JT and I left Kerrville by 7:30 on a Thursday morning. My little pickup was stuffed with camping gear, riding gear and food. His XR650r and my TTR250 bounced along behind us on his 3 rail trailer. We had five days and planned on spending it riding in the Ozark National Forest.
At our usual blazing pace, we arrived Clarkesville, AR 16 hours later. Let's see ~600 miles took 16 hours, humm....Well, we did detour through Redding Recreational Area, hoping to score a camp spot but it was a no go. Back to Clarkesville and pulled into a cheap motel and crashed. The next morning we found a nice camp spot at Spadra Corp of Engineers Park on Lake Dardenelle. We set up camp and had sandwiches for lunch.
Then hopped on the bikes and rode out of the park. Yippee! We are riding in Arkansas!
The weather is perfect, warm sun, cool breezes, blue skies. Wildflowers and dogwoods and a few redbuds are in bloom. In town and around the lake, it looks like late spring; trees are almost fully leafed out, flowers and busy pollinators everywhere. Later in the day, I noticed that at higher elevations, winter still holds sway; leafless trees, few flowers.
After a few minutes of pavement, we take a dirt road with a thin layer of gravel on top. Not dusty and easy riding. Our loose plan for the day is to ride to Spainhour Falls, then to Pearson’s cabin, ending up at Oark Café.
The riding is great. Easy enough for me to enjoy the pastoral views but with occasional rocky inclines or a stream crossing to keep it interesting.
On Weimer Rd, we come to a steep, rutted hill with loose rocks. JT stops and says it is in worse shape than he remembers--more washed out. He decides to try it while I wait at the bottom. Very soon his voice comes through the Sena, “No go. It only gets worse.” He returns.
He tries a work around. It quickly peters out. We backtrack a little, ride some county roads.
We take a hwy for a bit, then turn off on a little dirt road that goes to a shooting range, a quick veer to the right puts us on a nearly hidden two track trail that begins a steady climb. And keeps climbing to about 1300’. It is very fun going. We cross many deep, large puddles full of muddy water. But the bottom is always solid and we negotiate them easily. My biggest worry is splashing my boots as they are not waterproof.
The track eventually makes a turn and begins to descend. It also has eroded to the point that it is a narrow chute with a trickle of water running down it. John’s voice in my helmet tells me to take it slow and just pick my way through. Even though I get nervous and tense, it is working. The 250 requires no finessing. Dirty Sally just chugs along steadily in 1st gear. Even when John reports that the rocks are getting bigger and slicker, Sally stays sure-footed.
John reaches the end of the chute and turns in his seat to watch me. No sooner does he say, “You’re doing great!” than I see a large clay-ey rut that crosses the stream diagonally. I cross the rut with the front wheel but the rear slides in the clay, pushing me and the bike into the soft dirt wall on my left. We come to a stop, still upright, embedded in the dirt. Laughing, I say, “You’ll never tell me I’m doing great again.”
Brush off the dirt, adjust the hand guard and continue.
John uphill, adjusting the hand guard on the 250
After some very nice riding we come to a river. John is astounded, this is usually a shallow crossing. But today it is impassable; too wide, too deep, too fast. It is beautiful though. So we stop to admire and take pix.
We left the river but soon come to it again. JT crossed with difficulty, eventually dismounting and power-walking his bike through. He then returned and walked my bike through. As I waded across, feeling the cold water creep into my boots, I thought, ‘ well, I don’t have to worry about keeping my boots dry anymore.’
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t271xE3P4M8"]450 - YouTube[/ame]
As I mentioned, we crossed many large puddles but none presented any difficulty. Even when deep, the bottom was firm.
Teaser: MOAMP = Mother Of All Mud Puddles
At our usual blazing pace, we arrived Clarkesville, AR 16 hours later. Let's see ~600 miles took 16 hours, humm....Well, we did detour through Redding Recreational Area, hoping to score a camp spot but it was a no go. Back to Clarkesville and pulled into a cheap motel and crashed. The next morning we found a nice camp spot at Spadra Corp of Engineers Park on Lake Dardenelle. We set up camp and had sandwiches for lunch.
Then hopped on the bikes and rode out of the park. Yippee! We are riding in Arkansas!
The weather is perfect, warm sun, cool breezes, blue skies. Wildflowers and dogwoods and a few redbuds are in bloom. In town and around the lake, it looks like late spring; trees are almost fully leafed out, flowers and busy pollinators everywhere. Later in the day, I noticed that at higher elevations, winter still holds sway; leafless trees, few flowers.
After a few minutes of pavement, we take a dirt road with a thin layer of gravel on top. Not dusty and easy riding. Our loose plan for the day is to ride to Spainhour Falls, then to Pearson’s cabin, ending up at Oark Café.
The riding is great. Easy enough for me to enjoy the pastoral views but with occasional rocky inclines or a stream crossing to keep it interesting.
On Weimer Rd, we come to a steep, rutted hill with loose rocks. JT stops and says it is in worse shape than he remembers--more washed out. He decides to try it while I wait at the bottom. Very soon his voice comes through the Sena, “No go. It only gets worse.” He returns.
He tries a work around. It quickly peters out. We backtrack a little, ride some county roads.
We take a hwy for a bit, then turn off on a little dirt road that goes to a shooting range, a quick veer to the right puts us on a nearly hidden two track trail that begins a steady climb. And keeps climbing to about 1300’. It is very fun going. We cross many deep, large puddles full of muddy water. But the bottom is always solid and we negotiate them easily. My biggest worry is splashing my boots as they are not waterproof.
The track eventually makes a turn and begins to descend. It also has eroded to the point that it is a narrow chute with a trickle of water running down it. John’s voice in my helmet tells me to take it slow and just pick my way through. Even though I get nervous and tense, it is working. The 250 requires no finessing. Dirty Sally just chugs along steadily in 1st gear. Even when John reports that the rocks are getting bigger and slicker, Sally stays sure-footed.
John reaches the end of the chute and turns in his seat to watch me. No sooner does he say, “You’re doing great!” than I see a large clay-ey rut that crosses the stream diagonally. I cross the rut with the front wheel but the rear slides in the clay, pushing me and the bike into the soft dirt wall on my left. We come to a stop, still upright, embedded in the dirt. Laughing, I say, “You’ll never tell me I’m doing great again.”
Brush off the dirt, adjust the hand guard and continue.
John uphill, adjusting the hand guard on the 250
After some very nice riding we come to a river. John is astounded, this is usually a shallow crossing. But today it is impassable; too wide, too deep, too fast. It is beautiful though. So we stop to admire and take pix.
We left the river but soon come to it again. JT crossed with difficulty, eventually dismounting and power-walking his bike through. He then returned and walked my bike through. As I waded across, feeling the cold water creep into my boots, I thought, ‘ well, I don’t have to worry about keeping my boots dry anymore.’
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t271xE3P4M8"]450 - YouTube[/ame]
As I mentioned, we crossed many large puddles but none presented any difficulty. Even when deep, the bottom was firm.
Teaser: MOAMP = Mother Of All Mud Puddles
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