Ice Storms and Preparation

Well, we were lucky. No trees fell on the house. We never lost power. And we were even able to offer a place to stay for a friend who couldn’t get to her house south of Eugene. We did OK.

What did we do “OK” with? A week of sleet, ice, and freezing rain here in Oregon. Over 250,000 homes and businesses in the area were without power, at least 14 deaths directly related to the storms, and the economic impact has yet to be calculated from damage and the closing of most businesses in the state for a week. I know that you, in other states, may have suffered far worse as this weather worked its way across the country. So I am not saying we had it worse, but we did have it.

What do you do when cooped up in the house for days? Well it was a perfect time to plan my trips for 2024.

The Ozark Highlands Trail (OHT) choice started out as the Condor Trail in California. the Condor is a 400 mile route from LA to Monterey Bay in the Los Padres NF. I say “route” because it is mostly a bushwhack interspersed with occasional trail or forest roads, Did I mention poison oak and lots of it? Sounded like too much work, so, I moved on and considered the Bigfoot Trail in Northern California. This 360 mile trail north of Mt, Shasta near the Oregon border, still has some bushwhacking. But its biggest problem, I learned, is that devastating fires in the past few years have ravaged several sections of the trail. Still looking!

I started searching the middle of the country for a trail. Two in Arkansas caught my eye. The 225 mile Quachita Trail in southern AR. and the 208 mile OHT in the north. The QT is open to bikes and has less water. The OHT is more remote and stream crossing can be a problem in the late spring. I decide to go with the OHT and hike it earlier in the spring,

I’ve plotted out the entire trail mile by mile on topo maps, created a spreadsheet itinerary, and talked Cappuccino into hiking with me. We plan to start on March 31st and should be done about 2 weeks later. Getting from the end of the trail, the Hwy 14 bridge over the Buffalo River, to anywhere else is problematic. It is not near any towns. Fortunately Buffalo River is a popular canoeing river and outfitters service the area. I was able to set up a shuttle with Buffalo River Float Services. For $125 they will shuttle us to the only town with a small airport, Harrison, about 70 miles away.

Cappuccino and I have since made flight arrangements, booked hotels at the beginning and end and otherwise taken care of the “to and from” part of the trip. Now we just have to hike it. But more on that next time. See you next week.

Happy Trails…

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