Ouachita Trail- Arkansas
This post is a bit earlier than I expected. But, it turns out that I have a scheduling conflict that interferes with the timing of my Ouachita Trail trek, forcing me to move the date up by about two weeks. The conflict goes by the name of “Nancy’s 75th Birthday.” Enough said.
So now instead of starting the last week of March, I will be starting the first week of that month. This, of course, has shortened my timetable, by a lot. The main problem is time left for training, which isn’t a lot. Fortunately, I always continue to train, even when a trek is not imminent. Hopefully this will help.
It has pushed me to get all of the arrangements made for the trip which I will outline below. None of this is very hard, but you have to do a fair amount of internet searching to find what you need.
First, I decided to keep my mileage around 14 miles a day, give or take. Then I used a topo map to plot out roughly where I would camp each night for the 223 miles of this trail. That came out to about 17 days plus a day at each end for travel. I added a day just for good measure and placed the 20 days on the calendar to see what might work best and avoid a certain birthday. I settled on starting out 5 March and returning home on the 24th.
Once I had an itinerary, it was pretty easy to make travel arrangements to Ft. Smith, AR and from Little Rock, AR. I found Mike, who provides a shuttle service that takes people from Ft Smith to the western trailhead, which is just over the border into Oklahoma. I will be hiking from West to East to the outskirts of Little Rock, from whence I will fly home.
About 51 miles in, there is the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge right on the trail, so I booked a room there. Also there is a legendary trail angel, Lori, in the little town of Story, AR. Story is 121 miles in, so I’ve arranged with Lori for a ride into town and made a reservation at the Aqua Motel, a mid century modern establishment nearby that has surprisingly good ratings. The Lodge and Story will hold resupply boxes, so that will cover my resupply needs.
Now, if I can just get my body tuned up to hike the 223 miles and 34,000 ft of elevation gain and loss in time, all will be good.
See you back here in about two weeks.
Happy Trails…
I love the puzzle nature of planning stops and appropriate accommodations that you describe. I don’t remember you describing whether you use your medical training on the trail. And of course, happy birthday Nancy. Hannah’s 77th is in February. I have 1000′ of elevation gain for you next Tuesday at the East Fork of the Cold Spring Trail. A creek trail we couldn’t cross last year because of all the rain. This year it’ll be a piece of cake, let’s make it birthday cake for Nancy!
Hey Dan, looking forward to getting together for a hike. 1000’ up sounds great. I’ll take all the training opportunities I can get.
As to using my medical training on the trail… when I used to carry a pretty substantial medical kit, I did put in some stitches and of course treated assorted cuts and scrapes. But now, my first aid kit consists of a couple of Band-Aids and some ibuprofen. Maybe a little steroid cream if I’m going through areas with lots of poison ivy. On the continental divide trail I fell and dislocated my right shoulder and being the only person around, I had to reduce my own shoulder. It actually happened twice on that trip. On the PCT I had to assess one of my hiking partners for a heart attack. Fortunately, he wasn’t having one and we were able to self evacuate him the 20 miles back to civilization.
There is no doubt in my mind that you will be able to do this hike!
Cappuccino, thanks for the vote of confidence and I appreciate your good wishes.
I always try to approach these things with a certain amount of humbleness. Luckily, most of the time, I’ve been successful, but it’s not guaranteed. Nature, it seems, doesn’t care at all about human hubris. But I will take your good wishes and tuck them into my brain, in a place where I go when I need a little extra, and it will nudge me forward a little further down the trail.
yes, I’d say that a good reason to change plans….So when you plot out the miles per days do you take into consideration elevation gains?
OZ- Great question! Do I consider elevation in planning? Yes and no.
First of all, for easy of calculation, I try and settle on some average daily mileage then knowing the distance I just do the math. That gives me the number of days. I may even plan camping spots based on my presumed daily mileage. But once on the trail I often adjust based on the amount of climbing and the difficulty of the terrain. That is usually day by day. I look at what’s coming up tomorrow and adjust accordingly.
That said, at this point, I haven’t ever had much trouble hiking 14 miles in a day on trail. (Cross country is another matter) as my friend Spiderwoman told me, “All miles are not equal.” Some 14 mile days will take everything you’ve got, and others might be a walk in the park. But, it kind of all evens out. For longer mileage days (20+) I have to pay much more attention to the elevation. So, like I said, the answer is yes and no.