Hobb's State Park

​If I'm honest (and I'm going to be), Pigeon Roost Trail at Hobb's State Park was a little bit of a disappointment. However, I have to qualify why it was a disappointment. It was only a disappointment because it looks exactly like the forest around my home. Hobb's is the nearest state park to me, and the Pigeon Roost Trail, for all the great nature around me, looked like I was hiking the MTB trails around Bentonville and Bella Vista. I was, after all, still in the neighborhood, and if I have the option to run, bike, or hike a trail that is (or feels) familiar,  I'm going with run as the first choice. I love trail running in places I know, and I felt like I knew Hobb's immediately because of the landscape. Much of the trail was a ravine just like Bella Vista's MTB trails.

Still, I had a great morning doing a four mile loop at Hobb's, and unlike Bella Vista, I was able to sit down and rest at an amazing overlook. One of the great things about a solo hike is hitting the point in the journey when you become a philosopher. There is nobody else around. You have run through all your daydreams. You begin to think about what you believe in and why you believe it. Sometimes it shows the flaws in your logic and gives you the opportunity to change.

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​I will say that this was supposed to be my weekend to overnight backpack, and I decided not to camp mid-week because they were calling for storms. I didn't want my first overnight backpacking trip to be miserable because of some strong thunderstorms. Just last year (13 months ago to be more exact), we had some storms that became torrential downpours with incredibly dangerous straight line winds that knocked down trees all through Northwest Arkansas. Those storms, and the damage I still see in the forests around my house, were on my mind when I canceled the backpack portion of my Saturday trip.

Of course, by Saturday morning the storms were out of the forecast, but I decided to return home Saturday afternoon and relax with a campfire in the backyard with my wife instead of putting up a tent or hammock at the park. I still want to do an overnight backpack this year, but this wasn't the right weekend. I'm considering something in November or even, temperatures permitting, a December trip.