Wonderful Hike, Great Vistas, Very Special Friends — What Better Is There for a Once-a-Year Celebration

Opted not to go backpacking this weekend but, instead, to spend the day, a very special one for me, with two of the most important people in my life. What did we do? Well, we hit the woods for an easy hike that yielded great vistas, an abundance of photo ops, beautiful weather, and a chance to partake of nature’s ever changing pallet.

Last week it was a 4-miler from Richland Road to Woolum. Today, we traveled westerly out of Snowball, Arkansas, on the same Richland Road but parked it at McCutchen Gap, headed north, and then veered east till we stood on the bluff’s edge known as Rollins Point. Before us spread an expansive valley dotted with brilliantly green pastures, streams swollen by the previous night’s heavy rains, and the distant bluffs of the undulating Buffalo River.

The wild pear trees that, at a distance, mimicked patches of snow amid the still leafless spring landscape were in the early stages of shedding their white and putting on the green. Redbuds decided to join the show this week smattering the hillsides with their crimson and dark magenta brilliance. And all around it was as if green was doing its best to burst onto the scene.

Forgot to mention that earlier in the morning as we wound along 65 a little past Silver Hill heading south we spotted a herd of elk a good 20 strong. Though winter for this part of the world had been unusually harsh and long, the elk looked to be strong and well fed.

The hike itself — well, it was not all that long, perhaps a mile each way. A road leads up the mountain, and though it had been dampened well, it was firm. Once we reached what is some sort of tower, we were on a road cut across the mountain top allowing crews to maintain the line that provides electricity to the few inhabitants on to the west in Richland Valley. Short off-road/trail jaunts put us out on the edge of the rock outcroppings that had been our destination. We were up above the handful of vultures and red-tailed hawks riding the currents over the valley floor.

Now it was our intention at the start to work about a mile on north to Point Peter, and that we would have done had it not been for spending so much time taking in the beauty before us from Rollins Point. That’s just fine, though, because there will be another day and another hike. Always something to look forward to.

So, till next time, catch you out on the trail — Dr. Brown