Mirkwood HikaNation Chili Party
Milo's Meadow, Arkansas
Hurricane Creek Sierra Club Camp
December 7, 1980
Tom Anvil McKinney's
photos below
.jpg)
(3) Vicki & Jeep Wagoneer
.jpg)
(1) Vicki at Mirkwood
& Sierra Designs Glacier tent
.jpg)
(4) Clay and Cathy Bass
.jpg)
December 7, 1980
(7A) HikaNation Chili dinner
at Milo's Meadow
Arkansas -- Mirkwood area |
Dear Folks (message from Tom Anvil McKinney),
Before I get back into writing about our September trip into the cabin I want to reflect upon the year 2020. First of all, this year has really sucked. It has been so bad that I have heard a meme that we have all been misinterpreting the old saying that hindsight is 2020. In actuality this expression originated from a time traveler who went back into the past to try to warn us about the year 2020. But 2020, as bad as it has been, is also the 40th anniversary of a landmark year that was nothing but good, for me especially. That being 1980. Forty years ago I met the beautiful young lady who is now my lovely wife, Vicki. She was Vicki Hileman back then and we hit it off right away and dated all the way up into the spring of 1981 when I let her know I was going to work out at Philmont again that summer. So, she dumped me. I later found out it was because if an old boyfriend of hers who had worked at Philmont back in the 1970s and had fallen for a Philmont girl and she was not about to go through that again. Vicki didn't exactly tell me this, at all. But then we got back together in 1983 our relationship lasted through my final summer out at Philmont and here we still are. In 1980 we also bought the property that was to become Mirkwood, and we all know how that has affected and enriched our lives and the lives of many others. In 1980 I also returned to work at the Philmont Scout Ranch and Explorer Base as a Camp Director of a living history camp. I had been absent from the Ranch for three years, and it was a very hard three years to have to watch all of my good friends leave for the summer for the mountains of New Mexico. But working again at Philmont brought balance back to my life and after working there for four summers I left on my own terms to finish up my degree at the University of Arkansas.
In 1980 we also hosted a national movement of backpackers who were hiking across the United Stated from California to Washington D.C to lobby and work for more hiking trails. HikaNation had been making a bee-line straight across America and would have missed Arkansas entirely but chose to dip down from Mid-Missouri to hike in the Ozarks. The Ozark Highlands Trail was still being built and connected and they wanted to help popularize the trail so it would be completed. They were hosted for a dinner at Devil's Den State Park and then headed out to the then just connected sections of the OHT. We hosted them at Mirkwood the first weekend in December for a chili dinner and a couple of kegs of beer. We had just spent that summer and fall mowing and clearing some of the old fields and did not have any structures on the place at all. With the help of many friends we hauled all of the food and beer in and set up camp to provide a warm welcome for the group. It was also one of the first times Vicki had been to Mirkwood. Picture 1280(1) shows that we slept out under the stars that Friday night with my old Sierra Designs Glacier tent in the background set up in case we had to head for shelter. Luckily we did not. Picture 1280(3) is Vicki again hamming for the camera. Aint she a cutie? That is my family's old Jeep Wagoneer that was really a great rig. For those who have been to the cabin you might notice how sparse and low the vegetation is. You can actually see the Greasy Creek watershed in the background. Forty years of tree growth have closed in the view a little now. The next picture, Picture #1280(4) is a little dark and washed out but it is of our good friends Clay and Cathy Bass who helped us haul things in for the weekend. The last picture, Picture
#1280(7A) is of a group of the HikaNation folks eating dinner around the fire, which we built over in what is now Milo's Meadow. Art Evans has his back to the camera, Vicki is sitting on the ground by the log and Joe Woolbright is in the far background. We have a Sierra Club banner hanging from a tree and an old sign we used to hang up at our family cabin in Bella Vista that says "Talk to a Native! 25¢."
It was a magical night with forty-plus tents scattered throughout the property all glowing from within lit by candle and lantern light.
Also with us at Mirkwood that weekend was one Tim Ernst, my old high school friend. He joined the HikaNation folks for the rest of their trip to Washington D.C. and testified in front of the House Interior Committee to lobby for more trails. That trip put Tim on his path to become one of the best known nature photographers in the nation and he continues to publish his photos to this day.
My best to all on this the 40th anniversary of our hosting HikaNation, the 40th anniversary of finding the love of my life, the 40th anniversary of my reconnecting with Philmont and the 40th anniversary of our purchasing the amazing place we call Mirkwood.
Tom Anvil McKinney
Article provided by Tom Anvil McKinney, Wade C. Colwell, and HikaNation Hiker Terry Ernst.
  |
Mirkwood HikaNation Chili Party
Milo's Meadow, Arkansas
Hurricane Creek Sierra Club Camp
December 7, 1980 -- Day 240
HikaNation photos below
by William Ewart
Marika crossing Hurricane Creek
Kelty Mike waiting to
"Talk to a native! 25¢"
Rich, Gayle, Pete, Reggie waiting to
"Talk to a native! 25¢"
December 7, 1980 -- Day 240
HikaNation Chili dinner
at Milo's Meadow
December 9, 1980 -- Day 242
...cookin' socks for lunch
after several wet, cold days |
