Ouachita Trail - Section 4 (1 of 2) Foran Gap to Forest Service Road #48-Coachlight Road (off Highway 71)
Our plan for Section 4 of the Ouachita Trail was almost a wash – literally. The April showers blew in around two inches of rain the day before our hike and our plans seemed to be neutralizing.
Since our hopes had been up for weeks, we decided to take our chances and make the couple of hours drive to the trail and hope for the best. When we arrived in Mena, Arkansas we drove to check out the condition of the road where we were going to stage a car to begin Section 4 the next day. The road was muddy, but not flooded. We hoped the area didn’t get any more rainfall during the night or it was definitely going to halt our hike.
After checking out the roads, we settled in the unique AirBNB. The owners had a guinea, chickens, and a garden. We were also surprised to see there was a Big Foot across the street. The AirBNB where we stayed was not our first choice. Our first choice was in Acorn, Arkansas but it wasn’t available so we settled on the Purple Sunset Hill AirBNB.
Swing in front of our AirBNB
There wasn’t much rainfall during the night. We loaded up and headed out early to stage the cars. The first car was left on the Forest Service Road 7172 that leads to the Turner Creek Gap Shelter MM 79.9. The road was muddy, and we were only able to drive in a short way to leave the car and then we then drove to Foran Gap Trailhead MM 68.1 to begin our 11.8 miles to Turner Creek Gap Shelter/FS 7172.
The hike started out great. It was a nice, crisp, cool morning. The rain had done a spring cleaning on the forest. Everything was sparkling. Just a few steps into this beauty, I could feel my worries, fears and stress melt away and everything about the forest did a spring cleaning on my mindset. The opportunity to return to the forest is the an awesome feeling and quite addicting. I took several photos at the beginning of the hike because the sun was spotlighting and bringing things to my attention. There was a damp leaf that had stuck to a tree like a heart sticker that caught my eye. In my refreshed mind, the heart on the tree prompted me to think about how one tree that had been planted many years ago that had started this beautiful forest heritage. I later remembered a thought-provoking poem “The Heart of the Tree” by Henry Bunner I had read a few months back. I made a note to self to plant a tree somewhere plain.
A little way further on the trail, I noticed a damp spider web that the sun was shining through which created a vivid rainbow design to amplify the detail of the web. Mother nature is so artsy craftsy, she was showing her brilliant talent with this handiwork.
Since our hike of section 3 the month before there had been a lot of rain in the area and the rain had brought new life to the forest and it looked like a jungle in places. Our senses also quickly tuned into watching for snakes since there was a lot of cover on each side of the trail for them to hide. The first five miles of this section we were moving at a pretty good pace. As the day progressed, our pace slowed due to more elevation gain. We trudged on as the day warmed up. There was a slight breeze most of the day that cooled us off and kept us from having a sweat fest. As we neared mile 6 of the hike the day livened up when a black snake decided to block our path. With a little scare from us, it slithered out of our way and we apprehensively trekked on.
Later, when we stopped for a snack break, we noticed several ticks crawling on rocks. We tried to find a rock or tree stump to sit for a snack but decided just to stand for a quick break. We could barely eat our snacks due to gnats flying around our heads. We ended up only having two short standing breaks the entire day.
I did have to sit once to apply a blister Band-Aid, but got it done quickly. The last couple of miles before reaching Turner Gap Creek Shelter, we kept an intense eye on the Gut hook app which made it seem like an eternity to finally reach our destination. When we reached Turner Creek Gap Shelter, we stopped for a rest at the picnic table. My legs felt as heavy as tree trunks. The water running slowly through Turner Creek was so peaceful and relaxing. The short rest revived us for what we thought was a short hike to the car. We were tired and hungry and on the verge of hangry. We started down the Forest Service Road to the car. We hiked with very little conversation. Since we had already completed a little bonus mileage on the trail, I worried there may be more than expected ahead of us to reach the car. Rhonda kept needing reassurance that we were on the road that led to the car. She asked me a couple of times, “Are we sure this is the correct road where we left the car?” We didn’t have a good phone signal to confirm our location, but I tried to reassure her we were on the right track. We encouraged each other with phrases like “We’ve got this.” We even sent a request to the Heavens, “Oh Lord, please let the car be around this bend!” Finally, as hope was about to diminish, we saw the car. It is amazing how your body responds when you see an end to a long day of hiking. We started moving fast to hurry and get the backpacks off and crank up the A/C and then decide it may be best with the windows down to cool off our sweaty bods. Once gear was loaded and we were settled in the car for the trip back to town It didn’t take long for us to switch from the game between mental and physical to finish the hike to the game between mental and physical as to what good grub we wanted to partake. Based on STRAVA, we burned 1,999 calories and we laughed because we couldn’t have taken another step to round STRAVA up to burning 2,000 calories. Since we were so tired and didn’t want to get out at a restaurant. We decided to go to Myers Cruizzers Drive-In (like Sonic) and stay in our cars to get food and go back to AirBNB for dinner. As I looked at the menu, I couldn’t decide which side order to get to go with my burger. Mentally, I wanted to eat healthy, but physically I wanted it all. Chalk one up for the physical winning at this mind game because I ordered fried pickle, tater tots, and onion rings. There was no way I was going to weigh the difference between the calories burned against the calories I was about to consume.
Over dinner, we reviewed our STRAVA stats, and the bonus 3+ miles was due to us having to hike past Turner Creek Gap Shelter about 1.5 miles to the car and the other 1.5 miles was because a trail mile and regular mile are not the same distance. We couldn't wait to get in the shower, but we knew there were most likely some ticks who hitched a ride from the trail. The best perk of slackpacking is a nice hot shower and a close second is great WIFI to stream a good movie and watch it comfortably. I opened the window in my room and enjoyed the night sounds. By 9 p.m., I was snug as a bug in a rug in my nice cozy bed without having to swat bugs or feel like they were crawling on me.
The next morning, we were surprised how good we felt after the extra mileage from day 1. Staging the cars on day 2 took a little longer then we had been used to when completing other sections in the past. This longer drive presented some beautiful scenery, so we barely noticed the extra driving time.
We were off early again to stage the first car at Forest Service Road 48 aka Coach Light Road, when turning off highway 270. We had to make a stop for some road maintenance in our pursuit.
The challenges we experienced during day 1 and day 2 prompted
us to call a meeting of the minds. We
hiked and talked about changes we needed to make to our plan to complete our
section hiking of the OT by the end of 2021 and agreed our new goal would be to
complete all sections by March 2022. The
OT is a great trail for hiking during November (after Friends of Ouachita Trail
– FoOT annual trail maintenance at the end of October is complete) through the
end of March before the trail turns into a jungle. We decided that Oklahoma and Arkansas sports
of choice for the summer would be kayaking and bicycling. We adjourned our meeting and would get the meeting minutes to our hiking buddy, Lacey. We
were sorry Lacey didn’t get to join us on this hike due to her daughter’s prom. Lacey aka Hollywood is a great hiking
partner, and we knew she wouldn’t have liked the jungle safari hike any more
than we did. After the meeting, our
focus was back to completing the day hike ahead of us. Thank goodness Rhonda aka Eagle Eye had her
eyes peeled for snakes because she was one boot length away from stepping on a
big, but friendly, timber rattler. It
wasn’t bothered by us at the least. It
wasn’t coiled up and didn’t rattle. It crawled
a little way off the trail and stopped, crawled a little more and stopped and
this continued for what seemed like an eternity because he was so long. There was to much cover on the trail it was hard to determine it's length. After he was off the trail, we finally found
the courage to move forward again. We
were feeling the ultimate heebie-jeebies. A month before this hike I saw a Facebook post on snakes on the OT and we decided to get some snake gaiters. I am glad we did because with them on we felt confident to press on.
Snake GaitersThe next frustration of day 2 was rocks. I guess we noticed them more because we were watching so intently for snakes that we didn’t have time to mess with rocks. The worse part of rocks is trying not to roll an ankle as you hike over them and now there was a new fear there might be a snake under the rocks. My frustration with the rocks escalated and they started to seem more like boulders. I started loudly name calling them and the first thing I could think of was “boulder bit@he$” “boulder b@$t@rds” and my favorite “boulder buttholes". Rhonda knows I have a love/hate relationship with the rocks on the OT and she laughed at my frustration. I apparently forgive the rocks quickly, because I keep going back to the OT for more, but they sure play havoc on your footsies. I took a deep breathe to try and refresh my mind and eventually I started noticing the nice things about the trail like the flowers and the butterflies.
We remained a little edgy about snakes for the remainder of the day. Less than a mile away from the car, Rhonda walked past another black snake with its head reared up and looking at her. She jumped 3 feet off the ground like she was wearing Air Jordan hiking boots. When I stopped, the snake was between me and Rhonda. Where was a “boulder butthole” when you needed one. All I could find to throw at it was a tree branch with a pinecone hanging off it. I threw it and the snake didn’t move! It continued to look at us with its red tongue darting in and out in every direction. Creepy stuff. The trail was wide enough that I made a run for it. As I ran past the snake I screamed, which made Rhonda scream. Since I was needing a potty break, I even peed a little. From our calculations, we were close to the car and hoping we didn’t have any unforeseen bonus miles ahead. As bad as I needed to pee, I wasn’t squatting in the snakey-forest. We wondered how many extra calories we had burned during our hikes for snake cardio. Even though our hearts were racing we were hiking extra fast to get the heck out of there.
Our last morning, we woke to rainy, stormy weather. We were slightly disappointed that we were short 6 miles of completing section 4. We had a nice breakfast at the Skyline Café in Mena, which was just a short way from our AirBNB. I had a great omelet and good coffee. Over breakfast, we were already talking and getting excited about coming back in November. We both had busy summers ahead of us and knew November would be here soon enough. After breakfast, the storms let up for our drive home.
The unfolding drama during a hike is a big part of the fun during a hike and it helps make a better story to tell in the end. On all the hikes I've completed there has always been unforeseen, crazy stuff that comes up. I've learned from my mistakes and on each hike I gain more and more wisdom on a better way to approach the logistics in planning and the challenges of just completing the goals I have set for myself. The wildflowers have always been decorating the trail on our hikes. The photos I took on this hike were right on the trail or I didn't get a photo. The only time I got off the trail on this hike was for bathroom break and I made it snappy.
Warm hiking days that get the snakes to moving, ticks to
crawling and gnats to flying (thank God we didn’t deal with chiggers) make me
cranky and steal my joy. Until November, I will be enjoying the warm weather at the lake and on paved
hiking trails. I will let all the creepy,
slithering and buzzing annoyances have their fun with other hikers willing to
brave the jungle.
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