This was, by far, the longest hike I have done. It was set in the Ozark National Forest, which is a beautiful area of northwest Arkansas.

The trip started with Clayton (a friend from my days at the University of Wyoming), Chris (one of Drew's friends from CMU) and myself. Drew joined us a couple days in, he was detained by a wedding.

The first day was less than ideal, we got rained on pretty bad and things got soaked. To top it off, Clayton's boots didn't hold together at all. Unfortunately he had to drop out, there was no way he could hike much further, so he hiked out to a nearby campground and we got him a ride back to town.

Chris and I hiked another couple days and tried to dry things out. We met up with Drew around mile 27. Unfortunately, Drew wasn't able to make the whole trip. He decided to catch a ride to town at mile 58. It was a scheduled stop next to a road and a local picked him up and took him in. Chris and I spent the night under the bridge...not the best campground we had.

Chris and I hiked on to Clarksville, where our resupply was waiting for us. It was nice to take a shower and sleep in a soft bed. Drew decided not to rejoin us, and Chris and I decided to push forward and finish the trail.

Overall, the trail was very nice. Nearly all the major water flows had really nice campsites, which saved us a lot of time clearing an area and building a fire ring. And, since there was a good amount of water at all our stops, we were able to bathe quite often (which we both appreciated). The trail was very well blazed. There was only one place where we got misplaced...we were supposed to cross a river, but we didn't know where...but we found the trail eventually.

I learned that Arkansas has A LOT of ticks. Tick checks were routine throughout the day, and it was not uncommon to pull 10-20 ticks off yourself by the end of the day. We tried to be vigilant about getting them off of us since it was common for these ticks to carry Lime Disease. Luckily nobody was infected, though I did get Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

I learned that 16 miles over medium terrain is just about my max. We had a couple of those days and those last 2 or 3 miles were not fun at all. Though they didn't seem to bother Chris near as much...ah the power of being in shape.

I also learned a lot about Chris, whom I didn't know prior to this trip. It's amazing the things you can talk about when your walking next to someone for 8 hours a day for 10 days. He's a really neat guy and I'm glad he came.