Naznet Meeting

[Ryan Scott]

Since I'm moving away from the midwest soon I'm prioritizing my highpointing. For those unfamiliar, I am attempting to reach the highest natural point in all 50 states (well, about 45 of them realistically). I've bagged 26 thus far. Iowa and Louisiana are both easy, low, relatively remote highpoints. I'll be tackling them before we move as they'll be more difficult to get later on.

This weekend I'm heading south towards Louisiana (the high point is in the north central part of the state, not far from Grambling). I'll be using the home of Kevin Rector as a stopping point both on the way down and back. Since I'll definitely have a camera to document the trip, I think we might manage an actual photo of the Naznet meeting.

Updates to come.

[Dave McClung]

Since I'm moving away from the midwest soon I'm prioritizing my highpointing. For those unfamiliar, I am attempting to reach the highest natural point in all 50 states (well, about 45 of them realistically). I've bagged 26 thus far. Iowa and Louisiana are both easy, low, relatively remote highpoints. I'll be tackling them before we move as they'll be more difficult to get later on.

This weekend I'm heading south towards Louisiana (the high point is in the north central part of the state, not far from Grambling). I'll be using the home of Kevin Rector as a stopping point both on the way down and back. Since I'll definitely have a camera to document the trip, I think we might manage an actual photo of the Naznet meeting.

Updates to come.

I attended high school in West Monroe, LA. Grambling is just a few miles west. Take some mosquito spray.

[Ryan Scott]

I attended high school in West Monroe, LA. Grambling is just a few miles west. Take some mosquito spray.

Its supposed to be raining pretty hard and the hike is short. I have some bug spray, but hopefully I won't need it. Apparently there's actually some decent elevation gain (perhaps 50% of the total) on this short trail. It might be the best hike to a 500' summit in the country.

[Ryan Scott]

I returned from my trip last night. It was great to spend some time with Kevin and his family and to worship with Liberty Church of the Nazarene on Sunday morning. Kevin snapped one sort of cheesy picture of the two of us - so he'll have to post it if he hasn't deleted it.

As for the trip, it was relatively uneventful. I got from KC to Vilonia in 6 hours with only a brief period of blinding rain as I crossed the MO-AR border. I did discover how pervasive Razorback sports are there when, at one point, I counted 13 radio stations simultaneously broadcast a University of Arkansas baseball game.

On Saturday I drove to Driskill Mountain, LA (near Bienville) - it took about four hours and mostly straight down US-167 - a pleasant and beautiful drive. Due to the speed limit, I was even able to top 40mpg, which helps out on expenses. The rain never arrived and so I hiked the pleasant 0.8 mile trail to the summit in fine weather. Not too many insects either, which may have been the result of so many lizards - they were everywhere on the trail, running across my path and rustling in the leaves. None would sit still for me to take a picture, however. The trail did have a good elevation rise and some parts near the end steep enough that I had to jog down them.

This marks my 27th state high point.

For those of you familiar with the AR/OK/KS/MO border area - is there an armadillo season? We traveled through the area in early fall afew years ago and saw dozens and dozens of dead armadillos along the road. On this trip, in early spring, I saw maybe three or four the entire trip. Do they get slow and lazy at the end of summer or are they hibernating? This seemed quite odd.