Official Camping Trip Report Thread (1 Viewer)

[wngrog]

We wanted to explore a high altitude site near Mena so we worked out way up there.


It was 29 degrees with ice and big wind at the top with zero visibility. The drive and down were Great though.

We met back in Mena to regroup and even though The rain was gone no one really had the hots for setting back up in the cold wet woods so we peeled out for home.

 

[slacker24-7]

Awesome trip Nolen, it was great getting to meet Larry, Dustin and his family and getting to see youall again. the wet, wind and cold just really wasn’t what anyone expected, even with Andy’s pre trip Text of something like “ are we being adventurous or dumb “ Yea I guess were a little of both .Personally even though it was borderline miserable out of the cruiser, I had a blast and would do it again in a heartbeat

 

[slacker24-7]

I Well I vowed to revisit the ouchitas after this last trip was cut short, and had a laundry list of things I wanted to do and see. A friend of mine who lives just outside Mt. Ida was able to go, so we took Mon, Tue, Wed to do some exploring. I really wanted to se the huge Howard Hughes Dish he built near Hopper Ar to listen for stuff going on in the solar system. Supposedly this location offered the perfect listening post for what he was after. It’s been out of service for a lot of years and is owned by a fellow who will let you in for a small donation. Here is the best info I could find on it. Underground Ozarks :: View topic - satellite pictures But we hit a locked gate and no one was home at the only nearby house, so we rolled on, after all we had a lot to see

 

[slacker24-7]

So we went into the town of Hopper, population looked to be about 10 where my buddy who is also named Dave but to avoid confusion will be called DA, took me to a cool old school/ church from the 1800,s it’s not far from collapsing and there apparently is no plan to preserve it

DA then showed me a cool route over to Albert Pike Rec area from just west of Hopper,

 

[slacker24-7]

One of the main things I wanted to do was to try to find a old fire tower I had visited years ago, but had no idea where it was in the area, I researched and found 3 or 4 towers in the area that we would check over the next few days. One was by the Bard Springs campground, after the 10 miles of dirt we found the road into the tower gated. Dang ! that set the trend for our trip, first the dish was gated then every tower we checked over the trip was also gated.. so that was kinda a let down and still has me wondering which one I actually visited, Lol. Then After checking the first tower , it’s getting close to needing to find a camp. We found a awesome spot on a creek that we had passed on our previous trip. A dinner of venison steak topped off a great day

 

[slacker24-7]

I’ll skip all the miles checking the other towers, as said earlier that was a bust, but we did want to check a couple camp spots a good friend helped me with, the first was a cool drive which turned rougher driving up a old road/creek bed then crossing a creek to more creekbed/ road which led to a fantastic spot on the creek. But as usual someone had left cans in the fire ring and various things that wouldn’t burn. This stuff drives me nuts, so after cleaning it up we enjoyed the spot and wished we had brought fishing stuff.

 

[slacker24-7]

The road out seemed easier for some reason but we wanted to check another spot nearby he had showed me, this drive was cake and led to another awesome hole of water, next trip I will have fishing stuff ! But to my disappointment this spot was trashed worse than the previous place. It looked like someone had built a makeshift shelter out of the local pines and cedars, then left all his trash. We both went to work and picked up the trash, looking back I wish I had torn down his shelter thing. This is such a beautiful spot it’s beyond me how anyone can do this stupid crap

 

[slacker24-7]

I had every intention of camping at this spot, but since it was 3:00 he wanted to go check out another place, well that didn’t work at all, but we did find a neat route for several miles of dirt track. After a couple hours of him leading and finding nothing worth camping at, I had a few spots marked from the previous trip. A hour later we rolled into this awesome spot that has a 30 ft veil of water falling off the rock bluff into the creek, we hit another home run with this camp. We made chicken fajitas and drank a few to end another awesome day

the wind was crazy all night, but died by morning. We had checked all the boxes I had and kinda kicked back a little in the morning. After a skottle cooked bacon, egg and toast breakfast and hanging out a little we headed back to Albert Pike rec area to dump trash and ourselves.

 

[slacker24-7]

Here is a pic of the bridge at Albert Pike to show how much lower the water was from our previous trip

 

[slacker24-7]

We had one more thing to do, that was to check out a overlook that DA knew about. This involved a 3 1/2 mile 45 Minuite drive up to a beautiful overlook.

 

[slacker24-7]

I did fail no mention a trip past the shady lake campground, we had several tornados in the state Friday night and one hit the rec area, I failed to get good pics but DA did that I will edit in when I get them.

 

[slacker24-7]

To kinda sum it up, we had a awesome trip with great weather. I’m not near as familiar with the ouchitas as I am the ozarks but am very impressed with the area and plan to spend a lot more time wandering around there. Here are a few misc pictures just because everyone likes pictures. Thanks to the guys that helped out with this trip as well as our previous one

 

[wngrog]

Hey man. Thanks for taking the time to post. That makes me happy and excited about going back.

 

[ntsaint]

Awesome Dave!

 

[JTU]

Once again, Dave makes us jealous of how close he lives to all those awesome places.

 

[WharfRat]

Thanks for the great trip report Captain Dave, Good stuff. I could spend weeks exploring Arkansas.

 

[pmccraney]

Dave, awesome stuff!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bossman]

Love it, Dave. Man, the next couple of years can't pass fast enough...

 

[slacker24-7]

Love it, Dave. Man, the next couple of years can't pass fast enough...

. It will get there quicker than ya think Bossman

 

[wngrog]

Love it, Dave. Man, the next couple of years can't pass fast enough...

Rock whomper.