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Hiking in AR *pics*
Me, my 2 brothers and my brother's girlfriend went hiking in the Buffalo National River in Arkansas this week.
We had planned to hike for 4 days but ended up just doing 2 days and then calling it quits haha.
We arrived sunday and stayed the night in a motel in Jasper,AR and then met up with our shuttle.
He sent us on what was suppose to be a 1 mile hike to a waterfall and then 1 mile back out..but because of his horrible directinos we ended up going 2 miles up a much steeper trail and not seeing any waterfall and then hiking 2 more miles back. but ah well....
So then he took us to drop my truck at what was suppose to be the end of our hike (Kyle's Landing) and then drove us to the trail head (Boxley)
We didnt start hiking until about 3 so we only hiked 2-3 miles before we had to make camp. The trail was much more strenuous then we were told it would be so that bummed us out and then to top it off it was much colder that night then it was suppose to so we all ended up shivering all night long and barely got any sleep. So we woke up and decided we would get to the next big camp site (Ponca) and call it quits because we didn't want to freeze another night and we weren't enjoying it anyways. We didn't begin hiking the next day until almost 11 because my brother didn't want to get out of the tent and get moving so we had to cram 9 miles of strenuous hiking into 5-6 hours plus stopping to fill up for water and a lunch break...
Needless to say we ended up with very sore legs and lots of blisters and barely made it to Ponca before night fall and then we had to hike 1 1/2 miles up at highway to the town of Ponca and we tried calling our shuttle but he didn't answer so we found the general store and told them our dilemma and thankfully they had some some bunk houses that we could stay in for $10 a person and they told us they would give us a shuttle in the morning to my truck...
We slept in the bunk house wich was great and toasty warm and then in the morning we walked over to the store thinking we would get a ride to our truck....but nooooo....the lady asks "so you guys gonna hike to your truck today?" :shock: Uh NO lady, it's 13 miles from here and we are SORE...but she doesnt care and is just like well I can't help you .... so we ask her where the nearest shuttle is and she tells us there is one about a 1/2 mile down the road but they probably won't help us and if they do they will charge us way too much..WTF? but we figure we'll try anyways because at this point we are screwed..
Low and behold we walk down there and ask them and they are like yea of course we'll help and they don't charge us too much at all. Finally we get back to our vehicle and then back to the hotel to shower and rest. :)
So no more long hikes for me at least..i dunno about the others. I just realize that I don't enjoy the kind of hike where you are up in the mountains for days and you basically have to race to your next camp site before the sun goes down...I'll probably just stick to day hiking and camping.
anways onto the pics :)
Me and my brother wes on the first little hike...because we thought it would be so short we didnt bring our packs or water or anything
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7428.jpg
the river
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7429.jpg
my brother matt up on some rocks
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7446.jpg
me
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7450.jpg
at the river
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7471.jpg
To get to the beginning of the trail we had to cross the river
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7481.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7482.jpg
the only clearing we came upon with a great view
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...e/IMG_7491.jpg
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What an adventure :eek:. But worth some of the views by the looks of it, how pretty :).
I'm glad you all made it back safely.
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You are far braver than I ever was or will be! It was a adventure you will never forget though. Like I use to tell my sister when we had something good turn bad, "Next year this time, we will be laughing about this!".. We always did too!"
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It is so neat seeing familiar territory in this post! Each year my family spends a week exploring and being river rats on the Buffalo National River. Then we head over to either Bull Shoals or Lake Norfolk to spend another week on the water. Good times! :)
I would love to go hiking in that area around this time of year.. I just can never find anyone willing to brave the cold with me. Then again, I bet you can't blame them, can you? Haha!
Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. I am glad you didn't have a completely horrid time. :-)
