May 12-15 Lost Valley - Ponca, AR Campout

[Michael D]

It was a great Ozark Outing with my fellow Guzzi Buddies.   Good food, fun roads to hone your riding skills and the best of company as we terrorized the locals. 

[LowRyter]

Wish more of you guys had come...three perfect riding days and twisty roads every way you go...😎 pics to follow...

From my perspective, a little more advanced planning and nearby accommodations for those of us that would rather stay in a motel.  The threat of weather might've chased me away anyway.

Did you take the route through Ark or the one through Mizzeri?

[Guzzistajohn]

What a weekend! Spontaneity can be a wonderful thing! The Saturday am 175 mile loop was a blast!

[rocker59]

From my perspective, a little more advanced planning and nearby accommodations for those of us that would rather stay in a motel.  The threat of weather might've chased me away anyway.

Did you take the route through Ark or the one through Mizzeri?

John, there are accommodations all along the buffalo. None of them have corporate franchise, so all you need is some Google Foo.

Personally,  I enjoy our 4 states spontaneity. 

[Guzzistajohn]

The tent platform camping seems to be a good way to go. Big tent with bunks inside

[twowings]

This was another perfect Wild Guzzi KS-MO-OK-AR campout!  Weather was ideal...stayed at Steel Creek Thursday night and got my 1/2 price Senior Citizen fee reimbursed by some nice folks who got to the campground after it was declared full...fortunately you can have 6 people/3 tents at each site so we invited another group of folks from Washington State to join us...we ended up being 7 total but the Park Ranger (ex-Marine) who came over to inform us of the campground rules decided "I didn't see anything unusual here..."    Thursday night was a spectacular night for stargazing and swapping adventure stories...

Friday morning I did about 75-80 miles of twisty bits riding and ended up at JB Trading Company Campground....this is a brand-spanking new enterprise and they have obviously spent a LOT of money making a nice little campground....the bathroom was the most fabulously-appointed campground bathroom I've ever encountered!  The grounds have shade and grass but the gravel used in the driveways was not bike-friendly at all...we ended up getting ISDT riding lessons from GuzzistaJohn and used the grassy areas to avoid having to wrestle the bikes over baby-doll-sized rocks...another BIG drawback is the lack of electricity to the tent camping area AND the quarter-a-minute showers....SERIOUSL Y, $20 bucks a night to camp and I have to carry a roll of quarters to the shower????  The National Park Service campgrounds are only $12.00/night with flush toilets and they are on the river....JB Trading Company is on a windswept hilltop with nice enough scenery but only a man-made pond for a water feature...still, they are just getting started and bugs have to be worked out....the camp store has just about everything you could need if you decided to leave home with just the clothes on your back and a desire to camp out, hike, paddle the river, sleep in a hammock, split wood, and look the part of a seasoned outdoorsperson...

I set up camp and proceeded to apply liquid brain therapy and soak up some sun while I watched the wildlife (lotsa bluebirds) and waited on Delrod and GuzzistaJohn to arrive...ate supper at Low Gap; a fabulous salmon salad....it's just so handy having a New-York Culinary-School-trained chef supervising your middle-of-nowhere-Arkansas menu! 

The boys arrived a little later in the evening and we continued to apply pain medication to easy the road-weariness...

Saturday morning dawned gloriously and after a tasty JB Trading Company breakfast hit the road for @ 200+ miles of "Road Crooked and Steep next XX Miles". What a ride!  Thanks to Delrod and GuzzistaJohn for their patience and guidance while I gamely attempted to look like a real grown-up rider....

Back to Low Gap (seriously, if this cafe was in a wet county, I would probably just call my wife and have my mail forwarded there! LOL) for lunch with the lovely and talented Michael D. who popped over from T-town just for lunch and a quick dash to Jasper for groceries and libations...due to previous plans Michael had to return to Tulsa that same night but it was great to have him show up!

Sat around camp Saturday night swapping stories and tall tales with dinner generously provided by Chef Delrod and cocktails provided by GuzzistaJohn....ano ther perfect ending to a perfect day!

Another beautiful riding day today and we all rode together on a little twisty asphalt ribbon known as AR-103 before splitting up at the US-412 junction...

Uneventful ride home with light traffic on US-412...bike ran beautifully! Thanks guys for a great weekend!

 




























Back home but ready to go again!

[Guzzistajohn]

 

[LowRyter]

John, there are accommodations all along the buffalo. None of them have corporate franchise, so all you need is some Google Foo.

Personally,  I enjoy our 4 states spontaneity.

The cabins were outta my price range.  No worries.  The trip worked out well for those that went. 

But it was posed why more didn't go.  I wanted to but didn't get it together. 

[Jim Rich]

I love that campground and those roads.

[twowings]

Sorry we missed you, John!

As rocker59 posted JB Trading could have accommodated your desire for indoor comfort:

BTrading Company

Primitive Camping $20
RV $30 (emphasis mine)
Platform tents $40 & up   

They had several pull-through sites available...

This was in no way intended to be anything other than me going camping and inviting any WG'ers who wanted to get out this weekend along to join the fun...hotels (even in Muskogee, OK) are out of my price range and I'm not an RVer so I plead ignorance on not researching other possibilities other than tent camping...but the Buffalo River Scenic River area is a popular destination and I'm sure anyone could have found lodging to suit from 5-star palatial lodges to bed-and-breakfast to hotels to RVs to tents in the area...

I guess I'm just too impulsive and free-spirited to be much help organizing anything...a holdover from my flower-child days, I guess...

[twowings]

I love that campground and those roads.

If this ever gains status as an annual pilgrimage, I'm going to name it 'Road(s) Steep and Crooked Next XX Miles Low Gap Cafe Buffalo River Not-A-Rally"!

I haven't had so much fun on a bike since back in high school taking a girl to the lake on my Gilera 106 for some blanket wrestling....

[Guzzistajohn]

Hey Johnny L, when's the next time you can go? It's only 100 miles or so to me, no sweat! How about you pull yer trailer to withrow springs? maybe our illustrioust moderators can attend this time. Who knows who might show up

[Michael D]

If this ever gains status as an annual pilgrimage, I'm going to name it 'Road(s) Steep and Crooked Next XX Miles Low Gap Cafe Buffalo River Not-A-Rally"!

With a title such as you just crafted, start a newspaper.  I'll subscribe and take the Sunday paper too.   

Thanks for posting the summary and all the great photos. 

Lets all do it again, real soon!   

[Guzzistajohn]

Hey, whenever you flat landers are ready! Let's do it again before the chiggers grow fangs.

[LowRyter]

Hey Johnny L, when's the next time you can go? It's only 100 miles or so to me, no sweat! How about you pull yer trailer to withrow springs? maybe our illustrioust moderators can attend this time. Who knows who might show up

I am not going to pull my trailer.  I like the ride there and about.  I just didn't want to camp in a tent.  There's no way to put my duffle on the Greenie.  The weather was making it iffy and by the time it worked around the Mrs was doing some weekend planning.  Remember I nixxed that RAT raid a couple weeks earlier because it looked like rain and it was in a cheap motel.

No worries.  I just like to sportbike but not worry with the tent stuff.  I have some special roads and I've been riding there for 15 years.  Yeah, I've been jonse-ing for it and have missed the last couple of chances. 

Nobody's fault but mine.   

Hopefully I see some of you here for the Mile.  And maybe do my Ozark ride his fall.  And maybe meet up for Weekend lunch.

[oldbike54]

 Not long until the OKC flat track races .
 As for a Withrow gathering , sounds good to me , or Grand Lake , or Spavinaw OK , or Baxter Springs KS , or , well , you get the point . Heck , Cedar Vale II 

  " Illustrious moderators " , that's funny Race Bacon 

 Dusty

[Guzzistajohn]

Baxter springs instead of nw ark? No thanks. Saturday morning was the stuff they make beer commercials about. Perfect weather, great roads and good friends. Riding Kansas section roads just doesn't measure up🗿🗿🗿

[leroysch]

Looks like another NAR hit.
Decided to do a valve adjustment this weekend on mine...and try those silicone...ummm...g askets. They spec 10-15 in-lbs...good grief! Between doing this and working up the cajones to use the MG lift for the first time its been a trip itself.

[LaMojo]

To a flat lander, the Boston Mts are the next best thing to the Smokies and Rockies and a lot closer.  Been exploring that area since the late '60s.   Sounds like a good gathering place since Steve no longer has the Eureka Springs camp out. Good photos.

[Guzzistajohn]

To a flat lander, the Boston Mts are the next best thing to the Smokies and Rockies and a lot closer.  Been exploring that area since the late '60s.   Sounds like a good gathering place since Steve no longer has the Eureka Springs camp out. Good photos.

Steve Walker's rally was the best! That was my 1st exposure to the local Guzzi family!