A new National Park hiking challenge on an abandoned M&NA Railway right-of-way.

GILBERT - If you're not familiar with the "coolest little town in Arkansas, " literally, Gilbert is the only town inside the Buffalo National River Park boundaries. It's very small, but it is far from a ghost town.

The late Forrest King rode in on the M&NA Railway with the Incoming Kingdom Missionary Unit, a group hunting a remote area to wait for the end of time. Dwain interviewed him in this yellow house, shortly before he died. He and his son, Rev. Eldon King, sang an original song together. That's what we always think about when we see this house.

Gilbert is so small that we found minor details of this life (Forest was born on August 16, 1901 and passed away on Thursday, January 13, 2000. Forest was a resident of Gilbert, Arkansas.) on a website that only carries the last 20 obituaries for Gilbert.
He was number 19, and number 20 died December 1996.
If you want to see a celebration, it is when someone in Gilbert has a baby. A real population explosion!

Just look at how blue the Buffalo River was today, and the sky was so blue. As you can see, the old Missouri & North Arkansas Railway ran parallel to the Buffalo River as it left Gilbert for Marshall, Arkansas, and every little town between here and Helena, Arkansas.

Remember, this is January, for Pete's sake. We're bundled up. But we're not complaining. It won't be long before we warm up.

This part of the Gilbert trail is so easy to hike, like most abandoned railroad right-of-ways. They are scenic, too. Just look at the rock wall. Megan's mother would like that rock wall. Park Rangers would have had to slap her hands, or she and Clinton would have disassembled the wall, hauled it to Harrison, Arkansas, and reassembled it in their yard.

We argued if these were elk tracks or bear tracks. We finally decided somebody put horse shoes on an elk. Actually, this trail is limited to hikers and horseback riders. We stepped around horse scat further down the trail. Bicycles and motorized dirt bikes and UTVs are forbidden in the park.

As far as we know, Alice Ivy dogs aren't forbidden. She's checking out debris left on the right-of-way after last month's floodwaters rushed up the banks, 40-50 feet above today's waterline and 200 feet from the channel.

Since no one else was on the trail, we took Alice Ivy off her leash, and she ran free. She's well behaved and didn't stray further than 30 feet from us. She was so happy. As we write this, Alice is asleep, exhausted, on the rug in front of our little fireplace.

This trail is like the Wizard of Oz, where it turns into color. Look at that jungle gym of vines reaching, reaching, reaching, high into the trees. Are we following Dorothy into the witchy woods?

The trail goes on and on. It's just hard to know when to stop. We might have gone all the way to Helena, if we hadn't run into a big mud pit where a wooden railroad trestle used to cross a seasonal streambed.

We're literally coming and going. It's hard to resist a 180-degree panorama shot.

We're getting warmer, especially with that bluff knocking off the brisk wind. Perfect.

Time to celebrate, our coats are off. Dwain stored Megan's hat and mittens in his carry-all, and we're heading back to the trailhead.

Wait, what is that sound across the Buffalo River? It doesn't sound like a woodpecker. It sounds like two pieces of wood scraping together ... a turkey! We had to think about it for a bit before we recognized the sound. That call was loud and followed us almost all the way back to our truck!

Those lines of bright canoes say we're almost back to the truck. Today, we didn't see any floaters. Boy, that water would really be cold if you flipped that canoe.

This is the town's main commerce. The Gilbert General Store was built in 1901 by “Uncle” Billy Mays and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Some folks say it is the one of the last of its kind in the Ozarks Mountains. We came here on the 4th of July one summer and Dwain took the most gorgeous pictures of a fireworks display bursting over the general store.

If you want to play a pickup game of basketball, it looks like a basketball is provided with the hoop.
We got about 2 miles roundtrip on this leisurely hike. After repeating the Tyler Bend lookout hike, we're up to 4 miles in the National Park Service's Iron Ranger Challenge.
Only 96 more miles to go in 2016.
Megan and Dwain

First Day Hike 2016 ... and National Park Service flush toilets are closed.

After driving all the way to Tyler Bend with our legs tightly crossed after drinking too much coffee, we discovered that the Visitors Center was closed, and roads to the campgrounds barricaded. So, we turned around and back-tracked a little bit to the privy (one-seat outhouse) at Grinders Ferry. At least it was clean and worked in a pinch. NOTE: The debris on the bottom, marks the high water line from the Christmas-week flood. If you have not idea where we're at, the Buffalo River is probably 40 feet, vertically, below the outhouse.

We feel better and are bundles for temperatures in the 30s, but the sun made it feel warmer. We're both wearing boots, flannel-lined denim pants, lots of "basewear", coats, gloves and Mad Russian (Ukraine) caps. They're really warm.

After a handful of trail snacks to boost our energy, we're off.  Alice Ivy had a snack bone, too.

Look down the trail, another adventurer. She greeted Megan with a: "Good morning. Happy New Year. Have a good day." Who wouldn't have a good day after that smiley greeting? She set the tone, and we followed through, wishing other hikers a Happy New Year.

Collier Homestead is always the first stop. In a few months, daffodils will be blooming. Megan always wonders, what stories that big oak tree could tell. Ages older than us, it's been sheltering that home since it was built. We bet children used to swing from its branches.

Now isn't that a picture? Megan's checking the smokehouse, wondering if she could hang upside down from the rafters. She knows she used to could. "I would have tried."

Who's having more fun in this picture? For Alice Ivy, this is the greatest day ever. She found lots of new smells to explore; branches to leap over; and curiosities to whine about. She's rather timid, and was glad we didn't encounter any other dogs or anything too strange. 

Although the trail goes much, much further, all the way to the Buffalo River, this was our destination, today. We've hiked the loop many times. We marveled at the blue sky reflected off the murky water. We didn't see a single canoe or kayak. Generally, we see floaters from this vantage point.

As the lyrics go: "You can hear from far and near, A world you've never heard before. And on a clear day, On that clear day, You can see forever, and ever, and ever, And ever more." That pretty much sums it up. We couldn't say it better.

  

We like to call this time of year, the season of long shadows. This picture was taken about noon Friday, January 1, 2016, New Year's Day. Look at the shadows.

 Because trees and shrubs are barren, the trail seemed so short. From this particular place on the trail, we could see the cabin and almost the parking lot up the hill, and behind us the overlook.

That's an eagle! We saw the white against the black. It was all by itself. They just fly differently from the buzzards that were circling a mile higher.

"Love lift us up where we belong, up where the eagles cry..."

Happy New Year and may all your dreams come true.
Megan and Dwain.
And may we win the lottery and take lots more excursions with Alice Ivy and our "reluctant" kitty cats.

How many Memorial Days have we picnicked at Tyler Bend?

How many years have we picnicked at Tyler Bend on Memorial Day?
Five years?
Ten years?
Fifteen years?
Twenty years?
Or more ...?

We didn't have a red-checkered tablecloth this May, so Megan brought Dwain's Grandma's old cotton tablecloth to cover the picnic table at Tyler Bend. The character of this image reflects memories of picnics from our childhoods ... except with lots more kinfolk 50 years ago.

Tyler Bend campground is relatively new, built after the Buffalo National River was established more than 40 years ago. As children, both of us picnicked with our families at Buffalo Point (called Buffalo River State Park at the time). It is still magnificent and a great place to swim, hike, camp or just lazily float on an air mattress or inner tube. The river is a place to forget worries and relax.

Now, Tyler Bend has been our go-to-park for the past 25 years since we started seeing each other in 1989 ... even before we were married. 
The park is within 30 minutes of our driveway and has all the amenities we enjoy.

Hot dogs are on the grill, and we're hiding behind the smoke and getting high on the aroma of blackening hot dogs. We're in a secluded picnic area, hidden by curtains of wild river cane and trees. We've been lucky every year and get the same picnic table and grill. It is close to flush toilets and running water and is a great place to watch people in the pavilion and parking lot. We've hidden in the darkness watching the chaos of weddings, family reunions, and a young boy getting sprayed in a cloud of bug spray.

Fresh-faced and refreshed after our recent picnic, we leave the visitors center and start up the 1-1/3 mile trail to the Collier Homestead. The trail is narrow and most of it is shaded. Bring your Deep Woods Off for nasty little hitchhikers.

 

Megan was surprised to find this tiny snail crawling up a leaf. When she first saw it, the snail was curled up inside its shell. It must have come out to entertain us. It wasn't camera shy.

You have to stop along the way, catch your breath, take in the scenery and pose for a selfie. What the heck is that growing in Dwain's beard ... leftover lemon pie?

Megan found it more than interesting what you see when the camera is set on macro. She was taking a picture of a bumblebee on this very fragrant flower. The bumblebee wasn't the least interested in people. Thank God! We didn't notice the little worm curled up underneath the top flower, until we pulled up the image ... a gift for us.

Look at all the pretty wildflowers we're walking through. The Park Service says we can't dig up wildflowers and plants or move rocks or kill snakes, but we're encouraged to carry out as many ticks as possible.

What a bummer, weak eyes and reading glasses in the wild, especially when the temperature is in the mid-80s and the humidity hits 100 percent.

Here are more of those pretty wildflowers and pair of busy butterflies. We wish we had some of those butterfly-friendly flowers in our yard. The Park Service won't share with neighbors, but deer can browse on plants and butterflies and bees can drink.

Time for a drink of water, empty the rocks and tighten the straps on our sandals, and head up the hill. And we get to walk down the steps and cross that intriguing little bridge.

The safe and easy part of the trail is over. Let's be careful and not act stupid. Those bluffs are steep and slickery. They're not kidding on that sign. There are no rails and nothing but a few cedar trees to keep you from falling ....

Here's an example of views along the trail. Wow, the river's a long ways below. No one sunning on the sandbar or floating past in canoes and kayaks knew we were atop this bluff, back in the scraggly cedars.

Break time at the half-way point on the trail.

Here's where we've been ...

... And here's where we are going, back in the deep, dark forest higher and higher above the river. We heard owls. Will we see a bear?

We're always fascinated at how trees can live where there doesn't appear to be any soil whatsoever and the wind blows constantly.

Time to point our shoes up the hill and continue climbing toward the overlook, then an easy stroll to Collier Homestead.

This is one of the rewards. Anyone who has walked the Collier Homestead Trail knows exactly where we're standing ... including Elvis, whose name is carved into the guardrail between our arms. In all the times we've stopped to admire the view, our names have never been carved in a tree or guardrail or rock. The Park Service frowns on personalizing the Buffalo National River. We don't normally see trash of any kind. Let's wait a little longer and take in the view.

Time for another break as the hot Memorial Day sun bears down on us through the thin canopy of leaves. Dwain's sweating profusely by now; Megan is merely glistening. Nice girls don't sweat. But she did have to ask for Dwain's handkerchief to wipe the humidity off her face.

Finally! We made it to the ol' homestead (Collier Homestead) and evidently company's coming. No surprise. This is a very popular destination that can be easily reached by anyone.  It's even handicapped accessible. You don't necessarily have to take the long road and hike there like we did. Megan is wearing a new t-shirt that she says she gets to wear at least three times this summer -- Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

Front Porch Tales anyone while we eat some Pistachios and drink a little water?

Here is a fish-eye view of Collier Homestead.  The National Park Service preserved the old cabin, smoke house, rock well, and a few other outbuildings so that younger generations could see up close and personal what life might have been like back in the "olden days" for hill folk.  The Old Oak Tree that probably had its share of wooden swings could tell us so many fascinating stories.

And back to the Visitors Center we go.  This time, the hike is mostly downhill.

Dwain wonders where in the world the big ol' water blotch on his t-shirt came from. Megan was just glad she thought to pack more water before we left home.  It was cold, too. So were the mini Snickers bars. Life is good! 

Thank you for the brave ones who made this freedom of life possible.