A ride across the Talimena Trail

horseiron1 · Sep 6, 2010

Ah yes, the last long weekend of summer and what better way to spend it but on the back of a motorcycle. Preferably an Interceptor. My brother and I planned this ride a couple weeks ago and thought we should ride the Talimena Trail out of Mena, Ar. to Talihina, Ok. Therefore, I got on the computer and started to plan the route. This is going to be a four state ride of about 500 miles. I live in Shreveport, LA, my brother lives in Waskom, TX, we invited a friend of ours to come with us, and he lives in Bossier City, LA. We decided to meet at the Chevron in Waskom at 7am and start the ride from there. We were excited about the ride and our friend Thad was there at 6:30am and I showed up at 6:50, and my brother Bobby got there right at 7am. Thad rides a Honda VTX1300 and my brother rides a Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 with the Screaming Eagle Package. And yours truly rides a Honda Interceptor. Well after meeting up, I end up being the ride captain and we get on our way.

We work our way out of Waskom on FM9 north to FM1999E. After being in the 80's at night, this morning was 57 degrees, so it was a little chilly. The road and weather is just perfect, not a cloud in the sky. We were ever watchful of deer. Being cool like that, I know deer are active. Once we cross into Louisiana the road changes to PR6. We work our way to LA169 and turn north. Once we get to Mooringsport, we cross CaddoLake and the old drawbridge. After the bridge, we pick up LA-538 to take us to HWY-1. As we stop for the turn on HWY-1 Thad wants to stop to move his wallet to his saddlebags. We end up on the side of the road for a smoke break. We get moving again and as we cross in to Texas, the road changes to HWY-77 and after we go through the town of Atlanta we see our first deer. There were two of them on the shoulder, and thank God they took off the other way when we got close. In Douglassville we pick up HWY-8 and go north. We then stop at the town of Maud for a butt break and to use the bathroom. The town was ready for a celebration with all the US flags waiving.

We get going again and when we cross into Arkansas the road changes to HWY-41 and about halfway to DeQueen I was going around a right hand sweeper, their was a small dozer in the middle of the road coming my way. Luckily, there was no oncoming traffic and was able to get around safely. We topped off our tanks in DeQueen and took another break. So far, the ride has been awesome and we knew it was going to get even better. We were starting to see some good curves. We make it to Mena, Ar. around 11:30 so Bobby wanted to eat at his favorite place in the whole world. McDonalds.

. After lunch, we got back on the road to the start of Talimena Trail and let me tell you. It is AWESOME. Just as we started up the mountain their was a doe in the middle of the road and as we were stopping the rest of the family decided to cross. Two fawns and a buck. That was the last of the deer for the day. Thank God. Great curves and sweepers with a lot of vistas to stop and take pictures. Thad saw a bear sign and right next to it was a campground. I think I will skip camping there. I don't think so. At one vista, we were taking a break and taking pictures when a bunch of Gold Wing riders came in. I guess about 9 or 10 of them and just crowded us out. They could have went to the other end but didn't. One of them almost hit Thad's bike while backing up to park. Usually fellow bikers will say Hi, Hello, or anything, but these guys thought we were invisible. They were pretty arrogant. I thought it was pretty sad. We got back to the trail and I got to play a little in the curves. It was sweet. You know the deal, it can't last forever and before we knew it, we was at the end at the Talihina side at the rest area. We got to watch a group of about 25 cruisers come in and do a group picture. If we had more time I would have liked to go back across the trail with them the other way. I missed a lot of places to take pictures. Oh well, there's always next time.

. On a sad note, while we were resting we heard a crash and looked over and saw a fellow rider on his side in the intersection. I and several others went over to see if he was ok. He was, he just had minor scrapes on his hands and knee. He had a protective jacket but no gloves or protective pants. He said he did not realize that there was a traffic island at the intersection and over corrected. Glad he was OK and he was able to continue the ride.

After the trail we picked up US-271s. Now it was time to start working our way home. I wanted to try picking up Indian HWY, according to one of my maps it was unimproved so going on it was going to be a big maybe. The map said 3 miles south of the Trail and when we got to downtown Talihina I knew we passed it, so I got the map out while Bobby and Thad got gas. I still had a half a tank so I was good to go. I decided to take SR-63 to US-259 south. SR-63 is a good road to get you to US-259. It was mostly straight with the mountain ranges on both sides. It got us to US-259 pretty quick. Once we got on US-259 the curves came back and I left the other two in the dust. I let them catch up after about 5 or 6 miles. We got around to BeaversBendState Park and Bobby passed me to let me know he wanted to stop for a butt break. I was watching him in the mirror and laughing at the fact his face cheeks were flapping in the breeze. It sucks to get older. We was up here about a month ago and Bobby broke down, but that's another story.

. I had about 2 bars left showing on the gas gauge but this place was too busy to get it here and I decided to get it down the road. My gauge just started flashing in Idabel so we stopped there to top off. Bobby's wife called him then and wanted him to come to her work on the way which is in Marshall, TX and on the way home so that was our next stop. We saddled up and got going. In Daingerfield, TX we picked up SR-49 and made a bee line for Jefferson, TX where we picked up US-59 for the short hop to Marshall. We took a butt break while Bobby visited with his wife. I took a few more pictures of the day. I knew the day and the ride was almost over. I was looking at my rear tire and see the plug I had to put in it. After about 1000 miles and some hard riding it is still looking good and going strong. I haven't lost a pound of air. It's holding good. I'm always checking to make sure. Thad and I picked on Bobby about the reliability of his Harley throughout the day in good fun and his bike ran good. He was getting about 52mpg while Thad and I were getting around 45mpgs. Bobby decided to stay and ride home with his wife and we started for home. We backtracked a little to Loop 390 around Marshall to US-80 and took it to I-20. Once we got on the Super Slab we rode together till I got off at Exit 8 and Thad kept going to Bossier City. My wife had the garage door open and I set the stand down with 506 miles on the clock. I said a little prayer for bringing me home safe and went inside. About an hour later Thad sent a text to me that he got home safe also. About the same time as Bobby.

I hope everyone enjoyed the write up. I've never done it before and if ya'll like it I'll keep doing it.

Ride safe,

JJ