Sometimes to really see a place, you have to step off the familiar path - walk away from the bathhouses, the shops and historic hotels. The Ouachita Mountain Hikers provide the perfect opportunity for people to see what Hot Springs National Park has to offer with their Dawn-to-Dusk XII hiking event Saturday.
“Hot Springs National Park is just a beautiful place that’s underappreciated,” says organizer Jim Gifford. “Most people know Bathhouse Row and that’s it.”
This is the 12th year for the hike, which Gifford says is a celebration of the “wonderful asset” that is the park.
“We’re based in Hot Springs so we wanted to celebrate it,” he explains. “If you take this 14-mile loop that we take on this hike, you see some spectacular country that most people, even that have lived here their whole life, have never seen before.”
The hike combines different terrains and difficulty levels and is, according to Gifford, “the ultimate flex hike.”
Participants are welcome to hike as much or as little as they’d like, and shuttle service will be provided to get people from various trailheads back to their cars.
Hikers will leave at 8 a.m. from the Hot Springs National Park Visitor Center (aka the Fordyce Bathhouse) and will head out on a loop to the north of town; later in the day they will end up across the street from where they started.
In between, there are mountains, flat stretches and some beautiful scenery, including what Gifford calls “probably the most spectacular spot in the park, a place called Balance Rock, an exceptionally scenic rock outcropping that most people who live here have never seen.”
Gifford does encourage participants to let him know by Wednesday if they plan to join in, particularly those who want to take advantage of the shuttle service, so he can line up enough drivers.
It’s also a good idea for those planning to join the hike midway through to give him a heads-up. The hikers will depart certain trailheads at scheduled times: 9:15 a.m. at Gulpha Gorge Campground, 9:45 a.m. at De Soto Park, 1 p.m. at Black Snake Road.
“If I know somebody’s coming, I might even be nice and give them a little bit of slack,” Gifford says. “If I don’t know they’re coming, we’ll take off.”
Dawn-to-Dusk is presented by the Ouachita Mountain Hikers, but it’s open to everyone.
“If I hear people tell me, ‘Gee, I’ve been looking for a good time to get involved with your club,’ this is a great time to do it. There’s such a choice, everything from a 1.5-mile section to 14 miles. There are so many people here, and the beginners can meet a lot of people in the club and see a lot of enthusiasm.”
The club meets Saturdays for shorter hikes and Thursdays for day-long affairs. This hike draws the Saturday and Thursday regulars together once a year. And, Gifford says, “we’re always looking for ways to have fun and end up going to a party.”
That party will be an after-hike celebration at Rolando’s. Everyone is welcome, but Gifford asks attendees to RSVP so he can give the restaurant a head count.
For more information, call (501) 922-1680 or email [email protected].
Pick up sticks
Football is over. Baseball hasn’t started up yet. What to do? Try finding a new sport.
In Arkansas, lacrosse may not be as well-known as football, baseball, basketball or soccer, but it’s a sport that’s rapidly growing around the country and Arkansas is home to several leagues. People who are at all curious have the perfect chance to check it out at Lacrossefest.
This is the third year for the Little Rock gathering of teams, which programming director Ilyssa Foxx says is not a tournament. There are no winners.
“It’s an event for all the regional teams to come and get a chance to play each other. A preseason warmup for everybody’s spring season.”
About 39 teams of high school girls and boys in fifth grade through high school from Memphis, Shreveport, Missouri, Northwest Arkansas, Little Rock and Oklahoma will meet at the Burns Park Soccer Complex in North Little Rock for two days of play, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday.
Spectator admission is free and there will be concessions as well as T-shirt sales and equipment vendors.
But what is lacrosse? Lacrosse descended from stickball games played by American Indians. It involves using a stick with a net on one end to throw a ball, aiming it through a goal. For the boys, it’s a contact sport. Girls’ rules are different.
It’s also, as Foxx notes, a fast-paced, high-scoring game loaded with action.
“There’s not a lot of stopping. There’s not a lot of downtime in lacrosse. It’s much faster-paced than football and more scoring than soccer or baseball. There’s a lot to see.”
For those unfamiliar with the game or the rules, Foxx says lacrosse combines elements of more familiar games, and there’s something for everybody, even if just to watch the action.
“If you’ve played hockey or you’ve played basketball, you’re going to get some of the game strategy. If you like the contact aspect of football, it’s got that element too.”
Those who come out to watch with their children will be in luck should those kids announce, “Hey, I want to do that.” Little Rock Lacrosse’s season began Tuesday, but registration is open through early March.
There are two divisions available. The youth league for children in grades three through 12 plays games, travels and has regular practices at War Memorial Stadium. Registration is $200 plus the cost of a uniform.
For the smaller tykes in kindergarten through second grade, there’s the Scoopers program, which teaches lacrosse basics for one hour every Saturday. Registration is $65.
“We just want people to come and check it out if they’re the least bit curious,” Foxx says. “It’s a lot of fun.”
For more information, call (615) 516-2627 or visit littlerocklacrosse.com.
ActiveStyle, Pages 24 on 02/17/2014