Road Less Traveled - A Documentary by James Beatty

Day-12

July 18, 2006

Surprises on the trail...

The day started off with an unexpected surprise. The plan of rising early to get on the trail was obliterated when all our cell phone batteries died over night leaving us with no alarm. We did get some much needed sleep but once again started later than expected. After breaking down the tents, the bikers hit the trail. James was off his game from the beginning and could not find the trail. It didn’t help that his GPS holder broke. Once on the trail he struggled all day long with the navigation taking several wrong turns and adding time to their already long ride.

Two hours late, the riders finally reached the Old General Store in Oark, Arkansas where Chris and Mathew were waiting for them. The General Store is the oldest continuously running store in Arkansas – since 1890 – and serves as the community center. It’s "small town magic" makes it “quaint with a lot of character” smiles James while eating a fabulous burger. “It is a just about perfect town” The store is not just a grocery store, but also an ice cream parlor, a restaurant and it owns Elmo’s Pool Hall next door. Elmo’s is the oldest building in Oark and provides weekend recreation. James, Steven and Michael arrived at the General Store just minutes after Ron, Richie, and Rick – three Harley riders out for a cruise through the Ozarks. After chatting with the Cruisers for a while and teasing about an on road/off road race Michael and James had fun sitting on the Harleys and revving the engines. Fantastic food and great people made the experience a memorable one.

The boys raced off just before sunset to try to get to White Mountain for a spectacular sunset view but once again missed their turn and therefore the sunset. Despite James’ disappointment in missing the sunset, they did see an incredible site – a mother Black Bear and her two cubs crossing in front of them. Careful to keep their distance and not attract unwanted attention, James and Michael tried to capture the moment on video. The camera lens was too wide to pick it up but they had a terrific front row seat to the Arkansas wilderness. Heading back to their missed turn they got back on the trail…for a while anyway.

As darkness fell, the riders found that the trail had transformed from wide open and smooth to downhill, tremendously rocky and technical (a term used to describe difficulty). The maps indicated a smooth easy ride so the terrain was unexpected. Were they on the right trail? Did they take another wrong turn in the dark? Wherever they were there was no turning back. The basketball-sized rocks and step drop-offs were very tough to manage in the pitch black. After a while the group, exhausted and hungry stopped, afraid the bizarre trail would continue for ever. James’ headlight was flickering on and off so he borrowed Steven’s bike to ride up ahead and check out the trail further up. Fortunately after only about 30 yards the trail opened up and smoothed out again. From there it was an easy ride into town. Arriving very late at the hotel Steven was quick to point out that “One of the happiest moments today was reaching the hotel.” In reference to the extreme riding on the very difficult trail he said, “It’s scary not knowing where you are and you can’t see anything.” All were happy to have a hot shower and bed to crash in.

Happy to finally be able to shower, eat and go to bed, the guys were glad to have made it through what was their toughest, roughest day yet, however, not without it taking a toll on their bikes. Tomorrow will require a bit of bike tweaking before they can get back on the trail. Despite the late night and difficult challenges of the day, James was quick to admit that “although it was a heck of day, the trail was very beautiful.”

Photography Copyright © 2006 Motorrad Media and Chris Rankin. All Rights Reserved.

<< Back to Travelogues main page