So I haven’t posted in awhile. You see Spring came a little early this year and it was so pretty outside I just had to go play. First it was the tulips and redbuds, then the dogwoods. Weekend after weekend of beautiful, sunny, 70 degree weather. What’s a guy to do?
In truth, Spring fever is an ailment I’ve suffered from my entire life. My worst grades in school came in Spring when all I wanted to do was stare out the window until the bell rang. So yes, now I just consider this a medical problem. If they come up with a cure, please, don’t tell me about it.
What is it that has taken so much of my time? Well, outside of work, which has been particularly busy lately, an adventure race (and some training that went with that), a camping trip and yard work.
Time to play catch up, here are some specifics on the race and the camping:
In March, Lisa and I raced in the Ozark Extreme Adventure Sprints Race at Cane Creek State Park near Star City, AR (about 30 minutes south of Pine Bluff). I’ve written before about this park. It is a family favorite. We’ve gone down there to kayak, mountain bike and for state park photo shoots. You’ll never find a better kept park and the staff is always finding new ways to help visitors experience this gem.
The race was a sprint and we entered the coed advanced division. That meant that we would be trail running, mountain biking, kayaking and orienteering. It also meant that there would be only two teams in our division. The race was attended by some of my coworkers over on the tourism side of the business. I was glad to see this since it meant that the sport and the park might get a little extra exposure. Also, the race director has a deal with KTHV so they had a reporter/camera person at the race.
We started at 10:30 with a trail running/orienteering section. We were told to expect some thick woods and scared legs. We ran to the first two checkpoints since I figured from our map that they were on the trail. The trail being the Cane Creek Lake Trail which is a 15.5 mile multi-use loop trail that going clockwise from the park facilities goes through some beautiful hardwood forest, twisting around creeks with something like 50 bridges including 3 big suspension bridges. The trail actually go through two natural divisions of the state, the west coastal plain and the delta. At around 8.5 miles it comes out onto the lakes levee and runs over 5 miles with the lake on one side and Bayou Bartholomew on the other before heading back into the park.
So after leaving checkpoint two I directed us through a bushwhacking section to the next three checkpoints. They were all in on of the deeper feeder creeks for the lake and relatively easy to find. Then it was back on the trail for the next checkpoint. Once there we had a short bushwhack to checkpoint 7 which we missed totally, somehow I’d gotten us into the wrong ravine. So we headed to checkpoint 9 and then re-orienteered back to 8. Checkpoint 9 was at a new structure, a brand new hiking shelter. I say hiking shelter but it is accessible by foot, mountain bike or kayak. A very nice option for staying at the park. Right now there is no charge but you must get a permit from the park to do any overnight camping in the park. So check with the park visitor center for information before heading out. I can’t wait to try it!
This was also a transition area so we switched to bikes and headed back toward the race start on the bike trail. This trail will surprise most mountain bikers. I’m used to doing the big long hills of the womble trail and others in the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains but you don’t expect all these little, steep climbs in this part of the state and after awhile my calves started to scream at me. We made it back to the start without much problem picking up some more checkpoints along the way and then switched to the kayak portion of the race.
These races use inflatable kayaks which are a challenge in themselves. Steering is pretty much hit and miss and luckily the course was short so we didn’t have too many expletives through this portion. The lake is known for great fishing but I enjoy kayaking it (not in an inflatable, you can rent a hard shell recreational kayak from the park which work great). They have a couple of beaver lodges out along the kayak trail. That’s right, they have a kayak trail that you can follow through the lake. Whenever we have taken our daughter out there we have seen beaver swimming. Pretty cool place.
Once the kayak portion was done we crossed the finish line for a first place finish in our division with a respectable lead over second place. I was a good race but a little short, I would have liked to see it cover a little more of the park but they got a little taste.
The series of three sprint races is being hosted by Arkansas State Parks this year. The first was the Cane Creek State Park race. In June it will be at Village Creek State Park and in August at Devil’s Den State Park. We hope to do them all.
I was hoping to catch everyone up on what we have been doing but this post is long enough. I’ll post next on some camping adventure over Easter weekend. Now, go play outside!
