By means of an entanglement of state tasks, investments from Walmart heirs, and a group keen to place pedals to pathways, Bentonville has proclaimed itself because the “Mountain Biking Capital of the World.”
Now, Northwest Arkansas, fittingly generally known as Oz (brief for Ozarks), is capitalizing on that MTB moniker. The Ozis increasing past a Bentonville-centric fame. It’s changing into a hotspot for bikepacking, touring, bikerafting, bike angling, and all issues journey biking.
Cities comparable to Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Little Rock have already spent roughly 2 many years investing in bicycle commuting infrastructure and biking companies. The subsequent chapter: Pushing a area that’s a hotspot for day journeys to MTB parks and rife with choices for cycle commuting into the forefront of the bikepacking and touring scene as effectively.
Fayetteville, particularly, has been working with the nonprofit Bikepacking Roots to map, intimately, almost 750 miles of bikepacking trails operating via the Ozarks. About 30 miles from Walmart’s Bentonville headquarters, I loaded up an Ozark Trails bike to see for myself. The plan was to trip the Walmart bike from Fayetteville to Little Rock to pattern the rising hub for journey biking.
The Walmart Connection vs. Arkansas Contributions
Ozs MTB fame usually will get chalked as much as Walmart’s Walton Basis pumping some $85 million into MTB parks and infrastructure round its Bentonville headquarters. This has Bentonville on the receiving finish of accusations of being a “pretend” mountain bike capital.
The truth is extra complicated. The Walton household has been a passionate power for MTB promotion. Certainly, testing the corporate’s Ozark Path bikes on precise Ozark trails is what introduced me to Oz. Nevertheless, Walmart’s mountain biking contributions have been greater than matched in promotion by Arkansas itself.
Ozhas invested closely in trails. Final yr, nonprofit biking advocacy group Trailblazers estimated that Benton, Washington, Carroll, Newton, and Madison counties had constructed 565 miles of soft-surface trails and 206 miles of paved trails.
Arkansas has additionally labored with the Nationwide Interscholastic Biking Affiliation to ascertain greater than 30 scholar mountain bike racing groups. Practically 1,000 athletes take part, over half from Northwest Arkansas, in accordance with Brannon Pack, director of biking tourism at Expertise Fayetteville.
I noticed many such student-athletes on my second day in Fayetteville again in March. I had the distinct pleasure of getting youngsters 13 years my junior blow previous me on their approach to the beginning line on the MTB Professional Cup as I pushed my bikepacking rig up the hill to Fayetteville’s Centennial Park.
Constructed for the 2021 UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup, Centennial is considered one of many MTB and cyclocross parks all through Oz. It hosts bike festivals, newbie races, and professional occasions alike.
Even with one week and no rental automobile, one might simply hit a dozen parks providing a variety of skill-level trails throughout Ozark nation spanning from Bentonville to Satan’s Den State Park — and certain catch a competition or racing occasion alongside the way in which.
Northwest Arkansas Biking: The Wilderness, however With Metropolis Comforts
My ultimate bikepacking and touring journeys have an ebb and stream. Give me 2-6-day stretches in a wild nation with starry skies. Ideally, give me timber to hold a hammock. And provides me some water the place I can drop a line and persuade myself that I can catch fish.
After lengthy path days, although, give my melanated hair a scorching bathe and a comb. My again desires a heat mattress, my abdomen a well-made burger, and my soul a correct Outdated Long-established.
In the event you’re like me, Ozis a primo decide for bikepacking. On the path, water is rarely a far trip. Each route results in a few of the nation’s finest smallmouth bass fishing. Hammocking is a breeze. Darkish Sky Parks, like White Rock Mountain, the place I camped to view the eclipse, are plentiful.
In bigger cities, Ozoffers quite a few facilities for passing cyclists. You’re within the coronary heart of bourbon nation, surrounded by nice grills, bike retailers, and bike-friendly lodging.
I rode alongside the Razorback Greenway, the 40-mile foremost path finalized in 2015 to span Bentonville and Fayetteville. I ran throughout trailside bars, cyclist-oriented eating places, bike retailers, and bike-friendly lodging.
The foyer of my lodge was rife with cyclists, right here to see the Professional Cup, wheeling bikes out and in. On my first night time exploring the city, the Greenway introduced me to a virtually century-old bar known as George’s. It’s Arkansas’ oldest residing (and I do imply “residing”) music venue.
After I wanted an additional tube, it was a mile from Fayetteville’s lodge hub and a Phat Tire bike store. I used to be shortly again on two wheels and getting brunch at a trailside restaurant known as Nomad’s. It was decked out with biking indicators and painted bicycles.
All in all, earlier than I left city for wilderness trails, I used to be ready to take a look at a basement burger joint, a rooftop restaurant, a financial institution vault bar, and an apothecary/gin joint live performance. Not considered one of them was greater than a stone’s throw from a path or bike lane.
It’s no surprise that Bentonville and Fayetteville’s biking greenways and bike-friendly companies have earned them silver and gold Bicycle Friendliness designations, respectively, from the League of American Bicyclists.
The dual cities aren’t alone. A number of cities all through Ozare propagating a grassroots biking tradition. Fort Smith is enterprise efforts to develop bike share applications in lower-income communities. In line with the nonprofit Individuals for Bikes, Bella Vista ranks among the many prime 15% of most bike-friendly cities.
I deliberate my route to finish in Little Rock due to its Amtrak station, which made it straightforward to journey with a motorcycle. When an sudden delay saved me Arkansas-bound for a couple of further days, it was straightforward to seek out bike-friendly lodging. (Being a firefighter, the apparent alternative was Little Rock’s Firehouse Museum/Hostel, which affords free-to-use bikes and an indoor rack.)
Little Rock additionally boasts quite a few commuter lanes, a bikeable eating scene, and numerous stunning trails and parks. It plans to expand its trails, which begs the query: How had been the brand new trails I got here to check trip?
Northwest Arkansas: Subsequent Chapter Trails
Fayetteville and Bikepacking Roots are main the cost in charting the following chapter of Ozas a hub for multiday journey biking journeys. Expertise Fayetteville and Bikepacking Roots invited me to check trip any one of many half-dozen new routes operating for almost 750 miles, largely via the Ozarks.
My guidelines included smallmouth fishing, eclipse viewing, bourbon-based bar crawling, and crossing the Ozarks from Fayetteville to Little Rock. That they had a route for me. The sport plan was to trip 50-odd miles alongside its Boston Mountain Route. Then, I might swerve onto the Ozarks connector route. Lastly, I might peel off round 30 miles all the way down to cowl the ultimate 150 miles to Little Rock.
It wasn’t the primary time I needed to rework my route on the final minute. It was, nevertheless, the simplest. Even within the test-riding part, the entire routes had been well-mapped on Journey With GPS. That they had campsites, water sources, lodging choices, hazards, and various shortcuts religiously bookmarked.
A lot of the routes run via a mixture of paved paths, freeway shoulders, and gravel. Though not essentially the most technical terrain, a number of routes embody hilly sections on entry roads strewn with golf- to baseball-sized rocks.
A piece of my route close to White Rock was significantly difficult for somebody with a case of strep throat, a heavy loadout, and slender tires. Gravel bikes are completely appropriate for many of the routes. Nevertheless, I’d advise a pleasant low granny gear and (ideally tubeless or bolstered) tires greater than 45mm vast for routes venturing farther out into the Ozarks, such because the Buffalo River Loop or Tour de Ozarks.
Fortuitously, the brand new routes cowl a gamut of problem ranges. Need 4 partitions, a mattress, and restaurant eating? The Razorback Greenway affords 1-2-day pedals alongside paved greenways and quiet pastoral roads. It traverses an space rife with choices for MTB day journey excursions.
The Boston Mountain Loops is a center floor. It affords a various 3-4-day trip alongside 147 miles of difficult pavement, gravel, and tough entry roads. The route accommodates beautiful views, glorious fishing, almost 12,000 toes of achieve, and some various shortcuts.
For individuals who actually need lengthy, difficult wilderness adventures, each the Tour de Ozarks and Buffalo River Loops provide 4-8-day routes with ample vertical achieve. Every passes beautiful views, bike rafting alternatives, quite a few fishing spots, extra technical terrain, and plentiful choices for shortcuts, which is strictly why I’ll be tackling the previous later this yr.
The Last Phrase on Northwest Arkansas Biking
One of many best virtues of journey biking is its approachability. Like most individuals, I not often get sufficient break day from work to trek 250 miles via the mountains. I can’t afford the fishing boats of my goals, and a airplane ticket and a automobile rental are main bills.
But, journey biking in most of its varieties, from touring and bikepacking to bike rafting and fishing, is commonly considered the area of both Western or Appalachian international locations.
As a cardholding citizen of each the South and Midwest, I is perhaps a bit biased. However Northwest Arkansas is large information to me. Ozalready has ample mountain bike alternatives. It affords quite a few unbelievable fishing, rafting, and mountaineering alternatives. Its cities have a tendency to supply navigable bikeways, vibrant eating scenes, and more cost effective lodging, meals, and leases.
You don’t have to purchase the hype behind “The Mountain Bike Capitol of the World.” However should you don’t purchase a ticket to Northwest Arkansas in your subsequent large bikepacking or touring journey, you’ll be lacking an unbelievable alternative.