the previous day I had used a Walmart bag and a Jimmy Jam clothing bag to try to keep my socks dry from my wet shoes, they only worked for a few hours. Now the Walmart bag was full of holes, so since I really did not need my other clothing bag, since all of the clothes except what I had on were wet, so I used it. The night before it was getting dark when I saw the shelter so I made a beeline for it. Now I could not see where the trail was. So I decided to make as big of a circle as I could while still having the shelter in sight. This overall was a good idea but did not find the trail until about 270* later. Just wish I turned the other direction at first (then only 90*).
I met a hunter in a pickup at road crossing and found out that these three days Dec 26-28 had actually been a special Holiday Hunt for deer. I guess I had not seen or heard any hunters the previous days due to the rain. I learned a valuable lesson about gloves. Do not use them in the rain, because they will be soaked and useless later when it is too cold to rain and you really do need them. Mine are weatherproof, I believe this means you can play in the snow with them, but not waterproof. I guess I should have bought some of Jimmy Jam’s, but at the time I thought I will not be out when it is cold and wet (right). I went 9.3 miles to Hwy 9 where my wife picked me up.
Day 3a
Back at the house washing and drying everything up. Wife was happy for me to help put away the Christmas stuff and clean up the attic. With temperatures heading down to 20s and even teens at night decided to go back with my 20* bag and leave my new Western Mountaineering HighLite at home (it is only 35* and I really bought it for the summer on the AT).
Day 4
Had my daughter drop me off and I met Déjà vu. You may remember him from TOS. He got that name from the way he did the PCT with 2 cars. He would hike from one car to the other, those hike both ways as he leapfrogged the cars. Thus other hikers would see him going both directions. His other name is Roadkill for the way he would takes naps on the side of the trail on hot afternoons. Great day due to no rain and did 13.2 miles and set my tent up in the woods.
Day 5
Lots of creeks/streams/drains to cross today. I did dozens on this trip. I feel like I could be a ballerina with all of the spinning around I did to look for where the blazes went (trail hard to see due to leaves everywhere) and skipping (jumping across stones). A couple of crossings today I had to take off my trail runners and socks and used my Vivobarefeet to cross. Near the end of the day went over a lot of finger ridges (up and down). Probably need to do this section a few times again in the spring to get ready for the Roller Coaster in VA this summer.
Hiked 17.5 miles to finish the OT. I have now hiked 136 miles of the OT with 87 miles in the middle to go. By the time I got to Pinnacle Mountain State Park it was dark. I now had to walk a couple of miles in the dark on a road with no shoulder to get to Maumelle Campground. Not a great thing on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately a Park Ranger offered me a ride in the back of his pickup to the park.
Day 6
Took the Arkansas River Trail to the North Little Rock Greyhound station. The Arkansas River Trail is really more of a bicycle trail with highlight being going over the Big Dam Bridge the longest pedestrian/bicycle bridge in North America. Ended up doing 15 miles, the second half in the rain. Checked in with the bus station and then went on to grab some food. While walking under Interstate 30 I had interesting encounters with the local “homeless” guys. I was soaking wet with my backpack on, big slit in my pants leg from briars, and had not shaved in a couple of the weeks. The first guy was younger and appeared to be concerned I was invading on his turf and asked where I came from, so I just told him Jessieville and kept walking. Then I ran into an older guy who asked if I had eaten today, then he pointed across the street and said there was chicken in the dumpster behind KFC.
I will try to post some pictures later, but I did not take that many since most of the best views were blocked by rain and clouds due to the weather.
The road to glory cannot be followed with much baggage.
Richard Ewell, CSA General
Richard Ewell, CSA General
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