Apr 12th, Ouachita new campsite, Larry Boy trail magic

 

April 11th, Thursday 4:10 p.m  Ouachita National Forest, arkansas.  New camp with cell signal!!!!
Had a nice 11 mile ride this afternoon.   Feeling reinvigorated now.   Took some actioncam footage while I was riding.

Moved back to this campsite I spotted yesterday on the drive in.   It’s windier up here, but it has cell signal and the wind is keeping the bugs away.

going to take a shower as I get the chili going.   I should probably re-orient the truck too.   right now it’s tall butt is in the wind.  I need to spin it around for better sleep tonight.   Nose into the wind is always better.   


Found Lake Sylvia! Ouachita Forest
It’s a tiny lake on the east side of Ouachita  National Forest.   (wah-chuh-taw),   I may back track to the main road I came in on .   vs driving the back forest roads to get there.   I’ll have to do some route planning on GaiaGPS tonight.   Which is like Google Maps, but for people trying to navigate forest roads and jeep trails.
in the 2nd screenshot below.  the little orange arrow is me on the bottom left.  I basically have to get to the eastern most part of the green area.   That blue line was for the eclispse totality path.   I’ll have to figure out how to remove that now.

Making camp chili right now.   Smells amaze-balls. and of course I forgot to record it on my action cam for a future youtube video.    When I’m hungry I get stupid.

And by hungry I mean, biking for 2+ hours and just having a couple snacks.

I took a geyser sponge shower using water I poached from one of the concrete bridge things I crossed.    They cement over a couple of 2ft diameter culvert pipes and you drive over the “bridge”   which isn’t really a bridge, all the water goes through the pipe.

Driving over a couple of them, there was overflowing water, so i just grabbed my collapsible bucket thing and poached some “clean” water.   Clean meaning no visible debris in the water, but as far as I know, it could have all kinds of microscopic critters in it.    Only the best water for my skin!       Mmmmm  giardia…

 

 

April 12th, Friday 1:30 p.m  Ouachita National Forest, forest road 132, heading to Lake Winona arkansas.  
Here are the coordinates
34.82098, -93.02464

Had to stop for a night even though it’s still early.   beautiful scenic spot.   My view at camp!

I’m along the ridge, fairly high up.   Going to read and relax some before seeing if I have the energy for a bike ride this afternoon.

For lunch I stopped at a locally owned Philips 66 gas station that was a little bit of everything.    Hardware store, grocery, deli, hamburger, pizza, fishing bait, camping supplies shop.

Anyway, I had a jumbo cheeseburger (two patties) that was better than any fast food burger I’ve had in a long time.   Including Five Guys.   Gassed up as well, and ditched campsite garbage I’d picked up from the previous sites.   Must have been a somewhat popular site, there was a shopping bags worth of stuff I picked up.

Drove north on 27, east on 28, and then south again on 7.    Going to take my time on this road, and maybe visit the Hot Springs National Park before I start to head back towards home next week.

here are some more photos of my campsite for today.  I’ll be moving on in the morning.  Someone made this impressive fire pit just using nearby rock

the site is very close to the road, but there’s very little traffic and the scenic view is worth it IMHO.

here are some screenshots of where I am.  I’ll be heading east to Lake Winona

 

The orange line is what I drove today

 

 

 

Trail Magic for Larry-Boy
I met a young man backpacking by on the road Friday night.   I offered him some trail magic, and he was super happy to receive.   Larry-Boy is his trail name.  Hikers don’t use their real names, they use  trail names that they give themselves..   Just search youtube for “trail magic” if you want to learn more about that.

Gave him some food and drink
he enjoyed 

•  summer sausage
• new york extra sharp cheese
• raw broccoli florets with ranch 
• and some plain 2% greek yogurt with blueberries and maple syrup
• washed down with a coke zero i had chilling in the fridge

I apologized for not having any beer to offer, explaining I accidentally resupplied in a dry county and he laughed saying the same thing happened to him a few days ago when restocked in a nearby town.      Now I know why there are so many angry conservatives in Arkansas, lol!

He’s backpacking the 220mile Ouachita trail (wah-chuh-taw), and he’s 160+ miles complete.   I thought that trail stayed closer to the lake, but i guess it comes back this far.    He said it follows some of the surrounding ridgelines.   he was walking the road to avoid a blowdown section.   lots of treefall from a recent storm that’s not been cleared out yet.

felt good to make a hungry backpacker happy.   the company was welcome, but he didn’t stay long (30 minutes?) ;  he needed to go find a tent site before it got too dark.   Gave him some electrolyte packets for the warmer weather coming this weekend.

Good deed done for the day.

More photos i took from today, a lot of haze in some

Apr 11th, Ouachita National Forest AR

April 11th, Thursday 10:20 a.m  Ouachita National Forest, arkansas.   

 

I learn this later in the trip, but makes sense to copy paste here.

Ouachita is pronounced like wah-chuh-taw 

No cell signal at camp.
The Sun is out!   It was a bit of a Deluge last night.   I have lots of slightly wet stuff hanging out this morning.   Things got damp just from walking around setting up camp last night, and the previous night it had rained and I put the GFC tent away wet.   I should have remembered to park somewhere in the Sun for a half hour and opened it up to dry out.    Dardanelle had nicer laundromats, if I’d gone there I’d probably have felt better about popping up the tent to air out.   The laundromat in Russellville was a little on the sketchier side, but it did have that dumpster to get rid of garbage.   Pro’s and Cons!
The russellvill laundromat didn’t feel unsafe, but I wouldn’t want to give people the tempation either.   
When I do air out the tent, the gzilla poles for the tent doors really help it air out and dry faster.   I don’t even bother with both poles per door.  just 1 on each door to get air moving through.
Anyway this morning I have clothes drying out in the Sun & Wind.   I slept warm last night.   No worries, I was toasty and comfy.   I just want to get everything dry now that the rain has passed.

Awhile ago, I’d bought a 6-pack set of Rope Rollers from Rollercam.    the kit came with some string for 1 pair.   I’ve been using that line for new guylines on my Thule awning.   Loving them so far.   

Being able to sew, I’ve also bought their 10pack of rollercam buckles too.   Been making my own 1”wide, custom length straps for awhile now.    I think I may even be on my second 10 pack.   rollercam.com

Anyway, with their Roperoller, if I remember correctly, it works with 3mm diameter line.    It’s been so easy to adjust and re-tighten the guy-lines when I shorten one of the awning poles so rain can run off.  You literally just have to pull on the line to tighten it.  No knots, no nothing

This morning I added a pair of RopeRollers to some 3/16 line I keep in the truck  for clothesline.   it just barely fit through, but it’s working well for that too.   having the telescoping ladder to get up into  the GFC is helpful for getting the clothesline hung up higher on a tree.   Just enough to keep the clothes off the ground anyway.

At the moment I’m having doubts about whether I’ll actually go bikepacking.   Am I just tired?  Idk.   It’s my one fear with the truck.   it’s just so tempting to return to home base (aka the truck).   The food is better.  I can have a shower.   It has a more comfortable bed.    Writing this down is annoying me though.   Maybe confessing my wussiness is the public shaming/motivation I need to get off my butt and just go do it.   Not getting any younger…

I think I’ll spend one more night here,   go for an afternoon bike ride to shake off the cobwebs.   Tomorrow I’ll drive down towards the lake to overnight on the trails down there.   

When I get cell signal, I’ll have to google Lake Sylvie, not finding it on my gaiagps maps I downloaded.   The bike shop guy said that it’s very popular with bikepackers, more rolling hills, instead of the long climbs you get in the Ozarks. 

11:30a.m. update a group of 3 guys my age just biked by, chatting away.

I’ll take it as a sign to get out on the bike this afternoon.   The ground in the campsite has dried up as well.   Impressive.   In the Adirondacks, standing water like this morning tends to stay around a day or two.

When l go for a ride, I’ll see if I can find a cell signal strong enough for this to update.

Also, in the meantime, I have dried red kidney beans soaking in water to make chili tonight via the instant pot.   It’ll use up my old onions and green bell peppers.   I’ll be adding chili, cumin and cayenne powder to it as well.   I have canned diced tomatoes and one can of plain tomato sauce for the base.   I’ll try to record it as I make it.

Apr 10 on the move, Russellville AR

April 10th, Wednesday 10:30a.m  Russellville, arkansas
 

With the severe rain, I went out the back way, but in good news, I had just enough water left to take a Geyser sponge shower before I left camp.   So at least I’m not stinky now that I’m back in public.

Getting laundry done.   A bit of a dive laundromat, but the machines are clean.   they’re fairly old machines too.
Snuck my grocery bag sized garbage into the dumpster here (which had a lock bar over it)    but I assume being a customer it was okay.    I’d guess the lockbar is to keep locals from piling their bigger bags into the dumpster.

After laundry I’m going to get some lunch and resupply at the Walmart Supercenter the next town over.   I should gas up too.   Then I need to hit the local bike shop and maybe swing by lowes for some cheap earbuds.,   I didn’t pack a spare charging cable for the bone induction earband headphones that I have.   Ooopsie.

I like the ones that have an earbud design but with something that wraps over or around the ear.   


This thing at the laundromat was interesting `torture device or laundry press or both?   you decide!   Lol

April 10th, Wednesday 6:30p.m  Ouachita National Forest, arkansas

Rain rain go away….   The rain made the back road I drove in on treacherous a couple times.   I think it was because of logging trucks were adding mud to the hard pack gravel/clay roads.   but I’d rate the one slide I had an 8.5 out of 10 on the ole sphincter pucker factor scale.   The slide was only about 10-20ft, but oof.
Nothing like when you start to go sideways and no amount of counter steering changes anything.   You just keep sliding and you don't change the truck's angle at all.   I’ve had that experience on snow a few times, but on a muddy road it’s a whole other level of sketchy.   It felt greasier somehow.   Tires weren’t biting into anything.

Thankfully,  I was already going super slow when the skid started, so this happened when I was only going about 5 mph, but it was slightly downhill, so I had to power through the slide without tearing things up or burying my wheels from over-accelerating.   I gave enough gas to the tires to try and keep myself centered in the road on the slow slide down the hill.   Couldn’t stop the truck.   Fun, but oh man, did I get a ton of mud on the sides and under the truck.   An offroading baptism of mud?   I managed to do it without gouging the road up or bouncing the truck off trees along the road, so I’m happy.

Anyhoo, I just went slow on the nastier spots, but if some young guy went blasting through those roads, it would not end well.   luckily things should dry out a bit before the weekend when they show up.  It’s only Wednesday after all.

Speaking of, I’m not sure how much biking I’ll be able to do tomorrow.   I worry about what I’ve seen on youtube.   Bikepackers doing the Great Divide trail trying to ride their bikes after it rains, but the roads haven’t dried out.   They try to pedal with an inch of mud caked onto their tires.   Doesn’t work well.    I may have to give it a day to dry out.   If it takes more than that, I may have to cry Uncle and head on home.   hopefully it dries out though.     But the weather looks promising, I just don’t know how long it takes for the clay/gravel roads to dry out around here after it rains an inch or two.   Different conditions than I’m used to.

I managed to resupply in Russellville and Dardanelle except for beer.   Maybe I was in a dry county?   I searched google maps for liquor stores and there was nada.   Oh well, better for my waistline anyway.

i also found a cheap pair of induction headband bluetooth things at Walmart.  $40.   should be fine until I can get home.   maybe I’ll keep them as a spare in the safe.

Anyhoo.   you won’t read this until I can get cell signal again.   the sky is too obstructed with rain even for my satellite messenger gizmo.   but I’m fine.    easy drive out tomorrow.  i’ll take the main gravel road, which is much firmer than the side ones.   I’ll go explore and look for other sites at a minimum.   this site is turning into a pond.

here are some screenshots of where I’m at.   the yellow path shows the route I drove on the back dirt roads.

I’m getting sprinkled on sitting under my narrow awning.    My plan is to make a lightweight attached awning/tarp so I have more space to sit under when it rains.  haven’t gotten to it yet.   Always more sewing projects!

 

l

 

 

Apr 9th truck setup, the good, meh, and needs to change

April 9th, Tuesday 12p.m  ozarks, arkansas
 

Taking a rest day, embracing the boredom.   I do feel the itch to go somewhere, but if I head down the hill I lose cell signal, so I’ll stay put.

Tomorrow, I’ll drive out the way I came in unless we get some torrential rain.   If that happens, then I’ll head out the back way to rt 16, then 7 south to Russellville.   Ideally if I can go out the same way, I can stop at a site near water, scoop some up with my collapsible bucket thing and have a Geyser sponge shower (or two) before going into town.   I’m probably super stinky right now.
Tomorrow will be a resupply day.   Depending on how long things take, I may overnight at the Cracker Barrel in town, but hopefully it won’t take that long and I can go find a campsite in the woods around Lake Ouachita.
After Wednesday, looks like good weather until Monday, so I’ll swing by the bike store in town and ask for any suggestions about bikepacking routes.   Not sure what gear I need, but I should be able to find something to purchase in exchange for info.
So i’m guessing after I get done with my bike touring, and I clean up for a night, I’ll start driving back North towards home.   Not sure exactly when I’ll start heading back, it’ll be 2 days of driving either straight home or to my friends in Maryland.    Will play it by ear.    They may be busy, which is no biggee.   Plenty of time to see them the rest of camping season too.




What would I change on my truck?
the truck has felt more dialed in this trip.   

Loves

• the homemade vestibule/rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door. game changer when it’s raining and I’m stuck inside the tent.
• my 40F rated down quilt with the synthetic down hoodie and booties.   Slept comfortably down to freezing temps multiple times.   Also wore sweats and a fleece jacket when temps were down near freezing overnight.  the thermarest mondo king air mattress is super comfy and warm too.
• the mounted Joolca shower stall.  so much easier to set up and put away, and it doesn’t add weight to the roof ski box like the shower tent does.
• the usb chargeable 1 liter water sprayer for rinsing dishes, picture below
• the popcorn air popper   (no chip cravings!)
• the safe and the usb outlets inside it. and one of the magnet lights Mark and Teresa got me.
• the padded pouch for my coleman stove
• the tiny solo stove and wood pellets
• the weboost (yes I have to move the transmission puck around, but it’s been awesome, 1 bar of signal becomes 3-4 bars, LTE sometimes upgrades to 5g)

the Meh’s

• the surround i made around the fridge has done its job keeping stuff from falling into the drawer space when I slide out the fridge.  only downside is that i have to remove it to do work on the electric box.   I need to make it easier to add/remove.  Star knobs and t-nuts?  
• the wool blanket and towel inside the GFC tent under the roof.   Works great to stop condensation but gets damp and the wool blanket is a bit saggy (maybe 4 inches lower than ceiling in the center).  Makes things darker in the morning though and that’s nice.   Should I give up and cement a covering up there?  
• the water pumps for my 5 gallon NATO water jugs.  functional but annoying at times.    the usb powered one is Sloooowww.  but it’s easy to turn on and off.  The manual siphon pump can be fiddly, but it’s much faster when dispensing a liter or more.  
• the primus white gas stove needed a lot of fiddling to get working  (should I just get another coleman single white gas burner? or am I’m being whiny because i had to do basic maintenance?)
• the GFC tent floor cushion layout   I need to move my paper towel holder now I think
• my camp chair.   sturdy but takes up a lot of room

things I should change/fix/remove?

• the positive lead line of the battery monitor should probably be on the positive bus bar instead of the first battery.    it’s doing the SOC% (state of charge) off just the 1 battery instead of both.

get rid of the toaster.   wraps are just easier when camping and they keep longer.   will make more room for the air popper. 
go through the campfire milk crate, you brought a lot of stuff you didn’t need for wood pellet fires.
the yard sale I have going on in the truck cab.   Bike gear, jackets, shoes, and generally crap everywhere!   Maybe that’s just camping life idk.
should I give up being able to put a bike in the back inside the truck?  there’s a $800 slideout and tilter for the fridge, then i could have a drawer underneath the cooler…but honestly just putting a bag on top of the fridge when needed would be more versatile and weigh less.   I’m leaning towards NO.  


things I want to buy/install before next big trip

• 1st and foremost… a wolfbox rearview mirror replacement dash cam thing.   then I can stuff more in the rear AND see better than I do now what’s going on behind the truck, traffic-wise.  I could also reconnect the OEM wiring harness to the tailgate which would restore the auto-lock. 
• a spare olympus camera battery charger, leave in the safe
• spare charger lines for induction headphones
• large metal spoon for mini solo stove ashes
• another 5 gallon `water jug?  or….guzzle h20 water purifier  (or I should have just brought the msr guardian filter bag)   
• circular marine type vents for excess heat  in rear bed (to help fridge run cool.   cheaper project too <$50
• later this year, I’ll need new tires for the truck, if the online reviews are true about the stock tires getting squirrelly in the snow/rain after they’ve had 30,000 miles of wear.
• a 2nd coleman single burner white gas stove?

 

Apr 8th, Jeff's Eclipse Photos

 Jeff took photos in New Hampshire.   The corona shot is what I saw from Arkansas too
These were just with his Nikon SLR.   wait until you see what he got with his telescope!

And tbh, this is why I didn’t worry about getting “good” photos of the eclipse.   I knew Jeff would have it covered.

Apr 8th, Eclipse Day!

April 8th, Monday 9 a.m. ozarks, arkansas

just yogurt and blueberries for breakfast. slept fine.   weird to think that the eclipse is here today.   so far so good, clear skies.   a few wispy clouds, nothing else

yesterday afternoon, I just did another quick trip down to the end of the road and back.  totaled about 7 miles.

studying the maps more, I think I’ll resupply in Russellville and Dardanelle, but I may not leave here until Wednesday morning.    I think that will make my stay here a full week.    Seems longer.   I like how time slows down out in the woods.

Tomorrow, traffic will likely still be bad with lots of people leaving after the eclipse.   We’ll also have a couple days of rain starting tonight.    I’d considered moving the truck down towards the stream after the eclipse, but with the rain that’s coming, not sure that’s wise.   Not sure how easy the valley floods with the river going through it.    Anyway, with my bike explorations, I can leave the back way to get to rt 16 again. 

So tomorrow, if I get bored,  I may just gear up and ride the bike down to the Falls again.   I did pack active-wear rain gear.    Even if it’s pouring rain, I’ll be chugging back up the 1000ft climb which will keep me plenty warm.  It’s the going downhill part that actually sucks more when it’s raining.   Gets very cold.  And if there are any small wash outs, I’d rather cross them with my bike then get my truck trapped.   You’d be surprised how a small 2ft deep, narrow wash out could stop my truck cold, but with my bike I could just step over it.   Weird how that works.

Anyhoo.   going to just relax and kill time until the eclipse.

April 8th, Monday 2p.m  post eclipse ozarks, arkansas

I sat out by the hayfield.   Had the spot all to myself.     I can see one other truck parked a half mile away, but don’t see any people. 

right around 1:45p.m. the world dims.   Very eery.   The lighting is like wearing perfect sunglasses in a vehicle with tinted windows.   Weird.   Not like dawn or sunset at all.

The corona was amazing.    Well worth the trip.

my cell  phone can’t really photograph the sun, but i got a shot of the horizon during the total eclipse.

and I’m lucky to have had mostly blue sky during the whole thing.   the wind really started blowing hard for about 5 minutes before the total eclipse.   Could’ve just been a coincidence, not sure. 

Before, mostly no clouds

After a sliver of sun reappeared, clouds were heading right for the Sun to cover things.

hopefully Jeff gets good photos with his telescope up in New Hampshire.

Apr 7th, blah rainy day, Eclipse Trip

 




April 7th, Sunday 9:15 a.m. ozarks, arkansas

Slept well, but it looks like there will be some Spring rain to deal with from here on out.   I was planning on heading south to Ouachita to do some overnight bikepacking.   Looks like tuesday and wednesday will be heavy rain,  so maybe after then.    I will definitely stay at my current site through Monday night.   Maybe the thing to do to pass the rainy weather is to go down to Hot Springs, get some laundry done, eat at a restaurant,  and find a place to overnight.   per the ioverlander app, the Walmart SuperCenter doesn’t allow overnighting, so I may have to go find a camp.   Although, I did see there's a Cracker Barrel in Russellville Arkansas, so maybe that's the better place to go. I'll keep looking on the maps.

Anyway,  it just started drizzling here, so I quickly added my rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door.     I have the tent door attached to the awning right now, so it doesn’t feel so claustrophobic inside the tent.  It's a common complaint of GFC owners,  you have to zip closed all the windows and doors of the tent when it rains to keep the water out. It doesn't come with a vestibule.  My little homemade awning keeps the rain out but still lets you have a breeze, and you can even see outside still.  I also sloped the rear Thule awning before going back up into the tent.   You don’t want water to accumulate into a small pond until it gets so heavy that the awning rips.

Anyway like I said the forecast isn’t great for this week, but I do have rain gear.   maybe I’ll just have to tweak plans or suck it up and deal with the rain.   it’s warm down here at least.   And the clouds overnight are like a blanket keeping things warmer overnight.  In fact last night was the first night I slept with just the quilt.   Didn’t need a hat, gloves, booties, nothing

and while I don’t go to church anymore,  the pine trees surrounding my campsite  are very awe inspiring.   it’s like sitting in an outdoor cathedral.  It’s been nice to just relax and listen to the wind and watch them sway.