Day Eight of the Ouachita Trail

First of all, the advertised storm for last night was a no show. Tonight they are expecting 10-18 mph winds and gusts to 45mph. So tonight I’m set up for wind. We will see.

Slept pretty well last night and got started about 7:45 as the sun was coming up. I felt more energized today, even though it was a couple degrees warmer. I wasn’t carrying as much water, because I had used some of it. By the time I camped last night I had 3.25 L of the 5L I started with. One liter for dinner and one for breakfast and I had 1.25L for hiking. I was still 10 miles from the end of the dry area.

1.25L for 10 hot miles is not exactly an over abundance, but it would have to do. But about 5 miles in to my hike I passed a forest service picnic table with ammo boxes that said “Trail Magic for OT Hikers.” For the uninitiated, trail magic is when some wonderful person leaves drinks, or water or treats near a trailhead for thru-hikers. They do it out of the goodness of their heart just to help hikers continue on their way. Well this cache had all three! So I had a Gatorade and a snickers before I hurried on my way. What a wonderful thing!

That 10 miles to the water took all morning and in to the afternoon to put behind me. I was determined to get there before lunch, which meant putting lunch off until 1pm when I finally rolled into the Brushy Creek Campground. After securing water from Brushy Creek, I sat down at what must be the world’s longest picnic table for lunch.

After lunch, I still had 7 more miles to go to get to my campsite for tonight at the Fiddler Creek Shelter. Just before reaching the shelter I passed Trail Mile 100! Which gave me some sense of accomplishment.

I got to the shelter around 5PM, I walked down to Fiddler Creek which is a beautiful stream and got water and rinsed out my sweat soaked shirt. Then it was back to the shelter to fix dinner and finally set up my hammock in the woods nearby.

Until tomorrow, happy trails…