AmeriCorps and Arkansas Wildlife Federation volunteers Join the Traildogs on our last winter day on Bear Mountain

The air temperature at lake side was 23 degrees with a 10-15 mph wind out of the northwest. The Traildogs left early to do a little tree removal and user sign installation on the sixth and seventh sections of the trail. They removed two large trees blocking the eastern end of the sixth section on Little Bear Mt., then installed several user signs on the newly minted seventh section.

On the barge ride over to Little Bear Creek, water splashing over the front edge of the barge immediately froze our bow line and coated the front of the barge  with a thin layer of ice. Captain Dan Watson had to thread the barge through a group of half frozen bass fisherman participating in a tournament who had chosen the Little Bear creek area to make their first casts. Captain Dan is a pro and carefully threaded his way through the fishing boats without upsetting these hardy fisherman trying vainly to coax the half frozen bass up from their lairs below the thermo-cline.

Beta Dog Al and Gamma Dog Robert were waiting on shore for the second an third loads of volunteers at our moorage in Little Bear Creek at the base of Big Bear Mountain. We loaded the 4-wheelers with our day’s supply of food, drinks and some extra tools for the trip to the top of the mountain. The good hearted and strong trail supporter folks at the Shangri-La Resort had furnished sandwiches and fresh baked berry pies, which were lovingly loaded on these four wheel wonders. The good folks from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation had furnished drinks and other goodies to supplement the sandwiches and pies.

After a scintillating, body-awaking boat ride across the lake, everyone was ready for a hike up the mountain. Thirty minutes of hiking brought the herd of volunteers to the summit switchback area on the south slope. Most of the volunteers were enjoying the hike and expressing how good the warm southern sun felt. All the seasoned Traildogs knew were thinking “just wait to you cross to the north side”. As we passed over the summit we were greeted by an invigorating 10-15 MPH breeze to make the 26 degree air temperature bone chilling. We hiked on about a mile and half to the work site which was – no surprise – frozen solid. The young volunteers were undeterred and hacked away at the frozen ground, smoothing the tread and working the “angle of repose” on the up side of the trail.

Lunch overlooking Crystal Springs Marina with AmeriCorps and Arkansas Wildlife Federation Volunteers

Two hours of hacking and we had completed the final 600 feet of new trail.  After some picture taking, we retreated back to the switchback section on the south slope where we broke for lunch. Once we were on the south slope, it was like walking from a freezer into a warm room – no wind, and warm southern sunshine. The group fell on the food like a …  well, a pack of starving dogs. I heard a few forget the sandwiches to go directly for a slice of those pies, but within thirty minutes, most of the food was being converted into new energy.

The average age of the Traildogs is somewhere between 65 and 70, and they were definitely enjoying the bloom of these youthful new volunteers. After lunch we attacked a rework of the very steep last switchback, rerouting it to the right through a outcropping of solid rock that the Forest Service machine could not navigate. The vigor of youth was apparent when we asked the group to line the down side of the trail with boulders. If we dogs were doing this we would have labored to cover this steep slope by rolling, tugging, fighting and cursing enough rocks and boulders onto the slope to keep it from eroding. Before we knew it these young folks had formed a fire line and were passing rock and boulders down onto the slope like we would sprinkle salt on freshly fried eggs. After an hour, the twenty volunteers had converted the raw steep switchback into a gentle rock lined curve that any bike or hiker would truly appreciate.

We often hear in the news today that our youth have lost their zeal for everything but thumbing their communicators. We on the trail know better. These young people who joined us today are a credit to their young generation. To a person, they were a cheerful, hard working, dedicated group of volunteers who raised the spirits of old dogs. They were intelligent and personable, with a keen ability to coax a host of stories from long experienced Traildogs.

A special word of thanks to Wayne Shewmake and Ethan Nathe of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation for orchestrating the students volunteers from across the state to join our final day of trail building for this winter.  Another special thanks to the dedicated team of AmeriCorps volunteers for giving of their personal time to come over from their work at Lake Ouachita State Park to assist on the LOViT.

Many thanks to each of our volunteers today.

Jerry

New bench on Bear Mountain overlooking Crystal Springs Marina

We were fortunate today, as we did not run into solid rock when we dug the holes for the benches.  The first bench was installed on the south slope of the mountain overlooking the Crystal Springs Marina.  The second bench was installed on the north slope overlooking Hotel Island.

Following the bench installation, we had lunch on the south slope at the top of the switchbacks. The final switchback is very steep and difficult to hike or bike. After reviewing the site, we chose to hand dig an alternate path just to the right of the machine dug route.  This effort required moving a number of large boulders to form a stationary rock wall on the down slope.  We then filled in the path with small stones to level the tread and covered the stones with red clay, creating a first class tread with a significantly lower slope.

We are rescheduling Thursday’s planned workday on Hickory Nut Mountain to tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb 7th.  We will be doing the finish work on the “Old Fire Tower Spur”.  This 1/2 mile spur starts at the Hickory Nut Mountain Trailhead sign and goes up the north face of the mountain to the old tower site.  We are currently designing two trail interpretive signs for this site.  We will meet at the trailhead sign at 9:00 am.  The trailhead is located atop Hickory Nut Mountain, just west of the Hickory Nut Mountain Vista.

Here are some additional photos of today’s work.

Jerry

We measured our progress today as we hiked out at the end of our day, and we have developed three new miles of trail since we started this dig last December.  It appears we have approximately 3.5 miles of additional construction to get to Brady Mountain Rd.  Budget constraints and other needs of the Forest have brought this year’s construction to end unless we can find additional resources to continue the construction.

We will not be working tomorrow, Feb. 3, but will restart next Monday, Feb 6th.

I will keep you posted as we attempt to secure additional resources.

Attached are some photos from where we stopped today’s construction.

Thanks
Jerry

PS.  Here’s some track data from where we finished construction for the day to the “ferry”.  Click on the “View on Map” link below to see the detail and to access GPS and Google Earth data files for this track.

A warm and foggy day on the seventh leg of the LOViT

Once across the bay, we unload the 4-wheelers and begin ferrying volunteers to the top of the mountain.  The going is steep, especially on the old logging road we utilize to shorten the trip to the top. Once at the summit, we must motor almost two more miles to our work site.  This requires several trips to carry all our volunteers across the face of the mountain.

As the fog lifted today it was if a curtain had been lifted to reveal a stunning new painting.  The lake below is broad and deep blue, offset by the emerald green islands with their white shorelines.  The views from this section of the trail are truly special and the best of the of the Trail, including Hickory Nut Mountain Vista.

Bad hair day on the LOViT, and no hat!

Weather permitting we will be on the trail again tomorrow, Thursday, Feb 2nd, and we will be looking for the elusive groundhog to let us know how close spring is this year.  We will depart Crystal springs Marina again at 8:30 am.

Thanks
Jerry

Making Progress, despite tough going and celebrating Traildog Robert's birthday!

We will not be working tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan 31, as several of us are attending the funeral of Rick Stokes’ father. Rick has been a good friend and strong supporter of the trail since the first day and was very close to his father.

We will assess Wednesday tomorrow afternoon to determine if the forecasted 80% chance of rain actually will occur.

Thanks
Jerry

LOViT Termination point near Lake Ouachita's Blakely Dam

Today we met with the Corp of Engineers at the Blakely Mt. Dam site office to determine the end point for the trail. After reviewing the area just south of the new office building just above the north face of the dam, we chose a site on a rock bluff that overlooks the intake tunnel for the power plant and the north face of the dam. After eight years of planning and seven years of construction, we are rapidly approaching the completion of the main trail. It is our plan to have a information kiosk at the termination point that will provide information about the trail and the history of the lake. Attached is a photo of the dam with the bluff just to the right and above the intake structure.

LOViT Section 7 Termination Point Near Old CCC Site

We also visited the termination of our current construction on section seven that terminates at Brady Mt. Rd. Unfortunately, this termination point is right in the middle of where last May’s tornado passed through, downing thousands of trees and thereby destroying the canopy we treasure. However, and fortunately, this end point is right at an old Civilian Conservation Corps (“CCC”) improved spring site. The CCC folks built a stone walk and stairs down to the spring in the mid-1930’s. There is already a parking area there, making it a natural trailhead site. Attached is a photo of the old spring.

Next Monday we will again start at 8:30 am and rally at the Crystal Springs Café parking area. We will have the now-repaired US Corp of Engineers barge to ferry our volunteers to the base of the mountain. Pack you trail lunch and plenty of fluids and join us. If it is raining, we will not be working.

Jerry

Tuesday, Jan. 24, was beautifully clear, giving the team terrific views of Lake Ouachita from the new Section 7.  The photo gallery here shares some of those views and gives you an idea of where we are along the proposed trail.

Here’s the current view of the Trail taken from where we quit for the day back to the boat. If you click on the photo, you will be taken to a Motion-X GPS page where you can play with the map, open it in Google Maps, or download .KMZ (for Google Earth) or .GPX files.

It's officially a > 2 mile hike from the boat to the current construction site on Bear Mountain.

Hope to see you on the Trail,

Dan

Today we could clearly see Bird Island directly north of where we were working.  At this elevation it clear how the USACE chose this valley to create this beautiful lake.  The Lake sits between two ridges of low mountains that make a perfect bowl, without levis, that allowed the lake to form once the dam was in place. We continue to be amazed at how consistent the mountain face is making the trail construction so much easier without having to constantly find ways around deep valleys and steep drainages.

The new tread is excellent with a great deal of red clay that once it is packed will provide a very smooth durable trail.  We are planning another work day tomorrow starting at 8:30 and again meeting at the Crystal Springs Café parking lot where we will load into the boat to be ferried across to where we moor at the base of the mountain.  It is almost an hour hike up the mountain to our construction site but as you reach the summit which is about half way you begin see why we built this sections as the mountain falls away revealing the beauty of Lake Ouachita.

Pack a trail lunch and plenty of fluids and join us tomorrow as the weather looks very good. Attached are photos from today’s adventure.

Jerry

Hoping that the noon sun would burn off the fog or at least lift it off the mountain, we hiked the two miles up the mountain from where we moored the boat on Little Bear Creek. Talk was at minimum as we lugged our day packs and some new tools up the old road that serves as a short cut to the new tread, with the heavy fog quickly drenching our hooded outer wear.  Even our fit seasoned volunteers find breath a little shorter as we approach the summit after coming up over 500 feet in elevation in less than a mile.

At the summit the fog is a gray, wet curtain of silence; no wind, birds, or any normal deep woods sounds penetrate its sound dampening effect.  We are currently working in an area of ancient old hardwoods, cherries, white & red oaks and hickories who stand like silent sentinels in the dripping fog.  We are unable to see the crowns of the trees as visibility is only about 100 feet.  We passed through an area that is home to a small invasive shrub-like tree about an inch in diameter that grows in thickets of thousands mixed with the devil’s own “Thorny Walking Sticks”, making it difficult to disburse the downside construction debris. Attached are a couple of pictures of our crew at work in the fog.

Fortunately the tread is an old road bed; it is good deep soil and easy to work, except in the fog, helping us make great progress despite the conditions.  At the end of the day we could crow that we have now added over two new miles of completed tread to the LOViT’s now over 32 miles of trail.  The USFS’ hardy machine crew, about a half a mile of ahead of our crew, continues to claw out new tread through brush, boulders and rock ledges.  The USFS’ dedication to supporting this trail development can’t be overstated as they continue to dedicate scarce resources of men and machines from ever tightening budgets to this now seven year effort to drive this trail to the Blakeley Mountain Dam.

Next week we will be on the trail again and, hopefully, the fog will go back to Oregon where they are used to it.  We will rally at the Crystal Springs Café parking area at 8:30 for the ferry ride to the base of Big Bear Mountain.  Due to the length of our hike to the work site, we are starting at 8:30 am.  The forecast for Monday and Tuesday looks very inviting, so pack a trail lunch and join us on this great section of elevated trail.

Have a great weekend.

Jerry