Bike trails unfurl in all directions from a downtown park in Fayetteville, Ark. Here in the northwest corner of the state, singletrack is ubiquitous and nearby Bentonville has long reigned as a mecca in the mountain bike world.
This year, Fayetteville is going all-in to attract adventure riders. An initiative aimed at bikepackers includes route development, maps, and a tourism push fortified by a year-long calendar of events.
I drove into town last month to check it out. My family of bikers would explore routes that launched essentially from the front door of our Airbnb near downtown.
Dubbed the Fayetteville Bikepacking Route Network, the new system includes multi-day loops created in a partnership with Bikepacking Roots. The mapped and vetted routes range from 60 to 200+ miles in length and explore trails and a touted “paradise of gravel roads” that wind from Fayetteville into the hills beyond.
Riders can grab a map downtown or load GPS points to roll out fully equipped. You leave your car parked in the city, which provides a free lot for riders and has commissioned all of the bikepacking routes to start and end in a downtown square.
The Ozarks: A Perfect Bikepacking Destination?
Bikepacking has grown as a sport in recent years. Though still niche compared to mountain biking, the pursuit attracts adventurous riders who are willing to travel to find good routes.
Fayetteville, a hilly town with a college campus and access to wild land close by, checks a lot of boxes for the bikepacking set. It’s already an active bike town, including shops, clubs, gear-makers, and 100+ miles of trails within city limits.
The new bikepacking routes tag some of the popular spots in town before meandering into the wilderness adjacent to Fayetteville. You’ll find overlooks, secluded camping, fishing docks, and swimming holes.
Bikepacking Roots leaned into local knowledge when creating the routes last year. Loops include obscure backroads and trails as well as popular area destinations like Devil’s Den State Park and the Buffalo River.
They range from easy to extreme.
At 264 miles, the Tour de Ozarks Mega taps experienced bikers looking for endless views and up to a week on the bike. Highlights are steep hollows and high peaks plus 22,500 feet of elevation gain through “some of the most rugged and scenic country in the Ozarks.”
Beyond endurance feats, a goal of the project was to make bikepacking more accessible. This includes routes that cater to beginners.
The Razorback Greenway loop features a two-night itinerary. It starts on its namesake regional paved path before dipping into miles of quiet country roads.
You camp out at night but stay close enough to civilization around Fayetteville, Rogers, and Bentonville to hit up restaurants and coffee shops along the way.
How-to Clinics, Community Events
Events anchor the Fayetteville bikepacking campaign. This includes how-to clinics at the local Packrat Outdoor Center and races like the Doom event, held in April.
This month, the All Bodies on Bikes event, June 15 – 16, is an overnight trip made for first-timers. With gear available for free use and a $10 entry fee, the 50-mile trip offers an adventure into U.S. Forest land to a primitive campsite under the stars.
A similar happening, the Community Campout, took place in early May. It was organized by the Ozark Gravel Cyclists.
The free community event included a 50-mile route and dispersed camping sites, which were qualified as “essentially camping wild with no facilities like toilets, trash cans, or fire rings.”
This September, Fayetteville will host a Bikepacking Summit, which is expected to attract a mass of riders to gather, learn, ride, and get in gear. Guest appearances and other details are forthcoming on the regional event.
Gear-maker and College Course
Bikepacking seems in the blood here. Buckhorn Bags is a local manufacturer of custom gear. Its bike bags are handmade in Fayetteville and range from waxed canvas panniers to nylon stem bags to stash energy food and gloves.
There’s even a college class. The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville offers an academic course, “RESM 11301: Intro to Bikepacking.”
It nests under the university’s Recreation and Sport Management focus area and was created to teach “introductory skills needed to successfully plan a route for a multiday bikepacking trip.”
The coursework caps with sessions on “gravel/rural road touring with a focus on the Ozark Mountains.” Students plan and complete a self-supported trip as a final test.
A Personal Look at the Bikepacking Routes
During my visit, we checked out a few sections of the bikepacking loops, at least as the weather allowed. A storm system washed down on the city for a week, limiting our options for much of what would be the soggiest spring break for me in recent memory.
But we made do. We explored sections of trails, often starting from The Ramble, a new central city park with paved paths and a swooping ramp that cuts uphill through the woods.
West of town, on mountain bikes, we explored Centennial Park. A bikepacking route, the Lake Wedington Loop, snakes from the city to Centennial before continuing further out of town.
We pedaled a section of the bikepacking route and then hit singletrack trails. Centennial is a unique venue, including berms, earthen ramps, and bike-through tunnels in an open space on top of the main hill.
A few miles down, I checked my map and ducked into the woods. We were headed to another trail system on an adjacent peak. Kessler Mountain beckoned with steep climbs and old-school singletrack across the valley floor.
The bikepacking route followed neighborhood streets between the mountain biking areas. I led, zigzagging on residential roads as my teenage boys followed past houses and through a roundabout where cars slowed to let us cross.
We headed south from there to climb uphill on Kessler. The Lake Wedington Loop diverged, following a county road where bikepackers would pedal into a wilderness with campsites and quiet woods.
Flash floods were in the forecast, and people were abandoning plans. We’d be back another time to load our bikes and ride off for a few days to explore. At least this visit gave us a glimpse.
