Buffalo River Oct. 10th - 12th

Yeah Yeah Yeah. I know Trail Monkey and I were supposed to do the Butterfield this weekend, but by the time we got out there, Devil's Den campsites were all full. We talked it over and decided the trail would be packed, so we decided to head to Trail Monkey's favorite spot, the Buffalo River. And am I ever glad we did.

We arrived at the Ozark campgrounds Friday afternoon and just set up camp. Got up early Saturday morning to do the Centerpoint trail. Let me tell you, this is NOT the trail to do when you are out of shape. Going down to the river was great. On the way down, we stopped at the Goat Trail spur and when we got down there, there was too much cloud cover to see anything, literally. We bypassed Granny Henderson's house on the way down, so Eddie could tell me the history involved. We got down to the connection of Sneeds Creek and the Buffalo and the water in both was very low. We decided to try and find Hemmed-in-Hollow at this point and went off on a trail for a ways and couldn't find it, so we backtracked. Tried another trail for a good ways until it petered out as well. No luck. So finally we gave up and decided to head back up to Granny Henderson's.

When we arrived at her house, there was absolutely no one there. Within 5 minutes, there were literally 35 people there, a group of about 20 kids, several folks on horse, and a few other walkers. Since it got so crowded, we decided to head out back up the Centerpoint. What a climb that was! After sucking much wind behind Eddie, who was laughing the whole way, we decided to stop back at the Goat Trail and finally got some good pictures there.

Let me tell you, the rest of this trail was a son of a gun for my out of shape butt. If I had realized that there was a 1300' elevation gain in 2.5 miles, I never would have hit this one in my current sad shape. However, after stopping what seemed like 4 million times and I am sure pissing Trail Monkey off since he waited on me each time, we finally made it to the top, way later than we should have. It will be a long while before I do Centerpoint again, although I still want to see Hemmed-in-Hollow. I will NOT be doing the Comptail trail to Hemmed-in-Hollow for sure!

The weather could not have been better. Low 50's overnight and mid 70's during the day. NO bugs. No rain. At camp that night, Eddie showed me how to make a portable stick. (Inside joke). We hit the sack pretty early. I was licked.

The next morning, after my lazy, sore butt slept in too long, we decided to go to Hawksbill Crag. On the way we stopped at Haley's Falls. The water was way down, so there was barely a trickle of water off of it. The view from the Crag was perfect. I will post pictures in a bit and will update this post with the location when I have them up.

All in all, it was an awesome weekend, although I think Eddie will think twice about carrying my big butt with him again.

The good news is that I lost 5.4 pounds from Friday morning to Monday morning! What a weekend!

Great trip report Colt! Thanks!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sucks major wind out on the hilly stuff.

Well, apparently the gallery on this forum is full, so I am going to add the pictures to my personal web server. Will put the link up to the pics shortly.

Good trip report glad you got to see the Goat Trail.. I like that area.

Lew

I know you are all waiting with bated breath for the pictures, so here goes!


The river is very low right now. This is at the junction with Sneeds Creek.


Granny Henderson's place is still in great shape.


Would you want to leave if this were the view from your front porch? Neither did Granny Henderson!

The view from the Big Bluff on the Goat Trail. The colors are coming in a bit!


This was me back at the Centerpoint Trialhead... properly licked.


Thanks to Eddie, I learned some features of my camera and was able to pull out this beautiful shot at the bluffs by the Ozark Campground.

Another beautiful picture thanks to Eddie's tutoring!


One last one of my tinkering at the Ozark Campgrounds bluff.


The Hawksbill Crag.

Me on the Crag waving back at Eddie.


Eddie at the rock formation just beside the Hawksbille Crag.


The view from Hawksbill Crag.

Ok, next time yall go, I have to go no matter what. I have lived in Arkansas for 5 years now, and still haven't made it to the Buffalo. I am so jealous, I would have given up a fish fry for that weekend. Great pics.

Dwight

I'm with Preacher...I've got to get up there. It's a beautiful place.

Great pics too! Sorry about the picture gallery Colt; I'll get it opened up again tonight, and we'll hopefully be able to upload more than one picture at a time.

Thanks Eddie,

I just burned a bunch of sticks today clearing brush, they can't be portable anymore. Would I have to beg, or make him a hammock to get invited along?

Dwight

Colt,

Great trip report and pics. I would be right there with you huffing and a puffing! Man I am out of shape also. I was fortunate to have visited that area right as the FS was buying up the land back in the 70's and got to drive down to the Buffalo at Sneeds Creek and I couldn't find Hemmed in Hollow either. Don't know if I will ever walk down there. Maybe..

I would definately love a hammock, but I will absolutely pay for it! As for asking me nicely, it is Eddie that you should be asking nicely! He knows that area like the back of his hand, and he was without a doubt the best guide you could hope for out there. He knows so much about the area, past and present, that it is pretty scary. It's almost like he has been going out there for 25 years or something.