I have been meaning to post these pictures of our hike of the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas for a while now and I have just now gotten around to it. Me and four of my buddies took this trip back in March.
The loop is 26.2 miles long. We did it in three days. We got down there on Thursday night and camped. On Friday we left from the trailhead at the Albert Pike Campground (the same campground that was hit by the flood back in June) and headed to the Little Missouri Falls. We only did about 8 miles on the first day. This part of the trail is the easy part.
After this we went over several ridges that have high elevation and are full of switchbacks. We got over all but one or two and left those for the next day. This part of the trail was about 9 miles. This part was rough. It was the most difficult hiking I have ever done and pushed me to my limit.
Then the last day we had breakfast at the summit of one of the mountains and then finished out headed toward winding stairs. This part of the trail had a couple of caves and was really cool. The trail ends climbing Albert Pike.
My pack was full on this trip – probably about 40 pounds. The trails is almost constantly near a river, creek, or stream, so we were able to have plenty of water the entire time. We had two filters with us, so we filled up our Nalgenes pretty fast. We ate dehydrated food. The best was the breakfast – the breakfast skillet was awesome and then the granola with milk and blueberries I would eat any time.
Overall this trail was awesome and pretty difficult. I lost track of the number of times the loop crosses the rivers and streams. It was very cold during the night and pretty cool during the day. We are hoping in the future we will get a chance to do the Eagle Rock Loop Marathon and do it all in one day.
Hope you like my pictures.
I have another hike coming up pretty soon (in a couple of weeks). It is going to be much easier and a lighter weight in my pack (probably just take a day pack). Looking forward to it and I am sure you will get to hear about it!