I wanted to ride route 6, the eastern most route. Stuntman Jeff and Hugo decided to join me, so the three of us set off in search of dirt and adventure.
To get to the dirt we first had to ride Hwy 123. For those who aren't familiar with Hwy 123 it is a FANTASTIC twisty road. It is destination-worthy all by itself. And, after all, we are
dual sport riders so it is perfectly acceptable to ride some great pavement.
It took about 1.5 hours to ride the 42 miles from Clarksville to Sand Gap, at the intersection of Hwy 123 and Hwy 7. This was Stuntmans first visit to Arkansas and he was completely in awe of 123. He remarked that it was the best road he had ever ridden. Really, it's that good.
A new store - Hankins Country Store - has just opened in Sand Gap. They have food and drink, and though they have 2 old gas pumps out front there is no gas and no plans to add it later. The owner said the EPA requirements are so expensive that it would cost them $100,000 to start selling gas and that just wasn't going to happen.
Hankins Country Store
The closest gas is 6 miles north on Hwy 7, at Who-Da-Thought-It-Arkansas.
After topping off with gas we rode east to the start of the dirt (the blue highlighted line on the map). The map showed an enticing class 3 dirt road, labeled FS road 1312C, running north/south and that's what we were in search of.
They say that adventure begins when the plan stops working and it was at this point that the plan stopped working for us. We looked and looked but couldn't find the northern end of 1312C. I finally decided that the northern end of 1312C no longer joined with Hwy 16. So, plan B was hatched.
Where are we, Jeff?
Dang if I know, Hugo.
We decided to ride Hwy 27 south and attempt to reach 1312C from the east. The map showed several roads running east/west between Hwy 27 and 1312c, so we figured one of those would get us back on track. The first two attempts met with failure - the roads weren't there.
Then we hit pay dirt with the third road - Forest Service Road 1349.
1349 started off as County Road 460 and then turned into 1349 when we entered the national forest. 460 was a fun class 2 road all the way to Old Smyrna Cemetery.
Old Smyrna Cemetery
Born 1875, died 1903
West of Old Smyrna Cem 1349 just kept getting better and better. I was really glad to be riding this road.
Jeff was liking 1349 too.
A short distance later we finally reached 1312C and it was just what I expected it to be - a fun class 3. Having a great time, I led the three of us south, hoping the road went through.
Then the first real challenge of the day popped up - a rocky creek crossing. The middle section of the creek crossing was easy enough, but getting into the creek was the real challenge. It was very rocky, making progress difficult.
Hugo was so happy to be in the middle of the creek he decided to park there for a while.
Jeff christened his Husky on the approach to the creek, dropping it in the rocks and busting one of his blinkers. I didn't get a photo so the only proof of what happened was that busted blinker. Once he arrived at the creek, he had the same difficulty with the rocks that Hugo and I had previously.
The approach
The entry
The rooster tail
The crossing
The road got even better on the other side of the creek.
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