Fun in the Ozarks

Who knew that the tiny town of Ponca, Arkansas could be so gorgeous?

View from our cabin porch

Trea and I have exhausted ourselves with nearly 16 weeks of marathon training, and we needed to get away from it all. FAR away. So last weekend, we drove well out of cell range, rented a cabin with no cable and holed up for three days along the Buffalo River. It was bliss.

Mountaintop cabin in the fog

We spent three days sleeping in, playing board games, lounging in the hot tub, watching our favorite laugh-out-loud movies -- Anchorman, Tommy Boy, Eastbound and Down, The Burbs -- hiking, running, cooking, and best of all...we had bacon every single day!

Chef Trea

We were supposed to run 13 miles that weekend, but all the nearby paved roads seemed kind of dangerous, especially in incredibly thick fog that we experienced for two of the days we were there, so we stuck to trails. The first day, we hiked to Whittaker Point/Hawksbill Crag. We had to drive several miles up a very steep dirt road to get to the trail head, and we felt like we had completely left civilization. Our hike was gorgeous!

On the drive back to the cabin, we saw elk!

The next day, the weather warmed up and we went for a run on Lost Valley and Centerpoint Trails. We were so deep in the woods that our GPS watches couldn't find a satellite, so I'm not sure how many miles we ran. But we were running, hiking and climbing for about two and a half hours straight, so that's kind of like running 13 miles, right? Let's hope so.

At Lost Valley, we ran to a couple of waterfalls. I think this is the prettiest trail I've ever been on in Arkansas. We loved it!

Eden Falls

Those trails were steep though! My legs were super sore for days afterward.

On our last day, we drove around and checked out the river, and now I can't wait to come back for a float trip in the spring. It's absolutely beautiful.

Our little weekend getaway was exactly what we needed to catch our breath before the craziness of the holidays and our marathon. We only have one more long run left, and then we'll be running 26.2 on December 3!