My husband and I started taking mini road trips to the Ouachita National Forest located in southern Oklahoma a few years ago. I had heard a little about the Ouachita Trail (OT), but information about the trail seemed limited. Each time we traveled to southern Oklahoma, I felt more and more in love with the beauty of it. I have always loved the outdoors and couldn't believe I had not spent more time in this beautiful place. I had more knowledge about the Appalachian Trail (AT) than I had about the OT, so I pursued my interest in hiking the AT.
The more I learned about the AT I became more and more fascinated. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the AT. I enjoyed reading a Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson and Grandma Gatewood Walk by Ben Montgomery. I was already in my mid fifties and wondered if I had waited to late. Grannie Gatewood hiked the entire AT in first in 1955 with a shower curtain tent and a pair of Ked tennis shoes. She hiked the trail three times with her last venture completed in 1963 at age 75. Since it takes around 6 months to through hike the AT, I decided I could start with section hikes. I got busy planning. I started researching and found a guided slackpacking hike on the AT with a group of 12 women through a company, Adventure in Good Company. The hike was a level 3 hike through the Shenandoah National Park on the Virginia portion of the AT. It was a great adventurous trip. I met some very interesting people. The hiking was tolling on the body, but the best part was at the end of the day we had a hot shower, lovely meal and a nice cozy bed. We were shuttled to and from the trailheads each day for 6 days and the experience was great! Deep down, I still want to tent camp on the trail. This will probably only happen if my husband goes on a hike with me. I have tent camped on Buffalo River kayak trips and enjoy it for a few days, however, 6 months tent camping on the trail doesn't sound doable for me personally. I definitely like the slackpacking concept better. Enjoy the beauty of the trail in the daylight and enjoy life's comfortable pleasures in the evening.
When I returned from the AT hike in May 2019, me and a couple of friends signed up for the Georgia section of the AT for early Fall 2020. I was excited. When COVID-19 arrived and disrupted our everything, I canceled the trip and revisited the OT in southern Oklahoma option for hiking closer to home. In a lot of ways, the OT is just as pretty as the AT. It just made more sense to stay closer to home during the pandemic and find out everything I could about the OT. So the journey began down the 223 mile piece of the most beautiful part of Oklahoma.
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