240 miles; about 6.5 hours
This ride starts on old US Highway 71 south from Fayetteville. While it used to be the source of "Pray for me. I drive Highway 71" bumper stickers, it's now a scenic byway since I-540 was opened between Fort Smith and Bella Vista. State highway 282 at Mountainburg bypasses a section of mountain twisties, but takes you through a river bottom area below one of the longer I-540 bridges. The river bottom has part of an old, still functioning raid road with a couple of trestles in the valley. One of which you drive through along with a low water bridge across the river. The trestle and roadway are constructed such that each lane of the road passes through one of the arches of the trestle. The other trestle can be seen cross the river as you head south and up the hill. Nice view.
After continuing south and then east, one reaches AR-309 at Havana, AR and heads up the south side of Mount Magazine. There are some nice twisties on the way up to the top. Right after reaching the top, there is a scenic overlook that's well worth the stop. The side trip to poke around the Mount Magazine park is worth the time as well.
Heading north through Paris and Ozark puts one on AR-23, or "Pigtrail". A pretty scenic favorite bike ride in the area.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Monday, July 2, 2007
Missouri's MO-90 Loop
(176 mi; 4 hours 17 mins)
Although I didn't stop, Siloam Springs was having their annual Dogwood Festival at the time... maybe next year. This was a surprisingly good ride. I've been to Noel, MO before and expected the views along the Elk River and the bluffs that overhang the highway, but the ride East along MO-90 was not only fun with twisties, but was fairly scenic. The ride from Gateway, AR to Eureka Springs, AR is also a one of the tourist favorites in the area (unless you don't like curves on mountains). Eureka is a very popular biker spot and very biker friendly.
I've incorporated a new way of referencing maps. It does require JavaScript to be enabled in the browser to view it because it's not just a static map. If the entire route doesn't show up in the viewing window, just use your mouse pointer to grab the map and move it around like you would in Google Maps. Some of the maps also have comment tags where I've added some comments at specific points along the route. These maps are from a cool motorcycle route oriented Google "mashup" called MotoWhere?
Although I didn't stop, Siloam Springs was having their annual Dogwood Festival at the time... maybe next year. This was a surprisingly good ride. I've been to Noel, MO before and expected the views along the Elk River and the bluffs that overhang the highway, but the ride East along MO-90 was not only fun with twisties, but was fairly scenic. The ride from Gateway, AR to Eureka Springs, AR is also a one of the tourist favorites in the area (unless you don't like curves on mountains). Eureka is a very popular biker spot and very biker friendly.
I've incorporated a new way of referencing maps. It does require JavaScript to be enabled in the browser to view it because it's not just a static map. If the entire route doesn't show up in the viewing window, just use your mouse pointer to grab the map and move it around like you would in Google Maps. Some of the maps also have comment tags where I've added some comments at specific points along the route. These maps are from a cool motorcycle route oriented Google "mashup" called MotoWhere?
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