October 20, 1994
Awoke early to find the moon setting amid patchy fog and wispy clouds, an unbelievably pretty morning.
I packed up early and set off on my bicycle trip for the day. The loop ran up the Tyler Bend paved road to an old road that led slowly to Snowball.
The road plunged down into the valley of Calf Creek, crossed a small pasture in the bottoms and then the dry ford of Calf Creek. Then it began up a slow grade along more pasture land. I scared up one deer.
After a couple miles, the road hit a steep climb that kept me breathing hard and fighting furiously to keep traction on the leafy, wet road. At the top, though, I was rewarded with a view of the river from Peter Cave Bluff. Upriver, I could see four buzzards, standing tall on the limbs of a dead tree and stretching their wings full out to catch the morning sun and warm.
I could have hung out there all day, just watching the river roll by.
The view was a 180-degree panorama from Point Peter Mountain on the west to Blue Bluff and Red Bluff in the east. The only trace of humanity was the cultivated fields of the valley.
Back on the bike, I headed north and west toward Snowball. After a couple miles of woods, I came out on farm fields and occasionally passed old farmhouses built of logs with tin roofs.
After one minor wrong turn, I headed north along the farm roads, passing chimneys left as tombstones above the remains of a fallen homestead. A dozen buildings still remain in Snowball. The general store is open if you’ll walk to the house in back and ask.
The route becomes pavement for awhile as it follows Arkansas 74 from Calf Creek to Granny’s Creek.
A county dirt road leads south from there back toward Silver Hill. The road hit several steep patches on the way back, and I managed to take a wrong path that led over an even steeper pitch.
But it came back down into a beautiful valley before hitting 74 again near the intersection with U.S. 65. I followed 65 back to Tyler Bend, more than a little worried about traffic.
