Slaughter Pen Trail

We had done hike to Slaughter Pen on 27th April 2025 . It is located near Bentonville, Arkansas State.
Hike Location

Name: Slaughter Pen Trail

Distance: 12 miles from Walton Gym (approx.)

Total hiking distance: 4.8 miles

Elevation Gain: 442 ft.

Hike Team: Amita, Indrajeet, Ishan, Nuthan, Abhijeet, Zhen, Shawn and me.

Hiking Experience:

After long waiting for a good weather we finally planned for first hike of this season. As usual we got good response from everyone and ready for the hike, however weather had second thoughts and let us down(has been raining the entire weekend). As we dont give up, we plan for next weekend(27th April). Weather forecast also was looking good. Finally the day arrived. Abhijeet and me reached Zhen's place by 10:15 am, and we left for parking lot in Abhijeet's car. Shawn directly left for the trail parking lot(came to know later why he went separately). Amita and Family invited their friend Nuthan and they all came directly to the parking lot. The trail was near Bentonville and it took just about 20 mins to reach the place. After scouting the place to find the trail, we realized we are not at right spot, thanks to All Trails app, we got the cordinates of the exact location, which was 2.5 miles ahead. we reached there, able to find our trail. Weather was good, no Sun and just a light breeze. We started hike around 11:15 am. Indrajeet was the only one who has been on this trail before and also shared the history that the trail is famoud for biking and the former President has done biking here. 

Initially we started on a cement road and little disappointed that it was not natural trail. As we took a right turn could see gravel road ahead. We set on All American Trail which is a green blzed trail and wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The trail is shared by hikers, bikers so need to watchful of bikers and give them way. There are so many small wooden bridges on the trail to encourage bikers and make the trail more challenging and fun to them. Unfortunately our photographer Shawn has not brought his pro equipment. As we all know, when people meet during weekend, first several minutes goes on enquiring, talking as there will be so much to catchup. On top of that we have a new member in our group , Nuthan who recently moved to Bentonville. So it started with Shawn's military outfit and his peculiar boots. Nuthan was very fond of them and this led to our promotional tour. Soon Abhijeet started showing the Samsung photography enhancements. Then we scaled our hike to next level with help of Ishan's Drone. With all these discussions along with good weather we didnt realize/focus on the slope of the trail and for next half an hour we are having great time and enjoying the view of the stream flowing to the right side of the trail. On left side we have construction going on building more and more wooden bridges for bikers to do somersaults. aWe reached an open arean filled with lot of green grass and decided to give chance for Ishan to promote/show his drone. The drone was very good and he has great control in flying it and safe landing it. Son this turned out as a science class on how drone works, technology behind it and precautions to be taken(based on Abhijeet's experiences). We took some pictures with drone and Ishan landed the drone after a catchy Hindi Phrase from Amita "Ped pe hatak jayega" (gets stuck in trees). Seems like they had experience in the past and had to climb the tree to get it back. 

We continued our hike and were having three serious conversations , one between Zhen and Abhijeet about chakras, tattoos etc, second Shawn and Nuthan, with Nuthan still admiring out team and third Amita and Ishan typical mother and child conversations. We hiked further in between admiring the courage and endurance of the bikers and giving way to them. we reached a point where saw a stone man(statue) and decided to take picture there. Once again Ishan came to rescue with his drone. After we took a photo, we wanted to explore more with drone but Amita cautioned again "Ped pe hatak jayega" and dropped the idea. As we are doing the loop we came close to our starting point and Shawn suddenly mentioned he has lunch plan with his friends and need to leave. Has not mentioned this earlier and that is why came directly to the parking lot. Almost we hiked for 1hr 15 mins by this time and rest of us decided to continue further. Now groups got changed with Abhijeet and Nuthan leading the hike , Zhen and me one group and Amita and Ishan another. Indrajeet has been shuffling between ours and Amita's like people switch between rooms in zoom call. The trail was steep and gave us a good work out with Sun started peeking in.

 The trail has multiple routes at many places, but we were able to stay on course with help of the map and Indrajeet's good sense of direction. Witnessed great skills from Amita to motivate and encourage Ishan to continue the hike.The trail has many u-turns and became narrow. We reached the same path where started earlier and could find the big mushroom to the tree trunk and water stream this time flowing to our left. We saw turtles taking rest on one of the fallen trees. We took pictures at start of the trail and soon reached the parking lot by 2:00 pm. We all were hungry after a good hike. We had two variety of Biryanis, Salad for our lunch. Abhijeet brought home made Biryani which was very good. Felt good after having the lunch. Left the parking lot and reached to our places by 2:40 PM. All is Well. 

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Whitaker Trail

 

We had done hike to Whitaker Trail on 9th November 20224 . It is located in Ozark National Forest, Arkansas State.

Hike Location

Name: Whitaker Trail

Distance: 80 miles from Walton Gym (approx.)

Total hiking distance: 2.7 miles

Elevation Gain: 321 ft.

Hike Team: Amita, Inderjeet, Ishaan, Hanumantha, Abhijeet, Shawn, Zhen and me.

Hiking Experience:

This was the first weekend team outing/activity. As soon as proposal was put everyone readily accepted under one condition (no early morning waking up). So we planned to start around 8 am from Walton Gym. With past experience with team, have sent message to team previous night to reach gym by 7:50 am so that can save that 10 mins late start. It worked in one way. By 8 we have all members at the gym. Amita and family left from Gym however due to my over excitement about new Range Rover took another 15 mins to boast off its features. Finally around 8:15 am we started our promotional tour, I mean hike. It started with me promoting my new car. We soon hit the highway and then Abhijeet started showcasing his Samsung foldable phone along with its AI skills in photography. Shawn very happy to learn that one more Samsung member in the team. Soon Hanumantha our reliable driver started about his car reliability (Toyota Rav4) and how it warned us that Shawn was not wearing his seatbelt who was in the rear passenger seat. Shawn was moving from his seat(not sure if he is adjusting or trying to do something else ) and car warned to put seatbelt. Zhen who was until now thinking, started speaking about his new house and how he is still buying/fixing things for the house and after careful thought he invited us to visit his house. I think enough of promotions along the way, let's move on to our journey. 

It was a rainy weather when we started from Bentonville, As we reached highway it was cloudy, the hills, trees on the dies of highway are covered with fog all along. Our reliable driver while engrossed in talking about his car missed one of the exits (not much time damage
though). We searched for nearby McDonalds for breakfast and closest to our destination was 30 miles from our current location. Both cars, I mean all of us planned to meet at McDonalds. On the way we decided to Surprise Amita for her recent Promotion and planned to buy a cake and some bananas for the hike. We stopped at Walmart Neighborhood and surprisingly saw Inderjeet coming from Walmart and located their car. We went into the store hoping they have not noticed us and went to bakery section. Hanumantha and Shawn almost took 20 mins to decided on the cake, chose every cake and finally selected the first one we saw on the shelf. It was almost like they were tasting every piece of cake while looking at each one. We left Walmart and continued our journey to McDonalds. We saw Dogs standing on the highway, seeing for the first time. We reached around 9:27 am. We ordered food, started having our breakfast. Amita started telling about their Tesla Car and its auto driving capabilities. Around 10 am we left to our destination. It was drizzling and the road full of fog almost zero visibility. Great maneuver skills by our driver.

Soon we entered the dirt road which was very slipper, muddy due to rain. It was drizzling continuously. We are about 15 mins from reaching the parking spot, Amita raised concern(which actually we all have but didn't say out) should we turn back due to bad weather and not good visibility. Due to our never give up attitude, we decided to reach the parking and then decide. As we are about to reach parking spot we saw lot of cars and overflown parking. This gave us confidence and never again thought of returning without doing the hike. We reached around 11:28 am. There were people camping at the parking lot, some were wearing raincoats and walking along the trail and others just either starting or just coming back finishing the hike. Seems like none were bothered about rain or slipper road or muddy road. We started our hike around 11:32 am. After couple of mins of searching for the entrance of the trail we were able to locate(grace of fellow hikers pointing the direction). It was a steep descent and trail is covered with tree roots, water, leaver, stones. We climbed down carefully and then the trail started getting flat. We continued on the trail waving and greeting other hikers who were returning. It was still drizzling and by now we got used to it and didn't feel its presence anymore. The trail was completely drenched and covered with leaves. But still the trail was beautiful with left over leaves with their splendid color. It was really good feeling to walk amidst such natural environment. 

As we continued our hike we crossed several streams which were for a change overflown with water. It was a great sight and enjoyment to cross the streams and continue on our trail. As most of the trail was either flat or going down we had not felt any stress and able to proceed with ease with good pace. We came across huge rock boulders to our right and there was huge valley with great fall colors. All of a sudden, Ishaan, so far who was shy to speak or make a sound, started asking how many more hours to reach the view point every few mins. While actually we were just a quarter mile away. Soon we reached one of the first view point. The view was spectacular with all the trees with various colors and most of them covered with fog.  After taking some pictures we hiked further to the main view point, which was little ascent with tree roots and sharp rocks. Around 12:30 pm. we reached the Whitaker rock point view. It was indeed one of the best views we have seen. Though most of the view is covered with fog, still it was amazing to stand on the cliff and look at the wonderful colorful valley amidst the sound of flowing stream. Shawn exhibits his photography skills with his tripod and powerful lens which were brilliantly captured by Abhijeet. We then had our photoshoot, not sure even if movie stars have so many photoshoots. Hanumantha, Zhen continued to pose until our pro photographer finally said its enough. Not to blame them but the views were really stunning and especially in that weather. We celebrated Amita's promotion in natural environment. 

We then decided to head back around 1:03 pm. All along Zhen was not ready to leave his parachute bag even during photoshoot, seems like a safety measure in case of a fall from the cliff. Ishaan whose name we didn't know until we reached to the top of the cliff, as he does not share his name and considers it security information, was the first one to start our way back. Initially the return trail was good with small descent and not much rain. Slowly as we walked further we started feeling the difficulty of the steep ascent of the trail. we steadily kept going with reduced pace. We crossed the streams again and by now it completely stopped raining. Shawn and Ishaan who were so eager to get to the parking lot, lost their way in another direction until they realized someone shouting at them to return. The last leg was really a steep ascent and it was very good stressful exercise. We reached around 1:54 pm to the parking lot. Thanks to Ishaan for sharing the Oreo biscuits and Fruit juice packets with us, much needed at the time. We decided to have lunch and made Hanumantha's trunk as our buffet table. Abhijeet made delicious Manchuria, Amita tasteful Parathas and Hanumantha prepared for the first time Tamarind Rice(thought didn't seem like someone first timer can prepare) with help of Virtual help from his wife(early in morning) and coincidentally I too brought the same. It felt great to complete the hike and have such wonderful food in natural weather with fog surrounded all over the place and no rain. We finished our lunch and started back to Walton gym around 2:30 pm. We had a good hike, nice promotions from everyone and finally reached home by 4:25 pm. All is well.

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