Tales from the Trail

Tales from the Trail
By Kris McMillen, Director of Maintenance for FoOT

FoOT District Captains Program:
Ned Skoog is our newest District Captain—well he’s not real new; just sort of new.  Ned manages Sections 8 and part of 9 to the Forest Boundary.  This is all located on the Jessieville/Winona Ranger District of the Ouachita National Forest.  Ned is employed at Bodycote K-Tech as an engineer and production manager.  He is a president of Hot Springs Friends of the Park which currently focuses on expanding greenway trails and/or bike lanes in the HS area.  Ned and wife, Kay, live in Hot Springs, AR.  I asked Ned to tell me

Tales from the Trail
By Kris McMillen, Director of Maintenance for FoOT

FoOT District Captains Program:
Ed Hawkins is our outstanding District Captain for Sections 3 and 4, Mile 51.5 to 94.5 from Queen Wilhelmina State Park to Big Brushy Campground.  This is all located on the Mena/Oden Ranger District of the Ouachita National Forest.  Ed is also a long-time member of the FoOT Board.  He is a former World Champion Mountain Bicycle Racer, member of the Ouachita Cycling Club and instrumental in the leadership of the nationally known annual Ouachita Challenge Mountain Bicycle event on the Ouachita and Womble Trails.  Ed and wife, Sue, live in Waldron, AR.  I  have even seen him hiking from time to time.

Tales from the Trail
By Kris McMillen, Director of Maintenance for FoOT


FoOT District Captains Program:

Bill Sears--District Captain for Sections 1 and 2 from Mile 1 at Talimena State Park to 51.6 at Queen Wilhelmina State Park.  He is 48 years old and owns a greenhouse business.  Bill has been active in the Boy Scouts for many years.  He lives in Talihina, OK with wife, Rhonda.  We are also proud that he is a card-carrying (or in this photo a lumber-carrying) member of the Dreaded FoOT Patrol and USFS chainsaw certified.  He was invaluable in the recent Western End Extravaganza Trail Maintenance Outing.  Many thanks to Bill for all his hard work before, during, after WEE and all the rest of the time, too.


Featured Trail:

Ouachita Trail in Section 5--FR 149 to Muddy Creek—Mile 105.5 to 118.7        - This section of the Ouachita Trail is adopted by Arkadelphia Hikers Club, Leona Essman, Hot Springs Bicycle Club, Todd Henne, Nathan VanDiver, John Joswick-Chuck Dumas-Robert Cavanaugh Team, and Brad Curtis.  We recently hiked from FR 149 with a bit of a muddy start.  There’s

Tales from the Trail

By Kris McMillen, Director of Maintenance for FoOT

HIKERS!!!  Part 2

If you are reading your Tales from the Trail, you will recall last time we talked about seeing more and more hikers on the OT.  Bill Sears, District Captain for Sections 1 and 2 in Oklahoma was out in late May with wife, Rhonda, doing some trail evaluations on Mile 23.7 to 30.5 - Winding Stair Trailhead to Hwy 259/Big Cedar Creek.  They report meeting up with some 50 or so hikers along this section.  Some were Boy Scout troops.  One group was preparing for Philmont Boy Scout Reservation.

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: