LOViT Construction

We are back again for this year's dig of the next extension of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail or LOViT. For those of you who have followed our progress, we are in our fourth year of construction on this project that will eventually extend approximately forty miles of new trail along the southern shore of beautiful Lake Ouachita. This new portion of the trail will extend the finished portion to twenty miles or half the planned length. For detailed information and a map of the lake and trail please visit our web site www.lakeouachitavistatrail.net.

I will post some daily and weekly updates on this year's construction progress to keep the trail supporters and patrons informed as the work moves ahead in the coming weeks.

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

May 2, 2008 - Ribbon Cutting

The third leg of the trail is now officially open. On Friday May 2, 2008 we had the official ribbon cutting ceremony opening the third leg to the public and adding another four miles of finished trail to the LOViT.

We were fortunate to have several of the state's key recreation officials attend the ceremony. Richard Davies Executive Director of the Arkansas Parks and Recreation Commission attended and extended his thanks to the US Forest Service for its support as well as the US Corps of Engineers both of which extended their team's support during a time of dramatically reduced budgets to assist in completing this beautiful section of the trail. He spoke of the great efforts of the Traildog volunteers who provided over 1200 volunteer hours in completing this section of the trail.

Richard Stokes US Corp of Engineers Lake Ouachita Manger echoed Davies remarks and stated the coalition that was formed to support this project has now raised $890,000 of grants, matching funds, in kind land and materials and over two thousand hours of volunteer support.

We are all proud of our progress and eagerly look forward to our next dig this winter. The fourth section has been designed and laid out and will connect with the USFS Charlton Trail which will then connect the Crystal Springs Resort and USCOE campground to the LOViT making it the fourth resort and fourth campground to be connected by the trail. This new portion of the trail is now being evaluated for historical and environmental issues and, once approved, we can begin the actual construction this winter.

After the ceremony several of the Traildogs joined in for a hike of the new section to admire their handiwork. It was a great day to be a Traildog.

Jerry

Finishing Touches

In the past month we have been working the finishing touches of the newly completed third leg of the trail.  We are also trying to deal us some vandalism to the Hickory Nut Mountain Vista at the end of the third leg.  It seems a number of people felt it was ok to vandalize the vista by spray painting their names over the beautiful old rock walls.  We were able to raise a reward of $750 from some of the local businesses and from the Friends of Lake Ouachita INc. and got support from the Hot springs and Montgomery County newspapers to run articles on the vandalism and the reward.  Attached is a photo of some of the damage.

Tomorrow at 8:30 we will be meeting at the Mt. Harbor Road Parking area by the white house.  The Corps of Engineers is sending a machine and operator to help us relocate the trailhead sign to the new parking area.  We will also be installing some drainage pipe in the ditch to create a proper drive into the new parking area.  The county has committed to bring the gravel for the lot as soon as its dry enough.  If you would like to join us it should only take a couple of hours to complete. 

Weather permitting we will have a work day Monday Sept 7th starting at 8:30 am.  We plan to work on installing two ATV Barriers with one team and blazing the new leg of the trail with another team.

If we can get four volunteers to help with the blazing it should only take a couple of hours.  We have a short training class on proper blazing before we start.

We will meet at the trail entrance located at the top of Hickory Nut Mountain at the west end of the picnic area.

We will have all the tools and supplies there for both activities.

Se you Monday.

Jerry

Trail Evaluation

Monday March 3, 2008 - Trail Evaluation

Friday February 29 eleven traildogs gathered at the new Joplin Trailhead parking area for a new trail evaluation hike on the recently completed third leg of the Vista Trail. Gone was the sharp weather of the past two months of construction as we started our hike in fifty-degree partly cloudy weather. Our focus on this inaugural hike was to meter the exact distance of the newly constructed third leg of the trail and flag the one mile increments as well as identifying any areas of the trail that may need additional tread work as a result of the heavy rains in area. We were also developing a list of interesting features along the trail route that we will utilize in developing a trail guide for this section of the trail.

We also metered the reroute of the second section of the trail that moves the final portion of the second leg from the exiting Mt. Harbor Trailhead parking area, located adjacent to the Irons Creek Rd, to the new Joplin Trailhead parking Area. This reroute changes the mileage from the Thompkins Bend Trailhead parking to the Joplin parking area from 4.7 miles to 5.3 miles. The trail length from the beginning trailhead parking area at Denby bay to this new Joplin parking area is now 10.0 miles.

The metering of the third indicated it is four miles from the Joplin Trailhead parking to the Hickory Nut Mt. Day Use parking area where the trail ends. You can then hike 1.1 miles on the service road to the Hickory nut Mt. Vista making the third leg of the trail a total of 5.1 miles in length. The total trail length of the Vista trail is now 15.1 miles excluding the Sunset and Eagle Vista spurs of one Half mile and One and half miles respectively. Hikers who chose to hike or bike the entire trail including spurs now have 17.1 miles of trail available.

Our three hour hike was enjoyed by all and at least two short areas of tread were identified as needing some additional finish work.

Attached is a picture of the team.

Jerry

Unsurpassed View

Wednesday Feb 27, 2008 - Unsurpassed View

Today we were able to complete the trail on south slope of the mountain that had been two wet to complete earlier. We had five traildogs working the deep cut that was necessary to complete the final switchback.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the dig for this spring. We have about 250 feet of tread to finish that will bring us to the parking area. We will have added five miles to the Vista trail that now has over sixteen miles of completed trail including spurs.

As we were hiking back to our vehicles in the warm sunshine we enjoyed the unsurpassed view of the blue waters of Lake Ouachita. Far below we could see the large houseboat dock that is being slowly moved from the Shores Resort, in Denby Bay, to the eastern end of the lake, some twenty five miles by water, to the North Shore Resort. This dock is two hundred feet wide and five hundred feet long. Two large houseboats secured on two sides were slowly nudging the dock east at a pace so slow it appeared to be not moving at all.

I have attached a photo of the dock taken from the summit.

We will meet tomorrow at the same parking area next to the picnic area at 9:00 am.

Join for this final day of construction.

Jerry

Wind Blown

Tuesday Feb 26, 2008 – Wind Blown

Today was cold 40 degrees with a 30+ MPH wind howling off the lake and up the north slope of Hickory Nut Mt. Our Wind Blown Traildogs had to shift to the south side of the mountain where we previously skipped a section due to wet conditions. Once on the south slope of the mountain Ole Hickory Nut spread her high ridges to protect the crew knocking the wind completely off the team who were then able to work in shirtsleeves by lunch. Our best estimate is we will complete the work by Friday of this week if we have sufficient help to complete the finish work on the topside trail. Thanks Chuck and John for a job well done on the switchback.

I only heard from two traildogs who could be there for the free lunch Thursday so I am asking again is Thursday or Friday better for those who helped on the trail and would you like a lunch or maybe a breakfast.

Also we are scheduling Wednesday March 5th at 9:00 am as the start time for flagging the next leg of the trail to Crystal Springs. This will be an all day hike being led by tom Ledbetter and Tom Ferguson. Al Traildogs are invited but should be aware this is an arduous endeavor requiring a significant amount of climbing and we are not sure how many miles we will be covering. If you plan to participate please let me know ahead of time.

Tomorrow we will start at 9:00 am and meet at the same parking area on top of the mountain. Join us if you can and help complete this short section of trail.

Come when you can and leave when you want and let me know about the free meal on Thursday or Friday

Jerry

Beautiful Day on the Mountain

Monday February 25, 2008 – Great Day on the Mountain

It was a beautiful day on the top of the mountain today as we tried to complete the finish work on the last half mile of the trail today which we hope to complete by the end of this week. It is difficult to keep your gaze on the trail work with the panoramic view of the lake constantly beckoning your appreciation.

You can view the west side of Hot Springs some twenty miles to the east on a clear day.
At any given time you can see Bald Eagles, buzzards and hawks soaring in the thermos high over the lake and below you as you gaze out from the trail.

Tomorrow we will continue this finish work and will meet at the top of the mountain at the very back of the picnic area. We will start at 9:00 if there is no rain.

Join us and bring a lunch and fluids. Come when you can and leave when you want.

On Thursday we have a generous offer from the good folks at Mt. Harbor Resort of a free lunch for all the traildogs who have helped on this third leg of the trail. If you can come for the lunch please let me know so I can give them a number of how many of will be there.

Jerry