Trail Review: Back 40
Bentonville is comprised of several distinct - but connected - trail systems. I'm learning that each one has its own personality and attracts its own flavor of riders. As a newbie here, I often don't know when I'm traversing from one "system" to another because they all connect seamlessly.
DAY ONE:
On my first day in Bentonville, I rode the Back 40 Loop. Since then, every time I tell someone I rode the Loop, the reaction is always either "you rode THE WHOLE thing??!!" or "in ONE DAY???!!"
Yeah, I feel that. Over the course of 4 hours, I climbed 3,265 ft and covered 22.8 miles. No, that's not a typo. In Arkansas, not Colorado or Utah, I managed to climb 3,265 ft. It was a day.
Let's just say I got a little cocky about riding at sea level, and not paying Arkansas the deference it deserved. There were a LOT of little punchy up and downs that kicked my ass.
Art at the trailhead.
More trail art.
The trail generally felt pretty sterile. It was all machine-cut and the trail surface itself was all pretty smooth - but not flowy. I'm all for smooth if its flowy and fast. But this was a new kind of cardio hell of punch up and down for no apparent reason, with nothing technical.
The dogwoods were beautiful.
I bonked at mile 16. Too late to recover from the bonk, even with the help of my favorite ride food, it was a long finish. I kept thinking "oh shit, I'm stuck here for a month - I hope it gets better than this."
But I also kept thinking about how much I wanted to get the adaptive athletes from Telluride Adaptive out here. This is a perfect trail for a hand cycle, especially one with e-assist. Even camber, wide enough to accommodate but still singletrack. So that kept my attention through the boredom and bonk.
I suppose I could have just curled up under the rainbow MTB and taken a nap in an Adirondack chair.
A free water station along the trail - so bougee.
By the time I got home, I was ready to eat a bike tire. Because I am a lucky lucky woman, Jeremy cooked a hearty dinner of ravioli and salad, and supplied plenty of rehydration. I may have snored louder than Kiva that night. OK, fine, I did.
Trailforks track of my Back 40 Loop here: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/67183961/
AFTER DAY ONE:
Having conquered (and I use the term conquered loosely) the Back 40 Loop, I set out to discover all the internal trails in the Back 40 system. These are MUCH more interesting than the outer loop.
Fun little bridge feature.
It might look cool, but this kind of landscape brings back super cringy memories of Missouri.
This was one of the most fun loops I did in the Back 40 system: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/67529935/
These internal trails weren't challenging or technical by any means, but they also lacked that Disneyland machine-cut boring smoothness of the outer Back 40 Loop. There were just enough rocks and roots thrown in with the punchy up and downs to make it interesting, but not technical.
Speaking of rocks, I swear an Army of little gremlins come out there every night to sharpen all the limestone. That shit is SHARP! One little slow speed tumble and my skin was absolutely shredded.
It wasn't even an epic crash. Just a no-momentum topple. Damned gremlins.
Internal loop track on Trailforks here: https://www.trailforks.com/ridelog/view/67529935/
There are still a couple of internal trails to discover here if I have time. I'll update here if I do.