Mountain Biking in Arkansas

This weekend I headed down to the "Natural State" for some mountain biking/camping in the Ozarks. I must say, every time I'm in Arkansas I get more and more impressed with the mountains and state parks.

I was invited by Chris Sholl to meet up with him and others (others = Big Chris, Sean, John and Steve) for a weekend of camping and downhill mountain biking. I really wanted to do some more camping and I'm always up for biking, so the combo sounded pretty good. Friday I met up with a group of guys at Bentonville to ride Slaughter Pen Hallow biking trails. Unfortunately, the trails were too muddy, so instead of riding we packed back up and headed about an hour further south to Devils Den State Park. We got to the park around 1:00, unloaded, set up camp then went to scope out the trails. Devils Den has several multi-use trails and several cross country mountain biking trails snaking around, but that's not what everyone was there for. There is some private land attached to the park on which a down hill mountain biking course is set up.

A mellow section of the trail (really the only pic I got).

The situation is idea, a state park with free camping and a downhill run with easy shuttle access from the winding roads of the park. The bikes were loaded into Sean's Taco (the shuttle bus) and hauled to the top of the hill. I did not ride this first day, I instead road around with Chris in the shuttle bus. I had brought my Rig for the weekend (the only bike I currently own), which is a lightweight cross country racer and NOT a down hill bike; also, I've never ridden DH before. Several guys hit the run several times that afternoon with no or little problems. Unfortunately the trail was covered with leaves and not well established, which dulled some of the potential excitement. Later that evening we started a fire, sat around and drank (one thing that goes hand and hand with Mt. biking). After everyone got enough beer in them, we decided it would be a good idea to run the trail in the night. So at ~11:00 pm we loaded up and shuttled once again and headed to the top of the run. Big Chris, Angie and Patrick were all geared up ready to make the run when i decided I'd make my first DH run ever. Sean loaned me his super sweet, super expensive Transition Bottlerocket and helmet for the run. Because of both lighting condition and B.A.C. conditions, we took the run hella slow. I made it down without conflict. This was my first time on a downhill bike and it was something else, it literally felt like I was heading down on a plush sofa. The bike's highly tuned suspension sucked up every rock and bump.

The next day got off to a slow start but we finally made it to the trail around 10:00. By this time, the group of riders had grown to about 150 or so. This was apparently a big deal and riders from Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri all showed up. Everyone was riding these super nice $3000-$7000 downhill bikes with 7" to 10" of travel in the suspension. I on the other hand, was riding my $800 Gary Fisher 29er Rig with a hard tail and ~3"of travel, I was out suspended by 4 to 7 inches and outweighed by 30 or 40 pounds.

The bikes in the Shuttle truck (the Rig, trying to act like a DH bike).

Never the less I dawned my helmet and hogged down the hill. The run, by this time, had been racked clear of leaves and was worn in from all the other riders. I was able to hang, for the most part, with the other riders taking many of the same lines, my ride was just a whole lot rougher. With every ride I got a little more and more cautious from seeing riders broken and bikes ruined on the hill. I wrecked a few times, once I slid down the hill on the top of my head/face but with no damage to my bike, another time I rolled over the handlebars as my bike folded up on a rock. The damage at the end of my first day was some bruises to my legs, a skinned up shoulder and a tacoed front wheel (tacoed=a bike wheel that is bent so bad it starts to resemble a taco).

That night Sean made some amazing burgers over a nice fire, we drank a little beer, reviewed some video that was shot that day then headed to bed. The next morning we packed up and prepared for the 5 hour drive back home. I shuttled up with John and Steve for a few last runs before heading back (thanks to big Chris for somewhat straightening my tacoed wheel). I took two runs and nailed my last run smoothly and decided I better quit while I was ahead. I arrived back in Rolla around 5:00. I unpacked and cleaned my bike, which ended up taking several hours. I cleaned myself up and joined Kendrick, Josh and Ashley in the living room for some drinks. Later Matt and Diane came over. Later that night we agitated Ashley by being total idiots, for that we feel real bad and are completely sorry :(

So far, MLK weekend has been pretty good. Today I hope to lay around, enjoy my day off, maybe play some Wii (if Ashley will forgive me) then take Pauli to the vet this afternoon for her surgery.