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Dry Creek Wilderness Area
Dry Creek Wilderness Area hike with ridge and bluff action, Ouachita National Forest
7/27/18
  Dry Creek has a small watershed and is situated in a bowl shaped valley within the Ouachita National Forest in Logan, Scott and Yell Counties. Today I visited Logan County. Dry Creek is a tributary of Sugar Creek which is a tributary of the Petit Jean River. This wilderness is not a popular one. It does, however, have some interesting features. Prior to visitation breakfast was at the South Park Restaurant in Clarksville at 2:45 a.m. It was tasty. Getting to this wilderness area is not terribly easy. All roads in are long and dirt. The mountains surrounding this valley are of goodly stature. By the time the woods were entered it was 5:40...late for me. These very woods proved to be quite shrub infested and difficult to traverse. Arrival at my main valley viewpoint was around 6:20. Skies were mostly cloudy with 75°. A breeze of loveliness caressed my loins and provided me with a cooling sensation.
  My first visit here was in the winter of 2015. Entry was from the south near the headwaters and the creek was followed downstream from there. Plans for today's hike included sunrise from my goal bluff with further exploration into the valley afterward. The difficult terrain and chance of rain cut my exploration short. Maybe in winter, I will return. The view from my blufflike outcropping was fine with sight all the way to Rich Mountain to the southwest and beyond. This valley has occasional rocky walls that look somewhat like Ozark bluffs but are not as nearly well defined. The forest is mixed pine and hardwoods. The sun never really showed itself and by 8:30 a very light rain fell intermittently. Dark clouds coming in from the west foretold of potentially worse precipitation so gear was packed and the return fight with the underbrush was undertaken. This track was not nearly as bad as the one that brought me in. The rain did increase and and in turn dropped the temp to 69°. By 9:00 I was back to the car. The rain was just enough to render a stretch of the road into a near disastrous slippery mess. One mistake and the ditch would be mine with no escape. I managed to clear the danger and before too long was back on paved highway heading east. This hike clocked in at a piddlin 1.4 miles thanks to unforeseen variables acting against me. We will meet again Dry Creek and you will be defeated.

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