Saturday, September 6, 2025

Bella Vista Ride

 We had done biking to Bella Vista on 6th September 2025. It is located near Bentonville, Arkansas State.

Bike Location

Name: Bella Vista (Razorback Greenway)

Distance: 9 miles from Walton Gym (approx.)

Total Biking distance: 18 miles

Elevation Gain: 1000 ft.

Bike Team: Amita, Pragya(Amita's Daughter) , Abdul, Abhijeet, Hanumantha, Nishant, Zhen and me

Biking Experience:

After doing so many hikes, Abdul (who did only 1 hike) felt bored of hikes and want to do something different, so we decided to go Biking. This was our first time doing something different. Thanks to Amita we all downloaded the app needed to book the bike from one of the walmart bike stations. All set for thrilling experience. We reached the parking deck opposite to Sam Walton Hall around 8:45 am. As usual Hanumantha, Zhen ignored our previous instructions to get water bottle. However Abdul, who is over cautious has got two bottles as he is unaware which bottle will fit to the water bottle stand on the bike, came to the rescue to lend one bottle to Hanumantha. Then comes our Hero Nishant who has come fully prepared with his own bike helment, nice coat and sports outfit. He too has extra water bottle. We all went to the bike station, took sometime to book the bike and take it from the station. However we realized we need to get helmets and they are in the lobby of walmart building. We forgot to carry the Id card to get into the building. But we have Zhen, who couldnt find the parking deck(had difficulty finding the building) parked somewhere else and came walking to where we parked. 

Zhen got the helmets and we all started to Walton Fitness Center where we are supposed to meet Amita and Pragya. Amita called me while we are about to start from our station. As we are too excited about the bike and exploring its features we started late and have not reached yet the fitness center. Amita called again to check where we are as even by walk we should have reached them. I am not good at directions especially all the buildings near the home office, Amita gave up and asked us to wait and she will find and get to us. As we know Amita very studious, found where we are and finally we all met. Forgot to mention about the bikes, these are electric bikes and so with simple peddling we can ride the bike and the electric power boosts to make the ride the bike so smooth and easy. Only Pragya who is a pro biker along with Amita has non electric bike. As expected Amita and Pragya were leading and they are also our path finders/ coaches. They were riding so fast, we were struggling to match their speed and upon special request(as you know it is difficult to convince Amita) they slowed down and we all were biking in one file through the beautiful roads/paths of Bentonville downtown. Have never been to this part of Bentonville and it was amazing to cross the streets amidst wonderful buildings. The paths are perfect for biking, we have a great climate with cool breeze , sun shine and couldnt ask for more. While we were biking, there was a small incident where Nishant tripped off. sorry not Nishant, it was Zhen. Getting Old, am always confused with Zhen and Nishant names. We just paused for sometime Zhen to recover and as usual I gave my free advice this time on how to ride a bike to the team during our break. 
We started again and being electric have not felt much work out while biking. There were couple of tunnels we went into to cross the highways and it was amazing experience. First tim felt great where cars, trucks have to wait for us to pass by. Always was on other side of the coin(used to wait for bikers to go first) , now our turn to be on bike and look at all those cars waiting on us. Similar feeling when there is traffic jam on other side of the road and we drive smooth without any hassle. I know it sounds mean, but thats real life. The bike trail was adjacent to our previous hike Slaughter Penn, we have river stream to our right all through our bike path/trail. We were slowing down/ picking speed in between to catch up with other members to have chit chat about weather, bike, past experience etc and slowly moving forward.
We met many bikers, serious runners, kids in strollers along our path. Good to see many faces on the trail. We reached the spot where we initially planned as our destination. There was lot of grass and shade and river stream. We parked our bikes and Abdul, the stylish among our group got busy taking his selfies, hiring photographer Abhijeet for his stunts, ignoring others. After the photo session, we went near the stream and had fun throwing pebbles into the water and counting the time it is bouncing on the water. Finally we concluded Abdul throw was good, the pebble was good but water was not good for pebble to bounce. Nishant, Abhijeet and me, sports persons in our team have done decent throws. Amita tried too but gave up before it is too late. we then decided to take a team picture, while we were waiting for someone to take a picture of us, we decided to go to Thai Basil for lunch. We got the picture and as we were riding electric bike we felt it was too easy and want to go further not considering Pragya the strongest amongst us who is riding non electric one. We continued further, where there is a lake near by. Unfortunately after reaching there we realized it is closed and had to turn back. 

At this point some of us decided to turn off electric and use our energy to bike to do some work out. This made us to slow down and we slowly, steadily retraced our path to where we started. What was easy earlier turned difficult now without the electric. Switching bike gears, constant peddling slowly able to reach the entrance of the trail where we started. Took a short break to relax and Abhijeet seized the chance to market his Samsung phone and almost got added one more(Pragya) to Samsung admirers by showcasing the pictures taken. Everyone was tired and hungry. Abdul, whom rules never obey - was on hurry to attend lunch invite had his own route going through the closed paths. We followed Amita our guide , crossed the streets and finally reached our bike parking stations. we returned the bike, decided to meet at Thai Basil. We reached the restaurant, had good food and left. Had an amazing experience and fun time with the team. All is Well.


Sunday, April 27, 2025

Slaughter Pen Trail

We had done hike to Slaughter Pen on 27th April 2025 . It is located near Bentonville, Arkansas State.
Hike Location

Name: Slaughter Pen Trail

Distance: 12 miles from Walton Gym (approx.)

Total hiking distance: 4.8 miles

Elevation Gain: 442 ft.

Hike Team: Amita, Indrajeet, Ishan, Nuthan, Abhijeet, Zhen, Shawn and me.

Hiking Experience:

After long waiting for a good weather we finally planned for first hike of this season. As usual we got good response from everyone and ready for the hike, however weather had second thoughts and let us down(has been raining the entire weekend). As we dont give up, we plan for next weekend(27th April). Weather forecast also was looking good. Finally the day arrived. Abhijeet and me reached Zhen's place by 10:15 am, and we left for parking lot in Abhijeet's car. Shawn directly left for the trail parking lot(came to know later why he went separately). Amita and Family invited their friend Nuthan and they all came directly to the parking lot. The trail was near Bentonville and it took just about 20 mins to reach the place. After scouting the place to find the trail, we realized we are not at right spot, thanks to All Trails app, we got the cordinates of the exact location, which was 2.5 miles ahead. we reached there, able to find our trail. Weather was good, no Sun and just a light breeze. We started hike around 11:15 am. Indrajeet was the only one who has been on this trail before and also shared the history that the trail is famoud for biking and the former President has done biking here. 

Initially we started on a cement road and little disappointed that it was not natural trail. As we took a right turn could see gravel road ahead. We set on All American Trail which is a green blzed trail and wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The trail is shared by hikers, bikers so need to watchful of bikers and give them way. There are so many small wooden bridges on the trail to encourage bikers and make the trail more challenging and fun to them. Unfortunately our photographer Shawn has not brought his pro equipment. As we all know, when people meet during weekend, first several minutes goes on enquiring, talking as there will be so much to catchup. On top of that we have a new member in our group , Nuthan who recently moved to Bentonville. So it started with Shawn's military outfit and his peculiar boots. Nuthan was very fond of them and this led to our promotional tour. Soon Abhijeet started showing the Samsung photography enhancements. Then we scaled our hike to next level with help of Ishan's Drone. With all these discussions along with good weather we didnt realize/focus on the slope of the trail and for next half an hour we are having great time and enjoying the view of the stream flowing to the right side of the trail. On left side we have construction going on building more and more wooden bridges for bikers to do somersaults. aWe reached an open arean filled with lot of green grass and decided to give chance for Ishan to promote/show his drone. The drone was very good and he has great control in flying it and safe landing it. Son this turned out as a science class on how drone works, technology behind it and precautions to be taken(based on Abhijeet's experiences). We took some pictures with drone and Ishan landed the drone after a catchy Hindi Phrase from Amita "Ped pe hatak jayega" (gets stuck in trees). Seems like they had experience in the past and had to climb the tree to get it back. 

We continued our hike and were having three serious conversations , one between Zhen and Abhijeet about chakras, tattoos etc, second Shawn and Nuthan, with Nuthan still admiring out team and third Amita and Ishan typical mother and child conversations. We hiked further in between admiring the courage and endurance of the bikers and giving way to them. we reached a point where saw a stone man(statue) and decided to take picture there. Once again Ishan came to rescue with his drone. After we took a photo, we wanted to explore more with drone but Amita cautioned again "Ped pe hatak jayega" and dropped the idea. As we are doing the loop we came close to our starting point and Shawn suddenly mentioned he has lunch plan with his friends and need to leave. Has not mentioned this earlier and that is why came directly to the parking lot. Almost we hiked for 1hr 15 mins by this time and rest of us decided to continue further. Now groups got changed with Abhijeet and Nuthan leading the hike , Zhen and me one group and Amita and Ishan another. Indrajeet has been shuffling between ours and Amita's like people switch between rooms in zoom call. The trail was steep and gave us a good work out with Sun started peeking in.
 The trail has multiple routes at many places, but we were able to stay on course with help of the map and Indrajeet's good sense of direction. Witnessed great skills from Amita to motivate and encourage Ishan to continue the hike.The trail has many u-turns and became narrow. We reached the same path where started earlier and could find the big mushroom to the tree trunk and water stream this time flowing to our left. We saw turtles taking rest on one of the fallen trees. We took pictures at start of the trail and soon reached the parking lot by 2:00 pm. We all were hungry after a good hike. We had two variety of Biryanis, Salad for our lunch. Abhijeet brought home made Biryani which was very good. Felt good after having the lunch. Left the parking lot and reached to our places by 2:40 PM. All is Well.