NEWTON COUNTY -- After a short, gravelly climb, we peeled off the forest road onto Fire Tower Trail, a single-track path that would lead to my first experience on the just-opened 34-mile Upper Buffalo Mountain Bike Trail.
A short spurt of hard pedaling and I was into the first turn, a high-bermed sweeper with a smooth surface approach and a sloping exit with just enough push to send you on your merry way down a slight descent.
Another brief straightaway and I was setting up for the next high-banked turn, which was followed by several more fun switchbacks.
Yes, I smiled to myself, I think I'm going to like this. Behind me, 15 other Lycra clad bikers whooped and hollered, swept up in our adrenaline-pumping descent.
ORIGINS
"It has been a long and bumpy journey to get here today," Perry Hayes of Pettigrew had said minutes before, during a short ceremony on the gravel lot at the trail's Knuckles Creek trailhead.
Forty people, including colorfully clad cyclists, gathered June 16 for the U.S. Forest Service's opening of the trail. First came speeches, then a group ride.
Twenty-five years ago, Hayes explained, he and his wife, Suzanne, and neighbors How and Kate Kuff began building a series of trails in the national forest at the headwaters of the Buffalo.
Both couples lived on land adjoining this pristine forest, and they enjoyed many hours exploring it. Initially they hiked on game trails, abandoned logging roads and deserted paths leading to the old homesteads that once dotted these Ozark Mountains. But when How Kuff developed plantar fasciitis in one of his feet, heel pain that makes walking difficult, they switched their mode of exploration to bicycles.
Right away, they realized that wandering through the woods on a bicycle requires a more defined trail than is needed for hiking.
Some of their early, hand-cut routes are part of the longer, professionally graded system that now runs across the mountainside and through the valleys of the Buffalo River headwaters. (Note that bicycles are not allowed in the nearby Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area.)
In 1995, when the Forest Service announced a plan to harvest trees in the headwaters area, Perry Hayes and others who opposed logging decided it was time to become more involved in the agency's activities. They attended meetings with the Forest Service to educate themselves on its policies and practices. They learned that the agency was not merely the land manager for a national timber farm: Another of its prime directives was management of the forests for public recreation.
They made it their personal crusade to persuade the Forest Service that there was enough support for recreational use in the area to spare the trees. They re-
cruited supporters and drew media attention. They led a write-in campaign, handing out postcards to residents of what is known locally as the "Headwaters Community," so citizens would write to the agency expressing support for recreation.
Hayes said they had an important advantage to help generate support: Thanks to a similar grass roots campaign led by Neil Compton, in 1972 Congress had designated the Buffalo as the country's first national river. And so here they were asking for help to protect the headwaters of this national treasure.
Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia clothing, heard about their campaign. He sent Hayes and other community members to seminars in the West, where they learned how to work effectively with government agencies. They were taught what their rights were as concerned citizens and made aware of the legal limits they had to observe during peaceful demonstrations to save the forest around the headwaters.
These seminars were also great networking environments. Hayes met David Brower, founder of the Sierra Club Foundation, which gives financial support to the club and other environmental groups. The Sierra Club offered the Headwaters Community the use of its legal team. It also provided money to hire a hydrologist to testify on the effects of clear-cut practices on the environment, and Brower also provided an airplane to collect aerial photos of other clear-cut fields near the headwaters.
It was a tough fight, Hayes said, and they lost many battles along the way, but they persevered, and with the interest that had been demonstrated by the public, the Forest Service designated the headwaters area a "nonmotorized dispersed recreation area," as reflected in the revised forest plan published in 2005.
In 2006, the forest agency approved the development of about 35 miles of single-track nonmotorized trails in the headwaters area; but other projects prevented the commencement of work before August 2008, according to the agency's environmental assessment report dated that month.
With the blessing of the Forest Service, Perry and the others were allowed to move forward with development of the mountain bike trail system. This partnership included a stipulation that all trails constructed on National Forest land meet Forest Service standards.
Dave Renko, co-founder of the Ozark Off Road Cyclists, and an employee of Progressive Trail Design, encouraged his bike club to join in the trail construction. Also, with the approval of the Forest Service, the Walton Family Foundation donated funds to hire PTD, a professional trail-building business from Fayetteville.
As Tim Jones, Big Piney District ranger, told the opening day crowd, "We are here to celebrate the partnership of the Forest Service, the Ozark Off Road Cyclists, the International Mountain Bicycling Association, Progressive Trail Design, the Walton Family Foundation and the other volunteers who worked on this trail system."
EPIC RIDE
When the speeches were finished and it was time for the group ride, I was primed and ready to jump on my bike to experience what the trail had to offer. With Kate Kuff promising to show us her favorite loop, our pack of 15 other adventurers exited the Knuckles Creek trailhead parking lot.
Initially I approached each turn on Fire Tower Trail with a gentle tap of my brakes, not knowing what was ahead. But soon I was using my brakes less and less, until I finally grew to trust the trail, confident that I could adapt to whatever it dealt next. It wasn't that I had a death wish or anything; it's just that the trail was well graded. Sure, it was swoopy and fast, but it didn't have the momentum-breaking sharp turns that cause you to lock your brakes into a controlled slide.
It was "flowy," with occasional rolling dips just big enough for riders to catch some air on the downside. These rollers were thrown in by Progressive Trail Design in keeping with the Forest Service standards to stop water from channeling on long, continuous grades.
The terrain allowed the sort of extended sweet descent not possible on many bike trails in Arkansas, which don't have elevation to work with.
From Fire Tower, we transitioned to Knucklehead Trail, which crossed a couple of drainages as it remained down low in the hollow. With the recent rains, the crossings were a little wet but nothing that required a single foot dab. You just had to keep it light in the front and pedal determinedly across.
Progressive Trail Design focused on the creek crossings, where Forest Service standards encourage hard surface entrance and exit paths to control erosion.
Given the long, fun descents on Fire Tower Trail, I knew there had to be some climbing waiting somewhere on the loop, and when we reached Azalea Falls Trail it was payback time. But with the smooth, well-groomed path and meandering switchbacks, the work wasn't too difficult.
By the time we topped out on Azalea Falls Trail, duties and responsibilities were calling us, so we made our way back to the vehicles.
INTERMEDIATE TO EXPERT
Kuff's loop was only a taste of what the trail's (approximately) 34 miles offer. About 8 of those miles follow Forest Service roads, 14 are machine-made, and the remainder are the home-grown, handmade single-track variety that the Headwaters Community and bike club volunteers built.
Most of these paths are rated "intermediate" to "expert" and riding is technical at times. Plans are in the works to construct another 25 miles of trails, some of which will include routes contoured for beginners. Before that work can begin, the Forest Service must do another environmental impact study.
Already, Steve Schneider, the International Mountain Bicycling Association's South Central Region director, has nominated the trail for Epic status, which is the mountain biking equivalent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
ActiveStyle on 06/30/2014