The unofficial, but technically accurate, 2007 WUDI IX nonevent homepage.
Jim Cook aka Wudsracer
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E-Mail me at:jejb@att.net to get on the list.
NEW stuff
I put up a jpg map from my GPS software to hopefully make driving in a bit
easier for those that don't have a GPS. You can't see the town of Jerusalem on
the map but it's due south of where the track starts on the map. It is at:
http://members.cox.net/jejb/Wudi9/WudiCmpMap.jpg
Jim was riding at BC over the weekend so make sure you check out his information
on the talking smack forum:
http://www.smackovermotorsports.com/bb/forumdisplay.php?f=7
Sounds like Jim will be Wednesday. I'll be there late in the day on Thursday.
Brandon Butler, who lives right in the area of BC, says there is a little gas
station/store in Jerusalem. I've never seen it the way I go to BC but it's there
if you need it. Jim's post in the forum above talks about where the closest
place to BC is Hector, about 13 miles from camp. He reminds us about Arkansas
police and their love of radar guns and speeding tickets (I call the 'revenurs),
something that should be emphasized. Jim had warned me about it for years but I still got a speeding ticket my 2nd day after moving down here in '05. 5-7 over
is okay but you're on borrowed time much above that on non-highways.
From Jim Cook about hotels:
The Comfort Inn in Russellville will give us a group rate of $56.99 + tax per night if we book at least 10 rooms. Their regular rate is $64.99. They have a pretty good continental breakfast (make your own waffles).
This is a nice motel (no surprises), and is where Deb and I stay when we have business in Russellville, or a race nearby. There is a Sonic and a Waffle House very close by, and a WalMart just a few blocks away.
The Comfort Inn is where Deb and I have our reservations. We need nine more rooms booked for the Wudi9 Ride before we can all get the discounted rate. When we achieve at least 10 rooms booked for the ride, the rates will be adjusted to reflect our discounted rate. (If you book a room for the rate of $64.95 per night, when we achieve the tenth room booked, your rate will be lowered to $56.95 plus tax per night.)
The Comfort Inn is located on I-40 at exit 84 (AR hwy 331 exit).
Go south and turn right (west) on Parkway to get to the Comfort Inn. The address is 3019 East Parkway Drive.
Their telephone number is 479-967-7500.
If you call and reserve a room at the Comfort Inn, be sure to tell the receptionist that you are booking the room in order to attend "Jim Cook's Wudi9 Ride". This will lock in the discounted rate for you (if we can get ten rooms booked), and is what they are using to count, in order to make up our ten rooms.
From Jeb:
I was asked if there are close places to get stuff like groceries, ice and fuel. I only come into BC from the west, through Russellville so I can only comment on it from that direction. I think the cloesest place is Cagelsville. There is a little gas station/store at the intersection of 105 and 124 there. Appelton is closer but I don't remember seeing much there when driving through.
Lastly, we made a mistake driving out of BC last weekend and wound up on White Oak Mt Road to Appelton. It was a good road for the most part but it's steeper with a few switchbacks. Not tight ones. It's kind of a toss up as to which route I prefer but I'd recommend big rigs for sure come up through Jerusalem. That is a much flatter and straighter road, for that area, at least. I added the White Oak Mt Road route to the GPS file I posted..
End of NEW stuff
I made it down to the Wudi camp this weekend, 2/24-25, with my 4wd Yukon XL and trailer in tow. We drove in to the camp in a driving rainstorm. There's a log close to the trail/road that I didn't pay enough attention to and it bent up the alum flair around my trailer wheels and took out a clearence light. I squeezed through on the way out okay but that needs to be cut back. Otherwise, it was makeable. Some bushes and what not that will brush the sides of wider trailers but not the truck.
The road in is a very gradual downhill slope pretty much all the way to camp. You really don't notice it until you're on the way out so it's not much of a slope. Lots of little water bars and some puddles that worried me looking at them. But they all had solid bottoms and did not present any kind of problems.
Camp was a little tighter than I'd anticipated from just walking around it before. If everyone parks smartly, we should be able to fit a dozen or so rigs like mine in there. There is an access path running around one side of the camp and down the middle. It's not a huge area but, if we use it wisely, it should work pretty well. There was very good cell reception there (I have Sprint but it was roaming) and there are several big trees laying around for firewood. Just one fire pit, though. And I'm sure the rangers won't want us just making fires willy-nilly at each camp spot.
I made 2 GPS tracks and several waypoints. I put them on my website. Click here and save the file to your harddrive. It contains a track from exit 83 off of I-540 in Russellville to Jerusalem and then one from Jerusalem to the main Wudi Camp. I also marked some alternative places to park bigger rigs that we went by on the way in. Send me an email or post on the Talking Smack forum if you have issues, questions, etc about the GPS info.
There are 3 or 4 hotels in Russellville that we saw. They are all right off exit 81 of I-40. The ones we noted are Hampton Inn, Days Inn and Motel 6. No idea if one is better than the others. They are all close together.
I've gotten a few more questions about larger RV's so I want to continue to emphasize that I strongly recommend against trying to get a big rig into the main camp area. I have a 40' DP that I'll take offroad to dirtbike events but I would not dream of trying it in this case.
The RV park that is closest to BC is a couple of miles west of Jerusalem and is called Clear Creek RV park. Looks to be a pasture kind of camp from driving by it at 55mph. I marked that on the above GPS file, too. Brandon Butler has been trying to get some information on the RV park but they have not been returning his calls. So not a lot of information about it, I'm afraid.
Here's a page with maps and driving instructions.
Brock Creek trail map
We can use the "Talking Smack" forum for the Wudi ride discussions.
Here's a link to the
board. Look in the Ride Headquarters forum. You'll have to get an
id if you don't already have one but it's free and easy to do.
I am not contacting anyone for bling this year. Not sure if Jack will bring any or not. I have a handful of things from Cycle Zone KTM left over from last year since everyone left when the winter storm hit and we did not do a give away. I'll bring them with me, if I make it, or get them down there with someone else.
The 9th annual Wudi ride is going to take place at the Brock Creek (BC), Arkansas public riding trails NE of Russellville, AR. See the links above for directions and GPS coordinates. The festivities will start center around the weekend of the March 10th/11th this year. We have not talked about it yet but normally the riding starts on Friday and goes through Mon or Tues. As I mentioned, this is a public riding area so folks can start and end whenever they like this year.
This will be a different kind of Wudi than we've had the last few years. BC has about 35-40 miles of single track trails and it's almost entirely fairly challenging. Big gnarly hills, lots of rocks, lots of off cambers, etc. Even the ATV trails you'll see on the maps are not really beginner friendly in a lot of the riding area. I'd say this is a B rider or better kind of place if you're going to have any fun. Not very kid, wife, beginner friendly. I love the
place to death but it's not for everyone.
There are several camping areas but they are spread out around the riding area and are small. We have a designated camp area but you'll have to drive down an ATV trail/forest road to get in there. I checked it out last weekend and big camping rigs will not want to even try to get back there, at least if you like your rig. My RV is sure not getting in there but my suburban and trailer will make it. Once in the camp area, if we park amongst the tight-ish trees carefully, we can hopefully get 30 or so rigs in there. If it gets full, we'll just have to overflow into some of the other camp or deer camp areas that are dotted around the riding area. But those will be a mile or more from the main camp.
I do not believe there are any hotels closer to the BC riding area than in Russellville and Morrilton. Both should be about 30 miles or so away from the parking area. I always go to BC from the west through Russellville and I know for sure there are a bunch of hotels there. Jim tells me there is a good motel in Morrilton just off the exit from I-40.
We will only have the trail maps to use for trail navigation unless you hook up with someone that knows their way around. The maps are good, though, and it's not hard to find your way around. The Forest Service folks that run the park have told us no arrowing. They are adamant about no races at BC or anything that looks like a race, but will allow this ride if we pay for a permit and out houses at the camp area.
There will be no 2nd area this year, either. My club, the Razorbacks out of Fayetteville, AR, has an enduro just up the road at White Rock Mt the 3rd weekend in March so I'll be going right from Wudi to helping out at the race. Y'all are sure welcome to come on up to the enduro. But I'm pretty sure the club would frown on anyone riding the course as we're trying to get it ready for the race. The public trails at WRM are always open to the public, of course.
These annual WUDI rides happen each year to let the northern types, aka Yankees, get some winter riding in. The only riding they get to do at that time of year is on snowmobiles. WUDI stands for WUDsracer Invitational. "Wudsracer" is Jim's user name on the rec.motorcycles.dirt usenet group, which is where I first got to "know" him. I moved to NW Arkansas in 2005 from MN but Jim is keeping the tradition alive. It's only open to all ya'lls who can come so it's not much of an invitational, actually.
These events started when Jim Cook extended an invitation to my Yankee self and friends to come down south and ride. He's since come to regret the offer but he's too much of a gentleman to turn the northeners down when they come begging each winter. It's grown from there into whatever it is now. This is NOT a full blown spodefest. I always try and round up some sponsors, too, but not sure if I will this year as my attendance is somewhat questionable at this point.
Jim Cook, for those of you who didn't know, owned Smackover Motorsports in scenic Smackover, Ark where he sold GasGas dirtbikes and parts to many very happy customers. I think most of you already know but the dirt bike world took a big hit this year when Smackover Motorsports closed their doors. A huge loss for all us enthusiasts.
On the other Wudi trips over the years to these areas, temps have been mostly from near freezing at night to 50/60+ during the day. We're due for a warm one after the weather we had in 2006 so keep those fingers crossed. Altitude will be up to 3000' so no rejetting should be required. I've ridden the BC trails a lot and they're a lot of fun but sometimes challenging riding.
Email me, link at the bottom of the page, if you want to get on my e-mailing list for this event.
You should run very heavy tubes in both tires. I've run Pirelli MT16 rears/MT44 fronts there with great results. When it's wetter like it has been lately, I've used my old MN standby of Mich S12 rears/Dunlop 756 fronts, mostly because I still I have a big stack of them, I guess. But they work very well, too. There are a lot of sharp rocks here so you'll tear up whatever kind of tire you bring.
Post your questions and suggestions on the Smackover Bulletin Board that I linked to above.
Links:
Click here to go to the 2006 WUDI IX web page.
Click here to go to the 2005 WUDI VII web page.
Click here to go to the 2004 WUDI VI web page.
Click here to go to the 2003 WUDI V web page.
Click here to go to the 2002 WUDI IV web page.
David Jones' RMD page: http://www.spodefest.net/rmd/index.htm
This web site was built by John Brunsgaard aka jeb.
E-Mail:jejb@att.net
