Cathy finished her chemotherapy treatments in August. Imaging showed a complete response–the tumor was gone. Although there is a 30% chance that it could return, her oncologist said that a “watch and wait” approach was appropriate, meaning that she could choose whether or not to undergo surgery..
She didn’t have to be asked twice whether she’d rather do an MRI every three months versus major surgery with weeks and months of recuperation.
Her diagnosis back in January had wrenched our lives into a different and awful new reality. Now another new reality–a much better one–was replacing it. I’d been walking around under a cloud of dread so long that it had become normal. It was something I didn’t even notice until we got this news and the cloud lifted. We could start living as people again, rather than as patients.
Of course, a return to normal life includes going for long hikes again. It was October before I felt OK about being gone for more than a day or two, well past the time frame for 3-season hiking in Colorado. October can be just fine for shorter hikes, but the likelihood of serious snow is high for any trip longer than a week.
We’d car-camped at Lake Fort Smith State Park in Arkansas back in May. The park is the western terminus of the Ozark Highland Trail which runs 165 miles east through the heavily forested Boston Mountains. I’d day-hiked a bit of it and liked it and was ready to consider my first ever hike in the eastern US.
Late October seemed a good season for it. The temps should be moderate, the bugs should be down, the leaves should be changing.
Logistics were a challenge. The region is rural, not wilderness, but there are not really any towns that provide services near the trail. I looked for advice from the OHT Facebook group and was able to connect with some folks who would shuttle me to and from the airport and hold a resupply box.
I also learned that the area was in a serious drought. Normally there is plenty of water. River crossings are frequent and sometimes dangerous. Instead, all the minor streams were bone dry and major creeks and rivers were reduced to scattered puddles.
I hesitated to commit, but then there was a cold snap. Temperatures dropped, there was a bit of rain. It was enough to convince me that fall weather would prevail and I booked flights to and from Fayetteville.
A chain of modern transportation delivered me to the trailhead without a slip: bus to DIA, DIA to XNA, shuttle by Rob Jupina (OHT Facebook group founder, avid hiker and MTBer) to Lake Fort Smith State Park a bit before 3pm.
Cool fall weather had gone away again and was replaced with more summery conditions, temps in the low 80s. Hot but not that hot. It would be 14 miles to the next reliable water, so I filled up with 3+ liters of water at the park and started walking.
Western terminus of the OHT
I’d walked the first few miles to Frog Bayou back in April. Everything then was green and damp and dim, water spilling down the hillside and over ledges through a birdful forest.
The forest now was bright with yellows and oranges, the ground crackling with dried leaves. The birds were gone. Mosses had retreated back into their home crevices, hunkering down, waiting for rain.
A gold green forest
Most of the streams had dried up, but one near Frog Bayou sported a small still pool–and an armadillo snuffling around it.
It was the first live (ie, not roadkill) armadillo I had ever seen, and I counted myself fortunate to have seen one, especially so close.
I soon learned that there was nothing special at all about this sighting. I spotted another 7 armadillos in the next 4 miles, and heard quite few more.
There was a designated campsite at mile 5 but there was daylight left so I kept walking. No other real sites appeared by dark. I strung up my hammock in a rocky gully and called it a day.
Dinner was super dog: sliced-up grilled Polish dog with peppers, onions, tomato, pickle and mustard all freeze-dried together then eaten wrapped up in a tortilla. It was delicious, a good end to a good first day.
35.70813° N, 94.06490° W
You go places I haven’t ever been near. I hardly ever leave the East and I mostly do easy trails. But that sign looks familiar and I might have been at a site near that with my wife, her sister, and brother-in-law. Our only trip to Arkansas. I got very muddy shoes on a trail like your gold green forest. Wishing best of health to your wife.
Israel Ramirez