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.
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at the trailhead
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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,
as the combo white and yellow blazes attest. |
many vistas along trail
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Southeast through a few downed trees we
begin a gentle descent, then the trail swings back to the west
as the slope gets steeper. Down into a small drainage, after a gradual turn we’re mostly going in a north direction and the
descent gets steeper as we go. A dead deer is hanging in a tree at the side of the trail, not much is left other than the skull, backbone and ribs
. Scavengers have evidently
made off with the legs, it’s pretty ‘grizzly’ and covered with flies. We move on down the steepest section of trail to the bottom. |
bay window with steel beam
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At the bottom just before crossing the tiny creek the OHT/BRT joins
an old road at sort of a 3-way intersection, besides going west on the ‘trail’
the roads also head east or back south up the steep hill. Now headed west,
we are in a
bottomland area along Ben Branch which we cross. Ben Branch here at this crossing is a pretty
wide stream 20-30 feet across, it’s dry today but I’ll bet is impassable when
the creek is high. |
small house with collapsed roof
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On the west bank of
Ben Branch,
we start uphill almost immediately, not real steep but steep enough and long enough to really get our
heartrates ‘climbing’. In a
sweeping curve north,
the slope lessens a little then turns back to the
west, still going up the trail is now more of a gentle slope. We soon notice an old fence line on the right and a rusty horseshoe hanging from a tree, then a faint trail heading off the road to the north.
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house in ruin
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I decide to go check it out while Kat waits
at a large, downed
tree just up ahead. Down the faint trail less than 100 yards I see a nice
little pond and campsite down the slope. Back where Kat
is waiting the trail detours around the downed tree blocking the old road
before making one last ‘push’ uphill.
Just before reaching the top,
I see a concrete block structure up ahead,
it appears to be a garage. |
lots of Honeysuckle, but no house
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No, not a garage there are actually two block structures here with a
narrow ‘hallway’ between. The front
building is three rooms, each with a door and window on the front, like a
small motel maybe. In the back the
main structure was apparently a house with 3 or 4 entrances a bay window on
the front and a huge picture window on the south wall. An old rusty refrigerator and stove are in
the house along with lots of other debris. |
car on trail
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Outside to the south the back yard has a lot of rusty junk
spread around everywhere including steel barrels, freezers, bar-b-ques and many
pieces of machinery. While exploring the
‘junkyard’ and trying to identify stuff we notice another old house further back
(south) in the woods. As we make our way
back,
we stumble onto a trail leading back and a
campsite close to where the trail ends at the house. |
on the 'combo' horse/hiking trail
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This small stone house with a collapsed roof
of green shingles still has a few unbroken windows on the north side and
concrete steps down the south side, and further down the hillside is a little pond. This is not a
‘pioneer’ homesite, It was probably built in the late sixties or early seventies since particleboard was used between rafters
and shingles. After some lengthy
exploration of the ruins,
we head back on the little spur trail out to the road (OHT/BRT) at a Toyota tailgate leaning against a tree. |
approaching Dave Manes Bluff
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The trail levels out and is easy going as we wind our way west, I spot a nice clear area off the road that looks
like a nice campsite, and then some remnants of a front yard with
fence and gate, inside the ‘yard’ is honeysuckle gone wild covering the whole
area, but no sign of a house anywhere. Continuing west 200 yards is an old convertible right on the road, it’s from the sixties and I think it’s a Dodge,
but I can’t
swear to that, the engine’s gone but a taillight
is still intact. We take a break sitting on the trunk and decide this is a good place to turn around. |
sentinel at Dave Manes Bluff
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Going back is easier because the long uphill stretch
following the Ben Branch crossing is all downhill now. Back at Dave Manes Trailhead we continue north a short way to Dave
Manes Bluff Overlook, and I’m sure glad we did. Dave Manes Overlook is a huge, jagged
rock outcrop with a short spur
trail leading around some rocks then out precariously onto the
narrow vista point. It’s a fantastic panoramic view but be very careful, it’s a long
way down, if you suffer from vertigo or get dizzy stay back away from the
edge.
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on the path to Dave Manes Bluff Vista
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Well anyway it’s a beautiful view of
the fields up and down the river valley and only about 200 yards from the
trailhead. This fantastic view is the icing on the cake to our day with nature,
we hiked 3.7 miles with 639 feet of elevation gain today, and of course had a
great time along the Buffalo River.
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between trailhead and overlook
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Dave Manes Trailhead: Statistics Chart 106 It isn’t hard to get
here but with all the turns it can be confusing, having a map is a good idea. At the 90° turn where Highway 74 changes its name to Highway 377 is Snowball. Zero-out your odometer (reset to 0.0) go north on River Road through Snowball. At (mile 0.55) turn left at the ‘T’ intersection, still River Road now heading west
before swinging to the north, keep going to the next
‘T’ intersection (at 2.95 miles)
and turn left west again.
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| a block structure |
Still on River Road soon turning to the north again to another intersection (at 4 miles)
and veer to the right here staying on River
Rd. The next intersection (at 4.35 miles)
a not often used road to the right north, this is a short
cut, but staying on River Road is an easier drive so that's
how we’ll go. At about (5 miles) on
River Road is a sharp right turn with three gates off to the left, turn right here
and head up the hill. Now on Manes Bluff Road and in 0.43 miles farther, on the
left is Dave Manes Trailhead (at
5.45 miles) with parking for maybe four vehicles. Your actual milage may vary.
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| base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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