Pigs, Deer, Flames And A Jack-Knifed Big-Rig. Early March In Arkansas.

[Yokel]

It seems like every journey starts with working too much. That is always the case for me, anyway. Work has been crazy lately, and I just simply had to get away or go mad. I’d “accidentally” sold my car (again) last week, and everyone was ribbing me about going bike only. Well, screw them… if I’m going to get crap for it, then I’m getting out of town.

I had two days of comp time saved up, hadn’t seen the sun in two weeks and was just generally annoyed with life’s little hiccoughs… sounds like a good enough reason to get the hell out of town for a while.

Living in Oklahoma City isn’t much fun as a motorcyclist, a solid cloverleaf is about the limit of twisty that we get to see. Occasionally we’ll get some good storms and hail, but that’s really not the kind of riding that I look for. Since September’s Hog Tie, I’d been pining to get back to the area and *really* ride it, and Adam79 has been kind enough to REALLY get me thinking about it since he’s organizing a ride out that way at the end of the month.

Monday morning the 4^th I placed a call that went something like this-

Lady on the phone: “Thanks for calling the Hub, this is Debbie.”

Me: “Debbie, it’s Jon here, that guy organizing that ride this fall for VFRD, how are you?”

Debbie: “Oh, hi! I’m good. How are you?”

Me: “Fine, thanks. How are the bookings looking for this Fall?”

Debbie: “Still lots of room.”

Me: “How about for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week?”

Debbie: “I think we can make space.”

Me: “Great, I’ll see you Wednesday afternoon.”

Done and done.

Tuesday at 5pm I woke up, went to work early, taught a class, worked my normal nigh shift and FINALLY at 6:30am I was headed out the door. It was 28 degrees outside.

What was I thinking? I rode home, packed up my gear and was out of the house by 10am for a 290 mile solo ride to Marble Falls, AR in 38 degree temperatures.

Heated grips are now on the short list of items to get this year.

I was itching to get there, so jumped on I-44 from OKC to Tulsa, then jumped on 412 on the east side of Tulsa to make a bee line to Arkansas and some solace.

I would have preferred to take the creative way to Marble Falls, but I’d already been up for a good while and worked more than a full day, so didn’t really want to push it and wind up as a statistic.

Two gas stops and a lunch later, I was in heaven. I cut off of 412 at 103 and it was simply sublime. Any exhaustion I felt left my body, but I still took it pretty easy. I’m not used to these roads, and I knew despite how good I felt, that I was pretty close to my “cashed out” state.

At 4pm, I stopped for a moment to drink some water and snap some photos.

Even this early in the spring, it’s hard to look away from the natural beauty of this part of the country. It’s medicine to my soul on a very primal level. It’s hard to put in to words, but I’m sure many of you know exactly what I mean.

After my break, it was time to get on to the Hub and take about a 12 hour nap. I'd been up for 23 hours at this point, worked an 11-hour day, rode 250 miles in temps that climbed up to a whopping 45 degrees and hadn't eaten much of anything, so I kicked it in gear and made it the rest of the way in about ½ an hour.

The Hub is an interesting place. Any of you who have been there will know what I mean. Every time I've been there in the past, it's been booked solid. There have been smiling faces crawling all over the place, loads of bikes of all kinds, good food, lots of laughs and a bonfire with beer after dark every night. When I was on the phone with Debbie, I thought I caught a little sarcasm about my asking for a reservation...

I was the ONLY guest. The welcome wagon did show up though, I would seem that Happy the Dog remembers me... or was just starved for affection (though I sincerely doubt she's starved for much of anything, let alone affection).

Give a dog ONE bratwurst and she's yours forever.

This was quite a change from the Hub I'm used to. When I pulled up, Randall (the owner) popped his head out of the office and shouted, "Well, Jon! You made it!" Might have been the best thing I'd heard that day. I had my pick of the rooms, so grabbed the one I knew had a coffee maker in it. I pulled my bike up to the door of my room and unloaded.

Still more to come...

[Yokel]

So, I checked in, visited with the owners a bit and got the low-down on the off-season happenings around Harrison, AR. Last year was pretty tough for the area between the drought and the heat. The Hub isn't the only place that needs the tourism dollars to stay afloat. From what I hear eavesdropping on the locals at a cafe for breakfast, things are pretty tough around here. I may have been the first hotel guest in a month.

The Hub was originally a part of Dogpatch, USA. It was a themepark doomed to failure in the 70's and 80's off of Highway 7. Branson just pulled too much from the area and Dogpatch couldn't compete. Randall and Debbie bought the Hotel in 2004, spent a year getting it operational again (it had been empty for 15 years) and have been catering to motorcyclists almost exclusively ever since. I had a lot of time to sit and chat with them while I was there this time, it was quite a treat. I'm a sucker for stories.

Randall and Debbie started dating in the 10th grade. They graduated around 1974 from a local school. Everyone's a sucker for the high-school sweetheart thing. Like many businesses in the last 8 years, it's been a challenge for them. I was pretty happy to stay there and shove some money their way. While it's no 5-star place (some rooms don't have carpet), it's clean. The water's hot, the food is really good, the sheets are clean and the owners are wonderful and can't do enough for you. (The heater in my room did take about 18 hours to really get going, but I was so cold from the ride in I don't know if staying in a sauna would have been good enough. )

Gratuitous shot of the accommodations.

So, it's been one HELL of a day. I placed a call to Gloryracing, one of our members that lives locally. He and I have been in contact since I was going to be in the area and I was hoping to meet up with he and his wife to say hello. I didn't get much of a chance to talk to them at the Hog Tie 2012 since he had some other obligations that weekend, but I was keen to get some input from them both on some of the better local routes and perhaps some pointers on technique for riding in this area. (Read: Survival skills.) After that, I was done. Stick the fork in this guy, I couldn't even see straight anymore.

Good night cruel, cold world!

One Tired Yokel.

The next day dawned BEAUTIFULLY... the way it only does in the Ozarks. There was a light haze as the sun crept up, the air was crisp and the day spoke of promise. I had several things on my list of things "to do" while I was out and about. I wanted to toy with my GoPro some more, and I wanted to ride some of the roads at my own pace. The two prior times I'd been out I was running at a pace below what I thought I'd like. The first time was with my father who is newer to motorcycling and pretty intimidated with it. I was happy to sight-see with him.

The second time was with the Hog Tie last year, and I was leading the beginner group. I'm not really experienced as a leader at all, so took it pretty easy with that group as well. I felt a certain responsibility when doing that, and set a pace that I felt was within the 75% range for skill of the group.

This time, I just had to worry about ME. I was wanting to get 123 run at a good clip, Scenic 7, 16, 74... the gamut.

But first, breakfast. Normally, the cafe at the Hub is pretty good for vittles, but being the off-season, they weren't open. I sat and drank coffee with Randall and Debbie in the office for about an hour and he told me to go check out this little diner up the street from the hotel. It's a smoked meat shop (WIN!) with a cafe that serves breakfast.

It seemed to be a bit of a local haunt, so I sat and eavesdropped to get a feel for the local "flavor". The two gals that run the place were kind enough to tell me where I should ride that day, and seemed pretty excited to see someone from out of town so early in the season. Everyone's looking forward to a good tourism year. After catching up on the local 1-A basketball tournament losses in the Newton County newspaper and having some killer biscuits and gravy, it was time to ride, really ride.

I took off south on Scenic 7 to Jasper. From Jasper was planning on catching 74 over to 123 and riding the hairpins over there. WOO HOO!

Highway 74 out of Jasper

More to come...

[Yokel]

Scenic 7 is a beautiful piece of asphalt. There's no denying it. But, it's also just about the only patrolled area in the entire county. It's one of those roads that you can just really take your time and enjoy the scenery. Past Jasper (south) you ride right past the "Arkansas Grand Canyon" and this time of year you get a bit of a rare treat. With no foliage on the trees, you can actually make out the striations in the local bedrock, something I'd never seen before touring in this part of the country.

It's really quite a view. I sat on the ledge for a while drinking some water and pondering the mysteries of life. Shortly, there sauntered up this paunchy old fella who must have been pretty bored to come up and start a conversation with a guy on a bike. He and his wife were down from Oregon, on their way back home from Key West. He was chuckling when he walked up and said, "Wow, you must just be having a ball on this road my friend!"

If he only knew.

We chatted for a few minutes and I had to tell him about some of the other twisty bits around the area. He got this look on his face and I decided I'd go ahead and do a public service. "I don't think you'll want to take your motor home over there, sir," I said. I almost felt bad when I saw him deflate a bit after I said that. He moseyed off and I saddled back up.

Back to Jasper, on to 74 then to 123. Heaven in 1/2 hour from the hotel.

Don't threaten ME with a good time....

Oh...

Pretty views around everywhere you look.

This time of year there are several things to look for in the area.

1) Gravel. It's around. The road crews had thrown this stuff out the last few months and it's worth keeping an eye out for it.

2) Locals... on 4-wheelers going to the store. Hey, I can't fault them.

3) Suicidal squirrels.

4) Suicidal birds. (6 of them this trip, including yet another buzzard that wanted me dead.)

5) Razorback fans.

6) Beavers? Really?

The beaver likely saved my life. I was clipping along at a pretty decent pace. Rounding a corner I was met by a local over the centerline on his Honda 4-wheeler, huge beard and a snap brim hat, grinning and waving at me. Freaked me smooth out. Not wanting to be "that guy on a crotch rocket", I slowed down and threw out a salute. A few turns later was back in my groove only to meet a beaver over the centerline. Arrrgh.

By now I'd been pulled out of my zone and was paying closer attention. It's a good thing, too. When you get down 123 a way, the switchbacks are terrific. It's so tempting to really let loose and fly. Good thing for the beaver and local fellow on the 4-wheeler disturbing my calm because the 4th hairpin (almost a blind one) had THIS:

Dude... Really?! Did you NOT see the signs?!

This poor guy had been there for 45 minutes when I pulled up... He thought the VFR was the towtruck (DAM exhaust for the win!) coming up the hill.

The locals seemed to get a kick out of it. I guess it happens about 3-4 times a month. According to one of them, this wasn't that big of a deal. The last one was a full 53' van loaded down. I've got to hand it to the wrecker driver, though. That guy backed his rig up all the switchbacks and about the last 1/2 mile of tarmac. Hell, I can hardly back up my bike.

4-wheeler guy pulled up a few minutes later. I guess it DOES pay to be polite. He stopped and we swapped some lies for a few minutes while the wrecker hooked up. He offered some insight as well for some good roads in the area.

More to come...

[Yokel]

The weather warmed up perfectly. The high Thursday was 63 degrees, absolute heaven.

Never gets old...

Pullout on 7.

I'd spent a good bit of time today fiddling with the GoPro (editing those shots this week, should have something up soon-ish) and had been out on the roads for about 5 hours. I'd been able to scrub in the PR3's a bit on some of the real-estate I'd ridden a couple times. It's amazing how little traffic there is up here. You can go for 30-40 minutes without seeing another vehicle. The whole day I think I saw 3 other motorcycles. Guess it's still early in the year.

I headed back to the Hub to catch a nap before dinner with Gloryracing and his better half. I still was fatigued after the marathon day Tuesday.

Happy was delighted to see me again. I guess there's just not much action in the off-season. She did her speedbump impression in the parking lot and I almost fell for it when I pulled in.

A quick nap, then off to Colton's Steakhouse!

It was a real treat to hang out with Mark and Ellen. I was expecting this to be a pretty lonesome trip, and it was nice to break that up. Ellen's got to be one of the best pillion's in the business. I've seen Mark ride, and something tells me that when 2-up they're kicking it like he does solo. She offered some pretty good insight for me regarding a passenger on roads like these, I haven't had much of a chance so far to have a partner in crime run with me. Someday perhaps, but it sounds like a new seat will be in order before that. Good food, good folks, good fried pickles... what's not to love?!

I topped off with 93 octane on the way back to the hotel. When I got there, they had the cafe open. Their seasonal hours are Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I was the THIRD customer that night and I just couldn't pass up some pie before bed. This also let me get some pictures of the cafe for the un-initiated that may join us in September for the 2nd Hog Tie.

Scooter's!

Mark and I arranged to meet in the morning to talk routes for my Friday ride. I called it a night and cashed in after spending some time jawing with Randall and Debbie.

Happy also took about another 10 minutes of my night getting a good scratch.

More to come... Push Mountain tomorrow!

[Yokel]

Mark met me at the Smoked Meat shop Friday morning.

This is the route I'd picked while talking to the two birds running the cafe:

I *really* wanted to run Push Mountain after seeing the footage from last year's Hog Tie and HispanicSlammer's group running the curves there. Mark was planning on getting out and riding some on Friday, and I'd assumed he was going to split after breakfast. It can't be fun to be stuck with a flat-lander all day when some of the best roads in the country are literally right outside your door.

I was delighted when he offered to show me his route over to the prime real-estate.

I *think* this was it... I was too busy to really pay attention...

It took about 2 hours to get there. Distances are so deceiving around here. Watching Mark ride taught me quite a bit about picking a line. He's pretty quick, even though I think he was really taking it easy.

Some shots from the way over to 341:

The big girls at the dance.

I failed miserably at taking many pictures, after all, I was there to ride and wasn't going to waste prime riding time with photos.

After I got a bit more comfortable with the pace we were running in the area and learned a bit on what to watch for, we finally saw the sign...

Mark pulled over and shouts through his helmet, "Well, here it is!" Man, was I stoked.

Push Mountain Road was everything I'd hoped for. Mark kept a brisk pace and I just let the GoPro roll the whole route. I'll have some pretty good clips to post when I get those edited.

About 5 miles in, the forest service was doing a controlled burn in the forest. I swear to God, I'm going to smell like a campfire for weeks. We rode through some really dense smoke for the better part of a mile or so, then the pace was back up! We did catch some wildlife bugging out of the burn area, but really in all, there was very little in the way of critters on the route. The deer made themselves scarce, but they were spotted and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

Push Mountain may be motorcycling paradise. There are no driveways, no intersections, no ANYTHING for the better part of 25 miles. The only thing of note is a store in the center of the run manned by what must be the loneliest man in Arkansas. The pavement on the south end of the run is perfect, but the north side has some rougher spots (still better than the roads here in OK, but Mark always kind of grimaced when he was talking about the pavement). Mark's leisurely pace through the turns had me working pretty hard. It felt so good to do that, I could actually feel my technique improving a bit as we progressed. It's a real treat to be able to ride with someone who's better than you are, if you pay attention you really see things that you can do differently. I became more relaxed and more in control of what I was doing within hours of running with him. Thanks for the free lesson!

Once you get to the north end of Push Mountain, you cross the White River. It's a really pretty spot with a huge cliff to the west of the bridge that must be about 100ft up from the roadway. Mark suggested we zip up the hill and hike over to the bluff to get some photos. I'm really glad he did.

Here's the view from 341, on the bridge over the White River.

We then jumped on the bikes and re-located for a different view. The following are from the top of the cliff on the right of the previous picture.

Here in Oklahoma, you can't see through the water of the rivers. In Arkansas, you can see the stones on the river-bottom.

The bridge on the left is where the first photo was taken from. That's Push Mountain Road crawling back through the trees.

Mark posing

Suddenly I can't get "Wind Beneath My Wings" out of my head...

We saddled back up and booked the route again the opposite way, stopping for gas at the 1/2 way point.

The clerk/owner of the shop briefed us on everything from modern medicine to credit cards, hotels.com, the phone company, nursing, the president, gun control and my Oklahoma State Senators. It may have been the longest gas stop ever known to man.

I managed to get some really good footage on the video camera of the run both ways, I really hope I can get that up in a few days to share with all of you.

If there's one thing I like to do, it's eat. (Come on, you've seen me in a picture by now.) We headed in to Fifty-Six, Arkansas to have some lunch.

Cody's was pretty stinkin' good. I heartily recommend the catfish and the cheesecake.

It was after 2pm by now, and sadly I don't have any pictures of the ride back to Marble Falls... but I can tell you we followed the world's most expertly handled Ford Taurus on the way back. When we did finally stop, Mark was laughing about it. He said something to the effect of, "Hell, why pass the guy? He was cooking and would clear deer off the road for us!"

I kid you not, the driver of that silver missile was clipping 90 at times and handled that sedan like a pro in the corners. I kind of wish I'd had the balls to get up closer to him, I bet those tires were SINGING.

More to come...

[Yokel]

After Mark and I made it back to the Hub I called it a day. I went and topped off the tank, bought a bottle of beer and headed back to the hotel for the night.

I did manage to FINALLY make these PR3's look like they've been used.

Randall makes some of the best damn Prime Rib "while it lasts" at Scooter's Friday and Saturday nights. I couldn't say no. Last time I was here I had some and had been looking forward to it all week.

I did trim the fat and give it to the dog, Happy. I don't think she even tasted it she bolted it down so quickly.

So, excruciatingly full stomach, perhaps the best day of motorcycle riding I'd ever had and incredible weather to boot, I decided I better call it a day. There were some storms brewing out west and I was getting dicey about Thunderstorms coming up and temps plummeting on my way home. I planned on getting out pretty early Saturday morning.

Saturday morning I woke up early, packed up and loaded the bike with my glorious TRAX bags and headed to points west. I had been keeping an eye on the storm front moving in to Oklahoma from New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle and was hoping to make good enough time to miss the worst of the rain. I zipped out 412 and only had to really deal with some light mist and some brutal crosswinds.

At the Oklahoma border, the rain started to pick up and the wind was doing the same. Not good. I pulled over on the side of the highway to put on my rain gear.

When I had both my boots stuck in my rain pants, it finally happened. The 1200 blew over. A wind gust strong enough to blow my Shoei 30 feet pushed the VFR over on her side, away from the kickstand. I'm assuming it was over 45mph. I knew the wind was kicking it up and had parked appropriately, but alas, down she went. I ALMOST caught it on the way down, and did manage to slow the decent a bit. Fortunately for me, I'd pulled far enough over that any shiny bits touched grass. I have two small grass marks I'll have to wax out, but was totally heartbroken none-the-less. Could have been way worse.

About 30 miles outside of Oklahoma City it really started raining. Looks like I timed it just right, and it's been all weather for this ride. The two days that counted were perfect, mornings in the upper 40's and days in the lower 60's. The ride out was effing COLD and the ride in was effing WET, but the ones that count, the ones that I'll remember were incredible.

Until next time, Ride safe!

[rdguy]

Great ride report. This is bookmarked for my next ride in those parts.

More to come...

This picture could have been taken on my first ride through the Dragon. If I'd had removable bags on the Zephyr, I'd have taken them off for the extra room between the semi cab and the ditch...

Glenn

[Yokel]

Haha! I had thankfully taken the bags off for the day rides... The big girl had her dancing shoes on this day. I had to get off the pavement and almost into the bar-ditch to get by the guy.

The route was marked on his GPS as a truck route. Guess you don't need to read signs when the GPS tells you where to go.

One of these days I'd love to get over to Deal's Gap, for sure!

[vfrcapn]

Great ride report, thanks!

[Chuckster]

Great report and pics! Thanks for sharing your trip!

Chuck

[Polarbear]

Very enjoyable report. The scenery looked fantastic. Thanks.

C

[Dutchy]

Thanks for posting up your trip

[dr.toto]

Nice report. I have to do this soon. It's all doable from my location.

[ADAM79]

You should have been a journalist. Good write up!

[Auspanglish]

Nice reading about your trip... very eventful... the roads sound wicked.

[FHR]

Thanks so much, yokel, for posting this great ride report. The vicarious enjoyment I got was much needed here where the weather has kept my bike in the garage far too long.

Frank

[St. Stephen]

Just a great report, really pumped to get back to northern AR from here in the KC area, but I MUST correct some serious factual errors...

AR 341, aka Push Mountain, is actually a very poor motorcycle road and, really, not even worth riding. After moving to the Midwest five years ago I have done some very thorough research, visiting at least three times each season, and I can say with complete authority that it is at best a below average road. If it were any good I would have used Mountain Home as a base, taking 341 to 14 and 27 to Marshall, 74 through Snowball, on to 16 to Sand Gap, then 123 west of 7, and eventually after about 400 fantastic miles back to the Hampton Inn through, yes, 341.

But of course that never happened because all these roads, particularly 341, are just awful. Unless maybe you're on a V4.

Thanks again for posting.

[Yokel]

Just a great report, really pumped to get back to northern AR from here in the KC area, but I MUST correct some serious factual errors...

AR 341, aka Push Mountain, is actually a very poor motorcycle road and, really, not even worth riding. After moving to the Midwest five years ago I have done some very thorough research, visiting at least three times each season, and I can say with complete authority that it is at best a below average road. If it were any good I would have used Mountain Home as a base, taking 341 to 14 and 27 to Marshall, 74 through Snowball, on to 16 to Sand Gap, then 123 west of 7, and eventually after about 400 fantastic miles back to the Hampton Inn through, yes, 341.

But of course that never happened because all these roads, particularly 341, are just awful. Unless maybe you're on a V4.

Thanks again for posting.

I did notice a sign that read, "No V-Twins with seat height of 28" or less".

[St. Stephen]

Haha...seems there are more riders and fewer bikers the further east you travel in this area...eureka springs being the biker epicenter.

Here's (I believe) the same shot looking south from 7 but a bit leafier, September 2012.

[Yokel]

I've got about a 11 minute clip that's currently processing on YouTube. It's the first half of a north-bound Push run chasing Gloryracing. Pretty raw, but great none-the-less.

[St. Stephen]

Look forward to it, pretty sure I'll recognize at least 50% of the corners!

Thanks again for the post on this grey, cold and wet day. At least I re-set the clock on the Viffer...

[Baileyrock]

Cool, thax for posting!

[Yokel]

Video added in the appropriate place in post 5.

Also here:

[dutchinterceptor]

Ah yeah...my home away from home.

[Polarbear]

Just a great report, really pumped to get back to northern AR from here in the KC area, but I MUST correct some serious factual errors...

AR 341, aka Push Mountain, is actually a very poor motorcycle road and, really, not even worth riding. After moving to the Midwest five years ago I have done some very thorough research, visiting at least three times each season, and I can say with complete authority that it is at best a below average road. If it were any good I would have used Mountain Home as a base, taking 341 to 14 and 27 to Marshall, 74 through Snowball, on to 16 to Sand Gap, then 123 west of 7, and eventually after about 400 fantastic miles back to the Hampton Inn through, yes, 341.

But of course that never happened because all these roads, particularly 341, are just awful. Unless maybe you're on a V4.

Thanks again for posting.

I did notice a sign that read, "No V-Twins with seat height of 28" or less".

you guys cracked me up!!