As the Huey helicopter lifted off from Thaden Field in Bentonville, Arkansas, the fervor of suburban development quickly gave way to a vast sea of rolling green. In an instant, we were gazing over the Ozark Mountains, a large highland plateau region covering a portion of northern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri.

The aerial perspective above a blanket of oak, hickory and pine forests heightened our anticipation of what we would find on the ground. I sat up front with our pilot, Chad Cox, while my adventure buddies, Corie Spruill and Kaysee Armstrong, sat on a bench seat behind me. Our bikes and bikepacking bags were carefully tucked into every nook and cranny around them. In 28 air miles, the distance to Trigger Gap, we would land on a grassy airstrip mowed on top of a mountain. Here, we would start our experimental bikepacking mission—a 180-mile route through the backcountry of northwestern Arkansas .

After unloading the gear and assembling our bikes along the edge of the runway, the whomp, whomp, whomp of the helicopter rotors reverberated in our ears. Chad, the general manager of Summit Aviation and an advocate for aviation-based recreation, lifted up the Huey and was soon a small speck in the sky. We were on our own.