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Buckeye Trail and Caney Creek Trail updates from Tom Trigg - April 4, 2009
From: Thomas Trigg
Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009
Subject: Buckey Trail and Caney Creek Trail update
On 4/3 and 4/4 I went on a solo backpack trip. Starting on the Buckeye trail and then headed west on the Caney Creek Trail to the 6th creek crossing. Today I doubled back to the Buckeye trail junction and after another visit to the falls came out to the E. Trail head.
Condition of the Buckeye:
Snakes and wildflowers...
As of late March, snakes and wildflowers were out in force in the Ouachita's. I went out for an afternoon 'exercise' hike on March 23rd, on a section of the Ouachita Trail, and saw multiple snakes and incredible wildflowers.
Mid-winter snakes
While hiking on the OT on February 8, 2009 we encountered a cottonmouth coiled right near the trail at ~ mile 199.5, near the Maumelle River.
I was hiking in 'winter mode', not looking for snakes, and was... surprised. At least in this area, there ARE snakes out and about in mid-winter!
Backpacking season on the Ouachita Trail...
January 28, 2009 - Its backpacking time! In the 100's of miles I've hiked on Ouachita Trails over the last 8 years, I have rarely seen backpackers. Just recently on January 11th we were hiking at about mile 143 on the OT and saw a group of 7 backpackers! They had spent the night at Blue Mountain Shelter and noted how COLD it was that night.
The following weekend, on January 17th, we encountered another 2 backpackers at ~ mile 196.5 on the OT heading east from the Hwy 9 trailhead. They had come from Memphis, TN to hike the Ouachita Trail, complete with a copy of Tim Ernst's book in hand. It's great to see more OT backpacking traffic.
Note to hikers in the photo... if you see this, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail to let us know how your trip turned out. -jc
