Ouachita Trail, Part Deux
If you're a follower of this blog, you might recall this post detailing my sort-of-failed attempt to thru hike the OT in 2024. I say "sort-of-failed" because I finished the trail, I just didn't complete it. To quickly summarize, 2024's attempt was broken into 2 parts: The first 60 miles I would do immediately before Thanksgiving with San Antonio Venture Crew 324 (a Scouting unit.) I would drive home, spend Thanksgiving with my wife, then immediately drive right back to Arkansas to pick up where I left off then complete the trail (another 160 miles.) Well, there was an injury on day 2 of the Scout's portion, which nixed completion of 45 of the 60 miles. However, I returned after Thanksgiving to start where part 1 should have finished and completed the other 160 miles.
Serendipitously in the intervening year the volunteer organization that supports the trail (FoOT, or Friends of the Ouachita Trail) solved one of the logistical issues that has long plagued the OT: there were no shelters for the eastern-most 33.5 miles. There was one campsite (Penny) whose use had been negotiated 14.5 miles from the eastern end, but it was still more than a mile off trail. To resolve this obstacle, FoOT built one completely new shelter (Scott Tarvin - at MM 210.2) and acquired/repurposed a hunting camp (Red Bluff Creek shelter - at MM196.2).
My trip plan:
Day 1: Pinnacle Mountain State Park to Scott Tavin Shelter, 12.3 miles, 1364' climb.
Day 2: Scott Tavin Shelter to Red Bluff Creek camp. 13.3 miles, 971' climb.
Day 3: Red Bluff Creek camp to Brown Creek Shelter, including North Fork Pinnacle. 13.3 miles, 2367' climb
Day 4: Brown Creek Shelter to Oak Mountain Shelter, including Flatside Pinnacle. 15 miles, 3082' climb.
Day 5: Oak Mountain Shelter to Arkansas Route 7 trailhead. 7 miles, 900' climb.
Since I was planning on staying in a shelter every night, and since I was so impressed with the shelters in 2024, I decided not bring a shelter of any kind on this trip. This seemed like the perfect trip to give SUL, or Super Ultralight, a try: I was aiming for a "base weight" of 5 pounds or less.
Super Ultralight
If you've been following this blog for a while you're likely to know the lengths I have gone to in order to optimize and cut grams. On many items I have evolved from UL to SUL, taking up making some of my own gear in the process. I've gone from the staple UL canister stove, to another technology all together (Esbit with a Caldera Cone and Gram Cracker stove) to pushing that to the maximum with the Caldera Keg. I've replaced toothpaste with toothpaste tabs and become an aficionado for different brands of this obscure product, and taken the plunge into using a bidet rather than toilet paper. I've eclipsed being a gram-weenie, to be a tenths-of-gram-weenie with my scale (which has helped me discover that MYOG bags out of 0.56 OSY ripstop nylon are actually lighter than Ziploc bags!) I've obsessed about every possible gram, including having a pack custom made to push this to the limit. I've entertained this obsession for quite some time, shaving ever smaller amounts of weight, but I rarely have put all these spreadsheet machinations to the test. Until now.
For this trip I would put it all together. Furthermore I would do it at a time of year that requires some cold-weather as well as precipitation planning. I hemmed-and-hawed on r/ultralight for months, going back and forth with other redditors to optimize as far as I could. Here is the Lighterpack list that I actually took. Baseweight: 4.59 pounds.
Winners and Losers
I wrote up a rather lengthy summary of what gear did and didn't work for me and published that in a trip report on r/Ultralight. While I won't repeat that here, I will echo a couple of key take-aways. The MVP for this trip was my Timmermade SDUL 1.5 down puffy. If I were to do it again I would make the following changes: (1) Fix the holes in my Uberlight short and bring it instead of the Nemo Switchback (+2.6 grams), or splurge and bring my Thermarest Woment’s Xlite (+174 grams.) (2) Swap out the Attom Tech battery for a Nitecore NB10000 (+88.4 grams). (3) Swap out the Smartwool beanie for my wife’s Katabatic down balaclava (+33 grams). (4) Omit the Nylofume pack liner (-26 grams.) Omit the Ombroz sunglases (-26.1 grams.) (5) Add a second Liteload towel (+17 grams). Total: 89 or 260 grams addition. If I splurged and went with the heavier Xlite, I would have come in at 5.15 pounds. If had gone with the Uberlite it would have been 4.77 pounds. Either way I would have been more comfortable than I was on this trip. Lessons learned.
Final thoughts section from r/ultralight post
The trail is not difficult – at least not compared to other trails the readers of this sub frequent. It’s a good trail for October thru April. Water management is a concern. NFS Sign boards Far Out water source comments were critical for me. Depending on recent weather, you need to take water planning seriously. Thankfully there are trail angels who often cache water along the trail for hikers, but you can’t plan on it. Cell phone coverage varies depending on location on the trail. Some places have full coverage. Others have none. Logistical considerations are also something for anyone contemplating the trail. The two pointers I can give you on are coordinating with the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge at mile marker ~52, and the Blue Bell Café in Story, AR, approximately 5 miles off the trail on Highway 27, which is slightly past the halfway point west-to-east. There are a couple of different shuttle services (one for the Eastern end, another for the Western end) but Lori at the Blue Bell can shuttle for the entire trail. She’s also really good about having you park your car behind the café so it’s safe during your trip.
One of the challenges at this time of year is your ability to read trail-sign. Once the leaves have fallen, and until they have been sufficiently trampled to make the path obvious, you will need to observe sometimes subtle clues to find the trail. It’s blazed in blue paint, but those blazes are sometimes weathered/hard to find/often are too far apart. Thankfully both GaiaGPS and Far Out are quite accurate and can guide you back to the trail if (inevitably when) you get off if it. You’ll also develop the ability to “feel” the trail with your feet. The trail is firm, even when covered by leaves. Get off the trail by a foot or two and the accumulated dander is considerably softer. The trail is rocky in many parts, and sometimes the accumulated leaves hide rocks, making ankle twisting a constant threat. This is not a trail where you can let your eyes wander while walking. And finally, there are green thorny vine things that typically hide to grab your ankles and poke you. I would not hike this in shorts.
And now to what you came for - Pictures (and more words.)
I stayed overnight on 12/26 at the Blue Bell Cafe in Story Arkansas to take advantage of the logistics (shuttle service) that they offer. Like last year I made sure to have one of Lori's famous omelets for breakfast.
It was misty/foggy that morning. I had planned on starting off the day doing Pinnacle Mountain, but it was all socked in so I made the decision to skip it. Shortly thereafter I crossed the bridge that appears in nearly every Youtube Video
And retraced the steps that the Scout crew did last year, recognizing many of the same places. It was interesting seeing it in daylight this time. I remember that night hike last year sucking pretty bad. This year I got to see what we were hiking over, and got to appreciate just how far we actually went after dark. I obviously immediately recognized the place we stayed last year.
One thing I found interesting this year was just how dry the trail was. I recognized places that had water in them last year that were bone dry this year. I ran out of water on day 1 and wished I had brought more with me from the start of the trail. I had to filter out of the lake that first night. The lake level was quite low. This area I'm standing in when I took this picture was probably all underwater last year.
Anyway, I found the new shelter (Scott Tarvin) to be beautiful. Brand-e-new.
And I found someone at FoOT has a sense of humor. Yeah, I misread that the first time too.
It was quite warm and humid on day 1. It never really got cold that night. I remember lying, in my underwear, and never pulling the quilt over myself that night.
The next day I continued on down the trail, recognizing the spot where the Scout turned his ankle last year, before passing the famed sawdust pile again (featured in nearly every YouTube video.)
And passing nice vistas of the lake
Before reaching the road crossing where I left the Scouts last year to go retrieve the vehicle. This year I hiked the trail down to the bridge rather than road walking. I caught these nice shots of the West end of the lake
Again, notice how low the lake is
As I finished crossing the bridge/dam, I noticed a crew of youths working on a stone walkway from the trailhead parking lot to the road. An Eagle project in inquired? Yep.
And I think they fixed the bridge too. (It was busted last year.)
Anyway, not long after reentering the woods I came across another nice bridge
Which bore this plaque. I strongly approve!
A few miles of flat walking, followed by some topography, yielded this sign, which amused me enough to take a picture of it. It wasn't lying. It got steep!
And eventually I reached Red Bluff Creek Shelter - the converted hunting camp. FoOT has done a lot of work to it, and it was comfortable. It's got some mildew issues (odor), but has the only privy of any shelter on the trail. I've noted to FoOT multiple times how now that they've finished building all the shelters, they really need to focus on privies.
The weather forecast for this trip said it would be unseasonably warm on days 1 and 2, with a front moving in the afternoon of day 2 and the temperatures dropping after that. The forecast was spot-on. I sat on the porch and enjoyed that storm roll in. It didn't rain for long, but it was super windy afterward. It stayed windy until about 2 AM, and the temperature dropped drastically. It was 67 before the storm, and in the mid 40s afterward. By morning it was 35.
Day 3 was a cold day. It topped out at 39 in the afternoon, and was windy all day. Cresting the ridge at Nancy Mountain Shelter was flat-out cold. I was glad that I had brought my Zpacks rain mitts with me as they made an effective wind break for my hands. I ate lunch at Nancy Mountain shelter and quickly moved on because I was so cold.
Between Nancy Mountain shelter and the highway 9 trailhead, the OT crossed a clear-cut area. Thankfully the landowner / clearcut operator left a ribbon of trees, approximately 20 feet wide, for the trail as it crossed their property. It's actually quite easy to see where the trail goes in this photo: it's that line of orphan trees on the left side!
The big vista this day was the South Fork Pinnacle, which bore the foundations of an old fire tower.
The end of the day brought me to Brown Creek Shelter. It's a nice one, again with a floor, and the water for it was plentiful. Unfortunately, Brown Creek was 1/2 mile and 500 feet down at the road crossing. This was a situation where I wished I had brought my 37 gram 2.5 liter Platypus water bottle with me. After dinner I had to trudge back down to refill for breakfast and the next day. Oh well. for SUL you trade convenience for weight.
As I said, the high on day 3 was only 39 degrees. That night it got quite cold.
Early-ish the next morning, while it was still 25 degrees, I summited "Flatside Pinnacle." Not as beautiful as it was last year at sunrise, but very nice just the same.
A few miles later I tanked up at a stream Far Out called "reliable", meaning that it flows year round. I recognized it from YouTube videos. This is Crystal Prong. The videos showed crossing this after big rains - a harrowing experience to be sure. Since water was scarce on this trip I made sure to drink a liter here and fill everything up.
Later that morning - about 11 AM - I came across another stream, in a very pretty section of the "Flatside Wilderness." Unfortunately I was starting to ration my phone battery at this point so I didn't take any pictures of it, but I sat in the middle of the trail, next to that stream, and ate my lunch. The stream was cascading down rocks in a canyon. It just seemed like the right place for lunch. Very peaceful. Shortly after I got back on the trail again I came across 3 of the only 5 people I saw on trail this entire trip: a father with his two teenage sons. They were section hiking from AR 298 to AR 9. They had stayed at Oak Mountain Shelter the night before (where I was headed that day) and headed to Brown Creek Shelter that night. I had a good time chatting with them, especially about the difficulty in following the trail in sections ahead. We traded a few stories before I was back on my way. The trail was indeed difficult to follow in spots. Eventually I arrived at Oak Mountain Shelter.
My pack was very light at this point with only dinner that night, breakfast the next morning, and a snack left. Throughout this trip I was treated to decent writeups in log books from each shelter. Thought I only saw 5 people on trail, the log books indicate that I missed others by a day here or there. (The fire pits at both Red Bluff Creek and Brown Creek shelters were still hot/smoldering from the occupants the previous nights.) The father and sons at I met did not sign into the log book in this shelter. I'm kind of glad they missed it because a trail angel had left this in with the log book. Since this was my final night on the trail, I treated it as a celebration with my beef stroganoff dinner. It was darn tasty!
I was rationing battery power pretty seriously at this point in the trip, so I don't have any pictures of the remainder of the trip. I only had a few percent left and knew I needed to preserve it for the last day in case I needed GPS to get myself out of a navigational jam. (It turns out that was wise - I ended up needed it to overcome a worst-case combination of factors.) I had booked an 11:30 pickup time at the Route 7 trail head. I arrived approximately 10:45. Lori was on time picking me up. After the jovial conversation on the drive back to Story, AR, I enjoyed one of her famous burgers before hitting the road for the drive home.
And with that, I've finished the trail. A sense of accomplishment for sure. I'm having Ms. English make me an "end-to-end" rocker to supplement the patch on my Durston pack "brag rag."
Keep Hiking My Friends
