Okay, okay... I will get the report done and post the pics of your mangled bike
So let's see... Oh yes, it is the unnatural hour of 7:15am and my cell phone is blaring away. The backside of my eyelids feel like they are glued to my eyeballs. Forget the chain lube, at this hour, I need a BIG can of Brain Lube!! It takes me a few minutes to get the gears spinning and get moving. A quick peek out the window and I see lots of grey... It's not raining though and that is a good thing! I step out the door and it immediately becomes apparent that I am going to regret not having brought ANY of my cold weather gear, not even a long sleeve shirt
I think the Weather Channel said it is in the mid to low 40's...
I see some of the others shuffling around the parking lot getting their bikes and gear ready to go. I grab a couple cinnamon rolls from the continental breakfast room and head back to my room to get ready. I make sure to get all the vents on my jacket zipped and velcro'd shut as tight as I can. Then I head out to fire up the KLR. A few of the guys are heading home today since they came up a few days early. We wish them well and then the group heads out.
Today we are heading South into Arkansas, much to STrider's dismay. He still has MO 125 on the brain from his last trip up here with me in October of 2005
After a failed lobby attempt to get everyone headed North, he caves in and agrees to head South. We start by heading East to Berryville on US 62. This is a stretch of road that would be pure heaven but for the fact that there is so much traffic. It is cold and I can already feel the muscles getting tense... If it does not warm up, it will be a long day! These weather people have great jobs. They predicted horrible storms all day for Saturday and it was spectacularly beautiful most of the day. For today, they predicted pretty weather and temps in the mid 70's... I don't see that happening! It must be great having a job where you can be wrong so often and still keep your job!!
Anyway, it is at least dry, and that count's for a lot!
We regroup at the turn off for Hwy 21 on the East side of Berryville and then head South. We are going to run 21 all the way down to Clarksville. This first section is great for the first part of a ride because it is not real challenging and it helps to get people warmed up and back into the flow of riding. If you hit the hard stuff right out of the gate before people have recovered their rythm, bad things can happen... VFRHugh and I are holding down the end of the line, he on his VFR 800 today and me on the KLR. We repeatedly let the group get a ways ahead and then enjoy catching up to them
It's like doing our own thing and still getting to do the group thing too
We hit US 412, make a quick dog leg and jump back on 21 South. The curves are big and sweeping as they follow the King's River down into Kingston where we regroup at the town square.
Everyone seems to be loosening up and riding pretty well. We accelerate out of town up a long hill onto a ridge and then the road gets a little more interesting, rounding Cook Hollow and climbing over 500 feet to the top of Arm's Mountain at 2100 feet. We run the ridges for several miles and then just before Boxley, the road dives down over 800 feet into a narrow valley where several creeks merge with the Buffalo River. There is not much to Boxley, just a few old buildings and a lot of woods... The perfect setting for a creepy movie with a bunch of clueless teenagers
Hwy 21 follows the Buffalo River a short way, makes a hard left and starts climbing again, right back up onto a nice ridgeline, and then gets curvy and fun! It's nothing super technical, mostly corners posted at 25-40 mph. There are some places where the Arkansas Highway crews have done some sloppy patchwork over the entire lane. These patch spots have nasty ruts in them and are rough. The KLR squirms all over the place as I accelerate through them. Of course, this is nothing out of the ordinary as anyone that has spent any time on a KLR gets used to squiggly wiggly handling
More gas is the answer and things smooth out as I head for the next corner. About the time I am starting to feel the groove, the one in me, not the ones on the road, I come around the corner to see the group stopped up the road and Matt parked in the parking lot of a little church. Seems he wants to take a few picture... no problem. Everyone finds a good place to pull off to the side of the road and we take our first break.
The KLR is not so happy about seeing so many great little dirtsroads slipping by in a blur as it dutifully chases after the group of street peeps...
This turn out makes a great place to get everyone off the road while we wait for Matt
It really is leaning over as far as it looks, the gound is soft!
Matt arrives a few minutes later and we are soon back to threading the curves through the National Forest. Between Edwards Junction and Fallsville, Hwy 21 and Hwy 16 run are the same road. The curves run along a ridgeline for about eight miles, affording nice views down into the heavily wooded Buffalo Creek and Big Piney Creek valleys below. At Fallsville, 21 dips South again. It is still cool and the air a bit damp. My hands are doing better than I would have expected. I have on a pair of cool weather MX gloves and my bike has some Acerbis handguards with the extra spoiler on top to defelct the wind. The combination seems to be working as I can still feel my fingertips
The rest of me is not warm, but neither is it cold. As long as the curves continue, I am fine. However, as we climb up and down the ridges, the changes in the temperature are quite noticeable.
Just North of Ozone, there is a hill called Thompson's Knob. Here the highway makes a few kinks to get around the hill and there is one curve in particular that got the attention of everyone on this ride last year. I was leading on my GS and came into the corner at a good clip when I realized it was getting tighter rather suddenly. The GS has lean angle galore and I applied the throttle to lift the back end for just a bit more clearance, making the corner with no muss or fuss and only a slightly elevated heart rate. A quick mirror check showed the next several bikes coming through clean so I headed off for the next corner. A few moments later, Jason "Soloman" was beside me motioning frantically and I knew then someone had not made the corner... This time I had warned most everyone and we are also riding a pace that is a bit more sedate
Later when I asked if anyone got caught out by the corner, most had no idea they had even seen a decreasing radius corner!
The last bit of 21 heading into Clarksville from Ozone is a nice descent down out of the Ozark Mountains. At the highest point, we were around 2200 feet and we drop down to around 500 feet. The rise in temperature is VERY noticeable! We head into town for gas and a break. At this point, Eulogite and Debbie decide to part ways and head back to the hotel. She seems to have a nasty Migraine headache and is not up for doing the whole route. The bad thing is that the fastest way back is the way we just came!
We wave goodbye as they leave and we get ready to get back on the road.
As we leave town, I take the lead to get the group over to the start of Hwy 123. It feels odd being on the KLR leading a pack of RC 51's, VFR's, FJR's, etc,... It's kind of like a pig leading the charge ahead of a bunch of thorough bred stallions! When we hit the start of the fun corners, I cannot help but think these guys want to be moving much faster than I am. When we reach the intersection of Hwy 292 and 123, I pull over and wave everyone around so I can resume my perch at the back of the pack. Once we clear the 20mph corner at Hagarville, it is game on... The front runners are soon out of my site! The first few miles of 123 race along the bottom of several narrow creek valleys until it reaches Big Piney Creek. Then it climbs over 1000 feet and starts running along the ridges.
As we are zinging along, I notice how much damage there is to the trees from the storms that moved through here Friday night. According to the Weather Guessers, something like 39 tornadoes ripped through the area as those heavy storms moving through dumping torrents of rain. The air still smells of fresh sap from all the snapped and broken branches. I spot quite a few trees that have been downed, one or two even crossed the road but had since been cutaway to allow traffic through. Small branches and leaves litter the shoulder and ground near the road. This all goes into the back of my head as a reminder to stay sharp and be cautious for debris in my lane. Of course, the worst problem on the road is man made!! Once again the Highway guys have been hard at work. This time with tar and a coarse white sand. This is their version of Chip sealing. The good thing is it keeps me off the back of the bike in front of me because I get showered if I get too close. The KLR has no problem with it, but I can tell it is making some of the other riders a bit nervous. If I were on a street bike I would likely be a bit edgy and cautious as well! Worst of all, it seems all the patches are just in the corners!?
Fortunately, there are not too many and soon we are back to cruising a nice clean road.
At one point, I see Hugh pulled off to the side of the road as he often does. Leeroy is ahead of me and we both pull over. Apparently, he is just letting the group get further up the road. We wait with him
After a few minutes we take off and start having some fun. Leeroy is fresh off a track day so I am curious to see how he is riding now. After the first few corners, it is apparent that he is much more relaxed on the bike than he was on previous rides. I know that my first trip back to Arkansas a few weeks after a trackday was one of the best trips ever! So I hang close to him and watch as we carve through lots of tight corners, running around the sides of the mountains. Soon we cross Big Piney Creek and start climbing up out of the valley onto the ridgeline. The curves here are great! As we reach and cross over the crest, we come around a sweeping downhill left hander and spot a couple of riders on the side of the road...
If you have never come upon an accident, there is this odd feeling that swells up within you. For me, everything start hitting at once: is the rider okay, will we need get emergency help, how are we going to get the bike back to the hotel, will the rest of the group come back, maybe it is nothing and we'll just be able to keep going, etc,... A few deep breaths to clear my thoughts and then we are upon them. Sarah "Redd" is standing on the edge of the road looking none to happy, but more importantly, none the worse for the wear!! Well... except for a wee bit of mud all over her
A quick check with her confirms that she is indeed okay and has suffered no life threatening injuries. She's coherent and responsive so I don't think she whacked her head. The bike on the other hand is not so fortunate. It appears to have taken a pretty good head whacking!
FJRMike, Pacman1, Hugh, Leeory and I get the bike up and out of the ditch and park it on the edge of the road. The front end is ruined. All the mirrors, gauges, lights, etc, are destroyed. The forks are either bent pretty good or severely twisted into the triple clamps. The gas tank is crushed in on the top but appears not to be leaking. The rear subframe is bent in causing the exhaust to rub on the back tire. The key is folded over flat against the top of the triple clamp. It ain't purdy...
She came from the top left of the picture into this corner as a right hander. You can see some storm debris in the corner in the other lane.
Given how well Sarah has been riding all weekend on some very technical roads, I think the debris simply distracted her just long enough to cause her to become disoriented in the corner. When this happens, it can throw off everything, your impression of the bikes entry speed, the speed at which you can make the corner, your eyes are not looking where they need to be looking, etc,... In that instant, your brain just says, "NO WAY!!" Without experience, by far the most common reaction is to stand up the bike and ride right off the road. There were no skid marks.
Standing at the point where she left the road, almost through the corner...
Note the fortunate lack of trees, large rocks, sign posts, culverts,... VERY lucky indeed! Instead, what she got was about a hundred yards of nice wet mud
Amazingly, it looks like she kept the bike up for a good twenty yards or so. The bottom of the ditch is more like a big rut, curved up sharply on each side. It appears that finally she may have tried to steer back to the road and the front end climbed the side of the rut, flipping the bike over onto its left side. Then the handle bar dug into the soft ground and made a HUGE divot!! At this point, all the mirrors, lights, plastic, etc,... seems to have started coming off the bike. After the divot, there are no marks for maybe another twenty feet and then a big mark. I would speculate that the front end of the bike dug in and the rear flipped over, like a stoppie gone bad. From its landing point, the bike slid maybe another 30-40 yards before it and her came to a rest. I had to dig a LOT of mud out of the exhaust pipe before we fired the bike up again.
Looking from the point where she dropped into the rut down to the divot (the spot left of the person). The final resting place was down by the parked FJR.
Looking from the divot back to the corner
Looking back from the final resting place to the corner
Sarah in remarkably good spirits with her poor Hawk
A last look at the corner...
Had she gone off just a little sooner, the road sign and a nasty culvert would have been waiting for her. As you can see though, she got a nice wide, soft and muddy embankment
Mike is standing where she went off, Hugh (yellow) near the divot, and the last guy down near the resting place. You can see in the foreground of the picutre the debris on the road. Eulogite and Debbie arrived shortly after we did. Pacman1 went ahead to retrieve the rest of the group that was no doubt waiting just up the road at Hwy 7, unaware of what has happened.
It is a good thing Debbie arrived when she did. Sarah obviously needed a good hug, something none of us were going to do, and Mark was not there yet. When he Mark arrived and saw she was okay, he turned his attention to the bike. We got it started and he decided to ride it up the road to the Hankin's General Store at Hwy 123/7. Then he and Matt rode back on his GS two up to retrieve Sarah. They are going to ride two up on the GS back to the hotel and Matt will get to finish the day on the RC Fiddyone! As we are gearing up to get back on the road, I gently remind Mark that he might want to go give Sarah a big hug... His eyes light up as it dawns on him...
We all mount up and head up the road to the General Store to regather our thoughts and decide what we will do from here.
While hanging out at the General Store, it is decided that part of the group will ride back to the hotel with Mark and Sarah. Alan and Debbie will continue riding on their own and meet us back at the hotel later. The rest of us will continue on the route, with Matt now buzzing the curves on Mark's RC51. With the delay though, it is getting time for lunch and if we stick to the route, it will be a late lunch. I make a mid course alteration decision and convince everyone to follow me up Hwy 7 to the Cliff House Restaurant. Then if we still have time, those of us wanting to continue can loop back and hit the rest of Hwy 123 while everyone else heads to the hotel.
As we head North on Hwy 7, I spot Debbie turning off behind Alan onto Hwy 123... She's in for a rocking surprise
It then occurs to me that the Cliff House is still a good ways North, and if we are going to have a chance of hitting 123 after lunch, we will need more time. In an instant, my mind flashes back to a GIANT pile of chicken strips and tator tots I experienced on a previous ride to this area... Hmmm... It will not be far out of the way to stop in and see if the Deer Cafe is open. If it is, it saves us a good 30 miles of extra riding, the food is good, and it is cheaper than the Cliff House, but the view just isn't the same
When we reach Hwy 16, I stop and check with a few others to see what they think of the idea. They seem up for it, so off we go.
We arrive at the Cafe to find the young waitress and her daughter sitting out front. When she sees me start pulling in the parking lot with the group in tow, she tosses her cigarette and heads inside with her daughter in tow. We head in and pretty much take over one whole side of the small restaurant, which is kind of like those crazy houses in amusement parks with floors that slope... Not to worry. I assure everyone that the food was great when I was up here on our DS ride in April earlier this Spring. Our waitress is friendly and VERY chatty! I wind up getting to order first, a Ham & Cheese with a SMALL order of tots
Soon the food starts coming out and it seems that everyone is getting theirs in the reverse order. Great! I am the slowest eater and I will be getting mine last! Eventually, my food arrives. The small order of tots is HUGE!
I manage to choke down my sandwich and a few tots as everyone else is paying for their meals and gearing back up for the ride. As we are waiting I notice that Sarah is shivering and wet. I ask if she has tried borrowing anyone's rainsuit to block the wind. She has not as she doesn't want to trouble anyone
In short order we have her suited up head to toe so she can be warm for the ride back to the hotel. Of course, she is not real tall and the person that loaned her the suit is... How I failed to get any pictures of that is beyond me
With everyone accounted for, one group head back West on Hwy 16 as the group I am leading heads back to Hwy 7 and then South to Hwy 123. I hear people raving about Hwy 7 all the time and it is a great road in places. The problem is that it is also one of the major North/South throughfares and is prone to have lots of traffic, something that really diminishes the enjoyment of the road! So we sit behind some cars and a truck until we finally reach the turn off for Hwy 123. I pull over again and tell Stuart "Thermalser" to wait for me at the next stop sign... about 14 miles up the road. Off he goes with the other speedsters in tow... I fall in at the rear behind Matt.
This section of 123 is really special. It runs along a narrow ridge, curving back and forth like the enthusiastic scribblings of my nearly two year old little girl. Hopefully, she will be a road designer when she grows up
the pavement is wide and smooth, with a large paved shoulder. The corners are well marked and of the many many corners, only one or two are decreasing radius corners. After the initial climb up onto the ridge, there is a short section across the Tarlton Flats before the real fun begins. The bad thing is that the fun begins with a downhill right into a downhill decreasing left hander that can suck a rider in before they realize that is happening. This corner got Snoopster last year when she had a mild lowside. So coming through here last always makes me a little skittish until I clear it and see everyone else has as well.
Matt seems to be enjoying the RC but is commendably taking it easy. He has not yet acquired the feel for the bike. With each passing corner I can see him relaxing and picking up his pace. The others are long gone. So it is just me and Matt. The BOOM BOOM of the big twin bouncing off my face shield is hilarious. The little black clouds of exhaust shooting out the back when Matt gets hard on the gas makes me think of little squids darting around in a panic. The KLR just settles into a nice high revving pace through the corners. Not having lots of power for shooting out of the corners, I have to ride it like a little GP bike and keep the pace up through the corners so I don't lose momentum. I fall into a nice rythm behind Matt and we have a great time. When we reach the North end of the road, we have to drop down the steep and tight switchbacks into the valley below. Most of these are 5mph corners littered with gravel. Did I mention they are also STEEP!? With the tight steering lock of the RC, Matt is fighting the bike through the corners and I am having to work at not running over him, hehe. We find the rest of the group waiting for us at the stop sign, smiles all around!
We head through Mt. Judea (Mt. Judy to the locals), and head up to Vendor where we cut back to the West on Hwy 374. This is a little known road but it is a great ride. It cuts West across a wide valley and then cuts North to climb over 1000 feet up past Morgan's Point to Hwy 7. There are some tricky low speed corners, but overall, the road is a blast! From here we head North on Hwy 7 and rapidly drop back down just over 1000 feet into Jasper for a break and gas. One of the things I love about riding in Arkansas is that the "Mountains" are closely packed, which makes for a lot of quick elevation changes and roller coaster roads!
After gassing up the bikes, we hop on Hwy 74 and head West. This is a stretch that I have really enjoyed in the past. I can't really give a specific reason. Maybe it is just that it is near the end of the day, people are ready to get back to the hotel, and everyone just gets serious. On almost all of the previous rides I have lead, this home stretch has often been a high point of the day. We usually set a pretty quick pace and stop very little. The road immediately starts climbing as we head out of town up to Sherman Mountain. Pretty much all the peaks in this area are right around 2000-2200 feet and the valleys anywhere from 500 feet to 1000 feet in elevation. This section of 74 runs just South of the Buffalo River along a ridgeline and is a real hoot. Unfortunately, we are behind a van towing a big trailer full of canoes
Several times I pull over and we wait a few minutes for him to get ahead of us. Unfortunately, we catch him and a realllly slow sedan just before 74 drops down off the ridge into the river valley. This section is pretty steep with lots of 10-20 mph corners and heavily wooded. Of all the areas in Arkansas, this reminds me most of what many of the roads in North Carolina are like. With no where safe to pull out, we are stuck following the van and car all the way down...
We cross the river and Hwy 74 and 43 run together as we head Southwest following the edge of the river valley down to Boxley. Here we pick up 21 back up to Kingston. Hwy 21 and 74 run together for this stretch. It has been getting noticeably colder since lunch and now there is a wispy mist on the breeze. The road is still dry, but who knows how long that will last!? As we climb out of the valley through the twisties and up on to the ridgeline, I pick up the pace just a bit. The KLR has been running fantastic yesterday and today curtesy of a tuneup I performed just prior to the trip. Running 75-80mph is a buzzing experience, but it is not that bad. I've had worse buzzes...
We hit Kingston, loop around the little Gazebo in the town square and head out of town to the West on Hwy 74. The road follows the King's River valley to the Southwest a few miles before rounding Parson's Hill and getting fun again! This stretch of 74 has a LOT of great 30-40mph curves that are perfect for settling into a nice rythm. Time seems to fly by and before I realize it, we are dropping down out of the hills to meet Hwy 23 at War Eagle Creek just a few miles South of Huntsville. As we are cruising into Huntsville, I spot a packed down KLR in a parking lot on the side of the road. Being honor bound to stop...
Well, actually... not being able to help myself... I stop to say howdy and make sure everything is okay. The look on the guy's face when he glances up to see a KLR pulling up with a line of sportbikes in tow is priceless
We exchange pleasantries, I tell him about the TWT site, promptly forget his name, and ride on. I must be missing a gene or something because I swear the name leaves my brain scarcely moments after shaking a person's hand
We head North out of Huntsville on Hwy 23 for the last stretch back to Eureka Springs.
Now I KNOW why I like this part of the ride. Between US 412 and the spot where Hwys 12/127 hit 23, the curves are just awesome! Most of them are slightly banked, incredibly smooth, and FAST! They just come back to back in rapid fire. I just slip into a nice groove of right, left, right, left,... almost hypnotic! The downside is that once we pass the 12/127 intersection, the traffic picks up considerably! This means the last ten miles or so, which also is a blast, is spent sniffing exhaust fumes and trying not to run up the back of some car, truck, or RV
We soon roll into town and reach the hotel to find the rest of the crew has made it back safely and started on the pre dinner snacks...
We all stand around talking about how grey and cold it has been all day and almost on que, the clouds break, sunlight peeks through and within minutes, there is not a cloud to be seen
We waste a bit more time standing around in the sunlight warming up, looking like the big Turkey vultures that sit on top of dead trees and power line towers with their wings spread basking in the sun's warmth. Once sufficiently warmed, we set about to getting all the bikes loaded up for the trip home in the morning.
Stuart making sure his FZ is ready for the ride home
Sarah and Mark loading up the RC. They will be heading back to Hankin's General Store in the morning to retrieve the poor Hawk
Sarah is still in good spirits but obviously disappointed. All our war stories of similar experiences seemed to ease the discomfort a wee bit, or at least provide a good laugh!
We manage to sit around, goof off, and fail to make any decisions until it is so late that we may not be able to get dinner! In this town, on a Sunday, things shut down early in the evening. We were kicking around the idea of getting pizza and I recall hearing someone say that Keith was ordering some, so I am just hanging out enjoying my pre dinner snacks and relaxing. The buzzing in my hands has almost gone away. Several times I see a vehicle pull into the parking lot and think it is the pizza guy. Finally, someone informs me that we won't be getting any pizza because they were closed when Keith called! Doh!! Now we have wasted even more time
We finally make a decision visit a bike bar/grill a few doors down and as we are getting set to walk over, Keith comes around the corner with several HUGE bags in his hands. It seems he took matters into his own hands!!
Big Mac, Fries and Apple pie for everyone!
To return the favor I promptly dumped my newly opened can of coke on Keith's floor
Hate when that happens
Must be a Pavlovian thing, but I cannot eat McD's and NOT have a coke!! So back to the machine I go...
Mark entertaining us with his Mickey D Rapper impression
Gorged on fat and salt, we decide to cap the evening with some fine spirits! We retire to the parking lot for bench racing until around 10:30pm and then everyone starts to drift away to their rooms. I'm not sure if it was because we were all exhausted or the guy that came out of his room and asked us to keep it down!! We thought the room we were sitting outside of was one of ours, but apparently this guy came in during the day after one of our group had left earlier! We apologised and quieted down for the last few minutes of conversation.
We don't get up quite as early as planned to leave. I can only do this crack of dawn thing so many times before I start malfunctioning. We say our goodbyes to everyone and get on the road around 8:30am. The ride back is pleasant. Kieth's snoring is kept to a dull rumble from the back of the truck. We stomp all around the meaning of life in a ten hour conversation and finally roll back into Huntsville in the early evening. The weather is awesome so Stuart gets a ncie ride home. Keith tosses his VFR in the back of his truck and heads for Austin, another 2-1/1 to 3 hours away...
As always it seems, the trip was a total blast and I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone, spending time visiting, and sharing the roads. All the bodies made it home intact, bikes can be repaired or replaced (with a Monster...), so it was a great trip!
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Thanks! Now, on to the pics 
Hugh has been on a lot of the trips I have planned and I love riding with him. We settle into a nice groove and eat up the miles! After crossing US 71, he pulls over and asks if I want to give his KTM a spin... It kills me when people ask such silly questions!
The sound and fury of the V4 howling through the D&D pipe is all so familiar though 
We run South on Hwy 37 back to Hwy 112. It takes me a few curves to get all the muscle memory back in place and then the VFR starts slicing through the corners like a hot knife through warm butter.
When we get back on the road and start heading South back into the twisties, I find myself stuck behind a truck, the bike obviously unhappy with the situation. When the opportunity and a straight stretch of road present themselves, the Triple urges me around the truck and off into the wonderful world of Triple torque!
Some time before midnight we all went our separate ways to dream of great riding past and great riding to come...
