Little Bluff Cabin cam January 29 - There was a lot of bird activity going on today, especially BLUE birds. We see them on and off here and usually have several broods a year in the many bluebird houses we have in the yard. But January seems early for them, although it is so great to see them romping around getting ready to play house. And the splash of bright colors are just downright pleasing. So much so that Pam decided to do a pastel of one, and I think it turned out really great! She’s entered the new year with a fresh outlook and lots of energy to work on her art. She is especially good at critters - birds and puppies - but also landscapes, shapes, and beautiful color. Sometimes I get to hang a new one of two of her new pieces in the gallery, including this brand new bluebird, complete with a golden frame. (though they usually don’t last long before someone buys them!)

JOURNAL UPDATED JANUARY 31st

01/01/25 It was a cool start to 2025 and the pups and I made a quick mile loop through the forest (they stopped to bark at a squirrel or two - it was 21 degrees and mostly cloudy, but no wind so I still managed to work up a bit of a sweat. Funny, but when I woke up at 6 and wandered out into the living room I was kinda chilled - even though it was 70 degrees inside! So I began the new year as a wimp and put on a fleece jacket and stocking cap to sit down on the couch and watch the new year light ease across the landscape.

‘Tis a fact that our bodies at rest are not producing much warmth - only what is needed to maintain under a pile of sheets and blankets. In my case anyway, all I need to do to get myself warmed up is get the muscles working, walk around a little bit, climb some stairs, OR go HIKING! I can be almost freezing one moment and after just a couple minutes of quick hiking I’m usually fine - after 10-15 minutes of hiking I’m already peeling off the first layer, then a second, and by the time I’m back at the cabin I’ve worked up a sweat, even at 21 degrees. Then step back into a 70-degree cabin and YIKES, it’s hot in here!

I have the gallery open today but also a long list of chores to do before I turn the lights on. Actually since 90% of the time on the days I have the gallery open there is no one but me here. I used to turn on all the bright gallery lights first thing - and leave them on all day. No problem if there are folks here. But these days it’s a big waste of electricity. So I’ve been leaving the lights OFF until one of the outdoor cameras chimes to let me know a vehicle has arrived. Then, not wanting to appear to be closed or lazy, I sprint to the front of the gallery and turn the lights on, then sprint back into the print room area to find my hat, tuck my shirt in, grab a piece of gum, make sure the MUSIC is on, and finally when I hear the front door open I try to make a little bit of noise so it sounds like the artist is BUSY, but also ready to greet a happy person who has come to enjoy the gallery. Some days not a single person shows up and the gallery remains dark all day. Funny, but even with zero visitors I frequently don't get ANY WORK done - and have no idea what I did all day - but kill time (not good - note to self - LESS killing time in 2025 - DO SOMETHING!)

IF you ever do happen to arrive at the gallery to find the lights out, it’s possible I’m just in the back and didn’t see/hear you coming - or more than likely I’m just napping, haha. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

01/02/25 Kind of an interesting investigation I’m in the middle of that seems to finally be bearing some fruit, maybe. A couple of years ago I visited a remote and very unique spring house far up a hillside above Lost Valley that’s part of the Buffalo National River property. It’s actually the “bonus” photo on page two of my new 2025 Arkansas wall calendar. I’ve talked with several folks who also have been to this place and so far no one has any idea of its history (including some folks who know just about everything about that area!) - I’ve been trying to find any history and especially a historical family name to attach to it - but have had zero luck.

I’ve just been corresponding with the legendary Jim Liles about this (Liles Falls is named after him, he was assistant superintendent of Buffalo National River for many years and is the park service person most responsible for not only Boxley Valley ownership being returned to the original families, but also for the network of hiking trails in the park also). And now is possible he may have figured the mystery out. (His wife, Suzy, was the Buffalo National River Historian for many years, and Jim’s book - Old Folks Talking - is a masterpiece of history about the early years of Bosley Valley - together they know more than any others about all of this.)

Anyway, it appears the current historic and scenic spring house - or “spring-box” and Jim calls it - was probably built in the late 1890’s, with an early version of the spring-box built before the Civil War. There are a couple photos in Jim’s book of the guy who may have built it, although the photos are not related to the spring-box. It’s been an educational treat reading through Jim’s book - in this case the parts about the mining industry in and around the great Boxley/Ponca Metroplex at the turn of the century and before. It’s possible this spring-box may have been an important part of that mining industry way back when, but long since forgotten. Stay tuned.

In the meantime I'm calling this the "Keeton-BeechwoodMine Springbox" Here is my photo from May 2023 -

01/03/25 Several decades ago - actually it was last century - while running around with Terry Keefe looking for waterfalls he told me about this unique geological formation in a bluffline over near Bass. We found several waterfalls over there but never got to visit the rock formation he spoke of.

Fast forward to several years ago and I started to see photos of what Terry had described to me - now known as “Thunderbird Cave.” If you are on social media you’ve probably seen it too. Interesting overhang at the top of a blufline with the opening looking kind of like the famed thunderbird (or Ford Thunderbird logo).

Most who visit speak of how difficult the climb is to reach it - nearly 1,000’ up a very steep slope. When I hear that I sometimes smile - I rather love doing such things (don’t enjoy going DOWN though - that kills my knees!). Problem for me was the parking spot - needed some sort of high-clearance 4WD vehicle and multiple creek crossings to reach. I’ve not had a vehicle like that in many-years so I never bothered to go make the trek.

Then my friend Fireman Jeff and I plotted out a different route where we could hike from a normal county road - it would not be easy, but at least we could hike instead of having to take the jeep route.

It was kind of nippy this morning when we parked and headed into the woods - in the 30’s with a very stiff breeze. Finding a frost flower right away somehow made it feel colder. Within just a few minutes from the road we could look out through the forest and see this famed bluff formation at what seemed like just right over there. Looked like it was going to be a piece of cake for us. Problem was that the easy hiking terrain was on top of the ridges but all of that was private land. We knew we’d have to skirt around all of that private land, which would put us down into some very deep hollows and back up and over the other side, bushwhacking all the way. We both enjoy getting out into the open forest this time of year and roaming around bushwhacking without trails or old roads - just kind of going by the lay of the land - so we were up for a challenge.

Up and over the first ridge was no problem, but soon we found ourselves slipping and sliding on thick beds of dead leaves what seemed like straight DOWN the steep slopes. Did I mention I’m not a fan of going DOWNHILL, and also fraid of popping an ankle. So I frequently simply sit down and slide, grabbing small trees and bushes along the way to keep me from crashing. Jeff had his own way of going down, and we mostly kept a few feet apart, just letting gravity pull us along. Sometimes though there were sharp rocks that stuck up out of the leaves, patches of thorny briars, and other things that scratch and grab - not to mention some muddy spots. We both used leather gloves to keep from tearing up our hands.

Before long we’d landed at the bottom of the first drainage with a SPLAT! Often that last 10-15 feet drop into the creek below is a big one. OK, great, that’s one down. Now we continue STRAIGHT UP the other side, making sure to keep a distance from the private property line just off to our right. Used to be it was really tough to know where the national forest/private boundary lines were since it is rarely marked in any way. But these days we both had mapping software/apps on our phones or GPS trackers that specifically show property boundaries in real time - we could easily see where the lines were so as not to trespass.

OK, so we headed up the hill - both of us trying to keep up a good pace and not stop - but soon both of us were at a standstill - me because my hands were FREEZING - I needed to break out a pair of chemical hand warmers since my fingers were already turning white and then blue (raynands disease). And then when the hillside got really steep, I ended up down on all fours - literally clawing and crawling up the hillside, reaching from limb to bush to dead snag to help pull myself up. I’ve long thought it was only me that had to travel up slopes this way, and I just had to chuckle a little bit but I looked up above me to see Fireman Jeff down on all fours doing the very same thing!

Made it to the top of the next ridgeline - huffing and puffing but not passing out yet - and sure enough, we could look right across the next deep holler and see our target bluff formation “right over there.” Jeff’s GPS software noted it was only 4/10ths of a mile over to it - as the crow flies.

After a break to drink a bottle of water we were ready to proceed, and headed nearly straight DOWN again into the next deep ravine before us - this one seemed even deeper than the last, but we made it to the bottom without too much trouble. Then it was straight back UP again, mostly on all fours - for the final climb.

BUT WAIT, when we got to the top of this ridge we realized there was yet ANOTHER drainage between us and the bluff formation that lay hiding in the shadows ahead. Couldn’t contour around to the right and stay out of the deep ravine - private property over there. So down we went, then back up to the final ridge.

Down one last time into the bottom, then back UP a long surge - again mostly on all fours - straight UP until we reached the base of the big bluff formation - our target for the day - YIPPIE!

At this point literally within 100 yards of the end, I sat down to take a break and munch of a power bar and drink my second bottle of water. That wind had not let up and it was pretty chilly - I put on a wind jacket and sat down to soak up some sunshine for a few moments.

We didn’t really know where the thunderbird formation was on the bluffline, but it was fun climbing up around and through several interesting passages and narrow canyons - all leading to dead ends. Finally we made it all the way to the far end of the bluffs, and dropped down to and found the famed thunderbird cave.

The view from there was spectacular - we could see ridges, rivers, bluffs, and wild terrain for many miles in all directions. But one thing that kind of surprised me - usually you know “pictures don’t due the place justice?” In this case I kind of felt underwhelmed by what we found, even wondering if we were in the right spot. Clearly photos made this place look better than it was in person, at least to me. It’s just one of those optical things I guess. I shot a few phone snapshots and came up with a plan for a return trip when the light might be really good. Interestingly, even back under this large overhang - cell service was perfect - so I sent a snap back to my bride - mostly to let her know we were still breahting!

We decided to take an alternate route back to the county road we had parked on, which would take us along a ridge top and down into a deep canyon and then back steeply up onto another ridge top - in order to bypass all of the private property in the area. We only had to make one really difficult plunge down and then scramble/climb on only found back up to the top of a ridge to get around the property, then a mile or of of easy hiking got us back to the country road and a quick jaunt back to the truck. None of the three routes to this scenic spot are easy nor for the faint of heart, but at least I now know the terrain and which route I’ll use for a return trip when I’ll have my real camera gear with me and be able to spend some time working the formation and the view.

One interesting note on the way out. As I was not-so-carefully crossing a stream, my feet slipped out from under me and DOWN I went. When crossing streams like this I always try to cross at a spot where I might make a safe landing and not slide over a ledge. I normally fall forward, but for some reason I fell backwards - that’s more dangerous because it is easy to hit your head and cause trauma, sometimes fatal. But son of a gun, my backside actuually never touched the stream, rocks, or ground - I had somehow swung my arms behind me and so I landed on my hands, with a bit of a splash! No harm.

But two steps later the “911” alarm on my watch went off - it had detected hard fall and would proceed to send an emergency message to 911 if I did not cancel. This has only happened to me twice before - once out in Colorado this past summer only one day after first turning the feater on (after a front-landing fall) - and again one day while I was “frothing” my coffeemate - the sensor picked up the vibrations of the frother, haha!

It was a GREAT day to be in the woods, and I’m glad to finally complete the circle that Terry Keefe had started me on. Here’s a cell phone snapshot for now, with hopes I’ll return another day and get a real photo...

01/04/25 Here's a screech owl (one of the smallest owls in the USA) that's living next to the Fox and Fern Outdoor Cafe in Jasper - he's been in this tree for the past month and seems to enjoy it there. We had lunch from this local food truck yesterday and it was quite wonderful! I'm afraid we'll be forced to return a few more times to make sure it really was as good as we thought - and maybe get a shot of the owl with his/her eyes open! We hear that winter is going to arrive this week - stay safe and warm...

33 degrees with pea-soup fog this morning. Warm that soup up a little bit and it will go GREAT with a piece of warm homemade bread ripped from the loaf that's straight out of the oven - I can smell that bread baking right now! Oops, I got a little ahead of myself there. We are headed north to Springfield for a beginner's bread-making class and will come home with many fresh loaves - minus one or two consumed during the trip home. I LOVE fresh bread, been allergic to YEAST most of my life so have avoided it, especially in the past few years. But if I can contain myself (probably not) and only eat PART of a loaf, I might be OK.

01/05/25 It was BELOW ZERO wind chill with the actual temp of 11F it was kinda nippy for our hike this morning - only an inch of snow but all the tundra is frozen here! We just barely made it out of Springfield yesterday before the storm hit and had no issues getting home. Well, we did have one issue - WAY TOO MUCH BREAD!* As you can see we made at least nine different types of bread in our beginner bread-making class at Pickwick & Cherry (they have many different classes - all about FOOD!). My lovely bride is going to take advantage of the frigid temps and bread bowls we made and brought home - she'll some homemade hearty soup for lunch - served in our fresh bread bowls.

*BREAD UPDATE I'm highly allergic to YEAST but have been able to keep it under control without any major attacts these past few years. BUT NO MORE. I filled my entire allergin bucket full and overflowing and have been sick as a dog since Monday evening. I probably won't see another piece of bread for at least A MONTH, and may swear off it for good. (it's not gluten - it's the YEAST that gets me, which is also in hundreds/thousands of othter foods besides bread.) I was like a druken sailor being drawn in to the siren's song. Uggggg, it's been a miserable week for me and my lovely bride to have to put up with me, and probably another week or two to go...

01/10/25 We have eight inchs of fresh beautitful snow covering everything this morning - 'tis a winter wonderland as far as you can see! I've only been out for a couple of short trips around the cabin (see my *UPDATE ot the bread saga at the end of this, uggg) The temp is much warmer today then the past week - up into the low 30's. Last night I hit a low point physically for me this week and the hike home from the gallery just after dark had me shieveriong violently and almost unable to hold onto my computer. The temp wasn't too bad, I was just being my geezer age I guess. A HOT shower brought be back from the brink and I slept like a baby as the winter storm dumped its powder all night...

01/11/25 No snow has melted yet but with the temps already rising at sunrise and clear-blue skies all around it's gonna melt pretty fast. That's Mia on the trail ahead of me completing two miles of hiking. She's been busy with moles this morning. So fun to watch her - she will leave the trail and come to a quick halt in tthe woods, then stand there, frozen stiff, waiting for a movement (or probably a sound since the mole would be at least a foot below the top of the snow), underground. Then in one snap motion she will rise up and POUNCE nose first into the snow, clawing into the top few inches of soil - she only has an instant and the mole is gone, escaped untouched. In past years Mia could rack up several catches in a day, but lately she's batting 0 - at least from what I've seen. There is the odd carcus in the woods that appears now and then that seems to be about mole-size, so she's probably getting more than I see.

01/11/25 I bet a lot of you saw this today - the spectacular color was spread across the entire eastern horizon before sunrise - the colors were probably more vivid than our monitors can display. - and also phones likely pushed the colors in odd directions. Winter has some of the very best skies in Arkansas.

11/14/25 Seems to be taking a long time for the snow to melt - there is still 2-4" covering about half of the forest here at our place. You can see our trail winding through the snow in the upper photo below - today is the first day I've worn it down to the forest floor of leaves. There has not been any traffic since the show fell in the middle photo below - that's actually a "hidden trail" that some critter/s has/have made, and the path is worn just enouth so as to allow the snow to melt before the surrounding snow. I've noticed six or eight of these hidden critter trails all of a sudden this year - curious who they below to (deer trails are usually much more easily spotted, dug into the ground, but a coon or fox, not so much.

Speaking of a FOX - the lower photo below is one I took several days ago when the snow was still fresh along the section of our main trail down near the big waterfall. Foxes tend to step in their own footprints (vs. side-by-side) as you can see here - so if you just see tracks in the snow that are all in a single line - probably a fox...

01/15/25 28 degrees for sunrise - more beauitful color every day it seems. Today that color was a quiet, kind of glowing salmon. Squirrels seemd to like it as they were up at dawn running around making our security cameras at the gallery sound off. A while later as the pups and I were hiking through, Mia picked up one of the squirrels and followed it - from tree to tree to tree, through the forest, down the hill, while Mia barked and yipped all the way. Eventually I lost sight of Mia below the hill, but I could still hear her, and see the squirrel as it jumped from treetop to treetop. The squirrel finally made it to our properly line, nearly a half mile from where Mia first found it at the gallery. I could hear Mia grumble as she would not cross our fence, yet watched as the squirrel continued on across the creek and up the hillside and out of sight. I used to worry about the pups spending so much time chasing squirrels - they would frequently outsmart the squirrel and it would end up on the ground and easy for the pups to catch/kill/eat. But these days I don't think the pups have "landed" a squirrel in quite a while - so the squirrels are safe and it's GREAT EXERCISE for Mia and Wilson!

01/18/25 SPRING is almost here! My lovely bride has a flower blooming.What that really means is we've got a "winter vortex" headed our way and this flower just wanted to pop her head out to say YIPPIE before getting frozen solid. The gallery parking lot is MELTED now and free of snow, although the ground remains wet so tomorrow it might be a skating rink.

01/19/25 While doing a quick mile hike before sunrise with the pups I had to stop and admire the leaves at my feet - covered with just a bit of snow that hit around midnight. Even though the windchill was below zero I suspect the brilliant sunshine will make quick work of the snow - freeze dried back up into the atmosphere within an hour I bet. GALLERY IS OPEN TODAY FOR WALK-INS, 9-5. Otherwise, here's wishing you a splendid SUNDAY!

One funny note about coffee. I only drink cold coffee these days - I have a VERY low threshold temp before burning my mouth - even warm things sometimes destroy my taste buds. I'm using an Aeropress, reverse cold brew method, which I can make anywhere, anytime - no heat or electriciy required - takes about two minutes - it's GREAT! Although sitting here in the gallery this morning with the temp 58 right now (I DO have the heat on now but only turn it on when I have the gallery open), I'm really wishing the decades-old Keurig machine worked so I could start with hot coffee, chilled down enough with a cup of chilled coffeemate of course! (the keurig is dead, I just can't bring myself to toss it out)

01/20/25 CALM winds and 2 degrees above zero at sunrise today as Wilson and I headed out for a brisk mile hike before breakfast. Miss Mia proved once again to be the smarter hound and stayed behind to catch up on her reading. I've added the lower photo to show that we can see a pond (first bright spot), Henson Creek (middle bright spot), and the Little Buffalo River (bright spot in the back) from our deck - all are several miles away.

01/21/25 A balmy 4 degrees at dawn with bright sunshine - we had a little snow overnight to dust our winter grasses. Normally when the temp is below 10 I wear my Alaska snowmobie suit and heavy winter rubber boots - and I can only hike 1/2 mile before being totally sweat-soaked inside. Today I wore my normal cold outfit - a fleece layer and light down jacket, normal pants, and hiking boots - but added a thin wind jacket for the outside layer. Add to this a beenie hat and covid mask (to keep my face from freezing solid) and I kept toasty warm for our two-mile hike, and didn't even work up a sweat! That was all fine as long as I kept moving at a brisk pace, but if I stopped for more than a few minutes I'd start to freeze up in a hurry. MOVEMENT is the key to staying warm in the woods in the winter - and it's a lot more fun too!

01/23/25 Nearly t-shirt weather today - 25 degrees with more clear-blue skies! There's a period when really nice ice formations will change from the FROZEN state (top phhoto below) to a MELTING state. Yesterday I got to see both at our MiaWilson Falls. The second photo below was taken from behind the frozen curtain (took me a while to crawl back under there on my hands and knees), and the bright sun had started it's melting/dripping process, bringing this frozen giant to LIFE - with sound and movement (the ice wall is about 25' tall). I spent nearly an hour back under there and shot some amazing VIDEO - including slow-motion video - that I hope to be able to show you some day - if I can ever figure out how. *that short video is posted on my Facebook page here.

01/28/25 My schedule is kind of messed up right now. Some folks ask what a typical day is for me and I just laugh. No such thing. Yesterday I got up at 3am and walked out the door a few minutes later, drinking my breakfast smoothie as I drove into the night. Though I’ve driven up the steep, rough, county road that leads to our old Cloudland Wilderness Cabin in the dark thousands of times, I rather enjoyed the trip this time for sure. The road crews just started a major renovation of the first two miles, which is the really steep and rough part at the beginning coming up from Boxley. It’s closed from 8-4 Monday - Thursday, open the rest of the time.

Originally it was floated they were going to “pave” this worst part of the road, but no one really knows exactly what they are up to - well, LOTS of people know of course, but that info has not been officially announced from what I hear. I’m sure the first months will be kind of ugly, and it was indeed right now - mostly they are uprooting a lot of large trees along the way, laying them down alongside the gravel road for some reason. I must say the road was the best I’ve seen it in quite some time, although they really haven’t done anything to the actual “road” part yet, just widening the corridor.

Soon I had arrived at my parking spot, and prepared for departure to my chosen shooting location. I’d done this hike literally hundreds of times in the dark, so this was no big deal, but each time I hike through the thick forest wilderness down to the famous Hawksbill Crag I enter some sort of mental zone - one of happiness, like waking with an old friend. The forest jungle is REALLY THICK - so much so that I have to shield my eyes with my hands in front of me to keep branches from sapping my face. A lot of young maple and beech trees have kept their leaves all winter, and I welcome their quiet hello as I pass through them.

The thick carpet of leaves underfoot are soft and my heavy rubber boots sink in and grip tight. There isn’t much sound, just my footsteps, with an occasional curse word when a young beech branch makes contact with my face.

Soon I break out of the dense jungle into a mature forest of tall maple and hickory trees and everything opens up - hardly any understory trees at all. Even though I’d been traveling downhill since leaving my car, this part REALLY drops steeply down the hillside, and I slip and slide a little bit, in the dark, hoping my feet don’t come out from under me. When the terrain levels out I pass by an old campsite - mostly clean all around, except for empty water bottles piled in the fire pit (why?), and what looks to be a full-kingsize inflatable mattress, long ago lost all its air. Again, WHY leave something like this at such a pristine spot? Just lazy, uninformed, or something.

A few minutes later I enter the magical world that is Hawksbill Crag, or at least the area just above it. I head on past to my favorite shooting location, set up my tripod and camera - but only after attaching myself to a large rope that’s attached to a rock-climbing harness I’m wearing, and it’s attached to a nearby tree. This setup allows me to setup the camera right at the very edge of the 100’ tall bluff without fear of falling off. I’m perfectly fine with being in such a dangerous spot at night - in fact I think I’ve always preferred it in the dark. Am I weird? (No need to answer that, of course I am!)

It didn’t take me long to discover that my carefully chosen camera and lens were NOT what I needed to be using. Gosh darn it. My ailing back only allows me to haul a few items of camera equipment, and so these days I try to estimate what I actually need. OOPS, that didn’t work this time. So I left the tripod and my rope harness all set up and I headed right on back UP the steep open hillside and through the beech and maple jungle back to my car. That was no problem for me - I rather enjoy doing this Uphill part, always have.

Soon I had traded in my camera and lens for a different pair and was happily tromping on back down to the Crag in the dark. I don’t ever whistle while doing things like this alone, although sometimes I will sing out loud if I get a feeling that Bigfoot or a bear might be traveling with me just out of headlamp light.

With my new camera gear all set up I finally got the chance to take a few photos of the rising Milky Way. Back in my”youth” I always thought the Milky Way didn’t rise until later in the spring. But son of a gun, turns out it is actually visible in JANUARY! Including my most favorite part of it - oh how I have missed out of this amazing sight all these years!!!

So I shot a few frames of the rising Milky Way, then wandered off in the dark to kill some time until the stars rose into a different location. I also happen to enjoy just this part - slowly hiking in the dark to see what there is to see. One thing about darkness is that your attention is really focused on whatever your headlamp is shining on, and without the rest of the forest fighting for the same attention within your vision, somehow I can SEE more of what’t in front of me.

I just had to laugh when I reached my old favorite Highbush Huckleberry tree along the path - I don’t think I’d ever seen it in the dark before and it was really interesting to me what it looked like with just my headlamp on it - so I snapped a photo. (I actually took this photo with green and red lights also - which looked REALLY ODD - but I kinda like this normal white-light version.)

Anyway, I eventually returned to my camera setup, took a few more photos, then packed up and headed back to the car. It was still pitch black out there in the wilderness, and I really enjoyed my second hike of the morning (night?) back UP to the car.

One thing I noted during this visit to the Craig. Even though it is one of the most popular wilderness locations in Arkansas - and the trail gets pounded all year - I never saw ANY trash around the Crag - not even a gum wrapper or cigarette butt. Amazing. Of course, there isn’t any ground vegetation left anywhere in sight either - it’s all been worn off with the heavy foot traffic - so maybe the trash that us humans sometimes leave behind is constantly blown away by the prevailing winds.

OK, back to the car, and a quick exit back down the mountain and past the soon-to-be-closed-for-the-day barrier, and in no time I was back home. Since I’d had breakfast at 3am, so then at 9am it was time for, lunch already? I was hungry, and cooked up a mess of scrambled eggs with green peppers, onions, and little smokies with a bit of cheddar cheese on top.

BUT WAIT, not long after my second breakfast of the day it was time for LUNCH! And my bride and I decided on PIZZA, so I gathered kindling and started a fire with “Woods Boys” hardwood planks in our wood-fired pizza oven out on the deck (one of them owns a sawmill and makes ax and other tool handles - currently we’re using scraps of ash from his mill. When the oven hit 925 degrees it was ready for two small pizzas I’d put together - took each less than 90 seconds to cook. Yum, YUM!

Not long after this I realized that since I’d already eaten THREE meals for the day and it was only 1pm, WHAT was I going to have for DINNER? Or was I even allowed to eat again? I spent the rest of the day in the print room going through the photos I’d taken in the morning, and planning what I was going to do next.

OK, so I did manage a nice chopped salad for dinner, then packed up a completely different set of camera gear and sped off into the night. I arrived at my shooting location about 10pm, crawled into the back of my van, and tried to get a few winks. I say a “few” winks since my alarm was set to go off at 2am. Naturally I was wide awake at 1:30, so I got up and crawled into a seat to prepare the first set of camera gear. I’m parked here on a high and very open WINDSWEPT ridgetop, and oh my goodness when I opened the door to step outside to pee, got hit by a blast of what felt like arctic air. It didn’t take me long to set up my camera gear and started a series of 800 photos that the camera would take all on its own over the next several hours - of the Milky Way rising.

One funny note about this - I could not SEE the Milky Way - I had to guess where it was going to appear and pointed the camera in that direction and hoped for the best. I can’t change the camera position once I start, so here’s fingers crossed I guessed correctly! (I know there are APPS for showing where the stars are, and I used one, but I never really know how accurate those things are…)

When I got up at 1:30 I had a bottle of chilled Iceland Coffee and a breakfast bar - it was after all the beginning of my work day, so what’s wrong with BREAKFAST at 1:30am?

I’m back in the car now - or should I say “van” - and since I don’t need to set up my second camera gear until about 4am (in this same spot) I figured it would be a good time for me to dig out my computer and write some of my “typical” day up, and that’s what I’ve been doing. Fast forward a little bit, and I’ll get out of this toasty-warm van here in a few minutes (it’s already almost 4am!!!), set up my second camera gear, and work on shooting the rising Milky Way in a different way for a couple of hours with a different camera. Then I’ll pack everything up and head back home. And guess what - I’ll probably eat breakfast again, haha!

Side note about my car/van. I’ve not had a four-wheel drive vehicle in a very long time. Four years ago I started to obsess about getting a new critter that had just come out - a four-wheel drive VAN (I love vans, and have driven a few million miles in them). My old cargo van (rear-wheel drive only, ground clearance of about 4” - not exactly off-road material, but it has been a workhorse for us for many years and miles - I’ve often loaded two pallets of books into that old van with a forklift, and slept in it hundreds of nights.

Anyway, I was FINALLY able to get the vehicle of my dreams recently and tonight is actually the very first time I’ve used it for what I really got it for. But first I must tell you this rugged outdoor type of four-wheel-drive vehicle is actually a full-fledged SOCCER MOM VAN!(Toyota Sienna built in Indiana - a friend of mine from 40 years actually helped build iit - he works at the Indiana Toyota plant.) It is four-wheel drive (just barely), has plenty of room for me and all my stuff, but it’s still very low to the ground so I won’t be going into the deep woods with it - but that’s fine with me. It is a joy to drive - and since it’s a hybrid - the gas mileage is terrific - I’m expecting up to 40mpg+ for long-distance trips out west, and even driving around here I’m still getting 32mpg. Tonight/this morning (it’s actually 3:55am and almost time for me to get back to work) I’ve been able to explore some of the many extras that come with my soccer-mom van.

When I went to bed a few hours ago I pushed one button and set the climate control, and all night it’s been 66 degrees inside - I didn’t even need a sleeping bag. Most of that time the system was on battery power, then whenever the computer felt like doing so it would start the gas engine for a few minutes and charge up the big hybrid battery, then shut off again. It’s like a mini hotel room in here with more electrical outlets (110 and USB) than in my office it seems! There’s a small fridge/freezer, vacuum cleaner, HEATED seats in the back captions chairs (where I’m all stretched out typing this), and sliding doors on both sides, which makes access to all of my camera gear really HANDY!

My time has run out and I now have to step out into the frigid north windchill that’s in the teens and get back to work with my second camera setup - the Milky Way is just about to peak up above the horizon and I don’t want to miss it!

Mission accomplished - I got back home just before sunrise - and had a smoothie for breakfast! NOW, time to get started with my real work day... HAPPY TUESDAY TO YOU!

01/29/25 Mid-afternoon we decided to run down to Boxley and hike the Lost Valley Trail. My bride wanted to make a sketch of the Natural Bridge there and see if there was any water running. Turns out there was not much water in the creek, but enough, and so I left her behind to create some art while I hike on towards the back of the canyon.

We had already run into one trail crew from the National Park Service - much of this most popular trail was literally washed away by the big 15” flood late last year, and it was great to see they were already fixing it. In fact they almost had it all fixed already - very quick work - YEA for them! Mostly the work was to haul in literally truck loads of gravel “fines” and pack it all down (using a small front-end-loader to ferry the material from the parking lot back to the far reaches of the trail). Fines are the fine grains of limestone after gravel is made - it’s more like sand than gravel, but white limestone. Several staff would spread each dump load of fines using hand rakes. The trail had been washed out several feet deep in places.

I headed on back to Cobb Cave at the end of the trail and spent a little bit of time sitting in the way back looking out - one of my most favorite views anywhere. The waterfalls were running a little bit, but not too much, but the view is always terrific!

Later I hiked the steep trail on up to the cave entrance, then back down again. Lots of nice stone steps for this section. In face after I got down to the creek level I decided to find out how many steps there were. So I turned around and climbed back up to the cave entrance again - as fast as I could go - counting all the way. 117 steps! And it felt great to get the blood pumping a little bit. Always so wonderful in Lost Valley!(OK, so I actually ran up the steps three times - felt great)

Pam completed a nice sketch and then we decided to go check on the work that was being done to Cave Mountain Road. We got really luck and ran into the MAN himself, KENNIE WOODS at the foot of the mountain. Kennie owns Bob Chester’s old cabin next to our previous Cloudland property and he is always great to talk to and full of information. He is sort of the “Keeper of the Crag” and pretty much knows all that goes on up there.

They have started to widen the first mile of the roadbed - the really STEEP part that goes UP the hill - and in the process are removing quite a few mature trees along the way. They had just gotten started on this process and it will be interesting to see how it all develops - supposed to pave the first two miles up from the highway.

01/30/25 We had a good bit of rain overnight - 2.5” - not enough to get waterfalls up and rolling but it was a nice start. After making a trip back down to Boxley Valley in the morning to take a few photos of a neighbor’s property, the rain continued and I decided to call Fireman Jeff and see how rainfall totals were down south in the Russellville area. “Hasn’t stopped raining all day!” Oh that’s what I wanted to hear! In fact it was flooding already in the foothills of the Ozarks, and I decided it was time to get back out and go waterfall hunting.

FLOODING INDEED! Big Piney River was already out of its banks and rising, and the little creek drainage I’d wanted to explore had flooded so much that when we arrived it appeared to be WAY too much water for our planned hike a mile upstream to a group of waterfalls I wanted to photograph. As we stood there at the edge of the roaring creek it started to rain pretty hard. OOPS! Then we wondered about approaching the waterfalls from the side instead of from below so we wouldn’t have to cross the creek. Hum.

That’s what we did, and it also turned out to be a much better way to access these waterfalls - and shorter too. It only took us about 20 minutes to reach the falls, and we spent the next hour or two splashing around them getting photos. It was late in the day and about to get dark by the time we finished up, then a long drive home. SO NICE to see big water again!

01/31/25 Rain had stopped, but my goodness it was FOGGY EVERYWHERE as I left home before first light and headed south again in search of more waterfalls. The Big Piney River was still raging, but it was down a little bit thank goodness - where we wanted to park had been under water yesterday! But it was fine today, and we actually parked so close that we would see the first waterfall up on the hill! It was a steep climb to get up to it, and that would be the order of the day - STEEP CLIMBS!

Before we could get started though we had to recalibrate the special digital rangefinder that I use to measure the height of waterfalls. It was not working yesterday, and so today I brought the actual printed directions and let Jeff have a crack at them (I’m NOT good with operational directions!). It’s not a case of how accurate this device is - it’s whether it’s set up to the correct parameters - either it works or it doesn't. Took us a while, and I think we both actually had given up, when I tried it one last time and YEA, it started to work perfectly! This is a key to accurate waterfall height measurement without having to climb to the top of each fall and physically lay down at the very top edge with a bit roll of measuring tape.

So UP the hill we climbed to the first waterfall which had a stunning GREEN block of sandstone directly in front of it. In fact looking around here was a LOT of brilliant GREEN moss-covered rocks, trees, ground - it was all beautiful! We spent the next hour or so working up into the drainage, taking photos, measuring heights, and then trying to figure a way up to the next one.

Near the top Jeff went on UP to look for more waterfalls as I finished the last one I wanted to photograph (he found a couple that will probably end up as “small w’s” on a guidebook map, but I did not photograph or measure them. Then we decided to go have a look at a drainage next door - never seen any photos or even mentions of waterfalls in that unnamed drainage, so maybe it was dry, but what the heck - sunshine was beginning to burn off the fog anyway and good showing might be over for the day.

As we worked our way on over and into the next drainage we almost immediately heard and then saw a wall of water, and more beautiful green boulders. This was a significant waterfall and I spent a while trying to get a good photo of it - as the sun shone most of the time. Jeff hiked on upstream to look for more, but found mostly acres of giant moss-covered boulders.

The terrain was REALLY STEEP and rugged, and even when we spotted a great waterfall downstream, it was a bit of a “rump slide” to get down to it. I set up the camera and waited for a cloud to drift in front of the sun, and measured the height. Finally a cloud, a photo, and then more exploring. Turns out there was another TERRIFIC waterfall just below this one - the third large falls in this new, unknown and unnamed drainage!

That would be it for this section, and soon we had worked our way back down - and then around private property - and back to the car.

Clouds moved in and we decided to return to the waterfall group we’d been to yesterday, and we spent the next couple of hours documenting a group of five waterfalls - better photos due to lower water levels - and accurate height measurements. Another very long drive back home, but we’d had a couple of great waterfall days! Here's Fireman Jeff crawling through some giant sandstone blocks...

Pam had texted me while I was in the woods that Mia needed surgery and they were able to get right to her and take care of her issue. We have such a GREAT vet in Harrison! By the time I got home Miss Mia was already in the recovery stage and hungry as a horse. Me TOO!