The Compulsive Hiker

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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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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I hiked a bit of this western end of section 2 as part of the whole Shores Lake/White Rock loop last fall.  Today I started at the Ragtown Road (FR1509) trail head and went west to the spur for the Shores Lake trail near mile 20.1, and back (maps 2 & 3).

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I hiked the OHT from Dockery’s Gap to the east side of Lake Fort Smith today (map 1).  The starting temperature was 25F and there was still a couple inches of snow on the ground so it definitely felt like winter. Continue reading →

I hiked roughly the eastern half of OHT section 1 today – from Dockery’s Gap to the western Shore’s Lake spur (map 2).  The other mile or so east of that point (plus the western end of section 2) was hiked last year as part of the whole Shore’s Lake Loop.  I was alone with no shuttle so I had to hike back too, making it a 15 mile day – the longest I’ve done in quite a while.

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