Arkansas trail ride - September 27 - 29th.

[Dewster]

A few of us cajun boys are making a trip up the Ozark National Forest, or somewhere around there, to do some riding. We'll be coming up on the night of Sept. 26th and leaving the afternoon of Sept. 29th. You're welcome to stop by and have cold "pop" and maybe show us around. I heard Mill Creek had some good trails. Can we camp there (2 RV's)? I'll have a q**d or two with me so no single track :whiner: .

 

[Road/Dirt Rash]

Depends which Mill Creek you are talking about. If it's the one north of Orzark in the Cass ( white Rock Mountain area) then it is pretty much open woods camping, no organized camp. There are a lot of Quads there so don't worry about where. Stop at the store there on the Mulberry river and get a forest service map, it will help some. A lot of places to ride, but not easy to know where they are. There is a marked trail on Mill Creek that is over twenty miles long which has a lot of challenging areas on it. Good trip to you.

 

[Dewster]

What about the Wolf Pen Gap in the Ouachita National Forest? Any good trails/camping there?

 

[Road/Dirt Rash]

I've never ridden the "gap". I hear it is a great quad place/ It was closed for quite a long time due to damage from an ice storm, plus a lot of work had to be done to repair damage to the eco by people rideing off the trails and running up hills. They take a dim view of that there. We went to a meeting in SE OK a while back. The Rangers were talking about silting studies, ect ect. It is close to Mena but I can't say about the facilities. We dual sported the area several times but stayed out of the gap area. The forest there is really groomed and there are not too many pull off areas to camp. I would say, start another thread with a direct question about facilaties, probably will get some ans. Any questions about the White Rock area, I can answer, but not the gap.

 

[Dewster]

Thanks for your feed back. I wanted to get some more info from you about the Mill Creek Trail near White Rock like places to camp and difficulty of the trail. We haven't decided whether to take the RV's or just travel lite and "tent" it. My other question is will there be enough trails in this one area to accomadate us for 2 days?

 

[Road/Dirt Rash]

Boy this is tough. I just erased a page long response somehow. Oh well.
There are a lot of pull off camping spots in the Mill Creek/Cass area. One of the places we stay in in the Cass area just a mile off the road. We like it because you don't have ti go up hill. Check where Cass is on the road map. It's only a couple blocks long. Turn left at Cass, go one block west to the Stop sign, turn right and follow the road for about a mile. You will cross a low water bridge. About a qtr mile form the bridge, there will be a clearing on the right. you can stay there in the open or drive on up into the trees for a little shade. Don't be put out if there are some trucks there as the locals from Ft Smith use that place to unload. There are a lot of quad trails there. One of them is back down the raod toward Cass, cross the bridge and take the first road to the right. It goes up hill so just follow your nose. Some where up on top, there is a well used old road that vears off to the right. Take it and enjoy. It goes around and through thr Fane creek holler and come out in three different places. GET A MAP. The Ozark Forest map at the store down on the highway at mulberry creek. Ask fellow riders about places to ride. One takes out right through the trees where the camp is and goes up the hill. These are not arrowed places, but they are well used. There is a weeks worth of riding there. If you don't like that place, just go on up the road across another low water bridge. There are two or three more good rv sites on the left. There is also a good pipe spring right where the road turns to the right and heads up hill. When it's hot, we swim in the creek at the bridge. Whew. Didnt lose it this time. Mill creek is on up that road about eight miles, over to the other side. When you get to four corners, (there are really five) just go on straight through back down the other side. Like I said, get a map. Almost all of the two track roads are ridable. They do close some of them at times, but they will be well marked.

 

[azcab]

I camped at the WOlf Pen Gap area about five years ago and rode the trails for a few days. There were a fair amount of camp sites available, though the RV's were mainly right off the main road, rather than back in the woods a bit more. The trails were fun quad trails and I was one of the few motorcycles there. Overall, it was a nice place to ride with about 40 miles (?) of trails. Also camped and hiked west of Mena in the Cedar lake (?) area (right across the border into Oklahoma) and there were some neat single track trails in that area with open camping in the forest. Did see what looked to be a few serious trail riders while we were hiking. I believe the forest southeast of Wolf Pen Gap is open to riding. I also camped and hiked down there and it was beautiful.

 

[Mixel]

Will this ride take place in the northern or souther half of arkansas? If its the southern half, i may be able to make it up to ride. Let me know
Michael

 

[Dewster]

Will this ride take place in the northern or souther half of arkansas?

Ozark National Forest. Mill Creek Trail area. North of I-40 near Combs Arkansas.