Slow Boil Central Arkansas' Trail Scene Begins to Simmer
The welcoming comfort of early autumn light livens the carefully puzzled sandstone slabs with a signature orange glow. It’s mid-September, and the first time in weeks that temperatures allow for any solid time on trail. Is that the sound of a hub or a cicada swarm? When conditions are ideal and mountain bikers emerge, it’s hard to tell the difference.
Summer resists quitting here in the central region of Arkansas. Every morning between June and September, riders check weather apps to see if the humidity level and temperature has dipped below 90% and 90 degrees. If so, it’s time to squeeze in a lap before work. If not, a ride after the sun retreats below the horizon may be more prudent. Arkansans live for the months between October and May—prime riding season.
On one such milder evening, the thump of rubber rolling over natural obstacles and the abrupt whines of neglected brakes trigger whitetails to retreat through the scree that surrounds the upper bench of Mount Nebo State Park in Dardanelle, Arkansas. Locals Johnny Brazil and Tyler Balloun pump through the rock gardens that populate Lizard Tail, highly aware that each conscious moment means the difference between success and failure—in a big way—thanks to the harrowing drop-off into the Arkansas River Valley to their left. In an odd symphony of grunts and yews through the trail’s signature stone ribbons nestled under sandstone overhangs, they wax poetic about two things during stops: the increasing amount of attention this sleepy area has received in recent years and the various maneuvers they can employ to successfully session this four-mile, roundtrip, out and back black diamond line. Lizard Tail tests riders’ resolve but escorts all that accept its challenge past panoramic views, under a seasonal waterfall, and across long stretches of undulating terrain. This is the central Arkansas riding experience in a nutshell: challenging hand-cut trails mixed with a dash of thoughtfully created machine-built lines constructed with the modern mountain bike in mind.
Sandwiched between the Ozark Plateau and the Ouachita Mountains, this picturesque valley stretches out from the base of Mount Nebo and averages 400 feet above sea level. Its 2,000 square miles are decorated by a triad of peaks: Mount Magazine (the tallest in the state), Petit Jean Mountain (the most visited in the state), and Mount Nebo, home to one of four of those machine-built trails added in the past few years. Recently, Mount Nebo has garnered national attention. In May 2023, it hosted the opening race of the Big Mountain Enduro series; the area saw its first influx of pro-level riders with no previous Arkansas riding experience.
These Monument Trails atop Nebo—a designation given by Arkansas State Parks to highlight marquee singletrack within its systems—are ground zero to the rippling growth of ridership in the south-central region and add serious validity to what long-term and native Arkansan mountain bikers already knew: Arkansas is, and has been, a destination for riding.
The central region can be divided into three main mountain biking hubs: Russellville, Little Rock, and Hot Springs. Less than two hours south of the booming growth of northwestern Arkansas (NWA) lies the Russellville area including nearby Dardanelle. Clocking a modest population of just over 29,000, Russellville’s scaffolding for population retention includes a nuclear power plant, a four-year state-funded university, and 50 manufacturing plants, including 10 Fortune 500 companies. Recreationalists have been drawn to the area for Lake Dardanelle and professional-level bass fishing tournaments for decades and, more recently, for its proximity to what many believe is the best cycling in the state. Here, engineers, academics, and blue-collar residents make for an interesting mix within the outdoor recreation micro-culture—folks banking six-figure salaries ride alongside factory workers.
Brazil owns Jackalope Cycling, a Russellville bike shop that launched in late 2020. He’s careful to emphasize shop, not store.
“We‘re a spot for community and community growth,” Brazil said. “My favorite part is being of service to the people of Russellville.”
At his shop, Brazil works with expert wrench Doug Housley. The combination of Brazil’s passion for community and Housley’s decades of experience as a cycling advocate, trailbuilder, and mechanic is what birthed Jackalope. Though known statewide, Jackalope is becoming the hub for cycling in the central region of Arkansas. Organizing and supporting events throughout the state since its conception, riders from as far north as Bella Vista to as far south as Little Rock go out of their way to stop at Jackalope.
Aside from the Monument Trails at Mount Nebo, Russellville is also known as the birthplace of the Arkansas High Country Race and its self-proclaimed “1,000 miles of punishing backroads sweetness.” Local Chuck Campbell, the race’s director, is partially responsible for many miles of hand-cut singletrack in town. In 2024, Russellville will host the annual October event.
Jen Brazil spends her days at Arkansas Nuclear One but enjoys her evenings between a quick gravel ride or lap around the local after-work loop at Old Post Park. Many weekends a year, she can be found leading rides with the Women of Nebo, the women-specific ride group for Mount Nebo, and coaching the local National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) team.
“The people are what make bike riding so special here,” Jen says, “You can count on our bike community to be there.”
In-town trail systems Old Post and Ouita Coal Company are kept in tip-top riding shape by the River Valley chapter of the Ozark Off-Road Cyclists (OORC), an International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) Local Member Organization formed in 2014. Each of these hand-cut systems clock in at around eight miles of singletrack, and local favorite Old Post was essentially the vision of mid ‘90s mountain bikers Kenny and Tammy Hottinger. Like many building stories in the ‘90s, the two were given carte blanche to dig as they wished, thanks to fellow rider and Army Corps of Engineers ranger Gary Mathis. Eventually, Housley was handed over Old Post to see the system to the finish line in the early 2000s.
Russellville’s newest addition, Pine Knob Mountain Bike Park, was awarded the 2023 Natural Surface Trail of the Year by the Arkansas Recreation and Parks Association. This 100-percent volunteer fundraised micro park is a perfect place for those quick hits for experienced riders after work or new riders honing their skills. It encompasses nine acres of a 20-acre city park positioned between a lower-income neighborhood at its ride-up entrance and tops out along Skyline Drive where doctors and university higher-ups live.
“This park was created with a vision to progress riders from the feel of hand-cut XC riding to the machine-built flow trail of Mount Nebo and other new systems around the region,” said Blake Slater, chairman of the River Valley chapter of the OORC.
“THE SPORT NEEDS MORE PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN ORDER TO GROW, GET FUNDING, AND BUILD NEW TRAILS. MY HOPE, THOUGH, IS ALL OF THE FOLKS GETTING INTO MOUNTAIN BIKING WILL ALSO GET INTO TRAIL STEWARDSHIP.”—Frank Webber
Central Arkansas is known for its narrow, technical, hand-cut singletrack. Still, the machine-built stylings of NWA, coupled with the desire to attract more progressive riding events, are challenging the traditional cross-country diehards that have been building and riding here since the ‘90s. Months after Mount Nebo served as the stage for a Big Mountain Enduro stop in 2023, Central Arkansas Trail Alliance (CATA) stewards of the River Mountain trail system in Little Rock prepped to host their first enduro race.
CATA, the primary stewardship group for all multiuse singletrack in the area, was founded in 2013 after a spark of inspiration from long-time local rider Mike Mitchell’s travels.
“I always found the trails in Colorado, Moab, Sedona, and Bend to be in immaculate shape,” Mitchell said. After a life-changing ride in Bend, Oregon, he did some research, found the Central Oregon Trail Alliance and met up for a ride with them. “I quickly concluded that we needed a similar organization in central Arkansas.”
Gathering at the entrance of Two Rivers Park at sunrise on a Saturday this past October, CATA stewards and NICA student-athletes signed in, fueled up, and got assignments for their workday, two weekends before the Capital City Enduro. As small teams spread out to reshape berms and rake trails, droves of passing trail runners and mountain bikers squeezed by, many thanking volunteers for their time and effort. Unlike most trails in central Arkansas, usership is high at Two Rivers Park at all hours due to its proximity to more densely populated nearby neighborhoods.
The Arkansas Enduro Series has been around since 2018 and was primarily focused on the trails of NWA before slowly trickling south for the official premiere of enduro-style racing in Little Rock at the Capital City Enduro on October 15, 2023. River Mountain is a long and narrow parcel of land containing 10 miles of machine-built trail, five of which are gravity-oriented. Switchbacks, some as steep as 24%, are the name of the game for this system and need regular, skilled maintenance to keep them running smoothly and safely. This style of trail is not native to the original ridership of the area. Locals such as Shift Modern Cyclery owner, Frank Webber, embrace this progression happily, though with a healthy dose of hard truth.
“The sport needs more people participating in order to grow, get funding, and build new trails,” Webber said. “My hope, though, is all of the folks getting into mountain biking will also get into trail stewardship.”
Little Rock is Arkansas’ most populous city at around 201,000, and is filled with a blend of old money, young corporates, visual and musical artists, and an interesting history that included a bold move toward desegregation in 1957 by the “Little Rock Nine.” The Arkansas River Trail, a 21-mile, paved greenway packed to the brim on mild Saturday mornings, is a symbol of the area’s recent emphasis on building accessible recreation opportunities. The northern end of the trail is hugged by strips of preserved land that butt up to the Arkansas River. Here, a literal buffet of riding styles can be accessed—cross-country, beginner, and intermediate trails at Blue Mountain and Rattlesnake Ridge; a destination-worthy Monument Trails system at Pinnacle Mountain State Park; gravity trails at River Mountain; rake and ride cross-country loops at Burns Park; and an asphalt pumptrack at a decommissioned rock quarry at Emerald Park that opened in January 2022.
“We explained to the Parks Commission that Little Rock is the capital city and Burns Park is the third largest city park in the country, but there was no pumptrack in central Arkansas while northwest Arkansas has six or seven,” David Larson said, who owns Angry Dave’s Bicycles in North Little Rock.
Larson advocated for years for what became known as the Big Rock Quarry Pump Track as tensions grew between cyclists and skaters at the local skatepark. The success of the pumptrack and subsequently added skills course later created possibilities for flow trails, manufactured features, adaptive-centric trails, and systems designed with future NICA teams in mind.
While Little Rock’s trail future looks bright, the buzz of hubs has been a part of the symphony of sounds in Arkansas’ central region since the late ‘80s, with the development of mountain biking-specific trails at military base Camp Robinson. They’re “pedally” by today’s standards and aren’t traveled quite as often as they were 25 years ago, but there are still folks who go through the process of getting on base just to have a taste of Arkansas singletrack history. These 40 miles are only accessible by visiting a small building when entering the base with a driver’s license, proof of registration, and insurance at the ready. While info is collected, cyclists sign the “bike log,” fill out a day pass, and display it while enjoying the trails. Intimidating as it may sound, the security officers are accommodating and don’t mind walking new riders through the process.
This relaxed culture toward mountain biking extends to rider individuality. Nobody cares what bike you ride in Little Rock. Or who you are, for that matter. Emma Buron, a transplant to the area, immediately found her people in the cycling community and wanted to give back in some way. She noticed there was a missing link in her community: the sparse number of women showing up at group rides. So, she created Women on a Roll (WOAR).
“WOAR exists primarily to support women-identifying riders of all skill levels to learn and progress together in all things biking,” Buron said.
WHILE LITTLE ROCK’S TRAIL FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT, THE BUZZ OF HUBS HAS BEEN A PART OF THE SYMPHONY OF SOUNDS IN ARKANSAS’ CENTRAL REGION SINCE THE LATE ‘80S.
Members of this fast-growing group host skills clinics alongside their social rides and are fixtures of the trails at Blue Mountain, a beginner-friendly system with 3.5 miles of loops that allow for several configurations depending on skill level. Another emerging social group is the “Dirt Vikings” led by Cedric Bunting. Bunting’s “all y’all come on now” style makes for inclusive group rides that emphasize fun above all and is notable for its distinct lack of egos among regulars. This growing grassroots social group has ridden together every weekend for the past two years.
“It’s all been word of mouth [that] has made the group what it is,” Bunting explains. “It’s really tickled me the way the group has grown.”
While Russellville catches up to the idea of becoming a gateway for outdoor adventure for the region, and Little Rock embraces new-school trail styles, further southwest, Hot Springs has bought in to the modern trail riding idea entirely.
Rolling past the row of historical bathhouses, local dives, and live music venues on an early Thursday morning, downtown Hot Springs is quiet. Come Friday evening into Sunday, the sidewalks that line this densely designed area will be packed with tourists of all types. There’s so much that could draw someone to The Spa City: the world’s only brewery to make beer with thermal spring water, having another national park location stamped on your passport (Hot Springs National Park was established before the formal concept of American national parks existed in order to preserve its thermal waters), digging for quartz in one of a handful of public and private mines, or spending endless hours in the surrounding lakes.
“I CAN BE RIDING FLOW TRAILS AND STACKED LOOPS JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN FROM DOWNTOWN OR A REMOTE SECTION OF SINGLETRACK IN A 15-MINUTE DRIVE.”—Jake Meredith
Up until 2017 or so, you might only occasionally see a bike rack or two on the grand traverse up and down Highway 7. Today, bikes of all types decorate the rear ends of roughly one in four vehicles during that same trek through town. The primary reason for this major shift was the opening of the Northwoods Trail System, an IMBA Trail Solutions designed and built 31-plus mile front country-style network, 10 minutes from downtown Hot Springs.
“The trails here in the Ouachitas are the reason I’ve stayed in this area,” said Jake Meredith, a Hot Springs native and Northwoods Trails Specialist. “I can be riding flow trails and stacked loops just on the other side of the mountain from downtown or a remote section of singletrack in a 15-minute drive.”
A gem nestled within the Ouachita Mountains range, Hot Springs has been drawing a bevy of select hardcore riders for years thanks to three IMBA Epic-rated trails: the Womble, the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail (known as the LOViT, locally) and the Ouachita National Recreation Trail. But these long-distance trails were not conducive to attracting new ridership or retaining visitors to spend time and money within city limits. In the early aughts, the City of Hot Springs, alongside the Walton Family Foundation and IMBA Trail Solutions, identified nearly 2,000 acres that were prime for trail development. That area spanned between two lakes, county property, city property, and National Park Service land. Despite this diverse variety of stakeholders—each with its own vision and preference for permitting—the groups came together over the course of a decade to build out Northwoods under the guidance of IMBA.
Northwoods has three trailheads, each unique and providing a varietal start to a rider’s journey through the landscape. Wildcat Road splits the two main sections of the system in half between county and city land. The Cedar Glades trailhead rests within a county park, Cedar Glades, and was originally about 10 miles of hand-cut, rocky intermediate trail built by park director AJ Johnson, a long-time mountain biker. This park was developed on unused land adjacent to the county landfill due to the landfill shutting down.
“To close down a landfill, you need a perimeter,” Johnson said, “And to fulfill that requirement and make a nice place for Garland County residents, Cedar Glades Park came to be.”
Johnson continued to receive grants to slowly build up the mileage at the park as he could over 12 years. These days, locals and visitors seek out Cedar Glades for its pumptrack and progressive jump line zone adjacent to the main parking lot. And, of course, they come for Waffles & Coffee—a 2-mile loop that maintains much of the original feeling of the trails at Cedar Glades: quick grunt climbs laced with thick pine roots and speedy descents that lead to switch-backed areas lined with knife-sharp chert. Crossing over Wildcat Road on the north after finishing Waffles & Coffee, or after completing the 12 switchbacks (on a 3,000 linear foot trail, no less) of Zig Zag, riders enter Northwoods proper.
Accessible primarily from the Waterworks trailhead, these trails have a slightly distinctive feel, all brought together by five highpoint hubs that allow users to choose their line based on skill and desired trail experience. Hub H is a favorite, accessible by the 250-foot climb of Waterworks Blue. The crown jewels of the entire system can be rolled from here: Valkyrie (named for and built by renowned trailbuilder, Valerie Naylor), a cross-country, narrow, benchcut filled with tight switches and fields of chert; Blue Jay (named for IMBA Trail Solutions’ Josh Olson), a mile-long blue jump line packed with rider-hugging berms and medium tables that are all rollable for riders not ready to catch air yet; Ragnarok, another mile-long fast gravity trail with a switch-backed climb out; and Lucky 13, a half-mile descent packed with steep step-ups, step-downs, and gaps that allow for advanced-level acrobatics.
For riders that prefer not to load their bikes to shuttle down to Waterworks or Cedar Glades, ride-in access to the entire system is possible thanks to the Pullman Avenue trailhead. Deep in the Park Avenue district of town, this quiet, humble entrance is situated on National Park Service (NPS) land. The Pullman trail, a half-mile connector, is one of only a few trails in the country on NPS property that allows bikes. With the NPS commitment to this trail’s success, the permitting process was expedited and cleared within two years. Passing through a historical homesite, riders are greeted by the skeleton of a classic car, toys, intact glass bottles, and tin cans, which themselves tell a story of the age and use of the area from long ago. After descending the last stretch of Pullman, riders find themselves with many choices of trails to create a loop. Popular choices include the intermediate gravity run Cat’s Meow or the bidirectional (suggested direction is to begin at Hub S) Funguy trail that’s lined with at least 12 or 13 varieties of mushroom from late March to mid-April.
Of all its local trailheads, Waterworks is the current social hub for the singletrack community in Hot Springs. It also functions as both a think tank and front door for Traci Berry, Northwoods’ Trails Coordinator.
“I’ll often get caught up at the trailhead for 30 minutes or more just talking to people,” Berry said. “If I don’t recognize them as a local, I’ll ask them where they’re from, what they’re in town for and how they came across Northwoods.”
Berry’s gentle voice, laced with a signature Arkansan accent, is easy to pace a conversation with. It’s one of many key attributes that led to her landing the position she’s in with the City of Hot Springs. Traci Berry, Jake Meredith, and Jacob Freeman comprise the crew that keep Northwoods ranked first in best trails statewide. That honor has been earned multiple times by public poll through the outdoor reporting blog ArkansasOutside.com. The team listens to the public’s feedback, monitors the trails daily, and helps lead maintenance days with the Trail Advocacy Coalition of the Ouachitas.
Continued ridership growth at Northwoods—in tandem with expanding numbers of mountain bikers in Russellville and Little Rock, and new trail projects underway in Mena, and eventually Petit Jean State Park—is cementing central Arkansas as a destination for mountain bikers of equal magnitude to the much-publicized NWA region.
Though, perhaps even more important than trails to central Arkansas will be how its residents decide to create their own signature mountain biking culture. As trail quality and quantity continue to evolve, riders do too. Though they could be hesitant to warm at first glance, those who call themselves mountain bikers in this area do anything for their community. The ethos of having privileged access to recreation opportunities is being passed down to future generations thanks to the leadership of NICA coaches, community-oriented bike shops, and inclusive social groups like Women of Nebo, Women on a Roll, and the Dirt Vikings.
“Mountain biking is so pure,” Bunting said. “In our area of Arkansas, it’s different people and different backgrounds, but those differences all disappear when you’re on the trails. You don’t have to be the fastest down the hill. You don’t have to hit the crazy jumps. Everybody respects everybody and, ultimately, we just want to see each other progress and get better.”
