Swarky

[ATC King]

Is there anyone who'd like to ride in Southwest Arkansas before the summer heat gets here?

I've no immediate destination in mind and there's several options. The main objective would be to stay wherever it's allowable to ride out from. That could be wilderness camping in the Ouachita National Forest, a state park campground that has nearby ATV trails, a private rental cabin near ATV trails, a private off-road park with camping, and maybe some other options I forgot or am not aware of.

It would be nice to schedule it before the end of April, or the first part May at the latest. While the nights are still cool enough to require a light jacket and the days haven't become sweltering yet.

[ATC King]

I rode my bike on a very short section of the Bear Creek Cycle Trail at Daisy. It's more like a road than a trail, the short piece I rode anyway. It was getting dark and that was just an impromptu ride as I was going by the trailhead anyway, so I didn't ride the whole thing. There's conflicting information on the distance. Some sources say 30 miles and others 6. I'm inclined to think it's six, one way. I've never rode it before because there are longer and more technical trails to choose from. No cost to ride most of them.

The trailhead is on the road to the campgrounds, but riding from the campground to the trail isn't allowed.I'll just throw the trike in back of the pickup, no straps even needed for that short distance.

If nobody else decides to ride or camp, I may just do a day trip and ride the trail and post some pictures. Got to get some enjoyable riding in before the day temps get and stay in the 80's. Once it hits 85, riding in the woods isn't going to be much fun, and in the 90's or above is just miserable, hot, dusty, sweaty, bugs and snakes everywhere.

[ATC King]

I went for a ride on the Bear Creek trail yesterday, and glad I did. My previous assessment was wrong! It's a proper woods trail and has enough technical sections to be fun.

I raced a hare scramble in that area 20 years ago and guess I haven't rode there since. I figured all the good trails had been closed. Boy was I wrong, and they even had some freshly cut single track.

I mostly rode the main trail, Bear Creek, and done 38 miles (out and back) which took five hours of ride time, total time was a little over six hours. A whole lot of 1st and 2nd gear riding. I left about noon and was a little pressed for time at the end of the day, trying to get back before dark. The trail opens at 6am and closes 30 minutes before dark, but it's not like coming in late is going to be an issue except for the difficulty of riding the trail at dark.

If you read about the trail many sources state the most difficult sections are near the state park. That's wrong, all of it has difficult sections. 12 miles of the trail is outside of the park and on CoE land. Be prepared for a beating the whole way. There were a couple sections I didn't clean, but it wasn't a day for session riding. Sessioning is when you practice on one difficult section, improving skills, until you can consistently clean it. What I couldn't ride up, I could walk the trike up.

I'll post a picture later, but the map on the trailhead sign needs to be put online, preferably the state park website, because everything else leaves a person guessing as to what to expect. All the maps I found before going were severely lacking. Bear Creek is the main trail, but there are several spurs, which end by the lake and have picnic tables. The entire trail follows the lake contour, so there's plenty of opportunities for a dip or just nice scenery while taking a break. There are also a few different loops, which I didn't take this time, at least not intentionally or knowingly. The Gobbler's Knob loop looked like the longest, but that's one I know I didn't take and good luck finding a map with all the loop names, I didn't, just seen the trail signs. Most of the trail is well marked, even with distance signs every quarter mile to mile, but there are some social trails, cuts, and other roads that can mix a person up if not paying close attention. The way it's built, the rider is never that far from a main road, so if needed, they could make it to one quicker than backtracking the trail.

They were right to rate this public trail moderate to expert. No way a novice rider should be out there, much less a novice trike rider, at least not by themselves. I recommend full safety gear on this one. Helmets are required, but besides that I guess a person could ride in swimwear (not advised). Even at slow speed, the amount and size of angular rocks would be a short fall to a long recovery. Even a bare elbow is risky.

The whole time out there I only seen three other riders, but I can also see why. This isn't a Sunday drive kind of trail, it takes full attention.

There's at least three trailheads, and about the same number of camping areas. A person could camp at one spot, shuttle to the farthest trailhead and ride back to camp (can't ride in park), otherwise it's an out and back, but with the loops it doesn't all have to be retraced, but not knowing a good map, distances, or general layout of the trails, that's a bit of a crapshoot, but it would make for a full day of riding just out there and playing around. With a group of five, it'd be a full day anyhow. Could certainly make an 7+ hour ride of it, including breaks. Brink a boat, kayak, or canoe, and that's easily a whole weekend of recreation in one location.

I watched several video on YT about this trail before going, and they were all pretty lame, didn't show the tougher stuff, so don't go by those. It will tax a trike rider and they will be tired by the end. I rode my 185S, so that made it a bit tougher, not having rear suspension. I do have the benefit or a disc rear brake, and certainly put that through it's paces. I may have slacked on maintenance or it may have just spit the brake lining off a backing plate, but I had to listen to a grinding rear brake on the way out and diminished braking. Check yer trike beforehand, this ain't no trail fer bad brakes. I also had to constantly get off and bend the bash plate away from the chain and rear sprocket. Rocks kept bending it and I couldn't stand listening to it.

Mud, and more than I was prepared for. If there was one low of the day, it was mud. There's not much, but what's there is pretty soupy. Most of the muddy spots have cut-arounds, which is really bad for maintaining public trails so I try to do my part and go through the main trail, but at some point I was just too tired to mess with getting a trike unstuck. I tried to guess which ones had a rocky bottom and which didn't, but wasn't very successful. After I had fallen in while getting unstuck, the rest of the day was somewhat easier because I was already a mess and didn't care if I got messier. I've got a whole day of cleaning ahead of me though, maybe Wednesday, or as far as I can push it back. Good thing my pickup has a rubber floor covering and vinyl seat, because I only brought a spare shirt.

The temperature was in the low 80's, and that's already a bit too uncomfortable for woods riding. I didn't take nearly enough water and was getting dehydrated. It's a physically exhausting trail on a hardtail trike. Got that stinky orange piss by the end of the ride and started seeing goats.

This would be a great spot for a group ride. Modern camping available, lake, plenty of trail for a day of riding, and not too far from a Dollar General (they're everywhere). Tent camping is cheap enough, there's no fee for the trail, and just an overall inexpensive experience. It's dry, so adult beverages will need to be bought coming in, before that county. The park does host some events, like today they had a kayak tour. I rode yesterday because I didn't know if the trail would be busy on a Saturday, and I guess still don't know.

[ATC King]

Here's the actual map. Even the map on onX is wrong, and people pay for that app. The onX one only shows about half of the trail and none of the loops or spurs.

[ATC King]

This is the end of the trail and I don't think I seen this sign in any of the videos I watched. There are ruins from the rock cabin just a bit past this sign and it makes a loop back onto the main trail.



I'll be editing this post as I attach pictures.


Anyone else see these goats?



This bridge is so wide, you won't believe what this trike owner done next.


These picnic tables are at the end of spurs.





The trail crosses the creek here. It may be hard to see the blazing, but it's there on the tree to the left that's leaning over the creek. I think I seen a sign saying one loop was the high water loop, which may mean to bypass this crossing.






I was thinking it's actually legal to ride from the trail to a campsite, but the trailhead sign seems to say otherwise. Arkansas allows ATV road use for traveling to a trail or private land. I looked at one of my older post and seen where I went into camp to see the kiosk. Right there it says it's legal. Next time I'm going to camp.