Local Traildog volunteers gathered near Denby Bay of Lake Ouachita the week of January 14, 2019, to repair the planking on the trail bridge over the Gap Creek part of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990) Watchable Wildlife handicap accessible portion of the 45-mile-long LOViT trail system. The Gap Creek Bridge was originally constructed by a trail coalition team in 2010, lead by the US Corps of Engineers, and supported by the Traildog volunteers, with funding through a grant from the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. The thirty-foot-long pedestrian bridge is a low maintenance structure made of structural fiber and wooden planking. It rises almost twenty feet above the creek bed and is above the Lake Ouachita’s high water mark. During the construction stage, the Corps of Engineers constructed a temporary road from the Old Highway 270 road, known locally as “Blow out Bridge Road,” to the construction …Click to read the full article
The clean up of downed trees from the severe windstorm of last July was completed yesterday. Many thanks to a few Traildogs, especially Robert Cavanaugh and Ron Mayfield, and to our good friends on the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) Trail Crew. Over the past couple of months, we cut well over 100 downed trees off of the Trail. Much of the saga can be read about on the LOViT Facebook Page. The entire LOViT is now open for hiking and biking. Fall is a great time to enjoy the trail.
Lake Ouachita Vista TrailPosted on by Al Gathright
On Wednesday, July 8, Traildogs Jerry Shields and Al Gathright placed two plaques on adjacent benches along LOViT’s elevated walkway, part of the Watchable Wildlife Trail Segment. The two bench plaques were donated in honor of Diann Gathright’s dad and her uncle. The benches are side-by-side on the fishing pier part of the raised walkway. It is appropriate to have the brothers together near the lake they loved. Here’s their story as told by Diann’s sister, Pam Howell: The Boys of the Lake by P.R. Howell If people didn’t know better, they would have sworn they were twins. They looked alike, talked alike, laughed alike, and possessed a kinship beyond being older and younger brother (one of two). They were friends. Their friendship was fostered – as anyone who had the good fortune to hear their boyhood stories – through a series of adventures and misadventures while growing up in …Click to read the full article
A small group of Traildogs completed the installation of the gravel pavers around the six pieces of exercise equipment at the ADA trailhead on Monday, October 1. The Corps of Engineers had generously provided five additional rolls of the paver material, which was exactly the amount required. As the materials weather and settle, this will provide a very stable surface in and around the equipment and will meet all American Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements at the site. All we need to complete the planned work is installing some field stone on the south side of the equipment to provide a border from the open field. We are seeking a supply of field stone to complete this project. On Thursday, Oct. 11, we had five volunteers assisting with the cleaning and trimming of the ADA handicap accessible section of the Trail. The trees and bushes that line the outer edge of the …Click to read the full article
Today, a group of nine Traildogs met at the ADA Trailhead just off of Shangri-La Road to install gravel pavers around the new exercise equipment there. We started early, but the weather warmed quickly. The Corps of Engineers delivered the pavers and pea gravel to the work site. The work involved raking and leveling the soil around the equipment and removing the few weeds that have grown up on the pad. The pavers – plastic grids designed to hold the gravel in place – were then laid out and secured to the ground with spikes and washers. Cutting the pavers to fit around the exercise equipment turned out to be a manageable task. Once the pavers were laid into place, they were filled with the pea gravel, and the gravel was smoothed over to provide a professional looking and stable surface around the exercise equipment. Unfortunately, we ran out of …Click to read the full article
We had a wildflower planting day at the Watchable Wildlife ADA Trailhead with the 4-H children. The children had taken wildflower seeds that we furnished and rolled them into 1-inch clay balls. On Saturday March 31 approximately 12 to 15 4-H children lined the north side of the loop trail and tossed several hundred wildflower clay balls into the center field. As the rains dissolve the clay, the seeds will take root in the field and hopefully proliferate over time. The ball toss was followed by a hike on the ADA trail and elevated walkway.
On Friday, October 7, 2011, the ADA Watchable Wildlife section of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail was officially opened at the information Kiosk located on Old Highway 270, just one block west of Shangri-La Road. Approximately seventy people attended the ceremony including several seniors from the Montgomery County Assisted Living Facility in Mt. Ida. The featured speakers were Richard D. Stokes, United State Army Corps of Engineers, Gloria Chrismer, United States Forest Service, Kirstin Bartlow, Arkansas Game and Fish, and Jerry Shields, leader of the LOViT Traildog Volunteers. Jerry Shields spoke of the key support organizations who have contributed the most to the creation of the ADA Trail, the US Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Arkansas Game & Fish, both of whom have provided grants and other support activities critical to the development of this unique facility. He praised the strong effort of the Traildog volunteers in constructing the …Click to read the full article