Ozarks and Quachitas - November 2016

[wngrog]

Arkansas in the fall is always a great long weekend destination. There are two major National Forests with hundreds, if not thousands of backroads through some of fall's best colors.

3 of us made the trek over from Mississippi to a friend's property high on a cliff overlooking Lake Dardanelle in North Central Arkansas. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise and met our friend Dave....he is a Ozark local and the best guide for the cool spots around the Ozarks.

We started off checking out Union School

 

[wngrog]

The first night was pretty warm with a low in the mid 60's but a MUCH needed rain swept in mid-morning and made the trails a bit slippery and most importantly, DUST FREE.

Most of the crossings were dry, but some still held some water.

Dave lead us out of Union School up a really nice technical climb. In the rain, it was pretty legit. 2 of our group had ATRAC and they walked right up, I had to take one back up on the ledge with my 1998 and a rear locker and Joseph's 80 series just laughed at it.

 

[wngrog]

The road leveled off and wound through some of the nicest remaining autumn leaves that are left in Arkansas. Absolutely beautiful.

This beauty gave us a close fly-by just east of Oark

I'm a sucker for bridges.....

I could spend a week taking photos of old buildings and barns in this part of Arkansas

 

[wngrog]

The main goal of the day was to eat a burger at the Oark Store. It's great to go up and wander the mountains with no real agenda other than to eat.

Just before the store we walked across the river on a super cool suspension bridge.

Ozark Store is super cool and the burgers are outstanding.....

Tagged the door with a See and Eat Mississippi and Lou's Full-Serv sticker ..

We headed back up into the mountains by the Catalpa Cafe

We finally found some more water......

 

[wngrog]

Some of these crossings would be really nice with some water in them. The holes would make for some surprising bow waves. I look forward to retracing my steps in the spring when they are full

 

[wngrog]

Afternoon highlight was this old farm place. The owner leaves it open for visitors with a sign that says no camping and Please don't steal anything.

Our faithful guide Dave......

This fence encompassed the immediate homesite and ran for hundreds of yards in each direction. Truly amazing and beautiful

 

[wngrog]

We made it back to the beautiful bluff camp just before sunset. The cold front was roaring in at this point and temps were in the 40's and the wind was gusting to 20 mph.

Photo out of my tent window at sunrise

Video of the campsite the next morning.


https://youtu.be/wgPs9J4kQy0

 

[wngrog]

The following morning we struck out to the southwest to head to a super secret campsite south of Mena. We wanted to spend as much time off road as we could so we looked on the map and found a Forest Service road that ran from neat Ola to near Mena. FS67......it follows a long ridge. We made it 20 miles in when the trail went from a nice maintained gravel road to an overgrown mess. Instead of turning around like smart people we pressed on through about 6 miles of trail rash.

There was not much to photo but it was a neat trail. Pig was ready to get off this trail and get near some water so we bailed out at Gravelly and passed through Mena about 4:00.

We found our site empty and set up a fire and fired up the skottle

 

[wngrog]

We struck out Sunday morning looking to stretch a little more out of the weekend. We crossed Brushy Creek and headed south and looked about unit about noon.

We crossed back into Mississippi around 4 pm after traveling about 900 miles to enjoy over 100 miles of Arkansas trails. The Ozarks and Quachitas never disappoint.

Head up and just look around. It's all good.

 

[cbmontgo]

Great report!

 

[JeepinJason]

Excellent trip. Love the report.

 

[slacker 24/7]

Great write up Nolen thanks for the invite man, it's always a good time

 

[wngrog]

Great write up Nolen thanks for the invite man, it's always a good time

You are worth your keep old man......

 

[Elbert]

good trip, need to check that out. Good pics

 

[bomar]

Great write up!