191.8 to 195.1 - Apr-5-2008

Section of Ouachita Trail from Hwy 9 trailhead to Duffy Road (Lane). According to the official trail guide, this hike is 3.2 miles (one way). It starts out in the mountains, does a lot of up/down as it goes around the north side of Round Mountain, drops down to Pipeline Creek, follows the pipline right-of-way for a long time (with several stream crossings) and ends up on Duffy Road. In the mountains the trail is rocky and the pipeline right-of-way part of it is basically a road. On the other hand, some of the trail towards 194-195 is quite nice as it parallels the creek on the bluff above.

I personally would not recommend this as a dayhike (although I've done it a few times). If you park at the Hwy 9 trailhead and hike this as a dayhike, it will be over 6 miles round trip. It's much better to hike ONE WAY, from the Hwy 9 trailhead to Hwy 10; although it is 10.5 miles, its much nicer.

On this particular day, I saw a mountain biker who apparently road this part of the trail from Hwy 9 and returned on Duffy Road.

The other highlight of this hike was the first spring appearance of the IRIS blooms! Beautiful.