throet

8 minutes ago, FJsnoozer said:

“He’s riding over me!”

 

“M’am, technically, I bunny hopped over you”

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure your GoPro is turned on! 

5 minutes ago, Albert said:

Great, thanks!  I imagine my plans will be partially dictated by the weather, so I'll need to be flexible.  Having a variety of options I can choose from is a big help!

Hopefully all the fires will at least be burned out by the time you go

16 hours ago, Albert said:

Never been to any of those towns, will have to see how the weather will be towards the end of October.  I think that's going to be one of the big deciding factors. 

Should be fine, although of course anything at high-elevation is going to be subject to unpredictable snow events. When I lived up in that area I generally was riding trails from late Feb thru mid Nov, with the highest elevation stuff being best between Aug-Oct. 

11 hours ago, TAF said:

Anyone have contact details? I'd love to station her halfway through Thumper.

Just make sure when you interview her there is nobody named Mike hanging around. 

I haven't been on a bike in almost 2 weeks, and things aren't looking great for this weekend either. Just learned from a post on another thread that RPR is closed to the public this weekend, which I confirmed on their website. Although the rains have subsided some, it seems we're getting just enough every day to keep things really wet. In the 4 years I've been riding trails in Austin, I don't recall ever seeing such a lengthy period of wetness like this.  

11 minutes ago, Schrute said:

Rpr is closed this weekend I think. Might want to check into that

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
 

Thanks for the heads up. It does appear from their website that they are closed Sep 15-16 for a shooting event but I may call up there to see if they will be open to public riding this afternoon. 

3 hours ago, Seths Pool said:

Anyone who chooses one of the equivalently priced kuat or yakima racks, (which are all covered in plastic) over a 1up, made a bad buying decision. 

I'm very satisfied with my Kuat NV 2.0. It works great, looks better than the 1-UP, and was quite a bit cheaper after applying a Backcountry discount. Not sure what you mean by "all covered in plastic". There are some plastic pieces, but it's mostly glistening, powder-coated metal. If it fails me, I'll be the first to admit my mistake and post up here.   

Really depends on how many ride-stops you want to make and how willing you are to add a few hours to your trip. You could easily re-route through Grand Junction and do some nice riding around there. Likewise, a re-route through Bend, OR would afford some nice riding without too much of a detour. There's great riding around Hood River, OR as well though, which is right off of the route you have mapped. 

1 hour ago, Cafeend said:

Says the retired guy 🙂 I still gotta hit work. I maybe might be bring my non mt bike klunker beast and just do a casual ride on the concrete path 

Ha I'm taking advantage while I can, since I'll probably have to go back to work eventually. I'm working on a deal now with a start-up and they're talking about an 18-month "lockdown" development period. That doesn't sound good at all! At my age, you never know even when you've got 18 months of riding left in you, although I'm shooting for another five years.  

I've compiled many of the reports from the old Mojo site into the main post in this thread for future reference. Hope nobody minds me doing that. Lot's of good info that I felt would be beneficial and prevent folks from having to repost. Each post is in quotes with the OP credited.  

9 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

I just noticed that forum. I should have this moved.

No problem it was actually this thread that prompted us setting up the new Forum section. I'm trying to compile much of the information that's been posted here and on Mojo. 

https://goo.gl/maps/ArLGgbEFr352

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8011366/sedona

"There's a lot of stuff in Sedona that is seriously high consequence with little room for error and not super obvious lines. I'd consider getting a guide or hooking up with a local for some of the bigger / more difficult stuff, if only just to follow lines through the slickrock and drops. If you ride do by yourself, it'd be a really good idea to at least have some type of tracker app on when you're out on the bigger trails. It can get real real quick. Pads and sticky-sole shoes (i.e. not had plastic XC shoes) are a good idea too. FWIW I like the stuff on the south and west side of town most. Triple H is your best bet for a mega loop that takes in most of the best hard stuff in one go.

For bikes, I would really consider renting a bigger bike than an XC rig if you truly want to try to ride everything and have fun doing it. I'm not a more-is-better kinda guy when it comes to travel, but there were definitely times on a 120mm rig that I truly felt outgunned in various spots. 140+ on a 29 or 160ish on a 27.5 is the sweet spot I think. Over the Edge, Bike and Bean, and Absolute Bikes are all good shops to rent from.

Sedona miles are hard miles, especially this time of year. Kinda like BCBG back trails on steroids - they feel relentless with the technical ups and downs. I'm sure you're a very fit rider, but just know that doing something like Triple H is going to take pretty much anyone all day without mishaps (especially in the heat) and leave you totally gassed. Just plan accordingly, and take lots of food/water. There's not much shade.

Anything that's under the radar out there is typically very hush-hush and VERY high consequence." ~ DSC
    

 
 
"I happened to do 7 straight days in Sedona in March. Tried to cover all the classics and catch a bunch of the other "really interesting" stuff too. Several pretty big rides and a few shuttles that may or may not make sense for you, but should give you some ideas at least.

Every day was awesome in its own way:

https://www.strava.com/activities/885634707
https://www.strava.com/activities/886549364
https://www.strava.com/activities/887908524
https://www.strava.com/activities/889400821
https://www.strava.com/activities/890394375
https://www.strava.com/activities/891672755
https://www.strava.com/activities/892729318

Also, for Arizona in general and Sedona in particular, Trailforks will show significantly more trails than mtbproject and will likely guide you through the maze better if you really want to explore. That's because Trailforks allows unfiltered user-generated uploads, while mtbproject's trails are subject to approval by IMBA moderators, and while lots of Sedona's maze has gone legal, there's still a bunch of weird stuff on the ground out there, so... Trailforks FTW." ~ FoldsInHalf

"Airport loop- Not a double black but definitely a black. nice little decent then Grueling Baby head ridden 400 foot climb. Kinda like riding through TC with smoother rocks but up hill. Then you get to the exposure around the Mesa and it is suhweet. find the loop on MTB project.

Brewer DH to Adobe Jack area. We rode this once for recon and once with the family. I prefer to ride up Grand Central and ride down everything else. Adobe Jack and Javalina. Make sure you go up to the top of the rock while climbing up.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1086536038

Bandit to Old post loop to Cathedral rock tour, including slim shady, Made in the shade, Hiline. You can refill with water at the end of slim shady, then take made in the shade up to hiline. My advice if you do this loop is to not take old post trail back up this climb sucks. Instead ride Herkenham and Skywalker. Skywalker is great and reminds me a lot of Flat rock ranch at times. There is good pizza and gelato near the end of this ride at Pisa Lisa!
https://www.strava.com/activities/1088599321

Bell rock tour with Family. Probably the only beginner friendly trail in Sedona.

Brewer DH over to Hangover and back for a lap of Airport. ~18 mi
Probably the craziest ride I have ever been on. It didn't help that My XTR pedal broke as soon as I got to Hangover. This is the only place I wanted A tire other than a bald Ikon 2.35. It can be a Hike-a-bike in a few select spots if you don't want to risk death. I rode some insanely exposed lines at times and in a few spots my wife was the voice of reason. BTW did I mention she was on a 90/90mm bike? When you are coming down off the backside on "lower Hangover", this is the only part of trail where I really wanted a bigger bike or a guide. A guide to show you where to roll the lines would have been almost more beneficial than a 150mm bike. You are busy looking for white dots and get to the drops with no speed. I walked a few 5' drops and took a B line option on some others. Its just bare rock so you can go where you want. drops are pictured 30 second into this video
Lower Hangover, Sedona Arizona
Check out his other video of the upper ridge which is exposed but 100% rideable. Its the climb up and over the top which gets interesting in spots.
This trail ends with a sweet flowy downhill
https://www.strava.com/activities/1091809698

Bandit-Skywalker, to other XC trails. There were three really nice steady downhills trails in this loop. This was a cool ride we took a wrong turn and headed up a greenbeltesque steep climb into a neighborhood near the end before the street. We also tried to use trail forks to connect into Chimney rock loop, but it is now a welded shut fence on private property. You can see the trail from the road but the land grab has blocked access to an actual Major park. https://www.strava.com/activities/1093408674

Again rode this loop twice in one day. It was so fun, I went back with other family. Chimney rock loop, Thunder (take the new bypass) Teacup, soldier pass to the giant Sinkhole, Jordan, Javelina
I was just cruising along on a flat spot on Thunder and gashed the hell out of my Ikon. It was a fluke and I still cant believe it happened. The ground looked like plain walking path.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1094926075

I hope this helps. We are definitely going back." ~ FJSnoozer

"Good suggestions all around. The signage is pretty good in Sedona, but I'd also recommend downloading the region on Trailforks and MTBProject so you have them available offline. It will definitely make navigation easier in some of the trickier areas.

In addition to FJsnoozer's recs, you may check out the Mezcal / Chuckwagon / Aerie area. Good trails that are more on the mild side with a few exciting sections, but really good riding overall. That's in NW Sedona.

+1 on the Cathedral Rock Big Loop (as named on MTBProject), sounds right up your alley. Templeton is all ridable is you're a baller, but the only part you'll probably have to walk are the switchbacks going down to the creek. Watch for hikers on the tech downhill sections. The Baldwin section is good CCW, but flows well either way. On the way back I would suggest taking Easy Breezy, but then take a right on HT for a short bit and connect back up with Slim Shady and take it all the way back. Hermit Trail, which is the alternative, kinda sucks. That'll all make sense when you're looking at a map.

The Hogs system is a good if you want more technical riding, but not as high consequence as Hangover. A good route through there is Slim Shady-HT-Little Horse-Broken Arrow-High on the Hog-Hog Heaven-Pigtail (if you want a flow trail)-Twin Buttes. From there you can either retrace your steps on HT/Slim Shady, ride Bell Rock path back, or take the road. Again, it'll all make sense if you're looking at one of the map apps." ~ DSC

"1) We hit Flagstaff on the way into Sedona. Highly recommend. We rode the Shulz creek area. Up engineers dogfood, across on Secret, BLAST back down on Shulz Creek. (these names are on Trailforks.) Not steep, but a very steady, asskicking 1300 foot/5 mile climb up engineers dogfood. DECENT IS WORTH IT.

2) Trailforks is AWESOME. Find a segment you are interested in, click on ridelog to find rides that included your segment of interest. boom, route is all ready for you. you can also create routes on the PC/web version but I found it to not work very well.

3) Hogs area was badass! Hog heaven, high on the hog, broken arrow, pigtail, hogwash, peccary, subamarine rock... were all fun, scenic trails. High on the hog rivaled hiline for technical difficulty, awesome trail! one of my favorites.

4) In the northwest area, people recommended Chuckwagon and Mezcal. Mezcal was nice but chuckwagon was overrated, imo. I will skip this entire corner if I come back. Other stuff in the area had equally good vistas and this area had lots of meh sections (compared with the rest of Sedona, of course)

5) Slim shady to hiline to baldwin to templeton and back was the bomb. hiline had the adrenaline and stoke rev'ed up to 11. I loved the exposure but not everyone does and there is plenty of it on hiline. Hiline also has a few really technical downhill sections. We walked a couple. no big deal. Still worth doing. DO HILINE.

We skipped hangover since a lot of the locals said that it was neat but that they don't do it on any regular basis.

It was hotter than I anticipated in mid-October out there." ~ Anita Handle

27 minutes ago, mack_turtle said:

Don't know yet! Just got home from a week-long vacation and had to dive into work. I can't take another whole week off this year, so I am looking for what I can do on a short-term trip. I'll tally up all these options. Hopefully this thread is useful for people who want other options as well.

It sounds like a trip to the west end of the state might not be worthwhile if I have to spend two out of my three days just driving. I might look for something a little closer in Hill Country until I can find a way to do a whole week getaway. My priority is to find something with a great camping setting, and something that will challenge me to ride. My wife is going to be bored if we go somewhere and I spend the whole time out riding.

Check out the new Forum Section called MTB Destinations under Mountain Biking. With the help of Albert, I set up separate threads for most of the destinations being discussed, and started each thread with links to google driving directions and MTB project trail info. For some that I'm familiar with, I've inserted other tidbits of info that should be helpful. For others, I'm in the process of copying-pasting from the wealth of information that's been posted historically on Mojo, which includes a lot of great info on Bentonville, Colorado Springs, and Sedona that I plan to bring over. So far I've posted up most of the destinations that are within a day's drive of Austin, but I'm hoping that others will join in following a similar structure, and start threads for other areas across Colorado, Utah, North Carolina, etc.  

https://goo.gl/maps/XdfRmSCULs12

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8007061/northwest-ar

The Syllamo Trail system is located north of Mountain View, AR and is the home of the annual Syllamo's Revenge spring endurance event. The scenery in this area is simply fabulous. Riding outside of the actual event weekend requires a bit of planning though. The system is made up of several smaller loops that can be rode independently or connected together. Once in town, you can get a complete, printed mountain biking guide that includes details of each trail, directions to the trailheads, etc. I've heard stories that the trails aren't nearly as well maintained outside of the event period; so you might want to consider either participating in the annual event or going in the Spring before or after the event weekend. Others may know better about the trail conditions, but this area has so much to offer for the entire family that you really can't go wrong. We stayed at the Sylamore Lodges north of Mountain View and closer to the trails. The cabins there are perched high above the White River with easy access to kayaking, fishing, etc. They have most everything you need right there, including firewood and ice (honor system for 24-hr access), kayak rentals, pool table in the main lodge, horseshoes, etc. Be sure to check out the Blanchard Spring Caverns too - very cool! This is a DRY COUNTY! Pack in any alcoholic beverages you wish to consume. There is a brewery not too far away though where you can pay a nominal membership fee (as I recall) and fill up your growlers (see link below).         

https://www.syllamosrevenge.com/the-trails

https://www.sylamorelodges.com/

Blanchard Springs Caverns

http://www.gravitybrewworks.com/

48 minutes ago, Cafeend said:

I dont even have to ask about tomorrow morning do I?

MAYBE instead I can bust out my Klunker and ride the path from the Y to points North and back. 

No I think Brushy is out for sure, and we might even get more rain today. Not sure about the rest of you, but I'd probably be down for an early AM trip out to RPR in lieu of our regular Brushy ride. We'd have to call and get clearance in advance since officially they don't open the gates until like 4pm. However, I've heard informally that they are generally there and open to riding all day on Fridays. Alternatively, we could take a run over to CP and ride a cautious lap or two there.  

I seem to recall that there are actually signs already in certain spots out there stating not to ride on wet trails. Am I mistaken?  

https://goo.gl/maps/QEcjTUyXeiG2

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8007022/tucson

"I rode ~20 miles worth of Catalina Park in 2009- If I had known the area better could have ridden easily 10 more or the same and entered at a better spot. The out/ back spot I went out to ride was really a fun natural bowl area with lots of different lines to ride it." ~ Taco Man
https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/476...-trail-segment

"There is some serious, killer riding in Tucson, by itself... then there's Phoenix not too far away for some of the best riding anywhere. Mt Lemmon trails are high enough elevation for summer riding, then there's Globe, etc... oh, and if you ski, you can do that on Lemmon, too." ~ Gotdurt

https://goo.gl/maps/sRmngytg7D12

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8007422/colorado-springs

"check out Palmer Park when you get there. it's a big park in the North-Central part of town. used to have miles of trails - some fairly technical. kind of a cross between CP and WC.
and can you say public land? something about being able to drive 30 minutes from your house and having hundreds of thousands of square miles of public land to tromp around on...
great bike shops too!" ~ Jdub

"I rode quite a bit in the Manitou Springs area on an old Schwinn Predator bmx bike when I was 14-17. My grandmother lived there and ran a flower shop. I had a job at Santa's North Pole just up the pass and used to ride with some of the kids I met there. It was the intro to me searching out places to ride off road as a preference and was instrumental in my riding a mountain bike today. Once one of their dads ran us up to the top of Pike's Peak so we could ride the Barr Trail down. That was brutal on a bmx. Would not advise doing this. There were tons of stuff to ride around there both official and non official." ~ MrMentallo

"You don't have to like the place to like the mountain biking and appreciate the vast amount of work that went into crafting the trails there. Visit Cheyenne Canyon daily, ride to Bristol.
Repeat." ~ Pulpwoody

"I've started riding up there from OCC, up Gold Camp Road. Then Buckhorn > Capn Jacks > The Shutes > Bristol, or back over to Fossil. So many new brewing options now! I didn't even make it to Bristol last time I was there." ~ TAF

"I stayed in Old Colorado City...basically CO Springs between Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs (the big part?) and the vibe was great. Maybe it had enough Manitou flavor to level it out or something. The locals describe Manitou as a used-to-be hippy spot turned hipster. Everyone I encountered was friendly, but I was only there 5 days. I’ll be back without a doubt. That Incline hike is no joke, and there’s a shit ton of stuff to do there along with riding the mtb." ~ Morealice  

Those are great insights. I just used the times from google maps (downtown to downtown). We can adjust the drive times in the thread topic based on general feedback. I'm also going to add some summary information to each of these thread headers based on feedback from historical posts, general info from MTB Projects, etc.  

https://goo.gl/maps/iJX7zG7mYHM2

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8012905/angel-fire

https://goo.gl/maps/ZxYCpVgntZR2

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8009343/santa-fe

Recommendation from FJsnoozer
Ride:
1. La Tierra- Evening park at Frijole trailhead pump and jump tracks -up to 1-2-3-4-5 Hustle and Flow - Repeat if necessary,13-12 and backmore Jump track until the sun goes down and you cant see.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10...ts/26668707436
2. Same - including one of the "technical trails" after 13-12 = awesome ride
https://www.strava.com/activities/1084625144
1-2-3 has incredible XC flow, Hustle and flow is amazing. The pump/jump tracks have progression for everyone and get stupid big. Here is one of the more advanced lines: These guys are "alright"
3. Winsor Trail, Santa Fe- On the way back, we also timed it just right to make the 3 o'clock city bus/shuttle for $5 that takes you up to the top of Winsor. You have got to do this while driving through!

https://goo.gl/maps/uwHN4LvnRsE2

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8011502/greater-bentonville-and-fayetteville

"You're in for a treat. If I only had 2 days, then this is prolly what I would do.
(1/2 day prologue)- Some portions of Slaughter Pen [phase 2?]
Day 1- Coler Park in the morning- Eat Lunch; Then Lake Atalanta (w/Railyard) in afternoon
Day 2- Back 40. The Back 40 was superb. Any and all of these trails will be a highlight of your trip
Here are my Strava files from my 3 days there. I covered a lot of ground. There's brief descriptions and photos in all the files
https://www.strava.com/activities/1206451536
https://www.strava.com/activities/1207861306
https://www.strava.com/activities/1209486997

I stayed in Bentonville & road everywhere)" ~ CBaron

"I did the back 40 clockwise and agree that it would probably be better ccw. Honestly, there is enough flow on that system that either way is worth it. Coler was awesome if you like gravity fed lines. Slaughter pen was ok but not epic like the back 40. Super cool place to ride. They have it figured out up there." ~ Tree magnet

"+1 on your assessment, except Coler also has (at the time) an 'unpublished' loop west of the creek valley that runs along the park they called the NICA loop. It was very good stuff. So I'd recommend going over to Coler and playing on the gravity fed stuff, then explore over to the NICA trail and make a loop(s). If you look closely it can be found in my Strava file above (day #1)" ~ CBaron

How much time would you allocate to ride the back 40?
"I would budget 3:30. You Can ride it XC marathon pace in about 2:30 with a couple of casual stops. If you will be stopping a lot or with a group of 3-4 strong riders I would budget 3:30-4. Weekend warriors will get smoked out there by the climbing, so 5ish?
I would also do the recommended route and ride from the end of the Blowing springs parking lot, ride in CCW with "ledges" included. If you are feeling good when you get back to the truck, roll straight into a ~ 7 mile lap of Blowing springs.
I've ridden it both directions. My clockwise direction was plenty of fun as well. We rode out from crystal bridges that day which was about a 40 mile out and back.
I also recommend checking your brake lines to make sure they are tight before going out on this journey." ~ FJsnoozer

"If you have several days, I think the Back 40 and Blowing Springs is worth a full day. Some of the best runs are in the middle of the system, so if you just do the outer loop, you are missing some really good stuff. Some of it is one way downhill goodness. Of course in order to hit all of it you need to hit some sections twice. I ended up riding 50 miles of singletrack (parking at Blowing Springs) and still didn't hit every section." ~ Shredhead

"All trail recommendations are spot on. I would add Bike Rack Brewery>Pedaler's Pub. Their pizza is fantastic.
Air BnB is cheap as hell there. From where we stayed we could hit the downhill flow trail at the middle school at the end of the street and ride up All American into downtown. We did that with lights the first night and rode in to have dinner then rode trails back home. No car needed." ~ Browndog

"Kessler in Fayetteville is pretty amazing too. About 45 miles south of Bentonville. Plenty of climbing, some rock gardens as well as some huge boulders to ride through, and some swoopy bermy downhill stuff too." ~ Kpomtb  

"So we stayed in Rogers about 40 min from Bentonville and 9 miles from Hobbs State Park. Because of unforeseen circumstances and time crunches we didn't get to spend a lot of time in Bentonville like we wanted but we did get in a solid 9 mile ride in at slaughter pen last night before dark. It was a blast.
I have to say Hobbs State Park seems to be completely underrated in my opinion. Total XC course but man is it FLOWY. I was locked out the whole time but I had some serious fun. I think if you stay in Rogers or ever get enough of Bentonville, Hobbs State Park Little Clifty Loop is a must. It's like Rocky Hill on steroids and the descents are definitely smile inducing. https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/7001770
We also took the kids to Lost Valley for cave exploring and it was really neat. Best of all, all of this stuff is free. Slaughter, Hobbs, and lost valley were all free. It's been an awesome trip." ~ Afrothund3r

"Speaking of free, You got to go to crystal bridges museum!" ~ FJsnoozer

"We were up in Bentonville for Spring Break. It was amazing. Here is my take on it all:
Take a couple of extra tires. Our group had at least 4 sidewall tears.
If you plan on arriving Thursday afternoon, plan to ride the trails that are located in the city. There is a fun downhill starting from Crystal Bridges that will feed you into the rest of the trail system there in town (Slaughter Pen and whatnot.) 
The gravity lines at Coler Park are well worth the climb and they have multiple lines depending upon skill level. You could do both Coler and Slaughter Pen in the same day.
If you are not in super good riding shape, I would recommend you save the Back 40 for your last day as your legs will be spent when you are done. Go counter-clockwise. Members of our group rode it both directions and said that ccw was much more fun. Blowing Springs is a good place to start. The Back 40 has incredible flow (except for the trail called Flo-Ride---it sucked balls, not because it is technical, mainly because the first half actually lacks flo) and you will enjoy it quite a bit. Much of the trail crosses roads, which is fine as drivers are very mtb friendly there. However, plan on making bitch climbs up to almost every crossing (thus the spent legs at the end.) Fortunately, those climbs are rewarded with some pretty sick downhill. Whoever said that if you just do the outer loop you will have a great time is right. The only two inner trails I rode were Flo-Ride and Rago. Rago is super fun going East to West (outside in, I guess). Going the other way would suck, I think.
On your way home, I suggest you stop in at Mt. Kessler in Fayetteville. You can ride for an hour or 2 and have a great time. There is climbing, but it is well designed and well rewarded. Egg Beater is fun if you like rocks (reminded me of the easier portions of the BCGB). We started down Crazy Mary, but somehow wound up on Chinkapin Oak, which was amazing.
We had so much fun that Hoss and I have already booked some days for a return visit on our way to Michigan this summer. I can't wait to check out some of the other trails that Cody mentioned in his post.
Oh, and if you want to try out the local beer, Bentonville Brewing Company was our favorite." ~ Moc 5

"Bentonville definitely lived up to the hype as far as trails go. Even though the weather wasn't great, we still got to ride every day (although maybe not as much as I would have liked). I could have easily spent a week there riding new trail and then going back to hit the stuff I liked again. We rode pretty much all of Slaughter Pen, all of Blowing Springs, and a little bit of the Back 40 loop. I may post a more comprehensive write-up at some point, but I have to say Slaughter Pen was amazing. Miles and miles of professionally built and maintained trails with a lot of variety and fun features sprinkled throughout. We also ran across a couple of sections where they were building seriously big, gnarly features that made me clinch involuntarily just looking at them. Blowing Springs was fun, with lots of gradual climbs and some fun, swoopy downhill sections. One stretch was a bit more technical with some rock gardens and off-camber stuff, and the section that goes under the rock ledges was fun to see (although not that fun to ride, in my opinion). We only did part of the Back 40 loop which included a trail called Rago. Rago was a weird mix of pretty miserable climbs, boring sections where you are riding right next to and across streets, and unbelievably fast, fun downhill sections. We barely scratched the surface of the Back 40, but we got the sense it was more XC oriented. Everyone we ran into on the trails was super nice and Bentonville seems like a nice little town, although everything seems to shut down by 8 or 9 in the evening during the week. We had a great trip and are already talking about when we can go back again." ~ Olddbrider 

"Just back from a Bentonville trip with a very diverse group. Myself (cat 2 roadie who rides on dirt alright),a friend similar although perhaps less adept on dirt to me. my younger brother with no fitness who loves doing trials stuff, and lastly a friend who had never ridden a mtb and has a propensity for crashing on the road. I can say we all had fun and my brothers legs are destroyed (shoot my legs hurt from lots of 1-2 minute climbs).
We didn't get to checkout Coler due to weather and trail conditions, but did do Back 40/Blowing Springs and Slaughter Pen.
Slaughter Pen: It's great crowd pleaser stuff, I feel like anyone can have fun here no matter how good or how suck they are. The "downhill trail" is pretty much all tables, no gaps no drops. You can roll over the jumps just as well as send it over them. There is some blue stuff in the first "phase", choo choo is a sinewing group of berms, it's fun. It's not hard to ride at all but it is simply fun. Boo boo has some jumps, and a 2.5ish foot "drop" that you can ride fast enough to drop just roll down slowly. These and the downhill flow trail were the most impeccably groomed and built of the trails in the system that we found. None of the jumps were huge, I could clear about most of them, it was fun. In phase 2 east there is a pretty fun looking but too intimidating for me free ride section consisting of multiple 5 foot drops and then a bigger drop at the end. I think all but the last (which there was a B line around) is probably rollable (but I didn't ride it so I can't confirm). The "play area" is pretty fun but pretty small and pretty beat up, from what I heard go to Coler if this is what you are looking for. The whole slaughter pen area was super packed on the weekend, our first day out was friday and it was dead.
I didn't get to see all of the back 40 due to a slashed sidewall, but what we saw was pretty fun. It's not a perfectly groomed downhill track, there are sections more perfect than others (Brakes were used to make many turns, speed moderation is necessary at least for me). We rode a smaller loop CW one day (Back 40 to Summit School to pinion creek to ledges). The next day we went out with intention to do all of back 40 CCW but I slashed a sidewall not too far in, what little we did ride was better CCW. Not sure if ledges would be better one way or the other.
It rained half of saturday most of sunday. We consulted a local about what would be rideable when (the Back 40 was in pretty good condition only 6 hrs after a rain storm (didn't pick up anything on tires, didn't leave an ruts), most of the more built up stuff with berms and such seems to be built with hauled in clay type soil so we avoided anything like that.
My friend with no previous MTB experience walked a good amount, especially when we rode ledges but still had fun. He has fitness so was able to do the climbs. At the end of the trip group had 5 crashes total, and no broken bones so it was solid.
We rented two bikes from Phat Tire, they were pretty decent (Fuel EX 27.5+ Aluminum Frames) a little on the pricey side (75/day). My Fuel Ex 29 was pretty perfect for the trails I thought, my friend with a Top Fuel would have liked more suspension in places. I greatly enjoyed the use of dropper post for all days of riding." ~ Joroshiba

"Ok, I just got back from Bentonville. This was my 60th birthday present from me, to me. I didn't disappoint myself
We drove up on Thursday and I rode Friday and Saturday. We headed down to Fayetteville on Sunday, which I planned on riding, but I was just too trashed from the previous two days of riding to feel like getting back on the bike again. Drove back to Austin on Monday.
Friday - I started at Crystal Bridges at All American. Great starter/warm up trail with a taste of what's to come.
Note: They are currently building more trail extending All American towards town, and it looks awesome.
I was disappointed that Choo Choo and Boo Boo were closed, but they were building more trail on that section, and some crazy looking drops at the bottom of Boo Boo. I did the end of Rim Trail, and then continued over to Black Apple Creek, Tiger Trail and part of Apple Turnover. All great, but don't miss Leopards loop (I did it twice just to make sure). I kind of got mixed up in the Urban Trail, but a local pointed me towards The BoneYard, just to check out the crazy shit they built. A must see! Some of you crazy fawks will probably do it, but it's worth seeing none the less. Played a little at the dog park, then headed up to Medusa and Talamagouche, followed by the Downhill flow trail. Holy shit that was fun! I did and out and back on Armadillos Last Stand, and then continued out to the beginning of Blowing Springs. After all the messing around I was into the ride for about 4 hours, and decided to head back to Crystal Bridges (our AirBNB was 2 blocks away) so I could have something left for Saturday.
Saturday - I started the ride again at All American with the goal of hitting Blowing Springs and parts of the Back 40. On the way out, I jumped across the road and hit Schroen Train and Free Time. Free Time was above my pay grade with all the skinnies and drops, but there's a pussy line around everything so I was good. Don't miss those two! I continued on my way out and hit Blowing Springs Loops. My face hurt from smiling while riding that damn trail! Nothing tech, but so much flow!! I could hear other riders hooting as they rode it. Once I made my way to the trail head for Back 40, I decided I would just make a loop that included Rago. You guys weren't kidding about all the road crossings, but all the drivers I encountered were very conscious of bike traffic, and I had no issues on any of those crossings. The first 1/3 of Rago, pretty much follows along the road, and I was starting to question my decision to take that route until I got to the Bike Skills Park. From there, Rago goes into some amazing machine cut flow trails. By the time I got to the end of the Back 40, I was pretty much toast and slowly rode back to Crystal Bridges.
Downtown Bentonville was pretty lively on Friday and Saturday night. We ate at the following:
Peddlers Pub - Good Burger and Beer selection
All American - Good hearty breakfast (but this weekend was their last time at that location, not sure where they are moving to, but it's still in Bentonville).
Oven and Tap - Excellent pizza and large beer selection.
Press Room - Breakfast was good, with a slightly upscale menu.
Crepes Paulette - Awesome huge Crepes. There was a ton of MTB'rs there, but the service was slow, so plan on post ride maybe.
My wife really enjoyed the Crystal Bridges Art Museum (plus they have a happy hour), and the Walmart Museum is a must!
The local riders were really nice and helpful with trail advice. The visiting riders seemed to be having as much fun as I was. Whenever I mentioned I was from Austin, most of the locals noted that they see a lot of folks from here. Also, I met three groups of riders that were from Springfield MO, and they hit Bentonville on a regular basis. Several of them talked about the trails that are being built in Springfield by the O'Reilly (Auto Parts) family similar to what's going on in Bentonville. It's about 2 1/2 hour drive North, but might be worth checking out if someone had and extra day.
I ended up with about 40+ miles of riding trails over two days. For this busted up old drunk, that's good for me!!" ~ Yosmithy

https://goo.gl/maps/7yy9AGgZT8n

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8010385/big-bend-ranch-state-park

4 hours ago, throet said:

Thanks. I was thinking though that before you just start placing random posts into it, we could organize the threads as noted in my suggestion above? Is that workable? If so I'm happy to get started on that given the appropriate permissions. 

@Albert take a look at the first 2 threads I started. Thought it would be handy to include the drive time in the actual thread topic, although I should have stayed consistent with my formatting. Anyway, I included the google map and the MTB Projects link for each respective area as a starting post. Figured for each area, we could then start dumping in posts regarding trails to ride, places to stay, places to eat, etc. If you like this approach, I'll move forward with threads for Bentonville, Mountain View (AR), Big Bend, Santa Fe (NM), Angel Fire (NM), Tucson (AZ), and Colorado Springs. These are all destinations that can be easily reached with a day's drive (13 hours or less).  

https://goo.gl/maps/km4NXGRcjir

https://www.mtbproject.com/directory/8007104/lake-ouachita

I've ridden the Womble end-to-end but did not ride the Ouachita Trail extension at the north end of the Womble. Never made it over to the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail either that runs along the south side of the lake. Mt. Ida seems to be the best central location for accessing all of the trails, but I like staying at the Hwy 27 Fishing Village (cabins, RV/Tent sites) that is just north of Mt. Ida on the west end of the lake. It sits virtually right on the middle junction of the Womble which makes it a great spot for out-and-backs in either direction or shuttled rides starting at either end. In addition to the stores and restaurants in Mt. Ida, there is a small store / restaurant a couple of miles north of Hwy 27 Fishing Village that serves up some great food. You can also get some provisions at the camp store at Hwy 27 Fishing Village. This is a DRY COUNTY! Pack in whatever alcoholic beverages you may want to consume.