April 3-6, 2008: April Fool's Ride in Arkansas!

[Jeff620RXC]

I'm in

[tom reiner]

Ohio Posse is pumped,,, Well at least I am
I'm pretty sure well have at least 3-4 if not 5 coming down

I'm sure 2-3 OK boys/girl will make it too


Mo,
Can't wait to ride with ya'll again

[Hayden]

I will be there with my little ol' 400 to pull the 650 out of the mud.


Oh ouch that hurt


Hayden

[troy]

Ohio Posse is pumped,,, Well at least I am
I'm pretty sure well have at least 3-4 if not 5 coming down

I'm sure 2-3 OK boys/girl will make it too


Mo,
Can't wait to ride with ya'll again

Hello, Tom! Glad to hear it!

[troy]

I just updated the first post with important details. I will continue to update it as the details change. If you are in for this ride, post and let me know. Alternatively, you can send me an email via troy at troywolf dot com.

First post:
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=533

[KC]

Count me in

[Stu]

Well, if Jeff is in I am certainly in! This old dog has to teach that pup a few tricks.

Stu

[troy]

STATUS UPDATE
I'm waiting on a reply from the Mulberry Lodge. I'm doing my best to get us a better than list price deal on their rates for 3 nights. I spoke to them 2 days ago and then again last night. I'm expect to hear something back today.

[MoRidin]

STATUS UPDATE
I'm waiting on a reply from the Mulberry Lodge. I'm doing my best to get us a better than list price deal on their rates for 3 nights. I spoke to them 2 days ago and then again last night. I'm expect to hear something back today.

Awesome Troy!

I will call the BBQ guys and get some ballpark numbers again so dinners are taken care of. It was surprisingly cheap and amazingly good!

If everyone is ok with it...we can just run several of the routes we have run before...maybe a few of the backwards for good measure. I think I have a couple of new routes that I put together and never went public with. I also have a couple of "forest tours: if you are trailed out and just want to ride dirt for a day and see a bit of the forest.

90 days??? Dang, I better order some tires!

Sean

[chadman]

Hello everyone!

MoRiden extended an invite to me and some friends and we will be joining you guys! I think we have 4 riders including myself so far, but I will find out for sure by the end of the week, we might have some more. We have never been to this place and it sounds like a lot of fun. Do we need to have plates on our bikes to ride here? We plan on getting there late Thursday night. Thanks again for the invite, Chad

[safiri]

Do we need to have plates on our bikes to ride here?

Yes. Unless you want to risk it. Trails are usually connected using some pavement or county (not USFS) gravel roads. Getting to and from where we are probably staying requires getting on a paved AR highway.

That said, if you were to stick a MC tag on the bike, and not get pulled over (no wheelies, wrecking, speeding, etc. on the state and county roads), no one would ever know what bike the plate belongs to. My advice would be to at least have insurance on the bike. I have heard from and read about others that got off with a warning when they showed proof of insurance.

[troy]

Do we need to have plates on our bikes to ride here?

To add to what Safiri said, technically, yes, you need a street-legal, plated machine.

We'll cruise a 5 mile section of Hwy 23 (The "Pig Tail Trail") often as the Mulberry Mountain Lodge is on 23 and Turner Bend, where we gas up, is on 23. We'll probably also cruise 15 miles (or so) of Hwy 215 between Cass and Oark because this is how we get to the Oark Cafe.

If we don't head down to the Huckleberry / Mount Magazine trail system (15 miles S of Clarksville), then other than 23 and 215, we'll be almost entirely on forest roads and ATV trails.

It is very common to see quads running down the road--even on the hwy sometimes. The locals at Turner Bend and Oark Cafe tell me that forest service and local police allow it--just don't be riding wheelies, speeding, or doing donuts in the street (duh). They say, however, that the state troopers may not be so forgiving, so you do take the slight risk of a trooper catching you. But like Safiri said, just having a plate on the bike greatly reduces the chance of being pulled over without cause. Some temporary liability insurance is cheap.

I've definitely seen a lot of bikes on these rides that I know are not actually street-legal, but there's a tag on the rear fender.

We have more trails than we can ride in 3 or 4 days within a 25 mile radius of the lodge--it's that good! If we do decide to run down to the Huck/Mt Mag trails, the road options are very limited--we usually end up riding through a section of Clarksville to get there--that would be your biggest popo risk, but still a small one, and if you have a tag on the bike (any motorcycle tag), the risk is very low.

Troy Wolf can not be held responsible for how you use this information. All riders make their own decisions and are responsible for their own actions. Side affects include dizziness and anal leakage.

[chadman]

Ok, just wanted to make sure. 3 of the 4 riders have plates and one guy is just a slacker. It has been on his “to do” list since he got the bike, but he just never did it. Now he has a reason to do it. This August we are planning another trip to Ouray, so he needed a plate for that anyway!

Chad

[MoRidin]

Guys...I have had a bit of down time (finally!) and can start thinking about the ride a bit.

I talk to the GIS folks at the USFS quite a bit and they sent me some updated road data...as a result, we will have a few NEW routes. I just finished one called Boston Mountain Tour A and it is fantastic! Two track, dirt roads, trail and powerline trails with 15 miles of pavement at the end to shake off the mud. Count on lots of water crossings on this one...80 miles on the dot with gas at 65 miles.

Troy, somehow our group got lost on one of the routes last year and I never got to do that final day ride where Jonathon's bike flipped upside down...do you recall what those were called?

It seemed like in the past, one of the favorite rides was getting down to the other ranger district down south for the horse trail ride...folks want to run that one again? Maybe we can pitch in the kitty for a April Fools Hoedown for that 5 mile loop down there...seems the Ohio boys like to run it hard down there!

Sean

[troy]

Sean, you building new routes? Man, that is sweet music to my ears. For those of you who don't know, Sean has super-human, unnatural, some say mystical route building powers. We don't ask how. We just load the file into our GPS and ride.

Since last fall, I've spent countless hours compiling what I've received from Sean on past rides along with my own research both on paper and on the ground into a master Ozarks route file. Sounds like Sean is going to give me more gems! My file is definitely a work in progress, but I'm going to post a link to download what I have so far here.

Files updated 1/13/2008 21:40

Garmin MapSource GDB route file with several routes and waypoints of interest. (not complete yet) Note: right-click and choose Save As.
Arkansas.gdb

A text file of descriptions of the files and routes. (not complete yet)
Arkansas.txt

Sean, I know exactly what you are talking about--and it was such a good route. I did not do GPS back in the spring of 2006, but Safiri did. I converted his track from that day into a route GPX file. If you look at my master route file, that ride from April 2, 2006 is a combination of what I call "FlyGapTrail", "ByrdsTrail", "Byrds-CX-BeachGrove", "BeachGroveRd" and "KilgoreTrail" connected with some forest gravel. Here it is as we rode it that day:
trk060402.gpx

I have a new route that combines what I believe is a new road/trail for us and an older favorite trail we've ridden before. It is something Zen Bolden (co-owner of Byrds) pointed out to us Fall 2007. In my master route file, I call it "OarkRdTrail". I also want to build a route from the KilgoreTrail down to Oark. The maps indicate definite possibilities, but Sean, your resources are much more reliable. I built something that has probably a 20% chance of actually working. I called it "Kilgore2OarkTrail".

Notice I have routed the "LostBustTrail" -- I'd love to do that monster again. If we do it, there are what appear to be some other possibilities there.

I don't particularly enjoy the run down to Huckleberry. Those trails down there are fantastic (and, yes, worth the ride), but it's something like 50+ miles of pavement round trip to do it. The part we love, that I think you are referring to, is that really fun downhill gravel whoops road just above Horse Head Lake. It is part of what I'm calling "215toClarksRd". By the way, forest map and other sources indicate several possible trail options that branch off that road south of 215. one in particular looks like it runs for a lot of miles along Clear Creek. Can you find out anything about that, Sean?

Remember that both your routes "LongA" and "LongB" were plagued with missing trails, gates, and private property. LongB was especially bad. Most of the times, the trail was there, just no longer public access allowed. One that was especially painful was the bit of trail that is supposed to dump onto Hwy 103 just South of where 103 intersects 215 just West of Oark. That trail gets to within probably 1/4 mile of 103 then dead ends at a gate marked NO TRESPASSING. The kicker is, you get to backtrack a LOT of miles to get out of there....and when this happened to Safiri, KC, & I, the sun was almost set at the end of a really long day. The trail was fun--especially if you like wide whoops with big mud puddles on the other side, but to access the trail is really out of the way and requires quite a bit of relatively boring pavement for the area.

Oh man...I am giddy with excitement. Are my nipples showing?

[chadman]

An 80 mile trail sounds great! It is not very often I get to ride on a long “destination” type ride. We are looking forward to this ride. I just had another buddy that wants in, so it looks like I am up to 5 riders total now, maybe more. Unfortunately my wife will not make it. She is busy doing tax stuff for work. Let me know who I need to contact to reserve some rooms for my group. Chad

[troy]

All, regarding rooms...be patient with me...I could have just paid sticker price and been done with it. Instead, I'm in dragged out, but friendly negotiations to get a hopefully much better deal.

Right now, I'm targeting both "The Lodge" and both "Star" options at http://www.mulberrymountainlodge.com/lodging.htm. This will give us beds for 32 people. There are additional properties at Mulberry if we have more than 32.

I had said in an previous post maybe to expect around $90/per person. I'm hoping that will still be the case, but so far they are down to a number over $100 per person. The place is so worth it, guys. I look at it this way, at $100 per person, that's $33 per night. This place is MUCH nicer and a lot more comfortable than most hotels plus we have room to park, stretch out, and have dining space to accommodate the group. Sean is working on the catering again, so there will be an expense per person for that--again SO worth it. It was nice spring 2006 to come home to the Mulberry lodge, shower up, walk out and have a great meal ready to go.

Now let's just hope the weather cooperates in April.

[Nobiman]

Hey all, WAAAAAAZ UUUUUUUUP! Add 5 Okies to the logde list if theres still room. WOO-HOO! Its ride time finally! The little wifey (if she goes) and I may also bring the Motards for some twisty fun after you Sucka's go home. Oh, and you no longer get to watch me "rassle" that heavy azz LC-fo around on the trails anymore. I'll be bring'in a five-two-five to the table this time, and blinged out quite nicely I might say. Im not sure if I can ride a bike that "only" weighs 240 lbs. or not but I'm plann'in on trying like heck! I might bring a couple of 30 pound dumbells to strap on the EXC so's I can feel right at home while trying to keep up with you Yanks.

We're planning on being there by noon on Friday right now, see ya soon. Randy & crew.

[troy]

Randy, give me some names--real or screen names is fine. I got you and Sandy of course. Yeah, on that big LC4, you still had not trouble riding a massive wheelie through a deep mudhole soaking me and my camera with that stench. On the 525, what you gonna do? Jump the mudhole? Remind me not to ride directly behind you either, roost monster.

Hey Sandy, are you gonna bring the streamers to decorate the bikes again?

[Nobiman]

Randy, give me some names--real or screen names is fine. I got you and Sandy of course. Yeah, on that big LC4, you still had not trouble riding a massive wheelie through a deep mudhole soaking me and my camera with that stench. On the 525, what you gonna do? Jump the mudhole? Remind me not to ride directly behind you either, roost monster.

Hey Sandy, are you gonna bring the streamers to decorate the bikes again?

Randy
Sandy
Daryl
Josh (Daryl's son)
Russell

Thanks for all of the work Troy and crew, Randy.