Original Plan.
Day 1 - HWY 27 TH to Big Branch Shelter (12 miles)
Day 2 - Go to Big Bear Shelter (17 mile)
Day 3 - Ride back to HWY 298 TH and dump to the road back to HWY 27 TH (12 miles trail 15 miles road)
Reality.
The trail from HWY 27 to Iron Creek was great. Some hike-a-bike but nice flow with great downhills. Ten inches of rain in the area earlier that week had the trail wet in places but no issues for riding. The Irons Creek crossing was blown out due to the rain, so we had to decide to either head back west to a hut uphill or try to bypass the creek via dirt/paved roads. We went for heading east to Big Branch Shelter via the bypass route. This took a lot longer than I expected and it was night by the time we got to the hut... The hut was already occupied by 2 hikers and they said we couldn't stay at the hut. Nice!!! So, after looking at the options we headed back east on the trail downhill to find water and a good spot to camp and ended the day at about 27 miles.
The next day we decided to dump out to HWY 298 and head back to the truck and go to other trails. Spent the rest of the weekend at Lake Ouachita camp ground and hit the trails there.
Here is the map we used to plan the trip.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fsm9_039448.pdf I will post pics later...
Kev
