This trip to the Leatherwood Wilderness was very interesting....

Our goal was to hike to three of the waterfalls Tim Ernst has listed in his "Arkansas Waterfalls" book. My daughter's fiancé, Travis, my neighbor, Randy, and I, left Friday morning and arrived at the Lookout Tower on Push Mountain Rd. about noon and started hiking in to find a place to camp. Near the old Barkshed Extension Rd. there is a livestock pond shown on the topo map that has a spring shown close by and this is where I wanted to find a place to camp.

We hiked about a mile and decided to take a break and were sitting under a big White Oak tree when we heard a vehicle coming up an old dirt side road. All the roads in the wilderness are closed to the public so we knew it had to be either a Forest worker or Conservation Officer, or one of the two or three private property owners that still have land rights inside the wilderness.

Turns out it was the later. A old timer named Carney Rose came driving up to us in a sea foam green 1968 GMC pickup. He stopped the truck, got out, and asked if we were there hunting. He was wearing old bib overalls and a bright orange "FBI" hat.

I told him , "No, were just doing some camping and we intend to hike to some of the Waterfalls in the area." Carney looked at me like I was clueless, "Waterfalls?, he sort of asked and commented at the same time. Then, he said, Ya'll got a gun with you? I told him "No, we didn't bring any guns. Just our camping gear".

We chatted a bit more and then Carney said, "Well, thars a big Black Bear roaming round here. He was right here a few days ago. I was just down thar checking my cabin. He tore the screens off the door and winders. He's a big bear, stands `bout so high" he held his hand about a foot over his head, "Real shiney and black. I hear'd he's on the other side of Push Mountain Road now. He's been eaten persimmons round here."

Randy asked, "What about Wild Boars, are there any of them here?"

"Ain't seen any for a couple years now. Used to be some. I seen `em a few times round here. I dunno where they went though. I spose thar might still be few `round here though. Where ya'll gonna be camping?"

I told him we figured to camp near the pond down the road a ways and asked him how far we were from it. "Pond?" he asked. "I don't know about no pond".

"There's supposed to be a spring near it. Shows it on my map. Do you know if the Spring has any water flowing?", I asked. "Spring? I dunno know `bout no Spring round here neither. Well, I'm gonna go visit with my buddy that has a piece of land down the road a bit, ya'll be careful ah that bear", and he got in his pick-up and drove down the road.

The Spring...

Randy and Travis just sat there looking at me for a minute.

I said, "Look, them ol`timers don't always know about what's in these forests. He probably hasn't even hiked around in here much." Randy looked at me and said, "Well he sure knows there's a big black shiney bear in here, and you'd think he'd know about a pond right next to the road and the spring. Do you have the spring marked on your GPS?"

"No, it's marked on the map though. If it's there, we'll find it."

We put our packs back on and started walking down the road in the same direction that Carney had went. On the old dirt road he said he'd been driving for twenty years. The same road that our map showed a pond next to that he had never seen or heard of. The pond was my backup choice for water if the Spring that Carney never heard of either was dry. Our only other choices were to hike back to the cars and carry in all the water we'd need, or hike down the steep mountain side deep into the valley below. Maybe all the way to Leatherwood Creek. We all knew the creek could be dry too.

After walking down the road about another 3/4 of a mile we still hadn't seen the pond and I knew we'd went too far. I knew it had to be behind us, and I knew it was probably dry. The forest along the road is thick with big pines and mature hardwoods. There's not much undergrowth and we would have noticed the lush growth that always surrounds a full pond. We backtracked about 1/4 mile and I looked at my GPS and told Randy and Travis that we were close enough to set down our packs and search around.

We were only thirty feet from the old pond when we took off our packs. It was empty except for some dirty puddles in the dug up mud in the bottom. Without really thinking about it I said, "It looks like a hog waller." Randy looked at me with his most serious looking face, but didn't say anything. Travis looked at Randy, then me, and grinned real big, but he didn't say anything either.

On each side of the ridge top the road follows is a steep cut into the hillside. Somewhere in that north side cut was the spring we needed for our water.

Even after years of reading Topo maps I still amaze myself with how well I underestimate how steep and far something is down the side of a hill. Travis and I hiked around for a bit and decided that the spring was either dry or had disappeared entirely. That happens around here.

The spot where we had set our packs was perfect for camping. We were only a little more than one crow flying mile from the farthest waterfall we intended to visit, and about a mile and a half from the car, so we set up our camp right there.

About 4:00pm, Travis's buddy, Andy, showed up. We told him all about Carney, got him up to speed on the bears, boars, and water and then we all gathered wood for a fire and started making dinner. After dinner we put all the food in a bag and hoisted it way up into a tree. None of us were convinced a bear couldn't get it though.

It was a perfect night to sleep in the Ozark Forests. Clear and dark. We laid on our backs on the ground for awhile and watched the canopy of leaves 80 feet above us glowing in the soft orange light of the campfire with the stars like bright pins of light sparkling in the blackness above the trees.

The next morning Travis and I decided to take another shot at finding the Spring. I thought I'd seen a black ledge of rock about another 100ft beneath the low point of where we'd been the day before. But it's hard to tell what you're seeing at that distance. Fallen trees can look like Ozark Blackrock ledges too.

When we hiked down further into the cut we found that ledge. It wound around and ended in a small cave where crystal clear water poured out into a little rock lined pool. Although it was a tough little hike from camp, we had our water. Travis named it "Hidden Spring". I figured that was pretty good since now I know that even old timers like Carney Rose have never found it.

Around 10:00am Katy and Chris showed up. After setting up their gear we all headed out to find "Cathedral Falls".

Cathedral Falls...

Even with our packs loaded with nothing but a light lunch, water, and med-kit, the hikes to these falls are tough. There are no trails. It's at least a half mile bushwhack though the forest in some incredibly tough terrain. It was all downhill on the way there, and all uphill on the way back.

The "Falls" in Leatherwood are not gushing water unless you're there during or right after a big downpour of rain. We were hoping to see even a trickle of water. The real beauty is the Limestone Bluff that the falls trickle over. The bluffs can be over 100 feet of shear cliff with huge boulders, dry shelters, and caves, beneath.

"Cathedral Falls" was breathtaking. Literally. When standing near the edge of the top of the bluff, my breath stopped short. I think it was Andy who said, "Man, that really puckers your rear-end." I agree.

Andy, Randy, and I all went to the bottom and explored around for a bit while Travis, Katy and Chris explored the top of the bluff. We knew we could only stay a couple hours and still get out safely. We took a different route back. Travis and Chris drifted a bit away and wondered onto the private property where Carney had said he was going to visit his buddy. They took about two steps across a an old fallen down barbed wire fence and we all heard the blast from a muzzle loader. They decided pretty fast to get back on the National Forest land instead of taking that shortcut. At least they didn't play a banjo at us.

That night at camp got very interesting. Randy and I had made a run back to the cars to get beer but Travis had already brought some "Captain Morgan", and Andy had packed in some kind of whiskey.

We all ate dinner and after a few hours Randy and I turned in. I won't go on too much about what all happened after that, but I will tell you that Chris walked barefoot through the campfire sometime during the night and Andy caught a serious flu and neither of them wanted to hike to "Helen's Pouroff" the next day.

Helens Pouroff...

Randy needed to head back home the next morning, so it was Katy, Travis, and I that made the hike to Helen's Pouroff. Helen's Pouroff is the fourth tallest waterfall in Arkansas. It's over 100 feet tall. The bluff that the water pours over wraps around for at least a 1/4 mile and there are several big dry shelters under it where artifacts from people that lived there long ago still lay about.

When we got under the bluff line Travis started looking at artifacts under the first dry shelter. I poked around a bit and Katy hiked around a point in the bluff to see if the waterfall was there.

After a minute or two I got a whiff of something and I asked Travis if he smelled poop. He said he didn't smell anything. Katy had her dog, Rusty, with her, so I figured he must have done some business.

I cautioned Travis not to linger there too long before I followed after Katy. I caught up with Katy and we decided that the waterfall must be around the next point and she decided to head back to where Travis was at. I continued on until I found Helen's Pouroff. It was tough, but I decided not to hike to the bottom of the falls and instead went back to where Travis and Katy were. I just felt like we should all be staying close together.

When I got there they showed me several stone tools they'd found stacked on a ledge by someone who'd been there and found them before us and Travis had already found a few nice "Chips" lying in the dirt under the shelter. It was good of whoever found them to leave the artifacts where they were. Not many people make it here and those that do deserve to see them too. The next person here will find them all there.

After another minute or two Katy asked, "Do you guys smell something?" I told her I didn't, but I had before, and she said, "I don't think that's Rusty." Travis said, "I don't smell anything." We all took another good whiff and couldn't smell a thing. Whatever it was had just wafted by and was gone.

I had a few quarters with me and I handed one to Travis and one to Katy to leave behind, and then I bent down and picked up a few small flat rocks that had flaked off the top of the shelter and looked for a place to stack them with my quarter placed underneath. I saw a big crack in the bluff that went back into the rock a ways and thought it'd be a good place to stack up my rocks so I crawled over to it and noticed it went further back into the cliff than I had figured. I crawled a little further in, and before I after I laid my first rock down, I looked to see how far back in it went. It was pitch black and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust. When they did I could see the dim reflection of two eyes looking back at me from about a dozen feet away.

It took me only a few seconds to realize those eyes belonged to a bear. Find a photo of a black bear looking straight at the camera and black out everything but its eyes. Dim those eyes down to a very low level and you'll see almost exactly what I saw. And you'll know it's a bear too. You won't mistake those eyes for anything else.

I picked up my little rock and on my hands and knees I backed up until I was out of sight of the crack and then got up and turned towards Katy and Travis and softly said "We have to leave now you guys."

On the way back to camp Katy and I agreed that fresh bear poop has a unique and strong odor. I believe you'd only mistake thinking it was dog poop once, maybe twice if you're lucky. Travis realized he'd been mostly all alone and less than 30-40 feet from a wild bear for some 30 minutes. After climbing until I was needing a rest, we stopped and Katy found some wild grapes that were perfectly ripe and incredibly sweet. We ate some and left some for the bears.

When we got back to camp Andy was packed and ready to head back hame. He was feeling better, but couldn't spend another day. That night we all had a good dinner and Katy took good care of Chris's injuries.

Just after dark the wind started to kick up. We had already scouted for dead branches in the trees around us but the way the wind was blowing we knew that any of those trees could still fall. Both Travis and I were pulled and tossed in our hammocks while the wind blew all night long and the temperature dropped with the cold front that moved in. The next morning it was sunny, cold, and still windy. The temperature was in the mid thirties, but out water hadn't frozen overnight so we got the coffee going in a hurry.

Katy and Chris packed up to leave after breakfast. I had no doubt that the hike back would be a painful experience for Chris and it was lucky for him that Katy would be with him. Katy is an amazing woman. Just a month or so ago she was fixing up a guy who broke his leg while on a rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The guy was helicoptered out. Katy fixed up another guy who also had to be flown out before the trip was over. Even though the gates were not locked, Chris walked all the way back out. He may not be a very good "Fire Walker", but he's sure tough enough.

Woodsman's Pouroff...

Travis and I decided to stay and hike to the "Woodsman's Pouroff". It was on the other side of the ridge from the other two waterfalls, our camp, and the pond and spring. It was the last on our list for the trip. We just couldn't leave without going there even though it was still windy and seemed to be getting colder.

We were almost completely out of water when we left. When we got to Woodsman's Pouroff it was completely dry. The other two falls had a little water and we hoped this one would too. After exploring the bluff for an hour or so we decided to hunt for water before we climbed out of the hollow. We got lucky again and found a blackrock ledge where water was dripping from the moss on its front side. There was just enough water under it to set our filter hose in and we filled our bottles and wondered through the forest on the way back to camp.

After four days of hiking and bushwhacking I was pretty much spent. The short, steep, and rocky trail that lead from the road to the Lookout Tower felt like the last hill I could climb. It was hard to leave, but we were both ready to go home and rest. Travis had hiked with me step for step the entire time we were there. He carried more weight than me and even stopped a few times to ask if I wanted to rest a bit too. You have to like those qualities in a hiking partner and future son-in-law.

Once you get inside of it a few steps the Leatherwood Wilderness is as rugged and wild and beautiful as anyplace you can go. It's a place where you can still look a wild bear right in the eyes.

Bill Stephenson