Climb every mountain...ford every stream...

A wet trail.

Artie crossing the river

Jason crossing the Little Missouri

A nice view from on top



Small but pretty falls

A lot of force for small falls

Jason wet from hiking in the rain

Pretty river

Fog in the early morning from a nice overlook

Jason holding our precious map

And so the song goes from the musical THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Well we did not actually climb the mountains of Austria, but we did climb over the hills of the Ouachita National Forest. Last weekend my son, Jason, and I drove to northwestern Arkansas to do a three day hike in the above mentioned forest. The hike is called Eagle Nest Loop and is 26.8 miles (basically a marathon). It is called by the local hikers the most strenuous hike in Arkansas and a real test of one's hking skills. I can certainly see why.

We started out at about 2:00 Friday and the first part is straight up and down four hills (500 - 800 ft. each). And I mean straight up - no switchbacks. It was especiaslly difficult because of all of the gear we were carrying. After finishing this part we set up camp for the night and then the sky opened and it poured all night. The next morning we started out and it continued to pour for the first two hours. Then miraculously the skies cleared and it was beautiful. This part of the hike was 15 miles along the Little Missouri River which was a bear as all of the rain had caused it to be more full than usual and it was moving fast. We had to cross it a half dozen times and in all we probably crossed 75 creeks, streams or rivers, most of them wet crossings. It was a beautiful hike with lots of running water, a waterfall, variations of pine and deciduous forests, some overlook vistas and lots of quiet conversations with my son. We finally pitched tent again, exhausted from the hike, and lo and behold, the heavens open up again with severe thunderstorms, which we later learned spawned a number of tornados. The next morning we got up to clear skies and hiked the last 8 miles back to our car, going over two more hills.

All in all it was a great time and I learned some new things about Jason. First is that he is incredibly observant. We would be walking and he would see all sorts of thing that I missed. The second thing is that he has a very keen sense of direction and is amazing at being able to follow trails. I have hiked for a lot longer but he is better at keeping on the trail and kept us from getting lost a lot of times. Then of course there were all of the other great things about him that I already knew - he is kind, compassionate, loyal, humble, lover of God. I am truly blessed by this young man.