Caching at Lake Ouachita

[SunnyArkfam]

Hi all! We are planning on a family reunion at Lake Ouachita in a few weeks and hope to go caching at least one day. Can some of the folks in that area suggest some specific caches that may be free of poison ivy in June at Lake Ouachita or near it? We are new to caching and prefer regular sized caches to micros.
Thanks for your time and input.
Sunny Arkfam

[flannelman]

The hiking trail at the state park isn't too bad. There are three or four ammo cans there and one micro that I know of. There are also other caches in the park. I'm not sure bout the poison ivy though. There are a lot of caches around the lake of all sizes and then Hot Springs is full of great caches too.

[QuartzCachers]

Let's see, size regular in June in Arkansas, with no trifoliate. That is a pretty tall order. LOSP is actually a PI garden of sorts, and it is very healthy there with some beds of around a half acre or so. :lol:
Flannelman is right, there are several great caches in the park itself, as Susan and the gang are very geocaching friendly. As far as the PI, I would suggest taking along a long sleeve shirt and some gloves that could be slipped on when you go in for the find. I do this pretty regularly with very good success. I am dreadfully allergic to all trifoliate, and hopelessly addicted to geocaching, so that is how I compromise. The trick is that you need to be very vigilant when putting on or taking off the extra clothes, so that you don't let contaminated clothing come into contact with your skin. The other thing I do is to use a PI extract that I get from my local health food store. I have had excellent success with this, mostly as a preventative, but also to a lesser extent as an after contact remedy. Good luck and happy caching! :D :D :D

[astrodav]

Yeah, what he said ^^^^^^^ ...........

.......... or you can just hire me as a retrieval dog, since I'm 100% non-allergic to it. Don't even really know what it looks like because of that reason. Some of my caching-friends who have found my caches are aware of that, since they are sometimes stomped down into a 1 foot tall patch of the stuff.

But I DON'T do that on purpose, never ever, I promise, seriously. I'm not that mean. I just don't pay any attention at all where I go or step, unless it looks like a spider may live there & I go the other way .... or simply have a cardiac seizure right off the bat.

That makes me an excellent gopher. Just get me within 20 feet, oint me in the right direction, & tell me what I'm looking for & where it probably is. I'm for hire .... 10 cents per cache + all the ice tea I can drink.

[Ashallond]

We might have to regroup for a run on that lower power trail down by that one lake sometime then. I'm not very allergic, but I do get a small rash.

Ticks however, LOVE me.

[astrodav]

I'm game, anytime you are ready. Not skeered of snakes either.

Just don't whisper "spider" over my shoulder ..... unless you're sure you're not in the way.

One of my "friends" (??) on another forum has a habit of posting an image of some type of spider in one of my threads every now & then. He's known me forever & knows of my life-long ph-ph-phobia of them thangs.

Dunno why I'm like that, since I was pretty much raised in the woods. But everyone has an extreme phobia of something I suppose. I'm not interested in taking one of those psychology courses to cure it either. I'll just accept my fear, squish every one I see, & hope that they all die from spider-cancer someday.

Curiously, just the other day, I learned that one of the favorite diets of dirt-dobbers, mud-dobbers, whatever you want to call them is SPIDERS!! Bless their little hearts. I'm never going to harm another dirt-dobber next in my entire life. :lol:

Seriously though, anytime you want to run a trail, just holler. You made a pretty decent caching partner, most especially once we kinda got the hang of it.

[Ashallond]

Hmm, need to check with the wife....I may be able to get a day away this summer to run that trail.

:P

[HikerRon]

I wasnt allergic to PI until my 20's. Then while volunteering to help an allergic friend of mine put a treestand up a tree, well... OMG. Been allergic
ever since. (he's still laughing probably)

Anyway, BUJI works great for me. Saw an ad on GC.com and bought a tube...quite expensive but a little goes a long way. I've never gotten
poison ivy on my hands while using Buji. Been 2 years now.

[DEEZER]

Here's a link to some interesting facts about poison ivy.
http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/fastfacts.html

Turns out, almost everyone will develop an allergic reaction to poison ivy with repeated exposure. Beware, if you think your immune, you may be in for a suprise one day.

[SunnyArkfam]

Thanks for the input about caches around Lake Ouachita and the advice about poison ivy. I'll check with the other family members coming and see what they want to do. So there are no specific fun or creative caches in the area anyone reccommends?

[likestocanoe]

What part of Lake Ouachita are you going to visit? We have some caches along the banks of Lake Ouachita that you can reach via the Vista Trail or by boat. We placed the caches by boat, actually.

There are a number of caches in and around the Mt. Harbor area. Some of which are very interesting and a few that have been around for quite some time.

If you are in the Crystal Springs area, there are a lot of caches. Check out the "Just A Sitting" cache and the Tin Man Cache. They are both right in Crystal Springs. We have had a lot of cool remarks on both of these caches. If you want to spend an afternoon caching, we have a trail that starts at downtown Crystal Springs. Also, a very interesting trail that starts behind the Mt. Ida airport. It takes you through some BEAUTIFUL country. If you have a boat, make sure you check out the caches on the islands in Lake Ouachita!

If you are on the North side of the lake, there are a number of caches that can be reached by boat, road, or walking. There is also two power trails near Jessieville that would provide some great numbers and a nice ride.

Check out the caches by Quartzcachers, Flannelman, and likestocanoe.... We love Lake Ouachita and hope you have a great time.
Maybe, we will even run into you along the trail. {:o)

likestocanoe gang
likestocanoe@yahoo.com

Give us a shout if we can help in any way!

Sandy

[Poacher13]

I want to get the boat down there and get the ones on the islands.
If I was in the area I would go for those.

[9key]

I'll be in the area the weekend of Sept 11 for a wedding. I'm surprised there's no caches along the great bike trails in the area. Not one cache on the Womble Trail? Just park and grabs along roads or in campgrounds. What gives? :?:

[likestocanoe]

9key, please feel free to fight the U. S. Forest Service to get caches placed on the trails in that area. You get them published and we will be one of the first to go find them.... {o)

[flannelman]

Yep the national forest is pretty much off limits to caching here.

[9key]

Is there an official statement from them saying that caching is not allowed? They allowing caching, and even encourage it, here in Texas.

[QuartzCachers]

Hey 9key! First of all, welcome to our site. It is an honor to have you on here.
The situation with the National Forest is this: you must have a permit for a cache placement, and these permits are supposed to cost $57.00 a year, per cache. They will waive that fee if you meet their requirements and submit each cache through the process. These permits are only good for one year, at which time the cache must be removed. That is the biggest problem for me personally. I would have no problem redoing a permit or twenty every year, if I didn't have to go out and rehide them over every year.
Now, with all that being said, I and several others have placed caches in the Forest, and gotten the required permit (with the fee waived of course). I have several that are past the date of removal and no one has said anything. I know that my permit is no longer valid, but I don't want to go over there and pull them and try to get new permission for new caches in those areas. As it currently stands, the FS (at least the local offices) don't have the time or desire to go out and chase down the "illegal" caches, even though the main office in Hot Springs really wants them to. There is a person there who is a real witch and for whatever reason does not like geocaching. I have several inside contacts at the FS, as I used to be a volunteer for them. I have been told that as long as she is in place, there will be no real geocaching on the Ouachita National Forest.
The permits all must go through her, and they take months to get. The only reason we are able to get them at all, is due to a lot of hard work by some members of this organization. I think in the end, we were able to go over the head of the Hot Springs office, and get some help. I think it was Senator Mark Pryor if I recall correctly.
The bottom line in a nutshell is that yes, you can place caches in the ONF, but they make it so problematic that it just isn't worth it.
Thank you for your interest on this subject. Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

[9key]

That's a shame. Such a beautiful area! That woman needs to rememeber that it is not "her" land, it is the American people's. Geocaching is no more destructive than mountain biking, I know that for a fact since I do both activities.

[flannelman]

That's a shame. Such a beautiful area! That woman needs to rememeber that it is not "her" land, it is the American people's. Geocaching is no more destructive than mountain biking, I know that for a fact since I do both activities.

Yes it really is a shame. I have hunted, hiked, fished, camped, and geocached in the ONF and the worst places are where people just dump trash or camp and don't clean up. Very few of the areas that have caches are visited much and they are almost always very clean. If not then the cachers usually do a great job removing the trash. My cache hiding has come to a halt because I am surrounded by the ONF. The only option I have now is the COE property around the lake. Thankfully they are much friendlier to caching!