Waking back up my face was still gigantic, Maggie could barely walk, but we were determined. Pretending a second show of the town stop would diminish our distress, we each rinsed off again. Unfortunately for Maggie, I used all the hot water and she was left with a miserable shower experience. We threw our stuff together, left the hotel room and waddled to the local grocery store. My eyes were nearly swollen shut and her feet were mangled, so together we nearly resembled a functional hiker. At the store we added to the mobile pharmacy in our packs and then got a ride back to the Bluebell Cafe for breakfast. Lori is the owner of the cafe and an absolute angle. She helps hikers with rides on the ENTIRE trail. That is 220 miles of possible shuttle territory. In fact we didn’t even meet her because both days she was assisting hikers in getting back to civilization. She truly embodies the culture that surrounds this trail. We were back on the trail by 10:15am and hiking to outrun a storm. Nearly every person we met in town had warned us about thunder, lightning, rain and high winds in the mountains, so we set our sights on staying in a shelter. The shelters out here have been so nice we figured we couldn’t go wrong weathering a storm in a three sided cabin. The trail was gentle. We only planned on going 12.2 miles and we took our time. Views of the Ouachita Lake and river far off on our right glistened in the sunlight. It was our most peaceful day of hiking until we neared the shelter. After a bathroom break I ambled the last 3/4 of a mile downhill and suddenly herd what sounded like a big lawn mower. As I neared a road I stepped to the side of the trail and lay an ATV pass me with a hunter hitting the throttle. The four wheeled vehicle could barely make it through the corridor. A quarter mile later I crossed a road and saw a huge hunting camp. Trailers, canopies and tents covered a small pullout on the dirt road. From the camp to the shelter nothing happened. At the shelter I made a quick fire, simply for the novelty and sat by it until the rain began to fall. A hunter walked by our shelter and took refuge from the storm. It was a huge storm and we had a nice chat with him. Every year he comes out for three weeks to hunt. He even showed us some photos of the bucks he had gotten in the past. He was another kind Arkansas gentleman and only left when the rain lessened. From the moment he left until dawn thunder clattered and rain poured out of the sky. Our tin roof was priceless and we could only hear the malaise outside. It was our most unique night in the Arkansas wilderness.
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