A great camping/SOTA trip
Last weekend I took the wife and dog with me to my favorite campground -- Shady Lake Recreation Area -- and was able to squeeze in two of my favorite Arkansas summits -- Tall Peak W5A/CS-002 and Buckeye Mountain W5A/CS-003.
Shady Lake is a beautiful, if somewhat rundown, campground at the base of the Cossatot Mountains in western Arkansas. We were going on a weekend, but it was not at all crowded and we were able to score the best camp site that overlooks the lake. This was great, as my wife was happy to sit and enjoy the view and nature while I hiked up Tall Peak on Friday afternoon.
Tall Peak is the home to an old fire tower that makes a great operating position. It can be reached via a 3.5 mile trail from the campground or a 2.5 mile walk up a gated access road. As I was short on time I hiked up the road which is a steady climb of about 600 feet.
You can see lake from the fire tower, and I even managed a contact on 2 meters with my wife, K9GAL at the campground from the top.
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