Last year, we hosted author Colby Lamb here at KUAF to discuss his book, The Little Missouri River. It was the first entry in the Adventure Arkansas series, and now he's published a second book about central Arkansas hiking. This time, he's taking readers to the Eagle Rock Loop, one of Arkansas's most difficult hiking trails. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis sat down with Lamb in the Bruce and Applegate News Studio One to talk about his book and why he picked such an arduous trail to guide readers through.
Colby Lamb: So the Eagle Rock Loop’s actually pretty commonly known as the longest loop trail in Arkansas. And it's located around the Albert Pike Recreation Area in the Ouachita National Forest. It's an amazing hiking trail. I actually didn’t know anything about it until a little over five years ago.
As I mentioned before in my first book, when I quit drinking a little over five years ago, God led me to the mountains in Albert Pike—the Little Missouri River and Eagle Rock Loop. The Eagle Rock Loop goes from Albert Pike up by the Little Missouri Falls, and then down over to the Athens-Big Fork Trail, which in and of itself is the hardest hiking trail in Arkansas. Pretty much anybody that knows what they're talking about will agree.
From there, it goes down and links up with the Winding Stairs area. I just found myself wandering all over this loop, and I just fell in love with it. In the course of summer, the summer of 2020, I think I hiked it three times—the whole loop. Which, it's not ideal to hike in the summer, but this loop actually goes through the Winding Stairs area, which might be the best swimming hole in the world.
It also goes to the Albert Pike Recreation Area, which is a great swimming area, and the Little Missouri Falls, which is an awesome, huge cascading waterfall that you can swim in. It's just an amazing hiking trail that's perfect for any time of year.
Travis: But it's really difficult, right? Like you just said, it's the longest loop in Arkansas.
Lamb: Yeah. Well, yes. I mean, again, you can probably get many different answers, but if Google will tell you that Eagle Rock Loop's the longest loop trail in Arkansas, and you'll get many numbers, but I've clocked it and I've personally come in at like 26.7. But if you do any of the spur trails—and anybody that wears a smartwatch and walks, you know—you add a couple miles during the day. So about a 30-mile loop.
But it's also considered the hardest hiking trail in Arkansas because of the aforementioned Athens-Big Fork Trail. The Athens-Big Fork Trail alone is a 10-mile trail, and it crosses up and over, straight down, ten mountains. The elevation gain on it alone is over 3,000-plus feet.
On the Eagle Rock Loop section, you do six mountains of the Athens-Big Fork Trail, and the loop together—it's over 4,000 feet of elevation gain, and two serious river crossings, definitely wet crossings, and countless creek crossings. Again, it's the most beautiful trail in the world, in my opinion. But it can be a humbling experience if you don't go ready.
Travis: So how did you go about, in your book, explaining to people different strategies to make it more accessible?
Lamb: Right. I'm glad you asked that. Because I've met many people that just—it was their first time hiking, or backpacking, I should say, because it's normally the best, the preferred way to do it. It would be three days, two nights, and that would leave you plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and stuff.
But the best way to do it is be in good shape, have backpacking experience already, at least go once or twice before. In the book, I lay out where I believe is the best way to start, which is the West Blaylock Trailhead. By doing this, you break up the mountains so you're not tackling all the toughest section at once. Just do your homework.
The book touches on strategy for how to complete the loop—or my preferred and recommended strategy—but it also touches into the history of the loop as well. And kind of gives you a little appreciation of the area, and maybe a little bit of the respect you should have for the mountains there, because they're serious.
Travis: I wanted to talk about the history sections of the book because I found those to be some of the most fascinating. I learned a lot. How’d you go about gathering that information?
Lamb: Right. So this, the second tribute of this series, actually has been much easier to gather information. After the first book, a few people had read it. So when I contacted the Ouachita National Forest—and the Caddo-Womble Ranger District is actually the ones that oversee it—they were very helpful with answering any questions I had.
There's actually one man in particular that I—his name I kept coming back to. A man named Mr. David Samuel. He used to work for the Ouachita National Forest, was the assistant district ranger on the Caddo District there. He's pretty much the brainchild behind the Eagle Rock Loop.
Like I say, there'd been trails there for thousands of years. If you read the book, I lay out the Native American history as well. The Native Americans found that area of the mountains very special because of the novaculite. They used to quarry there, and the rivers.
But there's been trails there for a long time. Mr. Samuel—when he came there in the early ’80s—the only trail that was around that part was at the Albert Pike Recreation Area. It was only like a two-mile trail. He had heard some stories of trails here and there. So they set out to do the Little Missouri Trail.
He actually, working as a Forest Service ranger, put in for a grant with the Student Conservation Association. In the summer of ’88, I believe—1988—Tim Ernst, Arkansas's famed wilderness photographer, actually led a group of students from the SCA down to the Albert Pike and Little Missouri Falls area, and they actually began building the trail under the supervision of Mr. Samuel and the Forest Service.
Tim Ernst led the crews there building trails for two summers. There were two more summers of work by the SCA, and that completed the Little Missouri Trail.
Along the same time as this was going on, the Ozark Society—they have many chapters. There’s the Bayou Chapter of the Ozark Society, and I believe they're based out of Shreveport or Louisiana—don't get me wrong—but they played a crucial role in helping build or restore the Athens-Big Fork Trail.
Many people had heard old rumors of an old mail trail. David set out to find it. His men that he sent out to find it wound up finding pretty much a trail they just followed. All they had to do was cut a few limbs out of the way. It was a footpath straight up and over down these mountains.
So the Forest Service did the north side of the Athens-Big Fork, and the Ozark Society's Bayou Chapter volunteered and provided trail maintenance on the southern end. That was wrapped up in like the early ’90s.
Once those two sections were completed, you pretty much had each side of the Eagle Rock Loop done. On the south side, there's a trail that comes through that the horse riders had been using for a long time called the Viles Branch Equestrian Trail.
Mr. Samuel—David Samuel—the Forest Service ranger, had formed a Little Missouri Trails Council of some like-minded people to help take care of the trails. When he noticed the Viles Branch Trail connecting these two trails, he pointed out, “Hey, this would make a great loop.” So they were like, “Well, yeah, let's do it.”
They started throwing out some names like the Ouachita Mountain Loop, the Little Mo Loop. One of the horse rider guys that was at the meeting—this is per Mr. Samuel telling me this—said, “What about the Eagle Rock Loop? The trail goes by the Eagle Rock over there.” They put it on the blackboard, and at the end of the meeting they all voted. Eagle Rock was what stuck.
Again, Mr. Samuel—I don't know if he might listen to this—but I really want to give a shoutout to him and a huge thanks, because without his help this book really wouldn't have been what it was. I mean, trust me, I've Googled Eagle Rock Loop a hundred times, searched pretty much any internet archive that would have anything on it, and there's no real information about it.
Mr. Samuel—he had the paperwork from the Forest Service that he gave me and let me look at. He was a wealth of knowledge, and I just want to give him a thank you. And Tim Ernst as well—he actually led the student volunteers, as I mentioned. Mr. Samuel recommended I reach out to him for his thoughts on it, so I did. I emailed him, which I'm familiar—I'm a big fan of Tim Ernst. His waterfall books are amazing. His hiking trail books are amazing.
As I mentioned in my book, his article on the Eagle Rock Loop in his Arkansas Hiking Trails book is awesome, and nobody could really do a better job of laying out step-for-step the way that he does it. So in my book, I highly recommend for you to get that book as well if you like Arkansas hiking.
Travis: What was it like to meet someone—or to be able to have correspondence with someone—who is kind of like... Tim Ernst has some of the biggest hiking books, and his name is almost synonymous with Arkansas hiking?
Lamb: Oh yeah. Man. When he actually—when I reached out and emailed, and then he emailed me back like the next day, it pretty much blew my mind. It was—for me, it was like hearing back from a famous celebrity, because I love Arkansas outdoor recreation. If you know anything about Arkansas outdoor recreation, you've heard the name Tim Ernst.
He responded very kindly. He was very helpful. He confirmed the dates that he led the Student Conservation Association down there and said that it was awesome to work with Mr. Samuel, and that it was a great partnership between the Forest Service and the SCA. He said he really remembered the Eagle Rock Loop as a great trail, and he said that those hills should give your legs a workout—and he wrote that in all caps.
I feel like he understood.
He also told me a pretty neat little story. He said he's had one of his photos selected for a United States postal stamp. That photo was actually taken off of one of the mountains on the Eagle Rock Loop—the Athens-Big Fork Trail. I was like, well, that's... And he said that picture has probably been printed more than any of his pictures—millions of times. I thought that was amazing.
He was great. A little funny story about that—because I loved the loop, and as I point out in the book, I don't know every place about it, but I had a good idea of where he was talking about. So like the next weekend after corresponding with him, I went out there and camped on top of the mountain. I watched the sunrise from where he took that picture.
The picture that's on the cover of the book is actually from the same spot as he took his United States postage stamp photo. So I wanted to pay a little homage to his efforts and helping that place out there, because it's amazing. And those mountains helped save my life. That trail is where it all happened—where the Arkansas Adventure Team was born—on that trail. Just slugging through with a backpack too heavy, thinking, “What have I done?”
And then, you know, you get to a beautiful place and you're like, “This is why we do it.” You get that feeling.
Yeah, I was very grateful for all the kind words and the help from Mr. Samuel and Tim and all the others that helped with this book. It’s meant a lot.
Travis: So what’s next?
Lamb: I'm glad you asked. That's the third installment—or third tribute. Probably gonna be the Buffalo River. A lot of—and again, I know a lot—some might be like, “Well, there's a lot of books on the Buffalo River.” And I do understand that, because when I first got into Arkansas outdoor recreation, pretty much the only kind of books there were on Arkansas outdoor recreation were the Buffalo.
There’s a little bit on Petit Jean and Hot Springs, but the Buffalo is well covered.
I fell in love with the Buffalo, I think, like many have. It was the winter of 2020. I actually came up in the middle—it was dark and it started icing. It was in the winter. I'd never been to the Buffalo before. I was actually hiking the Eagle Rock Loop, and people were like, “Have you been to the Buffalo?” I'm like, “No, I haven't been to the Buffalo.”
So I had to Google it. I didn't know. I didn't grow up really doing this kind of—I grew up in South Arkansas and hunting and fishing and those kinds of things. I didn't know anything about outdoor recreation. I'd heard so many great things about the Buffalo, I was like, “Well, I need to check this out.”
So I came up and it was dark. I stormed—I got down to Steel Creek. I'd never been there before. I just got in my camper and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning and I walked to that riverbank, and I looked up at Roark Bluff above Steel Creek, and it changed my life. I'd never seen anything like that.
That really helped spur the Arkansas Adventure. The idea was born in the Ouachita Mountains, but the Ozarks helped solidify it. Because I am a Ouachita kid, for sure. A lot of people think—that's probably where I know most of my secret spots. But I've spent a lot of time in the Ozarks.
I spent a lot of that winter hiking to the big blow at Hemmed-In Hollow and stuff. In the spring of ’22, I floated from Ponca to the White River by myself over the course of five days and four nights. It was the trip of a lifetime.
I joke—a lot of people—I floated 125 miles on the Buffalo, and I never even fished or swam once. It was spring. I was just floating, writing, taking pictures, and just enjoying it.
Quick story about that. One day, a rainstorm came through one night when I was at Gilbert camping on the gravel bar. The next day, I started at noon and I floated 55 miles in eight hours. So there wasn’t much—it wasn’t really a swimming stage.
But it’s an amazing river. One thing I learned—so at first, when I first experienced it, it was on the upper portion around Ponca, Steel Creek, Hasty. But when I floated—what some call the whole thing. I'm not a fan of that. I don't think it's really possible to float an entire river, because they’re too small when they start.
But man, where the Buffalo flows all the way down into the White River, it's amazing. There’s huge bluffs the entire way. There’s a bluff in the middle river called Slave Ranch Bluff. To me, it's just as striking as Roark Bluff. It is absolutely amazing.
That’s what really captivated me about the river. The entire thing’s awesome. A lot of rivers—they start out in the mountains, they’re really beautiful and pretty, and then they flow into flatlands and the prettiness dies out. But the Buffalo—it doesn't. It starts great and it ends great.
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