First, the total stats:
127 miles
14,000 climbing
17 hours moving
Keith, James, Jackson, and myself drove up to Mena, Arkansas last Thursday to go on a little adventure. Our original plan was to do an almost complete 140 mile loop of singletrack. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as easy as we thought they might. Here is our story.
We pulled in to Mena around 10pm on Thursday. We quickly loaded up the bikes and set off up the double track so we could set up camp away from the road. Little did we realize we were setting up on the top of a ridge with a constant 15mph wind gusting to around 25 at times. Needless to say, it took awhile to set up camp. The tarps were catching all the wind.
You can see in the pic above how the tarps are all "fluffed up" from the wind. Even though it wasn't a cold wind, it was still difficult to get any sleep that night. Some of us tried burrowing into our bags just to get out of it.
Because of the wind, it took a while to pack up and get moving. We decided that we would set our own pace and head up the double track until we found a spot out of the wind to have some breakfast. Apparently there was some miscommunication because James was the last one out of camp and I think either went the wrong way, or just sat around waiting for us to show up! Oh well, we soon got together, had our meal and got going.
Some of us chose to cook our food. I used a thawed out frozen Amy's burrito.
At 300 calories a pop, they got me going.
After the 4 mile climb we enter the singletrack on the Ouachita Trail. Let me just start by saying that the Ouachita Trail was created for hikers, not cyclists. Therefore, it is an extremely difficult trail in places. It is up and down almost the whole time with tons of baby heads and small boulders in the way.
There was a lot of this going on...
Our first real stop for water was around 30 miles away. For mountain bikers, that should take roughly 4 hours in challenging terrain. I think it took us around 7ish hours to get there. We were all out of water and totally exhausted. I think Jackson was in the deepest hole of all. His voice was creaky and his legs were cramping. But if there is one thing anyone needs to know about Jackson is that he doesn't stop unless he physically can't do it anymore. I knew we were fine.
We loaded up on water
Some of us took advantage of the down time.
I told the crew that we couldn't stop here for the night. We had a long day ahead of us tomorrow and a lot of trail still to cover. We had about 3 hours of actual daylight left so we got back on the trail. Keith and I decided we would ride ahead and James and Jackson would stick together. We told them that in about an hour we would go ahead and stop and set up camp.
What we didn't realize was how hard this next section of trail was going to be. Tons of loose rock with a lot of climbing and hike a biking. Fallen trees and steep drops/step-ups were common and made for slow going. We finally made it near the top of Blowout Mtn (I think?) and Keith and I spent around 30 minutes of stop and go trying to find a good spot to camp. Our main priority was finding something semi flat so we could have a campfire, out of the wind, and not full of briars. We found what we thought was the perfect spot. Oh yeah, it was an hour and a half of riding which put the other guys in about an hour and forty five minutes back. My bad.
I built us a fire and ate my dinner while the others were setting up camp. Soon they came and joined me next to the fire and we sat around talking about bikes, farts, and how hard this stupid trail is. Eventually we all decided to hit the hay. I brought my Amazon Kindle as my one luxury item and sat in my hammock for an hour or so and read and listened to the leaves rustle beneath my hammock. I started to see heat lightening in the distance and remembered that there was a cold front that was coming in tonight.
What side of the mountain were we on? Oh, that's right, the north facing side. Around midnight the wind picked up and it started to sprinkle. I LOVE sleeping in a hammock when it's raining. Sadly, a couple hours later it stopped sprinkling and started dumping rain and the wind was WHIPPING us around in our hammocks. We all laid in our hammocks hoping not to be blown away. The wind was blowing so hard it was pushing our rain fly's into our hammocks and getting our sleeping bags and hammocks wet. It was a very long and very cold night...followed by a very cold morning.
We all got out of our bags around 7:45 am and walked to the other side of the ridge and hid behind a boulder. It was amazing. While it was for sure cold, without the wind we were at least able to warm up some. We ate our breakfast over there (Jackson at his lunch also, tuna fish...gross), packed up and headed out in the freezing cold. We had to pack up our wet sleeping bags and all our gear. On top of that we had to put on we chamois because all of our were wet, along with our jersey's. I don't know how much ya'll know about wet chamois and the male anatomy. But let's just say that things down there don't like cold objects. Even the cream to prevent the rawness was solidified. Ouch.
We got going and the trail was still quite difficult at times but became more and more enjoyable. Our goal was to reach the Womble and hopefully the Fishing Village for some food and maybe some shelter.
There were a few wrecks along the way.
Keith trying to make a sharp, loose, downhill switchback (if I don't make something he has to try it).
Not 2 minutes later Jackson got his big butt stuck between 2 trees while going a bit to fast and went down pretty hard.
We finally got to the Womble Trail. The Womble is an amazing trail built with cyclists in mind. Fast and swoopy trails, moderate climbs, and killer views throughout. Keith and I were FLYING through it. We made it to the Fishing Village in time to talk to the owner. I asked him if he had any cabins available and how much they cost and the first thing he asked me is, "well, what do you boys do for a living." Keith, the physical therapist just kept his eye's on the floor while I proudly stated that I was a teacher. He said, "Shoot, teachers make tons of money." Luckily his wife heard him and very quickly put him in his place. He told me he had a cabin and would be happy to rent us one for the night.
He also told us that he could cook something up for us. Basically, he would have sold us anything we were willing to pay for. We were most certainly willing to pay for shelter and food. The wife told us that it was going to get down to around 28 degrees. We still had wet sleeping bags and the temps didn't get above 43 all day. We had been chilled pretty much the entire time. The decision was easy.
James made a bee line for the showers. He likes to be clean. Jackson made a bee line to the heater, he likes to be warm, Keith started getting naked, he likes to show his body off, and I just wanted to lay down.
You can't beat 4 beds, hot showers, heat, and a stove with all the supplies for 22 bucks a person!
By the next day that room probably had to be severely aired out. Between the HORRIBLE gas being spilled into the air but some people who I won't name, and the clothes that were being hung in front of the heater, one could probably imagine how bad things were.
By this point we knew we weren't going to be able to finish all the singletrack. We had to deviate from the original plan. We decided to finish the Womble (27 more miles) and take the road back (another 45ish miles).
We flew through the Womble, had lunch, and got on the road. We had a nice tailwind for the road into Mena, but had a headwind and some crazy difficult climbs for the last 5 or 6 miles back to the truck. We were all pretty much out of water, completely exhausted, and extremely hungry.
So, I'm 0 for 2 on this loop. I have underestimated the amount of effort and time it takes to ride the Ouachita. It's a trail like no other. So very difficult and the weather made it even moreso.
We had a fantastic time. We're all great friends and will be doing other adventures in the future. I learned a few things from this trip which I'll discuss in another post.
If I had one picture that I think would reflect this trip, it would be this one...
Off the bike, pushing the bike, cold (his arm warmers were soaked so he chose not to wear them), tired, but totally having a great time.
Thanks for reading.
Travis
ps. I have a lot of video as well that is very entertaining. I'll try to post that soon.
