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Pat's May Blog If This is your first time here, you might want to start from the beginning with my previous months Blog's January Blog February Blog March Blog April Blog Current Blog For Those That Don't Know Me, You can click here to read my Bio Tuesday May 1st 2007 We left Petit Jean State Park yesterday and drove North heading towards the Buffalo River. So far, everyone we've talked to in Arkansas has recommended this river for Kayaking. With every website we've checked on it, saying it's that persons favorite river, I think we're going to like this one. It's 150 miles long, and we're seriously thinking about doing the entire thing. Make Sure to check out the Petit Jean Gallery in the Gallery Section, as it's loaded with many great shots of the beautiful water falls and hiking trails.
We are going to spend some time in the Ozarks exploring the Northern part of Arkansas before moving over to Tennessee where we have plans on meeting a bunch of friends from Michigan at the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester Tennessee. It's a week long music festival held on a 600 acre farm in the country. What better way to hear some great music then relaxing in the country with good friends?! Stay tuned to see what beauty the Buffalo River holds in store for us, and where this 5th month on the road will bring us. Thursday May 3rd 2007
So, we're off to the Buffalo River. There hasn't been one person in the Arkansas area that hasn't recommended the Buffalo River. Every website we've read on it says its one of the best in the United States! I'm excited and cant wait to paddle this beauty. Staying in the Greers Ferry Dam Campground in Heber Springs, we met some really nice people; one couple was traveling back home to Wisconsin from Florida while the other couple was a few spaces down from us, he invited us in and after touring his motorhome, Cindy sat down saying "I need to get that image out of my head right now!" Their 32 foot motorhome had a huge slide the size of our entire trailer. I agree with her, we need to get that image out of our heads right now. We packed up camp in the rain, and headed North. HWY 5 North is similar to HWY 7, very twisty and a little scary in the pouring rain. Cindy commented that since it's raining, we would be passing Blanchard Springs Caverns and we could spend the day touring the caves which would keep us in out of the rain. Blanchard Springs Caverns & Middle Earth We turned off of HWY 5, and headed straight up the side of a mountain towards Blanchard Springs. I went in and introduced myself to the Park Rangers asking if I could bring a Camera and Tripod in for the tour? I was introduced to Toni, the PR representative for the park. We sat and talked for a few minutes and although they don't normally allow people to bring in tripods, she said since they were pretty slow today, she would make an exception and allow me to bring it in.
Blanchard Springs Caverns is one of the largest cave systems in the United States and the largest in Arkansas. It consists of 3 different caves with each having their own unique features. You can tour the Dripstone Trail, which is an hour long and the easiest of the three sections of the cave. This is the tour we went on, which brings you 240 feet below ground or the equivalent of 21 floors under the top of the mountain. We really wanted to go on the Discovery Trail which is the middle section of the cave, but Toni told us this time of year, they have that section of the cave closed because of the mating Bat population!
The only real way to describe the views we saw is to tell you to watch Lord of the Rings, where the scene is set in Middle Earth. I felt like we were on a movie set and couldn't believe how cool this was. I'd think if I was a little kid in here, I would have had nightmares with all the crazy monsters my mind was imagining would live in a place like this. You walk into a room that reminded me of a large auditorium, only the walls look like hardened magma and the cave's chilly 58 degrees kept you nice and cool with the warm muggy weather outside. I remembered touring the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky as a child, but for some reason I don't think it sunk in how cool it was until you see it as an adult.
I'd like to say "Thank You" to Toni who allowed us to bring our camera set-up on the tour. For any of you photographers out there, she guides a Photographers Tour twice a year where they allow extra time for us photographers and those long exposures we need to get the shot in the dark caves. I'd love to try and make it back for one of these special tours. For now, you can check out the Blanchard Springs Caverns Gallery in the Gallery Section for tons of great shots! Mirror Lake and Cindy's 1st Trout
You can leave the Caverns and drive down the mountain side to a secluded turquoise pool with a beautiful waterfall. This is Mirror Lake; just up from there is a little trail that follows along a stream to a large hole in the side of the mountain. Water gushing out of this hole creates a beautiful waterfall that we had all to ourselves. I thought the caverns were cool, but the day just kept getting better. Who knew a rainy day in the Ozarks could be so entertaining? We climbed around the waterfall taking some pictures before going to check out the 2nd water fall down at Mirror Lake.
She let me try her new lure one of the locals had given her, and what do ya' know, within a few casts, I had caught myself my first Rainbow Trout. We were now even in Cindy's little competition. Make Sure to check out the gallery for many pictures of this beautiful area.
Friday May 4th 2007 Kayaking on the White River
Bill Terry is a God loving, bible thumping guide who's little fishing dock floats just below the town of Calico Rock. For the last 13 years, this man has been taking people up and down this river showing them what it means to catch Trout. Bill and one of his guides Paul, gave us a few lessons on the proper way to fish for these little buggers, and we were let loose on the water. Cindy was doing her usual trash talk telling me she was going to show me what a 'Reel Fisherman' she was and I honestly thought about tipping her kayak over.
I was pissed and yelling at Cindy that I knew she had willed that on me for chanting out the number of fish I had caught to her NONE! She just giggled and paddled on down the river. Paul had recommended another lure and I tied that one on cussing under my breath at Cindy the whole time. Why couldn't this just be a beautiful float down one of Americas premier rivers? Why does she have to make everything into a contest? When I landed my first Brown Trout, I was yelling for Cindy to take a picture of this lunker so I could post it on this blog, and she un-enthusiastically picked up her camera and said, "There I took the stupid picture!"
Now when she's fishing and even so much as gets a bite on her line, she's yelling for me to run over with the camera. I'm on number 5 with the last one being the largest Trout I've ever caught, and she's a hundred yards away from me with a little Point & Shoot camera saying "I got the Shot." One of us was going to drown the other by the days end.....LOL
When we finally floated back up to Bill's dock below Calico Rock over 5 hours later, he was amazed we hadn't caught more than my 5. We're honestly thinking of going on one of his guided tours where he promised we wouldn't come in till we had caught over 50! I think Cindy needs a trip like that to get the taste of defeat out of her mouth. But we'll have to see what the rest of the weekend has in store for us. We pulled back up to our campsite in the Sylamore Creek Campground, and with sore backs and tight shoulders, we were ready for a campfire and a cozy bed. Saturday May 5th 2007 Cindy wanted to go into Calico Springs to a Real Estate office today after talking with a few of the locals on how inexpensive the property is in Arkansas. We got the Motorcycle down so we could enjoy the twisty mountain roads that intersect these hills.
Well, she did yell and squeeze me one time pretty hard!! We were rolling down some dirt road (That's giving the road some credit too as it was more of a trail) as I was looking at this old farm house off on a hill side. I looked back at the road and realized that the turn we were approaching was very sandy and if I was to try and make the 90 degree turn, we probably would have wiped out. So instead, I just went straight off the road, jumping into and out of the ditch in waist high grass, rolling back onto the road without ever missing a beat. Once we were back on the road, the screaming started!! I was laughing pretty hard at how stupid I was and promised to not look around at the sights anymore. Thank God she didn't put her feet down or try and jump off which is what I thought she was going to do. We wnt on to check out some beautiful property on a local river, and had some lunch in the little town of Calico Rock. When I say little, I mean if I was to take off from one end of town, I'd be switching out of first gear by the time we're at the other end. But these towns have some amazing architecture dating back from the early 1800's and are great to walk around in. Sunday May 6th 2007 We pulled out of Sylamore Creek Campground heading towards Buffalo City and the White Buffalo Resort (870) 425-8555. After getting turned around multiple times and pulling over a few different times for directions, we finally found the road. People in Arkansas give some strange directions and a lot of the roads don't have signs. Well they might have a sign, but you don't see it till you've just flown past it. This was a conversation I had with a guy at a gas station. He Says "You'll go down this road a few miles past the Flippin' Church of Christ, till you'll see a tractor store, turn right on that road" I thought, man, this guy must be some kind of Atheist, but I only said to him, "What's the name of the road?" He says, "I don't know, but it's right across from the tractor store." He goes on to say "You'll take that road a ways, and you'll pass through Buford, I don't know if that's really the name of the area, but that's what all us locals call it; so head past Buford and keep driving till you hit a 4 way stop. Make a right at the 4 way, and take that all the way to Buffalo City."
The general store at the campground is the town, the store and the population of Buffalo City changes with how many guests the White Buffalo Resort has at that time. I love small town America.
We set up camp and cranked the A/C up so when we came back from fishing, the coach would be nice and cool. Today was one of those hot and sticky days where you could cut the humidity with a knife. When we got down to the river, I waded out in the cool mountain water which instantly dropped my body temperature a few degrees. It felt so good to be in that water, and the fact that my shins were going numb was of no concern. After a few hours of the little buggers biting, but not being able to talk any into coming for a ride on my line, we retired to the camper and mixed up a few afternoon cocktails. We watched the suns glow crawl up the mountain side and couldn't wait to get in the water tomorrow in those kayaks. Monday May 7th 2007
We had to drive back to the town of Mountain View to get a signal on our phones and an internet connection, and while Cindy shopped for groceries, I answered a few dozen emails and made some phone calls. We have to check in with our parents every few days, or my mother gets freaked out and sends out the Mounties looking for us. She doesn't know how to work a computer, so she's never looked at our site which usually tells where we are and that we're doing fine. We both laugh when she says "I've been worried sick about you, why haven't you called?" Each time we say "All you have to do is look at our website to know we're fine", but that just makes her more mad. It seems up here in the Ozarks, we don't get too good of reception for our cell phones, but can usually find a signal for the laptop. Sorry Mom. After talking with my her for a few, I realized the weather system and the rain we were seeing, was some of the off shoots of the storms that Kansas had been getting pounded with. This was one of the reasons my mother was so worried, she knew we were near there and hadn't heard from us since that storm system had blown in. Luckily for us, we hadn't seen any tornadoes and hopefully wont! Tuesday May 8th 2007 The Day the Trip Almost Ended
After sitting at the boat landing for twenty minutes watching the black clouds roll past us and hearing the thunder off in the distance, we decided, a little rain wasn't going to kill us, and decided to shove off. I couldn't wait to get my pole in the water and try and catch some of these trout everyone was telling us about. Now you'll have to remember that this whole fishing idea was Cindy's. I've never been much of a fisherman, but the simple fact that we're floating these world class trout streams, it seemed a shame to not be fishing on them. I'll also remind you of how competitive Cindy is. The day that I caught the 5 fish to her none, I thought I was going to wake up beside Lorena Bobbitt! I made sure I hid the scissors before going to bed. So today, we both agreed was HER day to catch some fish on the water. She was using my pole, as she felt hers wouldn't catch any? She was using my lucky lure and before I was even in my kayak, she had her line in the water saying "Here Fishy-Fishy" She wasn't even discouraged when it started pouring rain on us, she just kept fishing.
We hauled the kayaks back up to the camper, and jumped on the motorcycle to get back to the truck before it got dark. It felt good to feel the warm afternoon air on my skin after sitting in that kayak all day. Between the rain and the splashing from the waves, my skin was waterlogged and ready to dry out. By the time we got back to the camper, it was all we could do to unload a few of the bags from the kayaks, and eat some dinner, before hitting the sack. I think I was falling asleep while I was shoveling food into my mouth and trying not to bring up the fact that I had ended the day with the unlucky number 13 for my total number of trout to Cindy's modest five. As we were cleaning up the dinner dishes, Cindy was getting down the Scrabble game when I asked "What are you thinking?" She said, "I know I'll win at this, and I cant go to bed with you having beat me that bad, so I want to kick your butt in a Scrabble game first!"
Oh, I almost forgot! While we were unpacking the boats, our neighbor walked over to see how we had done (this is the same guy that had caught the monster German Brown Trout), and while we were all sitting there talking about the Bald Eagle, Cindy yelled pointing at the water. We all looked over to see the Bald Eagle swoop down and grab a fish out of the water. What an amazing sight to see, and how weird to be talking about the Eagle as it was sitting right in the trees above us scanning the water. Wednesday May 9th 2007 Whole Lotta Nothing Going On
We have plenty of guns, but I don't own any Bullet Proof Vests and shooting isn't a competition you want to get into with me. So the weather wasn't too good today, and we hadn't really had any of those Lay Around days in awhile. I had just finished one of the best books I've ever read, Night Fall by Nelson DeMille, and had kept bugging Cindy to read it. While I worked on the computer and my portfolio she laid in bed and read all morning. Listening to the rain hit the roof of the camper and watching the fog roll down the river must have been pretty mesmerizing, cause next thing you know, it's time for bed, and we hadn't done anything all day. We'll, we were able to finish a bunch of left-overs out of the fridge, Cindy read an entire 700 page book and I printed out a 50 page portfolio that I've been working on for a year now. So I guess we did get a few things accomplished. Thursday May 10th 2007 Leaving the White Buffalo Resort was very hard. With the beautiful scenery and the World Class Fishing, it was a little slice of heaven in the Ozarks. But with the weekend approaching, the place was filling up and we wanted to get up near Jasper and the Buffalo River.
Jasper isn't big by any means, but if you're into kayaking or canoeing, then this is the place to be. Just about every truck in the little mountain town has a canoe or kayak on it's roof, and the local motel even shuttles canoers up the river. By the time we got here, some rain clouds had moved in, so we grabbed a campsite at the Dogwood Springs Campground, and settled in for the night. I'm starting to think that the Ozarks remind me of Hawaii or Florida. It's a beautiful, warm day, and then it'll rain for a little while every afternoon. Maybe it's just the fact that it's spring, but it's somewhat nice and keeping the Buffalo River up for us. I guess by the end of this month, this upper part isn't run-able. So we'll see tomorrow. Friday May 11th 2007 We stopped by the Chamber of Commerce to get some info on the local outfitters and see what we shouldn't miss while in town, and while talking to the very nice woman, she told us not to miss the Cliff House Inn. She said the views are amazing and the food is just as good.
We had a great lunch and took a few pictures and decided we would head over to the river to see what the conditions were like. Driving from one mountain side to the other is only a few miles on the odometer, but much different when you're looking out the windshield. What registered on my truck as only 14 miles, took us 45 minutes of driving with a smoking hot transmission and red hot brakes. These roads are steep and twisty with no shoulders and beautiful views in every direction.
While cooling off with our feet in the water, a nice gentleman walked up to us asking us where we were from in Michigan. He had seen our license plate on the truck and was inquiring as he lived in White Lake, which is only two towns over from our home town of Milford. Now how strange is that? We're in this little mountain town in Arkansas, and we run into a neighbor. What a Small World. As John, this fellow Michigander and Cindy sat talking about the traveling lifestyle; he has traveled all over trying to visit every National Park in the United States, and only having a few left on the list, I saw the group of boys that had floated past us on the river. I walked up and started talking to them as one of their stomachs was cut up and bruised due to the wild water and the thrashing the log had given them. They told me they were local high school kids from a few towns over who were on a filed trip. Cameron told me "Mr. Morton, The Best Teacher Ever, and I hate teachers, brought us here to teach us about geology" He went on to say "With the water as high up and flowing as fast as it was, we just had to go for a ride down the Buffalo."
I sat talking to these nice young men for a while listening to them recommend different areas they felt we shouldn't miss while visiting. They wished us luck on our trip, and said they had to get back to their group before Mr. Morton would start worrying where they were.
We sat there till it got dark and I could have watched the storm into the night. It was like being in a drive-in theater mixed with an IMAX film. We would watch lightening bolts off in the distance and clouds roll up and over the mountain top. One second we'd be sitting in calm, eerie blackness and the next second it would get real windy while the rain would start pounding the truck. Thank Goodness we weren't on the water this afternoon like we had thought about. Saturday May 12th 2007 Hiking the Hemmed In Hollow Trail Today we planned on hiking a 5 mile out and back trail that should give us a real workout. The Hemmed In Hollow Trail is a real thigh buster that brings you down a steep mountain side and ends with the climax at the Largest Waterfall between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountain Ranges.
Always trying to look for that unique angle to get a great picture, I was climbing around the rocks with camera in hand when I slipped on slick rock and took a fall. Sliding down a series of steep rocks towards the ledge, I was able to come to a stop only feet from the edge all the while holding my camera in the air out of harms way. By the time I got to the bottom and back to Cindy, I showed her my bruised and scraped up arm which she replied "How's the camera?" There's a wife for you!! The hike back up the trail was way more then exhausting. 2.5 miles straight uphill is hell on the knees! I was sucking so much oxygen, I thought my heart had somehow made it's way into my ears. It was great to stop on a ledge overlooking valley after valley, and the only sound you could hear was the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, that and my heavy breathing echoing off the surrounding hills.
By the time we got back to the car, we sat picking ticks off each other and downing cold sodas we had stashed in the ice chest. Normally I'm not one to drink sodas, but that cold jolt of sugar and caffeine was what my body needed. We drove back through Jasper as the sun was setting to the West, and spotted a heard of Elks in a tall grassy field. We sat and watched them graze in chest high grass which only made them look like tall deer. But when you looked through a set of binoculars, you knew these giant animals were much larger then the neighboring white tailed deer. A cold shower, some ibuprofen and some Poison Ivy Scrub and we were ready for bed!! Happy Mothers Day to all you Mom's out there!!! Sunday May 13th 2007 Happy Mothers Day Mom Packing up the camper and doing the necessary things to empty the black & grey tanks and refill our fresh water tank, I might be outside for maybe 15 minutes. In that amount of time, I picked 7 ticks off of me and was sweating like a marathon runner in the Arkansas heat. I'm starting to wonder what this state is like in July or August? And what do you do to deal with the ticks?
Mike has been running his Full Service mountain side retreat for close to 30 years now and has quite the portfolio of available options to keep you busy in the area. If you plan on paddling the Buffalo River, The Buffalo Outdoor Center or BOC is the place to come. Mike can not only shuttle you up and down the river, he can set you up in one of his many mountain side log cabins, take you on a Hot Air Balloon ride above the Ozarks, bring you into the back country on an ATV or take you on a mountain trail on Horse Back. We sat talking with Mike who gave us some info on where to stay, how to shuttle our truck and motorcycle so it wouldn't cost us anything, and shared some traveling stories of his own. Now that's a full service type of shop; when they explain how to shuttle yourself to save you money!! We thanked him and were on our way to find a campsite at his recommended landing. This high up in the Ozarks, we haven't been able to get a cell phone signal for awhile now. I had to find a pay phone to be able to call my Mom for Mothers Day. The problem is in this day in age of cell phones everywhere, pay phones have become a bit of a novelty. When I did find one back up the mountain at the Low Gap General Store, the operator explained to me that unless I have a calling card or plan on making a collect phone call, then putting change into the phone to complete the call is also a thing of the past. Man, am I out of the loop. So a collect call to Mom was what she got on Mothers Day. Camping at Kyle's Landing When the sign says Not Recommended for RV's, I think next time we should take note. We had seen Kyle's Landing on the way over to the BOC, but when I saw the sign that said RV's Not Recommended, I thought I'd wait till we talked with Mike to see what he thought.
I should have known something was up when Mike said "How well can you handle that thing?" Now I was sure of my driving, I was more worried about the road down to the campground and the width of this so called road. We've driven down a few other so-called roads here in Arkansas, and the Department of Transportation and I seem to have different ideas of what a public road is. Mike said "If you know how to drive that set-up you've got out there, you should be good." So I adjusted the trailer brakes on my controller in the cab and shifted the transmission into 1st gear planning a long crawl downhill. The first few hundred yards, we had a few cars pass us on their way up and all were waving their hands out the windows with their thumbs up, laughing and cheering us on. This should have been another sign to stop and turn around. Once you get past the moderate decline of the first quarter mile, the road makes a sharp turn and starts its hellishly steep decent down to the river.
At this point Cindy yelled "YOU HAVE TO SLOW DOWN!!" I yelled back "The brakes are to the floor and we aint stoppin' any time soon!" It was at this point when she looked over the side of the road that had now become a narrow trail, and realized we were a few thousand feet up. With no guard rail and a clear view down to the bottom, her seat reclined back and she covered her eyes and started praying aloud. I wish I could have had a Dash Cam to get the looks on the faces of the people we were flying past. While kicking up a cloud of dust only a run-away locomotive could create, I just gave them the same wide-eyed look with my goofy smile. With Cindy screaming and the dogs both howling in the back seat, we came screaming into the campground announcing our arrival like the 4th of July. I'm sure the campground must have heard us the entire way down, because everyone was standing and cheering as we broke through the trees into the clearing. When I came to a final stop, the smell of brakes and dust came catching up a few seconds later engulfing us with a quick realization of why you should take note to signs that say 'RV's Not Recommended!' Kyle's Landing Campground After that roller coaster ride down, I was ready to set up camp and stay awhile. A large group of paddlers were making their way back off the river to a campsite right beside us. General conversation started about the days paddle, the quality of the water, and next thing you know, we're sitting around the campfire telling stories.
That night sitting by the campfire, Cindy and I were in awe with the display of stars in the clear mountain sky. We sat out gazing with the sounds of the river flowing beside us and the whipper wills serenading us to sleep. Man I love this State!! Monday May 14th 2007 Paddling the Buffalo River, Finally!! Since we had crossed the Louisiana/Arkansas border, everyone we have talked to has recommended the Buffalo River. Some had told us how scary it was, some had told us how fun it was and all had told us of it's beautiful scenery. Even though Cindy had it set in her mind that she was going to tip over and get stuck in some rocks, I was ready to see what the river had in store for us.
Cindy and I try and never drink when paddling a river for the first time, especially one that has Class I & II rapids the entire way. For this river, I didn't even have my big camera out which was a first for this trip. We opted not to put our spray skirts on but brought them along incase after a ways on the river we realized we'd need them.
After the first few miles, we had taken on some water while coming down the various rapids, and decided to pull over and have some lunch while emptying out the boats. We spotted a giant water snake sunning itself on a nearby rock, and talked with some fellow kayakers who were out in their white water boats. The trip was going great and Cindy had calmed down after realizing she had worked herself up thinking the river would be more than she could handle. See Cindy's a great paddler and has been on harder rivers then this, she just always worries about tipping and thinks she's going to get pinned under her boat or hit her head on a rock while under the water. I reminder her that most of the people we had talked to had little or no experience in a canoe and had made it down fine. The Changing Point on the Water Paddling around a tight bend in the water, we both commented on the sound we could hear. Was it the wind blowing through the trees or a plane flying over? Once we rounded the turn, we realized it was the sound of a long series of rapids that looked especially challenging. I went first so Cindy could see if I was able to make it without tipping or taking on too much water. I'll say I made it down, but it wasn't pretty. At one point, I took a wave to the side which turned me completely on my side. Luckily I was in a shallow section and was able to put my arm on a rock and right myself before rolling all the way over. I got to the bottom with a boat half full of water, but I was right side up. With a rush of adrenaline and a huge smile, I spun around to yell to Cindy to watch out for that section.
Before I knew it, she was standing and holding onto her boat. My heart was pumping thinking she was going to come bouncing down the rapids to me. She screamed down to me asking what to do? I was trying to yell back to her to let the boat go and make her way to the side where she could climb down to me. With the sound of the rushing water, I could hear her, but she couldn't hear anything I was saying. This was comical to her, as she was really only standing in ankle deep water on top of this ledge, but for me sitting down stream paddling up river to try and get back to her, it was a very tense moment. I was yelling and waving my hands for her to let the boat go for what seemed like an eternity. The whole time Cindy stood there bent over clutching her kayak and yelling "WHAT DO I DO?" Finally she let her boat go which made its way to me where I could tie on to it and bring it over to the shore. With that out of the way, I climbed out of my boat and started making my way upstream towards her.
Looking back, that was the wrong thing to do and I should have been the one to keep calm which would have made her realize it was a easy task. I'm sure I looked like an idiot to the fellow paddlers who watched as I walked out to her, grabbed her hand and walked her back to the edge all the while saying "Look how easy this is!" We sat on the edge calming down and yelling at each other while we used the bilge pump to empty out our boats. It would have been real easy to let this little episode turn into a major all out brawl, but on the next set of rapids while Cindy was trying to paddle away from me, I watched as the first wave came plunging over the nose of her boat filling it back up. I sat laughing hysterically as the second wave repeated the first waves actions knowing she didn't want to talk to me, but had to now to ask for the bilge pump again. The rest of the river was the same thing over and over. Around every bend is a great set of rapids that would splash us with some cool water to wake us up and by the time we paddled down to Kyle's Landing, I think we were done fighting. At least I was! Tuesday May 15th 2007 Moving on to Eureka Springs After yesterdays little tift on the River, we decided to head on over to Eureka Springs after so many people have recommended it to us. Having been in little towns and State Parks for quite awhile now, we both needed some interaction with the outside world.
One thing that I love about these small towns, is we haven't seen a Fast Food Restaurant, Brand Name store or Chain anything in months. One thing that we both agree on is to never eat at fast food places, we try and only use local stores when we shop, and never cater to the chain restaurants. Coming from a small town where the Mom & Pop stores were getting pushed out by the big corporations, we try and always support the little guys like we were. First, we had the task of getting back up and out of the campground that was so much fun coming down to. While we stayed there, the County Grader had come and graded the road/trail so we wouldn't have to worry about the Washboard/Pothole problems that we ran into on the way down. But now, with a fresh coat of loose gravel on the top of the road, getting out was going to be a little scary.
I really wished I had a Pyrometer like I used to have when I drove gravel trains in Michigan. It's a gauge on the dash that shows the temperature in the exhaust when the turbo is really working. I'm sure on this climb, it would have been pinned. Around the mid-way point, we heard a few loud clunks from the transmission and I was worried that I was losing something, but I think it was just the big bumps we were rolling over and the fact that everything under the truck was working to it's maximum limit. When we finally reached the top of the mountain and I let off the gas pedal for the first time in twenty minutes, the turbo winding down sounded like when they shut the engines off after a plane lands. Cindy pulled her seat back up to the upright position and gave a big sigh of relief, and we were back on Route 16 towards Eureka Springs. After that climb, I cant say enough about a stock Ford Super-Duty truck and its ability to haul a trailer.
When we blew through the first town that had an old general store with vines covering the fuel pumps and half the store front, I thought "Oh Shit!" As we climbed higher into the Ozarks, Cindy said "Looks like a storm blowing in." I said "Come on, its a beautiful day and that's just some haze, why do you think it's so humid?" Two mountain passes later, when the sky was black and the rain was hitting the windshield so hard I could barely see the tip of the hood, we pulled off the narrow road into the safety of a church parking lot (Which was grass by the way).
Cindy said "Pull over and put the 6 gallons of diesel in the tank before we run out!" I said "Lets wait till we get to this next town that's only 6 miles ahead to see if they have a gas station." As we rolled through the next town on the map, we both laughed asking why they even put a town on a map that only has four houses and not even a General Store? I pulled over and emptied our Emergency Back-up Fuel Can into the tank. Let's hope 6 gallons of diesel will get us the 50 miles to Eureka Springs. Normally we average 13 miles per gallon when were pulling the camper, but on these mountain roads, I know that average has dropped due to the high rpm's while climbing. Eureka Springs, Arkansas - Funkiest Little Town in America We pulled into Eureka Springs with the fuel light on and topped off the tank and refilled our little emergency tank. We both commented that when we head West, we're going to have to get a few more emergency tanks as we know gas stations are hard to come by from a past trip. We stopped at the first Liquor store we saw and bought a few bottles just to re-supply. The lady told us that most of the Northern part of Arkansas is Dry, and by no means do we drink alot, but it's nice to know after a long hike or all day paddle, you can come back to a cold Adult Beverage by the campfire. Something we hadn't done in awhile.
We drove once through the loop, which was enough, and were just amazed at how cool and funky this town looked. The streets were narrow, situated at odd angles and the buildings were from the late 1800's, but kept in beautiful condition. The stone work looked extensive with little gardens and fountains hidden in every nook and cranny. I couldn't wait to come back during the day and explore this unique little mountain town. For now, we needed some nightlife and a few drinks. We found Shawbee's Big Dawg Saloon, which is on the outskirts of town, but had a large parking lot that would accommodate us, and headed inside. We pulled up a st | ||
Yesterday
while rolling down some back roads, we passed this contraption and had
to stop to get a picture. I believe it was a Class C motor home at
one time and it looks like the motor blew. Rather then swap out
the motor, they added a fifth wheel hitch to the front and now, I think
you're seeing the first ever Class C Fifth Wheel!! That's
some Hill Billy Engineering if I ever saw it. This thing was
licensed and ready to go on the next camping trip. If you look
closely, you can see their windshield guard is just a piece of Plywood!!
Nothing better to stop those nasty rocks and block out the sunlight!
We've
been at the Greers Ferry Dam State Park for the last few days because we
had planned on kayaking the Little Red River, but for some reason, there
are no Outfitters anywhere around?? The river is beautiful, but
with no way to spot our vehicle or know what to expect, I don't really
want to paddle down a river, not knowing what's around
the next turn or how we're going to get back to our vehicle.
The Discovery Trial will
bring you 366 feet into Mother Earth, and is 1.2 miles long. This
section of the caverns was discovered in 1963 by two locals cavers, and
is the largest of the 3 different sections. Toni told us the very
bottom section is still filled with water and is inaccessible.
There is one more section of cave that you can explore, but you have to
make reservations for this section. This Wild Cave Tour
will give you a glimpse of what its like to crawl your way through an
undeveloped cave, with just the light of your helmet guiding you.
Cindy and I both did this just
as something to break up the rainy day blues, and we talked non-stop
about it for the rest of the day. We both couldn't wait to get
back to look at the pictures on the computer. Although the
pictures look cool, seeing it in person is the only way to really
understand the immense size of the cave! I was very disappointed
once I saw the pictures!? Being in the dark, damp cave, hearing
the dripping water and the amazing acoustics is something that no
picture can duplicate.
A
few hours later when we came out of the cave, the rain had let up to
just a drizzle, and we took the advice of Toni and went to check out the
bottom of the cave where it empties out the mountain side. 
Mirror Lake is a tiny little
pool where back in the early 1900's, was the setting for an old mill.
You can still see the old stone structure below the dam and exploring
the tick infested area, was just the icing on the cake. While I
was wading knee deep through the rushing water, trying to get that
perfect shot, Cindy was learning valuable trout fishing tips from the
local fella's who were fishing up on the lake. I thought to myself
that I had better get back up there before she learned a few tricks and
became that expert fisherman she's been trying to become. 
By the time I climbed back up
to her, she had ran back to the truck to get her fishing pole and was
doing her best to catch her first Rainbow Trout. Imagine a little
girl opening up a Christmas present and you'll get the picture of Cindy
catching her first fish of the trip. You should have seen all the
guys laugh when she finally reeled it in and said "Now What?" When
I told her she had to grab ahold of it to take it off the hook, I think
her excitement turned into fear. Luckily I was holding the camera,
so one of the kind gentleman who had been giving her lessons this whole
time finished up by teaching her how to unhook and release her first
Rainbow. 
Now imagine how mad I was when
she threw it back into the water before I could even get a picture of
her holding it up. When I yelled, "I never even got the shot!" She
said "I don't care, did you think I was going to hold onto that thing
long enough for you to take a picture?" From the time the hook
came out of it's mouth, you'd have thunk she had a bomb in her hand!
I'm talking maybe 1.2 seconds from the hook coming out of its lip, and
she just threw it over the edge back into the water!! Some
Fisherman we have here.
We had made plans to go
kayaking on the White River today with local fishing guide Bill Terry
(870) 297-8131. Mr. Terry had us excited by the stories of people catching 50 to 60
trout on a 4 hour float down this mountain stream!! The White
River is known as one of the premier Trout Rivers in the United States
and today was the day to see if we were fisherman or just wanna-be's.
Within the first few casts, I
had caught my first Rainbow of the day. Pat 1, Cindy 0.... Maybe
Bill wasn't lying when he said we'd be tired of catching so many by the
time we floated back to his dock. Within the first 45 minutes, I
had caught 4 rainbow on my new lure that Bill had told me was the secret
for catching these Arkansas Trout. That was when my line grabbed
ahold of something big under the surface, and as my rod bent down
touching the tip of my kayak, I was trying to hold onto it and paddle
towards it at the same time to relieve some tension. Within
seconds my line snapped and my lucky lure was at the bottom of this
pristine river. I couldn't believe that had just happened!!
What was I going to do now??
Then the fish just quit biting?
I don't know whether our frustration with each other was traveling down
our poles, but for the rest of the day, we only had a few bites and
never reeled in another fish? Am I biter? No, I caught 5
trout on a beautiful river and spent the day watching the big fluffy
clouds reflect off the clear water. The White River is truly what
us kayakers call a floating river. The current is very strong
and keeps you right in the middle. I think I floated for over an
hour without ever touching my paddle and never once had to worry about
hitting the edge. We floated past a Bald Eagle's nest with two
babies in it, we ate lunch in our boats letting the current spin us in
the clear water and enjoyed one of Arkansas's best rivers.
I'd
have to say, that when we first started riding, Cindy was a little freak
on the back of the bike! If I was to come into a turn too fast, I
could feel her squeezing and screaming for me to slow down even though
most of the time I wasn't going fast at all. Today was the first
time we've road that she never squeezed me once and was leaning with me
as we flew through the twisties. We were like one on the bike and
it felt great to ride knowing she has become more comfortable now that
she's used to it. 
So
we finally pass the Flippin' Church of Christ. The Towns name is
Flippin! Cindy and I had a great laugh over this and proceeded to
think up hundreds of names that Flippin could be used in. We find
this tractor store and turn down a narrow country road. After
quite a ways of driving through some farm country thinking this guy was
sending us on a wild goose chase, we see a sign for Buffalo City.
We see the White Buffalo Resort but I keep driving thinking I'm going to
go into the actual city to try and get some food and supplies for our
stay. That's when I realize if I pass the resort, the road just
loops around back to the main road we came in on? The White
Buffalo Resort, is Buffalo City! 
Cindy
and I counted the number of houses and adding a few people (incase some
of the homes have children), the population of Buffalo City has to be
around 40! So we checked in and sat talking with the owners of the
resort. This place is beautiful, with a giant 600' rock face as
the backdrop, the White River converging with the Buffalo River right at
the resort, it's a fisherman's paradise! We grabbed a spot right
on the White River and couldn't wait to get our poles in the water.
The owner had showed us pictures of another couple that's been coming
here for the last 8 years who had just caught a string line full of
trout the day before on the river. One of them was a German Brown
Trout that was record size and I honestly don't think I could have
reeled it in. 
We
had planned on kayaking down the White River today, but when we woke up,
the forecast called for some serious showers and thunder storms, so it
looked like today was one of those grocery/laundry days.
With
the early morning steam still rising off the White River, we loaded up
the truck for the drive upriver to our put-in point. When we got
there, the sunny skies had major black clouds rolling in on the horizon,
so we waited a few to see which way the weather was headed.
A
few minutes later, when I yelled "Fish On" she was pissed. An hour
into the float, I was on number 6 to Cindy's none. The owner of
the White Buffalo said this trip should take us about 3 hours if we just
floated down stream and I could tell this was going to be a long 3
hours, if I even made it back to the Camper alive. When I heard
Cindy yell out "I Hate Fishing!!!" I said, "Paddle over to
me and let's switch poles again, you sit right here where I am and cast
right where I just caught these last 3 Rainbow." I honestly don't
know what she's doing wrong, we're using the same damn lures, the same
cheap gas station poles and fishing in the same area? When I saw
how frustrated she was, I said "What do you want me to do?" To
which she replied, "Take your pole out of the water till I catch up to
you!" Yeah Right!
I keep telling her she is so
worked up over not catching any, that the fish can probably feel the
tension on the end of the lure and don't want to go anywhere near
it....HA! HA! That's my fish psychology, but like I said,
I'm not a fisherman?? So while I'm changing over lures on my
original pole because I've now lost two of my lucky lure's, I finally hear her scream out "I Got One!" Thank
God, the un-lucky streak had been broken. We fished floating this
one area where they were biting on every other cast and Cindy ended up
catching 5 Rainbow, with one of them being her biggest yet. It was
getting late in the afternoon and we needed to stop fishing to get back
before dark. I will say that I've become a little addicted with
these Trout. It doesn't matter if you have a 10 lbs. monster, or a
little guy on the end of your line, they all seem to put up a great
fight and since we're just throwing them back, I'm having a blast!!
We paddled down the river
taking in the beauty of the cliffs that towered over us on each side.
The water is crystal clear and you can see the rocky bottom even when
you get into the deeper sections. We passed a Bald Eagles nest
that had to be 5 foot by 5 foot in size. There was one adult with
two babies standing on the edge of the nest just watching us as we
floated by this small house in the trees. The two babies were the
size of large vultures and looked weird as they didn't have the white
heads like the adults did. After looking them up in our bird book,
I guess the young don't grow their white feathers till they're fourth
year. By the time we floated back to the camper, we had been on
the water for 8 full hours. Our backs were sore, our butts were
numb, and my hands were cramping up from holding either a fishing pole,
or a paddle for most of the day. 
I just shook my head and
crawled into bed. I think I was snoring before my head actually
felt the pillow. What a great day it was on the water!! Only
Cindy can make Fishing Stressful, that and turning everything into a
competition will be the death of me...LOL 
We woke up this morning to
aching backs and sore arms. I don't think we'll be going out in
the kayaks today. Cindy now says she's done with the Fishing
Competition, and is ready to move on to something else? When I
asked what she would like to do next, she asked about going to a
shooting range to practice with one of our pistols. Now I'm a little worried....LOL 
It
only took us a few hours of drive time, and you know we're in the heart
of the Ozarks with the roads as crazy as they are. It reminds me
of driving out West. I'm not sure if my transmission has been out
of second gear the entire drive. It's either lugging this long
train up one hill, or redlining going down the other side so I don't
have to use the brakes. 
So
we drove up and out of the little town of Jasper and straight up into
the clouds. The
We
arrived at the Steel Creek Landing where the scenery was breathtaking!!
The ancient rock formations reminds me of being out West with the
mountains rocketing into the sky while the cool Buffalo River waters
flows below them. As we got out of the truck to walk down to the
water, we watched five kids float past us on a Log!?! We both
laughed thinking that had to be some kind of a joke.
We
drove back up out of the valley to what looked like a black wall of
clouds approaching. We stopped in the metropolis of Low Gap at the
general store for a cool drink and I got to talking to the proprietor.
When I asked her about the Bumper stickers she was selling that said "I
visited Downtown Low Gap", I asked "Where is the down town?" She looked
at me like I was some kind of dumb-ass and said "You're standing in it!"
The town consisted of the Low Gap General Store, The Low Gap church, and
a small cemetery. Out front of the Low Gap General Store, a group
of towns folk were sitting around in a circle talking on the front
porch. I told here we felt like we were interrupting a meeting and
she just laughed saying "This is the Afternoon Group, we have a Morning
Group, a Lunch Group and then the Afternoon Group" We were
invited to sit down and join them, but we wanted to get across the
mountain to watch the storm roll in. 
When
we were over by the Cliff House, we both had commented how cool it would
be to sit on the outlook and watch a big storm roll across the mountain
valleys. We both said "Let's Go Back" and high tailed it out of
Low Gap down one mountain side and back up the other just in time to
watch a major lightening storm roll over us. 
By the time we had hiked down
in the afternoon heat, I was ready to crawl into the falls cold clear
water just to cool off. Covered in sweat and ticks, we sat
relaxing under the cool breeze created by the towering waterfall.
We left the Dogwood Springs
Campground and headed towards Ponca. Everyone we had talked to
about paddling the Buffalo River had told us to talk with Mike Mills
over at the 
With my trucks motor redlining
in first gear trying its best to slow down the 25 foot camper that was
ready to roll over top of us; my hand feathering the trailer brakes just
above locking them up, and my other white knuckled hand about to squeeze
through the bouncing steering wheel, it was all I could do to keep us
from sliding on the loose gravel. Then when you imagine the cars
that are trying not to lose their uphill momentum, yet realize that I'm
not slowing down while barreling down the middle of the narrow road,
they either threw it in reverse or pulled off to the side of the road
real quick.
The Nisbett Family had spent
the weekend camping and paddling and was ready to make the journey home.
Being from Oklahoma, they were all self-proclaimed Okies, and the family
gave us many great attractions to check out if we ever pass through
their part of Oklahoma. 
We loaded up and headed out
early so incase anything happened, we would still have time to get back
to the campground before dark. From Ponca to our campground in
Kyle's Landing, Mike had told us it should take 5 hours. Everyone
else we had talked to said they had been on the water for closer to 8
hours. Usually everyone we talked to had been drinking and
partying, so I understand how a few hours can get added on.
Within the first few hundred
feet, we watched a canoer go over on the first set of rapids. In
the first mile, we had encountered more rapids, granted only Class I &
II, but nun-the less rapids then we had this entire trip. I was
loving this river more and more with each mile. With towering
cliffs lining the sides, and a deep blue sky reflecting off the
turquoise water, this by far is now my new favorite river.
That was when I turned around
and saw that she was following the same path I had?! Maybe from
her vantage point, she hadn't seen me roll on to my side and thought I
had made it unscathed. I watched as she went off a rock ledge and
slammed the front of her boat into another rock. The proverbial
Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place had become reality. Her
boat was now balancing out of the water with just her nose and tail
sitting on two large rocks. It was then that she rolled to her
side and fell out into the rushing water. 
A few other paddlers who had
been watching the entire escapade unravel asked if there was anyway they
could help, but I just laughed saying "Thanks, but she'd be fine!"
By the time I had walked back upstream, I had lost my cool and was
yelling for her to walk to the edge. She just kept standing in
place in the middle saying she was going to fall and get pulled down the
falls. I scanned the water and realized if you placed your feet
strategically on a few different rocks, you could literally walk across
in only ankle deep water. I'm not much for drama, so I'll be the
first one to admit that I could have handled this much better, but in a
time like this, when I'm worried that she's going to really get hurt,
and then find out that theirs and easy solution, I lost my cool and
started yelling. 
We've
been talking with each other on how easy it would be to drop completely
off the grid and loose contact with the outside world in these little
towns. I haven't seen a major publication in months. It
seems most of the big news organizations don't bother to distribute
their non-sense to the smaller areas, not that we mind. We try and
listen to the news at least once a day on the satellite radio to make
sure our country isn't under attack by anything other than racism and
illegal immigration, which seems to be the only two things any news
organization talks about these days?!?! But other then that, I'd
be useless on Current Events of the NOW. 
I
shifted into 4-High, and dropped the transmission down into first gear.
Cindy reclined her seat and started praying aloud, and I started the
long two mile crawl uphill. At first I thought the four wheel
drive was a little excessive, but when the truck and trailer were at a
12% grade, and we started sliding back down the loose gravel, I'm glad I
had the 4-High engaged. For those of you that don't have a Turbo
Diesel, you'll never know the sweet sound the whine a turbo makes when
it's really working hard. Normally that sound is music to my ears,
but on this climb, the pitch of the turbo was starting to become more
like a dog whistle, and I was worried I was melting the bearing in the
overworked turbine. 
If
you ever leave Jasper and are headed towards
When
the marble sized Hail started bouncing off the roof, we both high-tailed
it into the camper, ate some lunch and let the thumping on the roof lull
us to sleep. We woke up an hour later just as the rain was letting
up and decided we could probably get back on the road. That's when
I noticed the fuel light come on!!
We
headed towards the downtown area, and not knowing what to expect, I
pulled onto main street. Now if we knew the streets were going to
be this narrow, we would have unloaded the motorcycle or un-hooked the
Sunline. If you ever travel to