The Eagle Rock Loop

June 13, 2009
by BruizerCruizer

My friend Sara knew that I was an avid hiker and had asked me to take her on her first trip. Being an outdoorsy person, I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity for another trip. When planning out our trip, we decided to hike the Eagle Rock Loop in the Ouchita National Forest. The trail is only a 30 min drive from Glenwood, Arkansas and is about 27 miles long. This, we decided, was the best choice for us because I had hiked this particular trail about a year ago and so I knew what was in store for us.   

We parked our car at the Albert Pike Recreational Area and the first obstacle of the trail was a river crossing right at the trail head. With wet feet, we walked up the winding trail to the top of a mountain sized hill. From our point of view, we could look down on the whole Albert Pike Area and the campers below looked no bigger to us than ants. Ants with Micro-Machine sized RVs (pretty comfortable digs for “camping”).   

Descending the mountain and only a couple miles into our hike, the sun was high and drawing beads of sweat onto every square inch of our bodies. The trail ran next to the Little Missouri River and by this point, a dip in the cool water was more than refreshing. However, as hot as it was outside, the cool water of the river was just as jarring to my senses as a cold shower.   

Now feeling much more comfortable than we were, we followed the white rectangles spray-painted on trees that served as trail markings until they all of a sudden came to a stop. For a frustrating hour, we searched the neighboring trees for any signs of a trail marking. With morale low, we were surprised to spot a couple coming out of the woods. I eagerly got their attention and asked for directions back to where we needed to go. After the husband passionately described the landscape of the upcoming trail a few times, changing the wording of the story each time, I finally squeezed the directions out of him. Sara and I were finally back on track.   

After another couple hours hiking on the trail, the sun was low in the sky and we found a site to set up camp close to a small stream. Unfortunately the area we chose was a low-lying, marshy area that was home to numerous mosquitoes, ticks, and biting gnats. No, I didn't appreciate their company one bit, but after burning a few cedar logs on the fire, there wasn't any problem staying comfortable outside of the tent. With our stomachs growling, I prepared one of my favorite dishes while backpacking, Chicken Alfredo pasta sides along with a bag of Tyson Chicken cooked in water over an open fire. We ate every bit and it sat in our empty stomachs like a brick.   

The next morning came early thanks to the always persistent Sun. After a quick breakfast of oatmeal and raisins, we packed up our portable homestead and started toward the Athens-Big Fork section of the Trail. As we ascended our first mountain named Eagle Rock Vista, Sara and I were quickly zapped of energy in the 92 degree weather; but once we reached the top, we stared at the spectacular views of the Ouchita National Forest and it gave us ample time for recovery before descending the opposite face of the mountain.    

The hike down was only a teaser before the trail started winding towards the summit of Brush Heap Mountain. At the top, we found the only spot so far on our hike where our cell phones received signal and we promptly called a worried mother or two and let them know everything was fine. It was not two minutes  after that I noticed a couple vultures circling above our heads. The sun must have cooked us a bit and I don't doubt our aroma smelled good to any predators that caught a whiff of us. By this point one has to be very tolerant of all persons in their party and all resulting scents.   

Exhausted and thirsty, I knew our next goal was to reach a stream and fill up our water containers. We finally came up on a stream at the bottom of the mountain and promptly threw our backpacks to the ground and found comfortable rocks to sit on in the cool, rushing water. It seemed funny to me how throughout the whole trail we were always in conversation, but down by that creek, the only function we could muster in our exhausted states were blank, zombified stares downstream.    

However, after a short break, I decided to gather some materials from the forest. I felt like Bear Grylls foraging for food in the wild when I caught a crayfish to show Sara how one looks alive, as well as when I found wide leaves in a tree to serve as a wrap for cooking a sweet potato on a fire. Looking back now, I realize how much lack of sleep, water and food effects a persons judgment. While Sara and I sat by the creek, a Carpenter Ant found its way over to my hand. I picked it up, looked at Sara and said  “Don't hate me for what I'm about to do, but I know that if I do this once, I could do it again if I need to.” It never occurred to me that an ant would taste so much like citrus.   

No matter how much we would have loved to finish the entire 27 miles of the trail, I recognized that the trip was turning into more of a marathon than a leisurely hike. So to keep the hike on the fun side of the fence, we decided to set up camp for the night and depart for our car in the morning which was an easy 6 mile hike on an unpaved county road. Again, we went to bed full of open-fire chicken alfredo pasta, and only after a few hours of sleep, we were rudely awakened by a late spring T-storm. The frequency of lightning that night resembled a strobe light and in a 45 minute period, rain had accumulated to more than an inch; but luckily my little tent held up better than we both expected.    

Once woken up and satisfied by a breakfast of more oatmeal and a slice of fried SPAM, Sara and I started our hike towards our car on county road 106. It was a much easier walk than the trail was and after no time at all it seemed, we were 2 miles from our car and at a good point to stop and eat a bit of lunch. Just as we sat down to eat, a lonely hiker came out of the woods. He stopped by us and we exchanged stories of our hiking adventures from the weekend. Sara and myself were glad to accept a ride back to our car when he offered. We were finally on our way back to civilization.   

After every hiking trip, I come to a conclusion that only a getaway of sufficient difficulty helps me realize. I find that the ability to simply turn on a faucet and receive clean water, or sleep the night on a mattress rather than the Forrest floor and suffer what I call rocks to the shoulder-blade syndrome, is a much welcomed luxury. I believe that if a person were to survive on their own in the wild for a short time, he or she would truly come to appreciate all the technologies that keep us all comfortable and make a better effort to remember this in the future.

Tags: hiking, Backpacking