We’ve been planning a trip east to catch fall colors and check out some new riding for a few years now. Our plans recently solidified during a meeting at this years Interbike where we were surprised to see a booth manned by the state of Arkansas tourism. We were quickly impressed to find out some of the facts on the states mountain bike trails.
Arkansas has the second most number of IMBA epic rides only to California. There are 5 to be exact and one even spans 108 miles. Arkansas also sports more IMBA Ride Centers than any other state in the country. We were then given a mountain bike guide that listed an impressive 22 trail systems throughout the state – download a free copy here: Arkansas Mountain Bike Trail Guide
As we were leaving for our trip we found out that IMBA’s 2016 World Summit was announced to be in Bentonville, Arkansas Nov 10-12. The IMBA World Summit will host trail advocacy groups that will meet with land managers and the bike industry to plan the future of mountain biking.
Bentonville is a town of 42,000 situated in northern Arkansas and is a IMBA designated silver ride center. The town has some seriously awesome trail access directly from downtown including flow, DH, dirt jumps and over 40 miles of trail connected via paved bike paths. Just 30 minutes to the south in Fayetteville, there is another 50 miles of trails.
We were truly surprised at how accessible and well designed the trail system is in Bentonville. The trails are very well maintained and well signed to make it easy to put together your desired ride.
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Although we were pushed out of the state a little earlier than we would have liked due to rain, we are excited to spend some more time discovering the states riding. The friendly people and trails definitely confirmed what we originally learned about the states riding at Interbike as a more than worthy trip from the western states mountain bike destinations.
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