Winding Stairs expedition!!

[flannelman]

I'm planning on going after Cachemates' Winding Stairs cache Saturday, Feburary 10th. If anyone is interested in going on this expedition then let me know. I have been to the trailhead before but never on the trail and it has been a few years since I was last there. As long as the weather is good I'll go. Just post back or email me if you are interested.

[mountainborn]

Which way are you planning to go in from ? There is a new gate you may not be aware of on the Southern approach. If you go that way it will add a little over a quarter of a mile to your trek ( still the shortest route ). Either way it is a beautiful hike.
The rock bluffs and swimming hole at raven branch are especially fine !

[flannelman]

I'm not sure of the approach yet. I hope to get some info from Cachemates about it. Either way I expect it to be an all day affair. I'm sure it will be an excellent hike this time of year though.

Is the North road still open? That is how I went in last time. My wife and I were going fishing and parked at the trailhead. I had just gotten down to the creek to start fishing and didn't see my wife right behind me. I looked back up the trail and she had fallen. Well I never got to wet a hook cause she just had to break her ankle. What a trip.

Lesson: Wear good hiking boots, or, don't take your wife fishing.

[cachemates]

The southern route to winding stairs is the shortest way to go and you don't have but 1 creek to cross. I just spoke with the landowner and he does not mind crossing his property. He said the only reason he put up the gate was some folks just has no respect for others property. They were dumping and leaving their trash everywhere and shooting gun at all hours of the night. So, because of the deadbeats he gated it off.
This should be a fun trip. I'm looking forward to it.

[Lauri]

I'm tentatively interested. What time do you plan to go?

[flannelman]

I think we will need to start out early. I'm not sure how long it will take to hike round trip but I think it will be a while. Jerry could give us a better idea of how long it will take and how far the hike is. I was thinking of meeting at the rest area just before Glenwood to start out. There is a really tricky cache there also. Probably meet there between 7:30-8:00 am then drive on down to the cache area, but we may need to go eariler depending on how long it will take. We got a couple of weeks to work out all the fine details.

[cachemates]

From where we will have to park I would estimate it to take 45 minutes to an hour to hike to winding stairs. We have never hiked from this point before, We always drove closer.
At the start of the hike you will be walking down an old road that was kind of rough with some mud holes. I only had to use 4WD one time when crossing the creek.
When you get to the Musgrove Swimming Hole the trail starts there and follows the river to winding stairs. It is not a difficult trail to hike. There may be some deadfall but still an easy trail. There will be one cache, County Line Cache before you get to the winding stairs cache. Be sure to bring your camera.
It will take appox 20 to 30 minutes to where we park from this cache GCYJYB. This is where I work. It is about 15 minutes from Glenwood.

[RugerPilot345]

Once again Jerry I am missing all the fun due to this war, ha ha.....I can't wait to get back and get busy seeing AR again....have fun you guys!!

8)

Joe

[Lauri]

Hmmm. I would love to go but have plans with my nieces that morning until about 11am. Will let you know if things change!

[flannelman]

Well that is not as far as I had expected so we could do it later in the day If everyone wanted to. I guess it all depends on how many people want to go. Of course there are a lot of other caches in the area too that could take up the rest of the day.


BTW this is open to anyone who wishes to go.

[Woodwalker9]

I know I'm not in the Southwest section, but after PMing with Flannelman, I have been assured that it's open to anyone. If nothing happens between now and then, I will definitely be there. Thanks flannelman for putting this together and hope to see you then.

[flannelman]

I know this cache doesn't get a lot of traffic and I thought this would be a good way to get out and hike an area that should be beautiful this time of year. What better way to geocache than with some friends!!

[flannelman]

We will meet between 7:30-8:00 am at Susie's Cafe in Glenwood, have breakfast, and then go for the winding stair cache and others. Hope to see ya there.

[RugerPilot345]

Ya'll stay warm and safe and have lots of fun!!

8)

Cool!!

[SJClimber]

Feb 10th, 7:30, Glenwood, on the calendar. Can't wait.

[Rhone]

Will be there on the 10th. Looks like it will be a great opportunity to see old friends.

[flannelman]

Ok the big day is here. We will meet in the morning at the Glenwood rest area just off Hwy 70. CacheMates has a cache there, "Take a Break" (GCPR16). It is a real head scratcher if you haven't found it!! We will meet between 7:30 and 8:00 am and then go to breakfast before heading out to Winding Stairs.

If you need some more info or need to contact me my cell is 501-984-3276.

Hope to see ya there!!

[cachemates]

Well, The Winding Stairs Expedition has come and gone. We had a good breakfast, said our hello's and had some good laughs then headed out for winding stairs.

I think everyone had a fun day and enjoyed the hike to the cache. It was a nice day for the hike in a scenic part of Southwest Arkansas with good friends.

Thanks flannelman for getting this expedition together and for all who come. For those who couldn't come to this expedition you missed a fun day. Maybe we can plan another one in another area soon.

The ones who made the hike were, flannelman, Rhone, SJClimber, rkl, mbl, Poppy, woodwalker9 and J of CacheMates.
Thanks again everyone. Lets do this again. :D

[flannelman]

I want to also thank everyone who made it out for this expedition. It went better than I could have imagined. Thanks for placing some excellent caches in the area so that I would have an excuse to head down that way. I may try to make this a monthly event. Taking an expedition to a far off cache in search of lost treasures with a nice group of geocachers once a month wouldn't be so bad, would it?

Flannelman's Expedition Series #2 coming soon.

[SJClimber]

Yo flannelman. An easy excuse for a monthly hike would be to go after the State Park hides and maybe bundle surrounding caches for additional hunts?

[flannelman]

Hey that sounds like a great idea!! How bout starting with the March state park cache? When the location is posted I'll see about putting togather a list of area caches and posting them for those interested.

Lemme know what you think.

[nonnipoppy]

If our schedule allows we are in.......poppy

[cachemates]

Sounds like another fun day. We will make it if possible.

[SJClimber]

Well, let's see what the State posts. Good excuse to meet, get some exercise, find some caches and see the state. I'll keep an eye out for the cache posting also. Onward, SJC

[arkansas_stickerdude]

I'm in if its not tooooo far away.

[SJClimber]

Yo ASD, we might consider carpooling to save on gas. The concession would be "community" hunting of caches and accompdating schedules.
Oh, we had talked about making this an "GC caching event." There should be enough time from the State posting to creating an event on GC.com(7 days) to the date of the hike to make it work. (Did that make sense?)
Onward/SJC