It seemed impossible but the weather on Big Bear Mountain was even better today than yesterday, with light southern winds, warm autumn sunshine and an unbeatable view. We had three volunteers again today: myself, Dan Watson and Chuck Dumas. We completed grooming another 650 feet of new trail, and the lead team of machine operators from Progressive Trail Design pushed forward another 1/3 of a mile. We were working in a very tough area of large rock formations, just a 150 feet below the crest of the mountain, that challenged our ability to establish a smooth tread. During lunch break, we climbed up to the crest for a double view of both the southern and northern slopes of Big Bear Mountain. The crest is one long spine of ancient stone laced with veins of white quartz. This spine of rock looks for all the world like an ancient skeletal backbone …Click to read the full article
The Traildogs started their 2012 Fall Dig on Big Bear Mountain today, Nov. 7. We had three seasoned Traildogs today as we loaded tools and equipment onto the Corps of Engineers barge for the trip across Crystal Springs Bay to the base of Big Bear Mountain. It was a challenging day as lake levels are so low we had a very difficult time finding safe place on shore to unload our tools and equipment, but find one we did. Once we had unloaded our equipment. we had to remove a couple of fallen trees that were blocking our path to the mountain. Attached is photo of Dan cutting one of the dead falls that we removed. Once we had unloaded our tools and equipment, it took almost an hour to reach the work site at the summit of the mountain. The views of lake Ouachita from the trail were a …Click to read the full article
New Signs at Pipe Spring We recently installed a new trail directional sign at the pipe spring on USFS 47 where the Charlton and LOViT trails merge, about two miles west of Crystal Springs Road. We have been receiving feedback from users that they are confused on where the Charlton goes and the LOViT goes from this point. Hopefully this will solve those issues. Bear Mountain Construction – Crystal Springs to Brady Mountain We finalized our construction plans for this fall’s dig on the second half of the seventh section of the trail. The Progressive Trail Design team will arriving on site on Monday, October the 29th. They will begin construction, working from where we stopped construction last February, and will move east toward Brady Mountain road about 4.0 miles from our previous stop position. This dig team will be leaving a more finished trail that will require the …Click to read the full article
The simmering summer days seem to be behind us as we move into early fall. We have a number of activities planned in the coming weeks which we hope many of you can help support. Monday, October 1st. at 8:00 am we will meet at the ADA Trailhead to complete the installation of the gravel pavers in and around the six exercise stations. The tools needed will be rakes, flat shovels, and hammers to drive the large spikes. I will bring the tractor with front loader to assist in moving the gravel into place. Once the gravel pavers are in place, all that will remain to complete the installation of the exercise equipment will be to install field stone around the boarder. We will be seeking a source of these stones and will schedule a work day for installation. Our planned fall dig to complete the seventh section on Big …Click to read the full article
Today, a group of nine Traildogs met at the ADA Trailhead just off of Shangri-La Road to install gravel pavers around the new exercise equipment there. We started early, but the weather warmed quickly. The Corps of Engineers delivered the pavers and pea gravel to the work site. The work involved raking and leveling the soil around the equipment and removing the few weeds that have grown up on the pad. The pavers – plastic grids designed to hold the gravel in place – were then laid out and secured to the ground with spikes and washers. Cutting the pavers to fit around the exercise equipment turned out to be a manageable task. Once the pavers were laid into place, they were filled with the pea gravel, and the gravel was smoothed over to provide a professional looking and stable surface around the exercise equipment. Unfortunately, we ran out of …Click to read the full article
From mid to late April, the Traildogs re-routed a bit of the first leg of the trail near the Tompkins Bend trailhead and replaced a bridge that had been washed away and subsequently damaged by a controlled burn. The new bridge was constructed further away from the area that is subject to springtime floods. Traildog Robert put an album on our Facebook site documenting the work, and those photos are also captured here. Robert writes: “That was such a good day. Makes me glad to be alive. Jerry, that was amazing work on measuring and cutting the materials off site. I am very impressed with the planning and the execution of it.” Enjoy the photos and the new bridge!
Four hardy Traildogs today participated in the layout and flagging of the final section of the trail. Starting at where the trail will cross Spillway Rd., we threaded our way through the narrow gap of public land between the lease land of the Spillway Resort, now called “Echo Canyon Resort and Marina“, and a plot of private land to the south. Our team was able to find the property corners of the private land which served as the south boundary of our layout. We flagged the trail about a 100 yards north of the private land and well outside the boundary of the Echo Canyon Resort lease land. Once we passed through this gap we took the trail along a ridge that led to the new road leading up to the Corp of Engineers new administration building located atop the mountain on the west side of the dam. We located …Click to read the full article
It wasn’t cold – it was frigid this morning as twenty volunteers gathered at the Crystal Springs Marina for a day of trail building on Big Bear Mountain. Led by six trail-tested Traildogs, we had six delightful AmeriCorps Volunteers and eight enthusiastic Arkansas Wildlife Federation volunteers depart from the Marina starting at 8:30 this morning. The air temperature at lake side was 23 degrees with a 10-15 mph wind out of the northwest. The Traildogs left early to do a little tree removal and user sign installation on the sixth and seventh sections of the trail. They removed two large trees blocking the eastern end of the sixth section on Little Bear Mt., then installed several user signs on the newly minted seventh section. On the barge ride over to Little Bear Creek, water splashing over the front edge of the barge immediately froze our bow line and coated the …Click to read the full article
Last week, Traildog Mike Curran hiked the area between Brady Mountain Road and Blakely Mountain Dam in which the 8th and final segment of the LOViT will be laid out and built. While some areas have been devastated by tornados, Mike did provide Jerry with a number of photographs from his wanderings. This photo is one from his hike to give us some idea of what we have to look forward to.
We had seven volunteers today to assist in installing two trail benches and a rework of the steep switchback on the south slope. Installing benches on this section is a study in logistics due to its remote location. As we left the marina, we had seven volunteers, two 4-wheelers, four bench frames, sixteen bench slates, six 80 lb bags of quickcrete, a mixing pan, hoe, shovel, digging bar, and a post hole digger, along with four gallons of water, all of which had to hauled up the mountain. We were fortunate today, as we did not run into solid rock when we dug the holes for the benches. The first bench was installed on the south slope of the mountain overlooking the Crystal Springs Marina. The second bench was installed on the north slope overlooking Hotel Island. Following the bench installation, we had lunch on the south slope at the …Click to read the full article