Intro

Hello all!

Just some intoductions on my part. My name is Tom, my wife is Janet, she may read here but don't know if she will post. I teach in Dierks.
I am in my mid 50's and had a knee replacement back in early June. I am starting to hike again. I realy do miss it! I live in a cool place.
I live at Horseshoe bend camp ground below the Dierks Dam. We live in a 38' camper! Man it is neet! No mowing, no weed eating, and no taxs! We moved up from Crossett in July. We have weathered some very big storms here and we are doing just fine.

Well I am continueing my hiking that I started back at HSU in the 70's. I got my wife interested in it and we both now enjoy hiking and backpacking. We both are members of FoOT, and have adopted the 1.5 mile segment of trail from the AR/OK state line to the FS RD. Got it cleared last Jan. Man it was a mess but if you ever get to go up on the trail along the Talimina scenic drive in Jan with the temp in the teens you will be blessed with all sorts of frost flowers! Man it was great!!

We have taken it upon ourselves to start cleaning up the Buckeye Trail in the Caney Creek wilderness. We started that about two weeks ago. This area has special meaning to me. I started my BPing here. Back in the 70's it was pristine!! Wish you guys could have seen it! Any way we are working with the FS on that endever. We were going to go in this week and backpack down to Katy falls and work as we go but there has just been to much rain. We have cleaned around 1.5 miles of briars on the trail. Well enough of my rambling. Check out my picture link below.

Cu on the Trail!

http://community.webshots.com/user/trigg_tom

I am totally envious of you Tom! Life in a campground? No taxes? NO WEED EATING??!! You're living the dream, man. I mean that.

I'm so glad you and Janet are here. (Not just the website, I mean here, in Arkansas!) I have to admit that I haven't really done any volunteer work on the trails since I moved here, but I'm just getting back into it, so that will change! I hope you know how much folks appreciate what you're doing. I certainly do.

And welcome to the site!

Jay, thanks! I am glad to be here, by the way the camp ground is Horseshoe Bend. This is a Corp of Engineers campground. Yes I love it here. I have lived my whole life in AR except one year in WY. Wish I was still there!! O well a long story, not enought time. Would be great over a camp fire!!

The Vol. work just sort of happened. We have always wanted to do this kinda work be we live to far away. Now we are about 38 miles from Caney Creek.

Well will let it go, the camp ground life is good by tonight will be rough. Tornado warnings, flash flood warnings. But we have done just fine here..

Tom

Good luck with the weather tonight!

And maybe we'll be able to sit around the campfire sometime soon, and you can tell me about WY. There's nothing like sitting around the campfire chatting about, well, ANYTHING!

Jay,

Yep you got that right about the camp fire! We will be ok with the weather. The main thing that bothers me about being in a camper is hail. Earlier in the week Texarkana got hail the size of oranges! Any way we have weathered some bad ones here but with the ridge behind us we are in a hole and I feel like that helps.

Cul Tom

Hello Tom and Janet, are you the first camper on the left as you get into the campground? If so, ivewondered who the lucky people are who live there. I kayak there quite a bit I will say hello next time I see you out and about. The Buckeye was really grown up the last time I was on it. Thanks for adopting the trail. We paddled 8 milesof theCossatot a few months ago above FR 31 with The Caney wilderness on the left. What a treat! I really like that area.( my space bar seems to be off)

David,

Yep we are the first camper on the left. Were you here a couple of months ago? In a tent down from us on the right? Well any way real soon we will be the only one left. The 5th wheel that was next to us has left. They were here for nine months. We came in late July. I teach in Dierks.

As far as Caney Creek and the Buckeye go this just something we just decided to do. The briars have realy taken over in the last couple of years. The last time that we hiked it was back in 04, At that time we lived in south AR and it was hard to get up here. I started hiking back in there in the mid 70's. We were going to go up this week and work for about three days but you can forget that! The Caney Creek valley is were you don't want to be with a lot of rain! Next time you are up here stop by and say hello. If there is Chevy diesel Silverado (white) parked nearby we are here.

Check out my web pictures and look at the album marked HOME, by the way the water has been higher than what the pictures show. It will be high again real soon.

Probably so, I'm in a yellow Eureka tent and I drive a Green Ford Ranger with racks. My lovely lady Maurine and my dog Rocky are usually with me. I look forward to meeting next time I'm there.

Maybe we should just plan a party at your place Tom. When should we all show up?

I'll bring the hot dogs and buns!

Well everyone. I have plenty of firewood. The dogwoods are starting to bloom the red buds are blooming. The water will be up soon, they shut it down after heavy rains I guess to let Lake Millwood (outside of Ashdown) get caught up with the high water. Any way I bet within a day or two it will be rollin again! By the way for those that don't know about this part of the Saline river from what I understand that the Corp. brought in huge bolders, made choke points in the stream, etc. , to make it a great little white water stream. Folks put in below the dam and float down to the swimming area and take out and do it again. Also there is a little cave at one point, can't get there now because of the water, that can be explored, it isn't very deep.

This camp gound is a hidden gem. Not very many folks know about it. Lots of deer to view, wild turky, have even seen river otters. When you come of of hwy. 70 it looks bad, clear cuts and the like but when you doop down below the dam this place is well presearved. The camp ground is a little N.W. of Dierks. There is a nice ridge behind the camper. The only time that it has been filled up was the week end of easter. The next busiest time here is during the deer hunt. Lots of hunters use it as a base camp for their hunting leases.

Yall come!
(give plenty of notice, you know how wifes are about the home!)