Happy Traildogs testing their work

From mid to late April, the Traildogs re-routed a bit of the first leg of the trail near the Tompkins Bend trailhead and replaced a bridge that had been washed away and subsequently damaged by a controlled burn.  The new bridge was constructed further away from the area that is subject to springtime floods.

Traildog Robert put an album on our Facebook site documenting the work, and those photos are also captured here.

Robert writes:  ”That was such a good day.  Makes me glad to be alive.  Jerry, that was amazing work on measuring and cutting the materials off site.  I am very impressed with the planning and the execution of it.”

Enjoy the photos and the new bridge!

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.

The Henry Award from the Arkansas Dept. of Parks and Tourism for Outstanding Volunteer Service

What an honor for our small group of dedicated trail blazers, who, after seven years, have completed over thirty-three miles of new trail along the southern shore of Lake Ouachita. Thanks to each of you who, over the years, have provided support to the now award-winning project.

It was also a great night for Montgomery County, as our own Frontporch Stage program won the Governor’s Bootstrap Award, presented to the individual or organization that has achieved significant success “on a shoestring”, having limited resources or finances.  Congratulations to Gerry and Jane Babbitt, who along with Jerry Shields accepted the award on behalf of the many Frontporch Stage volunteers.

Our tiny county won two of the Governor’s eight awards, an unprecedented achievement, but not a surprising one, as our county has a great spirit of volunteerism and is becoming a Mecca for tourism.

Jerry

Planning LOViT Section 8's route from Spillway Road to Blakely Dam

Our team was able to find the property corners of the private land which served as the south boundary of our layout. We flagged the trail about a 100 yards north of the private land and well outside the boundary of the Echo Canyon Resort lease land.

Once we passed through this gap we took the trail along a ridge that led to the new road leading up to the Corp of Engineers new administration building located atop the mountain on the west side of the dam. We located a safe crossing point on this road and then marked a loop around the top of the mountain to the west of the dam.

The view of the Dam and the valley to the south along the Ouachita River from the end point is all we imagined it would be.

The Alpha Dog at the End of the Trail!!!

This new route will need to be reviewed by both the US Forest Service and the US Army Corp of Engineers. Following these approvals, we can proceed with the various assessments that are required before we can begin the final construction phase.

Jerry

Split-rail fencing was added to hopefully protect the old root cellar site across Shangri-La Road from the Homestead Trailhead and parking lot.

We purchased cedar split rail fence which we installed around the old root cellar to help prevent further damage from folks climbing into the old cellar and knocking loose the carefully dry staked walls of the cellar.

We cleaned the cellar of decades of debris and carefully rebuilt two places where roots from nearby pine trees had disturbed the west wall and where some trail users had removed some stones on the south wall.  Fortunately the stones from the walls were in the bottom of the cellar, covered in debris.

Once the walls were rebuilt and stabilized we installed a 10’ X 20’ rail fence around the site.

Traildog Chuck worked feverishly to clean up the site of the old well across the road from the Homestead Trailhead.

We also cleared the old hand dug well of debris, vines and limbs.

We will be installing an interpretive sign describing the old homestead, built between 1895 and 1900.

Jerry

After five hours of clearing, we had located the concrete anchors of the tower, the foundation to the watchers’ cabin, a water cistern, and what we believe was a stone cooler used for perishables at the site. We also found the two National Geological Survey medallions installed in 1953.

The trail from the Hickory Nut Mountain Trailhead sign to the tower site is only .15 miles and just a ten minute hike from the parking area.

The photo gallery below includes a rough proposal for the interpretive sign we plan to install at the site, along with photos of the construction, including the cabin foundation.

Jerry

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.