Hiking

We went hiking! It was an 8 hour drive to get to the Ouachita National Forest. Eirena was excellent in the car and even took a nap.

Uc was pretty good too, except that after 7 hrs and 45 minutes of driving we had to go around some tight corners. Uc doesn't "do" curves on the road. She puked all over the car. Thankfully we were almost there and she didn't have anything left in her stomach when we were driving over the dirt road.
Eirena and Uc were very excited to be out of the car and able to explore. We camped at one trailhead the first night and things went quite well. We decided to not actually hike that trail, but a longer one, called Blue Bouncer Loop. We headed up the forest service road and saw a couple of people getting ready to go 4-wheeling. We asked them how far up the trailhead was, but the man told us there was nothing up ahead but an ATV road. (This should have been a warning to us.) Well we drove on and found the trailhead-unmarked.
In the beginning the trail was marked with a swatch of paint on trees at random intervals. After 0.9 miles there was a sign pointing us to the Blue Bouncer Loop trail. We were set. But the trail obviously hadn't been used in a while. It was getting a little overgrown, with thorns. Then it started to get really overgrown with thorny vines that looped over and under you. And there wasn't actually a trail. No path-like structure to be seen after the first 1.5 miles in. We were just going from painted tree to painted tree bushwacking through the thorns. After lunch the painted tree markers thinned out and then disappeared altogether. And there was no trail. Dr. Daddy suggested that we could either pretend to follow the trail or go with the topo map and go down to the river. The next day we would meet up with the old ATV road. We decided to follow the topo map. We found a decent camping spot that night and Eirena had tons of fun throwing rocks and sticks into the water. Uc, who had been very excited to be outdoors was exhausted, but happy.
The next day Dr. Daddy led us to the ATV road which was actually identifiable. Eirena walked a good portion of that back to the car. We then had lunch and did another trail in the afternoon.

Dr. Daddy fighting the thorny vines- its hard to see but all the foliage is pretty much wrapped up in the thorny vines.
The ATV road- that was very pretty

One major issue that we discovered with the place, other than the fact that the trail disappear and was replaced by thorns, was that ticks infested the place. Yuck, gross, eww! At every break we performed regular tick checks, but if we come down with a random illness soon, you'll know why. :) Now we're just trying to be careful about not bringing them back into the house.

Eirena says she had fun, and seemed to really enjoy herself, both hiking and camping. (Notice the gaping holes in Dr. Daddy's pants? Thank you very much thorns!- You should see his arms!)
Pretty scenary wasn't it?

Update: The Ouachitas, we decided, were not friendly to us. Dr. Daddy has broken out in the worst poison ivy rash he has ever gotten. The rash is pretty much all over him, but concentrated on his forearms, which is oozing and just downright gross. I considered pictures, but thought I would spare you. (And we're still pulling ticks off the dog.) At least at this point in time, we're thinking it isn't worth making another 16 hr drive again. :)