Just got back last night from 4 days of awesome riding. We got to do 2 new trails: Little Blakely and VISTA trail, along with the Womble and then stopped by Eureka Springs and rode at Lake Leatherwood on the way home. Little Blakely was very tight and technical and had some blowdown so it made for some very challenging riding. The VISTA trail was like a race track. 10 miles one way so over and back was 20 miles. This is a well planned trail with reasonable grades and built in bridges. There is some steep climbing but most of the climbs were short. This trail will eventually be 30-40 miles llong when they finish all the phases. it is well signed and is a "must ride" if in the area.
We did our long ride on Saturday with 40 miles on the Womble. The Womble is an IMBA Epic and has it all. Steep climbs, narrow singletrack with exposure, and screaming downhills, twisty flats with lots of narrow creek crossings to splash your feet. It reminds me of the Monarch Crested trail without the elevation. It has the same type of narrow single track where you better keep your bike on the trail or it's going to be a long way down and you'd better be catching trees.
Lake Leatherwood at Eureka Springs was awesome as usual. We rode about everything we could find including a new trail right next to the lake they are calling the fishing trail. Lots of technical rock slabs that demand bike handling skill and ledge climbing. The trip was well worth the effort to get out of the deep freeze and get out of the snow and ride some prime singletrack. We're talking about trying to do the trip again next year in December.