It’s about 7:40 in the morning. Tuesday, I believe it is April 9th, 2025. It’s a beautiful day here at Mt. Nebo State Park. I got in here yesterday between three and four as I usually do. They have a check-in time at four. So I’ve already encountered my first person on the trail. I didn’t expect it to be as quiet as it usually is in the winter when I’m here. But they let me in as they usually do when the cabin has already been prepared which it usually has. Not so when I went to Mt. Magazine last time. I got in, settled down, just looked around. Didn’t do any hiking yesterday. I was going to do an episode from the cabin. And in the last episode, you heard about what that was going to be. It turned out that I did an extended tour of the cabin. However, I didn’t record myself because I had forgotten my tripod. So I couldn’t do that as I did with cabin 13 at Mt. Magazine last time.

Mt. Nebo is located somewhere in central Arkansas, approximately. It’s named after a mountain that’s mentioned in the Bible. And every time I come here, there is a Bible open on the bed with the passage highlighted that mentions Mt. Nebo. It’s at the end of Deuteronomy. I think it’s Moses went up to Mt. Nebo or something. I couldn’t quote it but I can show you a picture of it right now if you want to read it for yourself.

There are several cabins for rent here. This time, I’m staying in Cabin Five. They’ve changed the numbers since I started coming here. This one is now known as Cabin Five. You should have covered that in the last episode, so I won’t spend too much time on it.

Today, we’re on the Bench Road Trail, which is an easy level of difficulty, although the sign indicates it’s easy to moderate. So far, it appears to be easy. I expected it to be open on the east side. We’re on the east side of Mt. Nebo today, and we’re headed…Interesting, I think we’re headed north now. Headed north. I thought I would have a chance to go south, but I didn’t see a turn for the southbound part of it. Maybe it will be up ahead. The Bench Road Trail is approximately four miles long and takes an estimated four hours to traverse. So, pretty quick. You can see a blue blaze there. That’s the kind of blaze I want to see. It’s big and easy to see. It’s not even painted on the tree; it’s just drilled into it, a piece of metal.

So far, it’s very wide; it’s wide enough for at least one full-size vehicle to drive on. The one person I’ve seen on it has been on a bike. I don’t think any motorized vehicles are allowed in this area. Still, I would say they probably have some park-operated vehicles that occasionally come here for work after storms and the like.

I plan to go an hour out and an hour back, and hopefully, this episode will be about forty minutes long. The idea was to enter at several points along the trail and go an hour in each direction. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that, but that’s the idea – that’s the plan. So we’ll see how it goes. There are a few cracks in the trees where you can see. I didn’t bring the trail map with me today because it is huge. Too big to fit in a pocket. There is the Miller’s Goat Trail. Trails are well-marked here, that’s good. There’s the Nebo Springs Trail, which appears to be quite strenuous. “Strenuous – proceed with caution” it says. White blazes. That is very strenuous. If that’s what a strenuous trail looks like — it hardly looks like a trail at all — I don’t know if I ever want to go on any of the strenuous trails around here, and there are quite a few. Over thirty miles of trails here at Mt. Nebo, and many of them are at the strenuous level of difficulty. Very few easy. This one, and maybe one other. The 3C Trail, which I’m sure stands for Civilian Conservation Corps, which built these trails back in the Great Depression in the 1930s. It looks like an incline coming up.

Like I said, this is late April. It goes into the first week of May at the end of the week. It’s later, closer to the summer than I’ve ever been to any state park. I’m in short sleeves today (fashion department). My sweats… I forgot several items on my trip. There’s always something I forget, but I stood around for about an hour thinking of things that I had forgotten to pack. And I thought of a lot of things. My extra pillow, even my State Park Passport. But I neglected to pack and didn’t remember my … here’s another strenuous trail, the Nebo Steps Trail, which I imagine is a staircase to the Rim Trail which I have done before, did that all around in 2019 or 2020. When I return, I’ll see if there’s an entrance to the southbound Bench Road Trail. I think there should be. It seems reasonable.

Anyway, I forgot my contact lens cleaning solution. Fortunately, I had to go all the way back down the mountain again, but I went to the local Walmart and got that—no big deal. And I forgot what I’m now calling my hiking jeans. Which are the loose-fitting, because they are way too big for me, jeans that work well for hiking. A little protection from the branches and so forth as well as giving me the freedom of movement I need when I’m hiking. Back home, I could swear I remember packing those, but I must have left them on my bed or in my closet. So, the only things I have left are my street jeans and my sweats, so I’m walking in sweats that I was planning to keep clean and use around the cabin. I didn’t want to go two and a half hours home and back. So I’m making do with what I have, and fortunately, that will be enough.

This is my seventh trip to Mt. Nebo, I’m pretty sure. It looks like another trail down below; I wonder if we’ll find an entrance to it. I haven’t done much hiking here. I think I’ve only done one other episode, other than this one, devoted to Mt. Nebo for that reason. That other episode was, I’m pretty sure, there was a video, maybe just of me, of the Rim Trail, which I had done the entire length of one time. And that is, I believe, a moderate to strenuous trail. A few years ago.

Yep, this is just like walking on a dirt road. This will be part one of the Bench Road Trail, and I hope to have three more episodes on it, if I can find a way to explore different directions from various trailheads. I will definitely do that. It’s going to be in the eighties every day here, so I’m wearing a short-sleeve t-shirt and I’m already sweating. It’s a good thing I came here now instead of four o’clock in the afternoon when it’s probably eighty-five degrees. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in the temerature between the bottom of the mountain and the top. I didn’t notice much difference at all, not like Mt. Magazine, where there were eight or ten degrees, or something like that. Mt. Magazine is much higher.

Diet report. I brought plenty of food, some hamburgers, and hot dogs. I don’t eat those very much at home, but I always think that when I’m in a state park, I should probably cook out. So that’s what I did last night. As I mentioned, it’s going to be in the eighties all week long, and we’re expecting morning rain on Wednesday, Thursday, and possibly Friday. But definitely thunderstorms and rain. So I know that probably the only mornings I’ll have are today and tomorrow. So I’ll try to get my hikes in then. I don’t particularly want to go out in the rain on a hike, even when it’s this level of difficulty.

Interesting, I wonder what that is. It’s kind of like a vehicle. A rusted something-or-other that they haven’t bothered to take out. So I may only be hiking twice this time. But that’s more than I have at some other times. I know I’ve come up here, this being my seventh time. I’ve only recorded one other episode. And I think that the first time I came here, I just did a tiny bit of hiking on the Rim Trail right around where my cabin was. I remember that it was cabin 65 at the time. I don’t know what it is now, because they changed the numbers.

So here we are at Mt. Nebo. I know we would have some great views if we could see out and we didn’t have all the trees, but the trees are giving me some shade from that sun, which is already out and bright here at eight o’clock in the morning on the east side of Mt. Nebo. So, where was I, diet department? So, yeah, the plan was to cook out. And I’m going to cook out. I cooked out last night, a hamburger and two hot dogs, and I’m going to cook out tonight, a hamburger and one hot dog. I’m concerned that the rest of the time here will not be cookout weather. I’ll stay sheltered from the rain. There’s a nice arched opening like a window with no glass, just an open formation in the stone that you’ll see from the last episode if you watch it on YouTube. You can get to our YouTube channel at http://RunningAFEVER.com/YouTube. Maybe I could sit under that porch; the window opens out from the porch, if the rain and wind aren’t too strong. Wind is always a factor anywhere in Arkansas, especially Northwest Arkansas. This is middle, central Arkansas. But still plenty of wind. I noticed this when I was trying to get my fire going last night.

Another incline here. I’m still not in perfect shape, exercise-wise. I haven’t been walking as much as I should if I want to get in shape—no reason I can’t do that. And if I can, then it makes it easier to do longer walks here. Easy walks or even some moderate difficulty walks. Possibly even moderate to strenuous walks. It depends on how much energy I can develop by taking that exercise.

I’m not sure if I’ve finished the diet report, but I did share my plan with you. I’m sticking to my diet plan of two meals that are protein shakes and one meal that is just a regular meal of undetermined content. So I had my protein shake this morning. I’ve got plenty of those to last the week. I’m using this Optimal Nutrition drinks that I get on Amazon. I’m running low because I’ll be away from my house this week, and I wanted to ensure I didn’t receive any deliveries during that time, so I haven’t been ordering anything. And then I’ve been drinking, but when I run out of those, I can go to our employee store, which is located in the same building where I work, and get protein drinks, which I don’t know what they’re called. It’s made by Fairlife, the same company that produces filtered milk.

Alright, Bench Road access, Miller’s Goat, Bench Road access, so we’re on the Bench Road. I stopped at the office. Because, obviously, the Bench Road goes around the entire mountain. Four miles long. And it goes by the Visitor’s Center, so I asked if I could park there, and they said no. They encourage you to park at the overlook, at a parking area near the overlook, or at Sunset Point. Sunset Point is this way. I’ve gone by there on the Rim Trail. The Rim Trail is shorter because it’s higher up the mountain.

So, yeah, Fairlife. They are pretty expensive. $3.50 for the regular, with 24g of protein. And a little more for the extra, or super, or whatever you call it. It’s a dollar more, and that one has 42g of protein. So it’s a dollar for ten grams of protein.

Wind’s picking up. It feels good right now. It must be cloudy now, or the trees are thick enough to shield me from the sun. I don’t see any coming through, and you can’t see anything through the trees on the east side. We’re still heading north on the Bench Road Trail at Mt. Nebo, if you’re just joining us. It’s very wide, just like a regular road here. I think you might even be able to get two smaller vehicles if they pull over close to the side, although there are trees on either side. However, I’m pretty sure that no motor vehicles are allowed. They’ve got specific purposes for each trail. Some are bike-only. Some are foot-only. Some are multi-use.

There are hike-in camp sites here. “The World War I veterans who formed the VCCC Company 1780,” Company 1780, obviously not the year 1780, “built fireplaces like this one,” which I don’t see a fireplace, oh, in the picture, hopefully you can see that picture if you’re on YouTube, like this one “along the Bench on Mt. Nebo. Between 1933 and 1935, Veteran Company 1780 of the Civilian Conservation Corps built over a dozen campsites along the Bench of Mt. Nebo. Each campsite is marked by a circular stone boundary which centers on the fireplace built following plans provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior.” And it’s got a picture of the plan here. “The Department of the Interior provided these plans used by VCCC Company 1780 to build fireplaces on Mt. Nebo.” So those hike-in sites. I know there are several at the north end, on the west side. Northwest I guess. And here. No motor vehicles allowed. No drinks. No shooting. Horses are permitted, bikes are allowed, and pets are allowed. And foot traffic must be allowed. It looks like an easy hike into a campsite if you’re into camping. I haven’t camped since I was a kid.

Anyway, both the Optimal Nutrition, and I believe the Optimal Nutrition comes in three flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. I like the strawberry and the vanilla, but I don’t like the chocolate; it doesn’t taste particularly chocolaty to me. But the Fairlife has a good chocolate flavor.

And we can see a rise on the righthand side in what they called the valley, when I was at the Visitor’s Center. They said this was one of the easiest places to go in. At Sunset Point, you have to go down a moderate difficulty trail to get to the Bench Trail, which I will probably do as part of this series, even if the series doesn’t complete until my next visit. But it looks more like a valley. They said you’re in the valley, with the rise on the east side of the trail here. There’s gravel on the trail. Loose, large gravel. It looks natural. It doesn’t look like commercially-produced gravel, so it’s appropriate. I don’t know how they managed to do that.

It’d be interesting to know some history of the Civilian Conservation Corps, and perhaps I’ll get some of that for next time. Also, the Trail of Tears. This is part of the Trail of Tears, and it must be long because the Trail of Tears — a national historic trail — goes up to where I live, which is Northwest Arkansas. I also need to gather some information on that.

So the Fairlife also has a banana strawberry, a strawberry, and a vanilla in addition to the chocolate. I’ve tried the strawberry banana. I brought some strawberry with me on this trip. I usually get the Optimal Nutrition drinks, and they are reasonable, although I think they are smaller. I think they may be 12-ounce containers. I get those delivered from Amazon, but I needed some more. So, I went to the grocery store and bought some Fairlife off the shelf. I haven’t tried the strawberry yet, but the other ones are pretty good. Plenty of protein, which is what I’m after on those meals that I don’t eat a regular meal. That diet has yielded me some pretty good results. I’ve been doing it for about a year, possibly over a year. I don’t remember exactly when I reached my highest weight of 283. I’m currently 216 which WARNING: LIVE MATH: Four plus three, which is seven, so sixty-seven pounds I’ve lost since mid-2024. So should be down to 200 or below by the end of the year. My loss has slowed down as it always does. The more you lose, the more it slows down. However, I’m still losing weight, which is a good thing. I do have a concern that I’m not exercising enough, and that may slow things down further.

I’m going to pick up the pace a little bit here. I’m on a straight, flat road, slightly downhill. It looks like there’s going to be a steeper downhill section up here, which means my trip back is going to be a little harder, but I think I can manage it. I feel pretty good right now, not too overly strained. Based on what was considered easy, like Mt. Magazine, I think this would be regarded as very easy if there were such a designation. So one of my concerns is not getting enough exercise. With walking, and any aerobic exercise, any kind of cardio.

Another concern is that I know when I lose weight, part of that is muscle, and part of that is fat. So I’m losing muscle, and I’m not doing any resistance training either. So, I need to do some of that to maintain my muscle mass at least where it was. Of course, the last time I was able to lose this much weight, I was working out six days a week in the gym and walking five miles every week. So big difference there. But I do think that I’m doing it better this time. I believe that I’m doing it in a more healthy way this time, because I’ve taken plenty of time to do it, and I’ve chosen something that does not harm me like the last time did, when I didn’t get enough protein. I think I’m getting enough protein now and taking my time. Because it’s already been a year, and I’ve lost a little more than I did last time in 12 weeks. So slow and steady wins the race, that’s what they say.

So once again, we’re on the northbound part of the loop on the east side of Mt. Nebo. And I can’t even see sky through the trees at this point. I mean I can overhead, but not to the side. So we’re definitely more on the interior side of that—another steep downhill trail. I’m trying to stay out of the gravel on the high side. Northbound. I hope I can find the southbound. I just went where the trail took me this time. And it looks like another feature up here with a placard and a little bench or a little bridge. It may be that when it rains hard, it contains water. It appears to be so, but I’m not sure. We’ve had a lot of rain recently. It didn’t stay on the mountain very long, like it might in the wintertime. This is Darling Spring. I don’t see any water whatsoever.

“From the late 1880s until early 1918, Darling Spring served as the water source for the nearby Summit Park Hotel. The water was pumped up to storage tanks at the hotel for daily use. Families would hike the many stairs leading down from the hotel to enjoy the water of this iron mineral spring. ‘Social features of Mt. Nebo are pleasant and genial. And the visitor can but feel at home whether the stay is of a long or short duration.'” That’s a quote from W.A. Godspeed in 1889. And I’m not sure if you can see the picture, but it says, “Like families today, this family paused for a photo at Darling Spring in 1908.” And I’m not sure if the water is running there, but it appears that there’s a wooden structure that is no longer there. Maybe the trees were smaller then and there was lots of stone.

Here you see a stack of stones, and people do this. You might think this is of some native, tribal origin. But it is not. This is a modern formation, and I’ve seen it quite a bit in other trails. I’ve seen it here, and possibly even in Texas, it seems. I dont’ know. I don’t do it. I’m not sure what it means, but it appears to be found in rocky areas of parks. There are some nice naturally fallen trees. Plenty of that. That’s what happens naturally in the forrest. Trees die, and they fall in after indeed many decades. And this one was sawn down, and so was this one over here. That makes sense, too. I’ve got here what remains of a man-made structure. No, maybe not. That’s just a split-off part of a tree.

People have been coming here for a long time. We’re closing in on 100 years that this park has existed. And the first cabin rental of any state park in Arkansas was right here, and I’m not sure what cabin that was or if it’s still here. That’s another little factoid for you.

Continuing the fashion department, this is the inaugural hike for my Doc Martens Original 1460 boots. Looks like runoff from the creek. Some sort of man-made pipe through there under the ground, pretty well hidden from view. I’m going to go another 15-20 minutes this way. I’ve had these boots for a while. For a while, I didn’t even wear them, and then I started wearing them, trying to break them in by wearing them to work and other places. Even around the house, I think in the beginning. They are all leather. They are a half size too big because Doc Martens only sells in full whole sizes. These are the original first models that came out in ’60 or ’62, 1960, I think. So they are the original boot, Doc Martens boot. And they are doing okay today. I brought my old Tom’s boots just in case, but I decided to try these out today, and they are working pretty well. The soles are cushioned enough for when I walk over these rocks. And the ankle support is good enough. I should have warmed up my ankles this morning but I didn’t. I’m finding flexibility is one of my detriments.

This trail was made from a natural formation. There was a natural flat area. It looks like this is a little body of water. Yeah. There are plenty of mosquitoes here, so I’m going to keep walking by. I’m afraid the trip back will be more strenuous than the trip out. I’ve still got mosquitoes coming at me. Something I don’t face in the wintertime is insects, and it’s late spring now, or mid-spring. A little puddle of water there. Perfect for mosquito breeding. Let’s determine our altitude here. It says 68 degrees and I know that’s not true. These bugs are terrible right here—almost 5,000 steps. Altibarometer, there it is. 28.59 which is of course lower. it doesn’t tell me how many feet. Pressure indicator. Graph. Barometer. C’mon, man, where’s the altimeter? Bugs are all over me now. Alright, well, the altimeter is not showing me the altitude, only the barometer. I’m certainly going to have some mosquito bites tonight.

Anyway, the boots are working fine, so I think I’ll start using them regularly. My old Tom’s boots have been relegated to lawn maintenance use. I live on a hill, so I need ankle support when I’m doing that. This is going to be a slight downhill and I’ve got a little pond coming up here on the left. Probably even more mosquitoes. A little bench, there on the Bench Trail. An actual park bench. In case you wanted to sit there and be a meal for the mosquitoes. There’s another park bench.

So I’ve encountered two people on the trail here. I think my first trip here was in early April when I encountered one. It’s still not peak travel season when the kids are out of school, but it is warmer, which attracts more normal people, adults. Bench Road and Miller’s Goat. Checking out the signs here. Miller’s Goat, Bench Road. Still on the Bench Road. Nice little pond. If I stop, the mosquitoes will get me. Fern Lake is what it’s called. It looks a little small to be a lake.

“The year is 1889. You are one of 150 guests at the Summit Park Hotel on top of Mt. Nebo. It is a hot June day. How do you cool off? Plank and a rock walk leads you from the mountaintop to the edge of Fern Lake. Fern Lake is too shallow for swimming, but canoes and paddle boats carry well-dressed passengers over the clear, sunlit water. Gentlemen in white shirts with detachable collars and cuffs wear flat-topped boater hats, while the ladies wear long dresses of various colors with buttoned-up collars. Their upswept hair is protected from the breeze by a hat. Girls in long smocks and boys in knee-length pants and wide-collared shirts play around the lake and springs. Sunset Point gazebo is typical of ones that would have been at Fern Lake.” That’s at Sunset Point. “Carriages took guests from the Summit Park Hotel along the Bench Road to Fern Lake. Beautiful gazebos covered the three springs around the lake. Each has comfortable seats creating cool retreats where you can indulge in a favorite pastime, sipping the cool spring water and chatting with the other hotel guests. Research tends to indicate there was a heart-shaped island holding a large wooden duck or swan in the center of Fern Lake. One reason for the construction of Fern Lake was to provide ice for resort guests. In winter, when the lake was frozen, large blocks of ice were cut and stored in an ice house near the lake, and some of the ice was carried up the mountain for the guests.”

I don’t know, maybe it was bigger back then, but they call it a lake. Looks like this is another trail head for Miller’s Goat trail. I won’t show you that sign because it probably just says the same thing from the other direction. I’m not familiar with Miller’s Goat Trail; I haven’t examined it closely on the map. No bathroom stops on the way here, by the way, on this four-hour trail. Just be aware of that. This was a tree that had fallen recently. It looks like it is still alive, or was still alive. It looks like it came out of the ground naturally, and a section was sawn out to protect the trail. Somebody has to come along here and check the viability of the trail at some interval.

Well, it’s been a nice trip on this easy difficulty trail at Mt. Nebo on the northbound section of the trail on the east side of the mountain. I’m approaching my turning point. So I hope you’ve enjoyed it. And if you come here, enjoy it and have a good and safe trip. Until then, if you’ve got the fever, keep it. And if you don’t, catch the fever and I will see you next time on Running: A FEVER.