A Little Closer To Heaven

I’ve got a few things to finalize and then I’m headed for the BRT. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. Check back at the middle of next week for some new posts.

See ya in a week!

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*In my original post, I gave a few more details but I removed some specifics (too many crazy people in the world).  I’ll give the specifics in my trip reports.

Okay, everyone…here’s the itinerary for my thru-hike:

Day 1-  about 9 or 10 miles

This first day will be pretty easy. Plenty of beautiful views and creeks with waterfalls. Only 600 feet or so of elevation gain. This day will be the best chance we have of spotting some elk along the trail.

Day 2- 11 miles or so

This will be the most difficult day of hiking. It will have the most elevation gain of the entire trip with a gain of about 1,000 feet in a mile and a half. There are several beautiful overlooks of the river along this section of the trail and we are looking forward to camping near the river. It will make for a pretty peaceful night of sleep with the sound of the river running nearby.

Day 3- 5 miles

This is a very easy day with one purpose only. Waterfalls! We intentionally are going to take all day to hike 5 miles exploring the many creeks along the trail. We will spend extra time exploring the much photographed Indian Creek and the rarely visited Shop Creek slot canyon. After a lot of exploring and picture taking, we’ll head a few miles down the trail from Shop Creek and make camp.

Day 4- 12-13 miles

This will be a very easy day also. From here on out, there is little to no elevation gain. Only beautiful waterfalls and historic sites to visit. There is an old Civil war graveyard and many homesteads to check out.

We’re looking forward to a great trip. I’m anticipating the trail to be pretty heavily trafficked due to Spring Break thru-hikers. It should still be pretty good and we’ve never had trouble with any loud, drunken party animals in the past.

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This weekend is the beginning of a very anticipated Spring Break for the school I work at. What does that mean to me? Time for a quick thru-hike!

Starting this Friday, I will be thru-hiking the entire 36.5 miles of the Buffalo River trail from Boxley Valley to Pruitt Ranger Station. The weather is expected to be beautiful all except for one rainy day. With all of the rain we’ve been getting, it’s going to make the waterfalls absolutely beautiful! In fact, we’re going to make this trip last 4 full days so that we can have a day of bushwacking the various waterfalls in the area. Specifically, we’ll be heading to Indian Creek again and back to the Shop Creek Slot Canyon . The water oughta be flowing very well and with the cloudy weather, I’m expecting some great pictures.

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for a detailed trip report of each day on the trail. Also, I’m going to be making a VERY BIG announcement at the beginning of next week. Tomorrow, I’ll post my gear list. After many gripes, my daily blogging is back with a vengeance…well…at least until my trip starts.

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Picture this: Over 12,000 acres of pure wilderness. No official trails, no humans, no car sounds, and no towns anywhere close…just you and nature. Who isn’t mesmerized when they find one of the few places left like this in the United States. The Buffalo River is home to exactly that. It’s an area called the Upper Buffalo Wilderness and it is one of the most beautiful areas in the National Park.

About a week ago, my buddy Troy and I decided to explore this area. We had always heard that this place was pretty amazing and we just had to see it for ourselves. One of the only few ways into the middle of this wilderness is to bushwack from the waterfalls on the way to Hawksbill Crag, the most photographed spot in all of Arkansas. So we headed out to the crag and amazingly we were the only ones there on this beautiful Saturday. After checking out the crag, we backtracked to the waterfalls and started our journey into the wilderness. Our wives only released us for a day, so we would only be able to tip the surface of what this wilderness had to offer.

We followed the creek from the waterfalls along the Hawksbill Crag trail and were instantly treated to another, way more spectacular waterfall that few people see due to an unwillingness to get off the beaten path. From there, we headed on down and met with another creek.

This creek was absolutely beautiful from start to finish. We followed its winding path hopping across boulders and doing some scrambling for several hours and what we saw took our breath away several times. We saw beautiful waterfalls, caves, rock formations, and miniature slot canyons…all within a couple of miles of following this creek. The paths we took did get a little dangerous at times. Wet rock and moss do not mix well and my shins and rear end felt the pain of learning that the hard way several times.

We finally stopped when the creek we were following merged with Whitaker Creek, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful creeks in the wilderness. We would have continued further and eventually ended up at the river, but we knew we’d be in trouble with the mistresses, so we turned around and headed back the way we came with both of us thinking the same thing. We gotta go back.

What we found in this wilderness was freedom. Miles from everything civilized and surrounded by absolute raw beauty the way  God originally created it. The quiet, beauty, and ruggedness of this place is forever etched in my mind and every now and then I hear it calling, “come back to me.” And I will return soon. Next time with my wife’s permission to stay a few days, of course. Ha Ha.

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I wouldn’t normally blog on a holiday, but I figure I owe you one for my lack of posts last week. So, in honor of President’s Day…here are a couple of ideas for spending your President’s Day in the outdoors:

1. How about hiking the Presidential Traverse?  I mean c’mon…I don’t think there’s anything more patriotic than bagging 11 peaks in the Presidential Mountain Range in 1-2 days. Show some respect for your country and forefathers in a hardcore way this year. For some info on this hike…check this site out.

Photo Courtesy of  Flickr user bcmom

2. If the Presidential’s are too far away…give the next best thing a try. Head out to the Black Hills of South Dakota and scope out our famous forefather’s faces sculpted onto a mountain side before heading out to horshoe lake on this out and back.

3. If you work at an unpatriotic job like mine and won’t be getting the day off…you can always spend your free time scoping these places out and wishing you were going there. I know that’s what I’ll be doing.

Happy President’s Day, everyone!

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