Travel: Bull Shoals - White River State Park

Destination:	Bull Shoals - White River State Park
Destination Type:	Outdoors
Location:	Bull Shoals, AR
My rating:	A-
Website:	Arkansas State Parks

Whether camping, hiking, geocaching, swimming, kayaking or fishing, the many outdoor opportunities are my favorite thing about Arkansas. When I go camping, it is usually in one of Arkansas' 52 state parks, with the occasional Army Corp of Engineers or local park in the mix. I have my favorites -- based on what I want to do -- but I also like to try new ones; eventually I hope to visit all of them.

During my niece and nephews' spring break, I managed to take some vacation and go camping at Bull Shoals - White River State Park. I had never been and didn't know what to expect. I knew we would camp. I knew we would trout fish. I knew we would hike. We did all of that, plus some more.

Of all of the state parks I have been to, this was the hardest one to find. First, I missed the turn into the visitor center which wasn't well marked. I quickly dismissed it and decided it was probably a country club or lodge of some sort, not part of the park. I continued driving, and soon saw some more signs for the park, which I followed. It turns out, check-in for the camping wasn't even in the visitor center -- lucky for me -- it was in a small building closer to the camping area. It also happened to be right at another turn in the road that goes down to a restaurant called Gastons. Luckily there were a couple of no-hookup tent sites available. I hadn't made reservations and didn't know if there would be space available upon arriving. I had a backup plan to take a road trip if there hand't been but as it turns out there are a lot of camp sites at the park.

Our campsite was at the very end of the campground. After we set up camp, we quickly went down to test out the fishing. We had learned at Walmart that artificial baits, treble hooks and barbed hooks were banned on portions of the river. Before fishing, we talked with park staff to make sure the game and fish weren't going to ticket us for fishing in the wrong spot. Once we were sure of where we could fish, we walked down the shore and began to wade in the water. Just deep enough to cover my feet, I stopped. It wasn't long before I had pain shooting up my entire leg from the cold water. It was only March and they were trout waters after all. I ended up fishing from the bank for half an hour without any luck before going back to camp and cooking dinner.

I think the best part of where we were camping was all of the open space. Right behind our site was a large open field where my nephew and I were able to throw the Frisbee around. He also found some other kids and threw around a football while I was (failing at) building a campfire for the night. We also found the park had a playground and basketball court. Like most of the parks I camp at, there were bathrooms with flushing toilets and showers.

Being March, the cool/cold evenings were to be expected. What we didn't expect was the lack of hot water. I think the park only had three bathrooms for the park with more than 100 campsites. There just was not enough hot water to support that many people. At least the bathrooms themselves were warm. Much warmer than the tent.

I slept well enough, despite the sirens from the dam when they would open the gates. The next morning I woke up before sunrise and cooked breakfast so we could be at the water by daylight. Of course, we still didn't catch any fish. It is a good thing I had brought enough food for dinner every night, although I had wanted to eat some trout for dinner. After giving up on fishing, we hiked one of the trails the park had to offer. It was nice, but I have been on better trails. Still, it provided our first overlook of the river -- at least that I could stop and enjoy without risking a wreck.

I know there were more trails in the general area outside of the park, but I hadn't prepared to hike elsewhere so we settled on going to the trout doc and charging our phones. It was nice to relax, read a book and look out on the river. The trout dock was also a nice place to escape the rain. I must admit there was one staff member there I didn't like a whole lot, but most of the staff were very friendly. One of them came out and talked to us for a while. Since we had all heard it was probably going to rain most of that day, I decided to take a road trip. While I was preparing for the trip and looking for geocaches, I saw a dotted line going across the lake. When I zoomed it it said "Peel Ferry" so I investigated a little further and learned that it was indeed an operating ferry. I asked the staff on the trout dock (since they were state employees) if they knew anything about it. One of them told me it was the last operating ferry in Arkansas, was indeed free and gave me directions. So my nephew and I set off for a drive, hoping to escape the rain.

It turned out to be a really beautiful day- at least most of it, where we were. On the drive to the ferry we saw a bald eagle which appeared to have caught its prey (a snake). Once on the other side, I proceeded to my planned destination, which I didn't tell my nephew was Branson, MO. There we met up with one of my friends from college and spent the day. We ate at Olive Garden before heading back to camp. Then we drove back in the storms the entire way. Instead of being cooped up in a tent, we were driving with the storm. By the time we arrived back to the park, the rain was over. We were able to lead in some lost visitors who were camping that night -- poor signs striking again. 

On our last day we walked through the visitor center, waiting for the water levels to go down. They had opened several extra gates that morning which meant the water levels were high and the river was flowing fairly quickly. Once the levels went down we were able to go kayaking. That was fun but probably not the best idea. We ended up getting in shallow water and having to wade to get back to the campground.

At first, I gave the campground a "B" but decided I would give it an A- because of its proximity to other locations, the open spaces and the friendliness of staff. I expect the bathrooms would be kept cleaner in the summer and the water itself will feel better when the temperatures are higher. Although I won't put Bull Shoals - White River on my list of favorite places, it is definitely a pretty park and worth at least one visit.

Review: Coordinates for Murder

Title:	Coordinates for Murder
Author:	Darren Kirby
ISBN:	1470079100
Pages:	123
Copyright:	2012
My rating:	2/5 (below average)

Geocaching is one of my favorite hobbies, not only because it takes me to new places but because it often combines many of my other hobbies like camping and hiking. I don't get to do enough of any. As with most hobbies, I usually enjoy books and/or movies about the subject. I received a gift card for Barnes & Noble at Christmas this year and ended up searching for Geocaching, just to see if there were any fiction books around on the subject. Sure enough, I found two, one of those being Coordinates for Murder by Darren Kirby.

I didn't pay attention to the rating, reviews or even information about the book, other than the synopsis, when I made the purchase. (Now that I go back and look, there is none.) The book is the story of two friends who go camping in the wilderness of northern Wisconsin. While there they attempt to gain bragging rights of being the "First-to-finds" on a new multicache. But what they find is not what they were expecting.

The narration in the book switches primarily between the two main characters. That is tolerable but unfortunately it isn't quite as predictable as in some other series such as Ender's Game in which each chapter switches narrators. Usually when the narrator does switch in this book it goes back in time and tells the same events from another character's point of view. Most books I enjoy, the concept of narration is left behind as the images of the story block it out but in Coordinates for Murder the narration stayed most of the time.

Now, I can't say the book was all bad; it did have its suspenseful moments and I did actually read the entire thing, more than I can say for some. *The following sentence may contain spoilers. Highlight the text to view.* The end of the book was even a huge surprise and out of the ordinary.

I think one of the biggest problems for me was simply the age group the book was probably intended for. I probably would have enjoyed it more when I was in elementary school. Of course, I don't think some of the content is appropriate for children that age. But then again, in the past 15 years since I was that age, American culture has changed a lot. But for parents to decide, the book does contain some bad language and some mild (compared to a lot of movies) gore.

I personally give the book a 2/5 (below average) rating. I've read worse, but I have also read much better. Have you read the book? Do you agree? Let me know in the comments below.

GC - Ghosts of Spanish Conquistadors

Geocache name:	Ghosts of Spanish Conquistadors
Hidden by:	Old River Runner
Location:	Dover, Ark.
Link:	http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?wp=GCT5Y9

I planed a weekend camping trip to Long Pool Recreation Area for this past weekend. My niece, 11, nephew, 13 and my sister, 33, arrived about 7:30 p.m. Friday. After setting up camp we went for a swim until dark, roasted hot dogs on the fire and told some scary stories. Around 10:30 we left camp to attempt our first night cache.
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We began by parking at the overlook and looking out into the valley and up at the stars. I haven't seen that many stars in ages! The overlook was crowded with people, most of whom appeared to be high school students, drinking and playing music. We left the overlook and pulled in on a dirt road which didn't appear to have much traffic. We walked back east down the road and began the hunt.

After about five minutes of walking it became a more difficult to see between the reflective tacks and I had to  watch the GPS to make sure we were not walking in circles. It felt like we were but the GPS said we were still on the path. It wasn't long before I began hearing rustling in the leaves somewhere in the darkness around us. I told the kids to be quiet and listen. We clearly heard an owl somewhere, but the rustling seemed to stop. We heard it a little more as we continued through the woods looking for more reflective tape.

Having a GPS in my hand keeps me comfortable that we won't get lost, but I don't know where the spiders or snakes are. I don't know how close we came to finding the geocache, we found as many as three tacks on some trees but we never spotted four. We ended up somewhere close to a road and we could see break lights and hear voices. We had also been spotted as we could clearly tell by the voices. It didn't help that my sister had a red light and my niece had a blue light. The lights kept malfunctioning and flashing so it could have appeared as if they were police lights. As I said, they were drinking, and my sister was afraid they would be drunk and possibly violent. That lead to our giving up on the geocache and just trying to get out of the woods without being seen.

We had to walk without lights at times adding to the spookiness. We walked into several branches and thickets before stopping to listen and to watch. There were lights that would appear and disappear, making it difficult to tell how far we were from the road at times. I don't think I have seen that many lightening bugs in 10 years. We never got far from the road as we wandered through the woods, trying to stay out of sight. From the sounds of things we had scared those at the overlook off as well. We made it back to the car safely and it made for the most interesting "Did Not Find (DNF)" caching story I have experienced.

Travel Bug

Since I've been back in the United States, I haven't had much going on. I haven't written a whole lot lately because of that. I've been working mostly, with only a few outings. I definitely haven't traveled much. Hopefully in a year or two I will be able to afford to travel some. But lately I have been able to do some geocaching and I recently bought several travel bugs.

For those who are reading my blog for the first time, let me explain briefly what geocaching is. In short, it is like a modern day treasure hunt. The first step is to get a GPS and then go online to the geocaching website to get coordinates for one of the millions or billions of caches out there. Plug the coordinates in and find the prize. Sometimes it is a box or container that has small items for trade; other times it is just a tiny container with a piece of paper to write your username on. Within this game there are special pieces that are trackable, the two most popular are "geocoins" and "travel bugs." My personal favorite is the travel bug. It is a tag that a player attaches to an item and it travels from cache to cache. That is logged along with the find on the geocaching website.

I dropped off one of the travel bugs of mine this past Saturday when I went to Pinnacle Mountain to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in about 12-13 years. That travel bug, "Who's your llama," has a mission to raise awareness of world hunger and poverty and ways that individuals can help. I look forward to hearing stories and seeing photos of where it goes. But it also gave me the idea for a new blog, or at least something I can do and blog more here.

I am thinking about getting some kind of item that isn't as small as the other two I have out there. This one will be a stuffed animal of some kind or at least something large enough to easily take a picture with. It will be similar to an assignment I had when I was in elementary or middle school. In that assignment we had to take the stuffed animal for a week and write journals about what we did during that week with it and show pictures. With the travel bug, users will be asked to share a small piece of their story on the geocaching website and be able to submit longer narratives and photos for possible inclusion in the blog. Even if I am not traveling, I can still read about it and maybe share that here.

Thats one big Rock!

For a relatively unplanned trip, the weekend trip to Gibraltar was probably one of the easiest trips since being in Spain. After an early start Saturday morning, I walked across the border around 9:30 a.m. They looked at my passport and then I safely put it back in its case, with two rubber bands securing the top so it could not slide out. Futhermore, I tightened the strap around my neck and tucked the holder inside the waste of my pants -- a rather uncomfortable location for the 12 hours of hiking.

I knew there was some history in Gibraltar to see, but after researching a little bit I feared that the monkeys would be the highlight of the trip.

Damian Corrigan writes on about.com, "Considering the acres of press coverage the battle between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar gets, you'd think there would be something worth fighting over. I'm still trying to discover what that is - maybe the Spanish like monkeys?"

He goes on to mention the monkeys about four or five times in the article. Lucky for me, I had looked up places on waymarking.com and added some geocaches also. The geocaching lead me up the rock before I ever made it to the cable car which I had planned on taking. So my adventure began. I didn't find the geocache I was looking for but I did end up finding the "Siege Tunnels," which were carved into the rock.

My first experience was buying postcards. That experience was in English. My second experience was buying a ticket to enter the tunnels (which turned out to include the other attractions also). That experience was in Spanish. The tunnels offered some interesting glimpses into history and some cool views of the land.

I later visited a Moorish castle, the Mediterranean Stairs Trail (N 36° 07.499 W 005° 20.612), St. Michael's Cave and a lighthouse. I only missed two locations that I would have liked to seen: The Pillar of Hercules and the American War Memorial.

Some personal notes:

* The highest point is about 1,400 feet. I reached that point and then hiked down and back up. That is in addition to many other ups and downs I did on the roads and some of the stairs.

* I lost count somewhere around 200 stairs that I climbed after the apes decided to jump on me for a THIRD time. The first time was when I sat down at the picnic tables. The second time was also there. (The second time, after one pulled my hair, I got up and started up the stairs. Soon after they chased after and jumped on me again.)

* The third encounter was the scariest. I am afraid of heights and these monkeys were on me in a very high places.

* Somehow I think if monkeys were human's ancestors that some of the traits we have developed are definitely better. But we lost a lot in that evolution too. There is no way I would be anywhere near some of the places these apes were -- hanging off the guard rails!

* I think I spoke more Spanish in Gibraltar than English. Not that I am complaining!

* The next day (today) muscles I didn't even know existed are sore. I walked for about 20 miles up and down the hills. I spent 12 hours in Gibraltar.

* I think Gibraltar has one of the coolest airports I have ever seen. Pedestrians and vehicles drive across the runway. Pedestrians can walk to the airport.

Geocacheando en España / Geocaching in Spain

Primero, ahora que estoy en España mucha más gente están leyendo mi blog. Significa que mucha probable están preguntándose, "Que es geocacheando," y quiero explicar un poquito para empezar.

Geocacheando es un juego/deporte mundial en que un participante mira al sitio de red, geocaching.com, para buscar el local de un "tesoro" escondido. Puede encontrar los coordinados, ponerlos en la Sistema Global de Navegación, y  ir para encontrar el "tesoro." Puede ser una caja con cosa pequeños para cambiar o tal vez solo un papel para escribir su nombre y la fecha. Después de devolver el geocache a su lugar de esconder, regresan al sitio de red para registrar su visita. ***Pinche aquí para ver un documento oficial de geocacheando.

Hoy encontré mis primeros geocaches en España. Uno en el parque más grande y uno cerca de una iglesia importante a la ciudad. Fui la primera persona a encontrar el segundo geocache aunque no parece tan importante aquí en España. Estoy esperando a poner un "travelbug" mio en un geocache pronto en un lugar con más actividad.

Y la mejora cosa, podría hacer algo fuera de casa. Hace buen tiempo hoy. Y casi siempre hace mas calor fuera del piso que en el piso a causa de la construcción en esta área. 

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First, now that I am in Spain, many more people are reading my blog. That means many probably are asking, "What is geocaching?" And I want to explain a little bit about it to begin.

Geocaching is a worldwide game/sport in which participants go to the geocaching website, geocaching.com, to search for the location of a hidden "treasure." He or she can find the coordinates, put them in a GPS and go to find the "treasure." It could be a box with small items for trade or may only be a piece of paper to log the visit. After returning the cache to its hiding spot, the geocacher then can log the visit online. ***[[Click here to read more from the official brochure.]]

Today I found my first geocaches in Spain. One was in the cities largest park and the other near an important church. I was the person to find the second one although that doesn't seem to be as important here in Spain. I am hoping to place a travelbug of mine in a geocache soon but in a place with more activity.

And one of the best things is I was able to get out of the souse for a while. The weather is nice today. And it is almost always warmer outside than inside because of the way buildings are constructed here for the summer.

Technology and the Future

It doesn't matter what I am studying, I will always find something to distract me. Today it was technology and the future. As I sat in the library thinking about some geocaching, I began to think of an idea for a "travel bug" that I could put in my first regular sized cache.

I decided it would be really cool to buy a 2 gig flash drive to use for the bug. On the first part I would put a text document with directions and the purpose of the bug. There would then be folders labeled by Country. Inside each country folder, sub-folders with state names would be created and then further sub-folders labeled by cities.

The directions would be something like this: Please create a new text file and title it with your username and home. In the text file write a little bit about yourself and about the area in which you live, whether it be your city, county, or state.

The purpose: In one aspect this is like a time capsule. It is also a chance for learning about other people and communities. Each time the bug is found a new entry would be saved inside the respective folder and the next people who find it can read it.

Then I began thinking about the use as a time capsule type thing. What if the earth is around for another 5,000 years and someone finds this flash drive. Would they know what to do with it? Computers as we know them might cease to exist. And what about energy?

Even if scientists had found old computers that would still function, would the forms of energy still be the same? Would they be able to run a computer to see the information on the computer or external memory devices?

What will scientists be able to know about so much of our culture and our civilization during this time. That information is stored on thousands of computers. Devices which require power. Devices that require other devices to function. Files corrupt. Water destroys the systems. Dirt isn't good for it. So in 5,000 years, after it has faced all these elements and new technologies have developed how much would be availible to study our history?

The example I will leave you with: 3.5 inch floppy disks. You remember those large square, plastic-covered disks. the ones that you slipped inside a slot on the front of a computer. The things that, if left in the computer, caused a delay in the boot-up sequence. The things that would hold 1 picture if you are lucky with today's cameras. The things that were replaced by CD's which are gradually being replaced with flash drives. When is the last time you used one?

So when all that time passes how will things change? How will they be different? Will they use electricity as we know it? Will they have power chords? Will computers have keyboards or be all voice control? Will they be big or small? How will information be stored? What information will be available about our society for future generations?

Weekend's Break

There are only a few more weeks left of class! That can be a good thing but it also carries bad news along with it. It also means only a few more weeks to write ridiculous papers, or start on final projects. Most of the time professors mention them at the beginning of the year but fail to provide instructions until the last week or two. That is exactly how my History of the Mass Media paper is.

I have had the topic for a long time now. But the problem is, the guidelines were given to us only a week before the paper is due. It has to be eight to ten pages long, I have known that for a while. Some important pieces of information I did not know include that it is going to be in APA style instead of MLA. I don't know APA style. That is slowing the process down a lot.

I also did not know we would have to have a minimum of five sources. That is 25 percent of the grade. I had two sources. I finally found a third source. The thing is, I could write ten pages with the two books I have easily. But now I have to take the information (that is included in two books) and find it in various other sources just to meet the requirements of the sources.  I could write about a topic completely unrelated to the class and that is only five of the points!

I took a break from it this weekend, though Friday night I did try to order a McNugget Combo at McDonalds with a side of research paper. He told me that if it was on Ronald McDonald he would do it. Unfortunately I chose to stick to the topic, which I may or may not follow the instructions-- I am probably going to fail the class anyway.

But the weather on the other hand was awesome. Friday night we played Ultimate for three hours. It was a huge success this time. There were so many people on the field that it got a little confusing. Had we not gotten colored tape, I don't think it would have been possible to play with so many people.

Saturday morning Yan and I went to the park before everyone else and did a little bit of geocaching. It was nice to get out and have some fun again. While we were walking we saw three snakes. One was in the swamp at the nature center and I think it was a cotton mouth. The other two were probably diamondback water snakes at Craighead Forest park. We had a picnic later on.

This morning I got out of bed around 7:10. We decided to go to the early service at Highland Drive Baptist Church this morning. We had been wanting to go to a traditional service for a while and what better day to do that than Easter. It also saved a few seats in the 10:45 service where they were probably having to use overflow rooms as it was.

After church five of us went to Lake Frierson and went kayaking. It was nice to get out again and be on the water. Luckily no one flipped over or anything. After an hour of kayaking we went to Crowley's Ridge State Park and just sat around for a while. I fell asleep a few times on the picnic bench.

Now I should be writing my research paper but I just don't have the will power. I am not quite a senior but that senioritis thing... Must be summer-break fever or something. I have not been able to properly focus since Spring Break. I might just start working on my Spanish research paper instead. At least I know how to do it.

Almost time to Return

Well this break has been a blast. As a college student who can also enjoy childish things at time it has been great! From hiking, geocaching, fishing, boating, skating, touring, bonfires and snipe hunting-- there has been a ton to do.

Recently friends from all over the state, many of which may even read this blog, came down to Sheridan for a bonfire. We took some of them on a snipe hunt. That was definitely interesting, even if my life was on the line because of it.

The weather has finally started becoming cold. The pond at my Mom and stepdad's house is freezing. It took about five punches yesterday in order to break it. It was about an inch thick. It had refrozen by last night and I broke it again. This morning it was at least an inch thick again when I broke it. I put my weight on my hands and it broke, yet my friend still tried to stand on it and broke it.

When we got back to Conway we drove down to the lake by the house. I decided to find some rocks to throw and try to break it. Evidently someone else had the same idea at some point-- there were rocks all on the ice. I never managed to sink one through the ice. I did break it in places but they continued to slide. Finally, I slid myself out on the ice a little and took a picture while it was cracking around me.

It should be an interesting winter if things actually stay cold. Arkansas might finally see one!

Geocaching

Think of a story about pirates that you heard as a child. One thing you might connect with those stories is a map with an X that marks the spot of a buried treasure.

Geocaching offers a small glimpse into the world of buried treasure, even if it is not going to take you to riches or it is not really buried. It can take you to a wide variety of places, environments, and terrains.

I received a hand-held GPS unit for my birthday in November. I'd been wanting to try geocaching for a long time at that point. I finally got the opportunity to really begin this month. It has been a blast!

Some advice:

1) Get to know your equipment. That was the mistake I made. I learned how to use my GPS unit on that first trip. I ended up hiking halfway around Mt. Nebo in attempt to find a cache hidden there.

2) Take a friend. It is a whole lot more fun when you take a friend along, especially when driving around an area going after more than one in a day. It also is safer.

3) Carry a pen with you. Some caches are micros and contain a log only. Others are larger and may have writing utensils, but they may or may not work. Many caches are damp inside.

4) Learn to be sneaky. Some caches you will simply have to wait for people to leave. Others you may have to leave and come back to later. Don't let anyone see you at one of them or it could disappear.

5) HAVE FUN. It is entertaining. It does take you many places you might not otherwise go.

Some of the caches have really cool items in them. Others may just be small trinkets such as an army man toy, or toy car. I saw one where someone put a rock in! But, even if it is just a log book, or silly little things, when you come to the item you have been searching, there is a feeling of accomplishment.

A Short Drive in Time

Christmas break has officially begun. I got back to Conway, along with my friend Yan, around 8 pm Tuesday night. Wednesday I had a dentist appointment and then we went into Sherwood for my grandmother's appointment. Finally, on Thursday, we got around to doing a little bit of exploring around Conway.

To spice it up a little bit I decided to get some coordinates so we could find some caches in the different areas we went.

First we went to Toad Suck Ferry Park in far West Conway. I always knew this park was here but never knew about the history, and had never visited it. The bridge has only been there for 40 years, replacing the ferry in 1970.

We later went to Cadron Settlement Park. I've been there many times but only walked around the main part which offers a lot of historical information. It talks about the trail of tears along with other historic information. But after that we went hiking to look for the cache (which we would not find). Along the trail we found an old grave site that I never knew was there.

Later we went to eat at Stoby's and then to Laurel Park.

I am sure there are a lot of interesting things in everyone's home towns, you just have to do a little digging. I would encourage you to find something interesting over the break.