Instead of tapering....

It's the day before the Rt 66 Marathon. I have been a good runner this week, and have tapered. But the day was so nice today, and I was getting a little grumpy not being able to run, so I fell off the wagon and headed out the door for a few very easy miles on the trails. Dana was happy to go, and we took it easy. Took the camera along as always....and got a picture of us at the Oklahoma rock.It's so cool to have a natural rock shaped exactly like our state out on the trails. This got me to looking for other rocks shaped like states. Hmmm....It's unmistakable! Right here on Turkey Mountain was an exact replica of Arkansas!!

There are some New England states as well. Anyone could see this was Vermont!And with a bit more searching, I found the state of the New Hampshire.Hey, I was on a roll!! I hardly got to run another 100 yards, when I found none other than my favorite vacation spot, and home of my blogger friends Steve and Kathleen....COLORADO!!!Will miracles ever cease??? What an amazing find!!! Now this rock seems to portray the rocky mountain state as being a little flat, but I found an elevation profile right across the trail which shows some of the peaks (maybe Pikes Peak???)Sad to say, I did not see any more states until my run was almost at an end. But the final find was truly astonishing. Who in a million years would have ever imagined there would be an exact replica of Hawaii right here on the trails of Turkey Mountain? This was truly a sensational find!ALOHA!!

Warmed up leftovers from the weekend

On our way home from Yellville, we stopped in Eureka Springs. It's an old town that dates back to the 1800s, set on a hillside and I do mean steep hills. There are several old quaint shoppes with antiques, arts and crafts stuff, very nice art and sculpture work, knick knack touristy junke, many bed and breakfasts, some nice restaurants, a coupla taffy-making and fudge shoppes.It's a good way to spend an afternoon.There are hundreds of Victorian style houses, many which look just the way they did 120 years ago. There are a lot of them that have become run-down, but most are well kept.Some are still residences, and a good number of them are Bed-and-Breakfasts or individual shoppes.
The Elm house, pictured below, is an old B&B where Dana and I stayed on out honeymoon 11 years ago.The Elm House is one of the oldest inns in this tourist town. The inn below is at least a hundred years newer, has the look of a 100 year old Victorian.
On most weekends, the streets of Eureka are jam-packed with tourists. This particular Sunday however, the morning blue skies had turned to gray and the winding streets and store fronts were scarcely populated.
The Basin Hotel still is one of the choicest of places to stay in Eureka Springs.Don't expect a hot tub in every room, keyless locks on the doors, or a chocolate on your pillow. But this inn has an eerie history to it, along with a few tales of visiting spirits from years past. It also boasts a ground level exit on every floor. I have checked this oddity out....and it's true.

Lots of hand carved art to be seen....It was hard to walk out of this store without buying this, but somehow I escaped.

Luv me sum Smartwools!!
After a trip through the Rowdy Beaver, we made our way back to the car.
Finally, after all the sights were seen, espresso was drank, fudge was eaten, and flowers were smelled, we headed home.

Day two

Day Two of our trail running expedition took us to the ghost town of Rush.This abandoned mining community consisted of several 100 year old buildings, and just as many abandoned zinc mines. This area today is perhaps better known for the great trout fishing in the Buffalo River........ and to a lesser extent, the hiking trails we were about to explore.Either route involved quite a bit of climbing. We quickly scrambled up maybe 150-200 feet and ran across a trail halfway up the side of this mountain. There was a bit of a fog that had not quite lifted from the valley, and it was beautiful, but did not really photograph well.The first mile or so of the trail, beside being a steep climb, was also quite rocky in places.No complaints though....about the trail or the weather. The forecast had been rain, but we were treated to bright blue skies!Dana....on day two of testing her feet. Her PF/bone spur was behaving thus far.

Coupla cool tree shots:My guess is that the fall foliage would have been spectacular a couple of weeks ago.

We ran by several zinc mines."Do this, don't do that...can't you read the signs?"Not much of a way one could go inside. The openings here had steel bars keeping trail runners (and bears) out. Sorry for the blurry pic....I was reaching through a chain link fence to take the photo.

Indiana Jones ain't got nuttin on me. I can ride a mine shaft cart with the best of 'em.

Used to be able to have your horse shod here.

An old general store/post office. Or so they said.

Ran the gravel road on the way back to the car.Definitely a place we'll return to!

Playing in Arkansas

So, over the weekend, Dana and I celebrated our 11th anniversary a week late and ventured WAAAAYYY over into Arkansas to some cabins near Yellville. (Yup, there's really a town with that name!)We stayed in the
Silver Run Cabins, which were great. Not brand new, but not old.Very clean, very quiet, semi-secluded, and best of all, only a very short distance to some great trails!!!

Saturday, we tackled a nice loop in the Buffalo River State Park.This loop took us by several attractions....at least they were attractions for us...well for me.The ice storms from the past couple of years had done tremendous damage to the trees. (Is there a pun in there?)

We ran the loop counter-clockwise, against the advice of the people at Wild Bills Outfitters. They seemed to think we would not want to do a lot of climbing at the end of the loop, but hey, we are TATURs and not afraid of some wimpy little Arkansas hills. Truth be known, the map they gave us seemed to indicate going the directions we did would make for each attraction being a little more interesting than the previous one. (And in the interest of being interesting, I had better get moving along with the story, right?)
Attraction 1.This sinkhole was a huge crater in the hillside. I was not sure why this hole was here...maybe it was a wash from heavy rains? Of course, I had to climb down to the bottom to check it out. The sign says something about an icebox. Now Saturday, it was near 70 degrees, and humid. I was wearing tights, as I thought the weekend was going to be a little on the cool side, and I was mistaken. I was hot, but this hole was at least 15 degrees cooler as I descended the 30 feet into it. There was a small bit of a cave filled in with washed out mud. Nothing really to see here once I was there. I did have my feet slide out from under me and hit my bum and my right arm
pretty hard. A couple of bruises are sure to surface, and I am quite sore.This pic was taken one nano-second before my fall, hence the blur. Just for the heck of it, I climbed up a 30' moss covered rock face instead of coming back out the same way I entered. Stupid....maybe. Dana votes yes.

Attraction 2. This waterfall.I suppose one could take a shower here although the water was pretty cold.

Attraction 3.This old abandoned mine site. These hills were once mined for silver, but soon after, but soon after Zinc was found and mined. Somewhere in the late 1800s, the zinc market bottomed out and the mines were vacated. I am sure there are a few wild animals....mountain lions, black bears, bobcats that find this little cave to be a nice winter home.With a sign that warned of the danger of entering, and having no headlamp, I did little more than peek inside to take a quick pic.

Attraction 4.Not so exciting, but we ran along Panther Creek. It was a dry creek bed, and the trail at times ran right down the middle of it. Pretty rocky, lots of roots when the trail was on the creek bank. I was loving the run so far.

Attraction 5.A nice cave....not too big, no long passages, just big room under a rock bluff, with a sandy floor........and a nice skylight. It was amazingly cool in this room. Very refreshing on a warmish muggy day. Another cool thing, over to one side, I could hear rushing water below the floor of the cave. there was a small crevice where I could almost get my body contorted down enough to see where the sound was coming from, and then Dana threw out the idea that there might be a wild animal in there, and I decided I would just let it go.The next mile or so was nice runnable trail, almost like a 4-wheeler road. Just a perfect day to be out in the wilderness.

Attraction 6. The next item of interest was supposed to be an Indian rock house. I almost skipped this, thinking it was just some old stone and mortar dwelling abandoned in the woods. Glad I did not blow it off!The Indian rock house was a huge cave! A whole tribe of Indians could have lived in this cavern.The opening in the side of this rock bluff was about 80 yards wide, and 30 feet tall.This passage in the back of the huge cave led deep into the mountain. I would have loved to explore it....but again, no headlamp.In the previous cave, I had mentioned an underground stream. This cave had an underground water supply, and it was more accessible. this cave had a lot going for it for dwellers in years past. Good shelter, a good clean water supply....and even an opening in the ceiling for their campfires.But I was taken by another part of the cave walls. Over the water supply, the wall had a face watching over it.I am pretty sure I would not want to be here at night.

Attraction 7. This was an outcropping of rocks, that someone who drew the map thought was worthy of mention.Being the ham that I am, I also thought it was worthy of a picture.

Attraction 8.This was actually a pretty cool thing. I did not bathe here, but if I were camping, this would have worked for me.I am sure these are not soap suds, but rather just foam form the churning water.

Attraction 9. Not on the map, but a nice picture I thought.

Most of the run done, it was time to start the climb out. We had a few switchbacks to negotiate, but the trail was still runnable and we pounded it out.

After the run, looking out over the Buffalo River. The plan is to come back next spring and kayak the river along with a few more days on the trails.

I'll get a report on the trails we ran on Sunday on the blog tomorrow.