“What we’re doing here is not like what’s going on in Northwest Arkansas — not in trail growth, not in cycling adoption, anything like that. [But] compared to most places around, like your average place, Little Rock’s doing pretty good.” That’s Frank Webber, owner of Shift Modern Cyclery in downtown Little Rock, and I found his sentiments to ring true after riding in Little Rock.
While the Arkansas mountain biking boom may have begun in a small town in the state’s northwest corner, the capital city (and the largest metro area in the state with 750,000 residents) has been playing catch-up over the last 5+ years. In fact, the trail development in Little Rock landed not one but three trails on our list of 5 of the best MTB trail systems built in Arkansas since your last visit.
But Little Rock’s story goes much deeper.
The Nature Conservancy kickstarted modern trail development in the region…