H-Lake Alternate - Paddler's Choice Sun 5-16

[MikkiW]

PS The offer for supper at my place still stands whichever route is chosen. If any of the East Lake routes are chosen you will still be passing within a mile of my place on your way back home if you take HWY 33. Tell Debo that I had the chicken enchilada at the Lions Den for lunch today and it was as good as it looked when she picked it on our last trip on Maddox Bay. YUM!!!

[Cowper]

There are 3 roads on the east side of the bayou that are not shown on the topo map but should have deep enough water to easily navigate on through the woods allowing you to avoid most or nearly all of the strong current in the bayou. ..... If we did a lot of exploring and ran late getting out into East Lake proper, friends also said we could park vehicles on their property at Duncan and take out there to keep from having to go down to Prines.

Nah, it's warm enough now - time to go for a little carnag... I mean, "gusto".
I like the idea of an alternate take-out slightly upstream of Prines. More time for screwing around; something I'm really good at...

[MikkiW]

Cowper,
The parking and take out area at Duncan are near the north end of Bream Village Rd. Google map does not show it but Google earth does. Turn off is on Duncan lane off Hwy 86. Duncan lane ends at a T next to East Lake. Map shows BV Rd going south but it runs north too. Friends houses are at the end of BV Rd. going north. There is a small gravel landing that provides public access there although it very easy to miss if you don't know where it is. We used to use it to load our 4 wheelers on a barge to take them across the lake and hunt in the bottoms. Parking is the problem unless you know someone as Bream Village Rd is very narrow. Three friends have houses together just above this landing. Talked to one last week and he said it would be fine with him to park in front of his place. The other 2 were out of town but will be glad to check with them this week if you think you might like to make this trip and it looks like we will need extra parking spaces. Using this takeout will save us several miles on East Lake and also the $5.00 fee per person for using Prines.
I will be happy to let you hog the "gusto" and will enjoy the more sedate scenic route in the woods. There is enough current in the bayou now to satisfy anyone's lust for adventure. Kind of like Nascar or Rodeo, you can't help wanting to watch the carnage but the "pucker factor" is too high to participate. I prefer to keep my pucker factor in the single digits if at all possible. You go Boy!!!!!

I got a GPS unit this week and am trying to learn how to use it. Got as far as turning it on and trying to read the directions to get it to work but it is very frustrating after years of using just a compass. No menu's on the compass to get you confused. I plan to make my play as the "orphan step child of GPS" and hope that other members take pity on me and give me some lessons. Offer for dinner at my place is still on if members would like it.

[c8mb]

Keep carrying the compass to keep the GPS "honest"....Just keep them apart from each other. You'll be surprised how often the GPS gets confused. If I'm able to make the trip Sunday, I can probably add to the confusion.

[DeBo]

East Lake Bayou it is then! Those coming from the west meet at Exit 193 in Hazen at T'Ricks at 9:00Am Sunday morning. I will post the meeting place for those coming from the East later this evening.

[Cowper]

Checked my old notes.

When DeBo and I did this before, we started at N34.6682 W91.3086
(cut and paste into Google earth to see on a map)

Our route took us over stuff that is normally dry land for more than 1/2 of the way; level then was "at or near flood" (can't believe I didn't note the gage reading in feet). Level now is within 1' of flood stage, so essentially the same.

Mikki's friend's take out cuts 4 miles off a 14 mile trip, making for a much better trip (especially if it is raining).

[MikkiW]

Cowper or Debo,
Took my GPS today and tried marking some waypoints for practice.
#1 Is put in point for East Lake Bayou east of Dead Man's Point: N34.40106, W91.18647. This is different from your reading but I think the road into the bottoms has been extended since you last marked it. Your reading shows up as the end of the road from Clarendon down towards the old Clarendon Beach.

#2 Turn off on Duncan lane to East Lake from Hwy 86 N34.37264, W 91.15098 .

#3 Take out point at head of East Lake on Bream Village Road: N34.37362, W 91.15985.

If you have time would you check these for me on your maps. I don't know how to download and transpose them to a map yet.

Friends say we are very welcome to park on them if you want to take out at Duncan. Neighbors are all excited and are asking what time we will be coming through so they can watch for us. You can see by this level of interest that not much exciting takes place at Duncan.

Another way point I marked is the Citgo Station at Clarendon at the foot of the bridge. Plenty of parking space to the side and back if some one is coming from a direction other that T-Ricks at Hazen. N34.41345, W91.18583.
There is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow. Will be packing a dry bag and pancho if you decide to give the go ahead. Will check the ACC website early Sunday morning to see what you decide in case of bad weather.

[DeBo]

Thanks for the waypoints Mikki. The Citgo is a good place for anyone coming from the East. For those without GPS, it is on the Eastern end of the White River bridge in Clarendon. We will be there at 10:00AM unless the weather gets worse.

Check again in the morning. I will be keeping an eye on the weather. The latest forcast has gone up to 90% chance of rain and severe flooding in the area. We may need to plan for next weekend if this keeps up.

[MikkiW]

WARNING!!! This is the first time I have tried to use a GPS. I punched in the waypoints at each place but when I used them to try to check the accuracy on Google Map they showed somewhere entirely different than where I had been. I either did not do a correct entry on way point or I did not enter them on the Google map right. DO NOT use these way points please until I can find out what I did wrong. Mikki

[DeBo]

Good morning everyone. I have been deliberating about our trip this morning and have decided to pull it. Cloudy rainy weather in the swamp is not conducive to seeing wildlife except for the mosquitos that like to come out when the sun goes away. That, combined with the 60% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon indicates that we should try again next week.

The great thing about swamp water is that it can be depended on to be around when the weather is better.

In the mean time, Mikki, we can work on those waypoints!

[c8mb]

We went to my favorite local swamp (N34° 33.211 W89° 28.634) yesterday and took advantage of the flooding to get to some spots where we can't normally go. We took our time and it paid off because we were rewarded with some great sounds. The cardinals, crows, blue herons, warblers, various ducks, finches, and other unidentified birds, were in concert, while a few pileateds kept time drumming. We had front row seats. I think I'll go back today for an encore since we won't be coming to Arkansas. I'll keep watching the board for the next trip. Thanks for all ya'll do.

It's amazing how these places clear the mind.

[Cowper]

DO NOT use these way points please until I can find out what I did wrong. .

Warning: Long Post. Since I won't see you in person today, here's some info to help you along. Those interested in the float, and not GPS use, can skip this post.

Hey, don’t feel bad. If you turned it on and saved some points already, you’re way ahead of what most folks pull off in the first week of ownership. And what you did is pretty simple to fix.
The GPS has literally dozens of options for what format the waypoints can be entered in. The most common are:
Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (the classic Latitude/Longitude like you learned about in school)
Degrees, Minutes, and Decimal Minutes (a slight variation, and often the “default” set-up on new units)
Degrees, Decimal Degrees (easy to use, preferred by some users including me)
The numbers as you wrote them down were in Degrees and decimal degrees. When I assumed that maybe your unit was still set to the factory default of Degrees and Decimal minutes, and entered them that way on Google Earth, it drew targets right where they should be. Most programs are smart enough that you don’t have to write “N91 degrees 32 minutes 23.4 seconds” – if you just put spaces at the right locations, then the program will assume you are switching units.
Examples:
N91.1234 will be interpreted as 91.1234 degrees (called Degrees-decimal degrees)
N91 12.34 will be interpreted as 91 degrees, 12.34 minutes (called Degrees, minutes, decimal minutes)
N91 12 34 will be interpreted as 91 degrees, 12 minutes, 34 seconds (called Degrees-minutes-seconds)

So in this case, correction takes only adding a space and moving the decimal point. So, correcting your list:

#1 Is put in point for East Lake Bayou east of Dead Man's Point: N34.40106, W91.18647.
CORRECTED: N34 40.106 W91 18.647
“This is different from your reading but I think the road into the bottoms has been extended since you last marked it.” With this correction, our locations are pretty close, we went down the new road with my spot actually 0.2 mile further down that road than your spot; we made that trip in March 2009. It looks like you stopped at the big 4-wheeler parking lot; we just continued into the woods a short distance so as to not have to carry the boats as far to the water.

#2 Turn off on Duncan lane to East Lake from Hwy 86 N34.37264, W 91.15098 .
CORRECTED: N34 37.264 W91 15.098

#3 Take out point at head of East Lake on Bream Village Road: N34.37362, W 91.15985.
CORRECTED: N34 37.362 W91 15.985

#4 Citgo Station at Clarendon at the foot of the bridge N34.41345, W91.18583.
CORRECTED: N34 41.345 W91 18.583

Some more good news; if you saved the waypoints, and wanted to convert them to one of the other systems, all you have to do is change the set-up on your GPS. It will then automatically read out the location in the new format, so you don’t have to do any math to convert. So this really only becomes an issue when you are reporting locations to others (both users must be entering the numbers in the same format), or when you are manually entering the numbers into a mapping program.

[Cowper]

We went to my favorite local swamp (N34° 33.211 W89° 28.634) yesterday

Man, love that photo, but it just makes me think about how much a mosquito bite on the thick part of your foot can itch, and the skin is too thick to scratch it properly...

[MikkiW]

Cowper,
!!!!!!!!! I am slowly getting the hang of this GPS. Your post helped the light to come on. It is still only a 40 watt bulb but will build on that. I entered the way points with the decimal correction and correct spacing on to a Google earth map and POW!!, it took me right to the correct spots. Really want to learn how to use it to Geocache. c8mb has been very helpful. Will try to keep from hijacking this thread and start a new thread on GPS after reading a little more in the manual. I am so delighted to have found this club and web site. It is amazing how diverse the talents and interests are of members I have met. Hope to harness this collective brain trust to keep learning as I go. Thanks again for your help.
PS your ESP was right on time about postponing the trip. Had a BIG lightning storm move through here mid afternoon with a real downpour behind it. Good call.

[Cowper]

PS your ESP was right on time about postponing the trip. Had a BIG lightning storm move through here mid afternoon with a real downpour behind it. Good call.

DeBo gets full credit for that one.