BuffaloPalooza II

“Going down that hill wasn't significantly better.

It pounded the hell out of my knees.”

“My right knee is still sore, chili”

“Same here.

But I think my ligament started hurting when we were traversing that mile long slope on the trail that was about 8 inches wide.”

“Well, when I landed at the Little Rock airport, Chili was there to pick me up. It was 88° and there was a lot of humidity. We were all little surprised by just how hot it was. I found myself hoping it was gonna get a little cooler. I checked the weather, and it said it was gonna rain and rain hard. So me and Chili got in the truck we headed off for Jasper, Arkansas. Jasper is located in the northwest corner of Arkansas someplace up in the Ozark Mountains. We drove about two hours and I decided I needed to get some tape in case I got some blisters. So, Chili and I stopped in Russellville to see if we could get the tape. We ended up having to spend longer in Russellville than I thought was necessary. Turns out we couldn't find the Walgreens, so we settled for Dollar General store. We went inside got some tape I bought an ice cream bar and we went back out to the parking and lot got Chili's truck. About that time, an old white van turned into the Dollar General parking lot. As vans go this was kinda unusual. It had a sign on the side of it that said "Bill's ice cream." There was Bill happily seated in the driver's side smoking a cigar. The back of the van had some old refrigerator compressor on it along with on of those real small window model air-conditioners. It was pretty funny looking and we got a good laugh out of it. I guess Bill was stopping at Dollar General to buy some ice cream.

We started head out of town and Chili decided this was as good as place as any to get some gas so we turned into a gas station and filled up. I asked Chili if he thought we were gonna get a beer, he said sure and I started looking for some. Well it turns out that Russellville's is in a dry county. So we asked some friendly Arkansas guy if he knew where we could get some beer.
“18 miles that away” he said and pointed back the way we just came. Me and Chili looked at each other and decided that 18 miles wasn't too far to get a beer. So we headed back to the interstate and drove that extra 18 miles, both ways!! Wasn't too hard to find the liquor store, it was all lit up like a carnival. Seems everybody in that partof the country gets their beer there. We got our beer and got back on the road with hopes of making good time to Jasper.

We headed northwest out of Russellville started climbing into the Ozarks. I'd like to say there was a lot of pretty scenery along the way but it was dark and we couldn't see anything. Add to that fact the occasional flashes of lightning that we were beginning to see in the distance. We climbed steadily in the truck for what seemed like probably hundred miles. I think it was closer to 40. I could tell we were getting up in the hills because we could start to see lights down the valley. We kept driving and the lighting kept flashing and pretty soon it started to sprinkle, oh well.

We finally made it to Jasper and actually we have a lot of fun on the way there. I tried get hold of Athena on her cell phone about a dozen times but we kept losing our signal.
Turns out that her chinmusic had holed up inside one of the local hotels in Jasper. She told me was gonna rain and rain hard and they were gonna camp out. Fine, I really didn't like the way right off the bat anyway. Me and Chili found the hotel and I decided I'd stay there. He headed on down to the campsite to meet up with hillbilly hiker and Strat. Chili was highly optimistic about the weather and made sure we understood that it wouldn't rain anymore. No sooner than he left, it started pouring. I'm pretty sure it rained all night. I know a couple times was raining really, really hard. I figured they were getting about 5 inches at least. Yep, Friday was gonna be a website that's for sure.

We all got up the next morning made sure we had everything packed up and headed out for the Ozark Café. We were the first ones there, but it wasn't too long for Chili Strat and hillbilly hiker showed up. We all ordered some breakfast and I bought a hat because I forgot mine at home. After a good breakfast we all loaded up and made the trip to Kyle's Landing where we were gonna stash a car and then make the trip up to Ponca.

The road down to Kyle's Landing is all gravel and very, very steep. Old ChinMusic’s car bottomed out more than once but we made it there, switched cars and headed out to Ponca.
Hillbilly hiker said we could see some elk if we went a couple miles further down the road from Ponca. Those elk ended up being right where he said they would be. We all got out took lots of pictures and yelled didn't seem to mind as being there at all. I'm sure they get their pictures taken all the time and yes, they are a wild herd of elk.

When we finally got to ponca we could see that the buffalo river was flooded pretty good. We parked Chili’s truck up as high as we could get so the floodwaters wouldn't bother it. There was one of those NPS Rangers putting above flood sign when we got there and there were couple more on top of the road bridge check in the flow rate of the river.

We all got out, suited up in our rain gear, put our packs on and hit the trail. It wasn't raining hardly at all, but all the little tricks and watersheds were running full blow. We got a lot of good pictures waterfalls and had to cross some swollen creeks. I got some good videos of Strat and Athena crossing one of them. Despite all the water, I think we made pretty good time it wasn't too long before we came to the biggest climb of the day. We all got kind of tired about halfway up and I stopped and taped up my heels just in case. When we finally made the crest we stopped, had lunch, took some pictures and got back hiking. It was getting kinda cold, especially on top of that mountain and the wind was blowing pretty good. But we all had plenty of warm clothes on so we didn't worry.

Back down we went and up again and we started noticing that something had torn the ground up pretty good. Further we went, the fresher the destruction appeared to be. I checked for tracks and sure enough, this was hog work!! It wasn't too long before I spotted em and let me tell you there were more than I've ever seen before my life!! They weren't big as hogs go, but there had to be at least 30 of them. I decided that I didn't like them being that close to me and I yelled to chase them away!! Turns out they're pretty good runners. Chin Music thought that was kind of silly, me chasing em off like that. I guess he wanted to take some pictures. Well, next time he gets to take the lead and he can have his own private hog experience. Good luck buddy!!

After that we headed down to Kyle's Landing and start set up a camp. It wasn't soon after that the Jerbear and Mozart showed up. The camp host made sure we all understood exactly how many people were allowed where how much it would cost. I swear, he acted like he got the money. Some people just take their jobs too seriously. We got a fire going and Jerbear and Mozart started cooking. It wasn't long after that Mozart’s son showed up. Trail relic showed up too. We all ate the steak and potatoes and had a good time around the fire listening to Strat plays his guitar. I hit the sack early and slept pretty well. Sometime after I got to bed, Stomper and Nurse good body showed up. I can tell Stomper was there, because later that night she was snoring, loud!!

The next morning dawned gray and cold. We tried get the fire to go a little bit but soon gave it up as a bad job. Jerbear and Mozart started cooking breakfast. They did a good job and we have scrambled eggs state and potatoes wrapped up burrito style. Me, Chen and Athena suited up early and hit the trail ahead of everybody else. The trail ended up not being as wet as it was yesterday and I thought we made pretty good time. We went up, we went down and got a chance to take some more pictures. We stopped at a real nice waterfall and had lunch. We were also waiting for the others to catch up. It didn't take long, and here they came. Chili was saying something about bandages and first aid. Turns out Trail relic busted his knee up real good and they had to do some emergency repairs. I took a real good picture of his bloody knee. Check it out!!!

Back to hiking and we headed towards an old cemetery. When we got there we took another break and I waited for the others to catch up. Chili decided they were gonna take little shortcut away they went. I stayed back to make sure Trail relic knew which direction to go in and try to catch up with Chin, Athena and Strat. I thought were gonna wait at the cemetery for me. I guess they got too impatient and went on their way. I took some pictures of the cemetery and made my way towards some old historic homestead where we were all supposed to re-group. I walked through some real nice cedar groves and made the homestead in what I considered good time. Turns out I was the last to get there. The rest of the bunch had camped out on the front porch and was eating lunch and just kicking back. Since I had already eaten my lunch, I decided to just take some pictures keep on walking. Athena headed out little bit before me and I soon caught up with her. She was getting ready to cross another of the many creeks that we've encountered in the hike.
A word now about the blazing on the buffalo river trail, for the most part, it's totally nonexistent. I bet I didn't see 10 blazes the entire 28 miles!! The trail got kind of dicey right about this point and me and Athena had kind of a hard time making our way. She kept getting worried that we were lost. But we persevered and it wasn't too long before we found the campground.

Wasn't too long before that though the other showed up and they had about the same rough time with the trailblazing that we had. We all got us a group site and started talking about where the heck Jerbear and Mozart were!! We hadn't seen them all day!! Chili was get a little worried but they soon showed up, no worse for wear. It will decided they were gonna go on down the trail and camp out little further than us. We all gathered up a whole bunch of firewood, ate some dinner and kicked back around the fire. I read a story from one of my books and strat put on a great big root ball that he says he dug up with his spork, yeah right, I ain’t buying that one!! It got pretty cold, colder than I thought the Ozarks got. I was counting on the temperatures to be a little warm, seeing how was Arkansas and all. That didn't happen and I think it got down to the mid-30s that night. We listened to some kind of these house for a little while, hung our food up and I went to bed.

The next day was cold and gray again. Seems like the sun doesn't shine in Arkansas, not the Ozarks anyway. We all ate our breakfast, packed up and hit the trail. Me, ChinMusic and Athena decided we were gonna hike straight through so that they could get an early start on the trip back home. Chili told us about a nice shortcut we could take. Well we looked for it, but couldn't find it. That put us on a gravel road for about 5 miles. We got back on the trail at Cedar Glen and made real good time towards Ozark campground. We took little break there and I ate some lunch. Chin asked some little boy if he seen any backpackers, I'm not too sure the kid even knew what a backpacker was, he said he hadn't. So we got back to our hike and made the Pruitt picnic ground about an hour and a half ahead of the rest.

That's it, I got a lot of good pictures in the Ozarks turned out to be just about what I expected. I had a good time and I hope to get back sometimes soon.
Thanks to Chile for setting it up and thanks to Jerbear and Mozart for the grub.

See ya later.
Randall
last edited: 10/15/09 6:43:54 PM”

“Well, when I landed at the Little Rock airport, Chili was there to pick me up. It was 88° and there was a lot of humidity. We were all little surprised by just how hot it was. I found myself hoping it was gonna get a little cooler. I checked the weather, and it said it was gonna rain and rain hard. So me and Chili got in the truck we headed off for Jasper, Arkansas. Jasper is located in the northwest corner of Arkansas someplace up in the Ozark Mountains. We drove about two hours and I decided I needed to get some tape in case I got some blisters. So, Chili and I stopped in Russellville to see if we could get the tape. We ended up having to spend longer in Russellville than I thought was necessary. Turns out we couldn't find the Walgreens, so we settled for Dollar General store. We went inside got some tape I bought an ice cream bar and we went back out to the parking and lot got Chili's truck. About that time, an old white van turned into the Dollar General parking lot. As vans go this was kinda unusual. It had a sign on the side of it that said "Bill's ice cream." There was Bill happily seated in the driver's side smoking a cigar. The back of the van had some old refrigerator compressor on it along with on of those real small window model air-conditioners. It was pretty funny looking and we got a good laugh out of it. I guess Bill was stopping at Dollar General to buy some ice cream.

We started head out of town and Chili decided this was as good as place as any to get some gas so we turned into a gas station and filled up. I asked Chili if he thought we were gonna get a beer, he said sure and I started looking for some. Well it turns out that Russellville's is in a dry county. So we asked some friendly Arkansas guy if he knew where we could get some beer.
“18 miles that away” he said and pointed back the way we just came. Me and Chili looked at each other and decided that 18 miles wasn't too far to get a beer. So we headed back to the interstate and drove that extra 18 miles, both ways!! Wasn't too hard to find the liquor store, it was all lit up like a carnival. Seems everybody in that partof the country gets their beer there. We got our beer and got back on the road with hopes of making good time to Jasper.

We headed northwest out of Russellville started climbing into the Ozarks. I'd like to say there was a lot of pretty scenery along the way but it was dark and we couldn't see anything. Add to that fact the occasional flashes of lightning that we were beginning to see in the distance. We climbed steadily in the truck for what seemed like probably hundred miles. I think it was closer to 40. I could tell we were getting up in the hills because we could start to see lights down the valley. We kept driving and the lighting kept flashing and pretty soon it started to sprinkle, oh well.

We finally made it to Jasper and actually we have a lot of fun on the way there. I tried get hold of Athena on her cell phone about a dozen times but we kept losing our signal.
Turns out that her chinmusic had holed up inside one of the local hotels in Jasper. She told me was gonna rain and rain hard and they were gonna camp out. Fine, I really didn't like the way right off the bat anyway. Me and Chili found the hotel and I decided I'd stay there. He headed on down to the campsite to meet up with Hillbilly Hiker and Strat. Chili was highly optimistic about the weather and made sure we understood that it wouldn't rain anymore. No sooner than he left, it started pouring. I'm pretty sure it rained all night. I know a couple times it was raining really, really hard. I figured they were getting about 5 inches at least. Yep, Friday was gonna be a wet trip that's for sure.

We all got up the next morning made sure we had everything packed up and headed out for the Ozark Café. We were the first ones there, but it wasn't too long for Chili Strat and hillbilly hiker showed up. We all ordered some breakfast and I bought a hat because I forgot mine at home. After a good breakfast we all loaded up and made the trip to Kyle's Landing where we were gonna stash a car and then make the trip up to Ponca.

The road down to Kyle's Landing is all gravel and very, very steep. Old ChinMusic’s car bottomed out more than once but we made it there, switched cars and headed out to Ponca.

Hillbilly hiker said we could see some elk if we went a couple miles further down the road from Ponca. Those elk ended up being right where he said they would be. We all got out and took lots of pictures and the elk didn't seem to mind us being there at all. I'm sure they get their pictures taken all the time and yes, they are a wild herd of elk.

When we finally got to Ponca we could see that the Buffalo River was flooded pretty good. We parked Chili’s truck up as high as we could get so the floodwaters wouldn't bother it. There was one of those NPS Rangers putting up a flood sign when we got there. A couple more were on top of the road bridge checking the flow rate of the river. They seemed to think we were kinda stupid, heading out in the rain and all!!

We all got out, suited up in our rain gear, put our packs on and hit the trail. It wasn't raining hardly at all, but all the little cricks and watersheds were running full blow. We got a lot of good pictures waterfalls and had to cross some swollen creeks. I got some good videos of Strat and Athena crossing one of them. Despite all the water, I think we made pretty good time it wasn't too long before we came to the biggest climb of the day. We all got kind of tired about halfway up and I stopped and taped up my heels just in case. When we finally made the crest we stopped, had lunch, took some pictures and got back to all the fun. It was getting kinda cold, especially on top of that mountain and the wind was blowing pretty good. But we all had plenty of warm clothes on so we didn't worry.

Back down we went and up again and we started noticing that something had torn the ground up pretty good. The further we went, the fresher the destruction appeared to be. I checked for tracks and sure enough, this was hog work!! It wasn't too long before I spotted em and let me tell you there were more than I've ever seen before my life!! They weren't big as hogs go, but there had to be at least 30 of them. I decided that I didn't like them being that close to me and I yelled to chase them away!! Turns out they're pretty good runners. Chin Music thought that was kind of silly, me chasing em off like that. I guess he wanted to take some pictures. Well, next time he gets to take the lead and he can have his own private hog experience. Good luck buddy!!

After that we headed down to Kyle's Landing and start set up a camp. It wasn't soon after that the Jerbear and Mozart showed up. The camp host made sure we all understood exactly how many people were allowed where how much it would cost. I swear, he acted like he got the money all to himself!! Some people just take their jobs way too seriously. We got a fire going and Jerbear and Mozart started cooking. It wasn't long after that Mozart’s son showed up. Trail relic showed up too. We all ate the fine steak and potatoes and had a good time around the fire listening to Strat plays his guitar. I hit the sack early and slept pretty well. Sometime after I got to bed, Stomper and Nursegoodbody showed up. I could tell Stomper was there, because later that night she was snoring, loud!! No cramps fer her this time though!! Hmmm……

The next morning dawned gray and cold. We tried get the fire to go a little bit but soon gave it up as a bad job. Jerbear and Mozart started cooking breakfast. They did a good job and we have scrambled eggs state and potatoes wrapped up burrito style. Me, Chin and Athena suited up early and hit the trail ahead of everybody else. The trail ended up not being as wet as it was yesterday and I thought we made pretty good time. We went up, we went down and got a chance to take some more pictures. We stopped at a real nice waterfall and had lunch. We were also waiting for the others to catch up. It didn't take long, and here they came. Chili was saying something about bandages and first aid. Turns out Trail relic busted his knee up real good and they had to do some emergency repairs. I took a real good picture of his bloody knee. Check it out!!!

Back to hiking and we headed towards an old cemetery. When we got there we took another break and I waited for the others to catch up. Chili decided they were gonna take little shortcut and away they went. I stayed back to make sure Trail relic knew which direction to go in and then tried to catch up with Chin, Athena and Strat. I thought were gonna wait at the cemetery for me. I guess they got too impatient and went on their way. I took some pictures of the cemetery and made my way towards some old historic homestead where we were all supposed to re-group. I walked through some real nice cedar groves and made the homestead in what I considered good time. Turns out I was the last to get there. The rest of the bunch had camped out on the front porch and was eating lunch and just kicking back.

Since I had already eaten my lunch, I decided to just take some pictures keep and keep on walking. Athena headed out little bit before me and I soon caught up with her. She was getting ready to cross another of the many creeks that we've encountered in the hike.
A word now about the blazing on the buffalo river trail, for the most part, it's totally nonexistent. I bet I didn't see 10 blazes the entire 28 miles!! The trail got kind of dicey right about this point and me and Athena had kind of a hard time making our way. She kept getting worried that we were lost. But we persevered and it wasn't too long before we found the campground.

Wasn't too long after that though the others showed up and they had about the same rough time with the trailblazing that we had. We all got us a group site and started talking about where the heck Jerbear and Mozart were!! We hadn't seen them all day!! Chili was get a little worried but they soon showed up, no worse for wear. They decided they were gonna go on down the trail and camp out little further than us. We all gathered up a whole bunch of firewood, ate some dinner and kicked back around the fire. I read a story from one of my books and Strat put a great big root ball on the fire that he says he dug up with his spork, yeah right, I ain’t buying that one!! It got pretty cold, colder than I thought the Ozarks got. I was counting on the temperatures to be a little warm, seeing how this was Arkansas and all. That didn't happen and I think it got down to the mid-30s that night. We listened to some coyotes for a little while, hung our food up and I went to bed. We wer’nt worried about the bears, just coons!! Hillbilly hiker had one chew a hole in his feed bag at Kyles and it was eating his peanut butter!!

The next day was cold and gray again. Seems like the sun doesn't shine in Arkansas, not in the Ozarks anyway. We all ate our breakfast, packed up and hit the trail. Me, ChinMusic and Athena decided we were gonna hike straight through so that they could get an early start on the trip back home. Chili told us about a nice shortcut we could take. Well we looked for it, but couldn't find it. That put us on a gravel road for about 5 miles. We got back on the trail at Cedar Glen and made real good time towards Ozark campground. We took little break there and I ate some lunch. Chin asked some little boy if he seen any backpackers, I'm not too sure the kid even knew what a backpacker was, he said he hadn't. So we got back to our hike and made the Pruitt picnic ground about an hour and a half ahead of the rest. When everyone got there we headed to pick up the cars and get something to eat back at the Ozark Café.

That's it, I got a lot of good pictures in the Ozarks turned out to be just about what I expected. I had a good time and I hope to get back sometimes soon.

Thanks to Chile for setting it up and thanks to Jerbear and Mozart for the grub.

See ya later.
Randall”

“It was great to meet you Randall. Let us know about the book when it comes out.”

“Great trip report, thanks.”

“mile 7 is da debul....”

“Looks like you all had a good trip. You have to plan ahead in those dry counties though.”

“Looks like I can no longer edit with out error!! Soorry,
See what I mean...dammit anyway!!
Old age sucks!!!

Hey Pros!!
Good ta see ya buddy!!
Ya otta come up to that kettle thing later on this month!!!

See ya later.
Randall”

“good report! Thanks randall!
And thanks to chili for puttin us together forthe hike. Yo bear!”