Ponca Wilderness – Centerpoint and Goat Trails

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Michael R

I went on a little day hike with a couple other members of the Northwest Arkansas Hiking Group.  We started at the Centerpoint trail head a couple miles north of Ponca, descended to the spur that leads out to Big Bluff and the Goat Trail, then back to the main trail and further down to Granny Henderson’s cabin.  Along the way, we lost about 1200′ of elevation, making for an invigorating hike out.

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Elk River Trail – Elk City Kansas

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Michael R

My third trip on the Elk River Trail (along Elk City Lake and the Elk River near Independence KS) but my first time hiking the whole 15-mile length.  Previously, I had done only the eastern 9.5 mile section.  The weather was sunny and cloudless with overnight lows of 30 and 21.

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Peakbagging Lake Wedington

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Michael R

The Lake Wedington Trail west of Fayetteville has been on my to-do list for a while and now it’s done.  Described in detail in Tim Ernst’s book, the trail runs about 7 miles north into the 16000-acre Wedington Wildlife Management Area from a large parking area on the north side of AR 16 and ends on the north peak of Twin Mountains.

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Ozark Highlands Trail – FR1201 to Wollum Ford, and the end

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Michael R

I planned it as a 3 day trip but I managed it in 2 – hiking from the FR 1201 trail head to the Buffalo River at the Wollum Ford (maps 15 & 16) yesterday and hiking back today – a 26.5 mile round trip.  My arrival at the Buffalo also marked the completion of my first section-hike of the 165-mile Ozark Highlands Trail.  I hiked 5 of the 8 sections this season (since fall 2013) and 6 in the last calendar year.  4 sections were done solo.

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Ozark Highlands Trail – Ben Hur to FR 1201

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Michael R

The target this weekend was the Ozark Highlands Trail from Ben Hur trail head to the FR1201 (aka Stack Rock) trail head – roughly the eastern half of section 7 and western third of section 8 (maps 13-15).  The trail skirts the southern and part of the eastern boundary of the Richland Creek Wilderness.  This area features great scenery and very steep terrain in the Falling Water Creek and Richland Creek watersheds.

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Ozark Highlands Trail – Fairview to Ben Hur

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Michael R

I hiked the western half of Ozark Highlands Trail section 7 – from the Fairview campground to the Ben Hur trail head and back (maps 12 & 13) on a two-day solo trip.

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Blog news

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Michael R

I changed the name of my blog a couple months ago to The Compulsive Hiker and today I’ve taken the next step toward coolness and registered my own domain name: CompulsiveHiker.com.  MichaelR42.wordpress.com should continue to work for the blog and RSS feed but the new one is the primary/default.

I started reorganizing my Trail Info pages a couple months ago and got sidetracked by actually doing stuff but intend to get back to that project soon.  The goal is to provide more current and timely info than what you might get from a forest/park service web site for example.  I will probably get around to expanding the Gear pages too.

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Eagle Rock Loop

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Michael R

Weather, water levels, and schedule conflicts have deterred two previous attempts but the stars aligned this year and I (with a friend) have now done the Eagle Rock Loop – a 27 mile loop consisting of parts of the Little Missouri, Viles Branch, and Athens-Big Fork trails. Rugged Ouachita topography, scenic vistas, geological wonders, and water – lots of it; 9 crossings of the Little Missouri River, 12 crossings of Viles Branch, and more smaller streams than we could count.  There is even a hot spring (okay, it’s merely warm).

It’s considered by many to be the most challenging hike in Arkansas and I can now agree.  The only hikes I’ve done that were tougher than the Athens-Big Fork section of this loop were in the Colorado Rockies.

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Ozark Highlands Trail – Ragtown Road to Fane Creek

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Michael R

Ragtown Road to Fane Creek (map 3) is basically the middle of OHT section 2, from mile 25.8 to 31.6, making it an 11.6-mile round trip for me today.  The most notable features were the old railroad bed and an abundance of water due to a heavy rain the previous day.

I’d been on this section a month ago when I helped clear brush from about mile 28 to 29.5 but my head was down the whole time so it was nice to be able to see “the big picture” today.

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Ozark Highlands Trail – Fane Creek to Cherry Bend

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Michael R

Today’s hike was the east end of section 2.  I started at the Cherry Bend trail head and headed west to Fane Creek and then back.  It was about 25 degrees when I started but by 10:00 AM I had stripped-off the last bit of fleece – the temperature peaked around 65.

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