Arkansas (how to initate a new DRZ)

[ed29]

My neighbor Brian got a new to him DRZ a couple of months ago and thus far it has only seen gravel and paved roads in and near DFW plus one small weekend trip to the forest of east TX. He was itching to do a challenging ride, so we slapped on some knobbies and headed for Arkansas.

I am prepping the WR for a multi-week ride in Oregon, so I am sorting out mods. Been eyeing the front rack from Turbo City, but have not wanted to drop seventy bucks on it. Here is my compromise solution using fifteen bucks worth of steel from Lowes.

It holds tubes and a tool pack with room to spare.

Camp setup at Shady Lake was nice. Right along the creek, more on that later.

First stop Thursday afternoon was Tall Peak fire tower. A nice warmup ride.

With a view!

You never know what to expect up there.

We rode by Albert Pike, where those people died in the floods last month. the place is still closed, and still a mess. The forest service is building new camp sites along the road. They have not yet cleaned up the old sites.

Last stop for the first day was Blue Hole. Look at that still unscratched clean white DRZ...

The climb claimed the DRZ.....

The mirror did not fare well...

As usual the pics cannot convey the steepness of the hill. Finding a place to park the WR to lend a hand uprighting the DRZ was as challenging as getting started out moving uphill in the rocks was.

The reward for the effort!

Brian backing in for a photo... not too far man, I don't want a picture of you and your bike falling off into the hole!

It was hot already too.

Day 2 will follow in a bit.

 

[Coolhand]

Re: Arkansa (how to initate a new DRZ)

Excellent! All those pics look very familiar. I'll bet it was HOT bugger. I was curious how much flood damage you saw... we left the Albert Pike area (not camping, just riding) literally 3 or 4 days before that flood. Please tell me you guys hit WPG?

re: DRZ mirror carnage... good reason to get some folding mirrors The first time we hit the Blue Hole we actually came in the wrong way and had to do some major climbing just to get to the bottom. Then we realized that the next turnoff went directly to the bottom

How did the WR do on the trip?

 

[ed29]

Day two, a nice early start.

Wheeeeeeee!

Off to Mena for gasoline. Stopping along the way to breathe the cool morning air.

Play time in the Pen!

Friday is a good day to be there, especially if you are in well before noon. Past noon the place got busy with a lot of ATV traffic. A local advised us that Saturday and Sunday the place is crawling with drunks blasting around. I was sad to hear that weekends are so dicey due to the traffic. Otherwise this would be a superb weekend getaway destination.

The trails are fantastic! Markings are decent, but I did get turned around once and led us up a steep rocky hill into a small cabin community. Nobody greeted us, but we made our way back to the marked trails pronto!

Water break!

I stalled my engine on a steep uphill section, and tumbled back down. Was able to get on my feet and back to the prior blind curve to warn Brian to stay right. He avoided the WR and got stopped on the next shelf up.

The trails with the 'expert only' designation are quite challenging and loads of fun.

After we left the Pen I led us onto CR-602 eastbound from CR-64. I had remembered this as a sweet county road with several water crossings. The flooding has really enhanced the riding on this road.

We stopped every couple of miles to rest and hydrate.

I had intended to get shots of the bikes at the many crossings, but they were rough enough that I did not want to cross several times for photos. After a while I just stopped taking the camera out at breaks. The road deteriorated into a rocky mess several miles in, and then we came across a stream crossing that had been rebuilt with concrete and pipes! YES! The road had been graded from the other direction, and the concrete was clean and white, without a tire mark. This meant of course that the riding was easy from there. Good news for tired riders.

The last rebuilt crossing greeted us with barricades and giant "ROAD CLOSED" signs. Thing is, we approached from the back side of the signs. It seems the county barricaded the east end where it joins Polk Creek Rd, but left the west end unblocked.

On the way back to camp we checked out Bard Springs camp site. The forest service has shut off the water and boarded up the rest rooms here, but is maintaining the place otherwise and still charging for camp spots. Swimming is allowed at your own risk.

I hope they open the facilities up and turn the water back on as this would be a nice quiet spot to camp. It still is a nice spot if you are prepared to dry camp.

Remember that creek behind our camp site? It is pretty good for cooling off after a hot dusty day on the bike.

 

[Tourmeister]

Re: Arkansa (how to initate a new DRZ)

The front bag setup did not affect the handing? I quit using a fender bag on the KLR because I did not like the weight affecting the steering of the bike, especially in rocky terrain.

 

[ed29]

I felt no ill effects from the rack and packs. They are close to the pivot line of the head, so their impact on the steering is a minimal damping effect. They do take enough wind off of my chest at 70MPH that a windshield is not missed. I left a gap between the rack and the headlight housing, so enough air gets through to avoid swirling.... i.e. no buffeting.

 

[ed29]

Heading out Saturday morning, looking to do easier stuff than the prior two days I finally stopped at the dam overlook just outside of camp.

Almost dropped the bike getting off, but almost does not count.... right??

We headed to Cossatot falls on the Cossatot river. I had heard good things about the rapids and the falls here.

The 'rapids' were awful flat this day.

And the falls.....

Well, I am used to falls being higher than I am tall. Lets just say Cossatot did not live up to the build up.

Watch out though....

There are floaters in that there river!

I love a good double entendre!

We cruised the gravel roads in the wildlife area.

Then went in search of water crossings and county roads.

We found a lot of closed and locked yellow gates from Weyerhouser. I can understand gating off private roads, but we got turned back on a couple of marked county roads near Gillham Lake. CR-469 above CR-470 is a prime example.

We remembered that there was no ice left in the coolers that morning, and we still had meat and eggs in there along with the beer, so a run back to camp was in order.

We started with 16 pounds of ice strapped to the WR. A few miles later this picture was snapped as I had to stop and cinch the straps.

We made camp with 10 or 12 pounds left. Did anyone mention that it was hot???

On the late afternoon ride we got dusted pretty good by the four wheeler traffic wile seeking out Little Missouri Falls. Once we found the falls it was crawling with people. I have made a not to go back on a weekday. The falls are still just rocks in the river with no drop more than a couple of feet. The sound of the water on the rocks would be very relaxing absent of the screaming kiddos though.

No pics... too dusty.

Sunday was a scratch. We had intended riding half a day, then heading home, but decided three days was enough. For now.

 

[Coolhand]

We never did really find L. Missouri Falls... but from the looks of those rocks, I'll bet all those rivers have insane rapids when they're flowing!

 

[ed29]

Three tries for us, doubling back. It is on CR-601, which is also called Mine Creek Rd depending on the map you read. I had a waypoint loaded courtesy of another rider. It was downstream almost 2 miles from the recreation area off of Crooked Creek Rd. A forest road goes off to the right from Crooked Creek and deteriorates to a two track as it winds to the river. No falls at the waypoint though.

I agree, when it is flowing it is probably a knarly bunch of rapids.

Linky to Little Mo Falls.

 

[DoctorXRR]

Beautiful pictures, thanks for posting them up. I hope to ride in that area soon! Good job on making your own rack for the bike!

 

[matikrimerman]

Ed

Thanks for the report - great pictures and interesting to read.

I'm sorry for the off-topic questions but can you tell me what does the seat cover you have on the WR is called? I'm looking for something to use on my Husaberg so I don't brake my A** and without braking the bank...

 

[ed29]

No problem.... it is a combination of a product called 'sweet cheeks' and a Wal-mart ATV seat pad. Sweet cheeks holds a pair of 2 liter bottles, effectively widening the seat, and raising the edges.

The Walmart pad was too slick for my liking, it is off the bike. Others love them.

TexasShadow wanted a smaller version holding one liter bottles, so she made one. See post 3 of her seat mods here.

 

[matikrimerman]

No problem.... it is a combination of a product called 'sweet cheeks' and a Wal-mart ATV seat pad. Sweet cheeks holds a pair of 2 liter bottles, effectively widening the seat, and raising the edges.

The Walmart pad was too slick for my liking, it is off the bike. Others love them.

TexasShadow wanted a smaller version holding one liter bottles, so she made one. See post 3 of her seat mods here.

Thanks for the info. is this the walmart pad you had ? , I want to give it a try .

Thanks again