Womble Trail

The Womble Trail is generally described as being 37.8 miles but my GPS track puts it at about 36.15.  USFS Info.  An IMBA “Epic” trail.  Connects to Ouachita Trail at about mile 117.2.  The trail has the same type of USFS mile markers as the Ouachita Trail (short rebar post with a cap) and those are the miles referenced below and shown on the maps rather than GPS miles.  Dec ’15 trip – part 1, and part 2.  Note that all coordinates below are using the WGS84 datum.  Maps are available below.

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The 5 trail heads listed north/east to south/west:

• Road D75A (34.6996, -93.5593) [mile 3.5]  This is southwest of the junction with the Ouachita Trail at about mile 117.2, and about 0.1 miles south of the junction with the Round Top Trail.  Turn west off AR-27 north of Story onto Emery Lane (FR 231).  Follow it in a ways as the road turns south, then look for road D75A on the right.  The trail runs right through the parking area at the end of D75A.
• AR-88 (34.6603, -93.5697)  [mile 7.9]  Parking loop south of the highway.  A spur from the west side of the parking area goes a couple hundred yards southwest to the trail.
• AR-27 (34.6234, -93.5542)  [mile 13.0]  First road south of the bridge on west side, drive back in a ways. Trail head is on left (south) side.  There is a big trashy camp site/party spot on the right side well before the trail head – keep going.  The north-bound trail runs along this road out to AR-27, then north across the new bridge over the Ouachita River.  The area where the trail enters/exits the woods on the north side has been torn-up a bit during construction of the new bridge but is well-marked and pretty visible.
• AR-298 (34.6148, -93.6766)  [mile 23.9]  NE corner of intersection with FR61. Trail runs across the intersection from the south side of FR61 to the west side of AR-298.
• North Fork Lake (34.5464, -93.7993) [mile 37.8]  Western end of the trail.

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Maps

The maps are in a 5-page PDF and were made from GPS data collected in Dec ’15.  These will be 1:24000 scale on 11×17 paper.  I get stuff like this printed at The UPS Store but I think some of the big-box office supply outlets can do it too.  Every time I update the PDF it will have a different name so if you want to bookmark or share it, it’s best to link to this page – not the PDF.

Mar 10 2023 update: A few more roads have been added and most roads are now labeled.  Minor style tweaks.

Jan 17 2018 update (version 3):  Non-Forest Service property now has a semi-transparent red overlay to help identify tracts that might be private.  Added US and state highways.  The map styles have been updated.  Thin orange lines show how each map overlaps the others.  Trail head coordinates are shown on each page.

Aug 12 ’16 update (version 2):  A big update:

• I’ve added a bit of the Ouachita Trail as a secondary track, going as far east as the AR-27 trail head and John Archer shelter.  There’s a 5th page now and the track placement has been adjusted so you might have trouble mixing pages from version 1 and version 2 of the set.
• I’ve added spurs to the Rocky Shoals, Fulton Branch, and River Bluff float camps.  This data was not collected by me and should not be considered reliable.  I’ve also added markers for the campgrounds that I guesstimated from satellite photos.  I’ll visit that area again and get current data.
• The map symbols have been tweaked to improve readability.