Womble Trail

This weekend was the long-awaited ride at the Womble Trail with Roy, Scott, and John. Scott had rented a cabin near the Ouachita River near Oden, Arkansas. Roy and I arrived at the cabin a little late, mostly because we were talking and not paying attention to the road. Go figure…Highways 8 and 88 are completely different roads! So we took the longer, more scenic way around. We would later find out that Scott and John did exactly the same thing.

We did finally arrive to find John and Scott had made themselves at home. The River Bend Sunflowers Cabin sleeps four and is very ‘cozy’, as the brochure implied. Overall, the cabin was all right, but it did have a few quirks. Most noticeable was the water. It smelled like it came directly from a sewer. I wondered if there was a wrong connection in the pipes somehow. I could imagine an Arkansas plumber, laughing in butt off somewhere, muttering, “stupid tourists!”. We used bottled water for drinking and eating, but showering was not pleasant and didn’t really seem to accomplish anything.

Also, the freezer sometimes made an ungodly noise. And the ceiling fan in the bedroom could not be used due to frightening instability. But the most important thing of all was in excellent working condition….THE HOT TUB!! And it didn’t smell like sewer! Bonus!

Scott soon had his famous Lasagna baking in the oven – after a few false starts, due to inadequate oven labeling and a general misunderstanding of what it means when the red light is on. But the end result was outstanding. Excellent Lasagna. No complaints here!

Saturday morning, we were ready to ride. And I thank Scott for not insisting on riding at the butt-crack of dawn. Roy had decided that due to his lack of bicycle training lately, he would rather hike, take photos, and ride elsewhere. Scott had broken his derailleur hanger on a short ride after his arrival the previous day, so he had rigged his bike to be a single-speed. It was worth a try.

Riders of the day: John, Scott, and me.

We began near Story at the northern end of the trail. John and I had climbed a torturous switchback section…ok, we had actually walked it, pushing our bikes up the mountain…when we heard Scott call out from below.

“I’m down!”

We thought he had crashed, and I imagined the worst. We pushed our bikes back down the mountain to find that, instead, his chain had snapped. Evidently, the single speed idea was not going to work.

We packed everything up and drove toward Hot Springs. Internet and cell phone service in this area is sporadic at best. I was able to get Shaina on the phone and she looked up the phone number of a Hot Springs bike shop. After calling to get directions, we arrived at the bike shop to find it extremely busy. Evidently, there was to be a hill climb race later in the day. Every anal road cyclist from miles around was there. I wish we could have stayed to watch, but there are just not enough hours in the day.

Unfortunately, the shop was unable to repair Scott’s bike. We ushered him out the door before he could buy a whole new replacement bike and headed back toward the cabin. That’s when I had a brainstorm. Roy wasn’t really using his bike, so I called him up. He was gracious enough to lend his bike out to Scott for the weekend. Problem solved. We headed back to the cabin to pick up the bike. Roy saved the weekend!!

My camera setting wasn’t optimum, so a lot of these photos came out blurry. But blurry or not, you can see why Scott is hard on bikes! (Don’t look, Roy!)

This time we began at Hwy 270 and rode to Forest Road 92. This trail is soooo nice. One tough climb was Mauldin Mountain. Scott renamed it “Maudlin Mountain”. According to Webster, maudlin means ‘tearfully or weakly emotional’. An apt name since I did feel tearful, weak, and emotional by the time I reached the top. I had to stop once to make the wicked switchback near the top and I briefly wondered if I could get going again. I finally crested the top, heart beating madly, and stopped to rest. Jeez. That was a tough one. Other than that, though, this section was pretty mild if you took your time about it.

After the ride, we made our way back to the cabin at River Bend. We made mental notes about some of these roads here, where you could get a nice ride on the road bikes in warmer weather.

And, of course, the highlight of the trip…sitting in the hot tub, watching the sun go down, while you slowly turn from a sweet little plum to a withered old prune! Sort of like life, huh? Priceless!!

I dragged myself out of the hot tub, finally, and entered the cabin to find things had gone terribly awry. Roy was engrossed in his new Kindle.

And John and Scott were watching every football game being broadcast on every channel.

But to give John credit, he cooked some smoked meats that were to die for. And some couscous. Life was good. I think I ate 10 lbs of meat. Yummm.

On Sunday morning, we packed up, checked out of the cabin, then headed down to North Fork Lake. We would ride up to Forest Road 92, and then back down to the lake again. Roy took our photo at the sign before we headed out. He somehow managed to signify his disdain of taking ‘people pictures’ as seen below. Isn’t that a middle finger??

Roy planned to run this section of trail while we rode it. So we said goodbye and headed out. However, we got off to a rocky start with a difficult creek crossing, so Roy actually had to wait for us to clear out of the way at the beginning.

But eventually we left him behind and climbed gradually up toward FS Road 92. We crossed several smaller roads along the way with no traffic to be seen. We reached 92, stopped to rest for a bit, then turned our wheels back down the trail. And let me tell you, if you could only ride one section on the Womble Trail, it should be from Forest Road 92 down to North Fork Lake!

As we came back down a tricky section, perched along a hillside, we encountered another group climbing up. The usual pleasantries were exchanged as we stood aside to let them pass.

The last to come by was the lone woman in the group. I watched her as she rode toward me, and I spoke first.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked pleasantly.

“Great, how about you?” she answered.

“Um, pretty good, I guess.” I tried not to stare. But I probably did. I couldn’t help it. The calm words spoken were completely at odds with the terrified expression on her face. I’m not talking ‘anxious’ here, I mean roller-coaster terror!! I wish I had grabbed my camera. You could superimpose her face on a photo of a person riding the Texas Giant and it would look absolutely natural, eyebrows up, eyeballed bugged out, nose flared and teeth bared.

I had forgotten about it by the time we stopped to regroup. But when Scott appeared, the first thing he said was, “Man, did you see the expression on that woman’s face?!”

Yeah, I think we’ve all had that expression before. But mine is usually reserved for the downhill sections or creek crossings.

We arrived back at the lake to find Roy in the pickup, hiding from the flies and gnats. We all said our goodbyes and headed for home. Another great trip behind us.

For anyone looking for a great mountain bike ride, or a great hike, the Womble Trail is not one to be missed. I know I’ll go back for sure!

And last, but not least, my favorite photo of the trip…

MAN, WHAT A RIDE!!!