Yes, I realize I’m sorely behind on posting about my 5 days riding in Arkansas, but you have to understand, Ryan and I were heavily involved with both riding our bikes and completing a 1000 piece puzzle. Priorities, man.

The night prior to our 3rd day riding saw downpours that brought 2-3 inches of rain to the area. So, more forest road riding was in order. Ever since this post well over a year ago, I’ve been itching to get back to Barkshed Camp to ride out of the camp on Barkshed Road, which (if you’re not the link-clicking type) I’d previously attempted but failed when I found the road blocked with a multitude of trees and brambles.

Luckily, this time, I had more daylight and the encouragement of Ryan and Matt. We found that much of the deadfall that had covered the trail before was now cut, and, though we granny geared and walked a little in the brambled spots, within half a mile, we popped out at a forest road gate that kept traffic off only that short section of trail. So, after sharing a ziploc bag of gummy bears, we traversed the the remaining 8 miles of Barkshed Rd. on nice, rolling, gravel.

The forest road eventually dumped us onto Push Mountain road. It’s a nice, low traffic (surprisingly rare for that area) road with a good shoulder. We followed it up to a gravel county road that led us back into the forest. Along the way, we saw two very large pigs as well as a forest ranger who stopped to ask (in a very polite, roundabout way), what in the spandex-clad hell we were doing out there.

Somewhere along the way, Matt bonked and yelled at his bike when the front derailleur stopped working. Luckily, at that point, we were only half an hour or so from Gunner Pool Camp, where we’d parked the car.

Random Caption Contest:

(All I can think of is this Wayne’s World skit: http://vimeo.com/476035 )

Some others: