Pretty soon, we’ll start out for Arkansas. Clearfork is this month, and that will pretty much be the start of the trip … well, ok, we’ll actually have been in Arkansas for a week by that point, but that’s the first really big event we’ll be going to. I can’t wait!
Our last trip is here if you’d like to see it. This year will be mostly the same places, but hopefully we’ll be in a bit better shape this time around.
Ok, the trip starts today! Let’s get an early start! Just so we will, last night I set the alarm clock for 6:00 AM. Can’t wait!
You know, sometimes things don’t work out quite according to plan … Oh, the alarm went off at 6:00, like it was supposed to. And I hit snooze, like I knew I would … and only once, quite unlike what I thought I’d do! So yes, we’re up early, raring to go. Gotta finish loading up, and hit the road.
But first.
There are quite a few “but first”s today. Won’t bore you with it, but finally, at 11:30 (yes – almost noon!) we’ve loaded the truck, moved the tree (several hundred pounds worth – don’t ask!), and took the pop-up so it can stay where we keep the new trailer, instead of at the house. Yes, eventually it will park at the house, but we have to put in the pad for it to park on. That will happen when we return. FINALLY, we are on the road. Truck mileage is 191,550. Wonder how many miles we’ll drive this time? Who knows … but she’s not saying!
The drive is fairly uneventful – there’s some construction (Really? Wow! Who knew!) but not bad at all. I like uneventful drives. Of course, it turns out we’re not going to make the 17:00 closing time at the park, so we’ll have to hope they post our assigned spot for us. Oh, well – if that’s the biggest snag we hit today, I’m certainly fine with it.
Oh – we would have made it, but needed to fill up along the way. Getting worse mileage than I figured, not sure why. We started with a real strong tail-wind, but maybe it turned on us. So we pull in about 17:20, but there’s a very pleasant ranger who greets us outside the now-closed visitor’s center, tells us what slot we’re in, and even goes into the visitor’s center to get us a couple of different maps. Who said rangers can’t be nice? This guy was great!
Camping area A, site 12. VERY nice site, plenty long and wide, with a place to park the truck. We can even see the lake from here! And, unlike in Texas, this lake has water in it! I’d forgot what lakes are supposed to look like. It’s nice!
Gotta go into town to get some things we forgot, but no big deal. At least the trip’s begun!
Here’s my only start-of-trip photo:
Lake Ouachita State Park, to be exact. Very nice park, with some VERY nice amenities! You know, it’s really sad, but Texas State Parks kinda suck, when you see what other States have to offer. Texas is supposed to be the “biggest and the best”, but we sure do ignore our State Parks. Sad.
Anyway. More stuff we forgot, and some stuff we need for the trailer (it’s nice when your sewer hose is long enough to reach as far as it needs – don’t want it to be taut as a banjo string!), so in to town we go, to the nearest WalMart. I hate shopping there, but these days, they’ve run everyone else out of business in small-town America (which is why I hate shopping there).
Also, we’re tired from moving the tree yesterday, so we forego riding, but we do drive out to the Little Blakely trailhead, and hike a small portion of the trail, since we’ll be riding it tomorrow. On the way there, we come across some wildlife – first, there’s an owl in the middle of the road. Sadly, he took off before I got a photo of him, but that was pretty cool. Second, there’s a wild turkey in the middle of the road! HE takes off before I can get a photo of him. Can’t win!
Here are some photos I did manage to take:
This is the Bridge you cross to get to Little Blakely (on the trail to the trail, so to speak):
This is the trail itself, about half a mile in:
Oh yeah – at the trailhead, we see this:
Yeah, we’re back in bear country! Of course, here they only have black bears, so no big deal. Bear spray not really necessary. That’s for Grizzly country further North. But here is a shot of the lake near the trailhead:
Yes, it’s beautiful!
Ok, today is ride day! Been a while since we’ve been on the bikes, only one trip to Erwin in the last week and a half, so this is going to hurt. We get up, have some oatmeal for breakfast, and get on the trail by noon. We have GOT to start getting started earlier than this.
The drive is uneventful, though there is a BIG RUT not too far from the start of the road to Little Blakely. So big, I got a photo of it:
That one will jar your teeth if you hit it fast. How do I know? I didn’t see it yesterday, and it hurt to go over it at speed, that’s how I know.
And here’s a photo of Junior in the parking lot by the trailhead:
Anyway, the hills are STEEP – but we knew that. It’s still fun. The part we hiked yesterday is the steepest thing we do today, and we have to walk some of it. VERY rocky, and in some areas VERY loose. It’ll be fun coming back down, I hope, if that’s how we return.
I see about a dozen trees that evidently got hit by lightning – they’re burned up, and even the roots are burned out – hopefully you can see it in the photo:
We end up not doing more than a couple of loops, don’t want to overdo it, and we’re kind of tired on the way back. I get a bit ahead on the last mile, but I wait for The Bear about a quarter mile from the trailhead. And I wait. And wait. Ok, she’s not THAT slow, so something’s gone wrong. I start back up the big hill again (walking, of course!), and who do I see coming down? Yup. The Bear! Dirt all down her left side, a bloody arm, a banged up knee, and a jammed thumb. Ouch! She took a real hard fall on the really loose stuff, and it shows. She has a hard time getting back to the truck, so I go get her bike off the trail after I take mine to the truck. Here’s a photo of her injuries:
There’s a flap of skin on that arm, just barely hanging on – amazing it’s not bleeding more. At this point, I’ve already scrubbed the dirt out of it with a wet towel. She didn’t even flinch! She’s one tough bird!
Went in to town to get some ice, and saw a funny:
I’d get bitched at big time if I parked in a fire lane, but I guess the reasoning is “who’s going to tell off the firemen in their truck?”. I thought it was funny.
So – eventful day. And I’ll have to pack up by myself tomorrow – The Bear won’t be much help, I’m sure. She’s medicated now – Amazing how a little Jack or Jim can even out the mood!
Yup, tomorrow, we head for Clearfork! Seems The Bear can’t show up there uninjured …
Well, today is a travel day! We finally go on to Camp Clearfork. Sadly, YET AGAIN, The Bear is injured. She’s GOT to stop doing that!
We pack up early to get on the road, and show up at camp early afternoon. Ah, the peace and quiet! Of course, part of that is absolutely NO cell service whatsoever, which is good, because there are no distractions, but it also means I’m posting this several days later. Oh, well.
Anyway, uneventful trip, not but about fifty miles. We get set up, and life is good!
This is the camp layout:
Wonderful place!
Ah, Camp Clearfork! Love this place! Whether you ride or not, it’s a great place to be. The Bear is in pretty serious pain, so she stays in camp. I go off with three friends, and we ride part of the new LOViT – the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail. We start kind of in the middle and head to the West beginning at Denby Point, then ride back on the highway. Over twelve miles total, and a bunch of fun, though it’s a tough trail, and they’re all much faster than me, so I’m constantly holding them up. Oh, well – they’ll get over it! (or not!). We still had fun.
This is a shot of the trailhead we started from:
Turns out The Bear went out with some of her friends and did ride a few miles at Cedar Glades – a fairly easy trail (there’s really no such thing in Arkansas, but it’s easier than the rest!) we rode last year.
Good food, good friends – GREAT start to the trip!
No riding today, yesterday kicked my ass …
But we have some excitement today! The amazing part is that no alcohol was involved, and it happened pretty early in the morning. Ok, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are a few thousand word-equivalents:
Yes, that’s someone’s truck in the lake! He wasn’t thinking, got in a hurry, left it in neutral while he went to ask someone something, and it started to roll, rolled down the hill, and straight into the lake! Missed several trees on the way down, pretty amazing …
Here’s more:
That’s the owner on the right talking to two of the wrecker driver’s assistants (or maybe just a couple of friends who wanted to see what kind of stupid shit these city slickers had got into!), being told “yeah, we’ll pull it out, but we’re not going in the water to hook you up – you gotta do that!”. So here he is, doing just that:
Here’s the truck, almost out:
And here he is, trying to get the fish out:
Ok, ok, there were no fish, but that sounded good!
And here it is, going off to town:
And someone has already immortalized it:
But it’s ok, it’s not like we gave him a lot of grief over it … HA HA HA HA HA!!!! “So, how do you feel about it? Are you kind of NEUTRAL?”, or “Are you getting a sinking feeling yet?”, or “What’s your theme song? How about Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath?”. Yeah, he caught a LOT of grief.
BUT – the upside? He now has THE BEST Clearfork story EVER, even beating out the one about the time the guy brought the prostitute into camp for the night … yeah, I threw them both out as soon as I found out about that!
So … great Sunday! Tomorrow it’s over – oh, well.
Wait – WHAT??? We’re not supposed to be down here! Well, true, but I need to sell my minivan, and my paperwork should finally be home tomorrow, so here we are.
Got an early start, l o o n g drive, but uneventful. We’ve been here before, but I do NOT remember it at all. What I do remember about it is that we showed up late at night, in the dark, with a brand-new fifth wheel trailer, and had to back into a campsite. It took me a few tries, since I was new at it. Woke up half the camp. They were NOT happy. This time, we got a pull-through spot!
Anyway, today we veg out, and tomorrow we go into Plano to take care of business (and pick up a few things we forgot, but we won’t talk about that!)
Well, today was a rest day – HA! Had to go back top town to get my paperwork so I could sell my minivan. Wells Fargo SWORE they sent it last Monday, but I knew that was not true – I never got a charge against my FedEx account. The idiots, who had my FedEx account number and a request to send it via FedEx, sent it by snail mail. Why can’t people just do what you ask them to do?
Anyway, got the minivan sold (WooHoo!), and picked up some nice-to-haves, did laundry, then went back to camp. The Trip is now fully ON. Well, except for the race next weekend, but that’s on the way out, so it counts as part of The Trip to me.
No photos today. Great sunset, but moving too fast to get a clear shot. Bummer.
Ok, rest day today. A day to get things done in camp, and the surrounding area. First, we went down to Sherman to try and find a TV mount. No luck. Need one specific to the trailer, so will probably have to special order it from the manufacturer.
Then, I went to AT&T to transfer the cell service from The Bear’s iPad to my new one. Piece of cake!
After that, back to camp to straighten out all the stuff we brought from the house.
That was it! Pretty mundane day. Tomorrow we drive to Copper Breaks State Park. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either …