Sep 28-30th Arkansas Ozarks Trail Ride

[electrician]

charcoal and lighter fluid?
propane?
I can't remember what they have down there for grilling....

I put a brand new set of dunlop 606's on yesterday. I found them online for $75 each at http://www.kevinscycle.com, in Norton, MA.
I was quoted locally for $119 each.

[troy]

I can't remember for sure what they had....seems like behind the house there were a couple small, old charcoal grills. Can anyone confirm this?

[david h]

As of today, we will be a group of 7 for dinner Thursday, and 10 riders for Friday, Sat. & Sun. morning. Food looks to be taken care of, so all we have to deal with is having too much fun. As Commander Cody and his lost planet airmen said years ago, Ya Can,t never have too much FUN !! If we run short of grub or supplies, Ozark is 15 miles away with all you could want. I'm looking forward to this ride and will look forward to seeing all you boys soon.

David h

[safiri]

I can't remember for sure what they had....seems like behind the house there were a couple small, old charcoal grills. Can anyone confirm this?

I guess Tracy doesn't want to leave me out of the planning ... he is down in AR camping at White Rock this week. Called me to tell me that Byrd's hostel does have a big charcoal unit.

Ya'll have a great time. I will be missing the riding and the company (and the cool river in which to cool off after a long day's ride).

If you need any more info, call Tracy on his cell. If you don't know it, PM me and I will pass it on to you. He does have some internet access, but read only. He couldn't post.

[Hayden]

I went and looked this morning Troy and they do have a grill.

It rained a bit last night up on White Rock. Good thing as it was dusty as hell up here.

Rode the ATV area today for a couple of hrs. Good times. What is that?? Mill Creek area I believe.

Had a bit of a miss happ on the way up to White Rock Sun. It was raining and My KLX came off the trailer. Guess it was a bit too rought for it. Looks like the front came un hooked. A bit of damage but I think It will be ok. My new 5 gal tank isnt so new any more.

If you all need anything let me know.

T

[troy]

Thanks for the report from the front line, T! Hold the fort for us and clear all the cobwebs from the trails!

[Hayden]

Thanks Mike. I decided to try the internet thing again this eveing. Its real hit and miss. I have to stand on the ledge and hold my beer just right to keep a signal.

T

[Hayden]

oooopppssss seems park service guy doesnt like me standing on the ledge and holding a beer. Gotta go. Now where in the heck did he come from?

T

[troy]

Thanks Mike. I decided to try the internet thing again this eveing. Its real hit and miss. I have to stand on the ledge and hold my beer just right to keep a signal.

T

Yeah, but with a view like that, who could complain! White Rock is a cool place. I hope you are enjoying your stay. Oh yeah, no alcohol allowed on the point. Doh!

[ajayhawkfan]

I have to stop reading this thread because it makes me want to go so badly. I made a commitment to take my god son deer hunting during the youth season.

Have fun, and ride safe.

[electrician]

[yea, T, I know how it feels. My CR125 came off my trailer a couple of years ago, fell over and smashed the radiator.

[Hayden]

Yea I am going to remedy that problem real quick. I went to the hardware store today and picked up a new tail light for the trailer and grabbed 8 big caribeners (SP). The kind that have the screw closed part. Kind of like a big link to a chain. Well I got the biggest ones I could. Im not using the hooks from now on. I want something that wont come undone no mater what. $30 worth of those sure doesnt compare to my $350 tank that I cant buy another one of.

Rode pretty much hwy today. 23, 103 from Clarksville and 215. Scrubbed in the new tires on the KLX pretty good. Had some rain this afternoon for a while and some bad wind. Had to move several trees out of the way going back up to white rock. I think I hurt myself on one of them. It was either move it or try to go over it. Going back 10 miles didnt seem to interesting at the time.


T

[Hayden]

Get ready for mud fest 2007. That is if there is actually mud up here? Its raining like crazy

I wouldnt follow too closely to the XR this weekend. She likes to roost when she has new tires.

T

[troy]

Get ready for mud fest 2007. That is if there is actually mud up here? Its raining like crazy

I my experience in the Ozarks, the rain does not matter too much unless it rains enough to raise the water level in the creek crossings too much for safe crossing. If it is currently raining while trying to ascend some of the hills climbs, it will be messy and difficult. But there is only a think layer of dirt on rock, so for the most part, you can still ride the trails wet.

On one of our previous rides, I remember taking off in the rain and thinking, "Oh man, the trails are gonna be unrideable." They were fine, and 30 minutes after the rain stopped, we were kicking up dust again. Weird.

Glad you are down there to give us the 411, T! I'll be packing a tree saw to hopefully tackle some obstacles we may come across.

[Hank Moody]

Wait a minute here, no one said anything about rain and possible creek crossing. Is there a chance I could get wet??? Well I might have to reconsider if there is the chance, I have just washed the Husky and I don't want it to get dirty

Looking at weather underground it appears that the rain will done today and the rest of our time it will be high of 85 and a low of 57. I really need this trip I have a lot of stress and anger that I need to take out on the trails!!!!

[Jeff620RXC]

Man I am jealous!
I have previous plans this time but count me in next time!
You guys going again in the Spring?

Have a good time!

[electrician]

over a week ago, I did a ride by myself out to Olathe, then towards Gardner, and back to Lawrence. The day before, we had a 2" cloud burst, and I thought, what a good day to hit the gravel.....no dust.......wrong. It was friggin' weird. The dust was seriously bad. I was slowing down behind trucks in the co. roads to avoid dust, and at one point turned around because the dust was so bad.
I have done some reading on the uses of used fryer oil, and one of them was a dust controlling agent on dirt roads. You would use the same type of sprayer for fertilizer, and coat the dirt roads with a light film of oil. Sounded good to me. Kansas would be a good place to try this.

[troy]

Man I am jealous!
I have previous plans this time but count me in next time!
You guys going again in the Spring?

The "tradition" (started 2006) is to do the trip every spring and fall. Spring is usually April Fool's weekend. Fall is traditionally the weekend after the Mulberry Mountain Music Festival.

Too bad you can't make it this time, Jeff. You still got one day to cancel your other plans, call my brother KC, and haul out with him from Wichita.

[troy]

So I'm at work sitting in my office.....truck is mostly loaded....only 10 hours before I hit the road.

WOOHOO!

For those of you wanting to do the hard-core trails, I love the FUNRUN so much that I wanted to do it day one. BUT, it makes more sense to hit the Mill Creek trails on Friday because we'll have them mostly to ourselves. As an organized trail system, Mill Creek will get a bit more traffic on Sat & Sun. (I've ridden Mill Creek 3 times on the weekend before, and in my past experience, it's low traffic even on weekends.) With the regular forest trails, on the other hand, even on weekends it is unlikely that we'll see anybody else on the trails.

Now nobody has to follow me--ride what you want. All are welcome to follow me. My plan, I think:

Friday
Start off with the SHORT route. For those that rode Sep 2006, I believe this route includes that wide, newly-created, "motocross" trail up the hill. A major highlight! We can only assume it is still available. At the top end of the SHORT route, we can connect to MillCrk1 and continue on to the trail system. Once we reach the Mill Creek system, at any time we are hungry, we can cruise up to Combs for food & gas. (Packing lunch and snacks is still recommended as you never know what we'll find or where we'll end up.) When finished, we can take MillCrk2 home or, if we are wiped, take the most direct road route. As long as everybody starts with a full tank, nobody should need additional gas as the entire day should be under 80 miles.

Saturday
FUNRUN! The morning starts with a several mile cruise up the pig trail. This should wake you up so you are ready to tackle the trails! Once the trails start, we'll be deep in the forest for a long time. This route doesn't have any food or gas stops along the way, but nobody should need additional gas. The entire day will probably be under 60 miles. Pack a lunch.

Sunday
No plan yet. We'll make it up based on how many riders are left and how we feel. An easy option is to simply hit Mill Creek for more. We won't be able to ride all of it on Friday, so there will be trails left to explore. Or the route down to Clarksville and back is good fun...maybe just do the section from the cabin to Horsehead Lake and back. This will get in that very fun gravel whoops road NW of the lake.

I will be packing a camping tree saw. Hopefully we wont need it, but it is likely we'll encounter trees down across the trail. We don't all need to pack saws, but it may be helpful if another person or two have one along to make quicker work.

SEE YOU ON THE TRAIL SOON!

[iyeager]

Or nobody take an extra saw and everyone else stands around a takes pictures of Troy cutting trees out of the way.



Ian