After a cold and foggy day on Friday we decided to ride despite the morning fog on Saturday. We headed around Eureka Springs on a small road, then north on SR 23. This area is full of Civil War Historical Markers.
Here is the first one we saw.
This is a very long single lane bridge over Table Lake. When you start across you can not see the other side's entrance, kinda scary.
Yes the surface is wood planks. I'm really glad it wasn't wet!
We continued on through the rolling hills to the Pea Ridge National Military Park. The battle here in 1862 is considered the battle that saved Missouri for the Union, even though the battle was in Arkansas. After the fall of Fort Sumter Arkansas joined the Confederacy and for the rest of the war played a major role controlling the Mississippi river. Missouri was a 'swing' state, housing many Union and Confederate sympathizers. Keeping it a Union state was a prime objective of the federal government during the first year of the war.
Union forces had been chasing the rebels south out of Missouri when the Confederate forces congregated here in northern Arkansas to make a stand and hopefully recapture the area and parts of Missouri.
There was action between them on both March 7 & 8, 1862. The rebel army had split into 2 groups which might have been their downfall. One group lost all of their command structure on the first day and basically sat out the fighting due to no one giving them orders. The other group had moved around the Union troops to surprise them from the rear. Day one went well enough that the rebels captured the Elk Horn Tavern and the crucial Telegraph and Huntsville roads. However the next day the Union forces countered attacked in a two-hour artillery barrage that crippled the Confederate line. And the decision to leave behind the extra ammunition made by the Confederate Major General meant they had to withdraw. They went to Mississippi to fight in other campaigns.
We continued on into Missouri. We wandered around, up and down and curves galore. It seemed that all the roads were on the tops of ridges. It was really fun.
The wind is blowing all the leaves, it looked like a stampede of leaves!!
We stopped for lunch at Roaring River State Park, which is adjacent to the Mark Twain National Forest. We continued around on the rolling hills to Table Lake. This is the same lake we crossed on that first bridge, but we went 166 road miles to get to another bridge that was only 21 miles as the crow flies from where we had been. Then it was back to camp, 219 miles.
Saturday's ride
Sunday we got up to warmer weather and no fog, so we got on the road early and headed south on the Pig Trail Scenic Biway.
The colors have been outstanding
The roads were all full of curves
We did a loop that went almost all the way south to Interstate 40, which by the way was our major route from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City.
We headed back north and at the Mulberry river we saw dirt bikes at the gas station! There are two riding areas near by, one in the Ozark National Forest. Then it was back to camp, time to load the bikes and get ready to move tomorrow.
Sunday's Route
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