You are hereBackpacking season on the Ouachita Trail...
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
Did you say there are someone doing target practicing?
Would it be safe to hike there or not? Coz.. we're planning to have a backpacking trip someday...
This is limited to just one place, between highway 9 and highway 10. The range is not near the trail but you can hear it. -jc
I saw the same two Memphis hikers headed west to their car (at Hwy 9 TH) Sunday afternoon January 18th. They are med students at UT-Memphis and had taken advantage of the MLK holiday to come hiking. They noted the rifle shots from the hunting club that's just south of the trail when it hits Pipeline creek. Target practicing, we think. Positive comments otherwise and expressed thanks for our trail maintenance efforts.