Kansas Cyclist - Kansas Bicycle Guide and Reference

Max Lynch of Bentonville, Arkansas has a tradition. Each year, for his birthday, he bicycles his age in miles.

This year, for his 64th birthday, he put in a 66-miler.

Lynch started his birthday rides when he turned 50 as part of his recovery from alcoholism. Now he’s a supervisor at Decision Point Inc., a rehabilitation facility in Springdale.

Lynch recommends cycling through the Northwest Arkansas’ countryside to anyone looking for some fresh air, scenery and exercise.

Lynch joked that he might have to go metric for his rides as he gets older, riding his age in kilometers instead of miles.

Read more from The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas.

In Riding High : Two Decades After Its Genesis In The Area, Mountain Bikes Rolling On Faster Than Ever, Kevin Kinder of the Northwest Arkansas Times writes:

With an increasing number of trails, riders and networking opportunities, local mountain bike enthusiasts say, Arkansas is one of the best states in the country for the activity. Mountain biking is well-established in Northwest Arkansas, and one of the major outdoor destinations in the area, Devil’s Den State Park near West Fork, is celebrating the 20th year of biking in the park. The park will host a weekend celebration April 5-6 designed to give both novices and experts a challenge.

Devil’s Den offers a blend of double track and single track that wind through the scenic Ozark Mountains, and are some of the best mountain bike trails in the state. The article also lists a number of other popular trails in Northwest Arkansas:

In addition to the trails at Devil’s Den, there are several other local draws. The Lake Fayetteville Trail offers many options. Riders can in Washington County also find trails at Lake Wedington. Many local bikers also travel to Slaughter Pen Hollow Mountain Bike Trail in north Bentonville, Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area near Rogers or the Lake Leatherwood Trail near Eureka Springs.

The Ozarks’ hills, and the national forests to the south, make for great rides, Moore said. “Arkansas, I would say, is one of the undiscovered locations for mountain biking,” he said. “[Riders] aren’t going to be bored with the trails around here.”

Learn more about the Ozark Mountain Bike Festival and Devil’s Den State Park at ArkansasStateParks.com.

Bentonville, Arkansas is home to a unique mountain bike park called Slaughter Pen Hollow. The park offers over 5 miles of off-road cycling, on 180 acres of rugged terrain donated by the Walton family (of Wal-Mart fame). The trail system offers rocky terrain, natural raised bridges called “Log Rides”, and a free-ride park with a downhill slalom course, multiple ladder drops, ramps and dirt jumps. There are trails easy enough for beginners, and others that prove challenging even for expert riders.

The park has been open less than a year, but has proven so popular that it’s already expanding. According to NWANews.com, plans are in place “to more than double the trail mileage within Slaughter Pen, with the idea of eventually hooking up to the trail system carved out within the 100-acre wooded campus of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.”

The new trails will be on land owned by the city, and will remain tucked away from view through heavily wooded areas. Funding for construction of the trail will be provided by the Walton Family Foundation, and the local Bentonville-Bella Vista Trailblazers group is managing the construction of the trails. They expect the new trails to be unveiled later this year.

Although Bentonville has the advantage of an abundance of land that is too rugged for other uses, they also have a core group of dedicated volunteers, a generous corporate sponsor, and a city government open to new ideas. (Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that the main corporate proponent of the park, Tom Walton (grandson of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton) is an avid mountain biker.)

Is this a unique situation, or can the success of Slaughter Pen Hollow in Bentonville serve as a model (or at least inspiration) for trail proponents in other cities?