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A guy in Hot Springs told me to skip the fire tower on the Ouachita Trail, and I still think about it
I was about 40 miles into the Ouachita Trail back in March and this older hiker at a shelter kept telling me the fire tower detour near mile 60 was a waste, just a bunch of rusty stairs and a view you get anyway from a ridge a mile later. I blew him off, climbed the thing, and spent 20 minutes looking at a tree line and some faded graffiti. Then two days later I hit that ridge he mentioned and the view was honestly better, plus I wasn't breathing hard from 80 stairs. Still not sure if he was being straight with me or just messing with a younger hiker. Anyone else get route beta from a stranger that stuck with you way longer than it should have?
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veramiller16d ago
Wait, 80 stairs? Eighty?? I've climbed fire towers before and most of them are like 40 or 50 steps max, so either that thing was a monster or you're counting the landing in between each flight, which honestly I would too while gasping for air. And the graffiti detail is what gets me, because who hauls spray paint up a rusty tower in the middle of nowhere just to tag it? That's a level of commitment I can't wrap my head around. But the part that really bugs me is the timing, that you hit the better view two days later, because that means the old guy wasn't lying about the ridge at all, he was just right. Which somehow makes it worse, not better.
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