Two Two Fiddys do the AR TAT.... in the rain

Bob and I figured that the best way to ring in the Spring was to jump on our fancy new mini bikes and head to Arkansas for a look at the TAT.

Notice how clean everything is... that'll change!


We rode our little mini bikes to Clinton AR on Friday, about 350 miles, on a dirtbike.. I don't care what you say, that's a long day! With a realistic top highway speed of about 65mph, and the fact that we only get a bit over 100 miles on a tank (fuel light on at about 70), we had to make quite a few stops.

Somewhere along Hwy 16.


We had planned to camp somewhere outside Clinton, but we were running way low on fuel and decided to head straight to town. We decided to just grab a room, have a good dinner and relax for the day. Which turned out to be a good move!


We woke up Saturday morning and looked out the window to see this..



Yep, the weather man screwed us!! The forecast changed from a 30% chance of rain, to 90% of rain ALL DAY. Not a big deal, we brought our rain gear, but it still isn't the most ideal conditions.

Here's where the luck of staying in town saved us..

DEAD GPS!!

No GPS = NO TAT tracks = Wasted trip to the middle of AR!!

The stupid thing worked great all day Friday, but I got no power at all Saturday morning. No blown fuses, no loose power connector screws.. No clue.


I jiggled the power cables and got it to come on momentarily, so I quickly narrowed the problem down to the Powerlet to Mini-USB power cable.
I had "modded" the original Powerlet connector to use a low profile 90 degree plug and thought that my handy work might have failed, but everything looked ok there. I then started looking at the gold connectors in the mini-USB end, they looked to be pretty flat, like they may not be making proper connection in the plug, So I squeezed the connector to tighten the fit.. NOT a good idea! This promptly bent one of the pins, effectively ruining the entire dongle... Now we're really screwed!! Where in Clinton AR, Hell in ALL of AR could we possibly find a Powerlet to Mini-USB connector?

Instead of just giving up and trying to make a fun ride out of the weekend I decided to find a RadiSshack to see if I could make another cable. As luck would have it, RadioShack was just a few blocks away. We stomped into their nice new store soaking wet, I did mention that it was still raining right? I tried to explain the problem to the girl working there, but she just stared at me like I was speaking Greek :-/ My initial plan was to find a Car Charger for a cell phone, cut the USB end off of it and build a new dongle, but the longer I looked at that the harder it seemed. So I changed directions and decided it may be easier to just add a Cig-lighter plug to the bike. They had an "accessory Plug" kit for about $6 that fit the bill perfectly!

A few short minutes later I was able to replace the Powerlet outlet with the new Cig-lighter outlet and we were on our way!!

Lesson learned: Don't leave home without a spare source of power for your critical electronics.

It was now a bit after Noon, and we had ~150 miles of dirt/mud roads between us and our next planned camping spot. This was going to be a rush to make by dark, but we were going to give it our best!

These pics sum up the day pretty well.









Success!



We hung out at the Oark General Store for quite a while, ate a nice dinner, topped it off with a AMAZING piece of Buttermilk Pie, and headed down the road to Wolf Pen to setup camp for the night.



These were what they call "Primitive" camp sites... Normally when a State park is labeled Primitive it means there is no power at the site, but primitive here meant that there were no picnic tables. So after a days worth of riding in the rain and mud we got to setup camp and sit on the ground in the mud...

I setup my Hammock down by the river so I could distance myself from Bob's snoring


Mulberry River



We woke up Sunday morning to a nice clear sky and warming weather, packed our crap and headed back into Oark for a proper breakfast.

Home was our final destination today, and with the rains yesterday we thought today was going to be perfect dirt bike riding conditions! No dust, good traction, perfect temps!

A few miles down the road we decided that we better and leave a present for the Parks Dept, before we got to far from civilization.. Hell we can't give up all of our comforts!


Obligatory AR TAT Pic.




Bob's bike balancing somehow.. If you look carefully you can see that the outside lip of the sidestand base is off the ground. That is not a camera trick.



On down the road we go,

Seeing this


Crossing this



We weren't in a picture taking mood, so you'll just have to go ride along the Trail to see it all for yourself.


We stopped one final time in Tahlequah for a splash of gas and a slice of pizza before heading home for the weekend.



Here's how my little Two-Fiddy came out of the whole adventure!

gkasper wrote:

I have had many a good dirt road trip where this was the destination. The Oark Cafe serves up a mean breakfast and killer lunch specials. I love the old-school Grumman canoe they have on the wall, along with all the other crazy shit like old gas pumps etc. A new owner came in a year or so ago and even though I was a little worried, they seem to be keeping up the tradition of good eats in BFE.

gkasper wrote:

I know this road well. From my house, I take this road frequently in my car looking for woodpeckers and cool migrating birds. It is also part of the dirt road route I use to get down to Shore's lake. If you turn around and take this road back toward the east it will run you into the "Pig Trail" AKA Hwy23. Between Oark and this spot you had to cross the Pig Trail. Did you traverse the Pig Trail at all, or did you just cross it near the Mulberry? Either way, it is beautiful country out there. Next time you should try a cheese burger at B&M Grocery in Combs. It is the only business in town, so it's easy to find! It's about 20-30 miles north of Turner Bend.

Great RR Gkasper! Thanks for sharing. Were you with R6 Bob (AKA:S&M Bob)? Here is a shot of my old R6 trying to put a pass on Bob's "newer" R6:

yes Justin I went with him. we didn't do the pig trail on this ride as time was a small factor. we did take hwy 16 all the way to Clinton on day one. almost as twisty as the pig trail. the mini-bikes did well.

That is awesome! Taking HWY16 from Fayetteville to Clinton on a dirt bike would be a big deal for me. Doing that from your area is hard core.

gkasper wrote:

I setup my Hammock down by the river so I could distance myself from Bob's snoring

Is that a Hennessy Hammock? Which model if so and how do you like it?

I've been trying to decide between one of those or a standard tent. My concern with the hammock is having adequate trees in a camping area to hold it.

I have the Safari model and love it.

I haven't had a problem finding trees to hang it, but I've occasionally had to walk 30-40yrds away from the rest of Tent City to setup. But I don't mind that, it gives me an excuse to not setup my tent with the rest of the snoring herd.


There is a bit of a learning curve with hammock camping, you need to spend some time figuring out how to hang it to work best for you. For instance, I know that I need to hang the foot end about 6-8 inches higher than the head end to eliminate any creep(like sleeping on the ground on a slope, you somehow end up at one end of the tent while sleeping)


Feel free to ask any questions you have about the hammocks, I'm a big fan of them, but will be 100% honest about the short comings as well.

gkasper wrote:

Feel free to ask any questions you have about the hammocks, I'm a big fan of them, but will be 100% honest about the short comings as well.

I can see quite a few of the positive aspects of a hammock but I am curious what the short comings are.

Chrispy1200 wrote:

gkasper wrote:

Feel free to ask any questions you have about the hammocks, I'm a big fan of them, but will be 100% honest about the short comings as well.

I can see quite a few of the positive aspects of a hammock but I am curious what the short comings are.

• Nowhere to store your riding gear, helmet, boots - I carry a few big black trash bags, stuff my gear in those and sit them either under the hammock or beside the bike
  
  
• No privacy to change clothes, sometimes I let the tarp down for a screen, sometimes I just don't care, but you can see what I'm talking about.
  
  
• Cold weather camping. The same air below you that keeps you so cool and comfortable in the summer will freeze you solid in the winter. You still need to use a sleeping pad in the hammock to stay warm in the winter.

Nothing too major, but there are few difference that you have to consider when hammock camping.

The not being able to keep my gear inside the tent with me is my major concern. I've gone as far as tieing my Garbage bag-o-gear to one of my support trees so I'd be awakened by anyone trying to swipe it in the night. But most of the time its not an issue.

I've had this thing about 2.5yrs now, I have upwards of 60 nights in it, haven't slept a night in a tent since I bought it. The first few nights were a bit strange, back to that learning curve I was talking about earlier. I had to figure out how far I had to turn diagonally, how to hang the hammock(feet higher for me), what to use a a pillow (I use my raingear in the summer, don't need a pillow in the winter when using the sleeping pad.)

If you can find one to try I'd highly recommend it. I've let everyone who's interested crawl around in mine, everybody is impress how flat you lay in the Asym Hennessy's, and how comfortable they are.


Oh, I almost forgot one of the major pluses, you can actually see out of the thing. So when you hear those strange sounds in the night you just open your eyes and look. knowing that the noise you hear is a raccoon and not a bear rummaging through your camp is priceless :-)

Here are a few more pics.

When I bought mine it came with a second Hex fly and free Snake Skins.

That second tarp comes in really handy!

larger vestibule area


Picnic table cover

gkasper,

Thanks for the info. I still haven't decided on whether or not to get one, but your experience is appreciated. I haven't been camping in almost 20 years. One of my goals for the next couple of years is to take a dual-sport tour out West. The only way I can see to make that happen is to tent camp in order to save money.

Shelter is only one concern, though. Still haven't decided which dual-sport to go with either.