Ar State Park tour has begun, sometimes with friends

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backlander

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Camden , AR
The Ar State Park tour consists of 52 parks, 31 of which have campsites. The first ones I'm doing are those that don't line up for an extended ride, those that are out of the way to get to. I am trying to line them up with other riding activities such as the one that occurred this past Sunday 2/23/2014.

I did final check on bike and trailer on Friday, loaded the trailer down with what seemed like a ton of camping gear on Saturday morning and left out at 2:00pm. I arrived at Lake Ouachita at 5:00 pm, set up camp, cooked up some grub. By 2:00 am Sunday morning I was about to freeze to death, I got so cold I could hardly breathe. It didn't take long to realize everything I should have brought with me and everything that I should have left at home. I think I got about an hour of sleep.
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Plans were made to meet a group from We Ride Arkansas at Morrilton, Ar some ninety miles away thru the hills with the ambient temperature of about 30 degrees. Let's see that's 30 degrees at 60 mph, damn that's cold. But the show must go on. I made it and slugged down a half gallon of coffee to get warm, the temperature started climbing and folks began to show up from everywhere across the state to ride what I named "The Twin Peaks Run".

We left Morrilton headed for Petit Jean Mountain with a group of 30 bikes, men, women and children. We have a lot of women riders and kids are always welcome. I ran tailgunner as I was the only one pulling a trailer and also was the only Goldwing in the lot. We took a short break on top of the mountain, some of the ladies of the Gray Dragons club stayed and prepared lunch of hot dogs and grilled hamburgers while the rest of us proceeded down the backside of Petit Jean to Mt. Nebo to attack it. The fun is about to begin, I went into a curve to the right and me, bike, trailer left the road going completely into the left ditch. Somehow we stayed upright, hit nothing, I gave her some gas and we came back up on the highway in the left hand curve of the s turn. I almost had to change clothes on that one. Couldn't find anything damaged and caught up with the group as they had realized I was MIA and were set to come back looking for me, we continued on the Mt. Nebo.
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There is only one way up and down Mt. Nebo so the 18% grade goes in both directions. The switchback turns are like climbing up a 6 foot retaining wall while making a 180 degree turn. If you stall it, it coughs and dies or another vehicle coming down forces you to the inside, you will go down, there is no way to hold the bike up, the angles are to severe, and the fool that I am, decides to pull a loaded trailer up the dang thing, and even worse I got to come back down it with it pushing me. I must be crazy, it's a long ways to the bottom of this here hill.
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I've misplaced some pictures of the severe turns, should have them from another guy in a day or two that he took but here are some of the curves near the bottom, their twisty but not like the ones farther up.
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All totaled, I was gone 28 hours, travelled 403 miles, pulling the loaded trailer and averaged 36 mpg. The wing and trailer performed flawlessly.

The only sad note is that the riders in the last picture went down about 30 miles from home after we all left and went our seperate ways. Thank God it was not a fatal accident. Both of them are great folks, David has six broken ribs and a concussion while Tammy is going to be in surgery tomorrow to repair a shattered pelvis, all our prayers have been relayed to them while they are going through this. The possibility of this is known and accepted by all bikers as part of the lifestyle that we love. They will be riding again as soon as possible. I'll be adding to this journey as the tour continues. Hope you enjoy my adventures.
 
Great to be out riding Mike :good: Looks like it would of been a fantastic ride, shame about having your house in tow..
 
wow what a workout for bike and rider I am glad you made through the weather so cold ... and all that incline I am sure this was a task ... and you said flawless ... suzie must be in great running shape ....cant wait to get riding myself :thanks:
 
Nice pics backlander.

There's a road here with mild inclined turns then there's this one spot with a 10mph curve and jumps to a steep incline.
Sneaks up on me every time and I relearn the lean capability of the bike.
 
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