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.

No Comments »

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.

No Comments »

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!

No Comments »

This is where we had to bail out..we had already come through the worst part.

With the torrential rains we’ve been having, the Buffalo River has been up and moving for a while. That being said, on Friday, Sara and I decided to conquer the river. The level was a couple of inches below flood stage and we had no idea what we were in for.

Just about every rapid on the Buffalo was about a class higher than usual. We were tossed to and fro with the numerous whitewater rapids and hairpin turns, but we managed through it all. That is until…

Gray Rock Rapids, or Hell’s Half Acre, or the Haystacks…whatever you wanna call it. This is normally a solid class II, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a class III on this particular day. We could hear the raging whitewater long before we saw it. When we rounded the riverbend we came face to face with the monster. “Sara, you might want to get low in the canoe, cuz this one’s gonna be rough,” I said calmly. Then, we entered the rapids. I got to my knees immediately and started paddling for our lives. The standing waves were easily 3 to 4 feet and were coming from every direction. I thought it would never come to an end as I paddled furiously to correct the course of the canoe that was being flung in every direction.

We would go over one wave, and another would be waiting. As we dropped over them…water would pour into the boat. Then, a wave would come in from the side and pour more water into the boat. This was an open canoe in a mess of waves. That spells trouble. The water we took in made the canoe especially tipsy, but we perservered and made it almost all of the way through…but then I realized I was all wet. No, I didn’t wet my pants…this water was cold and the canoe was floating below the surface of the water because it had taken in all of the water it could hold.

We bailed! My wife assumed the whitewater safety position floating on her back through the rapids. I, on the other hand, did not want to lose my canoe so I grabbed on for dear life and tried as best I could to fight the deep water, standing waves, and rapids to get to shore. Then, it hit me…the shock of the ice cold water. I couldn’t breathe! My lungs wouldn’t expand all of the way. “Sara, don’t forget to breathe!,” I yelled. She turned around and I saw the shock of the cold water hit her, too. She was forcing herself to breathe and had cut her ankle on a rock turning around to see if I was alright.

I finally got control of my breath. “Swim for the shore on the left!” I grabbed the canoe and swam furiously to the shore…grabbing Sara as I went by. We made it to shore, but our paddles were gone. Luckily… the paddles rested in an eddy about 1/2 a mile downstream and some kayakers grabbed them for me. We dumped the canoe and finished out our trip just fine. Thanking God the entire way that we had worn our lifejackets (something we don’t normally do on the relatively easy Buffalo river).

“So, what’s the Easter message?,” you ask. It hit me later that my life is a lot like this canoe trip at times. I try everything in my power to keep myself afloat and not tip the boat. Yet my strength and paddling abilities are no match for a raging river. I can try everything…but if the waves are higher than my canoe…it’s gonna go under.

I try to live life in my own power and yet I fail miserably. I try to do things my own way, to keep myself afloat…and I always make the wrong decisions. This world is more powerful than me and I am at it’s mercy when I choose my own way. Left to myself, I’d disappoint my family, my friends, my church…you name it. Yet there is something more powerful than the world. More powerful than my inability to do the right thing. That’s the power of God. The power of Easter, the power of the resurrection.

The Bible says that the same power that raised Christ from the dead, is the same power that helps me get through the day. You ask me if I could still be a Christian if the Resurrection, if Easter was a story, a myth? No way. But the Easter story is true…it’s not a fairy tale and if I’d just open my mind to the truth I’d realize it takes more faith to believe it’s all a lie than it does to believe that the Bible tells the truth.

It’s because of the resurrection that I can get through my days. That I can make the right decisions. That I can have power for daily living.

And you can have that power, too. Ask me how.

No Comments »

One of the easy descents…

I definitely don’t feel like a sissy after doing this crazy bushwack on Saturday. Indian Creek is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It’s also one of the hardest hikes I’ve ever done. It’s definitely not for amatuers or the weak.

The adventure begins as a tiny creek no wider than 5 feet. After going downstream just a couple hundred yards, we found out really quick why this is not a recommended hike…and why it’s a photographer’s dream. We were treated to our first major waterfall, a 40 foot waterfall dropping into a box canyon and it was frozen solid all but a little trickle. Not much farther downstream another falls, and another, and another. The falls just keep coming.

What makes this hike so hard is that there is no trail to follow until you pick up the Buffalo River Trail almost 2 miles to where the stream converges with the Buffalo National River. It’s a combination of boulder hopping and even a little technical climbing. The problem is…there’s no easy way out of this place and once you go a little while…there’s no turning around and heading back. People fall and get hurt every year attempting this hike. Yet something draws you to go further and further downstream.

After several waterfalls and several steep descents down steep canyons, we emerged at the eye of the needle. This is a beautiful rock formation inside the creek with large hole in the middle that looks similar to a sewing needle. It has over a 100 foot drop on the other side. We were surrounded by walls on all sides and a very steep class 2 or 3 climb up and over the needle if we wanted to continue. Of course we did…and it got a little hairy at times. When we got to the top we were treatedwith what comes next…a descent that was just as steep. It took 10 minutes of controlled sliding on our rears before we reached the bottom. What we found at the bottom was another beautiful waterfall.

After leaving this fall we were treated to another steep descent followed by a class 3 scramble down a cliff that required use of a rope. However, at the bottom of this scramble was the most beautiful falls yet. I stopped to take several pictures:

This is the point where I almost died. I was busy photographing this beautiful waterfall when I heard a loud crash. I turned and looked at my buddy, Troy who was pale. I boulder larger than my head that originated from a cliff overhanging those falls had broken loose and fallen no more than five feet from my head! It was time to pack up and head out. Shortly after this point, we picked up a trail because we had arrived at the area of the creek used often. We followed it out to a nearby campground and then had a choice: A 5 mile hike straight uphill back to the truck or hitching a ride…it was 4:30 pm…we hitched a ride back to the top.

This place is an absolutely stunning area that gets very little use once you start getting to the technical climbs. Most people just wander over to the campground. Those people are missing out because the true beauty is on the other side of those climbs. It was one of the most rewarding, yet hardest hikes I’ve ever been on. Not to mention it provided for some of the best photos I’ve ever taken. I’ll definitely be going back again sometime.

How to get there: From Harrison, AR take Highway 7 South to Jasper. Turn Right onto 74. Follow 74 past Kyle’s Landing until you see a sign for Horshoe Canyon Ranch. Just across from the sign is a pond and a little dirt raod. The road dead ends at Indian Creek…just head downstream. A little word of advice: bring two vehicles and park one at Kyle’s Landing Campground. This hike is not for the weak of heart…or the weak of legs.

2 Comments »