South of the Buffalo River, just off Hwy 7, is a great hiking trail that leads to a place called "Pedestal Rocks". I was in need of some time in the forest and I had heard about this trail from several sources including my daughter, Lisa, who had hiked the trail with her church youth group. She brought back some pictures and showed them to me and I knew I had to go.

I told my hiking buddy, Jay, about my plan to go there for a day hike and he agreed to join me. We got on the road around 10:00 am and drove for several hours to get to the trail head. I had loaded a daypack that Lisa had given me as a Christmas present with my normal list of day hike gear and Jay and I started up the trail.

I took the lead and set a fast pace without really warming up even though I knew better. It's really a very easy trail and I had plenty of time to hike it. I don't know what possessed me to do this but I would pay for it later.

We hiked for about 20 - 40 minutes before we came to a bluffline that overlooked a huge valley below. The limestone bluff is covered in moss and lichen, and stained and streaked with minerals leached out through eons of time. It's old and weathered and eroded and huge sections have cracked away and fallen or just leaned apart from the main body of the bluff. There are columns of the bluff that stand apart from the main body like watch towers or giant sentinels guarding a fortress.

Jay and I were exploring around at a leisurely pace now. We slowly meandered in and out of the columns, some of which do indeed need to be described as pedestals, having flat, table like boulders that seemed to have been deliberately placed on their tops by some giant hand from long ago. There are caves and cutouts in the bluff that offer shelter and solitude and need to be explored.

We were climbing up and down the cracks and caves in the bluffline, absolutely in awe of the magnificent beauty of this place when all of a sudden my right knee just gave out. Nothing snapped, or twisted, or popped, it just all of a sudden started generously providing me with intense pain and I could barely walk. I could hardly believe it. I had never had this happen before. We were probably two miles from the car when this happened and I could barely even walk. My knee was swelling fast and in just a few minutes it was puffed up like a balloon.

We stopped to rest and I pulled my new daypack off and went to set it down on a boulder when it also blew a seam and everything I had in it fell out onto the ground. I looked at all my gear lying all over the ground and wondered how I would manage to carry it all back to the car. Jay wasn't even carrying a pack, so I couldn't transfer my gear to him.

First things first, I thought. I looked through my strewn out gear and found my "Medicine Bottle". It's a small plastic container I use to carry aspirin, tylenol, ibuprofen and other remedies in. I hadn't looked inside it for a long time and found it only contained 2 tylenol tablets, not really my pain reliever of choice. In fact, I really only put it in there it for others that might need it. I tend to not use any of them but I do give them away whenever asked and I had been asked a few times since I had last loaded it up. Since it was all I had I took one of the tablets and started looking for a solution to my blown out daypack problem. Lucky for me, I also had a needle and thread in my pack. I could see Jay was pretty surprised when I produced my little sewing kit so I took the opportunity to impart my wisdom as to why I carried it...

"I always carry a small sewing kit with me in case I have to stitch somebody up. So far, I've never had to do that, but you never know. When I was in second grade a friend of mine, Kenny, and I were out playing and he cracked his head open when he slipped on a railroad track. I knew right off he needed stitches because I had cracked my head a few times and so had both my brothers. My Mom was an expert at knowing when you needed to be stitched up and I learned from her. She would run around in a wild panic when we needed stitches and soon I learned that it had to do with how good you were bleeding and the depth of the gash. I had a lot of experience with cracked heads and stitches by second grade so when I told Kenny that he needed to go home so his mom could bring him to the doctor to get stitched up I knew it was the right thing to do. But Kenny argued that he didn't really want to go home. He said he'd rather take his chances at letting the bleeding stop on it's own and sneaking into the house later that night. I insisted he go home right away and explained about my expert status in these matters and then he told me what I figured must be the biggest lie a kid ever told me up to then. He said, "Bill, my Mom ain't gonna take me to the doctor, she's gonna sew me up herself and man it hurts bad when she does it. Don't you see, I can't go home, if I do she'll for sure make me stay inside after sewing me up."

I told Kenny he'd go home now or I'd have to make him and I wasn't going to waste time listening to his lies any longer. He finally agreed to go and I think I almost had him believing his mom would take him straight to the emergency room at the hospital and afterwards buy him some candy and comic books like my mom always did. But she didn't. As soon as we walked through the door she yelled to Kenny's sister, "Get me the needle and the black thread, Kenny's needing stitchen real bad". I was stunned, Kenny was not. He just looked at me and said, "I told you she'd sew me up herself."

And sew him up she did. She sat him on a chair in the kitchen, took out her needle and held it over a lit match for a few seconds, wiped it off with rubbing alcohol and inserted the black thread. Then she leaned his head back and started stitching it up like it was a worn out sock. Kenny hardly even squirmed. I could see now that he had been through this before. From then on I've always held him in high regard and I never doubted what he told me either. Ever since then I figured if Kenny's mom can stitch someone up, so can I. That's why I always carry a needle and thread with me when I'm out hiking."

Jay watched me expertly sew up my day pack and I knew he must be impressed with my surgeon like skills. "Wow", he said, "I sure hope I never crack my head when I'm out hiking with you".

Jay carried the day pack for me while I limped, then after a while walked, back to the car. The tylenol worked great. The swelling went down and the pain mostly went away after a short time. It was not the most comfortable hike I've ever done but I still enjoyed myself. I learned to warm up before zooming down the trail and to check my gear more often to make sure my kit was complete. And I was glad I had brought that sewing kit. It's the first time I've ever used on it anything even though I've probably carried it over one hundred miles while hiking around. It was there when I needed it. Kenny's mom would have been impressed if she'd been there with us.

Pedestal Rocks is worth the visit. To get there from Branson, Missouri take Hwy 65 South to Harrison, Arkansas. Turn South on Hwy 7 and go to Hwy 16 and turn East (left). You'll see signs in a mile or two pointing to the parking area and trail head. As a bonus there is another great trail there that goes to a place called Kings Bluff. I'll write about that trail someday too.

If you'd like to see some more pictures of the area click here.

Bill Stephenson