Saturday, January 1, 2011

5 miles of hiking for a 60 mile total. 2010 can suck it. Welcome, 2011, don't be like 2010. My car is still in the driveway, not due at the body shop until Monday, but a friend from KC, (Hi Steph), was delighted to come down and hang out for the New Year's weekend and we started it off right by spending the first day of the year in the woods of Arkansas. A quick 2 mile hike of Hideout Hollow got us warmed up on a brisk but beautiful winter's day. There are some really cool boulders and a small ravine deep in the valley of the hollow that beg some future exploring when time allows. I have heard that there is a non-technical way to climb down to them, but didn't see it at first look. The sun was still out so we headed to Hemmed-In-Hollow for a trip about halfway down to the falls and back, a dash of about 3 miles that included the steepest part of the monster hill. (I didn't let on that it did, but we hit the steepest part, sorry Steph). Total was 5 miles for a beautiful day in the woods, ending with a sunset over an almost supernaturally quiet valley. I like wintertime in the woods.