OZARKS KEYSTONE TRAIL EXPEDITION!

 One of the benefits of being a member of the North Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, is the opportunity to volunteer on worthwhile projects that are near and dear to my heart---such as hiking!

My first experience on the trail that follows the shoreline of Norfork Lake, in Baxter County, Arkansas, was as a hiker, with a coed group (of mostly strangers to me) that a friend--Dea-- from church, had told me about.  The group met at the trail head for the Robinson Point Overlook and walked over the hills and hollers that led to the top of a bluff, overlooking Norfork Lake.  It was around the year 2002.    I had visited Norfork Lake all my life, but mostly for watersports activities, rather than hiking. 

The photo below shows the overlook at Robinson Point, which was my first group hike on Norfork Lake, over twenty years ago.  Now, I get to help keep that overlook free of weeds, by being a part of the trail maintenance volunteers.  Photo below shows me and fellow volunteer, Wendy,  at the Robinson Point Overlook, with the tools we use to cut back weeds.

 

This is a photo of the small brown and white OKT sign at the entry of the trail to the overlook.   The short wooden fence at the beginning, is to help define the entry point, and was the service project of a local Eagle Scout.  

That co-ed group I first hiked with, "fizzled out", so I started hiking with a group of ladies I met at a Becoming An Outdoors Woman conference in central Arkansas (www.agfc.com).  There is a story about that in my blog archives, dated September 23, 2008.  That core group of ladies congealed later, to  became what came to be known as Women Hiking (the) Ozarks---WHO---for short.  The photo below shows one of our WHO hikes that took place in December (as evidenced by the Santa hat on one of the hikers!)

I published a blog about David's Trail (dated April 26, 2010 and available in the archives of this blog), explaining some of its history.  The person the trail was named after, was the son-in-law of a lady in my Sunday school class, so I knew the story of his being an avid supporter of physical activity, who passed away suddenly, at a young age.  

There are very few sections of the trail that are completely flat, and some of them are so steep, that a rope has been added over the ravine being crossed, to assist hikers in the ascent and descent.  That is me, holding onto the rope, as I try to make my way to the top of the hill!

 

The concrete marker pictured below is also at Robinson Point, but it is on the north side of the entry road, whereas the section to the overlook, is on the south side of the entry road.  

As this close-up of the sign shows, the purpose of the trail is to encourage an active lifestyle.  

When an effort began to expand and link the trails along the Norfork Lake in Arkansas, a new name was coined, which became the Ozarks Keystone Trail, or OKT, for short.  This trail marker, nailed to a tree shows where the name "keystone" comes from.  It is the link, or "keystone" between the Ozark Trail in Missouri, and the Ozark Highlands Trail in Arkansas.  Notice this particular sign, has a "YOU ARE HERE" flag in red, which shows your approximate location within the 680+ miles of trail through the two states.  The Ozark Trail in Missouri has over 430 miles, and the Ozark Highlands Trail in Arkansas has about 250 miles, starting at Lake Fort Smith State Park, near the Arkansas/Oklahoma border.  Thanks to the addition of the Ozarks Keystone Trail, it now extends to the Missouri border!

 

The trail sign nailed to a pine tree, shown below, says the same thing as the previous sentence I wrote, but in a more concise form!

Most of my hiking time recently has been spent as a volunteer that meets on the first Saturday of the month, at the Raymond James office in Mountain Home.  There we pack sack lunches, provided by the Ozarks Keystone Trail Endowment, and then divide into teams, to do maintenance along the approximately 80 miles of the OKT.  The January 3, 2026, volunteers are shown below: 

Funds provided by the endowment have purchased two all-terrain-vehicles that are used to haul both volunteers and heavy equipment to remote parts of the trail, that are otherwise difficult to reach on foot, when carrying heavy equipment.  A trailer is used to transport the ATVs to whatever site is being worked on.

 The photo below shows one of our first outings with one of the ATV's, fully loaded with some of the equipment strapped on top.  It is clearly marked as a VOLUNTEER vehicle, because otherwise, ATV's are not allowed on the trail.  

The reason we need chain saws is because, invariably, one or more trees have fallen down across the trail! 

Because we often drive our personal cars to a staging area along the lake, the volunteers have been provided with a magnetic sign to identify their car.  

Once we are deep within the forest, we get out and start using loppers to cut back sprigs and leaf blowers to clear the path, so hikers can see where the trail is.  

The photo below shows me and fellow volunteer Dawn, with the tools we were using one Saturday.  

This photo shows a volunteer who is a retired physician, carrying a heavy back-pack blower, and pointing the high pressure air left and right, to help hikers see where the trail is.  

In addition to leaf blowing and weed whacking, the volunteers (this is Pam), often are putting up new signage, or repairing/replacing old signs.   Although it may be confusing to newcomers what is Davids Trail and what is OKT, the signs help.  Since the trail goes through some areas along the lake that are traditional spots for deer hunters, metal gates are at some locations, to discourage unauthorized use of vehicles for hunting. 

One of the newer sections of the trail goes all the way to the Missouri border.  Photo below shows Mark, and Bob on either side of the marker located on the shores of Lake Norfork, with Deb behind them, up on the trail.  

I had been told of this marker for years, but this was my first time to see it, so I wanted to give a gesture of praise, to finally get to have a photo with it!

I found a rock along the shoreline there, with holes in it, so I could make a commemorative marker to keep at my house, to help me remember this milestone!

For the last two years, the Ozarks Keystone Endowment has hosted an appreciation dinner for the First Saturday volunteers at The ArkanZEN in Cotter.  Photo below shows Mike and Deb, awaiting other guest arrivals.

As a souvenir for the volunteers, Steph made coasters with the OKT logo burned into the wooden "tree cookies".  It was such a nice surprise and greatly appreciated!

In addition to participating in the organizations listed above, I participate in a healthy living program called First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com), that teaches us how to rely on God for strength and perseverance.  One of the memory verses that we are learning, in hopes of increasing our perseverance during difficult times, is Proverbs 24:16.  It is meant to be an encouragement to not give up, even when we fall down.  You can be assured, I have fallen down many times on the hiking trails described here, as well as in the bigger picture---The Trail of Life.  But God's Word tells us not to give up.  Our memory verse from Proverbs 24:16 says, "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes." 

I want to keep getting up after each time I fall, so that I can continue to hike with "MILES OF SMILES"!  Tricia

 

CALIFORNIA EMPIRE GOLD MINE EXPEDITION!

On one of my visits to see relatives Out West, my cousin, Ron, and his wife Claudia, took me to see their town's most popular visitor attraction, which is the Empire Mine State Historic Site (www.parks.ca.gov).  I took this photo of the couple at one of many scenic photo opportunities, available  within the location.  

 

The Empire Mine State Historic Site is located in Grass Valley, California, and the massive rocks lining the steps at the visitor center (the former carriage and automobile house of the estate), are very appropriate, since Empire Mine was a source of gold that is from a process called Hard Rock Mining.  This is a different process of mining from "panning" for gold in a flowing stream (called "placer mining").  Both processes were taking place simultaneously in northern California, after the gold rush of 1849.  

  After a visitor pays the small admission fee to take the guided tour, they can explore the entire park, including the manicured estate grounds of the Bourn family, that includes this picturesque fountain.   It is a coincidence that this cousin ended up in a town known for mining, because our mutual grandparents also hailed from a town known for mining---Lead Hill, Arkansas.  At one time, the northern Arkansas location was mined for its lead deposits, although all that remains of any old lead mines there, have been covered up, when Bull Shoals Lake was formed, from a dam on the White River.  

These "A Frame" structures in the garden area, provide a growing platform for the formation of an outdoor arbor.  

Because of its neatly manicured shrubs, intertwined with brick paths, some visitors are reminded of being in a formal English-style rose garden.  

The entire tour group was able to sit on a covered porch, as the tour guide pointed out details of the construction of the property, including the type of stone used throughout.  

The guided tours are led by volunteers and if one goes to the website, there is a disclaimer with the statement showing the hours that tours are offered, that says if there is no volunteer available, there is no tour.  I have done some volunteer work at a state park near me, and I know the important role volunteers play in our nation's park systems, both state and national.  

My cousin Ron is looking over an antique stove that is in the kitchen area of the home.  Ron and I share the same paternal grandparents, and can recall some of the old-fashioned cooking methods they used on their farm.  In fact, one of my memories is when family members gathered to work all day on the slaughter, skinning, chopping, and grinding of a hog, the family raised for food.  I remember there was a giant kettle of boiling liquid, that I was told to stay away from, because they were in the process of making lye soap, from the fat rendered out of the hog.  I remember my parents brought home a congealed "substance" they called souse, which was used as a protein source, as long as it lasted.  Souse is made up of bits and pieces of leftover hog parts, including the organs of the animal, the collagen released during the boiling process, serves as a binder to congeal the substance after it is cooked.  Since we ate it straight out of the refrigerator, it was our form of "cold cuts"!  (Nutrition research now shows that collagen is very beneficial to our health, but since many more people now used processed meats, rather than fresh meat, collagen is deficient in the American diet.  Hence, it is being marketed as a separate powder, to add to one's food or beverage).  Any memory of my maternal grandparents cook stove, includes standing beside my grandma as a little girl, and asking her how she knew when the lard she was heating to fry up the chicken she had just butchered, was hot enough to put the raw chicken in.  She said she spit into the hot grease, to see if her spit sizzled.  Not knowing she was kidding me, I immediately spit into the frying pan of hot grease!  The only thing that sizzled was my rear end, after I was spanked for such unladylike behavior! 

Since my husband was a hunter, the idea of an animal mount adorning the walls of a home seems perfectly natural to me.  However, all of our trophy mounts are white-tail deer, bear, fish, and pheasants, whereas this California family room, shows moose and elk head mounts. 

The Visitor Center of the Empire Mine has what is called "The Secret Room", because it was known only to the mine company's owner and board of directors.  The room contains a 1938 scale model, of the 367 miles of underground shafts that lay beneath our feet.  It is hard to imagine what it must have been like to go to work in the very deepest of these shafts, and spend hour after hour, hammering  away at the solid rock.   The placard told us that about one inch represents the current mine tunnels that one can still enter.  Furthermore, anything below two inches, is now flooded, because of the high water table in this part of Nevada County, California.  The tunnels went deeper than 1,200 feet, which was considered the maximum, during the time the mine was operational.  During that period, it required constant pumping, to keep water out of the lower tunnels.  

One can also tour the abandoned mining equipment and out buildings, that surround the visitor center.  In addition, there are 14 miles of hiking, horseback riding, and biking trails on the 856 acres of forested land that comprises the park.  

It is not surprising that this site has a well-stocked gift shop, with numerous precious metal and precious stones, some in the shape of a heart, that one can purchase as a souvenir of your visit.  It takes a tremendous amount of refining to get the tiny amounts of gold found in ore, extracted, then melted into a form that can be of use as jewelry.  Likewise, it takes a tremendous amount of refining to get ME, to abandon my bad habits and create a pure heart within me!  I am using all the sparkling silver and gold items, and HEART pendants, I saw in the gift shop, as a visual aid for one of my First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com) memory verses that says, "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart."  Proverbs 16:3   

This visit to Empire Mine, with my cousins, gave me "MILES OF SMILES"!  Tricia

CRATERS OF THE MOON EXPEDTION!

Want to know where you can experience terrain resembling the moon's terrain, but never leave Planet Earth?  Visit Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in Idaho!

The invitation to "EXPLORE THE MOON" will be a definite eye-catcher to youngsters interested in becoming astronauts!
On one of my many solo driving trips Out West, my PLANS did not have a particular deadline for returning to Arkansas, so I took the time to make a short detour off the Interstate, to visit Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve (www.nps.gov).  I knew nothing about the park (except for a scene I remembered from a movie), so I was thankful to be able to read about it, on one of the bulletin boards available to visitors (photo above).  A picture of the current visitor center is shown below:

 

The first cinder cone I climbed, provided the opportunity to get a wider view of the surrounding landscape, as shown in photo below: 

The park is huge, comprising 750,000 acres, of rugged volcanic landscape, amounting to 11 square miles.  

One can get a sense of the height of the cinder cone I climbed, by noticing how small the cars look, in the parking lot at the bottom.  One can PLAN in advance, to know the elevation change, from bottom to top, by studying the park information at the visitor center.  

With an advance PLAN, you can calculate your total mileage walked from the parking lot to the top, and back down again.  

The only trail marking on the ascent, is the pressed down cinders, from hundreds of visitors making the trek to the summit.  

To help frame a photo of the surrounding landscape, I eventually found a tree limb, to place in the top of the composition.  The black areas of the foreground and in the valley, show the extent of the lava flow, that helped create the park.  It was a result of The Great Rift, which is a 52 mile long fissure in the earth's crust, that developed over 15,000 years ago.  

This is a photo of me by the aforementioned tree, where I had used one of its limbs, as a "frame".  The tree has to be a hardy specimen, to survive the harsh growing conditions on the top of a cinder cone!  Likewise, I was feeling like a "hardy specimen", because I had successfully made the climb to the summit!  So, of course, I wanted a photo to prove it!

I set my camera on "automatic" so I could get a view of the other side of the summit, from the previous photo.  I also took a photo that showed the 7-mile loop road that visitors can drive through, but it does not show up in the photo.  

I was not the only one who wanted a photo at the summit, to commemorate the accomplishment!  This couple also wanted proof of their summit location!

I took the photo below, of a couple shielding themselves from the hot sun, by using an umbrella!  They obviously established their PLAN to prevent sunburn, before they started their walk!

The reason I capitalized the word "PLAN" in these paragraphs, is because I am using these photos as a visual aid, to help me learn one of my First Place 4 Health (www.FirstPlace4Health.com) memory verses that says, "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and He will establish your PLANS."  (Proverbs 16:3)  Although my original PLAN only called for visiting relatives in Oregon, when I realized I was retracing the wagon wheels of pioneers on the Goodale's Cut-Off section, of The Oregon Trail, (www.OregonTrail.org), I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about the hardships they experienced.  I had visited one of my elderly cousins who lived in Dairy, Oregon, and he was a wheelwright, who repaired wagon wheels.  I had read that the volcanic stone of this part of the trail was extremely wearing on wagon wheels, and resulted in many abandoned PLANS, so I can imagine someone who knew how to make and repair wagon wheels would have been very important! 

I am thankful that the LORD established a PLAN for me to be able to visit Craters of the Moon, because the experience gave me a visual aid for a wisdom Bible verse, and "MILES OF SMILES"!  Tricia