About this site

Why:   Hikers are always looking for good places to hike.   Although there are some excellent guidebooks, there are very few places to find photos of both on-trail and off-trail hiking in the Ouachita Mountains.   When we first moved here, an internet search for hiking in the Ouachita Mountains turned up very little, which is still the case 8+ years later.  We hike a lot in the Ouachita Mountains and take a lot of pictures; this site is a way of sharing some of that experience.    It has no purpose other than fun and to encourage hiking in these beautiful mountains.

Information?     There is no "official" information on this site; only personal impressions, photos, opinions and some GPS tracks.    If someone finds something interesting here, that's great, but use it at your own risk.   Of course, we welcome comments or an e-mail if you think something is incorrect or misleading....   or if you visit some of these places and have new information.

Basic site navigation:       Move around the site by using the right sidebar menu or the breadcrumbs in the black horizontal bar above.   Clicking on Pinnacle Mountain will always return you to the front page.     Access the photo gallery via the link in the right sidebar menu.

Will there be more?    Yes.  This site was just created January 14th, 2007 although we've been hiking the Ouachita Mountains for years; keeping GPS tracks and taking lots of photos of trails and off-trail areas.  New hikes will be added as they occur, typically weekly.  Past hikes are being filled in as time allows.

Affiliation?    This site is a personal/family hiking journal and is not affiliated with or representing any organization.

Photos?   Photos are by jc unless otherwise noted.  This is why jc is rarely IN the photos!   Many are taken with a Canon 10D.  Some of the older photos were taken with a Canon D30.  The oldest (2000) were taken with an Olympus 340D 1.3 megapixel camera.  During 2007-2008 most photos have been taken with a Panasonic FX30 pocket-sized digital camera.  Pocket-size digital cameras these days are 8-12 megapixel (or more) and they're much lighter and easier to use on the trail.  In fall 2008 I started carrying a Canon SX10 IS, which is still easy to carry on the trail but provides better quality.  Some images, starting in late 2008 were taken with a Canon 5DmkII SLR. 

Photo copyright?   Everything on this site and in the photo/video gallery is under copyright of jc or the photographer.  If you want to use a photo from this site, just e-mail (alpone (at) dismalhiker.org).  If you need a higher resolution version of any photo, e-mail and ask. 

Hikers?    jc = John Carroll, tpc = Tiziana Carroll, Maggie (mec), Molly (mcc),  Maddy (Carroll), sb = Stefano (Steve) Bodini, lw = Lee Weber, aw=Amber Worthington, kz = Kent Zocchi, Alpino (dog) & Gina (dog)

Maps on this site?   The topo map images on this site are made using Expert GPS or Topofusion unless otherwise noted.  Some tracks are real-time trail tracks made with a GPS in "detailed mode" while hiking and some are made after the hike on Expert GPS and are only approximate.    Until early August 2007 the GPS used was a Magellan Meridian Platinum.  From August 16 forward, the GPS used is a Garmin  60CSx.   

Website details?    For the curious...   this site is made with Drupal CMS, version 6.15, using the Marinelli theme (version 2.3 for Drupal 6).  This is an excellent theme, one of the best I've encountered so far.  It is very good as is and quite easy to customize.

The listings of hikes-by-place and hikes-by-name are made with Drupal Views module, employing Taxonomy and CCK.  The hike listings (see tabs at top) are updated automatically when new hike pages or links to photo pages are added.  Drupal is very nice in this regard. 

The Hikes (map) tab uses the Gmap module to plot the hike locations. 

The photo gallery uses Gallery 2.2.4.   All of this software is Open Source.   It's all running on a Site5 server.  Site5 is very reliable and provides great service. 

This site has no ads or annoying banners and does not sell anything.  In the highly unlikely event of someone wanting to make a donation, I would suggest giving it to FoOT (Friends of the Ouachita Trail).

Questions or suggestions?     Our contact e-mail is alpone (at) dismalhiker.org.