Carry your speed over the loose, gravelly singletrack and get ready for the techy little ledges right before the infamous gap. With a ridearound on the right, bikers can warm up to the idea of carrying enough speed for this feature. Rock formations aplenty and tall trees surrounding, Ponca delivers on a very visual and physically stimulating experience.
As a double black diamond trail, riders should be careful to follow the singletrack and not the skid marks sliding off the gravelly trail. With more rocky chutes, gap jumps, and beautiful limestone ledges to send it, there is plenty of ‘gnar’ to be found. The first time Lucas Lewter visited the area, “it was like a little ray of ozark trail chair sunshine came into my soul,” he said with a laugh. Lewter has been racing enduro since 2018 and decided to settle down near Eureka Springs where he’s a mountain bike guide for Slaughter Trail Guides. Your comment will really make a difference on this issue–and help create an AMAZING 280-mile mountain bike trail in Missouri.
Walmart is expanding its Ozark Trail private brand with the launch of a mountain bike collection, just in time for spring and summer. I feel a true “weekend warrior” would be better off spending just a little more around $600 at a LBS for a hardtail with a better fork, which ensures the bike fits and has been proper assembled and checked out. He has been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel to killer riding locations throughout North America.
We rode the south hub with Slaughter and Lewter who were happy to show us the highlight reel. Singletracks got in some early-season riding with Slaughter and Lewter at two popular Eureka Springs locations, Lake Leatherwood and the Passion Play trails. Mount Nebo State Park is located south of Ponca and is about an hour and a half away from Little Rock, Arkansas. Nebo is part of the Monument Trails collection and is currently a stop on the Big Mountain Enduro series, hosting big names and top brands while shining a spotlight on some of the most incredible riding in Arkansas. Frankly anything below this quality being paraded as a “Mountain” bike is fleecing the people. These are good enough for someone to get on the trail with and they are better than the bike I started mtb-ing on.
MTB frame designs today have quite low standover heights, so it’s never a worry that it’ll be difficult to swing your leg over the frame to mount the bike or that you won’t be able to comfortably straddle the frame. That said, always check you have enough clearance to allow for quick and safe ozark trail canopy dismounts. Reach on a mountain bike frame is the horizontal distance between the bottom bracket and the center of the head tube. Basically it tells how much room there is between where your feet go and where your hands go on the bike and how much range of motion the rider has while pedaling.