Buffalo River Trail - Woolum to Margaret White

This past weekend I went on a short backpacking trip on the Buffalo River Trail between Woolum and Margaret White. The roughly 6 mile route had some real elevation change going from river level to the top of the bluff line twice. While we got some amazing views from Dave Manes Bluff, I suspect big views are more frequent (though less colorful) in the winter.

The river was bone dry for most of this section, something that isn't rare this time of year for this part. In fact, the water is there, it is just flowing underground through the karst and it resurfaces downstream in interesting springs. Oddly enough, we had to cross flowing water at Woolum, but then were able to cross the dry bed downstream of there to camp near Dave Mane's Bluff and Ben Branch.

We heard tons of coyotes at night and saw a lot of stars.
Here is a link to more photos of the dry river bed: http://trailsofarkansas.blogspot.com/2012/08/buffalo-river-low.html
There are some interesting trails near here up around Point Peter:
http://trailsofarkansas.blogspot.com/2014/01/point-peter-mountain-trails-buffalo.html

30 Crossing Recap

I've written quite a bit about about why it is worse than a waste of taxpayer money to widen I-630 and I-30 and provided some discussion of better ideas that would save money and have positive impacts on our community and state. Today I want to focus on the I-30 project, now also referred to as "30 Crossing".

Birds of Marin County

I recently moved to Tiburon in the San Francisco Bay Area and have been amazed at the birding around my apartment. When I'm lucky enough to get a decent photo of a new species, I'll post it here. Please let me know in the comments if I incorrectly ID anything!

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron

Brown Pelicans Are Funny

Black-necked Stilts

Brown Pelicans Looking Serious

Great Egret

Brown Pelican

Black Oystercatchers

Anna's Hummingbird

Eared Grebe

Foot-In-Beak Mallard

Golden-crowned Sparrow

California Readers: Interested in getting paid to unplug your laptop or turn off a light for an hour? $20 just for joining OhmConnect, learn more at: https://login.ohmconnect.com/ref/30315

Little Rock Trail Network Expansions

I've written previously here and in my books about the need for Little Rock to work on trail connectivity and the potential of trails along Coleman Creek, Rose Creek, Rock Creek, and Fourche Creek. Tonight they are voting to add many of these ideas to the master plan! Please contact your director or attend the meeting to show your support for these projects.

These trails would greatly expand the walkability and bikeability of Little Rock. The Rose Creek Trail (it may have another name now) would connect the River Trail to Fourche Bottoms and would also make it easier for a lot more people to bike to work downtown by connecting major residential areas to the River Trail.

Fun with a Game Camera

My parents got a game camera awhile ago and I've been the main one checking the results and adjusting its location and settings. Here are some of the more interesting videos and photos its taken at their house in West Little Rock. You can see more great videos on my Youtube channel.