How to Ride Mad Hatter Trail
Mad Hatter is a trail located deep inside the “Wonderland” trail network close to Blowing Springs. This area is often overlooked by most visitors to the area as it is off the beaten path from most of the Bentonville trails. Being outside of the main Bentonville Trail area this network is best accessed on an ebike if you are riding Bentonville. Or you can park at the Veterans Memorial Parking lot. This trail starts at the end of a Cul De Sac on Skyline dr. The upper part of the trail is labeled as a blue trail, the lower is appropriately labelled as Black Diamond trail.
Trail description:
This trail was built so there is little to no pedal strokes needed to clear the features (if you are comfortable with the speed).
The start of the trail is a small table top, you then drop into a deep berm which you can carry a lot of speed through, next is a wooden bridge where the more skilled riders try to clear the top of (you will need some good speed and the ability to pop to clear this), the back side of the bridge is steep and rolls you into another large sweeping berm that you can carry a lot of speed through, if you stay high in the berm there is a slight lip at the end, that sends you into the next 2 berms, after that is the 2nd wooden bridge which has a slight hump in the middle that you can pop to get some air off of, next is the a much bigger table top jump than the first one so be prepared to get some good air, the next jump is slightly smaller but steeper so you will get some good air off of it, after that is a step down that send you into a slight right turn into the last jump which is the biggest jump on Upper Mad Hatter, this jump is made to slow you down as it is the conclusion of the Upper Mad Hatter (Blue Square).
You can end here and climb back up if you take the sharp U Turn onto Woz Up to Through the Looking Glass which brings you back to the Cul De Sac (don’t miss the sharp right turn after you go under the bridge).
If you want to continue down Mad Hatter (Lower) this is where the trail turns into a Black Diamond trail and all the features are not rollable.
Take the first berm into the lower section, then there is a step down which starts to build the speed you are going to need to clear the large wooden drop (I’ve seen a few people throw a pedal stroke into the drop the first time they hit it as the landing is very long so there is little risk of overshooting it), after that you go into the large wooden step up to end the trail, this drop and jump is bigger than all the rest of the jumps on the trail so if you are not clearing the jumps on upper part you may want to stay on Upper Mad Hatter.
To climb back up you make a sharp right at the bottom and climb up Through the Looking Glass to the Cul De Sac.
Other Notable parts:
Area 51 (Black technical jump line with a large optional drop)
Ace of Spades (Blue flowy berm trail with fun pump sections)
Sally Trail (Blue technical trail with many up and down rock gardens and some scenic bluffs)
Multiple Swimming Holes