Push Mountain Ride

Yesterday I decided to do the Push Mountain Ride. I started by heading North on Hwy 7. The weather was fantastic, cloudy, the way I like it with temperatures in the mid 80's. As always the ride up 7 was nice. Not much traffic out, probably as many motorcycles as automobiles. After passing Rotary Ann Rest Stop I had a deer (luckily it was alone), run across the road in front of me, I missed it by about 20 feet.

Scene from the Cliff House.

Scene at the Cliff House. The Cliff House is just South of Jasper, great food.

The Hub is just North of Jasper at the old Dogpatch USA. I don't know if its permanently closed or open just on weekends but it was closed on this day.

Back in the day when I was a po boy (I'm still close to that definition), this is where the wife and I spent the first night of our honeymoon. Rock Candy Mountain, awesome place, we read about it and made reservations (we were on our way to St. Louis). Turned out this place was nothing but mobile homes and sorry ones at that. We should of kept going but we had other things in mind.

This is the spot where the trailer was. History resides here, a forgotten history.

After passing the Dairy Bar which is just South of Harrison I made a East turn on Hwy 206, which I would follow to Hwy 65. I crossed Crooked Creek (known among fisherman as one of the best Smallmouth creeks in Arkansas), it was only about three feet wide. It gets alot bigger not too much further away. Hwy 206 is a nice easy slowly curving road, very open and scenic.
After reaching Bellafonte, I made a right on 65. After a few miles took the 65 business spur through Western Grove since I'd never been there.

I'll bet this was a really nice house when it was in good condition. Very unique rock work. I don't know what that rock contraption on the left side is, maybe some type of well with a large pulley.

Main Street was all like this, junked up. Another Arkansas town where the use of rocks was prevalent in the architecture and in this town it was small rocks.

An old house near the city center.

I took the spur back out to 65 and rode on to Pindall, a little town thats been around since 1904. I then took Hwy 235 North to Yellville where I took hwy 62 East.

I would love to have a retirement house in this Northern Ozark rolling hill country. The scenary here is as good as it gets if you like rolling farm land.

Easy swooping curve with lots of wild flowers.

Looking the other direction.

A nice old house in Yellville.

Crooked Creek, a little bigger here. Thats a pedestrian walkway next to the highway.
From Hwy 65, thats the old bridge across the White River on the right and the rail bridge on the left.

When I reached Mountain Home I took Hwy 201 South. Not too long after getting on it I had my next close encounter. On a left curve I met a little low rider car that obviously thought he was a Rally car. He came around on the wrong side of the road, I came a hair from hitting grass. So it goes, the life and times of being a motorcycle rider.

Hwy 201 was another good road. Found this old gas station, I'm not sure if it was ever actually a working station or a collector put it together. The lighting was not right for the picture. Notice at the bottom of the pic, the sign says "new indoor toilet".

This is kind of a strange looking Church next to a Grave yard. I believe it was in the Arkana community.

Finally I made it to Hwy 341, the Push Mountain ride. I actually came in from the opposite direction. I was going along at a good clip and passed the turn off.

The above picture is looking North and the below is South.

These are the only pictures I took on 341, I was having too much fun riding. Besides I'm more of a photographer of things and there just weren't many things along the way, just a lot of good curvy road.

I also had my third brush with the afterlife of the day on this road. Another speedster, this time a Chevy S-10 came around his right hand curve on the left side of the road.

Arriving at the T in the road I went on over to Big Flat and then took Hwy 263 South. I didn't take any pictures on 263. Mainly because the majority of the Northern portion is so closed in. A lot of it is like going through a tunnel in the trees. There is no shoulder and the trees and the rock bluffs are just feet from the road. I probably didn't go over 40 mph on most of the road. I really enjoyed it, surprisingly different, curvy, hilly and shady. It gave me the feeling of being way out in the boonies.

Timbo, Ar. Gas station and Dairy Bar.

I went in and had a large ice cream cone, just what I needed after a long hot ride. I eyeballed some of the catfish that was said to be the best in the Ozarks and it did look good. I'll be back for a meal at a later date.
This was South of Fox, Ar.

I believe it is probably the old Fox Church/School.

Someone out there isn't doing much to preserve their history.

An old barn on 263 not too far from Shirley, Ar.

This picture is taken from the same spot, this time looking South. In the distance is the cabin in the picture below.

I couldn't get any closer, they had a good fence up.

I continued on the Hwy 9 and then to Clinton.

I stopped at the Clinton Mall and had a Snow cone, much better than I've ever had in Russellville.

Not too long after this picture it was raingear weather, which I wore until reaching home.

It was a good day. I put in around 350 miles. Can't wait till the next ride.