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Last night we decided on April 26-28 for a Spring ride. We also decided that for this ride we would have a base camp that we would return to each evening. The first thing to decide is where we want to be based. One possibility we discussed last night is Mulberry Mountain.

http://mulberrymountainlodge.com/index.htm

Mulberry has a campground and a nice variety of cabins. Most of us have ridden this area before and know that there are riding possibilities in every direction with a wide variety of terrain.

An interesting alternative location is Mack's Pines. They have a campground and cabins but with less selection and not as nice. Probably the biggest drawback for Mack's is that, according to mapquest, it is an extra 1/2 hour further than Mulberry. To me, the biggest advantage of Mack's is...new trails to explore! Also, we could make a full day ride to Brock Creek and at least have some time to ride Brock Creek.

http://www.macks-pines.com/Home_Page.php

Let me know your thoughts. Also, give me some idea of your interest in this ride and whether you would prefer camping or a cabin. At some point in time we will need to make some reservations.

As usual, everybody invited.

I've been considering my options for a "Spring Ride" and this sounds good to me.
I'll be watching to see what develops.
Everything you mentioned so far sounds good!

My brother and I will definitely be in on this. And for all three days this time!

Mack's Pines sounds good to me for a couple of reasons:

1. The day ride to Brock Creek
2. They have a cafe on premises, making breakfast and dinner easier

The downside is certainly the extra time needed to get there. From Blue Springs, MapQuest and GoogleMaps both show it being about 50 minutes farther away than Mulberry Mountain. I suppose that's not that much for a 3-day stay. Makes it almost imperative that we spend Thu, Fri, and Sat night down there, though.

Today, I talked with the owner of Mack's Pines. Based on our conversation I'm also thinking Mack Pines would the way to go. She said there are literally hundreds of unmarked trails off their property. There is also the Moccasin Pen riding area that can be accessed by crossing the street from their property. By trail, she said Brock Creek is 12-15 miles.

We probably have some time but she said they will start filling up for the prime spring season. Reservations are 100% refundable if cancelled more than 14 days in advance. I've summarized the cabins and RV/tent rates. Also, I've pasted an email I sent her with her response.

House-2 doubles, 1 twin, kitchen-$100/night for 2 $10 each additional.

Trailer-2 doubles, 2 twins, kitchen-$100/night for 2 $10 each additional

Cabin-2 double or 1 queen and 1 twin, no kitchen-$70 for 2.

Solo cabin (Eddie?) $40.

RV water and electric-$18

Tent-$12

There is a shower house and restaurant.


From: kidd.family@comcast.net <kidd.family@comcast.net>
Subject: questions
To: mackspines@yahoo.com
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013, 8:40 AM

Hi,

We have an off road motorcycle group who are taking a trip to your area this spring on the weekend of April 26, 27, 28. I've never been to your place and had a few questions:

1. Are you right on Hwy 7 across the street from moccasin?

2. How close is the nearest gas facilities?

3. How much are the double cabins and the cozy cabins?

4. How many can stay in the solo cabin? How many beds?

5. If we decide to camp, can we reserve several sites together?

6. Are you familiar with Brock Creek and do you know how far from your place to Brock?

Randy,
We are right across from the Moccasin Gap trails. The nearest gas is 13 miles.
Rates on the cabins depend on how many people are in them. The solo cabins have a Queen and a twin bed in them, so they will sleep 3 people. You can reserve sites together.
To drive in a car to Brock creek is about 22 miles from us, thur the woods probably around 15.
If I can help with anything else please let me know
Thanks,
Valorie Gamble
479-331-3261

Sounds good to me Randy! I would like to share a house, cabin, RV, or whatever with some people. The more cost effective I make this trip, the more I can go back throughout the riding season .Pretty sure my brother is coming, providing he sells his KLR and finds a DRZ before then.

Thanks for doing the research!

I would share a room, house, cabin, trailer..............
I don't snore "loud"
Ride share with me is a possibility, Your truck and my cash or vice versa. I have a 2005 F150 and a 5x10 single axle trailer.

The plan sounds like a good one.......... I just don't like to ride places I might die before my time. Not necessarily a safety third guy.

Sounds like a plan to me! I'll most likely be bringing my camper and both bikes.

I'll call down there soon to reserve my spot.

That is a long ways off but sounds fun. I'll try to come. Been to Mulberry many times but never to the other place. Either sounds good.
Jim

Mack's Pines is North of Dover, AR on Hwy 7. Here is a recent ride report from bohawk on AdvRider where he explored North of Dover.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost ... count=6753

I always enjoy bohawk's ride reports!

I just reserved a cabin with 2 doubles for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. According to the website, they charge a 30% deposit at the time of the reservation. However, she explained that my credit card won't be charged the 30% unless we decided to cancel after April 11 (14 days prior to check-in). She also explained that they prefer cash at check-in if possible.

As of today, she said they have plenty of space available, but she mentioned a group from Mississippi might be staying the same weekend.

I'd suggest you book a cabin early if you planned on making the trip.

I just booked a RV spot for the evenings of April 25,26 and 27th. Talking to the owner, Valerie, she said they only have 7 cabins remaining. Valerie said all of the other weekends in April are pretty much full so I would imagine that these cabins will fill fast. The open cabins are all double cabins with 2 double beds for $70.

Like Scott said, full refunds are available up until 14 days prior to reservation date.

Mack's Pines
Valerie
1-479-331-3261

My son and I just spent 4 days camping, (in our climate controlled camper), at Mack Pines. With our TAR trip coming up in April I thought that I would share some of our impressions of the area.

There is an abundance of all types of riding in the area. For those who like the fairly easy, gravel road type riding there are many basic county/primary forest roads. We only rode on these to get to the next trail but based on my GPS, they are throughout the area.

The most common road/trail are the 4WD type trails...similar to Frog Bayou. We rode these for 2 days and didn't come close to riding all these even within the immediate Mack Pine area. We spent one day riding a loop given to us by a friend from down there. Off of the loop there are literally hundreds of side trails. We explored as many of these as possible but it would take weeks to ride them all. Another day we attempted to ride from MP to Brock Creek on these same type trails. Great ride, but we were unable to cross a stream. They've had a lot of rain the last couple of weeks so the streams were all pretty high. There was a way around the stream but it would have required us to back track quite a ways on an easy gravel road. Easy gravel roads are not the way my son wants to spend precious riding time so we opted to explore more of the trails.

Another day we loaded the bikes in the truck and drove them to Brock Creek...about a 45 minute drive from MP. If you like single track then Brock is a must. They have the only legal, public single track in the midwest. The trails are in good shape and very well marked. For sure, only for the smaller bikes. If there are a few of us with smaller bikes it would be well worth spending a day there. We put in a long day of 44 miles of ST.

Overall, I would say the riding opportunities exceeded my expectations...especially the dual sport trails. Plenty of trails to ride a different loop each day without having to ride any of the same trails!

Regarding the accommodations, the cabins leave a lot to be desired. I don't plan on spending time in the cabin other than sleeping. Like I said, we stayed in our camper but I did stick my head into one of the cabins. They are small, old and kind of rundown. The inside consists of two double beds, a small table, sink and shower. There is a small restaurant that had limited hours while we were there but apparently will be open most of the time by late April. I'm planning on bringing at least a cooler and possibly a portable microwave. They did have a rundown, outside grill that I assume would be available for us to use.

If you want to camp there are about 25 sites with electricity and plenty of primitive camping space. The electrical sites will be full by the end of April but primitive camping should be okay. There are 4 cabins left for our weekend and if you want a cabin you should reserve as soon as possible. They will probably all be reserved within a couple of weeks. According to the owner, they are pretty much full for every other weekend in April and May. Actually, the cabins and RV slips were all full this weekend.

Leaving from my house in Lees Summit, it took us right at 5 hours. All interstate except for the last 65 miles. Overall, I think the riding will be first class with so many new trails to explore.

Oh yeah, Mack Pines is for sale. One of our RV neighbors told me the asking price was $250,000. I did some quick math and was ready to buy. Unfortunately, he was a little off on the price...talking to the owner later the real asking price is $850,000.

allkidd wrote:My son and I just spent 4 days camping, (in our climate controlled camper), at Mack Pines. With our TAR trip coming up in April I thought that I would share some of our impressions of the area...

THANKS for this detailed report, Randy!

FYI: I created a dedicated "Mack's Pines" page for anyone looking for Mack's Pines info. It also links to Randy's description above. The "Mack's Pines" page is part of the larger "Where to Ride" index.

I can attest to the amount of high quality "dualsport" roads in the area. I think if you drew a circle 50 miles wide around Mack's Pines you'd keep yourself busy and happy riding a dualsport/adventure motorcycle for many days. I'm excited about the number of off-road trails you saw, Randy.

$850K?! They must have a LOT of acres as part of that private property because the campground facility and business can't be worth that...I'm with you, Randy--at $250K I start thinking "Hmmm.....is this my ticket out of the concrete jungle?! A way to make a living while living in the forest?!"

So what's the most recent arrangements for everyone? Does everyone who reserved a cabin have it filled, or maybe some of you have open spaces within your cabins?

Originally, I was planning on bringing my camper, but then I decided to try and sell it. The guy that said he was going to buy it flaked out on me and I haven't gotten any other solid prospective buyers, so now I'm back to thinking I might end up bringing the camper after all. Otherwise, I was considering just tent camping as a last resort.

Maybe we should get a list going of who's doing what and whether they have room for any undecided people and if so, how many. It's probably getting close to crunch time to make a final decision and I'd hate to have to bail on the trip because I waited too long to get my plan going.

kendall_smith wrote:So what's the most recent arrangements for everyone? Does everyone who reserved a cabin have it filled, or maybe some of you have open spaces within your cabins?

Originally, I was planning on bringing my camper, but then I decided to try and sell it. The guy that said he was going to buy it flaked out on me and I haven't gotten any other solid prospective buyers, so now I'm back to thinking I might end up bringing the camper after all. Otherwise, I was considering just tent camping as a last resort.

Maybe we should get a list going of who's doing what and whether they have room for any undecided people and if so, how many. It's probably getting close to crunch time to make a final decision and I'd hate to have to bail on the trip because I waited too long to get my plan going.

As of last Friday here is the list of reserved cabins:

Baum brothers

bonanzasteve and allkidd

Scott

The cabins have two double beds so 2 is the optimum number but you could sleep 3 or 4. I was going to pull my camper but with the rooms only being $70, $35 each with 2, I figured it would easier to just get a room. Reply if you think that you might be going and maybe we could get some pairing of shared rooms.

I was all set and ready to book lodging for this trip and then my brother pointed out I had double booked. I really wish I could make it but I am going to miss this trip. Y'all have a blast and take tons of photos so I can see all the fun that I missed.

...and another awesome ride report from bohawk that is right in the area of this ride! The stuff in this report is more for the light bikes and riders who like to go deep.

Hmmm...reading further in that thread reveals that Blue Hole is an area the USFS might have law enforcement hanging out this spring looking for criminals like us.

I've got a tent spot reserved for the weekend. I'm still trying to decide between riding down, or putting it in the truck.
I also have a trailer, if someone needs a ride, that is an option. Right now I'm leaning towards the truck, and bringing my grill and cooler too.

Ryan

troy wrote:...and another awesome ride report from bohawk that is right in the area of this ride! The stuff in this report is more for the light bikes and riders who like to go deep.

Hmmm...reading further in that thread reveals that Blue Hole is an area the USFS might have law enforcement hanging out this spring looking for criminals like us.

The 4 days we were there I pretty much rode my un-plated 2 stroke the whole time. The locals assured me that there isn't any law in the area. With 4 wheelers and UV's providing so much revenue for the area, I figured that I was safe as long as I stayed off Hwy 7.

The Blue Hole area looks pretty...wonder if we could find it?

rycomm wrote:I've got a tent spot reserved for the weekend. I'm still trying to decide between riding down, or putting it in the truck.
I also have a trailer, if someone needs a ride, that is an option. Right now I'm leaning towards the truck, and bringing my grill and cooler too.

Ryan

Bonanza Steve and I are trucking from Lees Summit. We will have the back of my truck full with our bikes but if you want to ride with us we could haul your bike with your trailer. Or, if you want to ride your bike down we would be happy to haul your tent gear or whatever. Our plan is to leave Thursday morning.