Hiking Around Hot Springs...Or the Hike Where She Almost Left Me!

(Hot Springs, AR: 16 May 2010) After church on Sunday we planned a hike on Sunset Trail in Hot Springs National Park. The trail is a big loop around the town of Hot Springs mostly in the National Park boundary. We had maps provided by the National Park Service, but never could find a good reading on the length of the trail. The web site said 17 miles, way too long for us...one place said 8 to 9 miles and another said 12. As we're in big thunderstorm season we checked the weather and were happy to see the chance of thunderstorms was only 20%. About noon we parked the car and struck out, not knowing the adventure this would become. The first leg was fairly easy, a short 1.6 mile jaunt to Table Rock. We kept on after that another 3 miles or so and found ourselves crossing out of the National Park boundary, something we expected, near DeSoto Park, a county park with trails maintained by who knows who. There were no signs and no markings and when we did find a trail it was overgrown with knee level grass. We often had trouble finding the trail and in several places were uncertain where to go next. We managed eventually to find a trail and made our way back into the part of the trail maintained by the National Park Service, well marked and well maintained, for which we were thankful. We had gone about 6-7 miles by now and realized we were a long way from where we parked the car. In fact we estimated we were only half way around the loop, this was about 3 o'clock, we'd been hiking for 3 hours. We started hearing thunder off in the distance and got our poncho's out (thanks Emily...these came in handy!). Within 10 minutes of hearing the thunder we were in a torrential downpour. We didn't see much lightening because of the tree cover, but with thunder rolling every 5 to 10 seconds, we knew lightening was nearby. We decided to keep going and in a short time, in spite of our Gore-Tex boots and rain gear, we were soaked to the bone. But it was a warm rain! With fogged glasses and a water-logged barely readable map I realized we were on the south slope of the mountain above "Bathhouse Row" near the historic part of Hot Springs (in other words, civilization). Looking like drowned rats we came down from the hills into town and found shelter under the large covered front porch of the Hot Springs National Park Visitors Center, itself an old bathhouse. We dried out as best we could and waited for the worst of the storm to pass. I was able to get new maps (1 to use 1 for backup) and we plotted our next assault on Sunset Trail. We disagreed on which was the shortest way to the car. If we stayed on trails it appeared to be about 4 miles, but a direct shot, which appeared a little shorter, would have us walking on the side of a narrow 2 lane no shoulder road the last mile or so. I talked Joy into the trail route. We gained about 800' elevation in the first mile. She had said she preferred to hike uphill than down, so I simply was accommodating with my route choice! Now it was about 4 o'clock and we were nearly worn out and still had 3 miles to go. We came to another decision point where the trail split. We sat down on a bench there to figure it out and Joy nearly lost it at that point. Wet, tired and concerned that we were not going to finish the hike before the Park closed and we would get locked in, she worked hard to hold back the tears. We actually talked about going back to town and calling a cab to drive us to our car. We said a prayer and "girded up our loins" (i.e. sucked it up) and pressed on. Again, mostly uphill. The rain finally stopped and we could see sun breaks here and there. Joy just put her head down and plodded on. The sun breaks made for some beautiful scenes and in a couple places the trail opened up onto incredible vistas. Looking across the hills and valleys was a beautiful view of steam coming off the forest as the sun reached down to dry up the rain. We kept on for what seemed like forever. Finally, we made it back to the car. Knowing Joy had pressed beyond her breaking point and fearing the consequences, I mustered up the nerve to ask, "So, are you going to leave me?". With no hesitation in her voice, "I'm thinking about it", she replied. Through all our aches and pains we both laughed.
In the end, according to Joy's trusty pedometer, we hiked 13 miles in about 5 1/2 hours!