Brock Creek, North Central Ar.
 

I'm headed to Brock Creek Arkansas, near Morrilton tonite to camp and ride for 2 days. If someone shows up to ride I'll do that. If not, I'll work on trails for 2 days. Went last weekend, opening weekend of modern gun deer season, saw almost no hunters. There has been a terrible drought this year and it's still dry. V ery little water in the creeks, so the hunters are going elsewhere. The deer population is low and deer are small and diseased this year in that area.

Anyway, BC is very hard singletrack, big tough hills. But we have the trails mostly trimmed and in great shape. A guide is not necessary but very helpful. I won't have any cell reception, so you can't call. If you want to try it out sometime let me know here. I also post on the orange koolaid site in region 1, look for Brock Creek.

Jeff.

Fun place to ride and Jeff is a great guide. If you're feeling your oats take a spill, er spin, on his Copperhead Trail.

Another Brock Creek ride is shaping up on Dec 15 weekend. You can check ktmtalk region 1, or I'll post more here next week when I learn more. Someone already mentioned 2 A riders and one AA rider. I'm probably kinda of a B rider, and one of my buddies from C will be there, but he's pretty quick. He can follow and keep up with most anyone as long as he doesn't have to lead. The way it's shaping up there will be enough people for 2-3 groups and it usually kind of works out into ability groups, so come on out and join in.

I recently worked on the Copperhead trail. Its fairly well marked and trimmed now, and I made some obstacles a little easier. I didn't get carried away and turn it into a 2 mile 10mph average trail or anything, but now it should take the average experienced rider about 45 minutes for 2 miles rather than 1 hour plus.

Sounds like the stuff I like to ride but terrain that takes 45 min. to cover 2 miles is not a trail - it's an obstical course.

Obstacle course is a good way to put it. Or maybe a natural terrain Endurocross course? If you ride technical stuff, it can be done in about 15 minutes. At least Guy Cooper did it in 15. My best time is about 17 minutes. I did it at night in 22 with slightly better than stock lights. I say it takes 45 because most people don't practice the tough stuff so they make alot of mistakes, bikes overheat, people overheat, people get mad after falling over 15 times and break their foot kicking the crap out of their bike, (that's a true story, I saw it happen. The feller kicked his bike and broke his toe, then had to ride out anyway, and also had a busted foot). One thing that really messes up people who ride this trail is they don't have their bike set up to handle it. You need a really low first gear, torquey motor, (flywheel weights for most bikes), a trials tire really helps. And most people spend so much time spinning, clutching, falling over they overheat their bikes and have to let them cool off which all adds to the time.

But the bench racing stories! And the scenic nature of this trail! It's the only place I've ever ridden where you feel like you are riding in a cave at times. There are two places where you ride between 60 ft tall sections of solid rock that are only about 5 feet apart. Places where the sun never shines. You ride right up to a 30 foot tall waterfall so close you can feel the mist on your skin. In the winter sometimes there are icicles ringed all the way around the waterfall's edge that are as tall as the falls, and touch the ground. It looks like a crystal sculpture or something. There are off cambers with drops into a creek if you screw up really bad, but when the water is running fast you are riding beside several places where the rushing water makes you want to stop and take pictures. Then after you ride up to the waterfall at the bottom you climb out of the creek and ride to the top of the fall. Unfortunately that creek doesn't run year round, but from Dec to June it is usually running. One reason I like being able to do the technical stuff is it lets me get into the remote places that very few others ever see.

I'm going to Brock today, I'll be there through Sunday unless the predicted rain moves in early. It's not supposed to rain until Sun night. I have a couple of other riders commited for Sunday, and several for Sat. Check www.usfs.ozark.stfrancisnatforest.brockcreek.com for directions to the Brock Creek campground, or look at the orange koolaid site, region 1 for links. I'll add a link here next week, no time now gotta go work on trails.