Tales from the Trail #4 - June 2009

Tales from the Trail

By Kris McMillen, Director of Maintenance for FoOT

 HIKERS!!!

This is what you shout when you are working on the trail swinging that Pulaski or bucking a fallen tree, and you see hikers approaching.  Learned this on trail construction crews in Colorado.

Recently a small group of FoOT members were in Section 7 of the Ouachita Trail on a project up near Moonshine Shelter.  Just wanted to pass along that on this beautiful day on the Ouachita Trail in one morning we encountered:

• A lady backpacker from St. Louis headed up to Ouachita Pinnacle. 
• A couple came down from Michigan to hike the OT. 
• Three section hikers from northeast Oklahoma.

 We managed to get one promise of a trail adoption from these encounters.  We used to hardly see anyone on the Ouachita Trail.  No longer true!

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The “Old Timey” wooden yellow and brown mile markers.  Someone asked from whence they came inspiring me to ask Old Timer, Tom Ferguson, retired USFS:

” I do not know for sure but I think in the mid 1970's.  In 1976, I attended the Arkansas Trails Council Conference.  Art Cowley with the Ouachita NF presented a slide show about the Ouachita Trail.  I would think that the process of putting those up was around that time.   In the office there is a plan for the trail that I think had the markers.  The plan was done in early 1970's.  From the number of these markers that we found, I do not think that they were put up as planned.  I can recall needing more of them in 1981 when I worked at Lake Sylvia but no one really knew where they were. “

(The Forest Service discovered an old box of these old fashioned markers in the basement of the Supervisor’s Office in Hot Springs and gave them to us.  So we have been installing them with the new tree-hugger Mile Markers wherever we can.)

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Stolen!

Last year or sometime last spring we went up and installed a new sign at the spur trail to Flatside Pinnacle.  It was promptly taken by vandals and burned in a campfire.

About a month ago our new signmaker, Lenny Melancon, made us a new sign point to Flatside Pinnacle and the OT at the intersection.  We installed it digging down 3 feet and then putting sharp rocks against the wood to hold it tight.  Now the whole thing is gone again.  Very sad.  We will not be replacing that sign.

More GOOD sign news:  Bert Turner tells me that most of the old rotten signs on the eastern end of the trail have been replaced.  Thanks to Pinnacle Mountain State Park for having the new signs made up.  I am not real clear yet on who is installing them, but we are very grateful to whoever it is.

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Website Transition

Hey everyone!! Take a look at the FoOT website www.friendsot.org and see some changes.  We have a new webmaster, John Carroll.  Many, many thanks to past webmaster, Mike Sims for dedicated service.  Check it out!

A PDF version of this newsletter is available.