Trail Town: Bentonville

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] a few years ago i decided to try to ride all of my hometown durango colorado trails in a day and it took a couple of tries but i managed to do it in 2019 and it was an incredible experience it gave me a completely new appreciation for my backyard and gave me a totally new understanding of my hometown then i started thinking about the other mountain bike meccas that immediately come to mind whether it's moab sedona crest debuted but really the one that came to mind that as the most pressing was bentonville i ain't got no thoughts for you [Music] i should have shot [Music] i mean it's the self-proclaimed mountain bike capital of the world now this is a place that i've always been curious about why is the community so engaged how did this place become what it has the energy and the love for mountain biking here is really really special um unparalleled i would even go as far to say and it's just fun to be a part of that's why we're here i'm gonna try to ride all of bentonville's trails in a day so i started digging into some maps what exactly were we working with here so there's about 140 to 155 miles of trail depending on how you map it in bentonville bella vista and that trail really varies now the joke is that as you ride all these trails we're going to be building trails before you stop for the day you got to go ride the new stops two to three miles a week depending on what time of year it is that's how much trail is being built it is cliche but it's it's a canvas that you know we're able to paint on um through terraforming the earth basically it's like sky's the limit while the trails are all very purpose-built like they're tough it's it's hard so um what you're trying to do is not going to be easy if it was i think everybody would have been doing it by now one thing i learned from doing this sort of challenge in durango is just how crucial routing is i found that the the hammerhead mapping system has the cleanest and most easily red maps and also the most updated ones but they only allow 100 waypoints and for a ride this crazy with trail that's constantly evolving i need over a thousand waypoints i think basically what you want to do is ride everything without having to ride a bunch of stuff twice it's actually a hell of a puzzle it used to be this concept i felt like that like you had to really enjoy big back country stuff you had to really want to like just bury yourself in every mountain bike ride that you get here it's not it's literally like the fun is there in some ways it does seem uh kind of silly to try to cram all the trails into a single day i mean it's not like the trails are going anywhere that's one thing that i i really really love about mountain biking i mean these trails are out there you know free 99 every day of the week to me a bike is the single best way to actually get to know a place to actually get to know the geology the plants the animals and obviously of course the people that call that place home i mean that really takes complete presence it takes giving the place your 100 undivided attention it just requires committing to a really really long bike ride [Music] oh hey matt heyson welcome back to mountain bike capital the world um appreciate you taking the time i really wanted to sit down today because obviously your palmares plus your local knowledge kind of makes you the best person for me to get a lay of the land pick your brain get some intel and hopefully not be 100 blind going into this thing yeah i mean first and foremost like literally the route has to be strategic with your refueling and and just your hydration component alone just the scope of climbing you're doing and just the uh amount of trail you're covering in one day i'll have to finish things with kohler any good info on that i mean you got to climb up to the top to get to the good stuff and you're gonna be it's in the dark and then you've got a lot of tech lines with rock and and off camber and if it's wet um hope your hope your heads and your brains clicking i feel like getting these days off to a good start is super key having a buddy a buddy that i that i trust and and no knows their way around these trails and is excellent on a bike would be super sweet riding with you in the morning that is the primo time for me so i'm in crestview i could conceptualize more because you can keep all of the big climbs and loops like in a rolodex in your head kind of this like it's just impossible to keep track of it all there's so many tiny little like 0.2 mile trails and a gazillion you know 30 second long climbs like i can't wrap my head around it at all get any other details we'll work on whatever you want whatever your team wants i'll um i'll see you in the morning that um bright and early [Music] [Music] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for hours before the ride starts and then usually during the first few hours of the ride itself your mind is in hyper drive [Music] there's just so much to maintain so much to time properly but inevitably just the basic inescapable rhythms of riding a bike all of that just takes over and hypnotizes really and then all that's left is doing [Music] i don't know [Music] [Applause] i don't wonder [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't want more [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't know road all of wedges no problem and then there's this random seemingly smooth section of trail i just had this huge slice at least three quarters of an inch long i have something like 65 miles to go six and a half hours moving time and i expected like 13-ish hours total moving time so basically basically exactly halfway see y'all for a lot of folks i think there's a lot of different perspectives on this area and what it is for the most part every single person that we've seen come in to visit it feels pretty pretty well at home and i think that's what we're striving for our community is really full of volunteers people have that servant heart here and they're more than happy to get out there and and help it's amazing there's a big sense of pride that you get from knowing you know i had a hand in this being part of the bentonville community at this point is is life changing it really is and so you're driven to do good work you're driven to perform you're driven to be honest you're driven to be a part of something that's bigger than yourself it's a massive network of trails that it's elaborate so you put together a maze and and the story that you're going to tell doing that is it's a mad adventure i've done some riding while i've been here in a few days beforehand and the riding is harder than i remember to be honest it's just really really hard on your muscles long story short i i think i have a pretty healthy level of caution but no finishing is definitely not a foregone conclusion the good part is you'll get to see all over bentonville with the trails but then the bad part is who knows what could happen i think you may mentally go to a dark place for a little bit uh the pain cave keeping your bike on a trail without crashing for 140 miles definitely no guarantee of that i think it's gonna be really challenging i mean when i look at some of those everest like the average profiles in the average challenge that comes to mind i'd say mentally it's starting to get hard my hands are pretty pretty blown skis haven't come this far it'd be really dumb to do anything less than just push through 140 miles yeah that's insane i'm curious to see your state of mind after that [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it feels kind of simple and trivial but there's something so special about starting one of these things and not knowing how your body and mind are going to respond and i felt absolutely incredible i don't know why but i i literally didn't start feeling tired until probably hour 11 when it got dark [Applause] [Music] now that you've written all of them how would you characterize the trails [Music] [Music] i would say created with and maintained with excellence it's just the gold standard but it's so far beyond anything else i've seen it's just really hard to to put into words executive order everyone is sleeping in tomorrow you thought we were done huh not quite i enjoyed my big ride in bentonville so much and i know some of you all out there watching love big adventures as well and i want to support that and i have sponsors that want to support that as you know the real reward is usually up here but i also know that having the right gear goes a really long way to making these big adventures accessible as well so here's what we're going to do i want all of y'all to come to bentonville and i want you to ride all of bentonville's trails too but don't worry you don't have to do it all in one day like i did although you can if you want to i want you to document your journey riding all of bentonville's trails on social media using the hashtag bentonville trail challenge prove your work on strava by uploading all of your rides and then we will select winners based on the most compelling story shared on social media winners yup i just said winners at the end of this year december 31st 2021 we will pick two winners what's up for grabs a lot to begin with 1 500 worth of osprey pax gear i'd highly recommend starting with this transporter 120 duffel bag because you're gonna have a lot to carry you may want to get yourself one of these siskin 12 hydration packs the hydration pack that i used for my bentonville trail challenge we'll be sure that inside you have more than enough goo product to get you through just about any ride a smith trace helmet not this one but one in the color and size of your choice and to go with that helmet they're all new shift mag glasses with the clear lens of course as well and we're not done yet a hammerhead kuru 2 head unit so you can stay on track for all of your upcoming adventures also up for grabs a year's supply of orange steel tire sealant times three three entire years of orange steel tire sealant 64 ounces a year to get you through whatever crazy adventures you can dream up before i go one last thing i finished my big ride here at the hub bike lounge home of the absolute best post ride food and drinks we decided to throw in a couple of hundred dollar gift cards so you all can reward yourselves after all of your hard work i highly recommend trying the khaleesi best of luck go get after it

Channel: Payson McElveen

Views: 61,475

Rating: 4.9151592 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: rg4awS6ieqo

Length: 18min 1sec (1081 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 06 2021