2016 Dying Leaves Ride

Post date: Jan 21, 2016 4:14:13 PM

Well my friends,

Since we mostly got rained out in 2015 for our special Dying Leaves Ride to Petit Jean State Park, we have decided to repeat the same trip in 2016.  And I have just contacted Mather Lodge to see about availability and have good news.  For the weekend November 4th and 5th, they have a decent selection of rooms as follows:

10 – Overnight Duplex style cabins

  1 – Double Room

17 – Single Rooms

Now in 2015 we concentrated in staying in rooms in the Lodge and didn’t consider any of the cabins.  Now the majority of these rooms only had 1-queen size bed with just 4-5 rooms with two beds, which presented problems later for those of us who wanted to share a room with someone other than a spouse. 

However in looking at the Overnight Duplex cabins (see below), I think these would be a better fit for us, even for those of us who want to bring a spouse:

The Overnight Duplex cabins are one building with two rentable sides.

• Two full size beds and bathroom, maximum occupancy of four

• Interior arrangement is one room similar to a motel room

• TV with satellite hookup

• Fireplace

• mini-fridge

• microwave

• coffee maker

And the nice thing is that they are only $85 a night, $10 more than the rooms in the lodge.  Since none of us had ever stayed in the lodge, we had no idea of size of the rooms. But Greg and Sue Mortimer did manage to make it to the lodge this year, and Greg said the rooms were pretty rustic and small and they only had a small shower in the bathroom.

Here is a link that provides more detail for the Duplex cabins:

http://www.petitjeanstatepark.com/accommodations/cabins/overnight-duplex.aspx

This means we could rent 5 duplex cabins which would accommodate 20 riders or 10 couples along with maybe a few of the single lodge rooms?  And I have been told that each of these cabins has paved parking close.

And Mark and I were talking about all of the hiking trails in the park, which brought up the idea of possibly making this a 3 night stay for some of the hikers in the group to spend an extra day in the park before heading home?  I’ve attached a pdf map of the park showing the Overnight Duplex cabins (#20-31) at the entrance to the lodge along with some trails.  When you open it, select View and rotate it clockwise to get a better view.  If you want a better description of all the various hiking trails take a look at this link:

http://www.arkansasstateparks.com/!userfiles/pdfs/PJSP_TrailsMapUpdate_lowres.pdf

So why don’t we get a quick headcount for those interested and we’ll get some rooms and cabins blocked to be reserved later.  And let us know if you would like:

• 1. A cabin

  2. A single Lodge Room

  3. The one double Lodge Room

  4. And if you would like to stay a extra day and spend 3 nights in the Park

The basic itinerary is to ride to Petit Jean Friday, take a nice day ride through the Ozarks Saturday and then ride home Sunday…..except for those who want to spend Sunday in the Park and ride home Monday.  And this year Mark promises we will not have any rain for this ride.

Rick