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The Road to Certain Death - A K Trail Tale

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Little Mo Falls
Arkansas​
 
Great ride report and pictures. Can y'all post a picture of a map showing the route and the location of the "road to certain death"?
 
Whew! Milton, I readily admit that's a little too much adventure for me. :giveup:
Thanks for the report & pics.

6 of us started out to explore the east end of the K Trail from Vicky's Diner in Hatfield to the Indian Highway back in late March, but the weather turned so cold/wet 3 of us bailed at Texarakana and the rest of us had to cut our ride short.
 
Milton, I am glad you came out ok and not injured! Late in the day, exhausted, dehydrated, and after several fall is when the risk of injury goes way up. Turning around and living for another day is allways the better choice! So lucky that you had provisions on you to make it though the night. I am doing a self-supported ride with a buddy of mine very soon, and while we wont be getting into dubious single track, its going to be mano-a-mano the whole way. I would have really struggled with a decision to leave you alone in the woods, that is a tough call I hope not to face.
 
DoctorXRR said:
Milton, I am glad you came out ok and not injured! Late in the day, exhausted, dehydrated, and after several fall is when the risk of injury goes way up. Turning around and living for another day is allways the better choice! So lucky that you had provisions on you to make it though the night. I am doing a self-supported ride with a buddy of mine very soon, and while we wont be getting into dubious single track, its going to be mano-a-mano the whole way. I would have really struggled with a decision to leave you alone in the woods, that is a tough call I hope not to face.
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We are talking about Milton the Adventure Dentist here.
He is the Chuck Norris of Adventure Motorcyclist.
No need to worry about Milton! :rider:

Kidding aside, I'd of had trouble leaving him too. He's a big boy and was not hurt so I don't blame them, but I know where your coming from!
 
bigdon55 said:
We are talking about Milton the Adventure Dentist here.
He is the Chuck Norris of Adventure Motorcyclist.

... I'd of had trouble leaving him too. He's a big boy and was not hurt so I don't blame them, but I know where your coming from!
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Years ago I abandoned Milton in Laredo and have regretted that decision ever since even though he was in a major city, he was healthy, and had the financial means to take care of his bike issues.

The Arkansas situation required a tough decision - one that those 3 fellows had to make based on all the factors present at the time - and things did work out. I wasn't there so it's not appropriate for me to second guess that decision, but I do recognize how difficult a decision it was.
 
Trail Boss said:
Years ago I abandoned Milton in Laredo and have regretted that decision ever since even though he was in a major city, he was healthy, and had the financial means to take care of his bike issues.

The Arkansas situation required a tough decision - one that those 3 fellows had to make based on all the factors present at the time - and things did work out. I wasn't there so it's not appropriate for me to second guess that decision, but I do recognize how difficult a decision it was.
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Don't take me wrong Richard( and I don't think you are) ,I am not saying they did wrong.
It would have probably been more dangerous to try and get him out than to have him stay.
I'm sure Milton knows his limitations and what to do when he reaches them. I'm sure that it was hard to talk the rest of the Crew into leaving.
I'd probably have stayed with him because I would have been in the same shape. Too tired to leave.
 
bigdon55 said:
I'm sure Milton knows his limitations and what to do when he reaches them. I'm sure that it was hard to talk the rest of the Crew into leaving.
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Thank you and yes.
I'm a little surprised about the concern. (You talkin' to Me?)
One thing to remember is that JT and I spent 5 days camping out in Mexico a couple of years ago, (JT remembers it as 5 days in Mexico without ever drinking one beer), so I would say that we both knew each other's capabilities strengths and weaknesses pretty well. Before Rich drug me into twtex.com I did all my Mexico exploring solo. Done my share of solo backpacking too for that matter.
I always carry just enough stuff to pull off a comfortable night in the woods and I guess there is an argument that subconsciously I lean in that direction anyway.
Smiley probably has at least one story of me disappearing from a group to walk out into the desert for a little time with the Maker.
My hats off to the guys that didn't have a choice in the matter while serving in the military.
 
Another fantastic ride report and every time Milton and JT ride, it is even more adventurous!
 
DoctorXRR said:
Milton, I am glad you came out ok and not injured! Late in the day, exhausted, dehydrated, and after several fall is when the risk of injury goes way up. Turning around and living for another day is allways the better choice! So lucky that you had provisions on you to make it though the night. I am doing a self-supported ride with a buddy of mine very soon, and while we wont be getting into dubious single track, its going to be mano-a-mano the whole way. I would have really struggled with a decision to leave you alone in the woods, that is a tough call I hope not to face.
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I can assure you that JT and I talked it over and we were very confident that Milton would be just fine camping out, or else we would not have left him there.
He's a pretty tough guy that Milton!
 
hope Bigfoot and Banjo music did not disturb your sleep Milton :mrgreen:
 
Thank you for sharing. Great ride report and pics.
Wish I could of been there.
 
Thank you for sharing. Great ride report and pics.
Wish I could of been there.
 
I based our route on the one used in 2010 by a K trail ride organized by AttoirRE here. Later on in that thread and after the ride Stingray Scott posted the gps tracks. Note that we followed their day 1 route with the exception that we rode into Talihina for lunch. And we were not able to follow the day 2 route/tracks because of some road closures by Shady Lake.
 
Trail Boss said:
Then we arrived at the crossroads. Let me explain. Each of us has our own personal idiosyncrasies - characteristic or personality peculiarities. Well, one of JT's idiosyncrasies is the desire to explore every trail he encounters. If you and JT are riding a trail that neither of you have been down before but that you know for a fact is a good trail that you can get through and you encounter a trail that you don't know anything about, JT will invariably choose to ride the unknown trail. There's nothing wrong with that - you just need to know that he will make that choice.

That is exactly the situation that we found ourselves in. We arrived at an intersection of the K Trail and an unknown faint trail that was shown on JT's GPS. One glance at the unknown trail and you could tell that it was not often used. In fact, it looked like it hadn't been used in 50 years.

"Hey, JT, what map is that on your GPS? That trail isn't on my map."

"Rich, it's a hand drawn map from 1882, presumably drawn by a hermit living in these woods. It was discovered buried in a cave not far from here during an archeological dig and eventually was submitted to the University of Texas maps archives where it lay untouched for over 100 years until I found it. I scanned it and converted it into a map for my GPS."

"Oh, well in that case, I'm sure it's a good map and we can completely trust our lives on it's accuracy."
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:rofl: That is a GREAT description of JT!! His GPS/Map fu is strong indeed!

miltonotto said:
We came to a river. “We’re not going to have to cross that, are we?” (This wasn’t a creek or stream, it was a fast river)
JT: “I don’t know.”
Whaaat? I’m thinking. Whaduhyou mean, you don’t know? Still I ultimately had faith in JT.
It never occurred to me that he had no idea where he was leading us.
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:tab A good leader never lets on that he has no clue what he is doing. He just acts like he knows what he's doing so the troops will have the confidence to follow... I have taken advantage of that trust a few times on some rides like this :lol2:

:tab By the way, there is a little gas station in Clayton that also has a grocery store and grill inside. You can pick your steak from the meat section and they will cook it right there to order. It was amazingly good food!! :eat:
 
I had a run-in with that same creek crossing on the "trail of certain death". We were coming at it from the opposite direction (From Mena essentially). It was in the summer when I encountered it, and the water was much, much lower. Even so, I still managed to drown my WR in the deep hole at the start of it. Me and a buddy drug the bike out and drained all the water out of the airbox and pipe, dried out the air filter, and then bailed on the trail. Thanks guys for curing my curiosity about what was on the other side of the creek! Looks gnarly! :clap:


Here's a pic from my situation:

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Nice RR guys. That areas is one of the best kept secrets out there. :trust:



jordan
 
Not only does JT like to take the least traveled path he likes to play with things that slither around on the ground! And no I aint talking about his girl friend!

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This little feller wasn't a happy camper........until JT turned him loose.
 
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