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Village Creek State Park → Mississippi River State Park
Village Creek State Park to Mississippi River State Park, and a pond at the finish.
Into the St. Francis
The shortest of the first three days, and the one with the best afternoon. You finish early, the pond is open, and there is yoga, live music and stargazing before quiet hours. Marianna is the town hosting you tonight, and it is where tomorrow starts.
Schedule
Everything with a time on it. The start window is 7:00–7:30 AM.
| Time | What | Where | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00–8:00 AM | Coffee | Village Creek SP | Pork Belly |
| 6:00–8:00 AM | Breakfast | Village Creek SP | Tacker's Shake Shack |
| 7:00–7:30 AM | Start window | Village Creek SP | — |
| 9:00 AM | Finish line opens | Mississippi River SP | — |
| 12:00–5:00 PM | Fishing at Ranger Pond, poles provided | Mississippi River SP | Park interpreters |
| 4:00 PM | Yoga | Mississippi River SP | Jackie Dean |
| 5:30–7:00 PM | Dinner | Mississippi River SP | Chuck Ligon |
| 5:30–7:00 PM | Live music | Mississippi River SP | Shag & Alpo |
| 6:00 PM | Yoga, second session | Mississippi River SP | Jackie Dean |
| 7:00 PM | Stargazing | Mississippi River SP | Park staff |
| 9:00 PM | Quiet hours | — | — |
Map and profile
Markers, aid and cutoffs
| Mile | Marker | Type | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Village Creek State Park | Start | |
| 18.8 | Delta Q & Deli, Forrest City | Aid station | 7:30 AM–10:30 AM. Aid 1. |
| 34.3 | Levee Aid | Aid station | 8:00 AM–1:00 PM. Aid 2. Sandwich bar. |
| 47.3 | Off the Square Cafe | Store | Marianna. |
| 50.2 | Mississippi River State Park | Finish |
Mississippi River State Park
The only night of the week with a pond to finish in and a sky worth staying up for.
You are camping inside St. Francis National Forest, which the Forest Service describes as the only place in the National Forest System where the public can reach the Mississippi River shoreline from a national forest. It is about twenty-two thousand acres, a fraction of the million-plus acres of its sister Ozark National Forest, and President Eisenhower created it by proclamation in November 1960.
It sits on the southern end of Crowley's Ridge, so the country you ride tomorrow runs along the crest of the same ridge you came down on Tuesday, and then drops you at the river.
- Address
- 2955 State Highway 44, Marianna, AR 72360
- Walkable
- The visitor center and the lake. Marianna is a few miles up Highway 44.
- Quiet hours
- 9:00 PM
What is here
- Bear Creek Lake, 625 acres
- The Marianna Joint Agency Visitor Center, which houses both Arkansas State Parks and US Forest Service staff, open 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Trails, including a one-mile interpretive loop around the lake
If you have an hour
- Ranger Pond — Park interpreters set up from noon. The park provides the poles.
- The Bear Creek Lake nature trail — A mile, with interpretive posts.
- Stargazing at seven — With park staff. There is very little light out here and it shows.
Marianna
The town that feeds you Thursday morning, and the reason Thursday starts well.
What it is now
Marianna has been the seat of Lee County since 1873. It was laid out in 1848 as Walnut Ridge and renamed four years later. The country around it grows cotton, and the town holds the Lon Mann Cotton Research Station, which the University of Arkansas has run here since 1926, along with a working gin.
The courthouse square is the town, and it is worth the few minutes it takes to ride around it. Two blocks of Main and two of Poplar are on the National Register as the Marianna Commercial Historic District, seventy structures with forty-eight of them contributing. The Hayes and Drake building at 38 South Poplar is elaborate Italianate work from the 1880s and one of the oldest things standing.
Breakfast Thursday is at First Baptist, on Main Street, on the square.
The James Beard Foundation gave Jones Bar-B-Q Diner an America's Classics award in 2012, the first James Beard award of any kind to come to Arkansas. Harold Jones is the fourth generation of his family to run it. The family has been at this since at least the 1910s, first at a place called the Hole in the Wall and in the current building since 1964. It is believed to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state.
He starts prep at midnight, opens around seven, and closes when the meat runs out, which is often before eleven. It is one man and one pit.
Two hundred of us would end his day before it started. Go and look at it, and understand what you are looking at, and let him serve the people who are there every week.
Eat and drink
- Off The Square Cafe and Bar, 25 S Poplar St — On the square. Open Thursday from eleven.
- Ameca Mexican, 362 W Chestnut St
- Spice and Slice, 186 Forrest Ave
If you have an hour
- The Lee County Courthouse, 15 E Chestnut St — Built in 1936 alongside the 1890 courthouse it was meant to replace, so the two stand together.
- The commercial historic district — Two blocks each way off the square. Arkansas Heritage publishes a walking tour of it.
Forrest City
Wednesday's one real town, on the western slope of the ridge.
What it is now
Forrest City is the seat of St. Francis County, laid out in 1869 around a railroad construction camp and incorporated the next year. It sits on the western slope of Crowley's Ridge, which is about three miles wide here.
Al Green was born in Forrest City in 1946.
Holy Grounds Community Coffeehouse, 620 E Broadway St, opens at 7:30 and is largely volunteer-run. Delta Q & Deli, 1112 N Washington St, opens at eleven.
After you finish
Everything on the schedule from the moment the finish line opens.
| Time | What | Where | Who |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00–5:00 PM | Fishing at Ranger Pond, poles provided | Mississippi River SP | Park interpreters |
| 4:00 PM | Yoga | Mississippi River SP | Jackie Dean |
| 5:30–7:00 PM | Dinner | Mississippi River SP | Chuck Ligon |
| 5:30–7:00 PM | Live music | Mississippi River SP | Shag & Alpo |
| 6:00 PM | Yoga, second session | Mississippi River SP | Jackie Dean |
| 7:00 PM | Stargazing | Mississippi River SP | Park staff |
| 9:00 PM | Quiet hours | — | — |
Weather and medical
We ride in rain. If lightning is near we shelter, and every host location has a designated indoor space for weather that turns serious.
- Medical
- UAMS is on site. They can assist immediately and connect you to any local hospital or emergency services as necessary.
