![]() ![]() ![]() Note: From Saturday, September 30 to Saturday, October 7, 2006, Dale McCorkle, Rodney Lee, Chris Happ and myself took a week-long trip to the Ozarks. This report chronicles everything we did and traveled. All of us have been riding together for a long time and usually I am the one who writes the trip reports. But since he graciously offered, this report was written by Dale McCorkle. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This year, with fuel cost bumping $3.00 a gallon, I was going to have to bail on attending the annual fall trip, which had been planned for the Grand Canyon, because I couldn't handle the expense. When I made the rest of the group aware of my predicament I discovered that I was not the only one who had experienced unexpected expenses and was having difficulty budgeting the trip. ![]() The thing that got us out of our budget crisis was that Rodney's father offered a week of his vacation timeshare in a condo at Fairfield Bay, Arkansas. This provided the group both with accommodations and a base from which we could ride each morning and return to each night. We were stunned and elated by his gracious and generous offer and cannot sufficiently express our gratitude. Again, Mr. Lee, THANK YOU for everything! It was you who made this trip possible. We were all stressed from work and badly needing some time away, in the saddle and in the wind, to recharge and resuscitate our dull brains and tired bodies. There's nothing like a bike trip with good friends, great weather, twisty mountain roads, and fall color to do the trick! - Dale McCorkle ![]() ![]() Chris pulled by at 19:30 after 5 hours on the road, honked, waved, and circled the block before easing into Trip's garage on his Honda Magna V65. It was really good to see Chris whom Trip, Gary, and I hadn't seen in over a year, and with him on his traditional bike it was just like old times. His bike now has over 100,000 miles on it and is going strong. We all headed for dinner at a favorite restaurant of Trip's where we did a lot of catching up and closed the place down. In the parking lot we said our good-byes to Gary as he was headed back home to Tyler, about 15 miles south. Rodney hit it off immediately with Trip's Labrador Retriever Gracie, and spent Friday night after dinner wrestling with her until she was tuckered out and he declared "I win". But he made the mistake of leaving his riding boots in the living room when he went to bed and the next morning when Trip let Gracie in the first thing she did was grab Rodney's boot and start chewing it. Trip and I saw her with the boot but we thought she earned it, and that a little dog slobber would make it interesting when Rodney put his foot in it. At one point she was standing at the end of the hall with the boot in her mouth waiting for Rodney to come out of the bedroom as if to say, "Who wins??" Once Trip assigned sleeping quarters everyone was soon horizontal in preparation for the next day's ride to Fairfield Bay. ![]() Riding down Rich mountain into Mena AR, we took Hwy 71 north to Hwy. 23 into Booneville, where we changed to Hwy 10 to Havana, AR. In Havana we connected with Hwy. 309, which offers good riding and vistas, and follows the spine of a ridge over Magazine Mountain to Paris, AR. There we connected with Hwy. 22 east to Dardenelle, and took Hwy. 155 up Mt. Nebo. This is the twistiest, sharpest, switch-backingest road in Arkansas! It's so tight that vehicles over 24 feet in total length are prohibited; no worry of meeting large trucks, bus size RV's, pickups pulling 30 foot trailers, etc. on this road, but it's also so tight that meeting a full size Cadillac or Lincoln will give you pause. If you ride Hwy. 155 up to Mt. Nebo State Park, keep your speed down and your RPM up in the lower gears because there are places in the 9 switchbacks you will encounter where you will be riding straight up the mountainside. From Dardanelle we rode east on I40 to Hwy. 287 to Hwy. 92 to Hwy. 124 to Damascus on Hwy 65, then north to Clinton, AR. In my haste to get out of Coppell I had left the directions from Clinton to Fairfield Bay behind, so I pulled into a KFC to see if I could get directions. I looked around for a likely victim and spotted two ladies and a gentleman sitting at a booth. As I ambled up to their table the gentleman asked: "Are you lost?" Me: "Almost. Are you local?' Gentleman: "Almost; where you headed?" Me: "Fairfield Bay" His companion, grinning: "That's where we're from." ![]() We arrived at Fairfield Bay at 20:20, and while Rodney checked in we rode over to Pizza Hut to grab a table. There's not much night life in Fairfield Bay, and by 20:30 the only things open were the Pizza Hut and the Bowling Alley, so we wanted to get our foot in the door in case they were thinking of locking up. Rodney arrived in about 15 minutes with the keys to the condo and after a pleasant dinner we saddled up to get a first look at our base for the next week. We were not ready for how nice a place we had the pleasure to call home for the coming week; large rooms, fully stocked kitchen, laundry room. The master bedroom was huge with a master bath that was almost as large as the second bedroom, complete with a Jacuzzi Texas Tub. Rodney started trying to get Robert and Chris to take the master bedroom but none of us were having it since his Dad had made this place possible for us, so we shoved him in and closed the door behind him. Worked like a charm. Lindale, TX to Fairfield Bay, AR by way of Queen Wilhelmina, Mt. Magazine, and Mt. Nebo State Parks was 507 miles for the day. Tomorrow the adventure begins and we are all anxious to hit those Ozark roads. We learned during the week that before we arrived there had been a period of fall weather and then it had warmed back up. Some businesses had even shifted to their winter hours. The cooler weather had started the leaves turning so there was some color even though when we arrived the temperatures were in the high 80's. Map of the day's ride. ![]() Having eaten our fill, we took Hwy 16 west through Clinton. This was a twisty, fun ride - in the daylight. I was glad we had gotten other directions the night before and that our first riding of this road had not been in the dark, however. There is little fuel west of Clinton so if you ride that direction ![]() From this intersection the road west is both Hwy. 123 and Hwy. 16, which we took toward Fallsville. Shortly we came around a curve that had a veritable gravel bar across it, with one pile being at least 4 inches deep. The stuff caused Trip to almost go down, the only thing stopping him was the last option effort of putting a boot down. That action caused his leg to be thrown into the side bag guard bar but he got enough push to keep the bike from sliding down. When the back tire subsequently caught again on clean pavement it almost threw Trip off in the other direction, but he is a skilled rider and kept the bike under him. His leg hurt for a couple of days but his experience and instincts prevented a much worse result. This was our worst but by no means our last encounter with gravel on the roads this trip. From Hwy. 123/16 we connected to Hwy. 21 to Boxley, where we caught Hwy. 43 to Ponca. At Ponca we switched to Hwy. 74; the section of 74 to Jasper was what we had come to ride, and it was worth the miles. We had been cautioned about riding from Jasper to Ponca because it is easy to hit the curves too hot going down into the river valley, so we rode it in reverse so we were climbing into the sharp turns. As the road unfolded before us I was glad that we had chosen to climb up out of the river valley because I still hit two of the curves fast enough to get my attention. We stayed on Hwy. 74 through Jasper to Hasty, took Hwy. 123 to Hwy 65 south to Clinton and Hwy. 16 back to Fairfield Bay. We put 270 miles on the odometers today. Map of the day's ride. ![]() ![]() We had lunch at a local café, chosen because it was next door to an ice cream parlor, then took Hwy. 160 east, where I had to get on the brakes hard and dive for the white stripe because someone in a red Miata or similar didn't have the patience to wait until a legal passing zone and was trying to pass an oncoming bus-sized RV during a double yellow stripe. OK, welcome to Missouri. We stayed on Hwy. 160 to Hwy. 125 south which took us to the north shore of Bull Shoals Lake. To get there you have to go through the town of Protem, where a young man looked straight at me, then focus-locked on the Volunteer Fire Dept. parking lot he wanted to turn into, and turned right in front of me. Hard on the brakes, dive for the pavement edge, not going to stop in time, hard on the gas to get by before getting T-boned. The V65 answered with power and response and got me out of trouble. OK, so long Missouri, I couldn't get out of there fast enough! At Bull Shoals Lake we got a few minutes to stretch, relax under some trees, and for Chris to soak his T-shirt in the cool lake water before the Peel free ferry docked to carry us across the lake. This was the second time I had been on a ferry with the bike and was impressed both times with the skill with which the ferry boat Captain maneuvered his craft. We stayed on Hwy. 125 south to Hwy. 14 east for the short run to Yellville, then took Hwy. 235 southwest to Hwy. 65 back to Clinton. Odometers showed 311 miles today, the majority of which were top-notch riding. Map of the day's ride. ![]() ![]() Once at NAPA in Clinton, when Chris explained to Scott what the issue was, he went through every O-ring in his assortment in an attempt to match the one in the thermostat housing. With no luck, he then went through all of his thermostat gaskets until he determined which was the closest match to the one on the V65. With a quick modification the gasket was installed, the bike reassembled, and started for a leak test. Viola!, dry as a bone, and at 11:30 we headed out for what we could salvage of the day's route. We headed south on Hwy. 65 to Hwy. 92 at Bee Branch and turned northeast. As we crossed an arm of the lake prior to Greer's Ferry, I mistook where we were and thought we were crossing the main body of the lake heading north, and turned the group around which caused us to ride close to 40 miles out of the way to get back on course. In the process however, we rode Hwy. 25 from Heber Springs to Hwy. 92 which was a ride I had read about on the internet but had not included in the week's riding list because it was "out of the way". Once back on Hwy. 92 again, we went west a few miles to the intersection with Hwy. 263 northwest toward Prim. Immediately we were in tight, low speed turns and sharp downhill switchbacks which took us into a drainage that feeds Greer's Ferry Lake; it was a thrilling few miles. ![]() At Big Flat we fueled, snacked a bit, and headed for Hwy. 341, also known as Push Mountain Road. This road is sometimes called the "Deal's Gap of the Ozarks". That's a bit of a stretch, but don't let that detract from the fact that this is an outstanding ride. An overriding feature is that intersecting roads are almost non-existent. No driveways, no businesses, no farm implements, nothing to watch for except wildlife and oncoming traffic so you're free to just concentrate on your ride. At the intersection of Hwy. 341 and Hwy. 201 (north end of Push Mountain Road) we turned southeast and at Norfork took Hwy. 5 to Calico Rock where we stopped at the ice cream parlor for Butter Pecan ice cream (Trip's favorite), vanilla (Chris), vanilla and iced tea (Rodney), and a root beer float (Dale). We continued on Hwy. 5 to Allison, then took Hwy. 9 through Mountain View to Shirley, followed by Hwy. 16 back to Fairfield Bay. Once back in the condo we connected the video camera to the TV to see if the experiment was successful. We discovered the angle of the camera had been a little too low but otherwise was very satisfactory. We were encouraged and planned to continue the effort. We traveled 239 memorable miles today, and enjoyed them all. Map of the day's ride. ![]() ![]() After breakfast we headed south on Hwy. 16 across Greer's Ferry Lake to the town of Greer's Ferry where we took Hwy. 92 east to Hwy. 25 to Hwy. 167 which we took north a short distance to Batesville. Batesville was where our first ride for the day was to begin, and Hwys. 92 and 25 was the route that we had chosen to get there. I can't recommend ![]() From Batesville we took Hwy. 69 to Melbourne and thoroughly enjoyed many miles of practically non-stop sweepers. This is a nice section because the road is wide and multi-lane in many places with plenty of climbing lanes so you can avoid getting caught behind slow moving traffic. In Melbourne we began the second ride of the day, which was Hwy. 9 southwest to Allison at the intersection of Hwy. 5. This was the first time I had ever ridden this section of Hwy. 9 and even though it had been recently graveled and there were still some loose pebbles on the road surface, the ride is so excellent that we didn't complain as loudly as we would have otherwise. This is a combination of curves, lower speed sweepers, beautiful countryside and vistas, and fun, tight, turns. Of everything we'd ridden so far on this trip, this was the ride I liked the most. From Allison we continued on Hwy. 9 a few miles south to the Ozark Folk Center where we spent several hours watching demonstrations of how things were made in the Ozarks prior to the availability of electricity. We saw the making of lye soap in a kettle over an open fire, how brooms and whisk brooms were hand made, the operation of a foot lathe for the making of round stock such as chair legs, bed posts, rolling pins, etc. We learned how Coopers made wooden items such as kitchen utensils, pails, buckets, chair legs, tool handles, and yokes for plow teams. As we left the Cooper's shop Rodney said "Four words - Back to the Future" because the Cooper reminded him of Christopher Lloyd in the movie. We saw desserts baked in a wood burning stove, and watched wool being spun into yarn. We learned that a pair of knit wool socks requires at least 350 yards of yarn. The gentleman that was running the foot lathe shared much useful information with Trip who has recently been spending some time with a well known group of East Texas wood turners. After leaving the Ozark Folk Center we rode into Mountain View to the Dogwood Hollow Steak House for dinner, then back to Fairfield Bay for the night. We rode only 134 miles today, but spent several informative hours at the Ozark Folk Center. Map of the day's ride. ![]() ![]() ![]() From Bakersfield we turned south on Hwy. 87 into Arkansas to Hwy. 223, then to Hwy. 56 to Calico Rock for lunch at the ice cream parlor. Wild Mountain Blackberry ice cream is a fine finale to a meal. Afterwards we took Hwy. 5 south to Hwy. 14 west to Hwy. 341 (Push Mountain Road). There, Trip mounted his video camera to his sidebag guard bar, facing backwards, and Rodney and I rode behind while he taped. From there, we rode for another couple of hours over roads that we selected from the map because they looked like they might be fun, then turned south on Hwy. 65 to Clinton for dinner at the Western Sizzling Steak House. This is a buffet and if you leave hungry it's your own fault. All I ordered was the soup and salad, but that includes all the salad you want, plus 3 kinds of soup, plus pinto beans, rolls and cornbread, and all the dessert you can eat. In addition, a baked potato comes with it if you desire, and your bottomless drink is included. I'm fairly certain I heard the bike groan with I saddled up. On the way back to Fairfield Bay we rode under a partly cloudy sky with a bright, super-sized, Harvest moon to guide us in. Once back, Trip and Rodney both commented that they would not be leaving in the morning without their jackets, and Trip thought he might even pull on the chaps. We watched the video, were encouraged, and planned to continue experimenting with taping while riding the next day. We got in 350 miles today and were certified in "Ozark Black Walnut 101". Map of the day's ride. ![]() ![]() Also in the park is the historic train station which opened to steam train traffic in the 1860's and was closed on August 9, 1968. The entire station has been excellently restored and transformed into a railroad museum. Also completely restored are the baggage room and a caboose dating from sometime between 1927 and 1942. After lunch in Mammoth Spring we headed south on Hwy. 289, then to Ash Flat on Hwy. 62. Turning southwest on Hwy. 56 we intended to again take Hwy. 289 out of Myron but the intersection was not marked and I rode past it. Consulting the map I saw that we could take 69S out of Violet Hill which was not far ahead. Not finding that intersection either, we continued on Hwy. 56 to Hwy. 9 south to Melbourne. From there we took Hwy. 69 southeast to Hwy. 58 which had been recommended to us. True to it's billing, it was a nice ride with frequent curves and elevation changes. ![]() Since Trip and I got back a little before Rodney we lounged on a rock that Trip had noticed a day or two prior that looked like a chaise lounge; it was surprisingly comfortable. We watched the videos taken during the day and were pleased with the results; they should make a nice addition to the trip report. We looked at the map and considered how many hours we had ridden from Lindale to get to Fairfield Bay, and how many hours it would take us to get back home. We decided that rather than spend 12 hours on state highways and secondary roads we would take major highways and the Interstates to get back as quickly as possible. I don't like riding at night, and didn't want to be riding west as the sun went down, so starting early and riding tank to tank seemed like the best option. Map of the day's ride. ![]() We left Fairfield Bay at 08:05 and rode Hwy. 16 into Clinton where we connected with Hwy. 65 south which took us to Loop 430 just north of Little Rock, AR. From Loop 430 we connected with I30 west and pointed them toward Texas. We intended to fuel in Benton, but there were long stretches on the service road between exit and entrance ramps, and I mistakenly thought if I kept going to the west side of town I'd find an easy-off, easy-on place to fuel. Wrong. After another misqueue at the Haskell exit, Trip fired up the GPS and told me to make for Malvern where he GPS'd me straight to a fuel pump. From there we rode to Texarkana where we spent an hour fueling and loading up with Mexican food for lunch. Trip didn't want us to lose time at Hwy. 37, where he would turn south for Lindale, so we said our good-byes in Texarkana before saddling up and crossing the state line into Texas. We all waved, honked, and wished well at the Hwy. 37 exit when Trip moved onto the exit ramp, as Rodney and I stayed in the throttles to Sulphur Springs where we fueled for the last time before home. Rodney and I parted at Hwy. 360 and Hwy. 121 where he headed to Grapevine and I to Bedford. ![]() Hmm, time for another oil/filter change. Map of the day's ride. ![]() On the whole Arkansas roads and road beds are kept in better than average condition, but the safety of two wheeled motorists needs to be moved up a few notches on the list of priorities. It's interesting that the state has realized the dollars that bikers represent in income and has started a campaign to attract riders to "The Natural State", including statements pertaining to how good the roads are, only to leave hazards like loose gravel on those same roads which discourages those tourist dollars from returning. Eventually, we'll be back; partly because the more we ride Arkansas the better we like it, and partly because it is the best riding within 8 hours of where we live, so it's possible to make a long weekend trip if we ride hard. At the same time, however, until things change whenever we have a conversation with other riders about Arkansas it will get a footnote about the "G" word - Gravel. My best advice: While in the Ozarks you can ride briskly enough to have a fully enjoyable time, but never enter a curve at a pace that prevents you from making a split second mid-curve course correction - ALWAYS leave yourself AT LEAST that much cushion. You will come upon enough unexpected gravel that you will need it. Overall another excellent trip. I have made solo trips to Arkansas without getting wet, as has Rodney. Trip has done the same, and gone with other riders and stayed dry. But until this trip two or more of the Tank2Tank Boys had never gone to Arkansas without getting drenched; hopefully this week broke the spell. We had better accommodations than we could have ever hoped for, excellent companionship, talented and skilled riders with whom we have ridden many thousands of miles and whose moves, competence, consistency, predictability, discipline, and level headedness give us confidence. If you have an interest in riding Arkansas and are not familiar with the area, you can make a good start by Googling "Arkansas motorcycle rides" and "Arkansas motorcycle roads". Many of the rides listed in this trip report are the result of many hours of internet searches and reading the trip reports of other riders and local groups in the Ozarks. Feel free to take whatever information will help you design your own trip to one of the least recognized and most underrated areas of the country - the Ozarks. Ride Safe. - Dale McCorkle (Click on any picture to enlarge) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() All requests to use material from this page should be sent to Robert Hilliard. |