Buffalo River and Surroundings Report

Ok gang. Here goes. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes and hope to give you guys some inside to the river and surrounding areas.

Sat November 1= Erbie Campground
Arrived in time to set up cam and do the BRT around the campground to Parker Hickman homestead, over to Cherry Grove Cemetery and back.

Sun November 2= Erbie Campground
Walked across the river to old Erbie Church and the huge hay fields that abound there. Made my way up to the Goat Bluff and caught the Old River Horse Trail (ORHT) back across to Cherry Grove Cematary then down to Pruitt about half way then back to Erbie Campground on the BRT.

Mon November 3= Erbie Campground
Walked over to Old Erbie again and caught the Ceicl Cove Trail. Walked up to Beauty Cave and Devils Den and explored the Mud Cave some. Looped back around down to the ORHT then back to Goat Bluff and then back through the hay feilds in Erbie but this time the ones east of the Erbie Campground on the North side of the river. Only saw 3 horse riders and 2 hikers out

Tue November 4= Erbie Campground
Hit the BRT at the Campground ran up to Kyles Landing then Doubled back to Erbie on the ORHT. No hikers only the same 3 horse riders.

Wed November 5= HOTEL
Got up early and headed out to get Hotel as I swear my skin was crawling and besides they were calling for really bad weather to come in lat that night. Once showered I headed out to some private land that I know that takes the high road on the north side of Erbie. Saw no one on the trails though.

Thur November 6= Steel Creek
Went up to Ponca Did the BRT to Steel Creek then back to Ponca on the ORHT. Explored around Jim Villinas home there then caught the BRT up about 3 or 4 miles to Boxley then doubled back to Ponca. Meet a really neat man that taught me about using a sling shot.. not one of the wrist rockets but a true sling shot. Hung out with him for about 3 throwing rocks lol.

Fri November 7= Steel Creek
Caught the BRT down to Kyles then back to Steel Creek on the, you guessed it ORHT. Mulled around in the long pools of clear water throwing stones with my new sling shot and had a blast. There was ICE on my tarp this morning.. not frost.. ICE. Moving to hotel sat night lol

Sat November 8= Hotel
Had to clean up and shave, no way around it. lol. Sore as hell in Shoulders. No way going to put a pack on. Hot shower and rode out to Compton on the Erbie road. Deer Hunters as far as the eyes could see. Did McFerrin Point, to scared to go into the woods. These suckers covering up the trail heads, parking in the middle of the road and are CRAZY. No way am I going into the River Valley. Ran down to the Glory Hole, Alum Cove and Sams Throne. Came back and drove around to Pruitt and Ozark.

I missed the peak of colours by about a week. By the end of my week most of the leafs had left most of the trees. At one point on the BRT you could not see 1/4 mile in front of you from the leafs falling. Almost all week the trails were covered. I never lost the trail but I could see anyone that did not know the trail system could lose it in places. There were times that I was wading knee deep in the leafs and you never had a silent moment from the crunching lol. I had a blast and ended up doing about 55 miles in total for the week. Far short of where I wanted to be but I still had fun. Never did get into the Centerpoint or Compton trails or the Shimmerhorn. But will have to save that for later. Was never short of deer as I lost count of how many I say.. had a 4 point that steped out close enough I swear I belive I could have taken him with my sling shot lol. Hell maybe a knife for that matter. Coyottes were out in Erbie in full force. I counted at least 3 packs and each had about 5 distenct voices in each of them. Pics to come soon.

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Overlooking the Erbie River Valley from Private Land

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Boxley Trail Head

Not sure why these were coying the URL instead of pasting them.. guess thats what I get for using FireFox. lol.. the rest will be in the image gallery.

Good trip report!! So are you saying you got cold in that Hammock Hanging there in the cold like a monkey???

Actually moved to the ground.. on Fri night.. had to.. did not have enough blankets that night.. took me 2 days to stand up straight again. lol

Big Bluff from the ORHT

View from Round Top Mountain


Uh.. you know what this is lol

Hay Feilds out from Old Erbie


Mutton Point and the BRT from the Goat Bluff

Big Bluff again from the ORHT, this time you can see the Goat Trail about 2/3s of the way up.


Alum Cove Natural Bridge

The Glory Hole in all its mighty er.. drip lol


McFerrin Point

Wow, great pics Eddie. I will have to teach you how to stay warm in a hammock, and it usually takes down. It also helps if you close up the ends of your tarp and pitch it all the way down to the ground. This will stop the wind from stealling so muh of your heat through convection. The Buffalo is a gorgeous place, and I kno exactly what you mean by all the leaves.

Dwight

I know about the down.. I use a 15 degree down bag but the prob that I had was in condensation on the tarp. It was to the point of having to wear a rain suit under the thing.. and when I droped the sides down it got even worst. The Buffalo is a great place and the BRT has some real nice places on it. But for the best views and the real history of the place you got to get off the BRT and on some of the side trails.. the only real history you ever see on the BRT is the Parker Hickman house. It was vandalized back in Oct. someone broke out a lot of windows. But you can drive right up to the house so don't know if it was hikers or not.

Stop breathing and your breath will not condense on the tarp . It does take a while to figure it all out. I can not wait to explore more up there. I have been looking at other webites, and the history around there is remarkable.

Dwight

If your really interested in the history.. look up a book by Ken Smith... Buffalo River Handbook.. Its not a book that you can pick up and read cover to cover and its not ment to be like that. But it has the most condense history of the river and the people that I have yet to find. It also talks about the rocks and layers of stone and ect. very good book to have in ones collection. Other than the height of the bluffs, such as Big Bluff at 550 ft tall the most interesting bluffs and unique geology is actually on top of Round Top Mountain just South of Jasper. A B52 crashed up there back during the war if I remember correctly. There is a momorial and one of the moters is still there. Very interesting place and with the 2 loops and all its only like 3 miles lol.

I heard about the B52, I did not know about the motor though. Thanks for the book info, because I would really like to learn and then go see. We were trying to figure out how high we were climbing going back up to the ridge line from Indian Creek.

Dwight

Glad to have you back, Eddie! Great trip report. Glad to see you had lots of fun.

So, when are we heading back out there?

Guess the real question is when can you? lol

I'm ready to go now! However, after conferring with the wife, it has been determined that the best time will be either the first or second week of December. Either is fine with me.

December 12-14th sounds good I think.. Extended forcast looks good and I don't know about the river level. Right now I know the river is closed and I doubt that they can get enough rain for the river to be up high enough to make it hard to cross.