Caney Creek Wilderness Area Trip Report

This weekend, as some of you know, me and some buddies went on a trip to the Caney Creek Wilderness Area (CCWA) and did the Caney Creek Trail looped with the Buckeye Trail. To sum it up, I'd call it an adventure...big time!
We parked our car at the Buckeye Trailhead, and walked down the road to the Caney Creek Trail head. One thing that we quickly realized was that there were a ton of butterflies on the trail, and they were all huddled around turds . Anyway, the trail was great! There were a ton of creek crossings, and we took a lot of pics (waiting for the gallery before I post some). Haha, I even made a fish net out of a stick and a bug net for my head that I wan't using (and yes, we caught fish). Our initial plan was to camp near Katy Falls and finish up on the Buckeye trail Sunday. Well, we went to far and hiked about 2 miles past the junction of Caney Creek trail and Buckeye trail. Sunday, after we back tracked, we found Buckeye trail (I don't know how we missed it), and continued on. We heard falling water soon after we got on the Buckeye, and went to check it out. I don't think we found Katy falls, but we did see a couple of short yet nice falls. After we climed back up to the trail, the hike began to get real hard. Because we had gotten used to having a lot of water on the trail, we didn't have much water in our packs. This was a huge mistake. The water was a long way down in the valley after we got up on the ridge that Buckeye follows. This would be a decision that made this trip very memorable for me. Because of the lack of water that I drank the night before, the lack of water on the Buckeye trail, and my dark colored shirt, I got dehydrated quick. I didn't think I was going to make it. I was so sluggish and lathargic that I didn't think that I was going to finish the hike. Towards the end of the trail, we found a clear puddle, and I proceeded to pump water from my filter stright into my mouth. Needless to say, I'm here and I made it, but it was in question for a while.
I know a couple of people were asking about the trail conditions. Let me just say that its time to do a little grooming on the trail, espically the Buckeye. There were about 5 times that we had to all split off in different directions to find the trail. Once we found it, we'd have a while, and then we'd do the same thing again. This is nothing that a weed-eater couldn't fix, but the trail really needs it. There were briars EVERYWHERE also, and I've got the legs to porve it...haha! Long story short, great memories, but it'll be awhile before the Buckeye gets anymore miles put on it by me.
Let me know if ya'll have any questions!

Great trip report Willky!

I've been in a water situation like before and it's not fun at all. Backpacking always reminds me how many of us take water for granted. Just go grab a cup and turn a knob on the faucet. I don't think most people know what it's like to be truly dehydrated. It becomes impossible to function after a while.

I'm glad you made it.

Now, as for that trail maintenance: Ouachita Hiker needs to stop pretending like he's busy with school, etc...and get his butt out there and fix that trail!

Katy Falls, not my pic but Willky this will give you an idea of what the falls looks like.

Sorry about the condition of the Buckeye. Janet and I worked our butts of this spring clearing it.
Looks like it has gown back. The briars were very bad then and it hadn't been cleared in years.
We had cleared the briars as far as we could reach with our loppers and I guess with all of the rain
it just isn't enough. Well I won't be back on it, to work, untill it clears off.

We always started on the Buckeye and hiked down to the falls. It is a very beautiful place.

Thanks for sharing..

P.S. Jay the next time we are hacking our way thru the briars you are invited to partake of
the fun!!!

I think it would be a cool project to get some folks together and clear it.

And yeah...we were not at katy falls...haha!

Did you see any big trees down? I was told that there was some big pines
down pretty close to the junction of the Caney and Katy trails. Also west
of that point is supposed to be quite a few big trees down. The FS was
cutting thru those.

As far as maintancing the Canney and Katey trails, as far as I know we
are the only ones doing it. So any help would be appreaciated.

Yeah, there were a lot of trees down. Some were huge. There is some work that needs to be done there. How did ya'll get into maintaining that trail?

Well long story short. We had read in some acounts about the sad state of the Buckeye trail.
We went up one weekend, a short drive for us, and saw first hand the approach trail was badly
grown over with briars. I like you hate those things! So we just started to do it. We actually
worked one Sat. and talked to the FS later! They didn't mind, we worked out a work agreement
with them and after about two trips we had it cleared from the start of the buckeye to were
the trail drops of the ridge. By the way the FS won't let anyone touch those big trees but them!
I hadn't made it down into the Caney trail since the spring storms.

By the way the briars may have been bad but I wish you could have seen it before we clear it!
It was bbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaddddddddddddddd!!!!!!!

Just a note: AB will be organizing trail maintenance activities in the near future.

Just another thing on my to-do list right now, but it's something that I think is important.

Speaking of trail maintnace, Janet and I have adopted miles 54.1 to 56.7 from the Talemina Scenic Drive to the Hwy 270 trail head. Some time this fall FOot is going to hire a contractor to do some major work on this section. When
it happens I will make a announcement here on the forums. We could use all of the help we can get to clear this trail. The more volunteers that we have the less money that FOot has to pay. So just keep this in mind.

Wow, I really need to try a lot more trails, these sound great. The only time I have been on the OT was the Winding Stairs part years ago.

Dwight

Ouachita Hiker,

I would be interested in helping on the Buckeye trail as well. Did the forest service make you sign waivers? What is the procedure for getting 'official' approval to join in and work on the trail?

-jc

Jc

I contacted the Mena office by phone and we decided to adopt the basic agreement
that FOoT uses. Since the wife and I are already members of FOoT and we have
waivers on file with them it was easy. We adopted the work report plan that FOoT
uses. I contact them before we do work and submit a work report via email when
we get back home. I would recommend that anyone interested in doing work should
become members of FOoT. If anyone was to go in with us I can indicate that I had a
guest.