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Ride Report: Palo Pinto and Possum Kingdom Lake 4/3/2003

brd

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Well, there's a chance for rain this weekend and I wanted to put some miles on the VFR and see if I fixed the low gas mileage problem. Last night I decided to take a little trip out west and ride to Palo Pinto. I'd been on FM4 before and it's a good road. I thought I'd go through there and then up to Jacksboro, but as I was looking at the map I saw Possum Kingdom Lake, and remembered hearing someone say there were good roads up there. So I looked at the map for a while and planned a route.

(To skip the report and go straight to all the pics: http://www.pbase.com/brd/palo_pinto)

This morning I got up and left at 10am. I hopped on I20 and droned out west about 70 miles to FM4. The road is not much til you get past Santo, and then it gets good. Lots of 35mph curves and then a few marked 25mph. At one of these, there were a lot of bluebonnets, and I turned back and pulled off the road to take a picture. A lady passed me, turned her car around and came back to ask if I was alright. Don't see that back home in the big city.

Then you pass Lone Camp and there is a long (tempting) straightaway before you start climbing the hills and the good stuff starts again. One particularly good 35mph curve seems to just go on and on.

The only problem was that I noticed I was tense on all these curves and not taking them as good as I should be. Not sure if I just wasn't warmed up or out of practice or what. So, when I got into the town of Palo Pinto, I decided I really hadn't enjoyed that road to the fullest, so I turned around and ran back South down it to Santo (14miles) again, turned around and ran it N again. 8) A light drizzle started and stopped a few times, but I knew it would burn off later. I got much more comfortable and corners that had scared me into braking for them the first pass were much easier and smoother.

The only incident was as I came back toward PP, a cop passed me as I was doing 10mph over. Whoa. So I dialed it down and took the next corner and dang, here comes another one. Hrm.

I stopped for gas and a soda in Palo Pinto and Cop#2 pulls into the gas station. I start to get paranoid. Why had he turned back around already? Maybe some of the locals complained about a motorsickle terrorizing them and now he's trying to intimidate me. Probably just paranoia on my part, but I still putzed around and waited til after he left before I got back on the road. I was afraid maybe he was waiting and then would follow me as I left.

Also, I was sad to discover my gas mileage was still crappy. The reserve light came on at 170miles and I got 36mpg. Blah.

I also discovered that I'd lost yet another map out of the pocket of my damned Tourmaster Tankbag. I love the bag, but the velcro on the map pocket is piss poor. My last trip my OK map got sucked out and today my TX one. They were both free at the state info centers, or else I'd really be pissed about it. I'm going to have to fix that, somehow.

But back to the riding. I hopped on US180 and headed west to Park Rd 33. This was also a very fun road. The curves were a little more spread out, but it was very enjoyable and even less traffic. As you get close to PKL state park, there's a long uphill stretch that is fun to open it up on. Unexpectedly, though, I came upon the entrance station to the park. Hrm, must have missed my turn off. The lady told me what road I should have taken and also said I could ride down to the lake and look around without paying. Sweet.

I snapped a pic and then headed back out of the park. There are also some really good corners inside the park perimeters. Then down the long straightaway. I wicked it up and tucked in for a high-speed run. Except the road isn't entirely level, so I came up on a ridge faster than I would have liked. Uhoh. I braked some, but realized I was still about to do either a Dukes of Hazzard or Isle of Mann TT impression here. Quick, stand up on the pegs! Relax deathgrip on bars! Vroomm.... The front wheel got some air and touched back down and my butt hit the seat. Phew! Wow, that was incredibly dumb and I don't even want to know how fast I was going at the time. Pucker factor: 7.2 :shock: Chalk another save up to the bike's superb suspension and also I had to give thanks to the new 0.9kg racetech springs.

About the time my heartbeat returned to normal, I came up on FM 3253, where I should have turned off. Oh well, at least I remembered most of the roads I was looking for. Took that up to 1148.

1148 is a great road. It runs along the north shore of PKLake and is almost entirely 25mph stuff. Up and downhill, hugging cliffs, and looking out over the lake. The downside is that it's on the shore of the lake, so it's lined with lakehouse driveways. Also it dead ends at a marina with a boat ramp. There was considerable traffic on a thursday afternoon. It's probably so full of cars and trucks pulling boat trailers on the weekends that you wouldn't want to ride it. :tears:

Hunger started to set in, but I hadn't seen anything along the lake. I went back 1148 and then up 1287, which was mostly flat and straight, into Graham. As usual, I rode all the way through town, scoping potential eateries, before turning around and coming back to the winner: Sanderson's BBQ. I missed the end of the lunch buffet (2pm) by 14 minutes, but had an excellent brisket plate for less than $7.

So now it was almost 3pm and getting over 80F. I took the liner out of my Kilimanjaro and opened up all the vents (**** that thing has a lot of velcro). I was amazed how much airflow I got. It seemed just as good as my JR Phoenix while moving. I headed S on Hwy 16 out of town and back toward home.

I wanted to explore some of the roads on the East side of PKLake, but didn't really remember which one went out on the peninsula. I ended up taking 2353, then Park Road 36 back to 16, which was pretty much just a waste of time. FM2951 is the one I wanted, but didn't see. Oh well.

16 was mostly straight, but there were a couple of really good curves. I took some pics at this one overlooking a valley.

I got back down to US180 and headed East. The plan was to take it all the way back through Mineral Wells and Weatherford to I-20. But as I came up on Palo Pinto, I thought, maybe I should just ride FM4 one more time, you know, while I'm here. Didn't take much to convince myself. :)

This time I was in the zone. There was a little traffic, but nothing that held me up long. I couldn't believe how much more comfortable I was with the road this time and that I had been so timid on it in the morning.
Ride it back up again? Yes, please. :mrgreen:

Got gas again at the same station and this time got 34mpg. Grrr. Then I headed home on 180, which was a mistake. Too many lights through the cities. Then hit the metromess in time for rush hour. I was going against traffic, but there was construction in 2 different places that caused traffic jams. Hrm, I saw some land for sale out there on FM4...
 
:tab I guess this is one of the perks of being unemployed? Sounds like you had a really good time. I've always wanted to get out in that area because I have heard folks talk about PR 4. Have you run 4 south of I-20 down towards Granbury? And what about all those roads all around Granbury? They all look pretty squiggly on my map ;-) I need a free weekend so I can get up there and do some riding with you.
 
Argh, I had a whole response written and then my browser died. :( So in a nutshell...

I've ridden 4 from Cleburne to Palo Pinto and here's my assessment: Cleburne to Granbury is neat. As you'll see on the map a "stairstep" of corners that are mostly through farmland, but not perfect 90 degrees and lined with cedar trees on both sides. From Granbury to I-20 is boring and no fun. By far the best and most popular leg is from I-20 up to Palo Pinto.

There are lots of good roads in the Granbury/Glenrose area. Nothing spectacular, like the Hill Country, AR or CO, but you can put together lots of decent routes through the area.

BTW, I think it's the only perk of being unemployed--having free time.
 
:tab If you take a longggg time to put together your post, your session will time out. I'm not exactly sure how long the sessions last. I think it is in the neighborhood of 15 minutes or so. I'll have to research that to be sure. Anyway, if you exceed that amount of time and then try to submit your post, you will get an invalid_session error. If this happens, hit back on your browser, select all of your text, right click and select copy or cut. Reenter the forum where you are trying to post, and start a new post. Paste your text into the new post, don't forget your subject, and then hit submit. Also, everytime you hit PREVIEW, it renews the session timer. So what I will do is hit the preview about every ten minutes just to reset the timer. If you do get the invalid_session error, don't freak. Just hit the BACK button on the browser and your text should still be there. Then do the cut and paste thing.
 
I attempted to go around PK Lake prior to hitting the Dallas motorcycle show last year, but one of the cruiser folks I hooked up with up there got a flat, so we wound up going back and forth around Graham. Here are some pics, though, if anyone cares: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rogersp98/lst?.dir=/2002+Dallas+Motorcycle+Show&.view=t

Nice writeup. FM4 was definitely the most fun in that area, but again, I didn't get much around the lake. I also enjoyed 144 south of Glen Rose on the way back to Austin.
 
Thanks for the ride report; I've been considering taking a long day to explore that area myself.

If you get as far south as Glen Rose, keep on going. The back roads in the area of Iredell, Meridian, Clifton, Cranfill's Gap and all along the Bosque River and it's tributaries as far south as Valley Mills are quite good with nice scenery.
____________________

I've lost my posts on a couple of occasions before too, so what I do if I think my response is going to take a while is to compose it in MS Word first. That also allows me to do a spell and grammar check before copying it back into the forum post.
 
scratch said:
Thanks for the ride report; I've been considering taking a long day to explore that area myself.

If you get as far south as Glen Rose, keep on going. The back roads in the area of Iredell, Meridian, Clifton, Cranfill's Gap and all along the Bosque River and it's tributaries as far south as Valley Mills are quite good with nice scenery.

Yes, definitely. I've been down to Walnut Springs, Iredell, and Cranfills Gap many times. Good stuff down that way. :bigokay:

I've heard there's good riding all around Gatesville, too? but that's a long day-ride from here.
 
Riding Southwest of DFW

Howdy,

:tab Last October I had planned to head up through Arkansas on my way to Springfield, Mo., to visit another VFR list member and to enjoy the fall colors in the Ozarks. I was sitting in a gas station in Mena Friday morning, watching the rain coming down and the mercury going with it. In late October, it only gets colder as you go Noth :( So I phoned Beth and told her I was switching to Plan B, haul butt to Kerrville for the annual HSTA Hill Country rally. I called Brad, the VFR lister to let him know I was bailing on him and then hit the road.

:tab It is a good thing I did not realize just how far it would be or just how crappy the weather would be all weekend. Otherwise I would have just gone home. It was supposed to be nice in Kerrville this weekend, or so the weather guessers claimed. :evil: It was 50 F and raining ALL the way across Texas. I skirted Southeast of DFW and eventually wound up in Hillsboro where I stopped for a burger at McD's. Needless to say, I was getting some strange looks from the locals as I was leaving a puddle in front of the counter. I assured them it was only water :P

:tab The run from Hillsboro to Hamilton on Hwy 22 was really nice. It is pretty country and there was not much traffic. Of course it was a really crappy day. It was getting foggy enough that I could only see the cattle standing right next to the fences, the rest looking like floating blobs in the mist. After Hamilton, I ran FM 2025 to US 84. This was one of those rides I will never forget.

:tab On FM 2025, the rain had let up a bit and the fog was really setting in on both sides of the road. The strange thing was that the visibility on the road itself was still relatively clear. I had miles to go and I wanted to be there now! I had new tires on the bike and was in the groove. Even on the wet pavement with tons of luggage, the bike ran like it was on rails. I was cold, my nose running, my toes chilled, and I was having a fantastic time! FM 2025 has some good curves and nice pavement. Riding in the fog made it seem like I had been transported to another world, the extent of which was all that I could make out in the small area around me. It was just me, the road, and the fog.

:tab Once I hit US 84 and started heading South on Hwy 16, it really started raining in earnest and the fog pretty much went away. It started getting dark and colder. Fortunately, my gloves and rainsuit had been working excellently up till the time I reached Fredericksburg. The rain finally ran down the inside of my glove cuffs and wicked into the entire glove. Oddly enough, I actually had a second pair of gloves. Both pair were new so I wanted to try them out on this trip. Normally, I would have only had the one pair, which would have really sucked in this case. I swapped gloves and went on my merry wet way.

:tab After eleven hours and somewhere in the neighborhood of 550 miles, I made it to Kerrville. The weather still sucked and the weather guessers were predicting more of the same for the rest of the weekend :evil: All that work for nothing! Well, at least misery loves company :mrgreen: We sat around all day Saturday in front of the huge fireplace at the YO Resort telling stories and drinking beer. Good fun. The run home Sunday was atleast dry, but still a tad chilly.

:tab Since that ride along Hwy 22 and FM 2025, I have been wanting to get back up to that area. Meridian State park is a nice little place to do some camping and is ideally located to hit some really fun roads. The area in question is bound by US 67 on the North, US 377 on the West, US 84 on the South and I-35 on the East. That is easily enough roads to keep me busy for a day or two :wink:
 
brd said:
I've heard there's good riding all around Gatesville, too? but that's a long day-ride from here.

There are a few interesting sections of roadway around Gatesville where they cut through some escarpments and down into streams & riverbeds. You could probably string together a pretty nice back-roads ride all the way from Possom Kingdom Lake down to the San Antonio-area Hill Country by staying close to the leading edge of the Edwards Plateau.
 
Re: Riding Southwest of DFW

Tourmeister said:
Howdy,

*snip story of wet-weather LD run*

:tab Since that ride along Hwy 22 and FM 2025, I have been wanting to get back up to that area. Meridian State park is a nice little place to do some camping and is ideally located to hit some really fun roads. The area in question is bound by US 67 on the North, US 377 on the West, US 84 on the South and I-35 on the East. That is easily enough roads to keep me busy for a day or two :wink:


(Quick note: you must mean FM2005. I just looked at my atlas and that's the road from Hamilton to Goldthwaite.)

You know, I was thinking that yesterday as I was at Possum Kingdom Lake StatePark. There were at least 100 campsites, many on the waterfront. At first I thought I might do that as a trial 2-up camping trip with my wife this weekend, but she has something Saturday afternoon and evening.

But I like the idea of camping somewhere not that far away. And I doubt most SP's ever fill up, even on the weekends. You'd have the time to check out more roads and not have to make it all the way back home that night. Even better would be to coordinate it with other riders from all over the state. :)
 
(Quick note: you must mean FM2005. I just looked at my atlas and that's the road from Hamilton to Goldthwaite.)

:tab My atlas shows it as 2025. Interesting. I will check my DeLorme Atlas when I get home to see what it says.

:tab Believe it or not, I've never done any camping trips on the bikes. It must be the Old Fart in me. The thought of sleeping on the ground after a long day of riding just doesn't seem very appealing. On the other hand, a nice hot shower and a reasonably comfy bed... now that is appealing ;-) Besides, that is just so much more luggage to pack. I know, I know... camping is way cheaper, you're right. The only trouble is that my VFR won't pull a 38 foot travel trailer :eek:
 
The atlas I'm looking at is a DeLorme Texas Atlas & Gazetteer.

If you don't have a thermarest or have never tried one, they are the key to any camping. It's literally like sleeping on a bed. Yes, hot showers will be missed.

Camping is more stuff to take, but it's not too bad if you're very minimalist, and I'm still not sure how I'm going to work out 2-up, without getting a tent that will pack smaller. I don't carry any cooking stuff m/c camping, just eat one big meal a day out somewhere and live off nutrigrain, powerbars, and canned stuff the rest of the time.

Last fall on our (car) camping trip I met a few folks m/c camping:

The first guy was at Wind Cave NP (South Dakota). He was on an early 80s Honda CB650something (not nighthawk) with a factory 3bag set. He was going from Toronto to Vancouver in September across the norther US! Wacky canadians. I invited him over for a beer and he scrounged some firewood to contribute. We had an interesting time talking to him and all of us enjoyed having some different company.

One was a group of 'wingers from Salt Lake City at Bryce Canyon. A couple of them had trailers. The **** thing was huge, bigger than the trunk of my car!

The other was a couple from Michigan at Zion NP. They were on a R1150GS (her) and K1200** (him). They had their tent, sleeping bags and everything in one giant "stuff" sack that they lashed to the back of the GS, and everything else in the sidebags. They weren't overly friendly, but showed me on a map all the spectacular roads they had ridden that day. I envied them, until I went over to our car and got a cold beer out of the icebox,, sat back in our fold-out chair with footrest, and roasted a marshmallow. :b

There's just a sense of comraderie when camping, and moreso if one or both parties are on a motorcycle.
 
:tab Well, you're right Brian. The Delorme shows it as FM 2005, as does mapquest.com and maps.yahoo.com. I don't really recall what the signs said when I was out there. It was the only turn I needed to find and couldn't be missed so I don't think I even noticed the sign, hehe.
 
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