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See the Alerts Page for details of two mud slides that blocked the trail in the spring of 2008 ____
DAYHIKES AND OVERNIGHT FUN HIKES
There are no dayhikes or overnight fun hikes scheduled in September or October. ne reason is that we need to concentrate on getting the trail open and ready for the fall/winter/spring hiking season, so maintenance trips are the order of the day. A second reason is that no hike leaders volunteered to lead a hike! If you would like to lead a hike in November or December be sure to contact us no later than October 15th with details.
November 1st, ANNUAL HARE MOUNTAIN HIKE-IN. Come celebrate our 27th birthday! The pot luck dinner will begin promptly at 6pm with a short business meeting to follow. (Group photo at 5:45 - be there or be left out!) Bring a tasty treat to share with the group. Contact us for more info.
CLUB MEETINGS
October 12th, OHTA GENERAL MEETING at Lake Ft. Smith State Park near Mountainburg. Come tour this new state park and spend some time in the great new visitor center. Our meeting will begin at the visitor center at 6pm. Park interpreter, Jay Schneider, will give our program. The new park is located just off of old Hwy. 71 near Artist Point, eight miles north of Mountainburg (turn at the sign and follow the paved road down to the visitor center, which is located right next to the lake—park phone is 479-369-2469). For more in contact us.
TRAIL MAINTENANCE
October 11th & 12th, WORK TRIP ON THE OHT, WHITE ROCK AREA. We will hit at least two trouble spots—a one-mile section of the trail west of White Rock that always gets overgrown with summer weeds, and the Jacks Creek section that has not seen much use in many years. We will meet each morning at 8am at the Shores Lake Trailhead, then carpool to work sites. Showers should be available. We’ll camp in sites near the trailhead at Shores Lake. Bring a daypack with lunch and water, plus leather work gloves. No experience necessary! It is important to let Colin Berger, the leader, know if you will be there either day so that he can get plenty of tools. E-mail Colin or call 479-986-9022.
October 24th-26th, WORK TRIP ON THE SYLAMORE SECTION OF THE OHT. Scenic Blanchard Springs Group Camp and pavilion, hot showers, Saturday chili supper and tools provided, Cody’s Restaurant and Cabins (870-757-2270) nearby. Bring food, water, gloves and your camping gear. Meet at camp at 8:00am any or all three days. Duane Woltjen will lead. Please call ahead (479-521-7032). Sections available for adoption!
MAINTENANCE REPORTS DUE OCTOBER 1ST. If you have adopted a section of the OHT to maintain we need to hear from you ASAP! Very few maintainers so far in 2008 have turned in reports to the maintenance coordinator, Colin Berger. When you signed up for your section of trail you agreed to get out and maintain your section twice a year, and part of that means sending in a report—these reports are extremely important in order for Colin to plan work trips. You are expected to maintain your section once in the spring and once in the fall. If not, then we assign your section to someone else. So here is the deal—if you have not already sent in a report to Colin for work done on your section this year, you need to do so no later than October 1st or risk losing your section. Then you will need to get out and maintain it this fall too and send a report to Colin. If you are unable to maintain your section simply contact Colin and let him know. He needs to hear from everyone by October 1st! (e-mail is best). You can download report forms from the maintenance web page, or e-mail Colin. We really need to get the trail open and back into good shape after the summer growing season and so need accurate reports, and will need to reassign sections for anyone who is unable to maintain their section. And a special THANKS! to all maintainers!!! ____
LAKE FT. SMITH STATE PARK AND TRAIL NOW OPEN. The beginning of the OHT officially opened in late May, so now our trail is complete once again. Kind of funny that this new section of trail that the city of Ft. Smith said could be built “with a bunch of boy scouts in one weekend simply dragging their feet through the woods,” took their contractor EIGHT MONTHS to build (five months longer than expected)! The trail begins at the new visitor center, wraps around the upper end of the lake, then ties in with the existing OHT at Jacks Creek at the 6.2 mile point. It’s a nice hike. ***UPDATE, October 12. This was, at first, a false alarm - the city of Ft. Smith actually DID NOT complete the new section of the OHT as they told everyone. We found out about this glaring lie by the city late in September and decided it was of no use to get them to complete the job. OHTA volunteers came to the rescue and opened up more than 1/2 mile of trail that the city never constructed, and as of October 12th the trails is now, at last, open for business beginning at Lake Ft. Smith State Park - shame on the city of Ft. Smith, but YIPPIE for OHTA! (Parts of the trail that the city did construct are in really bad shape, but it is possible for hikers to follow it now. AND it will be dangerous to make the crossing of Frog Bayou during periods of high water - and there is no way around this so plan accordingly.)
MUD SLIDE STILL KEEPING TRAIL CLOSED NEAR RICHLAND CREEK, but it is easy to hike around it! A large mud slide took out about 1/4 mile of the OHT near mile #143. This is the same slide that closed the forest road just below it. To get around this spot simply hike down to the forest road (less than 100 yards below), and go around the bad section on the road and then back up into the woods again to rejoin the trail above—a five minute detour that will be obvious to you. The forest service has no immediate plans to fix either the road or the trail (or reopen Richland Creek Campground, which is also closed). Your tax dollars at work!
WILLIAMS WOODS. The OHTA membership voted nearly 2-1 to sell this property that we own near the community of St. Paul. The board of directors is working on finding a realtor and getting the property ready to sell. We expect this process may take a year or two. In the meantime the property and the hiking trail are open and you are encouraged to get out and hike and enjoy at any time! Hunting is not allowed.
OHT FEATURED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. The October, 2008 issue of the magazine will have a 16-page feature article on the Ozark Highlands Trail! This is in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the National Trail System Act. The article was written by Mel White from Little Rock, and beautifully photographed by Peter Essick from Atlanta. (sorry, no photos of OHTA members made it into the article) There will also be a note about the OHT in the September issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine. This world-wide exposure will increase traffic on the OHT, but most of that will probably begin to happen next summer.
NEW BIKING GUIDEBOOK BY OHTA MEMBER. Our very own Bob Robinson of Ft. Smith has just published his first book: Bicycling Guide to the Mississippi River Trail. It details the entire 2,000-mile route along the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Louisiana. I wonder how many flats he got? 200 pages, $16.95. You can order Bob’s book from https://www.createspace.com/3347473.
NATIONAL TRAILS SYMPOSIUM IN LITTLE ROCK, November 15-18, 2008. The eyes of the national trails community will focus on Little Rock this year for this big event—the registration brochure is 60 pages! Our own Terry Eastin is the co-chair. For more info go to http://www.americantrails.org/2008/.
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NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER EVENTS will be listed here as we get them in - details will be in the next newsletter:
November 1-2, ANNUAL HARE MOUNTAIN HIKE-IN
November 8-9, OVERNIGHT FUN HIKE, Section Six of OHT (Bob & Dawna Robinson)
November 22-23, OVERNIGHT FUN HIKE, Buffalo River Trail (Dean LaGrone)
December 14, GENERAL MEETING AND CHRISTMAS PARTY ____
OHTA Officers Tim Ernst, President, 870-861-5536 Keiko Wilke, Treasurer, 479-927-1999 Colin Berger, Maintenance, 479-986-9022 Scott Crook, Secretary, 479-521-6340 Bobby Shepperd, Meeting Programs, 479-587-0200 OPEN - Outings, 870-861-5536 Duane Woltjen, At Large/Membership, 479- 521-7032
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