a little late ride report...short with pics...

For the last 2 years, I have taken a joseph trip...to nothin but chill on my own time and ride kick ass trails. Last year I discovered Racoon Mtn in the Nooga, hit up Tanasi in TN and rode Oak Mtn and Lake Lurleen which are both in Bama.

This year I decided to head over to Arkansas to the Ouachita Mountains to ride some brand new trails and check out Hot Springs.

I left out on early Thursday moning...it was damn near like this for about 5 out of the 7hrs on the road. Hot Springs was my town of destination.


Since the fog slowed me down and i had a stop in Jackson to pick up some extra gear so as i pulled in town it was getting dark quick...the first ride on the radar was Cedar Glades. It was short and fun!

The weather was chilly and the ground was wet...

I instantly noticed the rocks everywhere!

The light left me quickly...got about 2:15 ride time. Nice trails with a great switch back climb.
That night I crashed at the local campgrounds just on the fringe of town. I stayed in the truck and had a nice rainfall to send me off to dream land. I woke up to this awesome sight of a huge rock wall and sweet little stream.
I drove around town in the day to check it out and drove up to the top of a lookout tower to get a nice view of the area.

Then went downtown Hot Springs which was really cool. Old buildings with lots of history.
Theis is bath house row.

They have real hot springs.

After I hit up the local bike shop to pick up a few last things and get some local advice on what the next trail should be... Little Blakely or Vista Trails

Vista was the decision...great trail system. The Vista is an out and back trail that's about 14 miles. The trails started by winding in and out the Lake Ouachita.

Nice long ROCKY climbs.

It was a great ride...about 3:15 ride time.

There was a section of tree cutting that took away a little but not too much.
The last day of the trip was the Womble. I have been wanting to ride this trail from start to finish for awhile...so this was my chance. B rad made it over for this one, since it too is a point to point trail i needed either a friend to ride with me so we can have a car parked at the end of the trail of I had to arrange a shuttle. We started at the south trail head at North Fork Lake. The trail had mile markers and we started at mile 37 and went backwards...I had a flat sometime before this pic was taken, but this is the second flat...

B rad going to work on the tyre

Damn, it's a large tear in the side wall...what to do? Suck down a hammer gel and use the package as a patch kit.

After about 3:30 hrs of riding we were rewarding with some fantastic single track that was running around some ridges and was only about 2 ft wide...it was impressive. Then we got to this overlook...I would say about 600 ft up. It was great.

The B rad took the goofy pic of me happy and tired. From this point the ride was almost over...we ended up with about 4:20 min ride time from start to finish with about 36 miles, 4500 ft of climbing and a hell of an adventure with a great friend!