March 2018

MARCH 2018

What did we do in March?????

 One thing we did was to go to Oklahoma to maintain our adopted section on the Ouachita Trail.  We pitched our tent at the Winding Stair Campground which wasn't really open yet....maybe they open in April?  Anyway needless to say we were the only ones there.  But what a great night to campout!

The next morning we headed up the trail with our loppers to check out our adopted 2.3 mile section.

 Early Spring flowers were poking up out of the leaf covered forest floor.

The first mile of our adopted section mostly follows an old Forest Service fire road.

Then we reach the Winding Stair Shelter.  There we took a break, read some hikers' entries in the Shelter Register, then we spent a lot of time trying to whack back these encroaching thorny vines on the west side of the Shelter.

It is too early for the Spring surge of green growth along the Trail so after the shelter there wasn't much clearing to be done.  We will have to come back a little later this year to do more pruning along the path.

On our way back, I did decide to place a stone on the massive rock cairn that sits near where the old fire tower used to stand on top of Winding Stair Mountain.

We saw more early Spring flowers on our way back to the car.