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!

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 …

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!

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.