faithrunner

Our first water crossing On April 4-6 of this year, three friends and I hiked the 28.6-mile  Eagle Rock Loop Trail in Arkansas . I had heard of the trail from my trail running community, NTTR , and we needed some training and outdoor fun as part of our preparation for our big summer adventure. (More about that at another time.)  This was my second AR adventure in the past four months, (See the Ouachita Switchbacks report .) and I am liking the closeness and variety the AR trails offer. None of us had hiked tails with water crossings before , and what we had read about the rising levels of the Little Missouri River and its tributaries made us a little nervous about the hike. ( The Albert Pike Rec. Area deaths were due to quickly rising waters.) The weather cooperated mostly, and none of the crossings were unmanageable or dangerous. Jon, Jim and Amy We parked at the Winding Stairs parking lot and headed counterclockwise on the Loop. We started about 5:30 p.m....

Jason, Amy, Mikey, Ginger, and me at the finish line The alarm went of at 2:45 a.m. Saturday morning. Within the hour I joined Amy Nash, Ginger Becker, and Mikey Whittiker in Jason Smith's FJ Cruiser. We were headed to the intersection of Highways 59 and 259 in Eastern OK for the second running of the Ouachita Switchbacks 25K and 50K .  Jason had seen the Facebook post by Tommy Brenan , the race director and founder, on Tuesday, and the three of us had taken the bait for a no-training, why-the-heck-not, it's-a-trail-run, adventure . The 4-hour drive to the Pushabee Trailhead near Big Cedar, OK, was filled with getting acquainted, two pit stops, and keeping everyone awake. " Sleep deprivation is part of ultrarunning " is one of my mantras so no one napped. We watched the sun and temperature rise to about 30 degrees when we turned off the highway and parked our car at a campsite to begin our trek through the Ouachita National Forest. One of the reasons I l...