The rest of the time I spent trying not to get lost. A better way of saying that was I tried to get un-lost. No, that's not right either. I wasn't lost, I just couldn't find my way out...
The elk disappear into the trees during the day, coming out around sunset and again at sunrise, so I had to find something to do in between. There are several short dayhikes around the area, some of which I had already hiked on a previous trip. Locals kept telling me to go to Hawksbill Crag, a rock outcropping also known as Whitaker Point. Sounded good to me.
This is what the crag looks like on the Arkansas tourism site:
This is what it looked like when I was there:
I want to go back when it looks like the first picture. Or maybe I could just get proficient with Photoshop? It's much more likely that I'll hike a thousand miles before 'Shop and I get friendly.
I had a trail map, one of those fabulously expensive, tear-proof, waterproof, lasts as-long-as-you-wanna hike maps. I used it to find the trailhead, and then promptly went amnesiac that it was it my pack. It's important to the story that you remember that I forgot.
You don't have to go hiking to get lost, just read this blog, huh?
To get to the crag, you go down a trail, like this:
Let me just note here that apparently trail markers are very, very, expensive, because every trail I've been on the state of Arkansas is severely blaze deficient. Really, folks, don't be so stingy with them! I'll buy you some of those little plastic squares!!!
To complicate things further, not much in the woods was changing color yet, but the leaves that were changing, were the exact color of the trail blazes. Oh yes. Like this-do you see a blaze anywhere?!?!
I traipsed along the trail to the crag, and ate my lunch out on the end of it, like this: How's that for an office view?
and then I took a little nap, and headed back to the trailhead and a hamburger.
Except that it didn't work like that. I got to a switchback in the trail, a junction that I was pretty dang sure should take me over the top of the mountain to my vehicle, and couldn't see any trail. No trampled leaves. No skid marks. And not a single dang blaze. So I cast up and down the creekbed for a bit, starting to get a bit frustrated, and then went back to the switchback, the last known blaze location.
I looked up the way I had come from, and saw a faint trail off to the side. hmm, I don't remember that angle, but maybe it curves around and crosses the creek. hi ho, hi ho, off through the woods we go.
It was like being hit with a tazer. I looked up and saw this:
Refer to crag picture at top of blog. I had ended up back at the rock. It was cool the first time, less so the second. Back I went to the switchback. At the junction I went back and forth on both directions of the switchback, and finally, waaaay down the creek saw a bit of orange. Remember that map in my backpack? I wish I had at this point.
lobbity lob through the trees, right along the bluff. Great view. Don't stumble, it's a long way down.
Cool trail, neat rocks. wait, I thought I've seen this one before. Sure feels like I'm going the same direction as before...
Welcome to the Twilight Zone episode, caught on Cave Mountain.
I've seen Whitaker Point enough times to last me the rest of my backpacking life. At that moment I took stock of the situation- I had a sleeping bag, water, food, cookstove, a whistle, a camera. I could survive several days out here if necessary, and it was starting to look like it would.
One more time back down the trail to the junction. Look up and down the creek. I KNOW I have to go over the top to get to my car. I KNOW I have an hour of daylight left. I KNOW that I'll be fine if I camp for the night. I KNOW that if I ever get out of here I'm petitioning the Arkansas legislature to raise park allocations so they can buy some damn trail markers.
I finally spotted a really big, flat rock halfway up the hill. I knew I had come across a really big flat rock, so I clawed my way up via the root system. Sure enough. It was my rock. I took off in the general direction of an assumed trailhead, and about a tenth of a mile later ran across an orange blaze. Not an orange leaf, but a real honest to goodness piece of plastic trail blaze. Hallelujah. I managed to turn a 2 mile trail into a 6 mile jaunt. No problem, it's all A.T. prep.
Rookie mistakes:
- cockiness. Just because I'm an experienced hiker doesn't make me experienced on THIS trail.
- didn't look at the trail map closely before starting. Refer to point 1.
- wandered around instead of thinking it through. Refer to point 1.
- not taking a young person who would remember we had a map with us.
I took a sneaky peak, and sure enough, Cave Mountain trail is a loop. I'll be danged.
I want to go back with someone who's never been there, so I can look like an expert when they can't find the trail, and I blithely say "oh, it's this way, trust me." Know any rookies?
I felt like I earned my burger, so I stopped in Ozone, Arkansas at the Burger Barn.
A touch of Ozone was a fitting end to the Twilight Zone.
