Biking (mostly) without snow in February!!
Riding a bridge over a mucky area beside a creek.
Hey everyone! I hope you have been enjoying the lovely winter so far and have been keeping this off-season a time of relaxation and re-charging for the next year of biking (and racing for some). As most of you probably know I’m currently in school at the University of Manitoba finishing my Agriculture Diploma and I graduate in April. So…because us university kids always get a week of school off in February to do some something called “Reading”, I, together with my parents, took a road trip down to Oklahoma and Arkansas to hit some warmer temps and the plan was for me to do some biking down there at the same time.
4 days of riding rocks will make you fall in love with your dual suspension bike!
We left last Sunday on our way to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We hit some nasty snowstorms on the way down through South Dakota and Nebraska but we finally got there on Monday night. The next morning we checked out the Tulsa Zoo and the temperature was a windy +5 to +7 C. So Tuesday afternoon I went to the Turkey Mountain Park to shred some of the trails there. The park is only about 2 miles square but locals said they have at least 50 miles of trail packed into that small area. It was some incredibly technical riding through rocks, roots, mud, more rocks and then even more rocks, steep downhills and uphills covered in rocks and roots, with more rocks thrown in for good measure! All you hard tail holdouts (ahem..Gerald and Lincoln..) would have gotten a decent pounding from how rocky it was. When I say rocks and roots I don’t mean a section here or there, this was non-stop rock drop-offs and rock gardens with roots coming across everywhere for the entire trail, there were no flat out big-ring sections. This trail (actually all the trails I rode) was NOTHING like the stuff we have here in MB when comparing how technical the riding is. I got nice and muddy and it was a blast to finally put my Racer-X through its proper paces for a total of about 27 km of riding. In the evening we found T-Town Bicycles and I stopped in there to get some more chain lube and stock up on gels and shot blocks.
At Turkey Mountain. Less than 1 km into the trail.
The next day (Wednesday) was a driving day and we left Tulsa to head towards Hot Springs, Arkansas. The road we took was very scenic with lots of curves and switchbacks going through the Ouachita National Forest. We stopped in Mena, Arkansas at a small hiking area to stretch our legs so I got out my bike and did a small loop there for about 3 km. We then drove the rest of the way to Hot Springs.
Catching some air at Cedar Glade Park in Hot Springs.
Hot Springs is a town with lots of history and actually has natural mineral hot springs running down the side of the mountain right into town. We found Parkside Cycle that Thursday morning and talked to them about getting directions to The Womble and Syllamo trails (two of IMBA’s Top 50 Epic trails in North America). Since it was almost lunch time when we got there and getting to the trail would take at least 1.5 hours yet they recommended that we ride their local trails right in Hot Springs and head out to the longer epic Womble trail early the next morning to make sure I had enough daylight. They also recommended not to ride the Syllamo trail (near Mountain View, Arkansas) because there hadn’t been anyone taking care of it the past year or two. So we took their advice and went first to the Cedar Glade Park trails in town where they are hosting a 6 hour race next weekend. The temperature was a beautiful, sunny + 14 C. This trail wasn’t quite as technical but there were still rocks and roots everywhere. It was mostly through pine trees with some super fast downhills that were sorta scary because they were littered with golf ball sized rocks. I did 2 laps of the race course which was already marked out for a total of 34 km.
Suiting up for The Womble trail after replacing my chain.
Then came Friday, time to find out what designates an epic trail as a truly epic trail! We headed out to Lake Ouachita (pronounced Oh-ah-Shah-tah) from Hot Springs to the trailhead of the Womble trail. I loaded up my pack with several gels and energy bars and a spare tube of course because I could see down the trail that it was going to be rocky again. I set off at 11 am to find that the trail started off with a 1.5 mile rock and root covered climb along a ridge to the top of the mountain with spectacular views down to the bright blue lake on the one side. The first section of the trail had some unbelievable terrain that you have to see with your own eyes to truly appreciate.
The Titus on the Womble trail over looking the end of Lake Ouachita.
After the big climb the trail rolled along the side of the mountain connecting with several different mountain ridges via switchbacks. There weren’t as many rocky sections along here but the trail was a small shelf cut into the side of the mountain that was no more than 2.5 feet wide (no exaggeration). Since I was on the north side there was still some snow around from a storm they had had 2 weeks earlier but the trail was totally clear with only some damp spots from the melting snow above it. Riding on this “shelf” went on for several miles till I came to a long downhill leading me to a valley area between mountains.
The "shelf" I was riding on.
The valley area section crossed several beautiful creeks without bridges, most were ride-able but not quite deep enough to get the feet wet. This went on for several miles again until I came to a sign that had two red “up” arrows on it saying that Mauldin Mountain was coming up. I think they should have put twenty “up” arrows on that sign because that was a punishing climb if there ever was one! About 2 miles of steep uphill with washed out switchbacks and of course rocks all over the place once again. I cleaned the whole thing in record time! (Haha yeah right..) I’ll admit it, I didn’t clean one of the uphill switchbacks because it was too steep and too rocky so I took a little breather right away too. So then the trail flowed along the top of that mountain for sometime before dipping down along the other side into the same type of narrow “shelf” trail as before.
I found out oak leaves roll much faster than pine needle covered trails.
Again there were some crazy fun downhills and rocky switchbacks and beautiful views all over the place. The trail eventually levelled out a little more and led through some super neat rolling forests with, of course, more rocks and creek crossings than you can imagine. After going 36 km my “winter legs” caught up with me and I was struggling to keep a quick pace. So I settled into a slower than average trail ride pace and kept going. I eventually ended up at North Fork Lake at 3 pm where the trail ended and my parents picked me up. It was a total of exactly 40 km that took me 3 hours of actual riding time and 4 hours total on-trail time which included time for taking pictures and taking in the view while eating gels, clif bars and shot blocks like a starved caveman.
Riding on pure rock!
After finishing the trail we drove back to Hot Springs and went to sit in one of the hot springs mineral pools which was the perfect way to cap off the fun (but also difficult) day of trail riding. That night we started heading back home and got back on Sunday after lunch.
So in total I rode 104 km over four days of riding. My goal was to at least do 100 km on this trip so it worked out perfectly. Also, now I know what defines a truly EPIC trail and its too bad I couldn’t share the joy of riding it with someone else. Of course riding new trails is always so much fun because you don’t know what to expect around the corner but I gotta say, guys we may not have any designated epic trails in our backyard but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride just as much on our trails as any other trails out there.
Rocks, roots, and a creek. This one picture sums up almost the whole trail.
I’ll be uploading lots of the other pictures that I took onto my Facebook profile so for those of you that have Facebook you can look for them there. I’ll try to post them without privacy restrictions there so that anyone can view them and I’ll put the link in here later on. If you have questions or want more detail on something, or if something I said doesn’t make sense then ask away in the comments!
The trailhead for The Womble trail. 40 km of fun lays ahead!
Hope you enjoyed my long winded recap,
Jeffrey Elias
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:52 am
Awesome Jeff – looks like some sweet single track. Love the Jumping pic.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:37 pm
I feel the need for a roadtrip coming on.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Sounds like a great trip!! Nice Pix too!! Definitely beats the heck out of riding the trainer at the YMCA…hmm 1.5 months till spring trail time!!!
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Let me know when KK.
February 23rd, 2010 at 7:07 pm
Way to go Jeff. Must be nice to dust off the winter legs. You look like you’ve survived the winter well…so far…
Here’s to spring!
February 24th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Sweet ups bro! Looks like I missed out!
March 15th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
I really enjoyed your descriptive summary of our fantastic trip. I’m glad I could be a part of this biking experience with you, and even gladder you always came out at the other end of the trail!