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Bruce
& Betsy Blais |
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Mountain Biking - Special Trails - LOVIT In May of 2012, Bruce joined the members of the Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association (DORBA) for their annual trek to Camp Clearfork in the Ouachita National Forest. The forest is home to several IMBA EPIC trails, most notably the Womble and the Ouachita. During the trip, he rode both the Womble and LOViT trails. The LOViT is actually an acronym for Lake Ouachita Vista Trail. Below is a map showing the track, profile and statistics for the ride. Right-click on the image below and use the "Save Target As " option to down-load a 1MB 11x17" PDF version of the map. You can also click on the image and zoom up to 200% for a detailed view in a separate window. Right click here to down load the GPX file. The file will want to save as an XML file, so change the extension to gpx before you save it. The file is a high-resolution track created on the Delorme PN-60W GPS.
The distance ridden this day was 21.6 miles. The ride time was about 4 hr. 25 min. Climbing was 3,478 feet and descending was 3,317 feet. As the name implies, the LOViT offers numerous vistas in its trek near the shores of Lake Ouachita. The photo below shows Bruce at one of these vistas along the trail.
The first part of the ride is a fairly easy tour through the woods. A quick check of the profile above bears this fact out, and that the real climbing is yet to come. Below is a photo taken along the first part of the trail where he ran into Brandi and a few other riders from DORBA.
Below is a shot of Ryan (L) and Kevin (R), a couple of other DORBA riders in the group.
Next came the climb up Hickory Nut Mt. To say it was brutal would be an understatement. However, at the top, you are rewarded with a great view of Lake Ouachita.
From the overlook, it is down the mountain where you pick up the Charlton Trail back to Camp Clearfork. The Charlton is the second challenge on this ride as you can see from the profile.
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Version 0.2, June 5, 2012 |
