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+ 92

Little Sugar Epic

Mountain Biking Trail

Moderate
36.33 mi
4,103 ft
Make the most of this incredible trail system with this long-distance loop.

The Little Sugar trail system occupies the northwestern corner of Northwest Arkansas's ever-expanding trail system. In fact, this spider web of singletrack runs all the way to the Arkansas/Missouri border. With the southern tip of the trail network reaching into the no man's land between Bella Vista and Bentonville, this trail system provides one of the best opportunities near Bentonville to get out and stretch your legs on a long-distance cross-country ride.

To make the most out of this incredible trail system, follow this 36-mile loop dubbed the "Little Sugar Epic." While Northwest Arkansas might look flat when you look at it in FATMAP, you'll still climb a whopping 4,200 vertical feet on this ride. Epic, indeed

This loop is anchored by the Tunnel Vision trail. Tunnel Vision itself is a 25-mile loop through the network, but in this rendition it has been extended by an additional 11 miles by tacking on the Down Under loop, the Little Sugar Connector, Technical Difficulty, and Tweety Bird. Despite the additions, this loop does very little backtracking, making for a fantastic ride combination that's easy to navigate.

These trails provide fantastic intermediate riding that swoops and flows up and down the hillsides of Northwestern Arkansas. This flowy machine-built singletrack is largely non-technical, although some tough obstacles can crop up in the rockier sections of the terrain. In these locations, you'll usually find an easier ride-around option if you so prefer. Or, you can stop to session the random jump lines and ledge drops sprinkled throughout the network, providing a little pizzaz to your long-distance trail ride.

The corners are veritably filled with berms. No expense was spared as the artists crafted this sinuous track with their machines. The trail snakes through beautiful forest glades, along river banks, and past lakes, before popping out into the next neighborhood. Then the route abruptly crosses a road, dropping back into a strip of woods that separates two housing developments.

It's truly incredible how the trail builders and designers placed such fantastic long-distance stretches of singletrack between houses and residences. In some spots, you're basically riding right along somebody's property boundary to make a connection to the next stretch of woodland. In most places in the country this wouldn't fly, but apparently, the local advocates have this system down. It's the same one that they already employed to create the Back 40 Trail System several years ago.

If you want to crank out miles and miles of flowy singletrack, there's no better place than Little Sugar! Written by Greg Heil
Created By
Strava Routes

Route and Elevation

Segments

NameDistanceElev. Diff.Avg. Grade
Lampo's Screech0.28 mi72 ft2.4%
Amazing Berms to High Speeds0.46 mi-128 ft-5.0%
Cedar Crest climb from rocky ravine0.67 mi223 ft6.3%
Cunningham Drop-in0.40 mi-131 ft-5.9%
Through the Tunnel0.49 mi-46 ft-1.8%
Virgin Territory0.80 mi-79 ft-1.2%
Tweety Bird Double Green Diamond Clockwise1.62 mi79 ft0.0%
Getin' Ill on the Way to Ilford0.46 mi141 ft5.8%
to the top0.32 mi128 ft7.5%
Oldham to Riordan Descent0.70 mi-220 ft-5.6%
Gravitas DHWC round 10.60 mi-187 ft-5.9%
Sugar Creek overhang -- Northbound parallel to Berksdale Golf0.80 mi52 ft0.5%
Playgrounds n' Pain1.06 mi210 ft3.8%
punchy little bugger0.25 mi102 ft7.4%
Lacets de GV (ccw)0.83 mi-115 ft-0.7%
Flappin Gums0.60 mi-121 ft-3.5%
Churchill Downs to the falls0.72 mi-148 ft-3.9%
Respect Your Elders0.86 mi-59 ft-0.9%
Pump it and dump it0.25 mi-59 ft-4.3%
Par 31.12 mi233 ft3.9%
Arthritis Unite Us0.89 mi151 ft2.9%
Silver Alert0.79 mi-118 ft-0.6%
Blue Hair Don't Care1.35 mi-210 ft-2.9%
They've gone Rogue3.03 mi-220 ft-0.2%
Rogue 10.49 mi-151 ft-5.8%
G-out of glory0.64 mi-112 ft-3.3%
Shut Up Legs!0.27 mi95 ft6.5%
What Beautiful Off-Camber! 0.51 mi-98 ft-3.6%
The Wizards of Albion3.84 mi282 ft1.4%
cullen climb0.82 mi203 ft4.7%
Cullen Hills0.49 mi167 ft6.3%
caseys commith0.39 mi118 ft5.7%
Timbercrest Climb0.37 mi115 ft5.8%
Glasgow to 2791.79 mi144 ft0.3%
Down and out. Glasgow to Highlands0.43 mi-112 ft-4.5%
Down from on High(land)0.87 mi-164 ft-3.5%
Wide Open (Judy to Chelsea)0.47 mi-135 ft-5.4%
it hurts0.64 mi194 ft5.7%
It's Not a Spray Tan(yard), I promise0.88 mi200 ft1.2%
Pieny Park Climb0.61 mi197 ft6.0%
Las Tres Putas3.15 mi213 ft1.3%
Down for this (Retford to Chelsea)0.25 mi-125 ft-9.4%
Hampton Hillbilly Hoot0.56 mi-164 ft-5.6%
Fernland Flow0.62 mi-138 ft-4.2%
Gotta get down to get up0.70 mi148 ft3.0%
Prescott to Longridge0.45 mi102 ft4.3%
Longridge Luge0.38 mi-135 ft-6.7%
Lots of curves from Longridge to Howland1.01 mi157 ft0.3%
#DontBeALeslie1.04 mi-187 ft-1.8%
No Sand on Sandridge0.32 mi-131 ft-7.7%