Outdoor Adventures in the Ozarks

       It has been way too long since the last time I went hiking, and today I have no excuses.    For almost a month now I’ve gotten reacquainted with my road bike which had been collecting dust for the last couple years.  After installing a new battery,  the ole Beemer is running great once again, recently I have taken full advantage of the warm weather, putting some long overdue miles on the bike. tunnel under Hwy. 65      Today is forecast to be ‘much milder’ after yesterday’s cold front blew through, I put on a jacket and ride down to Grinders Ferry, paved roads all the way.  Almost two years ago, after a day hiking some of the trails of Tyler Bend, we stopped at Grinders Ferry and found a trailhead for the OHT/BRT that isn’t shown on any map I’ve ever seen (see: 94 Tyler Bend Loop ) .  Today I head out west on the white blazed OHT/BRT to sort of connect the dots so to speak and also check out McMahan Bluff. ...

       We had quite a bit of rain the last couple days so I’m thinking it should be a good day to see some waterfalls.  I have a couple in mind that I’ve been meaning to go check out and end up in Sand Gap deciding on Native American Falls.  The parking area is on the west side of Highway 7 south of Highway 123, the ‘Piney Creek WMA’ sign that once stood at this spot is gone. first falls encountered along Indian Creek       Out the back heading west is a very visible trail, well-worn, obvious and easy to follow.   All the colorful ribbon and flagging hanging everywhere is completely unnecessary.   The trail starts downhill right away, first gently but seems to get steeper the farther I go and soon I can hear running water.   Now the trail is following a little side stream as it continues down to Indian Creek. Tumbling Cascade       This is way up near the top of the Indian Creek drainage, I’m surprised at th...

     To start, I want to talk a little about outdoor photography , a few years back while admiring beautiful Thunder Canyon Falls, I slipped and fell hard, landing directly on the Canon EOS hanging around my neck.  I thought I had broken ribs, but no, just bruised I soldiered on and our DSLR seemed to work just fine even though the circular polarized filter attached to the lens was bent and would no longer accept the lens cap. Trimble House      That misadventure into Thunder Canyon (see: 23 Thunder Canyon Falls ) marked the end of carrying a DSLR while hiking, and the beginning of the more convenient cellphone picture taking.   Since then,  we have used a variety of phones, none cost much, but all claimed to have ‘high quality’ cameras.   Cheap phones may take acceptable snapshots and sometimes you get lucky and capture an exceptionally good image, but most of the time the shots are sub-par at best. in old East Calico   ...

     Fifteen months ago, while hiking along the top of a bluff on our way to Illinois Point on the Buffalo River Trail we enjoyed some nice views out onto Lane Bend, I thought the area looked interesting and appeared to be an easy hiking opportunity.  Today I’m on my way to find out, I park at the bottom of Longbottom Road next to the locked gate.      Back in the early 20 th century during the deforestation of much of northwestern Arkansas, men would lash together hundreds of logs and float them down the Buffalo to the White River and eventually large sawmills outside of Batesville.  Every major bend in the river became a landmark for relating daily progress downriver, the bends in the river were given names usually of the local landowners along the river. sunny day at Lane Bend      The Lane family who lived here in this bend of the river had quite the productive bottomland farm, and to this day very little of the over 200 acres ...

       Today is Super Bowl Sunday and such a nice day I feel the need to get out and do a little hiking.  Last Sunday I went down Parker Ridge Road with the intention of hiking up Rock Creek to Johnny Trail Falls, but never made it to the bottom.  Parker Ridge Road was littered with downed trees everywhere, the result of the recent ice storms that took out power for over 10,000 Entergy customers.  Our power was out up in northern Boone County for 72 hours, some areas the outage was even longer. castle turret      Back on Parker Ridge Road, I gave up weaving around obstacles (downed trees) and pulled into a large campsite on the north side of the road that could easily be four or five campsites.  This is at the top of the large south fork of Rock Creek.  Thinking that the streams should be flowing well after the recent storms I decided to try and find a way down into the hollow. damp, rocky north slope     ...