OUTDOOR AWARENESS

For this leg of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail we were attempting 40.5 miles over 4 days, starting at the Highway 298 trailhead, and finishing at the Forest Service Road 98 trailhead. The story of this trip would be water. Our first day Friday required us to complete 8.2 miles and ascend 2000 feet to camp at the Ouachita Pinnacle. As there would be no water during the leg, we carried additional water for the day, in camp and to start the next morning. About a mile prior to the highpoint, we spotted a spectacular overlook. Given our original destination would include a cellular tower and we were already pretty tired, we elected to camp at this wonderful spot. It was already getting late, with the sun beginning its descent. The hammocks were setup very quickly in the wooded spot behind the overlook. At dinnertime, we started the stove. My partner boiled water to rehydrate his meal and I started with instant soup. During the boil for additional water, we realized the second fuel canister was defective. So, the remainder of the trip there would be no more use of the stove, so we would have to adjust.

The second day would involve a 12.4 mile hike to the Moonstone shelter. The trail guidebooks indicated there were numerous and abundant water sources along the route. On this day, there were supposed to be six locations to obtain water before getting to the Moonstone shelter. The temperature was fantastic throughout the day, with high temperature in the low 80's. We were wearing shorts and we had sunshine throughout the day, except you don't get a lot of that in the deep tree cover. It was a pretty uneventful day. There wasn't any significant visual location and we stopped every 1.5 hours to eat snacks and rest. However, all of those abundant water sources weren't so abundant. In every case, creeks and streams were dry with the river rocks exposed and dry. The Moonstone shelter was about 200-300 feet off the trail. We based a small bog on to our left as we turned to the shelter. It seems that bog was our water source. After getting setup in the shelter, we went to process the water. I waded into the water to get into a deeper section. Once at my thigh, I moved the surface sediment away from the water bag and filled it up. In camp, we prefiltered the water from bag 1 into another bag. Now, from bag 2 we filtered the water in the final bag. It was very time consuming, but the water was crystal clear and surprising tasty. For dinner, we were fortunate both us had metal mugs. We boiled water in these vessels over a fire in the fire ring. Given the lack of abundant water and limited boiling, I skipped having a decadent hot chocolate after dinner. On the positive side, we had a nice shelter, water, and were fed.

The third day required 16.8 miles to tentsite that the guidebooks rated as one of the best on the trail. It was not explained what made it so good, but the location seemed good as the final night before our last day. Fifteen miles is a good hiking day for us, so this would be strenuous. Again, there were supposed to be 5-6 water locations along the way. Hopefully these work out. There were some ups and downs, and our pace was 4 miles every two hours. At this two hour mark, we would stop to have snacks and rehydrate. Unfortunately, those abundant water sources weren't so abundant. One very large creek was completely dry. While walking alongside it, we noticed a small pool of water. Given the lack of water during this trip, we picked it up in case we didn't see anything else during the day. Similar to yesterday, there weren't many scenic locations, we were largely in tree cover, and the temperature was pretty warm. Because we didn't have readily available water, we probably weren't drinking as much as we should have. In spite of these challenges, we were chopping away at those miles. By Noon, we were half done and by 2pm 3/4 done. Finally, at 4pm we reach this highly rated campsite. It was a small river that went through a narrow stone chasm. I could imagine with abundant water how fun it would be to take a cooling dip in the rapidly flowing water. There were pools and most likely small falls. It "was" definitely a great campsite, but was not today. This significant creek was dry, but there were a couple of small pools. Although these had quite a bit of sediment and muck, we could have filtered it. Because this was a rocky chasm, there weren't great spots to camp; it was very limited. Since it wasn't a designated campsite, there was no fire ring, requiring us to be very, very careful about lighting a fire for cooking. Finally, we would have to conserve our remaining water for dinner, the rest of the evening, and for the hike out.

Although it was 4pm and we had already hiked 16 miles, we considered the option of hiking another 4 miles and returning to our vehicle that had a gallon of water in it. We agreed that it was a better option than staying. We sent a satellite message to our spouses, and then headed out toward the vehicle. This would be another two hours, and the sun had set. We were hiking by headlight. To our incredulous surprise, there were reflective markers on many of the trees that we never noticed during the day. These markings were incredibly helpful and saved us an immense amount of time. At 7pm, we reached our vehicle on the Forest Service Road 98.