Bikepacking - Arkansas High Country (Northwest Loop)

[@bigmikeshooter]

Very interesting. Bravo from Greece guys...

[@reggieimages]

great video, looking to bike AK in my future. Loved your wife's comment at end - priceless !

[@robpelton]

Awesome trip man. Love the water down there. I’ve backpacked quite a bit in AR. No bikepacking…yet! This video makes me want to go. Good stuff. Cheers.

[@superdam318]

Really good video.

[@scotth7382]

Thanks David!

[@reggieimages]

Scott, curious what part of MN you hail from. I grew up in Two Harbors on the North Shore of Lake Superior, currently retired in South Carolina and loving it.

[@scotth7382]

Thanks for the kind words Roger. We live in Maplewood and I'll say the 50-60 degree temps in Arkansas in March sure felt a lot warmer to us coming out of winter!

[@briannelson237]

How do you have your bottles affixed to your seat bag? I saw it in the video.

[@scotth7382]

Brian I’ve used a handful of options but my favorite so far is called the Topeak Backloader. Holds bottles and reduces seat bag sway.

[@briannelson237]

@@scotth7382 thank you so much

[@lanceconard5687]

How do you have the water bottle cages connected behind your saddle along with the Revelate Spinelock bag? Is there some kind of commercial bracket your using? Thanks for the video. A few of us are planning the Northwest Loop this fall.

[@scotth7382]

Hey Lance, thanks for the comment. The piece holding my water bottles is called the Woho stabilizer. I really like it but will say right out of the box it doesn't work very well. I took a hot torch to the metal and then put the thing in a vice to bend it open. The space between it is just too narrow to fit your bag between. Also the way it comes the bottles sit near vertical and can rub into your back. To remedy that I modified some tire levers by drilling holes in them to create basically triangles to angle the bottles away from my body. Sure would be nice if someone just made something that worked right away :)

[@scotth7382]

Also it is the Terrapin bag on my bike.

[@lanceconard5687]

@@scotth7382 I'm having a hard time visualizing the Tire Lever mod. So is the top of each cage mounted to the original woho top cage mount hole and then the bottom of each cage is mounted to a hole you drilled in the tire lever (with the tire lever then mounted to the original woho bottom cage mount hole). Thanks for clarifying. I am thinking of buying the woho and tinkering to find a solution.

[@scotth7382]

@@lanceconard5687 I think you got it right. The top bolt hole goes into the bottle cage/woho. The bottom hole in the woho goes into the tire lever. The bottom hole of the cage goes into a hole just a bit offset of the other hole in the tire lever. I'm sure if you had some good plastic around you could just cut yourself a small triangle instead of tire levers haha.

[@ReitzPantherFan83]

Great video, Scott. I'm planning to do this route in mid October 2021. Can you share your itinerary or any other information based on your experience on the route? I can provide my e-mail address if necessary.

[@scotth7382]

Thanks for the kind words Scott. Here is a link to the itinerary we used along with individual routes for each that I'm sure you could use or put something of your own together. docs.google.com/document/d/1Ivm0zmOCKl1w0DlhdwbiqPICF8KtvfmX8wfMTVThiL4/edit?usp=sharing

[@BentonvilleMTB]

I am planning on going on a route similar to this in mid Oct 2021. Planning on guiding a tour for Adv. Cycling on it. I camped out bikepacking with my son at the same spot you spent your first night last weekend. Glad you enjoyed it.