Arkansas

April 28

Brenda: Left Tennessee at 6:45 am with truck mileage 49,283 Used new app called WAZE -- tells you of police ahead and even roadkill ahead!! First gas stop on I-40 Exit 143 TN-13 Linden/Waverly Marathon 22.6 gallons $77.04 49,513 230 miles 10.177 mi/gal. You could get horses out (we didn't), has a creek, a Subway, good dog area, easy access. This is the same exit for the Loretta Lynn Ranch.

Second gas stop Exit 183 AK 137/Carlisle 49,766 22.9 gal $65,31 Valero 11.092 mi/gal POOR for dogs, not clean.

Flower note: Toad Suck Park in Conway, AK has tons of wild pink primrose and white daffodils on roadside.

Arrive at FALLING WATERS HORSECAMP 1616 Upper Falling Water Road, Sand Gap, AK 72856 870-294-5051

Owners Art and Mary have 13 acres, take reservations in January…$50 deposit paid. First come, first serve campsite, nice bathhouse, trail map needs help….NO nearby towns,stores, restaurants. Nice dog park near the creek, lots of birds and TICKS! Indigo bunting and whippoorwills. Campsites are pretty close to each other. They have covered stalls $25/nite x 5 nites $125, $5 nite per horse $50, shavings $14, ice $3, less $50 deposit $142.

Phil and Shelley arrived yesterday.

Joe: 10 1/2 driving hours. Man, I'm bushed. I wonder if Phil has any cold beer?

April 29

Brenda: Phil, Shelley and we are riding the blue and green trails today. Altogether 15 miles, 5 hours.

We've decided to "rate" the trails on this trip with a scale of 1 to 10 for overall awesomeness and also 1 to 10 technical difficulty. We used the trails in Big South Fork as a guide, rating BSF trails as "5's" in both awesomeness and difficulty. Today we rode Box Canyon Trail, Bailey Falls and Ox Bow Falls. The trails are narrow and single file mostly. There's a beautiful high falls at Box Canyon. The trail to Ox Bow is single file and full of shale.

Difficulty 6

Overall 9

Lots of blooming spider wort, Bethany, bottle brush buckeye everywhere! Awesome!!!

Joe: Is it 5 o'clock yet?

April 30

Brenda: Rode to Pedestal Point today - challenging, one lane, switchbacks, lots of water. The camp host suggested we only ride UP the switchbacks and not down. Phil & Shelley said they would have turned back had they been on their own, but since Brenda was leading, they followed. Rode the Chinquapin Blue trail to access Pedestal. There are massive caves up near the top where we ate lunch. Saw 3 deer, 1 turtle, 1 green snake, and a hawk, Lots of climbing. AWESOME! 16 miles,

Difficulty 8.5

Overall 9.5

May 1

Brenda: Rode to Twin Falls today - the first hour was not good...on logging trails. 20 miles, 6 hours.

Difficulty 5

Overall 10

Beautiful Falls once we arrived. We used the green trail, but access to the falls is via the "wilderness" where marked trails (and motorized anything) are not allowed. Found stuffed turtle for good luck.

Flowers: Yellow lady slippers, one RED bottle brush buckeye, lots of white ones, white larkspur, spider wort, phlox, blue star….take swimsuit and towel next time 1 hour lunch.

Joe: There is no pub on this ride... anywhere.

May 2

Brenda: Rode to Purdy Hollow - took all 3 dogs, lot of rock, water crossings 15 miles, 4 hours

Difficulty 7

Overall 8

**Found a morel as Charlie stopped to pee!!!!!! Shooting star flower on rock/cave face. We lost Baylee for 5 minutes … we finally had to shock her, she jumped four feet in the air, and we saw her on a lower ledge.

Joe: We have a slight water leak in the trailer, so I took a shower with dishes in the bathhouse. Went back to the bathhouse later and saw that someone had left a piece of lettuce in shower!

Rode total of 66 miles at Falling Waters...highly recommend!