Cycling the Ozarks and Beyond with JJ Hetherington

When JJ Hetherington isn’t designing custom homes and buildings, the owner of Hetherington Design Build Inc. enjoys riding one of his many bicycles on local and regional trails, and once or twice a year, on a cycling-centered vacation.

Hetherington says mountain biking—something he grew up doing in Idaho—is a favorite pastime. He enjoys local trails, especially the Dirt 66 network at Fellows Lake. In Arkansas, he’s drawn to Bella Vista’s Back 40 system and the epic Syllamo Mountain Bike Trails near Mountain View.

Road cycling came later, inspired more than a dozen years ago by a client who was taking cycling tours in Europe, the Rockies and around the world. Hetherington decided to try road cycling too. He and his wife Becky bought bikes, trained for six months and traveled with his client and friends to ride through the French Alps. Since then, Hetherington has cycled through Michigan, Oregon, California and many other places.

He says viewing natural scenery from the seat of a bike is 100 times better than seeing it through the windshield of a car. “Because you’re wide open to nature and you can see all around you and you’re going seven or eight miles an hour. I also like to stop and take a moment, to have lunch on the side of a mountain lake.”

That’s why he rides regional areas too, especially in Arkansas, near the Mulberry River area, doing the Razorback Greenway, or riding around Ponca and Jasper.

Around Springfield, he and Becky enjoy riding back roads around Fellows and McDaniel lakes, riding east of U.S. 65 toward Strafford, or riding down Old Wire Road. Since he designs or builds houses around Greene County, it’s easy to map new routes to try later on his bike, he says.

Hetherington says Springfield has exploded into a cycling town compared to 10 or 15 years ago. “I think there’s been a whole lot more people interested,” he says. “And I love it.”