Current condition of the OT (taken from AR hiking)

Thanks for posting OH.

Jay,

In one more week Janet and I will check out our sections and when I know the conditions I will post. Going into Caney Creek this weekend.

OH

Hi All,
Newbie here to the forums. I have a trip planned on Sections 9 & 10 of the OT scheduled Monday (Nov 2nd). My question is, with all of the rain hammering the state last night and this morning and these trail sections being low, will I be plodding through swamp and mud for a good portion of the way? I assume already that I'll have wet crossings of the Pipeline Creek. That's no problem. But if this area of the trail holds water for days then I might be better off deferring to a more western portion of the OT.

Thanks for your comments.

John

John,

Well I would like to say welcome to the board! As far as you question goes I can't answer it. You might try emailing FoOT,
friends of the Ouachita Trail at FoOT@freindsOT.org some one there either could answer it or point you in the right direction.

Tom

Thanks, Tom. I'll do that.

John watchout for that "Tom" guy, he is mean and nasty. LOL I am just kidding Tom is a great guy, helpful and knowledgable about backpacking and Arkansas trails in general.

Glad to have ya John we need more Texas boys around here

,ED

Well, I made it back from the OT and what a wonderful hike. I apparently caught it at just the right time......plenty of water sources yet only three wet creek crossings. It was a little muddy in places but not terrible. With most of these 2 sections being on private land, it was tough finding camping sites. It was as if they really didn't want you camping on their property. So we had to resort to stealth camping.

I'm planning to do that same trip on the 21st through 23rd. Any tips on the stealth campsites? The FoOT site lists the previously established sites as gone.

Yeah, they took away those two and replaced them with one at mileage point 208.3 (just passed Reece's Creek crossing). The kicker is that the spur trail to the campsite is .9 mile and uphill. At the end of the day that's not good. But on the flip side, the camp has tent pads, bear poles and a grated fire ring.....very nice. No water, however. Fill up at Reece's.
You pretty much have to find your own flat, unrocky spot.

instead of trying to find a flat, unrocky spot, find 2 trees and sleep in a hammock Always works for me, and a few more enlightened ones

That's a good solution, Preacha. How warm do you sleep on winter nights?

Sounds like an idea...hmmm..now where is my hammock???

John,

Its actually really easy, and in some cases, weighs less than a bag and pad. Look in my photo gallery and you can see pics of different hammock setups, and you will see my underquilt that I use with a top quilt inside the hammock itself. Trail Monkey has a down Under/over quilt set that keeps him really warm for about 2 pounds of weight.

Thurs night got down to 34 and was toasty...