The Road to Certain Death - A K Trail Tale

[Trail Boss]

I don't know how these things happen - in all the years that I've been dual sport riding I have never actually ridden the K Trail. I can't even claim that I didn't know about it. I've read the ride reports and seen the pictures. But, for unknown reason, never actually got around to riding it. Well, this Memorial Day weekend I decided it was time to right that wrong.

I recruited some buddies and we spent 2 days riding the K Trail and the Ouachita Mountains of southeast Oklahoma and southwest Arkansas. It was quite the experience and we had a great time except for discovering the Road to Certain Death, which claimed one of our group. This is our story.

Let's start with introductions

JT - fast, mechanically inclined, never met a trail he didn't want to explore

Taylor - the young lion, riding fast on a KTM 640 Adventure, supplier of Coors Lite beer

Smiley - always chompin' at the bit to ride more & stop less, laughs at class 4, we let the air out of his tires just to slow him down

Milton - world's foremost adventure dentist, smart, seasoned, and has the heart of a true adventure rider

Iceman Jack - pretends to be an old man but he rides like a wildman, drinks like a fish, and charms the ladies like a young man

Me (on the left) - slowest guy in the group, falls down at the sight of class 4, they only let me tag along because I know a few jokes

 

[Jbay]

more more more

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZrgxHvNNUc"]Oliver - please sir i want some more - YouTube[/ame]

 

[RollingJ]

Subscribed.

Next year I have 3 weeks vacation. I'm going to join y'all on one of these multiday trips I swear...

 

[Smiley]

Just have to say, I had a great time and, for the first time in three years, my shoulder doesn't hurt. Strange! Richard, you are the man for planning this ride and I had a fantastic time. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now it's time to drop the 25 pounds I've gained and get in some serious riding shape.

 

[cdc]

My computer screen is as close as I get to dirt / dual sport riding, but LOVE these reports.
This one promises to be a good one with stellar participants!

 

[M38A1]

More please...

.

 

[MacDaddy]

Yeah, what they said, more!

 

[FJRSTAR]

The waiting is the hardest part!! (Tom Petty)

 

[Gravel Guy]

 

[DoctorXRR]

Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[WoodButcher]

Richard needs to drink more caffeine in the evenings so he can actually finish a ride report before he falls asleep.

 

[Trail Boss]

Richard needs to drink more caffeine in the evenings so he can actually finish a ride report before he falls asleep.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

 

[Jerry]

This should prove interesting... anxiously awaiting this evenings episode!

 

[Iceman Jack]

Let's start with introductions

Iceman Jack - pretends to be an old man but he rides like a wildman, drinks like a fish, and charms the ladies like a young man

Yeah right Richard. I charmed em so much that the waitress said to me "you aint real bright are you"?
Wish I had thought fast enough and I would have said "you sure got pretty teeth.......both of em"!

 

[mcrider]

 

[Thrasherg]

Enough of the introductions, where are the pics and the stories!!

Gary

 

[Trail Boss]

The Cliff Notes Guide to the K Trail

The Kiamichi Mountains are a mountain range in southeast Oklahoma and are a subrange of the Ouachita Mountains that extend from Oklahoma into southwest Arkansas. The K Trail runs along the spine of the Kiamichi Mountains, from Clayton, OK to Mena, AR. Technically, the entire 90 mile distance is not the K Trail - the western end is the Clayton Trail and the eastern end is National Forest (NF) road 6025. But, everyone just calls it the K trail, which is what we will do too.

The K Trail is 2-track or forest service road for its entire length; there are no single track areas. The entire trail is rocky but the western end, in particular, is quite rugged, with numerous washed-out, rutted areas.

Riding west-to-east, the first 12-15 miles are mostly class 2, with numerous class 3 sections, and one class 4 section. This section appears to be non-maintained. Road conditions improve noticeably as you ride east, eventually becoming class 1 the last 30 miles or so.

Vegetation is not being cut back along most of the trail so there are lots of branches and plants intruding into the trail. A good set of bark busters will be appreciated.

To access the trail, start at the intersection of Hwy 271 and 9 Pine Road, a few miles south of Clayton, OK. Ride north on 9 Pine Road for about 2.5 miles and you are there. This part of the trail is actually the Clayton Trail and intersects with the K Trail a few miles to the east.

Here's what the western terminus of the trail looks like. It's sort of like Jurassic Park - at first it looks easy and fun but then shortly there's terror and screaming.

 

[Trail Boss]

We began our journey by trailering to the Clayton Country Inn, a 9 room bed-and-breakfast about a mile south of Clayton. It was a rustic place in a rustic country. Clean but not fancy. I would stay here again.

I would note, however, the limited "breakfast" choices. We had muffins (freshly baked and very good) and a small selection of cold cereal, milk, juice, and coffee. The cook was nice enough to make some toast for us on request. If you like a more substantial breakfast, or want more choices, then plan on eating at a restaurant in town (I think there are 2 restaurants in Clayton but am not completely sure).

On the other hand I think they serve a full supper meal (at an additional cost) though I was never here early enough any evening to find out for sure.

 

[slowoldguy]

In!!

 

[Trail Boss]

Time to ride

After all the last minute packing and adjusting, we rolled out at 9 am. As mentioned earlier, the start of the trail looked promising and not too tough.

But, then, things got serious quick. At about the 2 mile mark we encountered the most difficult section of the trail - a steep, rutted, rocky class 4 section. Smiley was leading, riding his KTM 525, and with his excellent riding skills bounded to the top, dismounted, and then urged us to follow suite. I was next up and I was skeered. I was pretty sure I didn't have the talent or skill to make it to the top so before my courage deserted me, I picked a line, popped my clutch, and gave it the 'ol college try...

The view from the top - as always, pictures don't do it justice. It is both steeper and rockier than this picture shows. Really.

...and promptly fell over, breaking my clutch lever. Of course, where I fell was on an area where the ground sloped away steeply to the side. Falling the 2000 feet to the ground below me gave me ample time to reflect on the folly of my actions. I executed a perfect parachute landing fall (PLF) combined with a combat roll that my old Ranger School Instructor would have been mightily proud of and jumped to my feet, amazed that nothing on my body was broken.

"Well, expletive, expletive, expletive!" I thought to myself as I saw my green DRZ lying nearly upside down on the rocks. With a mighty surge of strength I laid my hands on the bike and hoisted it half way up. That was all I could muster. A moment later Milton came over and helped me lift it the rest of the way.

The first casualty of the day - I broke my clutch lever

What I had failed to notice in all the anxiety and adrenaline was the class 2 bypass off to the right of the main trail. After seeing my dismal failure the rest of the group opted for the bypass and easily rode to the top. Leaving Milton and I alone at the bottom. With JT's help, we turned my bike around and I worked my way over to the bypass. A few moments later I was standing on the top of the hill. Now it was Milton's turn.

Unfortunately, he had expended so much energy saving me that he was too winded to make it up the bypass. Down he went.

Luckily, he too was uninjured. We righted his bike and a few minutes later we were on our way.

 

[Trail Boss]

While that was definitely the single most difficult section of the entire trail there were still lots of difficult class 3 sections we had to navigate. At this point we had our game faces on and managed the remainder of this section with only a little more drama.

Don't take what I've written the wrong way - it wasn't all grim faces and cramping hands. We were having a great time.

Taylor was amazed at the size of Jack's mighty bicep.

Three Amigos

The views were very nice

 

[DaveC]

 

[Trail Boss]

The Last Resort

I didn't keep track of exact mileage but somewhere around 10 miles or so we came upon The Last Resort School Bus.

Somebody wanted to get away from it all, drop off the grid, and get out of the matrix. So they drug an old school bus up here, into the middle of all this wilderness, and set up their ultimate hide-out. We took a picture or two but otherwise left it just like we found it.

A short distance later we encountered more civilization. This fellow pulled an RV up here and then built a nice deck to admire the views from.

The view from his front door. I see why he chose this spot.

Lunch time

All that hard work makes a man hungry. We had ridden all of about 15 miles in 3 hours so when we arrived at the intersection of the K Trail and the Indian Hwy we decided to ride north into Talihina and eat lunch. Pam's Hateful Hussy Diner did the trick.

Parking on the street in front of Pam's. There were lots of motorcyclists in town enjoying lunch at Pam's.

Mmm...sweet tea

Afterwards we wanted to take a nap...

...but we had miles to ride and couldn't stop to rest. We said goodbye to Talihina and continued on our way.

 

[MaxxTraxx]

More more.....great RR so far. I need to find some friends w/ DS bikes and go ride this trail.