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[Trip Report] TWT Big Bend Rally April 15-17th

Tourmeister

Keeper of the Asylum
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Scott
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Friday
Howdy,

The rally was a blast! The weather was mostly great! For everyone wanting to post pics and do a report, please do so here so we can keep everything in one place. Lots of stories to be told... The swelling has gone down and now the bruising has started... Pics later ;-)

Adios,
 
I've posted some pics on my webshots page (sorry for pop ups and ads but it's free). Descriptive captions are on the right side of the photos:

http://tinyurl.com/dryj4

Fellow riders should PM their addy's if they want a CD of full resolution files for prints.

Enjoy,
 
FotoMoto said:
I've posted some pics on my webshots page (sorry for pop ups and ads but it's free). Descriptive captions are on the right side of the photos:

http://tinyurl.com/dryj4

Fellow riders should PM their addy's if they want a CD of full resolution files for prints.

Enjoy,

Excellent pics! I am green with envy. :mrgreen:
 
Great photos. I'll be heading out to BB this weekend with my son. Looking at these makes me want to leave today.

Pete
 
Nice pics Doug!....I really like the one of the road to the observitory.

Well, no real trip report...just some quick pics with captions.
My odometer said about the same as you other guys/gals ~1664miles.....and my rearside verifies it.

here ya go.....in Chronological order. Let me know if these are too much/slow and I'll remove...I sized 'em down 50% so they might be alright

Shorly after leaving Austin...first water crossing. No big deal, just some concrete and a little water....
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...and algae!!
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Will making it across successfully
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Steely stare gets Scott across unscathed
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Scott doing some of his abstract photograpy amogst the bluebonnets
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Will...somewhere in the hillcountry
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Meeting up with the rest of the group in Kerrville
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Group in Leakey
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Some gas stop.....Don't ask me what Doug is doing.
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Hmmm...Crossing no.2 has me more careful and upright
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River crossing no.1...Will paddlin' it across
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Scott getting across river crossing no.1
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Easy Cafe, Pandale, TX...for a break
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Where are we?
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Nice sunset on Friday's ride to Alpine
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Cool motel sign in Sanderson
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Saturday amongst the mountains
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10ft tall John on his do-it-all KTM
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Will on the left, John on the right doing sign-language...canyon between
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Randy kindly loaning his air compressor for our tires on the pavement portion
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Action shot...Randy and will in front of me blazin' through the terrain
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Action shot 2
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Hoodlums in the desert
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Scene of Incident number 2.....That's silt I tell ya' (Dust to Glory reference)
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Oddly enough my camera stopped working after this one...just glad it held on for these.
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Cool pics. I guess that trip should called "The Sideways GS Tour" or "Water vs The 600lb Dirtbike Tour".

I'm glad y'all had fun and no serious incidents.

(albeit the dumped bikes look funny :lol: )
 
:tab Nice pics! I love the one with your bike on it's side with us all standing around it at the top of the sand pit :lol: I'll try to get my pics and vids up this evening.

Adios,
 
gotdurt said:
This is getting good.... :twisted:

It was good, I'm so glad we took the "adventure" route when our path was blocked through the state owned ranch. I don't see how it could have turned out better.

For my first look at Big Bend it was well worth the price of admission. The pics are awesome but don't do it justice.

I didn't think I made that tall KTM look so small though. :)

I wish I had brought my camera Saturday, Ill post a few pics of the gps route home Sunday though.

The trip was test for KTM adventure riding and it passed nicely, my harley is going to go on the block to pay for an slightly used katoom 625 SXC or 640 LC4, custom seat and great farkle budget including motard wheel set. :twisted:
 
Texian said:
Some gas stop.....Don't ask me what Doug is doing.
bb9.JPG

He had dropped his key and was using a long stick with a magnet on it to try to find and retrieve it. Funny thing is, here's a pic showing where the key landed...

dougkey9uv.jpg
 
Squeaky said:
He had dropped his key and was using a long stick with a magnet on it to try to find and retrieve it. Funny thing is, here's a pic showing where the key landed...
A magnet for a brass key?
 
Squeaky said:
Funny thing is, here's a pic showing where the key landed...
tHAT's freaking hilarious !!!


Jeff said:
Who was riding the 1200GS? Did that person go off road as well? If so, how did it do?
Yeah, that's Randy's...I think he's "RJS" on here.
He has that thing all decked out, and a Remus exhuaust that sounds great.
He plowed through everything with the throttle wide open....WHHHAAAAA!!! :eek:
I think Scott got some vids of him and the 1200 going through the water crossings and stuff.
 
Just a few comments from me... But where to start? I had a great time! It was truly an eye-opening experience to be able to ride with such good riders as SVinAustin, Scratch, FotoMoto, and Birdwh. I usually ride by myself, or with riders at or below my skill level, so it was a great experience to ride with them, when I could keep up that is. I enjoyed hanging with Todd in LC and Squeaky, I think we complimented each other's riding styles. It was a pleasure to listen to the DS guys' stories, and to almost get splashed by them at a water crossing as they were going the other way. :-P

TM, thanks for planning such a great trip! :clap

Now, I just have to figure out how to work it into my schedule to go to Arkansas/Missouri in May... :-D

I've posted a few pics at http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/yamaha599/my_photos.
 
...and to almost get splashed by them at a water crossing as they were going the other way

You're quite welcome :mrgreen: Next time... ;-)
 
Well here's a couple more shots.

The dreaded slime crossing, after we picked our bikes up and Will crossed.

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Scott coming across the slime..

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I didn't quite catch Scott's bike down, they picked it up too fast. ;-)

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I forgot my camera Saturday, but took some shots Sunday while adventuring my way home from Alpine to Dallas.

I couldn't stand the long straight path up 67 for too long and popped off on a dirt road following a RR track.

Here's a shot looking both ways when I hit blacktop after about 15 miles of dirt, and literally hundreds and hundreds of jack rabbits one every 20-30 feet for 20 miles. It was still straight as an arrow. :(

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Found this tunnel going under I-10 as i was offroading past the dead end feeder roads following a little stint where 67 follows it for a few miles.

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Long freakin straight road north of I-10, I stopped to see if I could find some back road detours, 3-4 harleys passed so I snapped it. I got back on after this and decided to go check some geocaches that showed up not far off my path.

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First the GPS ran me over miles of dirt out into the middle of nowhere dead end in the cactus and mesquite which got into my front tire unfortunately, but a pretty little detour anyway... My camera doesn't really do the colors justice.

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After backtracking and a few more miles of dirt and pave I hit the little ghost town and the first courthouse built in Reagan County, or what's left of it. Time for a lunch time powerbar...

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The next geocache was the next county over and their first county courthouse, built in 1908, abandoned and out on a county road a couple miles from town. Still standing with clock intact though.

Makes me wonder why a square didn't develop around it?

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That stop is when I noticed a flat front tire and had to go get some fix a flat stuff, no trouble as the ktm is so light it'll run all day at 70 on a flat tire, centrifical force keeps it off the rim till you slow down. :shock: Then off to the next geocache, a cool little roadside stop for a red bull and power bar.

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It was getting late and I hadn't even made San Angelo yet, so I go back to the GPS routing telling Lola to avoid everything but dirt roads, and I get this..

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Then back to pavement, had to stop and adjust my chain here, there's actually a little waterfall back there and some kind of mill or something back in the weeds.

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I came across this old bridge the highway bypassed, I had to check it out

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I wanted to ride down under it in the riverbed and explore more, but time was starting to get tight.

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After a loooong stretch of paved FM's some very nice and curvy and some not, I was losing faith in Lola's routing, just about that time she served me up with this. :-D

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The mix of dirt and road was great, FM's were the largest she ever routed me on with dirt whenever it was handy to connect me. About 1/4 dirt and only the one time did I get dead ended trying to get to the geocache.

I spotted 3 wolves or more likely coyotes on a fence, some counties there's a $25 bounty or used to be....

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After that it really was getting late but I continued following the gps's adventure route, but at 80mph. I hit Ft. Worth at about 9:15 and home at about 9:30 for a 13hr ride.
 
Man Dyna, looks like your adventure began on the way home... that's my kind of route, never know what you'll come across.
 
Scott, thanks for a GREAT trip.The DS routs were a real BLAST and so were the steet routs.It was nice to meet everyone and a pleasure to ride in such good company. Can't wait to do it again!

Left Bandera about 11 in the rain and it didn't stop till I got to Smithville, but it was still a nice ride. It made the air smell fresh and clean, there were no bugs or dust and it wasn't hot. I stayed on the backroads and just took it easy(didn't lean much with the knobs).

See Yall next time.
 
gotdurt said:
Man Dyna, looks like your adventure began on the way home... that's my kind of route, never know what you'll come across.

Saturday was much better, When we were winding around the feet of those buttes or whatever you call those huge cliffs and boulders that fell off we rode between and around.

I dropped back and just putted through for a while thinkin to myself man this is what's it's all about. :bow:

I didn't even keep track of where I was on the way back any farther ahead than the gps screen showed.

The roads were wet 1/2 the trip home, but it never rained on me.
 
Great stories....

Shure sounds like everyone had a good time....Trip stories are really boring if nothing unexpected ever happens.

It was neat to meet some of the group at the Chevron in Study Butte...I wish we could have hooked up with the D/S riders.

We had a group of nine D/S riders in the area for the weekend and like you guys we really had a fun time.

I'll get fastmonstr to post a link to his weekend photos for your enjoyment.

We usually hang out on the Dual Sport Forum on the TON....Stop by and visit some time.

Big Bend is our second home for D/S riding....So far this year we've been once or twice each month....It's only 500 miles from Round Rock/Austin and we are always finding new places to ride out there.

Don't forget....The fun starts where the pavement ends.
 
Thanks for sharing all of the photos. It looks like everyone had a great time. I hate that slimy bridge though. I went down on that same bridge, on my GS, in 2000.

Tourmeister said:
Howdy,

The rally was a blast! The weather was mostly great! For everyone wanting to post pics and do a report, please do so here so we can keep everything in one place. Lots of stories to be told... The swelling has gone down and now the bruising has started... Pics later ;-)

Adios,
 
Texian said:
Will making it across successfully
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Alright, admittedly I wasn't there, and I am mucho jealous, and sometimes theres stuff you cant tell from the pics... but...
Can someone tell me why you guys chose the fully wet, fully slimed concrete crossing instead of the two small crossings & gravel about 20 feet to the picture takers left?
 
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