Ep. 183 ~ Tales from the Arkansas Graveler
Bikes or Death
Patrick Farnsworth
4.8 • 563 Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2024
⏱️ 89 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Arkansas Graveler is a supported bike tour across the state of Arkansas. It boast 366 miles and 26,700 feet of climbing over 6 days. The route takes you into parts unknown, showcasing some of the most remote rural roads that I've had the pleasure of riding. This inaugural year attracted 300+ riders from 35 states. It's clear that the word about Arkansas is spreading and cyclists are traveling far and wide to get a taste of the seemingly unlimited gravel roads that showcase why Arkansas is called "The Natural State".
The Arkansas Graveler, not content to offer riders a beautiful route and scenery, offered a host of off bike activities each afternoon, like archery, zip-lining, fly fishing, skeet shooting, cave tours, and the list goes on. Riders were well fed each morning and evening by Chef Biju Thomas and his team. Our bikes were maintained by Phat Tire bike shop. There were medics on site each day to attend to boo-boos and heat related illness. And we were treated to local musicians each evening with curated music that highlighted the region we were in. In other words, this isn't your average bike tour. The Arkansas Graveler created a traveling bike festival that followed, supported, healed, and entertained, 300+ riders as we traversed the great state.
After riding across the state I assembled a small panel of participants to share their experience on the Arkansas Graveler. Our esteemed panel features: Philip Alderfer, Bobby Finster, Hilary Lex, and Scotti Moody (race director). Please join us on this weeks episode as we relive the highs and lows of this inaugural event.
EPISODE SPONSORS
Today's episode is provided ad-free thanks to support from Arkansas, The Natural State.
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Jordan Quon
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Bikes for Death podcast. As always, my name is Patrick |
| 0:05.0 | and I am your host. And on today's episode, we're going to be talking all things Arkansas |
| 0:10.7 | Graveller, which is a brand new event that traverses the entire state of Arkansas. It boasts over |
| 0:19.5 | 366 miles, about 2,700 feet of climbing, and it takes place |
| 0:25.6 | over six days. This is a new event by event director Scotty Moody, who is no stranger to the |
| 0:34.9 | bike pack racing scene. And as a guest on this podcast. It was an absolute honor |
| 0:41.1 | and a privilege to be able to go and participate in this inaugural event. If you've been listening |
| 0:47.7 | to the podcast for a while, you'll know that I am a huge fan of Arkansas and especially |
| 0:53.7 | riding my damn bike in Arkansas. |
| 0:56.9 | I've been going there for over 20 years long before it was cool. |
| 1:02.2 | And it is absolutely one of my favorite places to ride bikes. |
| 1:06.9 | And for me, it was a really cool experience to get to ride across the entire state of Arkansas and see so much more of it, more than I ever have. |
| 1:18.6 | And just riding across a state is freaking cool. |
| 1:22.1 | Like, I've never done that before. |
| 1:24.1 | And to have that experience was really enjoyable, really special. But this was a hard ride. |
| 1:31.6 | Even though it was a supported bike tour, this was a challenging ride. Just riding in Arkansas |
| 1:37.7 | is challenging. The roads there are steep, they're rocky, but they are beautiful. |
| 1:47.0 | And this year, it was hot. |
| 1:52.4 | We had almost 100 degree or over 100 degree temperatures every single day, |
| 1:58.3 | but that did not put a damper on the beauty of the natural state and the beauty of its back roads, the rural communities, and the people |
| 2:03.1 | that came out along the way to support us as we rode through the state. |
| 2:08.9 | So on today's episode, I've brought in a panel of guests to talk about their experiences. |
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