Reluctant ramblers

LITTLE ROCK — Why are so many women reluctant to hike park trails alone?

Snakes.

Lack of familiarity with the trails.

Worries about personal safety.

Worries about being able to get help should an accident happen.

Those are the main concerns voiced by women I spoke with during two all-women trail hikes at Pinnacle Mountain State Park northwest of Little Rock. Park Interpreter Mary Anne Stansbury organized the outings to encourage women who wouldn’t ordinarily use the park’s trails.

Reluctance to hike in a well used park close to an urban area isn’t rare.

“I was woken up to that here,” she says. “It was nothing to me to just put my gear on and go run at10 at night. But you know, you start hearing a few stories and watching the news a little too much, and that [confidence dies].” So she decided to hold weekly women-only hikes in the park this summer, in hope of opening a few eyes.

Called Wild Women Wednesdays, the hikers meet at 6 p.m. and explore different parts of the park.

First she tried out the concepts on weekends in April. On Easter morning, Stansbury led a group of about eight women around Pinnacle Mountain’s 3-mile Base Trail.

On April 29, she led another group of about the same size from the park’s visitor center on the Rocky Valley Trail and the East Quarry Overlook Trail - a 2.5-mile adventure.

Wild Women Wednesdays began in mid-May and will continue through August. Each week has drawn a diverse group of 10 to 12 women.

Whatever the reasons for some women’s reluctance, Stansbury wants the group hikes to be an opportunity for women to become more familiar with the state park’s trails and also make friends they can hike with on their own.

A LOT TO LEARN

Stansbury began our experience April 29 with an overview of the route we would walk through the woods. She pointed out poison ivy so we could identify and avoid it. And she explained how the trail was marked using blazes - rectangles painted on trees or rocks along the way. Blazes on the Rocky Valley Trail are green.

Leaving the visitor center parking lot we faced an immediate little uphill rise and hiked up it together. But as the hike progressed, we sifted into groups with matching paces or friends who had come to the hike together. The order tended to shuffle a bit when the group stopped to take in a view or listen to Stansbury point out something of interest.

I fell into pace with Janna Keathley and Shana Hardin and her dog, Rockett. We talked about our jobs, living in Little Rock, why the women’s hiking group appealed to us, and what had kept us off the trails before.

Keathley said she wouldn’t want to go hiking alone “just for safety reasons, as a single woman on a path would make me nervous. Plus, snakes and things like that that could happen.”

Hardin agreed about the snakes.

As we chatted, we walked together into a tree-shaded valley. The trail is well-named, being very rocky. There were some places that were steep or uneven enough to noticeably cut into conversations, but only a few.

PLEASANT PATHS

There were enough small rocks and roots underfoot that I had to remind myself to look around at first. By the end of the hike, though, I didn’t feel the need to focus all my attention on my feet.

Aside from a thicket of cane, briars and other vines near the Maumelle River where the East Quarry Overlook Trail branched off from the Rocky Valley loop, the woods were open and bright. But as we stepped off the Rocky Valley Trail and onto the East Quarry Overlook Trail, the nearly overgrown state of the path at the turn made Stansbury’s guidance necessary.

She led us down a meander that, thanks to the thicket, would have been easy to overlook or dismiss as not really a trail.

“I would have never made that turn, just the way it looked,” Keathley said, and Hardin started us joking about needing a machete as we ducked under vines and briars. After only a minute or two, the trail passed the thickest undergrowth and emerged into more open forest again.

The blazes on the trees here were red.

GOOD WORKOUT

At first this path was less rocky, but soon it headed uphill.

After the trail’s only really steep climb came a twinned set of stairs, each of which was a bit of a challenge in its own way. Hikers could choose between the steps with no handrail and the set where the rise between steps challenged all but the very long-legged.

At the top came a short walk along an abandoned road where the trees shifted from a mix of hardwoods I couldn’t identify to pines, scrubby oaks, and some patches of prickly pear cactus at an overlook.

Panoramic views opened around us. We could see back to Pinnacle Mountain and the quarry at the visitor center from several spots, over the Arkansas River toward Maumelle from another, and the suburban development and antennas of Chenal Valley from a third.

Stansbury suggested the area would be a good place to picnic. We agreed that the views and breezes would make for a great picnic spot,but hiking in with picnic supplies might be a bit more difficult.

She explained we were looking at the remains of quarrying in the area, and pointed to evidence such as a rock with a hole drilled in it for blasting. She showed us many small crystals that had been left when the rock around them wore away. We left the crystals where they were of course, because the area is a state park and everything in it is protected.

NEW FRIENDS

The women kept one another busy for most of both hikes talking about everything from the scenery and wildflowers to Celebrity Apprentice and IHOP. There were several stops along the way for water and to keep the group from becoming too spread out, and Stansbury showed us interesting formations, signs of past quarrying activity, identified plants and birds, and encouraged the hikers by reminding them of the number of calories they were likely burning.

And as Keathley noted, “you learn things along the way ... about the wildlife and the plants, things I would not otherwise know.”

Neither of the April hikes was very strenuous, and Stansbury said those in the Wednesday series will range from easy to strenuous. She rated the Rocky Valley hike as “moderate,” and the Base Trail is also rated as moderate on the park’s website.

Children are welcome on the hikes, Stansbury says. “I know a lot of times you can’t get a sitter. Kids are welcome as long as mom feels the kid can keep up.”

Although none of the women brought children to either of the hikes I attended, several of them brought their dogs. There were nearly as many dogs as people on the second hike. By the end of our second outing, women were making plans to attend the Wednesday hikes or other events at the park and looking forward to seeing one another again.

More information about programs at Pinnacle Mountain State Park is available at arkansasstateparks.com/pinnaclemountain or by calling (501) 868-5806.