Ouachita National Forest - April 6-8

[2500Adventures]

Welcome to the Ouachita National Forest Planning thread. Currently there are 3 interested parties in attending this particular run. Myself (scott), jg45 (john), and tdesanto (tony). If anyone else would like to join feel free to post up. Fat Man might meet us Friday somewhere if it is convenient enough for him to make it. Currently we (john and myself) are meeting Saturday (3-17) to discuss a meeting point to start all of our forest traveling from. We are hoping to get gps coords setup for those that use gps, so they can easily plug them in and get to where we will be meeting. As far as i know we have tony coming from dallas and john and I from memphis. We are taking these 2 departure cities into account when making our meeting point so it will approximately equidistant from both cities.

I'm anticipating an arrival time to the meeting point to be around noon (if possible, tony had expressed a concern about work) or 5pm. We can have a late lunch or early dinner here as we will discuss where we'd like to go from that point. Please bring ideas so we won't have to sit and discuss for too long.

Supplies: I'll be bringing a 5 gal gas can as well as a propane grill to cook whatever on. Let us all know what you plan to bring and we can plan our supplies accordingly. I can bring some hamburger patties for the first night or we can just plan on roughing it with pre-made sammiches from home. Doesn't matter to me to be honest, food is food, it's just about the preparation and cleanup that makes it different. So let me know what you think.

Hope to see if some others would like to team up for this meet-n-greet in the forest for some trail riding and hanging out.

2nd thread about Ouachita Forest
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4653

1st thread about Ouachita Forest
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4588

 

[2500Adventures]

UPDATE:

We are meeting to start the event at the Choctaw Ranger Station. GPS coords are as follows: 34º 46' 11.17" N 94º 38' 41.50" W The station should be within a quarter-mile if not closer from this point. The cross roads are Holson Valley Rd and Route 270 in Oklahoma. There are 2 towns just South of this area, Zoe and Stapp. There is also a town further to the north, Heavener. I plan on leaving Memphis around 830-9am Friday April 6 to head out to this station. I have timed the route to take no more then 6 hours from my house, and about 5 hours or less, depending on where your coming, from Dallas. See ya there!!!

Don't forget to bring ideas on where you'd like to travel too from this ranger station. I know that John and i have come up with a few routes we can take to have fun on, but having a second set of routes to look at might be helpful as well. Also John as lent me another 5gal gas can so we should have about 10 extra gallons of gas if necessary. It does seem like there will be a lot of small towns in the areas we are going to be drving, whether or not they have gas though is the question. Other then that i still plan on bringing a propane grill and some hamburger patties probably to grill up for the first night. Let me know what other gear you plan on bringing to help out the group. Such as water or drinks of another kind if you wish or some snack food or whatnot.

 

[2500Adventures]

Just an update on this trip. It is still going on as planned, please let me know if you hae any questions or interest in going so we can start making sure who all we expect to meet once starting to arrive at the ranger station. THANKS!!!

 

[hattrik21]

I might try and make this trip with another guy from Dallas (tdesanto) but will let everyone know for sure tomorrow.

 

[tdesanto]

I might try and make this trip with another guy from Dallas (tdesanto) but will let everyone know for sure tomorrow.

Sorry, I just realized that I hadn't responded to this thread myself, but only to the other 2 threads; instead, I've been doing a lot of planning via email, PM, and other threads with Scott and John.

So, I'm in for this trip. Scott and I've talked about meeting a particular trailhead or the ranger station in the area on Friday. I'm just not sure yet when I'll be leaving on Friday. I'll make that decision by Wednesday and post to this thread.

In terms of food. I say we bring the propane grill or I can supply wood and a grate if we want to cook over mesquite wood or coals. Then everyone can bring what they want to cook on it...steaks, chicken, veggies, whatever people like. Snacks and lunch--I think it's best to be on our own. I'll have coffee going in the morning and I usually like to make breakfast tacos for one morning. People can bring whatever they want for that time of day as well. I'll probably kick in a dessert for the group too.

5 gal jerry can is probably not a bad idea, but probably not necessary if we stay around the lake area. I don't know about everyone's setup. If it's easy for you to bring it, then bring it along just in case.

We should also talk about whether we want to do more driving/exploring of the area (which I'm fine with since I want to learn even more about this area) or whether we want to spend a lot of time on foot, or fishing, or whatever. I’m just trying to gauge everyone’s interests. I can do both a laid back trip or a heavy exploration trip. So, I think we just need to discuss what people’s interests for the trip are.

Also, I have 2 (I’ll look to see if I can find my other 2) FRS radios. I don’t have CB, because I’m thinking about getting a 2M radio soon. So, if anyone else has any, I think it’ll be a good idea to bring them so that we can communicate. Channel=month; subchannel=date. For example, on Friday, I’ll be listening on channel 4, subchannel 6. We can decide later what to use.

If everyone wants to PM me the following information, I’d be glad to put a list together and then I’ll email it out to everyone:

Name
Home phone number and emergency contact
Cell phone number (critical)
Email address
Make/Model/color of vehicle along with any other characteristics that might make it easier to find one another.

I’m looking forward to the trip.

Cheers,

TD

 

[2500Adventures]

Hey hattrik, it would be great to have another rig out there with us.

I'll bring the grill but feel free to bring wood and your fire grate as well if you like, certainly can't hurt I think. I'll bring some hamburger patties and some seasoning for burgers if anyone would like one. I agree with the snacks and lunch part though, everyone should be able to manage that themselves.

As for what to do once there. Well I am up for anything, been sometime since I've fished so getting to do that might be a cool thing to do. As for exploring the forest by rig or foot, I'm up for that just the same. I'd love to learn more of what the forest has to offer.

I PMed my info to you as well TD.

-Scott

 

[hattrik21]

I'm gonna try and get my CB installed this weekend but with all my other projects it might not happen. I don't have an FRS as mine seemed to have died last summer, so I'll try and pick one up if I don't get the CB installed.

 

[jg45]

I like the idea of trying to cross the Ouachita by dirt and gravel while exploring some of the side trails if time allowed.

 

[Wanderlusty]

Whether I can day trip or not depends on where and when you start. I will not be able to leave Conway until 8 or so, as I have to drop off an oncall phone.

I will keep watching to see what plans unfold and try my best to meet up with you on Friday. But if I cannot, then that is OK also. Don't alter any plans to include me.

Good odds even if I don't meet up with you folks that day that I will still probably be somewhere in the NF...

 

[hattrik21]

Looks like I'm good to go for this pending I can get my parents to watch my dogs but that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[2500Adventures]

Sounds good hattrik...looking forward to meeting everyone.

The more I look at it, the more i'm inclined to say we should meet at Broken Bow Lake. But I'll have to ask John what he is up for.

John, what you think? You seem to be into the drive and explore forest mentality. Would you like to take our planned route to Choctaw and take explore off pavement roads all the way down to the lake? I looked at the map and it seemed doable, long, but doable. What does everyone else think about doing this perhaps? Of course Tony you might not know what to do until you find out if you can get off work the whole day or 1/2 day.

 

[jg45]

I am definitely into the exploring aspect and was really looking forwad to cruising through the forest. Mostly I want scenery and if possible some good hill climbs (by wheeled vehicle). IF we are not going that route, we may want to look at not going out I-40 and instead go down through Hot Springs on 70. This would be a much more direct route to Broken Bow Lake. We would probably need to change the meeting place as well.

 

[jg45]

Also, if we try to go out 40 and meet at the Ranger station then go down to the Lake, It looks like about a 7 hour drive. Versus 5 1/2 of we go through Hot Springs.

 

[2500Adventures]

Would you be interested then John in meeting down by Broken Bow Lake? I see via your map I have still that there are a lot of 4wd paths marked through and around the lake area that we could visit whilst waiting for the rest of teh crew to get up to the Lake. What you think about doing that instead of meeting way up at Choctaw?

 

[tdesanto]

There's a ton of roads to explore around the lake and west of the lake. My suggestion would be for you to save time in getting there, i.e., let's meet at Broken Bow lake, then we can spend more time exploring around there.

Anyone have any thoughts to the contrary?

I'll be taking the day off, so Daniel and I can probably get up there sometime mid-day. That would leave several hours on Friday to explore.

John, to your point about scenery: I've found a really sweet spot right on the lake that gives us our own private peninsula. There seems to be several more spots like that on my Topo map, but I wouldn't mind checking a few more of them out to confirm that they are in fact good camping spots.

Looking forward to it, gents.

Cheers,

TD