The Arkansas Trails Council wants trail lovers to go indoors and sit down for the 2016 Arkansas Trails Symposium.
The council -- a voluntary cooperative of state, federal and local agencies, landowners and trail users -- will hold its annual gathering, which is open to the public and free, Friday through Sunday in Clarendon. Saturday's agenda? Sitting.
Thrifty and adventurous types can tent for free all weekend at the campground on the White River just south of the bridges in Clarendon. And Sunday offers an all-day paddling tour of the area's always flooded forest.
Saturday's agenda goal is education -- a respectable excuse for not hiking, biking, riding, running or doing any of the other excellent but tiring exertions Arkansans can do on the state's multiple trail systems, which are more than likely covered in mud at the moment.
Imagine organizer Mike Sprague, a grants analyst for Arkansas State Parks and the state trails project officer, as patting seats on folding chairs unfolded inside the Clarendon Welcome Center, where six speakers will illuminate topics pertaining to water or dirt trails:
• Porter Briggs, board member and vice president of Friends of the Historic White River Bridge at Clarendon, will discuss the status of the effort to save the old bridge as a bicycle-pedestrian trail as well as regional efforts to make Clarendon and the Delta an adventure-tourism destination.
• Sam Correro, motocross rider and creator of the Trans-America Trail, a dirt-road route he has mapped across the country, including Arkansas, will speak about the "TAT."
• Lizzy East of The Nature Conservancy will discuss the history of Cache River channelization and efforts to restore the river.
• Terry Eastin of the Big River Strategic Initiative and the Mississippi River Trail will talk about progress along the Mississippi River Trail, including creation of the Delta Heritage Trail, the levee trail from Marianna to West Memphis and the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River.
• John Ruskey, founder of Quapaw Canoe Co. and author of Rivergator: Paddler's Guide to the Lower Mississippi River, will speak about the Mississippi River as a water trail.
• Keith Weaver, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's project leader for the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, will talk about the refuge.
During breaks between speakers, attendees can browse displays of Monroe County history in the restored 1921 Merchants and Planters Bank or look out the window and think about the historic implications of Clarendon's position at the confluence of the White and Cache rivers.
"We will have lunch available on Saturday; however, people will need to have money to buy their own meals," Sprague said. "Aside from that, people will need to provide their own meals for the rest of the weekend."
WATER TRAIL
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, symposiumgoers will paddle the Bayou DeView Water Trail.
"There is always a chance of high water," Sprague said Thursday, "however the event is next weekend, and I hope the water levels will not be too high then. However it will take quite a bit of water to make the bayou too high to float."
A caravan will lead attendees in Clarendon to the paddle take-out point, Apple Lake Access. Paddlers coming from elsewhere can meet at 10 a.m. at the access, which is off U.S. 70 about 6 miles west of Brinkley and 11 miles east of DeValls Bluff. After dropping vehicles at the take-out, the caravan will travel to the put-in, where they will launch for the float.
Attendees should supply their own boats, food and water. Some boats will be available for those who reserve a space; call Sprague at (501) 682-6946 or email [email protected].
The council was created by the Arkansas Trails System Act of 1979 (Act 132): "An act to create an Arkansas Trails System for the purpose of recognizing outstanding trails in Arkansas and to encourage coordinated development and maintenance of high quality trails in Arkansas; to recognize the Arkansas Trails Council as a voluntary cooperative organization of state, federal and local agencies, private landowners, and trail users to oversee this system in cooperation with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, Parks Division; and for other purposes."
More information is at ArkansasTrailsCouncil.com.
ActiveStyle on 03/14/2016