Trip Report Mount Magazine - Byrd's Adventure Center Near Ozark Arkansas

AMS417

"The Ayatollah of rock and rolla"
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Took a trip down to mid-Arkansas over the weekend for my wife's birthday. Stayed in a very nice cabin on Mount Magazine, hot tub on the deck, crazy views. Not a picture taker so you get what you get. Our good friends in the XJ below came along, and brought another of my wifes girlfriends.

Here is the cabin, nice place well maintained and equipped. Two large bedrooms and two large baths. Full kitchen with a pullout sleeper the living room and a nice stone fireplace. Lots of stuff to see and do here, but we ran short of time due to some technical issues with my buddies XJ.

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Here is the only shot I took of the view from the cabin. It was cloudy in the morning, and it was well past dark when we arrived Friday and got back Saturday. Elevation here is around 2700'. Not much to some of you but in the midwest it's a mountain. Missouri's highest peak is only 1772'.

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My wife was kind enough to want to go visit Byrd's Adventure Center on this trip, she regretted it later because we missed several other things she wanted to see due to breakdowns. Byrd's has trails for Jeeps and SxS, also an airstrip (that was hosting a STOL contest while we were there) and is located next to the Mulberry River. The trail system isn't well marked aside from a few main trails and it's only about 20 miles of trail according to the maps. We explored as much as we could and found some creeks and waterfalls that the girls enjoyed. Someone still has not sent me the pics of my Jeep, I will text them a reminder.

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One of the overlooks on a trail at Byrd's.

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Mulberry river at Byrd's, lots of kayaking and fishing here.


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After leaving Byrd's we had 1.5 hour drive back to the cabin. My friend in the XJ mentioned his Jeep making a new "whooshing" noise. I diagnosed a failing bearing someplace in the accessory drive, but without a proper look could say no more than that. The auto parts stores were closed for the day. With no option but to attempt to repair it in the morning, we set out. After stopping for fuel at the base of Mt Magazine the noise had gone from a "whooshing" to sounding like someone shaking rocks in a tin can. I crossed my fingers he would make it up the mountain, but I didn't think we would. He made it about half way and lost the belt along with the power steering pump on a steep narrow section of road. At least now we know what we need to fix, right? I had the tow strap on stand by, hooked him up and started pulling in less than 2 minutes. Tossed him a trail radio and told him to brake to keep the strap tight. Pulled him 5 miles without issue.
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Here is the owner the next day after a parts run degreasing the accessories. I carry plenty of tools, and made the repair in about 20 minutes. We checked all other bearing and installed a new belt. Not an hour later he overheated and boiled over. I found his auxiliary cooling fan not functioning and his coolant was muddy looking. Not a well maintained XJ. We plan to resolve that this weekend. Another parts run for a new electric fan, and a new radiator cap got us rolling again. Drained the muddy coolant and filled with water for now.

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We stopped and swam in the Mulberry on the way home, sit on the gravel and had a couple beers. All in all, it was a good weekend. Plan to head back to this area to do some camping. Lots more wheeling opportunities here with many trails and parks to visit. This weekend the XJ gets a new radiator and a flush, and my TJ gets a new TRE winch rope and fairlead so I can pull out stuck XJ's.

I never miss a chance to bust the XJ guys balls.


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