Cross posted on Sport-Touring.net. The WR-X makes a decent mini-touring bike. I carried a gas can on the right side of that large tail bag, but I never filled it. It might have been easier to fill it -- at one point I took a 15 mile detour to get gas.
Tuesday I hit the road for an overnight trip. It turns out that this was about the best time to go for a ride.
In September we had almost 12” of rain. In the first two weeks of October we’ve already had 7” of rain. This past weekend was sunny but the temperature was near freezing around here and probably below freezing in some places in the Arkansas hills. Today it’s raining, but for two days I had (mostly) sun and moderate temperatures. Just 10 miles from home and I already found a new road.
It turned to dirt, but that’s okay with this bike. I would mix paved, gravel, and dirt roads throughout the entire trip.
I dropped down into the Mississippi Delta where they’re grading the roads, but not paving them.
Farming cotton with a John Deere. Mississippi is expected to lose half its cotton (and soy and other) crop because of all the rain we’ve had at the worst times. Almost $400 million in farmers’ income lost.
I finally managed to catch a picture of the Arkansas sign over the river.
From Helena, I headed north into the St. Francis National Forest. It’s supposed to be a pleasant scenic route for touring bikes, but all I saw was fantastic gravel and dirt roads. Perfect for adventure-lite motorcycles. It’s just over the river, so I’ll have to explore more another time.
Meals were all about BARBECUE. This is a good little restaurant just south of I-40 in Forrest City. There were two Sheriffs and one city police car parked outside, so it had to be good.
From Forrest City, I took the most direct route Garmin could find up to Mountain View (by way of route 14) where I stopped at the Dulcimer Shoppe for gifts for the family. I had a nice conversation with an older gentleman about the Indians, Harleys, and Hondas he has owned over the years. He had never ridden a dual sport bike, but he knew exactly what it was.
The ranger station in MV was out of maps of the Sylamore region of the Ozark National Forest, so from Mountain View I headed up route 87 to Blanchard Springs Caverns to see if they had any (they were out, too). As I climbed up into the National Forest, I got to leaf peep.
From the Caverns, I headed east (and down) to Sylamore Creek campground.
I also picked up some wood at the office for the campfire.
I rode up to Calico Rock by way of highway 9 and some county roads…
…and returned on route 5, part of the Sylamore Scenic Byway.
I enjoyed the dying light and finished off the evening with a so-so BBQ plate at the Angler’s Inn and a campfire. I rose to the dawn…
…and headed back onto route 14, the other half of the Sylamore Scenic Byway.
I rode past Fifty-Six and up Gunner Pool road and along FS1102.
The forest was beautiful.
From there I rode up to Mountain Home for some gas before dropping down the famous Push Mountain Road. It was better than I remembered. In fact, it was so good, I didn’t stop for pictures. Just miles of corners signed at 25 and 30 mph. I dropped back into Mountain View on some county roads with a few creek crossings.
By the time I dropped back down to Mountain View, I had crisscrossed the Sylamore Forest.
From Mountain View I headed to Pangburn for lunch. Barbeque again. :)
Not only did the restaurants in Forrest City and Pangburn have good barbeque – pulled pork with a sweet hickory BBQ sauce – they had extremely fast service and reasonable prices. From Pangburn it was time to start heading for home. After a little scare in Des Arcs where I put 1.84 gallons in my little 2.0 gallon peanut of a gas tank, I faced something I had never needed to before. The interstate on my little 250.
You get blown around a bit, but, speedwise, the bike did better than I expected. It was working hard, but it could keep up with traffic without any problems. I pulled off 14 miles later to head back to the US 49 bridge. In the interest of time, I skipped the St. Francis forest, but I did manage to ride a small section of the Trans America Trail in Mississippi.
I even rode one of the levees. You can see the Cold River on the right.
Finally it was time to head home. In two days I put almost 700 miles on the little bike. It did just fine in all kinds of riding conditions. Ignore the maximum speed: that was a Garmin glitch. I don’t think this bike could go 140 miles per hour if you dropped it from a plane.
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