i finally answered the age-old question, is it possible to vision quest in the central time zone? and the answer is yes, duh, you unimaginative dunce.
feast your eyes on NW Arkansas! bikepacked a 200 mile loop from Fayetteville into Ozark NF with my brother and another (VQ thread veteran) friend over 4 days.
i can hear you asking, but mocat isn't that the hilliest place on earth? you are correct, it absolutely is. on day 2 we climbed 6700 ft over 60 miles. absurd. it got to the point where i almost started to feel bad for having two other people come with me (intrusive negative thoughts are part of the VQ experience). but then we would get to the top of a hill and take in the incredible views of the forests and rolling hills in all directions. euphoria sets in. delirium, even. sometimes the terrain looks like peter jackson's version of the Shire. sometimes it looks like the forests of thailand, or the red dirt roads of Rwanda ("land of a thousand hills"). it's crazy to look backwards at the hill you just climbed with your own legs. you think holy crap i would never climb that. but you already did!
then you get to descend down steep chunky gravel on your heavily loaded (70 lbs??) bike with your ass hanging back over the rear tire, while gripping the brake levers for what feels like forever. several descents were over 500'; one of them was over 900', and all very steep. every time i let off the brakes, i accelerated forward (downward) as if i had just hit the afterburners. sometimes you have no choice but to let go and hope for the best.
anyway we made it with no flats and no injuries. VQ!
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a lot of pretty farmland to start off the route. iirc this is where ian mckellen said "a wizard is never late":
here is a photo of a rare switchback inside Ozark NF. apparently a lot of the forest roads were built in the 1930s during WPA, and my guess is it was cheaper to just plow straight up a hill at 15% grade, instead of making switchbacks and keep the grade under 10% or whatever.
white rock mountain:
i would recommend white rock mountain campground to anyone looking for a place to camp in NWA. it's only like 40 miles from Fayetteville and i can't imagine there's a more impressive view in the state.
check out my luxury item: retractable string lights
we stopped to swim in a different river each of the four days: War Eagle creek, King's River, Mulberry River, and Middle Fork White River. i lost a pair of socks while crossing war eagle creek on the first day. later that night i was setting up my hammock and a pair of socks fell out of my sleeping bag. they were my favorite "camp socks" and must have been left from my last bikepack. that's when you know you're in for a VQ!
