A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

Dirt, Jumps, and Secret Spots: Your Insider's Guide to Hand Cut Hollow

• Visit Bentonville • Season 9 • Episode 25

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Get the inside scoop on Hand Cut Hollow—Bentonville’s signature hand-built trail system—from the man who helped bring it to life. Uriah Nazario, VP of Soft Surface Trails at Trailblazers and lifelong local, shares the story behind this 16-mile masterpiece, designed for flow, progression, and connection to nature. Learn why Hand Cut Hollow stands apart, how to ride it right, and what to pack before you drop in. With expert tips, trail history, and a look at how this system fits into Bentonville’s 500+ miles of rideable trails, this episode is your ultimate guide to Hand Cut Hollow in the Mountain Biking Capital of the World. 

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Nat Ross:

Welcome to A New American Town. I'm your host, nat Ross. Today we're joined by Uriah Nazario. He's a lifelong Northwest Arkansas native and the VP of soft surface trail construction with we Are At Trailblazers. So you've got a background in architecture, years and years of trail building experience, tons of advocacy, work. You've helped shape trails and trail projects across the region and made a big influence on trail builders in general. So let's start talking about several systems and trailblazers, as well as Handcut Hollow Trail System one of my favorites and how these trails can best enhance folks' visits to Bentonville. So, uriah, super pumped to have you here, tell me about your passion for trails, where it came from and how you ended up as the VP of soft surface trails at Trailblazers.

Uriah Nazario:

Oh man, thanks, nat, thanks for having me. I got into this position kind of as a fluke. It was really, uh, just me volunteering to take care of some trails that were kind of getting dilapidated around here and one thing kind of led to another. It started turning into a professional career and started with that and volunteering and advocating for trails. It just led me to a position with uh trailzers, which is pretty much the nonprofit development side for Oz Trails, and so we help oversee a lot of development of the Greenway and the soft surface trails.

Nat Ross:

Well, soft surface one of my favorites. And for those folks that are coming into the Bentonville area, they're doing their research, doing their homework. There's tons of soft surface trails that make Bentonville area. They're doing their research, doing their homework. There's tons of soft surface trails that make Bentonville famous. But also the interconnectivity between the cities and you. Growing up here, I think that's something that was pretty unique. That's been a big part of your life.

Uriah Nazario:

Absolutely. That's. One thing that really sets us apart is being able to stay in town and then ride directly to trails. There's no shuttle needed, there's no, you know, getting up and repacking and heading to a trailhead. You can simply ride to it, and we've worked really, really hard to make the connectivity to all the major trail systems around town. So really, with that and the Greenway, you can ride up to about 500 miles of trail.

Nat Ross:

And I noticed the trails have been packed since that New York Times article came out sending everybody to Bentonville. We want more people to come. The zone that I saw you last and the trail network system that I saw you last working was Handcut Hollow, with your crew. Fill us in on how special Handcut Hollow is, where it is and how to get there.

Uriah Nazario:

So Handcut, it's kind of my hidden gem and the place where I go when things get pretty chaotic around town.

Uriah Nazario:

But it's a beautiful plot of land that we developed a trail system on it to be kind of the hidden gem to be, you know, for the adventurous that want to get a little bit further outside. And it's just a short ride from slaughter pin and you can connect to it and then there's 16 miles of trail over there and if you really want to get away or feel like you've gone well into the, the woods is you, you get out to hand cut hollow and it's really it's got its own kind of unique, unique characteristics to it because you've got a lot of hand-cut trail that people meticulously worked hard to literally pick axes and shovels and trail tools, mcleods, everything to sculpt these trails and this trail experience to where it was a minimal impact on nature, to where it was a minimal impact on nature but it was a big impact on the rider engagement and how you could really just go out, get as many miles as you wanted to chew off of and then easily ride back to your place and town.

Nat Ross:

Great. So there's a special, unique feature right outside of the parking lot there that has some history and heritage too and describe kind of like where the trailhead for a lot of folks to start, if they want to just drive and start from the trailhead and go that route, what that looks like yeah, there's some unique characteristics and on Punka Hall Road there's an old schoolhouse there that you know we we actually allow people to to reserve it and use it for events.

Uriah Nazario:

We love to help. You know other other nonprofits that that want to station up there and or if we have a race event or something like that, it works great. But it's a it's an old school house that was that was completely renovated and it makes for a great hangout spot or someplace where you know if, if Anybody gets separated, they can easily meet back at. It's the base of the trails, essentially, and then directly above it you have the start hub, which is an old barn silo, and then you ride out of that and it's just several gravity trails that you can just pick and choose.

Nat Ross:

That hub is kind of a great feature and it's something that you guys do all across the region and that allows folks to become more skilled, more adept with their skill set and progress. So what do you see in the future at Handcut Hollow and what would you like to do when you get free time to go to make that even more?

Uriah Nazario:

of a special place. You know, trails are an evolution. They're an evolution you get your first trail portion built and then it slowly goes through the weathering process and it slowly gets its own kind of characteristics to it. But we also are able to see what some of the things that aren't properly working for that trail, and so we go in and trailblazers with our crew kind of massage and redirect some of the trails. And especially after last year's storm events, you know we went through and we really had the ability to kind of dissect each trail and figure out what were the main things that we were missing the mark on.

Uriah Nazario:

And now we've got an incredible spectrum of trails from, you know, from green, from beginner to intermediate to expert level, and it's really just because they're shorter runs you can just pick and choose and continue to just, you know, really get a full realm of like a full spectrum of riding styles in there, from technical to single track.

Uriah Nazario:

To, you know, a traverse trail around that goes around the entire property. To, you know, there's even gravel routes through there if you want to ride gravel. And then we've got some some really advanced, uh, technical sections and then there's a secret, uh little zone four in there for people that want to test themselves, and it's, it's one of those trails that it's, it's specially, specially built, uh, that it's really to see who is probably the most proficient at climbing and technical moves and who has the ticker, you know, to push them through and get them all the way through. And it's, and it's a. If you can go through without having to dab or touch the ground, then it's, it's a, it's a victory, because there's only a handful of people that have ever done it.

Nat Ross:

Was that a special Jersey at one point in time, Like if you were to do it without dabs from start to finish? Was that a Jersey that was awarded for Hank?

Uriah Nazario:

Ahala. So there was. There was never anybody that really tried to claim a jersey for so long that we kind of forgot about it. And because it is, it's it's such a trying uh trail and so and it's and it really it takes you having to to really be uh precise on your bike and uh and so. But the thing was is, if somebody tried to claim it, we wanted to make sure that they could do it, but we never had a good way to make sure that they were being honest about their ability there, man, I love it.

Nat Ross:

Well, one thing about Handcut Hollow. You did mention the gravel connector. Can you speak of the uniqueness of how you started the gravel connectors and what gravel connectors purpose is? Because folks, if they're also a green rider or a first-time mountain biker, they can ride from hand cut and ride, like you were saying, the gravel roads, yeah, um, and be have their own, go their own pace, their own trajectory and while their group or their friend group sessions at the other trails yeah, no, it's.

Uriah Nazario:

You know, gravel is really unique and we're really fortunate. You know, growing up it was always like when are they going to pay this? And now, and when you get more into cycling, you're like I hope they never paved this or why did they pay for that? But you know we, you know we've got our greenways and that's a. That's a great way to exercise and get out, you know, without having to interfere with traffic.

Uriah Nazario:

But if you want to start to get more adventurous, we've got thousands upon thousands of miles of gravel roads and, and so what we do is we try to interconnect, intertwine these gravel sections and then have, you know, these mountain bike trails surrounding a lot of these. So it's really a kind of a choose your own, you know, adventure, but what's neat about it is if you know if the time it gets away from you or you got to get back and the sun's going down or something like that, you can get on these gravel routes and hightail it back quickly, you know. So it just kind of gives that that amenity, I guess, to being able to kind of pick and choose how you want to route.

Nat Ross:

Absolutely Uriah. How about some insider tips when visiting Handcut Hollow?

Uriah Nazario:

Insider tips definitely like come with strong, fresh legs.

Uriah Nazario:

A lot of the times, because there's a lot of the remarks I've gotten from folks visiting is they were having so much fun that time got away from them.

Uriah Nazario:

Or they chewed off way more mileage than they're expecting. Or even fans of the gravity trails, they did so many you know laps, uh, because they're they're so easy to do that, uh, you know they, uh they kind of wore themselves out, maybe for for multiple days, um, but it's, it's that fun trails, it's that fun of riding and that unique experience there. But, uh, but yeah, it's for somebody that's coming out say, you know, especially when we start to get in the hotter months, to definitely be leery or be privy of the water scenario and to make sure and pack more than you think you'll need and you know, have a good flat tire kit and you know, just make sure that this is a place where you, even though you are close to down to you're also in the woods and so just make note of that. And sometimes you don't have cell phone service in some of the deeper haulers down there. So it's kind of one of those things that have the mindset that you're going to be on an adventure.

Nat Ross:

Love it. Where are we going to find you? In Handcut Hollow, you might not give us away your deep trade secrets, but where do you to ride you I?

Uriah Nazario:

have to ride, uh, my hero zero and interplanet janet uh trails out there, uh, because it's it's just they're the fastest, funnest uh for me. I love uh fast jumps and rocky sections and stuff like that.

Nat Ross:

So, um, um, and and there is some, maybe some secret uh, dirt jumps down there, if you look so, um, and I did see, I brought a person out the other day to ride the trails and they were fascinated with the repurposing of the surfaces out there.

Uriah Nazario:

Yeah, it's uh. You know we're doing as much as we can to keep these trails low maintenance and sustainable, and sometimes doing that is doing less. On some of these hand-cut sections With native materials, a lot of times these will help sustain long-term. We get so much rain in the springtime that it can be really difficult on some of our wider trails, and this one just kind of continues to get better and better.

Nat Ross:

Man, can you fill us in on when you're riding out here, like for access and the accessibility element, how you would access kind of Handcut Hollow or how you would include that into your trip to Bentonville?

Uriah Nazario:

Yeah, so there's three main trailheads if you want to go directly to Hancock Hollow, and there's one on J Street and then there's one on Pumpkin and then there's one on Bowter which is kind of a I guess would you say kind of a corporate business park, that all three of those you can park at and ride and mostly just to connect with a traverse trail. That kind of is on the outside of everything. If you have a beginner with you, I would say that the J Street parking lot you can get right on the elbow room or the gravel connector from there and then they can meet you at the hub if you want to take maybe a more difficult line or maybe want to chew off some more mileage, and then you all can meet at the hub.

Nat Ross:

I love that trajectory. That business park reminds me of something in Colorado that has Yeti Coman Sol.

Uriah Nazario:

Feedback, sports and Spot all out of there. That sounds way funner.

Nat Ross:

I think we see some trajectory coming down the road. Well, we're super excited. What do? If somebody wants to learn more about Trailblazers, where do they learn about what Trailblazers does or how to join the initiative?

Uriah Nazario:

Sure, yeah, we are. Trailblazersorg is our website and that will kind of give you just our mission statement and who we are and what we do. And it's like you know, if it's trails that are not for profit, like we are usually the ones behind it, profit, like we are usually the ones behind it. And we also work with the volunteers to help out and try to get big days formulated, and then we also work for advocacy, for even getting adults to ride a bike for the first time. So we've got a big, broad spectrum of tasks that we do, but everything is active transportation related and, yeah, we're just trying to make the living and the tourism and the experience that you have when you get to Benville that much better.

Nat Ross:

Man, we are excited to have trailblazers here, and your staff in particular. They're energetic, they're always helpful. You guys are kind of more even trail guides or trail gnomes out there on a daily work.

Uriah Nazario:

So describe what it's like being a trailblazer for a job you know, especially for myself, is I was born here in Bentonville and I've seen it through all the phases and you know, just everybody wants to see this place be the best that it can be, and so that's what we do is our mission is to to try to make the best trails possible with with what we're given, and make them the the most progressive.

Uriah Nazario:

Uh, you know, it's like when we work with our the adaptive riding community, or we've got a lot of people here that we have to have that mindset that this is the first time they're going to ride that trail and we don't want to surprise them with anything that could be dangerous. We want them to not only come here and ride confidently, but we want them to actually progress in their skill level so that they can take that back home. And so that's kind of our gift to the riders here is, we want them to have just this experience that keeps them coming back, and, you know, and then we'll have more and more goodies for them every time they visit.

Nat Ross:

And that's that Forrester. He can guarantee that. And you can find Uriah on Interplanet. Janet, you can find me going on around the traverse, multidirectional. On the traverse, the hand-cut trails are absolutely spectacular. So, Uriah, thanks for joining us today.

Uriah Nazario:

Yeah, thank you, Nat.

Nat Ross:

Well, we're pumped and we can't wait for you guys to come to Visitville. And when you're riding in Bentonville, then come ride the hand-cut hollow trails. We will not let you down on those trails. If you want more information, go to visitbittenvillecom backslash bike. That way you can check out the maps, download everything you need to prep for your local cycling adventure. Uriah and I'll see you at Handcut Hollow next.