OUACHITA NATIONAL FOREST (OK)

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MONDAY - Today we'll travel nearly 200-miles due east across the southeastern sections of Oklahoma.

All this area is part of the Chickasaw Nation and Choctaw Nation reservations. The largest town by far that we traveled through today was Atoka (pop. 3188).

There were only a few short stretches where we traveled north on 4-lane highways. The rest of the day was spent on 2-lane rural roads like the one in the photo below.

US59 just before we entered the Ouachita National Forest.

All set up on our waterfront site at Cedar Lake Recreation Area.

We're not unhitching because we're only spending 1-night here.

The back of our site from the shoreline trail.

You know that Tricia is not going to leave here until she hikes at least a little bit of the trail.

Cedar Lake is 86-acres in size and the trail the circles the lake is nearly 3-miles long.

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It didn't take Tricia long to get out on the trail, just like I suspected.

She hiked about a quarter of the way around the lake and then doubled back to the campsite. Along the way she captured many images, but I'll only share a few of them.

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SCENES FROM THE CEDAR LAKE TRAIL

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The next photo is one that you hope you never have the opportunity to take. The insect in the photo is an Emerald Ash Borer. It is an invasive species from north-eastern Asia that feeds on ash tree species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years.

Since 2002 it has killed tens of millions of ash trees and threatens to kill most of the 8.7 billion ash trees throughout North America.

Tricia spotted no less than five of these pests along her walk today.

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