Meador Manor

Misty Mount Magazine (click image for slideshow)

I started my day with breakfast at the La Quinta and hit the road, arriving in the Benefield Picnic Area on the southeast tip of Mount Magazine by 8:30 am.  It was overcast and I ascended into wispy clouds to reach the top.  The viewing today was even worse than yesterday and included rains throughout the afternoon, but I still managed to hike twelve miles, straddling yesterday’s day hike around the central portion of the summit with a 7.5 mile loop around the eastern part of the summit and a 4.5 mile loop out to the western edge.

I took the Benefield Trail first to the southeast edge of the mountain’s rim, where the trail ran to the east along the south bluffs overlooking the Petit Jean River over two thousand feet below.  The impressive bluffs had some wildflowers growing out of their sides, and I found berries on the trailside.  I then made my way through the unmown grass covering the trail over to the eastern side’s Sunrise Rock.  The view was greatly impaired by clouds, so I scrambled up past the upper bluffs over to Inspiration Point, where I could gaze north and see dim sunlight peeking out from under heavy clouds that were driving north past me.

I proceeded north via the Bear Hollow Trail along the mountain rim’s eastern edge, which is heavily eroded by Big Shoal Creek into two long arms stretching eastward.  I found spiderwort, blue trumpets, and other flowers growing along this trail, which afforded occasional glimpses across the way through the clouds but no decent shots.

Arriving at the horse camp on the mountain’s northeast tip, I headed west along its northern edge on Will Apple’s Road Trail, part of the first roadway that reached the mountain summit.  A side trail led down the mountainside to where a family once built a spring-fed swimming pool for their inn out of rock and tar.  The site was abandoned in the Great Depression and all I could recognize was a basin to capture the spring water up above the pool, which was a completely overgrown pit.  I didn’t bother to photograph any of it since the overgrowth was so thick, but I did like a purple coneflower along the Apple Road Trail and a zebra butterfly entertained me for awhile.

Arriving at the visitor center, I enjoyed a Sprite and some Peanut M&Ms since I had miles to go before returning to my vehicle.  I then repeated yesterday’s southward journey down the Greenfield Trail to the Mossback Ridge Trail, this time heading east back along Mossback Ridge toward the Benefield Picnic Area, rather than west toward the lodge as I did yesterday.  That completed a 7.5 mile loop as well as my The Big Short audiobook.  It was almost 12:30 pm, so I cleaned up and drove over to the lodge for a delicious country-fried chicken meal.

Heavier clouds were rolling in and the forecast said it would likely rain, but I really wanted to see the western part of the mountain and it is only accessible by hiking since the only road is closed to the public.  So I drove over to the Brown Spring Picnic Area, and located the unnamed trail that headed west along the mountain top’s northern rim.  A group of overflow tent campers were rapidly packing out, no doubt having heard that rain was a’comin’.  I threw my silly umbrella hat into my backpack and put on my alternate Tilley hat, one that is better sealed against rain than my usual one, and set out.

The trail was the least maintained one in the park, but still comfortable to walk in my hiking boots, although I did wonder if my insect repellent would suffice since I had not brought my long hiking pants.  The weather was wonderfully cool as I trekked past a field of wildflowers to a viewpoint looking northwest from the mountain.

Farther to the west I came across the “Window” viewpoint with a lone tree struggling to survive at the cliff edge.  The clouds were rolling in, and the forest became misty and quite beautiful.  Suddenly the trail popped out on a new road leading to a big antenna station.  Just as I reached the station the heavens opened up and a steady rain began.  I scrambled under the station’s northern eaves and waited for the rain to lessen.  It intensified, blown by winds, and I struggled in vain to get a decent radar image of the storm on my iPhone.  Data reception up on the mountain, outside of the lodge area, is spotty at best.

After 25 minutes the rain finally lessened and I put on my umbrella hat and ventured out, wandering about looking for a way to head on out to the mountain’s western tip.  I finally located the gravel road which is closed to the public, which the iPhone GPS showed to be making a straight shot westward.  Shielding my iPhone from the constant sprinkles with my Tilley hat, I trekked past one communication tower after another.  I lost count of how many stations dot this portion of the mountain, finally reaching the westernmost tip.  Reaching the rocky edge, I was disappointed but not surprised to find the view to the west completely obscured by mist and rain.  Reversing course back down the road, I used it to loop back to the Brown Spring area and conclude my hike.  I’d hiked another 4.5 miles, with half of that in rain.  My hiking socks were squishing in my sodden boots and I eagerly pulled them off and switched to tennis shoes for the drive back to Russellville.  That silly umbrella hat, however, had kept me fairly comfortable.

Hungry when I arrived in town during the rush hour, I used a wet washcloth to scrub away the insect repellent and sunscreen so I could dine at Joe’s Pizza and Pasta Italian Grill, where I had a delicious lasagna.  Then it was back to the La Quinta for a relaxing soak in the jacuzzi followed by blogging while the hotel hair dryer shrieked, drying out my boots.  I managed to get 19 miles of hiking in up on Mount Magazine over a day-and-a-half, which ain’t bad.

The forecast calls for more rain tomorrow, which may cancel my hikes on the Pedestal Rocks and King’s Bluff trails.  Perhaps the scattered thunderstorms will give me a break, however.  I’ll be heading northeast to Mountain View to stay in a cabin at the Ozark Folk Center.  At least its auditorium is enclosed, so I should be able to enjoy some music there even in wet weather.

Click here for a slideshow from today’s day hike or click here for the individual slides

Next hike: Pedestal Rocks and King’s Bluff –>

<—Previous hike: A Cloudy Afternoon Atop Mount Magazine

Mount Magazine Lodge (click image for a slideshow)

My first real vacation of the 2010 summer break began today with a thunderstorm breaking out above Bartlesville as I fled south for yet another journey down the Muskogee Turnpike.  I finally left the rain behind as I exited the turnpike, heading east on I-40 into Arkansas.  I turned south at Ozark and drove to Mount Magazine on a cloudy and hazy afternoon that began in the 70s and reached up into the mid 80s.

I drove straight to the latest lodge, a $32 million structure which opened in 2006 and thus finally replaced a CCC lodge from 1940 which had burned in 1971.  It is a striking structure with a commanding view of the Petit Jean river valley 2000 feet below.  It has 60 guest rooms and, more important to me for this trip, a large restaurant.

The lodge featured another beautiful painted welcome sign like those adorning other Arkansas state parks I’ve visited this past year.  It is a nice touch and this tourist appreciates the effort.  I could see a hazy view of the river valley peeking behind the stone foundation of the lodge.  The poor viewing meant I would have little company on this Wednesday afternoon, which was fine with me as I was escaping from inservice and bargaining work which had preoccupied me since school let out over two weeks ago.

A few vintage vehicles were pulled up in front of the lodge, including a tiny yellow trailer even smaller than the little unit my grandparents towed about for years to raccoon hunts in southwest Missouri.  I especially liked one green machine, although I know it would not be half the car my trust Camry has been for me.

The big wooden double doors of the lodge silently swung open for me as I approached – the invisible doorman is another nice touch.  Familiarity breeds contempt: I take automatic sliding glass doors for granted but was surprised and gratified by this simple gesture.  I quickly made my way downstairs to the Skycrest Restaurant, which had only one couple by the big windows overlooking the valley, although some more groups joined us before I finished my tasty hamburger and fries.

Despite the nice viewing platform at the restaurant, the view was too hazy to delay me from my day hike.  I pulled on my hiking boots, inundated myself in sunscreen and insect repellent, swung up my baby backpack, and set off on a seven-mile loop around the central portion of the mountain top, which I tracked with my iPhone MotionX GPS app and later mapped in Google Earth.  The park’s trail maps, which I had previously downloaded to Dropbox for convenient access on my iPhone and iPad, were quite accurate.  I grabbed a hard copy at the lodge, which turned out to be not only more convenient for reading but also much better for fanning away bugs!

I ascended the Signal Hill trail to Arkansas’ highest point at 2,753 feet above sea level, where I indulged in a self-portrait, posing in one of my newly acquired UnderArmour wicking T-shirts and Magellan shorts.  The shirt worked fine today, but I should have stuck my wallet in the shorts when I was trying them out in the store – the deep back pockets smacked it up against the underside of my buttocks to my displeasure.  I had the front pockets too stuffed with the iPhone and a power supply (the GPS drains its battery very quickly) and my superzoom camera to accommodate the wallet, and the little backpack was bursting too.  So I had money on my mind much of the afternoon, alas.  I’ll try a different packing strategy for the rest of the trip.

There were no views on the wooded Signal Hill trail, which I followed for a mile to the Cameron Bluff campground, which I traversed.  A trail descends the mountain’s north face there to Cove Lake, 9.5 miles away.  I had no interest in rapidly losing and then later working hard to regain so much gravitational potential energy on that trail, opting instead for the North Rim trail, which headed eastward for over two miles to the park’s Visitor Center.

The views were limited from the leafy North Rim trail, although there were frequent glimpses of rock bluffs jutting out from the forest across the way and some views of the hills to the north.  I saw many ox-eye daisies and tickseeds (lance-leaved Coreopsis).  If you’re wondering about my sudden botanical expertise, I’ll confess that I bought a sturdy pocket guide to Arkansas trees and wildflowers at the park’s visitor center.  So I’ll speculate that I spied some Closed (and Open?) Gentian as well.

The view opened out big at the escarpment called Dill Point, where I exchanged greetings with the only other hikers I encountered on the North Rim Trail, two young men who looked like they could have used some wicking T-shirts as the temperature and the humidity soared.  My trusty Tilley hat was another advantage I had over them, although I doubt they considered it very stylish.

Soon I was at the visitor center where I enjoyed a cold Sprite while a butterfly posed nearby.  I then headed south down an old wagon road for 0.3 miles to Turkey Spring.  As I approached several frogs hopped off the rocks around the spring down into the water.  I could not coax them back out, although they did crawl out from the rocks and pop their heads up out of the water to keep an eye on me.  I was rewarded with another pretty plant on the southbound Greenfield Trail, although my pocket guide couldn’t identify it.

I then headed back west for over a mile along the Mossback Ridge Trail, which had grass growing up across the trail that thankfully wasn’t too tall for comfort.  This stretch of trail was a tad monotonous, as was my audiobook of the day, The Big Short by Michael Lewis.  It tells the story of various investors who made a killing selling short on the credit default swaps and similar real estate gambles of the recent housing bubble.  I was ready for a break from my other audiobook, The Subtle Knife, the second book of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials heretical fantasy trilogy.  But I think I perhaps went too far the other way.  It may be a relief when I finish up The Big Short on tomorrow’s day hike.

Arriving back at the lodge, I walked along its south side overlooking the Petit Jean River, where I found the Old Lodge Trail, a short loop down the bluff.  I found a rocky perch where I had a splendid panoramic view of forested mountain slopes descending to the river valley below.  My surroundings reminded me of my scrambles on the bluff at our vacation home above Table Rock Lake in the Ozarks, and I shut down the technology and settled in for a relaxed spell.

Sufficiently recuperated, I climbed back up to the lodge and walked eastward to the rock climbing area, where I found another short trail offering a glimpse of Blue Mountain Lake down below and nice examples of Queen Anne’s Lace, which is actually a domesticated carrot and often has a dark purple flower in the center of the lacy blooms.

I was then glad to return to the car and switch back to tennis shoes and allow the air conditioning to assist my wicking T-shirt as I drove on the Cameron Bluff Overlook Drive.  But I’d already seen the views from the various trails, so soon I was driving down the mountain’s south side, headed east to Russellville for my lodging.

I found my jacuzzi room waiting for me at the La Quinta, although I put off a dip in the tub until after a quick wash-up to prep for a yummy dinner at the Brick Oven Pizza Company.  Then I took my well-deserved jacuzzi break before embarking on a several hours of photo editing and blogging, with a slow upload to Flickr via the hotel’s weak WiFi.  I’m using my Asus Eee PC again for those tasks, although I used my iPad at the Skycrest Restaurant on its WiFi signal and at the pizza parlor, although it only had a slow AT&T Edge data connection, so I mostly read a book on the iPad there: Duchess of Death: The Unauthorized Biography of Agatha Christie by Richard Hack, who writes better than one might think from his name.

Tomorrow I’ll return to Mount Magazine for another day hike loop, this time on the eastern side of the rim.

Click here for a photo slideshow of today’s day hike or click here for individual slides

Next day hike: Misty Mount Magazine –>