TAT 2020 Post-06 Nov 2020

 

Jeep Trip on the Arkansas TAT

The Trans-America Trail (TAT) runs from the East Coast to the West Coast on unpaved roads and trails and passes through Arkansas from Helena to Summers. It enters the Ozark National Forest west of Damascus then to Devil’s Den then north to Summers. Several of us rode the whole 5,623 miles on dual sport dirt motorcycles in 2016-2018. My son joined us for the second half and now wants to do the eastern half. We had planed on making this happen this past summer but had to delay due to COVID-19. He and a couple other friends will ride dual sports, but I will be providing support in my 2006 Jeep Wrangler with Liz as my co-driver. To give Liz a taste of what driving 150-200 miles a day for 9 days on rough dirt roads will be like, we made a 2-day run from Damascus to Devil’s Den a few days ago. The total TAT miles were around 200 but 50 paved miles to Damascus and another 175 paved miles from Devil’s Den back to North Little Rock for 425 miles total. The first day we drove to Damascus then 150 miles on the TAT to Turner Bend on the Mulberry River (Hwy 23 north of Ozark) to spend the night. We were the only ones in the campground, and it got down to the mid 30’s during the night. We both had good sleeping bags, but it was a bit cold getting up the next morning. Day 2 we finished the 70 miles on the TAT to Devil’s Den then hiked a few trails there before heading home on the Interstate. One of the high lights of the trip was stopping at White Rock Mountain Recreation Area. Beautiful spot that overlooks the Ozark Mountains.

For those TAT riders that will be making this trip we did hit a road closure at (N34.678693 W93.828828) Cass, AR where the TAT leaves Hwy 23 westbound. About 1000’ south on Hwy 23 there is another road called Shores Lake Road that runs parallel to the TAT. We followed it until we found another road heading north back to the TAT (N34.639925 W93.949792) where it met up with the TAT again (N35.676532 W93.920331). Adds about 10 miles to your ide but the only way we found around the closed road.

This was also a test of the Jeep after having lots of work done to the suspension, etc. Average speed was around 25-30 mph on the unpaved roads except where there were washboards. These were usually found on the steep climbs/descents and required me to slow down to 10-15 mph or get beat to death. Since I have ridden the whole TAT I know there are lots of rough roads so wanted to see how the Jeep would ride plus the average mph. Liz says she is up for 9 days of this so we plan on making the eastern TAT from Charleston, SC to Little Rock, AR in the Spring!