Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
A massive congratulations goes out to Meaghan Hackinen, the first rider to finish the 2024 Arkansas High Country Race, completing the 1,012-mile route in a record-setting 5 days, 8 hours, and 44 minutes. Find a post-race recap from Meaghan with photos from Kai Caddy here…
Photos by Kai Caddy
Since the inaugural event in 2019, the Arkansas High Country Race has rapidly grown in popularity, attracting riders from all over North America and beyond to try their hand at the route. Like previous years, the 2024 event allowed participants to choose one of three routes: the full 1,012-mile route, the 430-mile Central Loop, or the 250-mile Ozark Odyssey. Only 11 riders are registered for the full loop, which dishes up over 74,000 feet of elevation and a mix of gravel and pavement. Among them is ultra-endurance athlete Meaghan Hackinen, who finished last night in first place overall, setting a new women’s fastest known time (FKT) in the process—shaving two hours off Scotti Moody’s 2021 ride. At the time of her finish, Meaghan’s closest competitor was still more than 150 miles behind her.
Meaghan has a growing list of impressive finishes this year. She was the first woman to finish the Tour Divide (seventh overall), the first woman (eighth overall) at The Buckshot in British Columbia, and the first woman at the Ozark Gravel Doom (third overall). Aside from being a talented ultra-endurance athlete, Meaghan is an author and has published writing in several journals and magazines. We managed to get ahold of her right after her ride for a quick reflection on how things played out. Find her recap below.
Words by Meaghan Hackinen
After tasting southern hospitality during Ozark Gravel Doom this spring, I returned to the Natural State to experience the fall colors and race the Arkansas High Country Full Loop. I like having a goal, so I decided to challenge myself against the women’s FKT, set by Scotti Moody in 2021, when she also took the overall win.
The first two days were unseasonably hot, and right out of the gate, I realized that competing was not only going to require physical effort but mental preparedness and smart decision-making. I packed a comfortable yet minimalist sleep kit, planned nightly stop points well—avoiding that old familiar pattern of sluggish end-of-day pushes or frequent cat naps to make up for insufficient nighttime rest—and got back on the road early to enjoy the sunrise. The route itself was a treat: from epic back roads in the Ozarks and Ouchitas to memorable diners and gas station resupply, plus getting a glimpse of Arkansas’s quirkier side in rural lawn decors, plus places like Eureka Springs and Fifty-Six. Good news: dotwatchers abound, and trail magic is alive in Arkansas.
But, the long autumnal nights were hard on me. Moreover, I forgot to pack my dynamo wheel and struggled with charging. On course, I was plagued by tech issues and wound up navigating most of the route on the Ride with GPS app on my phone after my primary device crashed, and the mount for my backup kicked the bucket. The Garmin outage made the event challenging to follow on Trackleaders, and I was glad to have the existing target of Scotti’s FKT time to orient myself toward. Taking the overall win was an unexpected bonus.
Congrats, Meaghan! A handful of other riders are still out tackling the full Arkansas High Country Race loop. Follow their progress live here.
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