Top 3 MTB Trails in NWA: Local Rider Shares her Picks
Words: Tandie Bailey | Photos: Oz Trails + Sam Matthews
Northwest Arkansas-- I grew up here, learned to ride here & train for races here. NWA is my home & I’m so thankful. We’ve been riding mountain bikes in NWA since the 80’s when Tim Scott & his buddy Wally Scherrey (then the Superintendent of Devil’s Den State Park) brought MTB back to Arkansas after riding in Crested Butte, CO. It wasn’t until 2008 though, that we went from 0 to 100; & we’re still building trails & bike parks wherever we can find a spot to drop them.
Now, with an abundance of trail, we now can spend time arguing with each other about which ones are the best. (One of my favorite trails is Ben Mays’ least favorite, but he’d argue with a wall so I let it slide.) When riding, progression is important, I call them my baby steps. That said, if you were to take just three steps through the NWA MTB scene with me-- a beginner step, an intermediate step, and an advanced step-- I’d take you to these three spots:
Step 1, Beginner Trail: Slaughter Pen
It’s easily accessible from downtown Bentonville & the first few minutes of your ride (if you start at Compton Gardens, where we usually do) is a cruisey downhill with rollers, berms & wood features to get you comfortable on your bike (called All American Trail, it parallels Crystal Bridges Museum). Then comes 10 miles of singletrack to play around on-- all without ever losing sight of the concrete bike path, just in case you wear yourself out & want to take the chill ride home.
Explore Slaughter Pen Trails + Beta
Step 2, Intermediate Trail: The Back 40
This is a trail that's both more elevated & more remote than Slaughter Pen, but still within an after-work-ride distance from Bentonville. Characteristic of the Bella Vista trail networks, there’s a lot of exposed rock & it’s rad. My favorite lap starts at the Lake Ann Trailhead & loops you around the lake in a clockwise direction. This route offers most of the good stuff (sans The Ledges, but since we’re baby stepping to the big stuff it’s probably best we skip The Ledges, notorious for bustin' tires). My favorite break spot along the way is the wooden bridge that’s built right into the side of a rock face.
Step 3, Advanced Trail: The Buffalo Headwaters
It’s a journey to get to the Buffalo Headwaters, so we almost always make it a multi-day trip. The Headwaters is reserved for setting up camp before the ride so you can make that final climb out & cruise right over to the iced down cold beers & a cooler full of snacks. The Headwaters is far from any creature comforts & there’s not much cell reception out there. The route we usually hit is 25 miles of raw, hand-cut, loose & rocky singletrack to play with on the route we do & it’s a whole deal, every single time. I don’t know that we’ve ever made it out of there without somebody bleeding, but we love it & we keep going back. I feel like a better rider every time we pack it up to head home.
Explore Buffalo Headwaters Trails + Beta
Bonus Step Up: Coler Preserve
Coler is both close to downtown & offers session jumps, drops or rocks all day with a quick seven-ish minute climb back to the top of the Hub to try out a different line.
**Something Else to Note:
I live in Bentonville, AR. If I was in Fayetteville this list might be altered a splash to include Mt. Kessler, Mt. Sequoyah, or Lake Lincoln. They’re beautiful, accessible & some of the only raw singletrack you can get to without going to the Headwaters.
It’s kinda like Bentonville = flow & Fayetteville = gnar. They’re the moon to each other’s tide; they’re cool on their own, but with both of them, NWA MTB becomes pretty magical.
Tandie Bailey can be found day in and day out shredding the mountains of the Ozarks + building the ever-growing NWA MTB scene. You can also find her on Instagram @tandielion.
For more on the vast array of trails in NWA, check out Oz Trails' Trail Locations Guide.
Your eyes can’t be everywhere every time, you will need the help of some special set of people to look into places which you can’t and one of those people is premiumhackservices@gmail.com who can help you look into anything in the digital world and get anything you want, you can get through to them on Whatsapp: +14106350697, I don’t want to spill the beans but you know what I’m talking about so go get it, it’s at arm’s reach.
Are you looking for a reliable Hacking Service?
ETHICALHACKERS renders the best hacking service on the web. They are the most professional team of hackers in the dark web.
ETHICALHACKERS offers tons of services:
1. Remote phone hack
2. Crypto Recovery
3. Upgrade gpa
4. School Grades Change
5. Increase credit score
6. Database hack
7. Facebook, Whatsapp hack
8. Remote phone Hack .
9. Remove criminal records.
They also sell high grade techs and hacking chips and gadgets if you are interested in Spying on anyone. They sell software, programs, apps for hacking services.
Interested parties should contact : ETHICALHACKERS009 @ GMAIL COM OR WHATSAPP +14106350697
Be careful of crypto platforms promising huge returns. They are luring people into fake programs. There is no shame in speaking out, most of us have been there too. We just have to be more careful. I was scammed of 30,450 USD in the middle of last year. I realized it was all scam after i made the third payment. A person from Bitcoin Abuse Forum recommended ZATTECH recovery and he was very helpful especially in recovering my lost funds, you can contact him via email on zattechrecovery ⓐ Gmail com. He could help you track them and hopefully recover your lost funds
Being a scam victim can depressing, you were given empty promises. They usually stop replying after achieving their aim with hurts even more, i have been there too as i was too ambitious and wanted financial security which made me invest a huge chunk of my life savings. I never thought i would be getting back a dime back and already lost hope until i contacted a team which was just a leap of faith as i wasn’t going to go down without a fight. CM, a recovery expert that helped me get a significant sum of my investment back. Do not brood alone, make a move too, send a mail to zattechrecovery AT G mail com
I believe that there are individuals who have lost their crypto one way or the other. I strongly advise that you don’t seek help recovering it online because you are likely going to meet a scammer who will steal more of your funds in an attempt to help you recover your lost crypto. I personally have used ZATTPRO RECOVERY when I had to recover my bitcoin stolen by scammers. You can contact this legit recovery firm by email (zattechrecovery AT G mail com)
This is my honest experience.I am open to share my experience with bitcoin investment and losing money to scammers. However, yes it is possible to recover your stolen bitcoins. I never believed in bitcoin recovery because i was made to understand that it was not possible. However, sometime in october i fell for a forex scam which promised overly high returns and i ended up losing close to $70,000. I searched for a month for help until i finally came across an article on reddit in regards to recovering stolen cryptocurrency so i reached out to him at [zattechrecovery [at] gmail com.] I was so scared and skeptical because i have heard of bad experiences but i decided to give them a try and to my greatest surprise i was able to get all my stolen bitcoins recovered from the scammers within a very short time frame. I don’t know if i’m allowed to share the links on here but you can contact if you also need help.
“I found myself in the same situation as other victims who had placed their hard-earned money into an investment scheme, expecting significant returns, only to be told to keep contributing without any benefits. I initially put $250,000 into this venture over a week with my broker. The promised bonus/profit was $480,000, but every time I tried to withdraw, I was met with failure and was told to deposit another $250,000 before I could access my money, which I did. Two days later, I could still withdraw, and all my effort seems abortive. I attempts to reach the broker were unsuccessful. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have managed to recover my funds from these fraudulent Binary option brokers. The specialist who helped me retrieve my money was exceptional in his assistance. I was on the verge of giving up, but I am grateful to Recovery Hacker101 for their excellent work. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I highly recommend reaching out to Recovery Hacker101, via their email at: recoveryhacker101 @ gmail com
Leave a comment