Day 18
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Queen Wilhelmena Lodge, AK to Arkadelphia, AK
100 miles
4,000 feet of climbing
After yesterday's knee-busting ride up and over the Talimena Parkway, I was delighted to find that my legs still worked when I started pedaling today's route. Actually, I felt sort of invincible today after accomplishing yesterday's challenging ride . . . and at my age, which is
four years older than the last time I did it. : ) I only had to tell my legs to "shut up" a couple of times. Today's route started with a handful of climbs (10 miles or so worth) before we enjoyed a screaming fast 3-mile descent into the town of Mena. From there, our route took us on quiet back roads through rural Arkansas, as we passed through the small towns of Nunley, Board Camp, Ouachita, and Big Fork (population 181). Big Fork actually has a mall (pictured below), which was adjacent to the empty lot where we had our first rest stop of the day. After mile 50, we rolled through some bigger, more populated areas. After our lunch stop at mile 78, the remainder of our route went through the DeGray Lake Resort State Park - beautiful tree-lined roads with very little automobile traffic. It was a fun "active recovery" day. Now I will practice some "inactive recovery" as I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
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| Elevation profile of today's ride - although there was 4,000 feet of climbing, it felt flat after yesterday's ride! |
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| Breakfast in the parking lot of the Queen Wilhelmina Lodge. The PAC Tour crew treated us to made-to-order omelets! |
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| The Big Fork Mall. (I am not kidding.) |
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| Rolling on the roads of Montgomery County, Arkansas. |
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| Art & Tim riding in DeGray State Resort State Park |
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| A peaceful and beautiful ride through the State Park. |
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| Art |
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| Art crossing over DeGray Lake |
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| Bob E. and his helmet hair. It only takes 100 miles to get it to look this perfect! |
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