It's Good For the Soul

Ozark National Forest was definitely worth the trip. For the drive up my brother and I used scenic route 7 up to our camp site at Alum Cove where there is a very large natural bridge, several caves, and large rock formations. We had also stopped at a few scenic lookouts along the way and hiked a short portion of trail where I had the first snake spotting of the trip. At all of our stops the first day there were multiple dried up creeks or standing water were flowing water should have been. Arkansas is once again dying for rain. There were burn ban signs up everywhere we went.

on the natural bridge at Alum Cove, Ozark National Forest

this was quite a common sight: riverbed with no river

Alum Cove

Alum Cove

Alum Cove

early morning tent

my favorite part about sleeping out was the early morning sunlight waking me up (with a chorus of very loud birds)

For the second day of hiking we took 16 over to 23, and then headed down 309 to bring us to Mt. Magazine, the highest point in Arkansas. This place was freaking packed. The trails seemed very tourist friendly and there was a giant lodge built not far from Signal Hill (the highest point). After walking the Signal Hill loop, with various occurrences such as my pack's strap breaking and spotting a solitary deer tromping around not 200ft from the trail, we headed toward the cliffs on the backside of the nearby lodge.

Signal Hill Trail to Highpoint

Mount Magazine Signal Hill, Highest Point in Arkansas: Elevation 2,759ft

After these hikes, which probably only amounted to around 3 miles, we were spent, which is more understandable taking into consideration the 95+ degree heat. So we got in the car and head down to the Cossatot River. This was the most fun stop we made. There are giant shards of rock jutting diagonally from a semi-swiftly moving river, rows upon rows of rock with large rock walls on either side. We spent our time jumping from rock to rock and climbing them down the river for probably a quarter mile until we came to an open area where we swam with a few other guests, if you will.

At this point we were really tired, had baked in the sun for hours upon hours, and were getting annoyed with ourselves for not being able to quit singing What's Up (if you get a kick out of everything about the 90s, you should definitely watch the video).

a lone rock in the Cossatot River

Go for a nature walk, it's good for you!

Thoughts on nature: Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. - John Muir

Ozark National Forest

Today I head off with my brother for Ozark National Forest. We will be up there for Friday, all of Saturday and, most likely, most of Sunday. This will be my first overnight hiking trip and I'm really freaking excited. Over the course of my visit with my family down here I want to visit at least one National Park in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. This will count as my (first) Arkansas park.

I also plan to take a trip up to Michigan's Ludington State Park, through Manistee National Forest with my best friend in August when I get back, as well as my trip home which will be hiking-packed, but we'll get to that later because I'm still planning it and there is a lot I want to do!

I will share these few websites which have proven themselves extremely helpful to be beginning my career as a hiker. Also shown below are a few pictures of where I am going for the weekend and some links for cool outdoor stuff I have found on Pinterest.

Section Hiker: 3 Day Backpacking Menu

The Lightweight Backpacker: BackcountryTrip Planner

Campmor

Hike Light: 3-Day UltralightBackpacking Gear List

Rattlesnake Falls, Ozark National Forest

White Rock Mountain, Ozark National Forest

Glory Hole Falls, Ozark National Forest

Camping Dinner Recipes 

On The Way - Type in your starting destination and your ending destination, and it will find ALL SORTS of things for you to do, see, eat, play along the way.

Quotes on hiking:

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. - John Muir

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. - Steven Wright (I intend to test this someday soon...)

Dead Armadillos

I got a new bike for my birthday! Hooray! My mom bought it for me for my birthday and I immediately took it out for a ride yesterday. Other than the front wheel needing a little tightening, everything about the bike is a million times better than my old one, which I have had since middle school.

My new bike

However, on my first ride through Arkansas I had some seriously interesting experiences. First of all, all of the roads are crap. I was so thankful 2 minutes into my ride that I have a mountain bike. About a quarter of a mile in, a dog started barking at me. Now, normally this wouldn't phase me. In my head I thought 'it will stop running at me at the property line'. Nope. It ran out onto the road, and it was a really really large pit bull. I just pedaled a bit faster. On the other side of the road. Then further on 2 more dogs ran out toward me. While these dogs were much smaller, they followed me a lot longer and got a lot closer to my bike. I may not take this route again. I'm not scared of dogs, mind you, but I'm just used to them stay on their owner's property.

The route wasn't a long one, but it is far more hilly here than in Northwest Ohio. I went a measly 6.3 miles but I've got some new routes in the works that should be really challenging.

Anyhow, here are a few sights I found along the way. I unfortunately didn't take pictures of the armadillo and coyote carcasses I also passed, but I'm hoping you will settle for these!

Pink abandoned house

PHill'S AUTO REPAIR

On bicycling:  The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. - Christopher Morley

'All I Am Is All I'll Ever Be, And That's Just A Boy From Texarkana.'

Yesterday I made a journey which I have taken countless times since the age of 6. I drove from Findlay, Ohio down to Texarkana, AR. The drive, which Google says takes exactly 15 hrs, took me 13 hrs and 10 minutes. What can I say? I drive well.

This drive was horribly uncomfortable though. A few months back my car's heating/cooling system stop allowing me to turn it off, and more recently it stopped allowing me to choose what temperature it spits out. The whole way down my car blew hot air on my feet and up my windshield. It would have been fine with me to just roll down my windows for the trip, except that temperatures were upwards of 90 almost the entire second half of it. Needless to say I am now dehydrated and taking in as much water as I can.

Is it hot in here or is it just me?

Other than my almost fainting, the trip went really well. I didn't hit major traffic in any of the cities and only was stopped in Arkansas for road construction for 5-7 minutes. The best views of my trip were definitely the bridge over the Ohio River, Memphis and the bridge over the Mississippi.

You're the only 10 I see ;)

Obviously not my picture... Hernando de Soto Bridge Memphis

This coming Sunday I will be traveling to Miami, FL with my mother and throughout the week we will be going up to Hot Springs! I am so excited to get to spend some time here and am looking forward to all of the awesome projects my sister-in-law and I will accomplish (we already made our first trip to Hobby Lobby today).

Plus being down here means I will finally get to do a bit of shopping with my ladies. I already scored this awesome fringe purse:

From my favorite author: Not all those who wander are lost. – J. R. R. Tolkien