Day Four of the Ouachita trail

In case anyone asks, it rained all night. In fact it rained all night and all this morning until noon, when it promptly stopped as did I. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

You may recall that yesterday I finished my blog sitting in my hammock in the cold, the rain, and in the darkness. This led me to start thinking. (Generally a bad idea.) I knew that the fog would have everything soaked by morning. I wonder if there are any rooms in the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge for tomorrow night? I thought. I had planned on camping on Sunday and I had a room booked for Monday, but wouldn’t it be nice if I could get out of this wetness a day early and spend both Sunday and Monday at the lodge. Well, what do you know? I have cell service up on this waterlogged ridge. A few minutes later I had a room booked for Sunday night. Now, this wasn’t exactly cheap, but at that moment, I didn’t really care. Thus gladdened by my good fortune, I drifted off to sleep listening to the chaotic tapping of the rain on my tarp.

The fog never lifted and everything was soaking wet when I woke up at 6:30. Well, actually inside my sleeping bag I was dry and the inside of my sleeping bag was dry, but the outside of the sleeping bag was wet as was everything else. I put on my wet socks and my wet shoes and my wet jacket and made a damp breakfast as the rain continue to fall and the fog continued to…fog. I packed up, climbed the short distance up to the road, and started walking briskly to warm up. Windchill was in the upper 30s, but with the effort of walking, I warmed up pretty fast.

I walked in the rain and fog for the next four and a half hours or 12 miles depend on how you like to look at it. No cars passed me going my way and only 3 cars passed going the other way.

I did stop at a little pioneer graveyard near the road. Although multiple graves are marked with a few stones, only one was a proper headstone. It was a forlorn and somewhat forgotten little place, made all the sadder by the dreariness and rain. A plaque by the road said “Pioneer Cemetery” which had been used from the 1880s to the 1950’s, but the names were all lost to posterity except for Bill Hadley who was planted there 103 years ago according to his stone.

I walked into the Lodge about 12:30. A nice cheery modern motel set on a hill with a great view. once we got my two different reservations figured out they were able to get me checked in. Unfortunately, my room wasn’t ready yet, but the restaurant was open! So I went and had lunch and just as I finished the nice lady from the desk brought me my room key and said my room was ready. Nice service!

The only drawback with the place is that they don’t have a guest laundry. So I had to wash my clothes in the shower. This is something I’ve done many times before, but I really prefer a washing machine and dryer. Right now I have clothes, a sleeping bag, a hammock, a tarp, and all my other gears strewn about the room. It looks a little like somebody put a bomb in my pack, and it went off. But my stuff is clean and so am I and therefore I am happy.

I will be taking a zero tomorrow (as in 0 miles walked on the trail.) But I will be blogging from the Lodge. Oh! And I’m finally in Arkansas. The Lodge is just a few miles in from the border.

Until tomorrow, happy trails…