Wildcat Mountain Bike Trail - September 2011
What a mess!!!! On September 5th, 2011 I hiked the entire Wildcat Mountain Bike Loop trail. I’ve hiked this loop so many times since in the last eleven years that I’ve lost count. It never was maintained particularly well or frequently, but in recent years it has reached a new low.
Wildcat Mountain Bike Trail used to be a nice loop hike in the eastern Ouachita National Forest. The trailhead is located just a few miles west of highway 9, just off of the Winona Scenic Drive. It’s an ~ 8.5 mile loop through terrain that varies from flat riverbottom land (near North Fork Saline River) to mountains (near Wildcat Mountain). It was created by stringing together old country/logging roads, several of which are still traveled, rarely, by cars and trucks. There are two short sections that are single track trail. Even these were made ‘two-track’ by ATV’s (which are prohibited, but that never stops anybody). Over time the old roads became single track in many places and, for a time, it was a nice trail. There were trail markers, even trail maps put up in 3-4 places and the trail was blazed with white blazes. That was then…
Not another one!
Now the trail is an incredible mess. The old roads that make up a lot of the trail are overgrown, waist deep in grass in some places, and heavily rutted by years of rain and no maintenance. There is a single-track section of the trail that was built in a stream bed to start with… over time, the stream won and there isn’t much of the trail tread left. There are countless trees down across the trail. I stopped counting at 30 but I think the total is much more. There is one section with at least 12-15 large trees down on the trail, requiring a long detour off-trail, which ends in confusion if you’re heading east, as it comes out in a very overgrown meadow with no sign of the trail anywhere. Navigating this section requires that you already know the route. Even if you know the route very well, you still have to do a lot of downed-tree hopping and detouring off-trail, which was no fun on this day, with the abundant seed ticks.
Overgrown trail...
Who knows how long it has been since the Wildcat Mountain Bike Trail was maintained? I know from experience that some of these downed trees on the trail have been there for more than a year. There are very few blazes left. Even the ATV’s have stopped using major sections of trail because of the downed trees! Perhaps the National Forest Service (Ouachita National Forest) doesn’t have this trail on their books anymore or they are not monitoring its condition. I hope they will restore the trail and make it useable again, as it is one of the only long loop trails in this area. If anyone has information about this trail and the ONF’s awareness of it’s condition, please let me know. I’ll post an update if I hear anything. (photos by Stefano Bodini)