A friend and I hiked in the Ponca Wilderness from the Schermerhorn trail head over to the Centerpoint trail head this weekend. This route includes the Bench, Hemmed-In-Hollow, Old River, and Centerpoint trails. I’ve seen some of this area before on two previous trips but have now filled the gaps.
Temperatures were awesome, with lows around 50 and highs around 60 but the skies were cloudy & wet. Friday was foggy & drizzly but dry overnight. The Saturday forecast had a 50% chance of rain and we lost that flip of the coin. It started raining about 8:00 – just as were were packing-up – and continued all day. We got to the point where we were going to camp that night and decided to just keep going on out instead of dealing with the forecasted thunderstorms.
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- A cabin built by Lloyd Flowers in 1935.
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- A first glimpse into Hemmed-In-Hollow during the descent.
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- Looking out into the Buffalo River valley.
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- Looking out into the Buffalo River valley.
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- A wider view of Hemmed-In-Hollow
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- Looking out from beneath the overhang behind the waterfall where we ate lunch.
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- The waterfall in Hemmed-In-Hollow. There is usually very little water flowing.
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- Sneed’s Creek at the trail crossing.
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- The Buffalo River, a bit upstream from the mouth of Sneed’s Creek.
Other highlights along this route are Granny Henderson’s Cabin and the Goat Trail on Big Bluff. I covered them on this trip.
The Compulsive Hiker 