Buffalo River Trail

Hey yall! Myself and four friends are planning on doing the Buffalo River Trail here in the next two weeks for our spring break. For the most part we are planning on using tarps as shelter and are pretty prepared, we feel. I was wondering who has done this trail before and might be able to give some insight into the difficulty of the trail, and any other important points. Most of us going on the trip have done the Eagle Rock Loop so any comparison to this would be especially insightful. I also was planning on trying my hand in a bit of fishing, also bringing enough alternative food of course, and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or suggestions to this point.
~Any help or information will be greatly appreciated, and will also likely directly coincide with a terrific backcountry adventure!


*On a personal note: those who may have come across our small group from Ole Miss ( GO REBS!) may have notice myself and a buddy stayed in a Kelty 2-man tent, weighing roughly 4lbs. I HAVE NOT slept under only tarp cover and am a bit unsure about coverage on this long hike. I am planning on taking 2 Coleman tarps apox. 7x7 and about 50ft of parachute cord. I have reasearched tarp methods fairly well, but need abit of reassuranse and personal expertise. Bieng able to take tarps will drasticlly drop my overall weight, so this is something i strive to acheive comfortably within my means.
Thanks again all!

OMSC... glad to hear that your going to do the BRT. VERY nice trail. Not a hard trail at all. It is extreamly well marked. Only about 3 places that I know of that gets kind of iffy. The first 2 gravel roads that it crosses. Take a right on the roads and go aways and take the left. Look for the white blazes. They will be there. On the second road its quite a ways to the turn off. The other place is up at the Slatty place. Your first real climb. You will take the right there. Remember that the river should always be on your right and your heading downstream. The other thing is water. I have been tracking the water in the area and its really low for this time of the year. You will have 4 water crossings but they should be minor. But be prepaired to get your feet a little wet. None of these are on the Buffalo River. Only small streams. The other thing is that once you get past Steel Creek water is going to be kind of scarce unless they have all the water back on in the campgrounds. That I don't know. If they don't then fill all your bottles often as you can. The BRT does not get to close to the River. Well its not that so much as that the BRT is very high from the river.
As far as tarps, its the only way to go. If only one per tarp then I would set it up as a A frame, if 2 then I would prob set it up as a hunters lean to. Use your poles as... welll poles lol. Only thing I would sujest is loose the parachord and opt for some fishing twine. MUCH lighter. Its usually about 150lbs breaking streagth and its pleanty. Though I usually carry about 10ft or so of parachord but 50ft is over kill. Hey you guys want any company? I might be able to take off for it. Depends on when you guys are going to go. Hope this helps some.

OMSC. . .Sounds like a lot of fun. I agree with TM, lose the Paracord and only carry a few feet. I use braided Mason line from Home Deopt, it is very strong and easy to tie. Make sure you get the braided kind as the twisted unravels very fast. I have used a tarp exclusily for the past 5 years, and always above my hammock. I'm kinda biased about this, but it is very comfortable. Have fun.

I have not been on alot of the trail but I hosted at Steele Creek. I spent a lot of time putting hikers back on the trail. It gets confusing with the horse trails. If your headed down stream stay behind the old ranch house. Steele Creek gets a little crazy at times in the spring. If you get to it and it looks scary to cross get off the trail by going up stream. It gets smaller real fast.

The part from Ponca to Kyles Landing is awesome.

OMSC:
I agree with the other guys, lose the paracord. Braided masonry twine works so much better and is so much lighter.
Tarps - that's all I use. Instead of the two Coleman 7x7 tarps, I would go to Wal Mart and buy one lightweight 8x10 tarp, if you don't want to spend $60 or more for a silnylon tarp of the same size. The 8x10 will weigh much less than the two 7x7 tarps and will actually provide you with more coverage. A basic A-frame setup should suffice unless you get into some severe weather and if so, there are other pitches that you can do to make yourself safe and dry.
As far as the BRT comparison to the ERL, I posted a trip report of our BRT trip back in October here on this board. Here's the link:

http://www.arkansasbackcountry.com/buffalo-river-trail-f27/boxley-pruitt-trip-report-t433.htm

There are some other great information in the Buffalo River Trail forum and I would encourage you to read some of those. I prepared a spreadsheet of the BRT, based on Tim Ernst's guide book and if you want a copy, PM me and I'll email you one.
If you have any other questions, I'm sure there are plenty of us here that will try to answer them.
Good Luck,
UL

UL

You are talking to HARDCORE backpackers here. We all want the spread sheet.

OK, guys there it is. I didn't know if it would paste on the forum or not, but I guess it did. Sorry for the small print, but that was necessary so as to fit in the spreadsheet. You should be able to cut and paste it off the page.
If you would still like a copy sent to you, PM me and I'll send you a copy.
UL

Wow! Thanks guys! I didnt quite expect so much so quickly, this truly is a great information 'watering-hole'. Ill definitely drop the paracord and look into the alternatives suggested. The spreadsheet is going to prove very useful, as i may print it off on weather resistant paper and take notes on the back. Finances are a bit tight so the tarp from walmart may have to do for awhile. If the river is far enough from the trail then i may not worry too much about fishing.

OMSC:
Depending on where you camp, you will have access at Steel Creek, Kyle's Landing, and Erbie. You may want to plan on carrying some extra water with you, as most of the trail is away from the river and the creeks are often unreliable as water sources. Also, take advantage of the fact that the trail does get close to the river at the above spots and I would highly recommend getting your water there. The water hydrants at these established camps will not be turned on until April, so don't count on these.
If you arrive at camp early enough and are camping at the above sites, then by all means take a fishing pole. There are some very nice small mouth bass in the river. Just don't forget a license.
Good luck,
UL