Over Labor Day weekend I returned to Bentonville, AR. The chance for some downhill flow & jumps is too good to pass up on a long weekend, and there’s no other place within a 5 hour drive from Dallas that has as much as Bentonville has to offer!

This time I was not alone. I met up with fellow Texan YouTubers Kyle (Cobra Kyle) and Chris (Chris CXK), and Bentonville locals Andrew (All Things Adventure) and Mike (MikeDarknutNiccum).

We met up at Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, a trail system that I had yet to check out on my previous trips to Bentonville. After going, I wish that I would have gone sooner! This is my best opportunity to get some practice on jump lines without having to take an extended trip. Once we climbed up to the hub, we ended up sessioning the first few jumps of Cease & Desist for a while. This is probably the best way to practice, as it didn’t require a long climb back to the hub.

It’s funny how I feel like I’m soaring through the air, but then I look at the photos and video of myself and the truth is revealed; I’m barely getting my wheels off the ground!

I really need to get bunny hops down, as that is the motion that allows you to get more air on jumps. I rely too much on speed to get me air, and on a lot of these jumps it’s difficult to get enough speed.

Once we were satisfied with our sessioning session, we went down the hill on Fireline. This is another jump line, but these jumps were a bit smaller than those on Cease & Desist. It was a super fun trail, though! I think the next time I’m in Bentonville I’ll be spending a lot more time at Coler, and checking out some of the other trails there.

After that we ventured down to the south end of the park to check out Thunderdome, the new dual slalom course. Andrew had warned us of two potential trouble spots; a decent size drop that sneaks up on you, and a ditch crossing where there’s a fairly narrow rock bridge.

In spite of those warnings, both of them still surprised me! The drop comes up after a turn when you’re actually going uphill a bit. It’s tough to carry any speed into it, which makes it quite a bit tougher. I was still able to land it, but it was very close to being a crash.

On the ditch crossing, I was not quite so lucky. In this case, you’re carrying a lot of speed into it after railing two berms. It is again uphill just a bit on the approach, which hides the ditch, and the rock bridge, until you’re right up on it. I was going too fast to make any adjustments, and I missed the rock bridge! I was somehow able to huck enough to land the bike in the ditch and not go OTB, but then I fell down the hillside, sliding on my back to the bottom. Luckily it was all soft, with nothing there to run into. So I was able to hop right up with nothing more than light scratches that didn’t even break the full skin layer.

After a quick lunch, we headed over to the Slaughter Pen. The skills course here has a set of drops with three different levels. Even the small one made me nervous. There’s just something about drops. They scare me. You’re basically falling while on your bike. Gotta keep the feet on the pedals and land right, otherwise you’re going down!

After watching Andrew tow Kyle in to the small drop, I decided I needed to give it a shot. They made it look way too easy. Sometimes that’s the key. If you see someone do it, it gives you the confidence to do it, too. So I had Andrew tow me in. It felt like nothing. I landed as smooth as butter. Why was I so afraid to do that?!

That evening we all met up for dinner, and then stumbled upon karaoke at Bike Rack Brewing. If you really want to see that footage, you can check out Chris’s video!

#LiveTheAdventure