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Message started by Dave on 09/15/19 at 15:44:31

Title: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/15/19 at 15:44:31

My wife and I just arrived in Jasper, Arkansas for a week of riding. We left Saturday morning and are trailering the bike. We left home around 9:30 AM on Saturday morning and stopped for the night at Poplar Bluff, Missouri at 6:30 PM their time (7:30 ours).......and camped for the night. We arrived at our campground spot in Jasper, Arkansas at 3:30 PM on Sunday....it was 95 degrees! We set up camp and have not yet taken the bike off the trailer - it just seems a bit too hot...but we will do that as the evening cools down a bit.

The road in was #7 and it was nice and curvy......it looks like a nice place to ride a motorcycle.

I will keep you all posted - it looks like it is going to be in the 90's the next few days. Perhaps we will take early morning rides, then visit the caves in the heat of the day! Maybe we can go up into the mountains and get some relief!

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/15/19 at 20:44:38

Hot Dog Dave , You be sure and mark those neat places in Arkansas on the GPS .
Next year me and Springman are going to need somebody to lead us around the Ozarks . Heck , Lancer might even join in and maybe Versey too ?
We been wanting to go ride North Arkansas for a few years now.
And now your there checking it out. :)

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/16/19 at 04:54:23

The weird part about my GPS.....is I drove off the edge!

On the way out we tried to program Jasper into GPS....it churned on it a while and then gave a message "Cannot calculate route". We tried a couple of times - and finally I got the idea that maybe Arkansas was not in the map memory. We calculated the route using a map and just let the Garmin show us the map of where we were driving without a planned route.....it helped us to see what roads were coming up so we could see when we needed to turn. The funny part was when we got to the Illinois/Missouri state line.....and as we crossed into Missouri the screen just went white! It would show the road we were on - but no features or other roads.....just a straight line down the screen on a white background!

The good news is the Garmin on the motorcycle has a larger memory and works just fine.....the other one has a smaller memory and only has the southeast 48 states loaded.

In Missouri there was a lot of cropland and harvest was in full swing. There was a lot of dust being kicked up by the semi trucks driving down the local dirt roads hauling grain to the silos, dust from the combines, and even more dust from the folks who had already harvested and were discing the plowed fields. There were huge black clouds of smoke in several areas rising into the sky......seems they burn off the stubble in the fields before plowing/discing - we never saw a fire up close but we did see some black fields that had not yet been plowed.

When it cooled down last night we road from the campground into Jasper which is just 1.5 miles away, and it is a very small town with several good looking restaurants. We ate at the Ozark Cafe which was established in 1909, and I had a wonderful Pork Tenderloin sandwich. We road up route 7 for about 5 miles, and it is very similar to the roads in north Georgia - not as tight of curves as the Tail of the Dragon but not as open as the Cherohala Skyway. This campground has cabins.....I will find out a bit more about them.

We have a small motorcycle route pamphlet that lists several loop rides. The shortest is 1.5 hours with 316 scenic curves, there are several that are around 3 hours long with 350-600 curves, and the longest is 5 hours with 840 curves.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by springman on 09/16/19 at 10:40:01

Sounds good. Like MM said, I have been wanting to ride Arkansas for some time now. I think a week of riding in Arkansas would be fun and at the moment I see nothing keeping me from taking a week of vacation for just that purpose most any time next year. Yes, all the issues have been sorted out with our new building and we should be in it within the next 30 days or so.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/16/19 at 12:37:05

My AF son is going to in a Resort in South Korea next year , so there woin't be no Driving to Texas 5 times next year . Not that I didn't enjoy every trip , but it left no time for going other places.

So as soon as the mountains warm-up from their Winter Nap , I'm ready to "Go see the Ozarks" .

Simple math , 5 hour loop with 600 curves = 2 per minute average = FUN RIDE. :)
That's with out the bonus 240 curves extra ! ;D

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/16/19 at 14:52:47

Deb and I got back from our first ride. We did the Ozark Moonshine which is listed as 662 curves and 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The ride was very similar to the rural roads in north Georgia - the mountain views are not as frequent as they are in the Blue Ridge.....and often you can't tell that you are riding along the top of the mountain - but at one point we got on a ridge that was no more then 60 feet wide with the mountain falling away on both sides, and the road even very narrow through this section. The ride today have some very rural sections and it is a long way between fuel stops. Some of the town names on the map that I used for routing are no more than names......there is no town!

The traffic was incredibly light and the roads are in good shape. The roads are curvy - there was one section on 374 (or 7) south of Jasper that was incredibly tight.....similar to Wolf Pen Gap in Suches, GA.

Tomorrow I believe we will do the Eureka Springs Backroads Route.....571 mile and 3 hours ride time. This route includes the Pig Trail - which is supposed to be a really good 24 mile road, and it includes Eureka Springs for a good shopping stop......we might take a small detour and eat Bar-B-Que at Sugar Boogers!

I will get information on the cabins here at Dogwoods Springs RV park - they have several different sizes. The place is an older campground and not very posh - but it is convenient and the folks running it are nice. The mosquitos are really small in size - but are numerous and very hungry and they show up if you stay still for any length of time.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by springman on 09/16/19 at 15:11:23

Dave, I can't ride that fast. 571 miles in 3 hours is just a bit much for me! 8-)

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by badwolf on 09/16/19 at 15:15:33

Yea,

''571 mile and 3 hours ride time''

I hope Deb is hanging on!

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by verslagen1 on 09/16/19 at 15:19:33

How long did it take to get the duct tape off?

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/16/19 at 19:00:44

Oooooops!

571 curves in 3 hours. The maps are a bit weird....they don't list mileage and instead list time.

We went for a swim in the pool as it was 94 degrees when we got back home. Then we went for an evening ride to watch the sunset, and we stopped at a small Baptist Church parking lot that had a view, and a farmer was mowing hay. He made a lap and then came over to talk to us.....his name was Tony Taylor, he was a sixth generation farmer on the property and said he had been watching that sunset for 62 years......and he was the minister in the church!

We looked through some of the cabins before we left.....they look pretty nice. The largest has a bed downstairs with one that pulls out from underneath, and two beds upstairs.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by verslagen1 on 09/16/19 at 19:19:16

Sounds like a place to visit.
http://jasperdogwoodcabinsandrv.com/

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/16/19 at 19:27:22

Did ya get a $$$ on the cabins , and how is the camp-sites ?

I should go check their web-site ... ::)

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/17/19 at 05:18:27

Versy posted a link.......the cabins looked pretty nice inside. Some have showers and bath, while the small ones don't. They also have tent sites with electric hookups....I saw some rental foam pads in the office.

This campground is very similar to the Kickstand Lodge.......it is a bit worn down and could use a makeover - the showers are functional but the bathhouse at KSL are far cleaner and fresher looking. The showers in the cabins are far nicer than the concrete block showers in the bath house.

There is a restaurant called the Cliff House that has a wonderful view and hotel rooms - the parking lot is right next to the road and there is no covered parking of any kind. They also have cabins.
http://www.cliffhouseinnar.com/

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/17/19 at 17:00:13

We had a good ride today......we did the Eureka Springs route. There was a lot of 4 lane road from Harrison to Eureka Springs....but it was OK. The town of Eureka Springs was a Victorian era place where there are a lot of springs and folks came to be healed by bathing and drinking the waters. It is now a Pigeon Forge type town - but a bit classier and a bit less crowded in this off season.

When we left we were looking forward to riding on AR 23....the famous Pig Trail - but we found it pretty uninspiring and it was just a mildly curvy road through some farmland. I believe that the tour guide route description was a bit misleading......AR23 is the Pig Trail - but the good riding part is farther south.

We did have some real excitement as we "tagged" a deer! Around 3:30PM we were doing about 55 mph and I saw a single deer standing on the right side of the road at the edge of the woods.....about 100 feet off the edge off the road. Just as soon as I made eye contact - he bolted out in front of us! I got on the brakes hard as I could....and just as he ran in front of us and disappeared from view beneath the fairing/windscreen - I felt a small bump. I am pretty sure I just tagged the back of his hooves with my front tire - there was no hair or marks of any kind on the bike, and no stains in my shorts! If the deer had been just a millisecond slower, there would have been 3 bodies and a motorcycle sliding down the highway!

Tomorrow we are going down Route 7 to Mount Magazine, then back up on AR23 (the real Pig Trail portion).

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/17/19 at 18:40:46

Its been my experience they react to a horn blow without delay. Their legs go off like springs as the sound hits their ears without any time laps in between . Its like you can be in-charge of making them jump. ...
Now which way they jump ... I'm not even sure the deer are in charge of that . ;D

I'm glad it was only a close one. Ya , know we're not really in charge as much as we like to think we are. I suspect the good Lord has a few more chores for you to do , weather Satan tries to take you out or not. ;)

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/18/19 at 17:30:29

Today we had a really nice ride. We went down AR 7 to Russelville, then across 40 and went west to get on Route 309 that crosses over Magazine Mountain, at 2567' or somewhere thereabouts it is the highest mountain in the area. The road up was a narrow two lane road that was not real steep or curvy by Blue Ridge standards - but it was a good road and fun ride. The view up top is really nice, as was the lodge were we ate lunch. I didn't hit any deer - but I did have a bit of a close call. It was up into the 90's on in the valley areas and I had my visor cracked open to get some air flow.....I had the chin curtain on to keep the wind from making noises into the microphone. I had a bug hit the helmet/visor hard and come inside my helmet, and the chin curtain didn't let it drop out. I didn't worry about it too much as an earlier incident like this was just a Ladybug. After a couple of minutes the bug started crawling around by my chin, so I decided to stop and get my helmet off ASAP. By the time I got stopped....he was flying around between my face and visor.....and when I got my helmet off and looked inside - there was a white/black Bald Faced Hornet looking back at me from inside my helmet! I let him out, and then we resumed our trip.

After Magazine Mountain we headed north and rode AR23 north of Route 40, which is the real Pigs Trail. The first 12 miles was really nice - it is curvy and wooded and reminded me a lot of the section of 28 that is just south of Deals Gap. It was freshly paved and had a fresh gravel berm....which unfortunately is what was going on for the north 12 miles of the ride - they were installing the gravel berm! They had the road blocked down to a single lane for a portion....and we ended up waiting behind several cars, 2 semi's and a tandem axle dump truck full of gravel for our turn to go into the single lane. The trucks definitely slowed our progress and they kicked up a lot of dust from the fresh gravel berm.

Once we got away from the construction zone and the semi trucks were gone and we resumed our 60mph cruise.....we spotted a Bobcat run across the road in front of us......cool!

Later we went past the area where we had the deer encounter the day before, and I saw that the brush was only about 20 feet from the edge of the pavement in that area.....so I only had about 28 feet of notice the deer was headed my way - no wonder I had so little time to react.

The riding here is a bit different than I expected. The speed limit is 55mph on these roads as long as you are not in a town or school zone, and most curves are easily taken at the speed limit. When we left the campground this morning and got on AR7 - we probably went 40 miles before we came to a town with a STOP sign. The riding here covers more miles in less time than is possible in the Blue Ridge area - but the curves are also a bit more open and nobody is going to be dragging pegs on most of the curves....there are a few local roads that are very challenging as they go up/down the mountains - but that lasts for a very short distance and does not go on for 13 miles like it does on Moonshiner 28 south of the Highlands. So far I have not seen any Sport bikes or even other Sport Touring bikes - most motorcycles are Harley or other big V-twins, Honda Goldwing in both 2 and 3 wheel versions, and a few Can Am 3 wheelers.

Would I come back to the Ozarks to ride? Absolutely! The roads are fun, the scenery is great, the lodging and food is very affordable, the folks are extremely nice and are very down to earth and pleasant people. The riding can be done with little or no worry about getting a speeding ticket, there is extremely little traffic on the local roads, the roads are in pretty good shape, the scenery is great, and there are very few tourists here this time of year (Evidently the area has a lot of kayaking and canoeing in the spring when the rivers are flowing high). I asked a local woman about the weather - she believes that the wet weather goes away by the end of June in normal years.....we would have to confirm this before we schedule a group trip.

These cabins appear to be a bit nicer and can sleep up to 6 people in 2 of them......4 in the other one. This is about 6 miles south of Jasper and right on Route 7, and they have a great view of the sunset each evening....or run across the road and down to the restaurant to see the sunrise each morning!
http://www.cliffhouseinnar.com/cabins/

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/19/19 at 07:59:43

Dave ,

These ride reports are making me DRULL . Keep them rolling in and I'll just fetch a bigger bucket to keep the mess down best I can ! ;D

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/19/19 at 12:54:23

Deb and I just got back from a really nice ride......it is a loop that had some really nice curves and hills, and it turns out that we rode a portion of 123 that is known as the "Arkansas Dragon"! It is not as condensed as the TN/NC Dragon - but still a very nice ride and well worth doing.....most of the curves allow for 50mph cornering. We did have some riding today that involved 1st or 2nd gear corners!

We did not encounter any rain on the 2 day drive down here, and the last 4 days have been dry - but there is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow and the skies are already clouded up. Around 6:00 PM we are going out to an area where Elk are supposed to gather- maybe we will get lucky enough to see some Elk....the really hot weather may keep them from coming out into the meadow today - we will just have to wait and see.

I rode up to the 3 cabins I linked earlier - the road up is gravel that is a bit loose, but I had no problem getting up/down with the bike riding double.......I believe nobody in our group would find it impassible or overly scary. These cabins appear to be really good for keeping us together as a group.....and the 6 mile ride into town is a great ride!

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by MMRanch on 09/19/19 at 19:50:25

.and the 6 mile ride into town is a great ride!

Makes me think of Suches Ga. and the ride to town.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/20/19 at 05:20:00

Last night around dinner time a light sprinkle showed up, so we took the car to dinner, then went to look at the Elk herd that shows up in a local field every night. There were about 30 females, a big bull and a couple smaller bulls. It was evident the bulls were challenging each other and jockeying for the dominant status. A local fellow said there was a bigger bull down the road, and he just lets the smaller bulls waste their time and he moves in around October and becomes the boss.

The monthly weather looks like we could travel to the Jasper area early or late in the year....when riding is not really suitable in TN/NC, and there appears to be only 10 days of rain in their wettest month of May.
https://www.google.com/search?q=jasper+arkansas+weather+yearly&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS836US836&oq=jasper+arkansas+weather+yearly&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.21583j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Our ride today will likely be very short....rain is going to move in around noon. We will likely load up the bike before noon - then go for a visit to one of the local caves.

Title: Re: Ozarks
Post by Dave on 09/21/19 at 05:32:29

Yesterday (Friday) was our last full day here, and the weather forecast was for rain to arrive around noon. We were able to squeeze in a 50 mile ride in the morning at got home around 11.....we headed south and up into the mountains and found a sprinkle had started, so we turned back north and dropped down in elevation and stayed dry the rest of the ride.

When we got home we started packing things up that were best packed in the dry....and just before noon a light rain arrived. The sandy gravel in the campground really tracks a lot of sand indoors when it is wet.

We then took the car and visited the local cave...unfortunately it was unguarded back in the 1930's and locals broke off the stalactites and sold them to tourists - the cave is still fun to visit but looking at the vandalism is a bit depressing. We then went downtown and got a pizza, came home and finished packing.

The weather is dry and will be for the next 2 days, showers return on Monday in the area and hang around for 2-3 days. We had a great trip and got in a lot of good riding, these roads and scenery are definitely worth a visit. There is also good hiking available, and the rivers offer good kayaking/canoeing in the late fall and spring when the rivers have more water......we have been told that we came at a really good time for riding, as kids are in school and the larger biker groups are not here in abundance.