THE WOMAN BEHIND THE COUNTER at the Quik Mart doesn't know that I exist, or perhaps she doesn't care. It takes a couple of tinny taps on my Coke can before she reluctantly tears herself from the miniature TV behind the Slim Jim display and rings me up for the soda and pack of gum I've set down.

It's exactly this grudgingness (verging on full-fledged suspicion of newcomers), combined with outsiders' general Arkansas apprehension and ignorance of its geographic wealth, that has kept the Ozark Mountains off tourists' charts. After all, who goes to rural Arkansas, right?

That skepticism—local and tourist—actually works in your favor. Wariness has helped generations of locals protect their unique hill-country culture as well as huge swaths of undeveloped public and private hardwood forests. With dark hollers creased by singletrack and clean, clear rivers for fishing and paddling, it's the type of place worth hiding from strangers, and the type of place strangers (like you and me) are constantly seeking.

With the recently opened Clinton Presidential Library giving downtown Little Rock, the nearest gateway city, a slew of slick new brewpubs and hip cafés, and a frenzy of trail building and maintenance projects introducing more outdoor athletes to the treasures of the Natural State, the region is warming up to company. I packed my bag and headed to the 1,875-square-mile Ozark National Forest in late fall to see just how cool the place has become.

Three hours north of Little Rock is Gaston's White River Resort, a legendary 48-year-old fishing outfitter on the banks of the White River in the town of Lakeview. Only a fishing camp with true bragging rights can get away with housing hardcore anglers in rows of pink cabins. Some of the largest trout in the U.S. are caught in this watershed every year. In fact, the world-record brown trout, topping 40 pounds, was nabbed in the Little Red River, a nearby tributary. The classic way to fish the White is to hire a guide with a driftboat, motor upriver half a mile or more, cut the engine, and float, either casting a fly or using conventional tackle. Under the tutelage of Gaston's guide Danny Messick, in a little over three hours, a fellow angler and I hooked 50 fish, including brown, cutthroat, and brook trout, and a couple of finely colored pan-size rainbows the resort restaurant's chef cooked up for our supper.

Map by Aude van Ryn