Outdoor Adventures in the Ozarks

     It’s Christmas Eve and the weather is just beautiful, so nice in fact it would be a shame not to get out and do something.  We go for a drive around the Buffalo scouting possible parking spots for future hikes.   A little over 3/4 of a mile on Tyler Bend Road, Peter Cave Road heads off west and down into a Calf Creek drainage.  At the bottom after crossing a little creek we notice an old house in ruins off to the south in the woods near the creek, and just beyond an intersection. short trail to vista      We pull off Peter Cave Road and park on a side road at a cable gate that’s open, this looks to be a possible hike for the future.    Just about 100 feet farther on Peter Cave Road the OHT/BRT heads off the road northeast up to Collier’s Homestead,  going the other way northwest from here, Peter Cave Road is the Ozark Highlands/Buffalo River Trail.  We are now driving  on the trail and soon cross Calf Creek which is about twenty feet wide and very pretty. Luther Arnold Homesite

     After my hike here just last week (see:  108 Boozer and Big Music ) , I found a map online showing this Natural Heritage site boundaries, and sure enough most of my route down into Boozer Hollow wasn’t even in the park .   So today I’ll be staying smack dab in the middle of the natural area and shouldn’t even get close to any private lands. moss covered rocks in a small drainage      From the parking lot I head southeast parallel to Highway 14 and go downhill into the first hollow I come to.  This little hollow is pretty ‘trashed out’ here close to the highway, it also has a lot of undergrowth making for some slow going.  Then it starts raining, just a sprinkle I keep going, it should let up soon.    It isn’t steep, as I progress down into the hollow the brush thins out as does the trash making for fairly easy hiking. low bluffline       Along both sides of the  creek,  are low broken bluffs covered in moss, then another little drainage down from the right.  Past the convergence  

     I’m going back to Slippery Hollow over two years later, and this time I’m going alone since Kat had things at home she wanted to do.  On the short drive to Slippery Hollow, I wondered when the last time was that I went hiking by myself.  Possibly  way back in August of 1986, when I hiked solo on an overnight trip to a small alpine lake in the Trinity Wilderness of northern California.  Wow, I guess this is way overdue.     P ulling in the parking area of  Slippery Hollow (Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission) , I notice some ‘parking’ improvements since our last visit.    From the small parking lot, I head northeast past the locked gate on an old road first to that old homesite we found almost three years ago.  It appears to be a small house or maybe it was a shack,  but nothing is left of the walls, now just a green shingle roof sitting on the ground.  I return to the old road then leave that at the top of the first drainage I come to. low rugged bluff      Descending into the li

     This morning we’re going to Richland Creek Wilderness with the intention of hiking to Suzy Jimmy Falls.   I had never even heard of Suzy Jimmy until about a year ago when we stopped at the Richland Waterfall Welcome Center located in the school  gymnasium at  Witts Springs.   In the brochure titled ‘Richland Waterfalls Trail Guide’ is a tiny picture along with coordinates for Suzy Jimmy Falls.      Today we’ll try to find it, and e ven though it hasn’t rained much  lately, I’m  thinking since Suzy Jimmy is on Richland Creek it should have some water flowing.   Where we park all depends on how far we can get on Sugar Gap Road, which is less than a quarter mile north of the Moore Road bridge over Richland Creek.      Right away once on Sugar Gap Road we cross Meeks Hollow Creek which surprisingly has quite a bit of water today.   Sugar Gap Road is narrow, rocky and a little steep, where it’s not steep it’s muddy, all in all not a very good road.   We keep an eye out for a good spot

       Today we plan to hike a small piece of the Buffalo River Trail, actually the section of trail we've chosen is part of the Ozark Highlands/Buffalo River Trail.  Dave Manes Bluff Trailhead is sort of ‘remote’ but the dirt roads out of Snowball are in surprisingly good shape and we arrive at the trailhead quicker than expected.   From the trailhead which is squeezed between the road and the top of Dave Manes Bluff we head south on the mostly level OHT/BRT. at the trailhead        The trail soon sweeps around to the west keeping near the edge of the bluffline, soon the bluffs become  more ‘broken up’ and jagged.    Not far past some piles of rock beside the trail we come to a trail intersection where horses go left,  and hikers right.  The ‘hiking’ trail while still easy has a couple solid rock ‘steps’ and does get pretty close to the edge of the bluff before turning back south and reconnecting with the ‘horse bypass’.  Most of this route today is combination hiking/ horse trail

     The Low Gap  Cafe is next to a  stone-faced  church, and next to the church a dirt road winds  around a couple curves then heads north, this is Fisher Point Road (on some maps it's NC 2620 or NC 140).  B ut you can’t drive all the way to Fisher Point anymore thanks to the wilderness designation, this is good, we’ll hike there instead!  We were here a couple weeks ago for our hike to Slatey Place, and we park at the same spot today, see: ( 103 Low Gap Trail ) .      We head north around the locked gate up Fisher Point Road,  which is a  graded  dirt road that any type of car could easily drive.  For a mile the road crosses back and forth across the Buffalo National River boundary, we don’t actually enter the Ponca Wilderness until after the first mile.   This goes pretty fast since the road is in great condition, about a quarter mile in is a thong tree just off the road on our right. on the ridge of Fisher Point      Another quarter mile brings us to a large beech tree with a