jeepcj258
11-15-2005, 10:42
The wife had veterans day off work so we took off to Arkansas. We left from Albert pike Friday around lunch and hiked up the Little Missouri Trail towards Athens-Big Fork. We hiked Athens-Big Fork on Saturday, those are some hills, I was not expected that type of hiking in Arkansas, it was great. Made it up and over the Athens-Big Fork by 2pm on Saturday and decided to try and hike to Winding Stairs to camp. When we got to Winding Stairs there were already quiet a few campsites occupied. Hallie and I had to "settle" for a campsite up the hill back in the trees a little ways (it was still a good campsite, we were just planning to camp a little closer to Winding Stairs). It was getting dark so we decided to make camp and thought that we would play around there on Sunday morning. (we were wrong)
We went to bed around 8pm (both of us were beat), around 8:30pm it began to rain, rain of biblical portions. This went on from 8:30pm until 3:30am. At 3:30am I had to step out of the tent and take care of business. As I am taking care of business, lightning lit up the sky and I began to realize that the 6inch deep creek that was 300 feet down slope from our tent when we went to bed was now a 20 feet deep creek that was 30ft from our tent. (At this point I was very thankful that we had to camp up the hill). Hallie and I stayed put until first light and which time we decided to pack and get the heck out of there. We were 4 miles from the end of the hike but the Little Missouri River was between us and the car. (There was no crossing it, unless you had a boat) We decided to hike out the way we came in and find a road crossing and try to hitch back to the car. As we are hiking out, we see sleeping bags in the river, and here stories of peoples tents and all of there gear being washed down stream. When we finally got back to Albert Pike there are cars underwater, and people were talking about having to be rescued out of the creek.
All in all a great weekend, with a little excitement at the end. We were never in any danger, but I was feeling bad for all of the people that had camped down by the creek and out on the sandbar.
I would like to thank Sgt. Rock and Solemates, I read the reviews and used them extensively in deciding to go hiking in Arkansas.
(Sorry for the spelling and grammar) I typed this in a bit of a hurry.
God Bless
Seth
We went to bed around 8pm (both of us were beat), around 8:30pm it began to rain, rain of biblical portions. This went on from 8:30pm until 3:30am. At 3:30am I had to step out of the tent and take care of business. As I am taking care of business, lightning lit up the sky and I began to realize that the 6inch deep creek that was 300 feet down slope from our tent when we went to bed was now a 20 feet deep creek that was 30ft from our tent. (At this point I was very thankful that we had to camp up the hill). Hallie and I stayed put until first light and which time we decided to pack and get the heck out of there. We were 4 miles from the end of the hike but the Little Missouri River was between us and the car. (There was no crossing it, unless you had a boat) We decided to hike out the way we came in and find a road crossing and try to hitch back to the car. As we are hiking out, we see sleeping bags in the river, and here stories of peoples tents and all of there gear being washed down stream. When we finally got back to Albert Pike there are cars underwater, and people were talking about having to be rescued out of the creek.
All in all a great weekend, with a little excitement at the end. We were never in any danger, but I was feeling bad for all of the people that had camped down by the creek and out on the sandbar.
I would like to thank Sgt. Rock and Solemates, I read the reviews and used them extensively in deciding to go hiking in Arkansas.
(Sorry for the spelling and grammar) I typed this in a bit of a hurry.
God Bless
Seth