Buffalo River Backpacking Trip
October 22, 2022—October 26, 2022
“Be strong and of a good courage;
be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed: for the
Lord thy God is with thee
whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua
1:9)
Day
1: I
can do this after all
We
got the girls up around the normal time of 6:45 and assembled for breakfast
wearing our hiking costumes—blue shirts and gray shorts with leggings
underneath. Our hair was tied back, and we were wearing bandanas in place of
our usual coverings. After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, we made final
trips to the restroom (Goodbye, underappreciated place of reprieve) and stuffed
little bags with toilet paper. Miss Hannah was here by then, and had already
started loading our backpacks into the Ranch vehicle, known affectionately as
the Ex.
We
left later than intended, of course. Who were we fooling when we said we’d be
gone by 7:30? And started for Pruitt, the site where we planned to start our
hike on the Buffalo River Trail. This trail has several sections stretching for
36 miles and is rated as challenging. Or, as Google says, moderate to
strenuous. We only planned to hike 16 miles of it. The journey takes you near,
as you probably guess from the name, the Buffalo River. This river is free-flowing, among the longest
rivers that remain undammed west of the Mississippi. In 1972, the Buffalo was
also named the nation’s first National River by Congress.
And
so 10:30 found us piling out of the Ex, making last bathroom stops, stretching
out our limbs, and hoisting our backpacks onto our shoulders. Each pack weighed
in somewhere around 33 to 36 pounds. Miss Hannah did final backpack checks,
making sure everyone was fitted correctly, and we adjusted our hiking poles to
the correct lengths. Then we were off, making our way silently, except for the
clacking of our poles, into the Arkansas wilderness.
Our
theme for the trip was courage. “Courage is the ability to climb the highest
mountain even when you are afraid, and it is also the ability to rise and keep
going on the hardest of days. We all can have courage, but it does not always
look the same.” (MHN) We had also chosen a group goal (Be respectful to one
another) and a personal goal to work on during the hike. My personal goals were
to be self-compassionate and to be OK with not knowing anything. Have you ever
tried to be the person in charge with no knowledge of what you’re doing? It was
a little hard for this teacher who was used to having time to study and
understand all the material before doing the lesson!
One
of the greatest fears among the girls was the fear of bears, so we kept our
eyes open as we hiked. The leaves had begun to change color and it was perfect
weather. The going was easy for the first five minutes or so. Then we started
up the first incline. I have harbored a distaste for the hill here at the ranch
that one must climb to go from the barn to the house. This hill was just as bad
(or maybe worse?) and we were carrying these ungainly packs on our backs. We
made it to the top and paused for a breather, then continued on. The trail at
spots took us on a ledge where we could look down a steep grade to the river
below. Everyone had to stay focused and make use of the trekking poles!
I
can’t tell you how many breaks we took that morning. There were quite a few.
Many of them were because fear was in control, so emotions had to be worked
through. I certainly can’t tell you the time, because I did not have a phone or
a watch with me, and my talent of telling time by the sun is not highly
developed. But eventually we stopped for lunch. Lunch was eaten out of our
snack bags. Have I told you about our snack bags? Imagine a one-gallon Ziploc
loaded so full it can hardly close. Inside are granola bars, Cliff bars, beef
jerky, Slim Jims, dehydrated fruit, dried mangos, protein balls, cheese sticks,
assorted nuts, and a few precious pieces of chocolate. Maybe there was more. It
seemed like a lot, but it needed to last for breaks and lunches for five days. We
spotted a snake or two and a turtle, but no bears.
After
lunch we plodded onward, dealing with assorted heavy pack issues, blisters, and
despair. We clambered down an embankment at one point in order to filter water
and fill our water bottles. About an hour and a half before sundown, it became
clear that we were not near enough to the camping spot Miss Hannah had hoped to
reach. So we sat down by the trail (or even on the trail) and waited while she
went exploring for a suitable place for night. After backtracking a ways and
going ahead on the trail, she found nothing. Well, not absolutely nothing.
There was a place we could maybe make work. Miss Brooke went with Miss Hannah
to check it out. Soon they returned and we all set off to make camp. We left
the trail and descended an incline full of brush and thorns. Partway down the
slope we came to a spot that wasn’t too full of trees, and it was there we made
camp.
Possibly
it was one of the most undesirable places to camp. There was a lot of weed
whacking with trekking poles, and some thorn cutting with tiny Swiss knives.
Miss Brooke left with two of the girls to get more water. They came back in
great good humor because they had no way to carry the full bottles, so they’d
taken off their shorts and used them to carry the full bottles back up to camp.
The rest of us had started setting up tents. The ground wasn’t level, so our
tents looked very lopsided. We heated supper on our little propane stoves and
ate by the light of our headlamps, then went to bed quite soon after. Miss
Hannah reminded us to sleep with our heads up the slope, and we all, more or
less, drifted off to sleep.
I
was so relieved. I’d hiked about 5 miles and felt mostly fine. Maybe I could do
this after all. It looked hopeful. I had a few blisters and was tired, but
surely a night’s sleep would fix that.
Day
2: Pressing
On
We
had another five or six miles to hike on the second day, so we got up at a
reasonable hour and had breakfast—oatmeal with peanut butter and hot chocolate
or coffee if you wished. Miss Brooke’s tent had nearly collapsed during the
night, and one of the girls had slid downhill a little ways in hers. Then it
was time to start breaking up camp. The tents came down and got packed with
only some frustration, and we were on the trail again. The second day of hiking
was similar to the first, except I was already a little sore. Thankfully, part
of it was through a section of woods where the trail was quite flat. It seemed
we did a fair amount of stopping, but near lunch I realized I hadn’t eaten
enough, and I started to feel very weak. We made it at last to a campground for
lunch. There was a real toilet! We collapsed on the grass and ate our lunch,
then all too soon it was time to get on the trail again. Miss Brooke talked to
the girls about all the stops we’d been making, and encouraged them to try to
go at least twenty minutes without asking for a break.
The
next mile took only seventeen minutes to hike. Possibly because we were on a
broad, smooth way. We were in elk territory, supposedly. The herd near the
Buffalo River was released way back in 1981, and now numbers around 500. We did
not see any on our hike. At the end of the mile we stopped at the
Parker-Hickman Farmstead. This preserved pioneer site included a smokehouse,
barns, sheds, and an outhouse. It is believed to be the oldest building along
the Buffalo River. It was built pre-Civil War, in the 1830’s, and was occupied
until the 1980’s. We went inside the
cabin and found the walls still covered in remnants of newsprint. It was a very
cute homestead surrounded by beautiful, peaceful scenery.
We had one mile left to go after the Homestead stop. Sadly, it was not quite as quick and easy as the mile before. There was one spot where a large tree had fallen across the path. We had to climb over it. Somehow I got stuck! Thanks to the person ahead of me who gave me a helping hand, or I would still be there possibly. After the tree, we had only a little ways to go to camp. This was a real camp with a fire ring. Unfortunately there was a burn ban on, so no fires for us! We erected our tents after which a couple girls went down to the river for more water with an authority. The rest of us stayed at the campsite and talked. Miss Hannah also put up a large tarp under which there was room for all of us to gather, as rain was expected the next day. This little piece of solitude was to be our home for the next two days.
Day
3: Rest
We
slept in on day three. What a lovely feeling! After breakfast, Miss Brooke
passed out paper and pencils and, using our water bottles as a hard surface, we
each wrote an essay on How You Would Feel If Someone Told You That You Are Lovable.
I would like to challenge you each to write or at least think about that topic.
How does it feel to you? Is it believable? Does it bring up a lot of feelings
that tell you that you are not worth loving? Is it a little scary to believe
you are lovable?
In
the afternoon Miss Brooke and Miss Hannah left for a walk down by the river
while I stayed with the girls. We used our time journaling. Journaling at
Raising Hope does not mean just writing down your thoughts, although that is
involved. Journaling often includes a mentor writing a prompt in a notebook and
the rancher responding with their feelings about the question. Then the mentor
usually asks another question, and it turns into a conversation on paper, more
or less.
We had quiet time in the afternoon, when all the girls went to their tents. I don’t remember for sure when it happened, but at some point one of the girls asked for a circle-up. A circle-up takes place when there has been a problem that needs to be worked through. It is supposed to be a safe place of honest sharing. That being said, there are often strong emotions evoked in a circle-up that must be addressed. In this particular case, the girl who requested the circle-up had gone into the woods to take care of the call of nature. Along the way she had stepped in a pile of what we will refer to as human evidence (props to my 7th & 8th grade teacher for this term). Someone had been too lazy to dig a hole as is required in such cases, and the other girl felt, understandably, disrespected. We had a good discussion, and the girls each took responsibility for the future use of shovel using.
As
we went to sleep that night, it begin to rain as had been predicted. It is
lovely to sleep with the sound of rain on your tent.
Day
4: What
is it to be dry?
The
rain, while lovely at night, continued on to mid morning. It made for a pretty,
dreamy atmosphere in the woods, but the reality is that we now had mud and wet
clothing to contend with. Things that we usually hung up over night to dry out,
were not dry in the least. A couple of the tents had leaked a little at the
seams, but nothing major. Our lovely tarp that was meant to keep us dry was
able to do so, but rain had run down the gentle slope it was on the night
before, and the floor was quite muddy in places.
Nonetheless,
we got up and around and had breakfast. Then Miss Brooke sent the girls to
their tents to work on essays about our theme verse. Next, with some dressed in
ponchos and some choosing jackets, we took a walk down to the river. We stopped
at a cozy cove across from a miniature waterfall and watched the leaves drift
down like confetti and float past on the current. We moved to a second spot
called Goat Bluffs, and again sat in silence for a while, soaking in the beauty
of nature. There was a weasel on the opposite bank, going about his daily house
chores it appeared, and it was fun to watch him. I was impressed with the lack
of perfection in nature’s scenery. If the bluffs had been created with perfect
straight lines, every tree was a stiff sentinel, and each rock was uniformly
round, what a dull place nature would be. But our Creator lovingly formed every
rocky cliff, each bent tree, every misshapen rock, and each imperfect human.
And it is there in the imperfections that we stand back and gaze in awe at the
beauty.
After
lunch there was again quiet time for the girls. During quiet time, Miss Hannah,
by some type of magic, managed to start a fire using wet wood. I was quite
possibly the most thankful for a fire I had ever been. In the evening we stood with
hands outstretched as the fire fell to embers and sang by memory. We could see
a few stars in the night sky through the branches above us, and they were
beautiful.
The
night was bitterly cold. I wore two jackets and a beanie to bed, and I was
still so cold I could hardly sleep. During the night I heard something hit the
side of my tent, but I thought it was a falling branch or someone bumbling
around on their way to do business in the woods. I heard a tent zipper open and
close, but then I snuggled down in my beanie and two hoods and heard nothing
else.
Day
5: Success!
When
I woke up and stumbled out of my tent the next morning, Miss Hannah accosted me
and said she needed to talk to me. Apparently there were a couple of us who
snored in the night. One of the girls had kicked on the side of her tent, hoping
to wake up those of us who were causing a disturbance. When that didn’t work,
she climbed out of her tent, walked over and kicked the side of my tent until I
woke up. This was what I had heard during the night, not a branch or bumbling
person. Miss Hannah, thankfully, had caught the person responsible and talked
to her during the night.
At
breakfast time, another girl asked for a circle-up because she had been kept
awake by someone kicking the tent walls, so the girl responsible owned up to
her actions, admitted they were disrespectful, and apologized. As a
consequence, she was given the job of packing my tent up as well as her own.
This was not something she enjoyed! The tents are often viewed as unfavorable
nemesis by the girls. But she did quite well, and we all loaded our packs up
and started on the last leg of our hike.
I
think it is safe to say we were all ready to get home. The girls did a very
good job with the hiking, and we had not nearly so many requests for stopping
as we had the first day. The hiking itself was very hard. There was a lot of up
hill, the path was quite narrow and right by a cliff. Everything was muddy and
covered with leaves still slippery from the rain. I was incredibly thankful for
my trekking poles. The verse that says “…my foot had well nigh slipped…” kept
coming to mind. My body had almost forgotten on our two rest days that it was
sore, but as I puffed up the inclines like a deranged hippo, it reminded me in
all sorts of unenchanting ways. It also informed me that I had not ever treated
it like this before, and it could see no reason I should begin to do so now. For me, the last day of the hike was
definitely the hardest. I learned, however, that it was always possible to
travel through one more valley and up one more hill than I thought I could. The
song that says “I will strengthen thee, uphold thee, and help thee to stand,”
kept going around and around in my head during the worst of it, and was a great
comfort.
At last we had only a mile left to go and it was downhill travel. We plodded wearily, silently, through the trees, wending our way between rocks, and down stair-step sections of the trail. And finally, finally we came to the edge of a parking lot. And there, waiting for us, was our beloved Ex and a real bathroom. There was quiet exultation in the air—everyone was too exhausted to say much. But the feeling of success was with us. We loaded our packs, climbed in, and headed back to the ranch. As we followed the winding road back toward Gentry, we saw a bunch of vehicles stopped by the road with people setting up tripods and holding expensive looking gadgets. There, near the road, was a herd of elk. We didn’t get out of our vehicle to view them, but we did do a very slow drive by.
We
arrived home around 6:30. The ranch house was buzzing with people as it was
Miss Brooke’s birthday and all had gathered to celebrate. It was a very lovely
evening, but I think the best part was getting a delicious shower and washing
off five days’ worth of grime. And then it was time for bed. And it was cozy
and warm and lovely, and I went to sleep exhausted, but it was a good exhaustion.
And
that’s all. The whole trip. Well, there may be more I didn’t think to add, but I’ve
already written so much I dare not remember anything else. Would I go again?
Ask me after long enough has passed that I forget what the sore muscles felt
like. Ask me after I no longer remember being so cold I could hardly sleep. Ask
me after the memory of crawling slowly up the last inclines has slipped from my
mind. And I would probably say yes. Yes, because nature brings you so much
closer to God. Yes, because there’s something about silence in the woods at
night that make you feel like a pioneer from the 1800’s. Yes, because
challenging yourself and stretching yourself farther than you think you can
stretch gives you confidence and courage.
And yes, because I will treasure this trip as long as I remember it. And that, friends, will be a very long time.
P.S. A big thank you to every person that supported us with monetary assistance! It meant a lot to know how many people cared.
