Eureka Springs Dualsport Ride Report

[MacWildcat]

Thought it was about time to post up a ride report from our trip to Eureka Springs April 1st.
Here's a link to photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/MacWildcat/ ... lsport2010#

Over the 3 days of riding we estimate around 120 riders attended. We booked up the Traveller's Inn (now Americas Best Value Inn).

My ride this year was not as pleasurable as it could have been. Started out with a water pump seal leaking on the KLX.... after I had it loaded on the trailer Tuesday night. After some urgent calls on the way down, and a parking lot repair, all was good. Good thing I brought the KTM along, ended up riding it on Thursday.

Thursday morning we headed out with about 20 riders for a planned, easy-going warm up ride - Ha! We headed north through Beaver on our way into Mark Twain Nat'l forest and Roaring river state park. As usual I got coaxed into changing the route part way down the road. A local fella knew a low maintenance road that was "interesting". The road turned into a ATV trail, which turned into steep rocky uphill sections.

This is where the "double-mint fun" of my weekend ride went bad. On a uphill section, I lost my balance and high-sided the KTM. Popped my left knee out - ugh.
We already had a couple other riders experience minor injuries on earlier sections, along with the damaged bikes. We decided to head back the way we came, it's wasn't clear if the trail looped back to a road anyway. I spent the rest of Thursday with both the knee and beer on ice. The remainder of the group completed a southern loop through Madison Wildlife Management area.

Friday morning 6:00 am came early with me deciding if my knee could handle 200 miles of riding. Figured out I could bear weight so I wrapped it up and we headed down the road. Our destination for Friday was the Oark/White Rock area. We had a group of about 10 riders. When we got down to Oark the drizzle started making the roads a little slippery. Uncle Dave split off at the ATV sections while the rest of our group stuck to roads. Lunch was at Turners Bend and then we headed up White Rock Mountain.

My riding partners were pretty helpful between the chuckles when I crawled on the bike and did a controlled fall every time I tried to climb off. Due to my limited flexibility, using the rear brake was iffy. On our way home we swung through Withrow Springs, then the thunderstorms hit. It's always interesting riding in pouring rain but we all made it home safe.

As we sat around waiting for other groups to come in, the news wasn't good. Friday turned into the "Perfect Storm". Lots of injuries, some of them significant, with one person ending up with multiple day stay in the hospital. Seems the drizzle made the roads deceptively slick leading folks to take some hard falls. The last group made it back about 11 pm (had to rescue the girls who got caught 70 miles away when the thunderstorm started.

Saturday turned out sunny for our ride to the Jasper area. The knee felt better, the kidneys weren't so great. enduring 200 miles of bashing the day before - didn't have the strength to get up on the pegs. We headed out with 6 riders for another 200 mile day. We had to do some rerouting due to high water along the Little Buffalo river. This ended up in drama for another group later in that day.

They attempted the same crossing, ending with the last rider getting swept off the low water bridge due to the swift current. The two guys from the group group waded in and rescued the rider, thank God he didn't drowned. They did some snorkeling and found his bike and were able to get it to shore. Three hours later after de-watering the bike they were on their way back to Eureka.

Now I'm chomping at the bit to get back down there and ride the full routes! The routes this year seemed like the best yet (self back pat) Um, ok, maybe I should wait on the knee to heal up first.

[ajayhawkfan]

It was nice seeing you in Eureka Springs. I hope you knee is feeling better.

I have started a RR on ADVrider. http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566497 Any comments would be welcome.

Eddie

[Hayden]

WOW. Trips to the hospital and drowned bikes. This sounds familure some how. Sounds like you all had a hoot.


Hayden

[GLBarton]

MacWildcat, Thanks for posting the pix and report from the Hillbilly. I'm the fella with the Super Sherpa on Saturday's ride. I really enjoyed the ride and thanks for leading. I hope your knee is healing well and we can ride together again soon.
glbarton