As much as I love to hike the trails in the Ouachitas and Ozarks, sometimes they get a little rough. Due to a combination of brushy undergrowth, dead fall due to high winds and ice storms, nasty briars, relatively few hikers and minimal trail maintenance budget for the Forest Service, each year there are sections that are virtually reclaimed by the forest and rendered nearly impassable. I don't know how long or how well I can keep this up, but this page is to post recent reports on the condition of the trails. Under the best circumstances, maybe this can be a place to help volunteers identify trails in need of maintenance. Worst case, maybe it will help you decide which trail to avoid for now.

If you want to supply a report, email me at Charlie@OuachitaMaps.com, give the name of the trail, the date you were there and as much specific information that you can about the condition (what section of the trail, type of obstuction, no blazes, how passable, etc.). If it was in great condition, that is valuable information, too. I am not planning to spend much time editing or tying to reconcile discrepencies in the reports. They are what they are. Some folks have a higher tolerance for sketchy trails than others (to quote the DismalHiker, "one person’s “not bad” is another person’s “overgrown”, “impassable, “dangerous”, etc.) and some report may be more recent than others. As new reports come out older ones will be dropped. As a further resource, here is a link to FoOT's trail condition page for the Ouachita Trail. If you know any more trail pages like this, please let me know and I'll link to the site.

11/17/08 From CW: We hiked Beech Creek the weekend of Nov 15, 2008 and it is not for the faint of heart. We made a clockwise loop from WP-02 to WP-08, WP-09, WP-10, WP-11 and back to WP-02. From WP-2 and hiked to within 0.1 miles of WP-13, where we saw a white blaze on an old forest road heading south east. Most of the trail up to this point was okay, though there were some minor obstacles (briars and limbs) between WP-02 and WP-14. We followed the blazed forest road (this is not the Beech Creek spur) to the small drainage that parallels FR 6033. There is a big clearing at the creek suitable for a large group to camp. From there we followed a narrow double track down the west side of the drainage to Beech Creek, at which time we were on FR 6033. After lunch at the Cascades we crossed Beech Creek WP-08. There is still no foot path in this section along the creek but it is well blazed and it is easy to find the crossing. There was no sign of the bridge that the Scouts put in last April, but the stones were easy to cross. We headed west and began our assent of Walnut Mt on the way to WP-09. This section of trail is basically gone and is what I call a bushwhack with blazes. The trail is rocky, rough, steep, overgrown and the foot path is often not evident. Even when hiking between two evident blazes, the path may be missing. Two pieces of good news. 1) Minimal briars in this section. 2) There are regular blazes and they can be followed MOST of the time given enough patience. However, there are section where we couldn’t connect the dots and only knew we missed them then we stumbled on a blaze coming from a different direction. On top, the trail follows the ridge and is pretty easy to follow. As it approaches the point of initial decent off the ridge, the trail is following an old but evident track. There are blazes that point to the decent route, but they are not as evident as the track. If you don’t see blazes after a few hundred feet, think about backtracking to the last one you saw and look for the turn off. The descent trail was just like the way up; rough , rocky, steep, hard to find blazes... To give you an idea of the overall difficulty, it took us 3 hours to go the 4 miles from the cascades to WP-09, something that should have taken half that time. Crossing Beech Creek the next day, the trail was easier than the Walnut Mt section, but it still had some bad areas. The blazes were often hard to find and the path was hard to locate. The worst part of the trail was the last switch back approaching WP-11 from WP-10. It is an over grown briar patch. VERY nasty. Rather than checking out the upper Blue Bouncer, we blew it off and took the forest roads back to the car.

10/14/08 From a Hiker: I have not been to Beech Creek since last winter, but usually any trails down there other than the main Beech Creek trail are usually overgrown.  And the Blue Bouncer south of the creek, well, forget about it. 

NB from CW: In the March of 2008, BSA Troop 828 and BSA Venturing Crew 2817 (both from Stillwater) put in 3 days of trail maininence. If I got all the facts straight, the east half of the upper Blue Bouncer has been cleared and blazed. They ran out of time and couldn’t finish the west side so it may not be your best choice until it gets more work.(ANY NEW INFO??) The lower Blue Bouncer and Beech Creek Spur was cleared and re-blazed as well as the section of the Beech Creek Trail that runs from its junction with the Blue Bouncer (west end) to Beech Creek. They cleared and reblazed the rest of the Beech Creek Trail back to the Turkey Snout parking lot and cleared and reblazed the entire Turkey Snout Trail. And did I mention new signage? The old rotted (and often missing) signs have been replaced by metal ones. They did not have a chance to get to either the Walnut Mt Loop or the west section of the Beech Creek Trail that climbs Walnut Mt.

The sections of the loop that were in the worse shape were the decent into Deadmans Gap and the approach up to Old Military Rd Vista.  These two sections were almost impassable, Deadmans Gap being the better of the two.  The hunters on ATVs were encountered just before Lillard Creek and just before FR 6555.  Tracks from dirt bikes and 4-wheelers were seen anywhere the terrain permitted, however.

I hope this helps.  The success of a hike and the safely of the participants depends on a well-blazed and managed trail.  Although beautiful and alluring, the woods can be a dangerous place with the best of trails.  In its' current condition, I feel that portions of this loop are dangerous and should be closed or properly maintained.

10/26/08 From OuachitaHiker:: Janet, Jay Hunt (from Mt. Ida AR) and I worked on the Buckeye Trail yesterday (Sat).  I will have to say that the trail on the ridge is CLEAR.  We cut out three blow downs and cut briar's back.  The condition wasn't as bad as I had expected.  We went up there last spring and did a lot of work and it made a difference this year.  BUT we continued on down the trail all the way to the Caney Trail.  The trail is hard to follow in places but is doable.  We cut back were we could but it is still pretty bushy.  If a hiker takes it slow he can follow the trail down to the falls or the Caney trail without any problems.  As I say take it SLOW and you will be fine.  This part of the trail needs more work but I don't know when we will get back to it.  We worked hard for at least eight hours.  From the time we started at 7:30 in the morning it took at least 9 hrs to get to the falls!  Of note there is one good blow down across the Buckeye trail a little way above the falls that I didn't cut out.  We were just to tired at that point and we were just trying to get out.

Now the Caney Creek trail.  It is just fine in places.  It is beginning to get bushy.  Briar's isn't as much of a problem as is just undergrowth expanding to the trail.  Now the blow downs ARE a problem  There three to four major blown downs that required a hiker to get of the trail.  These are doable.  There was several large tree tops across the trail.  Also several large tree trunks that were head to shoulder height  that you could go under.  I would say that the Caney is passable. 

6/17/2010 From OuachitaHiker: As of today 6/17/10 all of the Eagle Rock Loop is CLOSED due to the recent flash flood that took
20 souls at the Albert Pike Recreation Area.  I did talk to Liz Gross, Mt. Ida vol. coordinator.  And she did tell me that she hopes to soon open the Athens Big Fork trail down to the Little Mo Falls trail head to hikers.  They are doing damage assessments now and as soon as possible these will be the trails that will be possibly open.  I told her that in two weeks I will call of a update and I will relay it on to you.  She did tell me that along the Little Mo from aprox the Little Mo trail head south was trees down and huge debris
that would have to be removed.  As I find out info I will pass it on.

Tom Trigg

Note from Charlie: Though nearby, the Buckeye-Caney trails are open. BTW Tom adopted those trails a few years ago and is responsible for there current excellent condition.

The details:
Trail Distance: 26.5 miles
Elevation Gain: approx. 800 ft climbs up six mountains
Water Crossings: multiple creek (rock hopping) crossings and at least
6 wet (take the boots off) crossings.
Pack Weight: 43 pounds

Day 1: I drove to Texarkana on Friday night and then left early Sat. and drove to Albert Pike RA. I was on the trail by 9:30 am heading in a clockwise direction w/ outside temps in the low 40s with plans to hike 9 miles each day, which I estimated would take approximately 5 hours w/ lunch and water crossings. The trails are well marked and wind up and down rock bluffs and around flowing creeks. I made my first wet river crossing at 3.5 miles. The water was painfully cold (but only for a few minutes) and ice sickles were hanging from the rocks. My next wet crossing came at 5 miles and it included a double crossing w/ a sandbar island in between. The first section went fine and as I approached the section stretch I cursed myself by taking a picture of the ice dangling from the rocks and thinking "This is the shot I took right before I fell in." My confidence was high from the earlier crossings so I subconsciously was moving faster to avoid spending too much time in the freezing water, another mistake was keeping my hands in the straps of my trekking poles, which restricted my hand movement during the fall. About half way across I slipped / fell right knee forward, I was falling and there was no recovering. I went in from the neck down and to the right and barely caught myself with my right hand and later my left. I managed to push myself up and regain my footing. First thoughts were to build a fire. I found a camp area along the bank and pulled out dry cloths, stripped down, and then noticed I had cut my right knee and scraped my forearm. Dry cloths, bandaged cuts, 800mg motrin, a little lunch, and I was back on the trail - not looking forward to the next wet crossing, which I knew was a few miles away. I passed some semi-fresh black bear dung on the trail so I'm doubly cautious at this point. Next river crossing I focused on the details. Time in the water was of no concern. I took my hands out of the trekking poles straps and used them much like a cane. Each step was calculated with poles planted (probably over kill, but at this point necessary) and the crossing was a piece of cake. I suppose being solo added to my level of caution - plus I had only seen one day hiker at this point. I watched my GPS and started looking for a camp site once I reached 9 miles and found one between two rock hopping creeks so that I could treat water for the following day. Hung my wet cloths (which I had in my collapsable bucket dangling from the backpack), set up the tent, got a bucket of water and put in the tablets, built a fire ring from nearby rocks, and gathered firewood. A hiker came by who was meeting three friends at the Eagle Rock lookout a few miles up the trail. He warned me of the upcoming six mountain climb. He was hiking from the opposite direction of his group to avoid the climbs and was going to join them coming back the way he had came. He said they hiked the loop a few years earlier and that stretch of mountains was the worse trail he had ever been on. i think his words were "There's a lot of nice trails in Arkansas and that isn't one of them." The fire was nice and I attempted to dry my cloths - it was interesting to see the steam pouring out of my ut sweatshirt (btw - wet cotton does not dry in cold weather). I bedded down to what turned out to be 11 hours of peaceful sleep.

Day 2: I woke up to freezing temps w/ my thermometer reading 22.5 degrees. Don't know if that was accurate, but I do know there was frost on my sleeping bag, tent, pack, and my water bottle and camelback tube were frozen. One hot cut of coffee and a granola bar later and camp was broken down and I was back on the trail by 9:10 am. There were more rock hopping crossings, which I approached with caution, but later moved across pretty quickly (you get used to it, because there are many). The Arkansas group joined with the hiker from the day before stopped and visited for a few minutes (they were going ccw). They warned me again of the uphill pulls that were ahead of me. It wasn't long before I got a taste of what they had been talking about. Although not terribly long in distance, the climbs were, for the most part, absent of switchbacks, which justifies the difficulty. It reminded me of Asinine Hill on the North Kaibab Trail and long stretches of trail hiking Mt. Elbert in Colorado. I typically get in a slow marching type zone when faced with these "pulls" mentally counting a cadence and taking longer strides. Up and down the first one I met three guys from Mississippi - one doctoring blisters with mole skin. Anyone hiking with me knows that I'm too friendly with mole skin. I'm elated to report that my new Keen hiking boots (larger toe box design) have all but solved that problem. Absolutely no blisters for the first two days of backpacking and only two hot spots on the third day. I'm ordering another pair of the same model soon. I passed two men while hiking up the third or fourth mountain (I wasn't counting) and once I reached 18 miles on the GPS I began looking for a place to camp. I noticed on my map that Straight Creek was one of the last water sources before climbing the last mountain so that was the logical place to camp, which I arrived at 2:45 pm. I found a nice fire ring with some left over firewood from earlier campers. Did the camp routine; tent, treated water for the next day, gathered firewood, and hung the still wet sweatshirt. Also, most of my gear was slightly damp from having frost on it that morning and I was thinking I would just have to dry it out later. The Mississippi boys passed by about 5 pm with intentions of getting over the last mountain before dark. A couple from Louisiana stopped by and asked how far it was to Albert Pike. Going primarily by my GPS odometer I told them approx. 9 miles (figuring that I had already traveled over 18 miles) and I let them have a look at my map. This calculation proved to be inaccurate. Another nice campfire and lasagna w/ meat sauce, plus some catching up on my magazine reading (PhotoShop User, Backpacker, and PC Photography) and I was ready to log in 10 hours of solid sleep.

Day 3: AM temps were 38 degrees at camp and I later recorded 33 at the top the next mountain. The good news was there was no frost at camp and all my gear was now dry. Looking at the map somehow the distance wasn't adding up, but I still wanted to trust my GPS odometer - thinking I was 9 miles from the Albert Pike trailhead. Given the uncertainty, I decided to forgo my coffee and hit the trail early. I left camp at 7:25 am and made the last major "pull" of the trail. I met the Mississippi group at the Little Missouri River trailhead, which I now know is over 10 miles from Albert Pike. I stepped up my pace, but still enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the Little Missouri River. The trail winds along a mountain side and follows the river with several crossings. An hour or so later I arrived at the Little Mo Waterfall picnic area and met the group from Arkansas. They confirmed my concerns of the longer distance to Albert Pike. Nice bunch of guys - even though they gave me the "down longhorn" hand gesture (my ut sweatshirt was dry). We discussed the trail and the other groups we had met. Both the LA couple and Mississippi bunch had 3+ mile further to go than I did so i knew it would be a long day for all of us. They connected me with ArkansasBackcountry.com where I later read their trip report and found out the LA couple got lost and ended up hiking down a forest road where they rescued them and transported them back to their car. I pretty much humped it the last 3 miles and even gave up on taking my boots off on the last major wet crossing. I just sloshed through the river and went about my business. I reached the trailhead at 1:30 pm and gave out a Texas Battle Cry.

Summary: Challenging. I rate it right up there with the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim (four day 26 miles w/ park water sources and established campsites). Mainly because of being solo, which brought on its own challenges, but also because of the distance per day, treating water, river crossings, and being in a National Forest and not a National Park. Would I do it again - sure! I'd like to do it in four days during the Fall and enjoy the scenery more and maybe bring in my camera gear. June tells me no more solo hikes, but, of course, I'm already looking for another adventure.

10/16/09 From Hiker Ben B: Ben hiked the Hurricane Wilderness Section. Referring to the high water by-pass he says "The high trail had a ton of down trees... Lots of detours and climbing".

10/14/08 From a Hiker: Two weekends ago ( Oct. 3-5 )  we backpacked in the Ponca Wilderness area near Ponca Arkansas.  We started from the Centerpoint Trailhead and went to Hemmed-in Hollow and the Falls, Big Bluff via the goat trail, Granny’s Cabin, Sneeds Creek, Rocky Bottom, etc. The trails were in really good shape overall however there were a few very large blow-downs in the way that folks had been going around which is not necessarily a good thing.  Most of the junk in the way we could climb over or go under.  In a couple of weeks we plan to go back to the same area and head to Steel Creek, Kyles Landing, and the Indian Creek area.

Weatherproof Topographic Maps at OuachitaMaps.com - Hiking Trails of the Ouachitas and Ozarks
Featured Topographic Maps in Oklahoma and Arkansas
Ouachita Trail Loops: Billy Creek Trail - Boardstand Trail - Holson Valley Loop - Horse Thief Springs Trail - Old Military Road Trail - Talimena-Bohannon Loop
Other Ouachita Hikes: Beech Creek Trails - Buckeye Trail - Caney Creek Area - Caney Creek Trail - Eagle Rock Loop
Selected Ozark Hikes: Butterfield Trail (Devils Den) - White Rock-Shores Lake Loop

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Contact: Charlie@OuachitaMaps.com