I guess most riders have a bucket list of places they'd like to track up with knobbies before they keel over. Very high on mine were the K-trail, Wolf Pen Gap and the blue hole in Arkansas. What could possibly be better than riding all three in one trip?
Doing it while trying to keep up with friends who can ride the wheels off motorcycles!
AttoirRE put this ride together and led our way through some of the most spectacular dualsport riding anyone could imagine.
Starting down the Talimena Skyway toward Clayton and the west end of the Kiamichi Trail.
If you have to ride pavement...a feller could surely do worse.
We made it into Clayton Oklahoma for fuel and to meet up with TypeSH on his beautiful yeller Zuke. This little lady was out front helping her puppies adopt new families.
Running the trail from this direction brings the gnarliest part right up front for all to enjoy.
The K-trail is made of angular rocks. The small ones are fist sized and guaranteed to move every time a bike tire comes close. Others are big angular blocks that don't move at all. They've had lots of rain lately and ruts are washed out just about anywhere the trail goes up or down hill...that's pretty much everywhere.
This nasty little up-hill stretch grabbed the yeller Zuke.
It offers loose rocks with a massive boulder array right in the middle and deep ruts adding to the fun. As usual, pointing the camera down hill makes it look flat...which it assuredly is not.
Of course, somebody is supposed to get a flat just to make it an official ride. Rydah was our designated dude for this one. It was bloody well hot right about then and most of us were getting low on liquids. That flat happened on a rare level spot with shade...I highly suspect Divine intervention. It worked.
Lots of good advice and a camera adhere to standard flat fixing protocol.
Another official K-trail task is getting a picture of the old bus...
The stretch from Clayton to the fire tower is an endurance test of man and machine. If bike nor body parts don't fly off here then everyone knows you're hopelessly addicted to sniffing Locktite.
AustinJake and TypeSH come riding in. Compare the size of the trail rocks to that of their helmets.
We made it to the tower and find FJRrider knocking back a cold one with Bubba the quadmeister who never leaves home without it.
Rydah coming in off the trail. After the tower the trail gets way easier and eventually starts to resemble an actual road.
Next morning Rydah and I met AttoirRE at the local cafe for a quick breakfast. Then it's out to hunt up the crew and hit the trails.
Boxercup Dave and his WR250 joined us for the morning...excellent timing. We took off down one of the coolest twisty paved roads I've ever enjoyed. Then it was down 512...pretty much the ultimate dualsport trail imho. Words just fall short. Thought I had video from start to finish but the camera died...what a time.
I'd have been tickled to just turn right around and run it the other way.
It's that good!
We went over to the Pike campground. Beautiful river through what was once a really cool place.
We wound our way along the river through some spectacular forests toward the blue hole. Postcard beautiful the entire way.
Four of us went up an exciting bit of trail to the top. FJRrider, Rydah and AttoirRE checking out the view.
We said goodbye to Boxercup Dave, TypeSH and Rydah since they needed to head toward the house. AustinJake, FJRrider, AttoirRE and I rode over to Wolf Pen for some fun.
That's pretty much an Arkansas classic for dualsporting in the Ouachita mountains. There is no doubt AttoirRE and FJRrider know every pig trail big enough to squeeze handlebars through in that country and they led us through the best of the best.
THANKS GUYS!
Awesome ride!