Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Riding the Ozarks

We had the opportunity to spend a few days exploring the Ozarks last weekend and I will make the statement that the roads that we encountered were simply motorcycling nirvana!  This was a boys only weekend riding with my trusty traveling companions Don Leemhuis and Benny Quimby.

We launched at 6:00 AM on Thursday with the temperature hovering around 38 degrees.  No problem, just plug in the liner and gloves and stay toasty warm.  One of the missions on this weekend's ride was scouting bonus locations for an unnamed rally that will occur in 2012.  It was fun to be on the selection side rather than the hunt and find it side of rally bonus locations. 

This was to be backroads all the way so we headed north through Tupelo, MS and Memphis, TN to do some bonus scouting.  A shame I can't disclose the locations of the boni, but they will be fun to find!

Temperatures warmed quickly so we stopped to shed the heated gear and enjoy the sunshine.  We headed west out of Memphis with a stop in Searcy, AR at Sunrise Honda to do some window shopping.  I purchased my ST 1300 from they several years back and was impressed with their service then and again over the weekend.  Lots of pretty shiny things to look at and their staff is knowledgeable and friendly.  The dealership is well stocked with Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzukis. 

Southeastern Arkansas is flat as a pancake and totally agricultural.  Lots of cotton fields and rice paddies. 

We left Searcy and followed Hwy 16 and things started to improve.  Well maintained roads as we started to climb into the Ozarks.  We followed 16 into Mountain View and beyond before hitting US 62 in Yellville, then 62 into Harrison which was our base of operations for the weekend.  Excellent curvy roads, light traffic, and great scenery all the way into Harrison. 

A quick dinner and check-in ended a great 500 mile day. 

Friday we had no particular destination in mind so we just headed south out of Harrison on AR 43 towards Ponca.  It was a cold morning with frost covering the bike covers!  We had what we though was plenty of gas to make it to Ponca where we planned to fill up and take a break.  Ponca was just a wide spot with no recognizable gas station.  Note to self:  Never leave a big town without a full tank of gas!  A bit south of Ponca we started playing with the GPS to find fuel and nothing close popped up.....the nearest station was 43 miles away!  My low fuel light had popped on and immediately went into gas conservation mode thinking I could stretch that last gallon enough......slower speeds, coasting downhills, etc.  Problem was the GPS continued to attempt to route us down dirt goat trails that I had no intention venturing down with 3 Wingabagos!  Each reroute put us further from gas!  By now Benny and Don's lights were on and we were thinking of alternate plans that included stopping and begging a gallon of gas from one of the few homesteads we passed.  In the area of Nail, AR (which does not show up on a map) we stumbled onto a little general store that had pumps.  Luckily, they had gas....rather pricey gas....but we would have paid more!  I put 6.2 gallons into a 6.5 gallon tank.  Never would have made it! 



Old style pumps....they just come on and you pay when you are done.  You have to tell the folks inside how much you pumped!  Nice to see some folks are still trusting!


Scenery was just gorgeous. 


Colors were beginning to appear so so those who see colors!


Fine looking fellow!


The Wingabagos!

We just rode and looked.  We did not encounter a bad road all day and just enjoyed a day of riding without a particular destination. 

The Ozarks don't compare to the Rockies when it comes to elevation but you will spend the vast majority of your time going up or down as you go into the narrow valleys and immediately back up onto the ridges.  Our ears were constantly attempting to adjust to the pressure changes!

The Spotwalla link for the entire trip is:


 http://spotwalla.com/embed.php?id=3c0f4ea86e87ec945&width=600&height=600&scale=on&zoom=default&refresh=no

Saturday was simply more of the same.  We did manage to hit the highest point in Arkansas, Mount Magazine at 2,753 feet.   Beautiful lodge with some amazing scenery that is definitely worthy of a repeat visit. 

The view from the patio at the lodge. 

We captured a couple of new national park stamps also on our visit.....Buffalo River and Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. 

We rode the free ferry across Bull Shoals Lake.





Lots of motorcycles!  Most day cruising but the two in the forefront of the picture were from Chicago!



Another day of motorcycling nirvana. 

Unfortunately, we had to head home Sunday morning.  Forecast was for rain along the way and they weren't wrong.  We headed due south to pick up the interstate outside of Little Rock and found the rain!  It never rained hard but certainly enough to make the day wet and chilly at 55 degrees. 

We detoured through West Mississippi scouting bonus locations and chased the rain off and on until pulling back into the garage around 7PM Sunday night. 

If you have the chance, I highly recommend exploring the Ozarks of north Arkansas and southern Missouri.  Don't overplan it because you won't find any bad roads. 

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