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Big Piney CreekHike to the Bluffs of Manliness above Big Piney Creek with enhanced action
3/21/20
The action of the bluff is wonderful to behold. My quest is to behold it often. On this Saturday morning on a very early spring morning, I visit some bluffs with excellent action. One might be inclined to say that these bluffs are quite manly. These are...The Bluffs of Manliness. They reside high above the Big Piney Creek. So damned big is this creek that it's not a creek, but a river. Its length and watershed rival many within the state of Arkansas. Some have named this creek the River of death. Well...not some, but me. My entry into this area was at 6:00 a.m. under a blanket of darkness. The thermometer read 34°. No moon adorned the sky on this morning, so the darkness was extra dark. Luckily, my HeadMaster 5000 headlamp with its 5000 lumens of throw, showed the way before me. Without it...I would surely perish into a crevice with many hundreds of feet of deepness. Soon, a suitable bluff was secured and made ready for the sunrise...which never came due to thin cloud cover. The dawn was of great beauty, nonetheless.
The clouds did clear around 9:30. After 10:00 I moved down the bluff line. A small waterfall was found within a cleft of the rock. This was Johnny Twocakes Falls. Johnny roamed these hills around 1860. His home was just down the slope. He shared said home with his wife Susie. His son Jimmie and daughter Cressalon also partook of the fruits of this valley. Cressalon went on to be a school teacher and Jimmie turned out to be no account. On down the bluff I did take my lunch. The sun provided me with great warmth while I loitered there for a time. Exit from the shrubbery at 12:00 with 50°.
