Ouachita National Forest extends as far west as Oklahoma, where you’ll find Hochatown, a relaxing vacation community on the western shore of Broken Bow Lake. This is a rural and unspoiled small town surrounded by lush green mountains, and wilderness in every direction.

From what I can tell, it seems like Hochatown is a popular escape for people coming from the grasslands of Texas, which is only a couple of hours to the south. For them, Broken Bow Lake and the surrounding mountains must offer a refreshing change of scenery!

While there was no visible “downtown” the main thoroughfare was lined with rental cabins, generals stores, ATV rentals, and restaurants - including a brewpub and winery. The hub of this destination appeared to be Adam & Eve’s General Store, which offers a little bit of everything from gifts to groceries, and even a relaxing cafe and coffee shop where one can mingle with other travelers who might be passing through.

It was at Adam & Eve’s where I sat down in front of my maps and established a game-plan for my stay in the area!

Bee Creek Mountain

Despite being totally unfamiliar with the area, and having done a very minimal amount of research (as usual), it was my hope that I would find a primitive campsite where I could spend a relaxing weekend near the water.

My exploration took me down a primitive two-track leading to Bee Creek Mountain, which was a small peak located on a peninsula extending into Broken Bow Lake. According to the map, and judging by the seldom-traveled appearance of the road, this looked promising!

Unfortunately, at a crossroad, I made the mistake of turning south toward Dyer Mountain, where I encountered a partially fallen tree that was obstructing my passage due to the height of my roof-mounted kayak. For the sake of exploration, I temporarily removed my boat (while muttering curse-words under my breath), and then reinstalled it after I had passed through. It was a minor inconvenience, but still annoying! The forest road continued for another mile or so until…

Another partially-fallen tree, yielding the exact same problem!

This time, I took the hint, and backtracked to Bee Creek Mountain, once again, removing and replacing my kayak in order to squeeze under the tree.

At the end of the road, I found my campsite. It was a grassy clearing surrounded by woods at a lower elevation, however it was not right on the water. I could go no further in the Jeep, but I was able to see the lake water shimmering through the trees, roughly a hundred yards away. While I wasn’t right on the lake, it was certainly close enough to walk to on foot if I was so compelled!

The Forge

The small clearing that I called my campsite had little to offer in terms of shade. It was my intent to stay for a couple of nights, but it was hot and the sun was unrelenting.

Unfortunately, a storm in Kentucky had damaged my awning weeks ago. A strong gust of wind preceding a thunderstorm caught the awning, pulled a stake from the ground, and caused one of the telescoping horizontal arms to bend in a “V” shape. Fortunately, I kept the damaged arm, so I set off to repair it!

Since the arm is made of aluminum and it was slightly creased, I couldn’t simply bend it back. It would’ve broken in half almost instantly. I had to apply heat. Lots of it! So I started a campfire in the blazing sun, allowing the coals to become red-hot.

It didn’t take long on such a hot day. I placed the bent portion of the arm on the fire and waited. As the aluminum tube became hot, I took great care to unbend it, first using arm strength, and then as it became close-to-straight, I hammered it on a rock to finish the job.

As a result of the bending and hammering, there was no way to attain absolute perfection, so the arm would no longer telescope. However, using a rubber mallet, I pounded the two telescoping lengths of tube together and then reinstalled the assembly.

I was left with a fixed-length arm which required just a little fine tuning to ensure that its length was correct. I ended up using a hacksaw to cut 2” off of the end of the repaired arm, and voila! I had shade again!

The Fair Weather Awning

The ARB 2500 Awning is one of my favorite pieces of equipment, despite being prone to succumbing to inclement weather.

The design of the ARB awning is really simple. In the event of damage, a field-repair is often a viable option. Relatively speaking, it is not an expensive piece of equipment. Spare parts are readily available. There are a number of accessories. It is not excessively heavy, and the bang-per-buck is extremely high.

I have a Deluxe Awning Room which is a walled attachment that doubles as a screened room. When this is deployed in conjunction with the roof tent, the Jeep has living space comparable to that of a tiny home.

For overland travel, you want to keep your components as simple and as light as possible. For this reason in particular, I’m extremely happy with the ARB awning, and I strongly recommend it for the active adventurer. Stowing any awning in inclement weather is just common sense.

A Refreshing Dip

The remainder of the weekend was spent idling around camp, without much ado, or walking down to Broken Bow Lake for a refreshing dip. A motorboat would occasionally pass in the distance, but for the most part, I had this secluded part of lake all to myself.

It was heavenly.

As I lay there in the cool water, floating on my back and looking up at the sky, I wondered where my adventures would take me next. Maybe Texas.