A Little Closer To Heaven

This was a big day for me! I finally had the chance to do some hiking in the Appalachians and it was my dog’s first real hike!

My wife and I were in desperate need of some away time in the mountains so we headed to Shenandoah to hike the 10 mile Riprap Trail. I knew it was going to be a great day when we saw a black bear cross the road in front of our car on the way to the trailhead. Sadly, that would be the only bear we saw for the day. Man, why didn’t I have my camera out while driving?

The first few miles were absolutely beautiful. We were on the Appalachian Trail for a while and got to see some beautiful vistas. Solitude was very easy to find on this particular Thursday. We only ran into a handful of AT thru-hikers and saw no one once we departed the AT.

After several scenic vistas we went down, down, down for several miles. Only 3 miles into the hike, my dog was already wiped out. He kept trying to lay down in the middle of the trail He walks about 15 miles a week so this was a definite shocker. In a short amount of time we lost about 1,500 feet of altitude. What we found in the valley floor was nature’s beauty at it’s finest! Swift mountain streams, waterfalls, and wildlife. The beauty of Virginia is far more than what I had imagined. We stopped for a lunch break and let our dog, Duke, get some rest. While I was filling his dog bowl with water, I kicked over my Nalgene Everyday bottle (the new BPA-free one) and spilled 1/3 of the water. Crap! I had packed enough water because I didn’t feel like filtering any. So much for all the extra weight I had carried. There went that plan! I filtered some water at the next stream and everything was fine.

 All too soon it was time to ascend back up. We made up the 1,500 feet and then some on the way up. The remaining 4 miles would be a continual uphill slope. We made our way up Rocks Mountain (such an original name). When we got to the top there were some beautiful rocky outcrops called Chimney Rock, a popular destination among Shenandoah Hikers, but today we had it all to ourselves.

 After a few minutes of taking in the beauty, we made an uneventful, but beautiful 1 mile trip back to the car.

It was a great day of hiking. I can’t begin to tell you how much I needed to get outside and enjoy the mountains! My dog made it just fine and showed us just how capable he is. He’s gonna be a great hiking buddy.

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I’m officially unemployed for about 5 days before I move to the big VA! Whoo-Hoo! Time to live life to the fullest!

Okay, I guess I don’t have time for that. But I am going car camping this weekend as probably my last outdoors adventure in Arkansas for a very long time . We’re packing up this afternoon and heading out for a day or two of camping on the river.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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If it’s boulder fields you’re looking for…Arkansas is not necessarily the first place that comes to mind. But I’ve come to find out that Arkansas has many surprises for those looking for some adventure. This past weekend I finally had the chance to summit a mountain that I’ve been eyeing for about a year.

Pinnacle mountain sits just a few minutes from Downtown Little Rock. Its Rocky face can be seen from the interstate. I’ve always been intrigued while driving past it and I wasn’t about to pass up a chance to climb it before I move to Virginia. It sits in the beautiful Ouachita Mountains, which are the only mountain range in the United States that range East to West rather than North to South.

There are basically two ways to the top of this mountain. You can take the relatively easy West face or the strenuos but short East face. We decided to summit the East face and descend the West face taking the base trail back around to the car.

The East face trail starts the ascent the minute you arrive on the trail. After about .2 miles, you leave the trail and it’s boulder scrambling the rest of the way to the top. Scrambling these boulders were a lot of fun and almost make you feel like you’re in the White Mountains instead of the Ouachitas. We followed the bulls-eyes painted on the rock until we finally arrived at the summit.

We hung around the top for about a half hour with a couple of friends of ours, and headed down the West face.

The descent is rather easy because the sandstone has formed stairs that are not too hard to follow. We arrived at the base of the mountain and took the swampy base trail back to the car making the total loop a little over 2.5 miles. It’s not too long of a trail but it’s definitely worthy of the Amazing Destinations list. It’s a refreshing hike that can be done on a time crunch and it offers stunning views at the top and along the way up due to the lack of trees.

Bonus: Stop by Mexico Chiquito on you’re way out of town for some of the world’s best fruit punch and some great burritos and queso dip.

Directions: From Interstate 430, take exit #9 and turn right at the end of the exit. Follow Highway 10 to Pinnacle Valley Dr. and make a right turn. Follow the signs along the road to the East face parking lot. Make sure you bring a camera.

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Beep-Beep, Beep-Beep. “Wha..?” “It’s still dark outside.” Those were the first thoughts in my head this particular Friday morning. It was the first day of Spring break and also the first day of my Buffalo River Trail thru-hike. I bounced out of bed, scarfed down some instant oatmeal, grabbed my packed-the-night-before backpack, and headed for the car. I was at Troy’s house by 6:00 and we were soon on our way to the Boxley Valley trailhead.

It was cloudy and chilly this morning and we knew the forecast for the rest of the weekend was anything but pleasant, but we weren’t gonna let anything stop us from an amazing 4 day trip in the Ozark Mountains. We were treated instantly to a cold, wet creek crossing before we started our climb. Up, up, up, and further up we went.

When we got to the top, we were treated to a beautiful bald on top of the ridge. We stayed above the treeline for quite a while with beautiful views all around. For a mile or so, it felt like we were no longer in Arkansas, but the Appalachians. Then, all too quickly, we headed back into the cover of trees which we would stay under for the rest of the day.

We were treated to some beautiful waterfalls along the way and even had a couple of wet crossings to soak our sore, tired feet in. We stopped for lunch about noon and Troy found that he had a pretty good size blister on his heel. That was pretty shocking to develop that thing on day one. It busted open and I convinced him to pour some germ-x in it to clean it out before slapping on a moleskin. It was pretty funny to hear a grown man scream like that! Little did I know, his blister continued to hurt him the rest of the day and progressively got worse.

After several unrewarding ups and downs we started our last big push before we made camp. We pressed on for a while with very few rewarding views or anythng interesting to see at all. This was a long 3 miles that was uphill the entire time. Then, we finally arrived at Big Hollow, our camp for the night. We set up camp and then at the staple of backpackers all across America…ramen noodles.

Exhausted from our big day of hiking, we went to bed as soon as it got dark expecting a great night’s sleep…

We got anything but that…about 1:00 am the storms started rolling in. They had been predicting severe storms all along with torrential downpours. We could see lightning striking all around and we were on the highest point on this section of the trail. We decided, wisely, to head to lower ground so we donned our headlamps and raingear and headed down the trail 1 mile to Ponca. I’m pretty sure we were almost struck by lightning twice. We took shelter under the Highway 74 bridge and the storms did not even slow down until 4 am. We stayed at Ponca until daylight and headed back to our camp.

My buddy Troy’s blister continued to get worse and worse. To complicate things, he had been walking funny with heavy weight on his back which caused him to injure his ankle so that he could almost not walk. We decided to pack up our gear, hike down to Ponca, and go home early, defeated, to prevent further injury.

So, there ya have it…Spring break was cut short, though we did manage to fit in a canoe trip from Ponca to Kyle’s the following Monday. It wasn’t everything I dreamed, and I felt pretty lousy about quitting, but I still had an enjoyable time.

Lesson learned: If you buy a new insert for your shoes, give them time to break in just like you would new shoes.

Have a good weekend everyone!

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I know a few of you were worried about my safety with the torrential pouring rains that lasted 3 days and dumped a foot of water on the Buffalo. I’m back from my trip and I’m fine and dandy. Did everything go as planned? No way. Was it everything that I hoped? Not even close. Was it still fun? You bet! I’ll let you know everything that went down and all of the changes that were made to the itinerary starting next week.

Stay tuned Monday for some very exciting news from my life!

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