Middle Texas Meandering

[philipbarrett]

The new back tire has been a hoot and a howl. Reminds me of high school. Tie between the old school Mickey Thompsons I ran and the gym teacher from s!

You were cheated, our HS gym teacher (and yes they were called "Gym Mistress" in the UK) was called Miss Love and wore micro-tennis skirts to teach class! Oh those 13 year old hormones raged!

 

[GrapeApe]

You were cheated, our HS gym teacher (and yes they were called "Gym Mistress" in the UK) was called Miss Love and wore micro-tennis skirts to teach class! Oh those 13 year old hormones raged!

Story is suspect. Photographic evidence is requested.

 

[KsTeveM]

The rest of yesterday…..A little more dirt along the river and then Art Hedwig Hill Rd….I remembered reading about the first post office being on Hedwig Hill in the 1850s. Pretty cool rolling on that road and mind wandering. I stopped to look at the view the postmaster might have had, with Indians lurking about! I think the postmasters name was Woodcock and he worked for EH Harriman.

Eased into Mason and snagged some supplies for camp. Anxious to get there and meet up with @misterk, get setup and partake of what needs partaken of.

The weather is certainly cool…..cool for camping!! This is a pretty sweet spot to be at the moment.

We had a cook off and a beer tasting, everyone was a winner, but let’s be real, we know whose steak was better. Exhibit A.

Exhibit B

Tucked Kevin in bed and then hung out with some rowdy school teachers escaping their lives in Abilene.

Up and at um, back to riding this morning.

 

[bwdmax]

I could probably work my way through either one of those steaks.

 

[KsTeveM]

Well won’t be seeing the odd couple together any time soon. My buddy was on his way home from work yesterday and some neo zoomed maxed out dweeby did a sudden u turn in front of him. He is going to be ok, 6 broke ribs and some broke stuff in his wrist. 6 month old bike has seen better days. Doesn’t sound like there was anything he could have done, but still a reminder we have to ride defensively. And dang the deer are moving right now, travel safely gang!

 

[bwdmax]

Dang that’s no good. That’s two yesterday from vehicles turning in front of them.

The deer are definitely out today. They were out before daybreak and still moving now.

 

[KsTeveM]

Slept pretty dang good last night. We broke camp and rolled into Mason for some hot breakfast. Hoping it wasn’t too nuts since the hunters should be in their deer blinds taking Tylenol that time of morning. Perfect, just us and the retired hunters. Mister Kevin needed to head home, we parted ways. I headed for Ingram, its only like 60 miles, why does my GPS show like 200 miles to go? Never you mind the logic, it’s the right thing to do.

I wanted to circle House Mountain, so that’s where I headed, Simonsville, Keyserville….dirtville.

Has to be some history on this “mountain” but I don’t know about it. @TNC, where you at, you have been given an assignment!

Rolled through Loyal Valley, use to be the largest town in Mason County.

Hope I didn’t make any hunters mad, not my intention…..never know, I might push a deer towards them. I’m sure there were some grumblings this morning as I rolled through the backcountry. On the smaller roads, I took it easy. Slow is quiet, quiet is slow.

On the bigger roads, I hauled the mail. Fast is smooth, smooth is fast. Conditions were right and the Motoz Desert HT was tractionating!!

Purred over to Kerr County and the dirt she provides. Stuff you guys have all seen, but it was a beautiful day, couldn’t help myself taking pics.

And this old rock house, I always day dream about living here. I bet the folks that built it had a good life right there.

Jumped some animals in this area hanging out in the cliffs.

I blasted out the last 30 miles or so on pavement rolling my way into Ingram, we have a family gathering this evening at my Uncles house. Chili and cornbread on the menu. And beer tasting. TTFN.

 

[KsTeveM]

Man another incredibly gorgeous day to be on a bike! The temps, the leaves falling down, the Africa Twin blasting around!

I rode the back roads for another beautiful 100 plus miles. Meandering done, for now.

 

[KsTeveM]

I lied, Daughter #1 wanted to get in on a little ride. Her normal scoot is a KLX140. I’ve been freshening up this XT225 I snagged a while back and this was the maiden dual sport voyage, for the bike and for her. I stopped to check on her and asked her what was so funny? She couldn’t stop smiling, just said this is really fun! All is well in the world…..

 

[TNC]

Alright Steve, I have my homework assignment completed...LOL! I'm sure I've seen this feature of House Mountain before, but I guess I thought it was somewhat unremarkable. We have quite a few features that look like that and that size around my area.

However, my research indicated it is the second biggest granite mountain in TX, so that makes it somewhat special. It must not have the quality and or quantity of granite as Granite Mountain not far away, otherwise it would have looked mined like Granite Mountain is. I did notice one mention of a cave that had minor Indian artifacts found within. Looks like a hunting ranch more or less controls a good bit of the property it sits on...real surprise, eh?

Just another beautiful but boring butte/mesa in the hill country...LOL! The granite does indeed make it more unique.

 

[misterk]

Enjoyed hanging out and camping with you Friday night Steve. Let’s do a 2 nighter at the campground and ride that dirt.

I also declare my steak the winner

 

[KsTeveM]

Enjoyed hanging out and camping with you Friday night Steve. Let’s do a 2 nighter at the campground and ride that dirt.

I also declare my steak the winner

Camping sounds good! Your steak being the winner sounds bad!! Smell ya later.....

 

[KsTeveM]

Alright Steve, I have my homework assignment completed...LOL! I'm sure I've seen this feature of House Mountain before, but I guess I thought it was somewhat unremarkable. We have quite a few features that look like that and that size around my area.

However, my research indicated it is the second biggest granite mountain in TX, so that makes it somewhat special. It must not have the quality and or quantity of granite as Granite Mountain not far away, otherwise it would have looked mined like Granite Mountain is. I did notice one mention of a cave that had minor Indian artifacts found within. Looks like a hunting ranch more or less controls a good bit of the property it sits on...real surprise, eh?

Just another beautiful but boring butte/mesa in the hill country...LOL! The granite does indeed make it more unique.

Hey TNC, thanks for accepting your assignment!! You are right, I guess it's just a big lump of earth but it always has my curiosity when in that part of the world. A cave...dang, wish we could gain access. I miss that sort of thing...when I was riding in Arizona we could pull up on our bikes and do some caving. Wealthy ranchers have all the good stuff in Texas . Have had you on my mind off and on brother, hope things are going well on the Homefront. Take care!

 

[BrockP]

How did that GL Coyote bag work out?

 

[KsTeveM]

How did that GL Coyote bag work out?

You know, I just spent two days/two nights with it, probably need some more time to give solid experience in different scenarios. So far, I think I am warming up to it. The cons is the wanting something and digging, especially the heavy somethings on the side of the trail. I think I am going to make a bracket for the left side to hold my tool roll in one of those plastic tool tubes down low under the bag. That will help some of that issue. And I did what bwdmax does, most of the stuff inside the Coyote was either in the two side dry bags or other stuff sacks of various sizes, that way you can un-jinga yourself quickly. And I found it best to break my "two" person tent down, tent body went in one stuff sack, rainfly in another, poles and stakes separate. This way you can really cram stuff down the sides. I need to play more with the end of day stop at the convenient store with the pile on, I was cramped rolling to camp with my backpack. It's fine if easy roads and not for a long jaunt.

The main pro, it didn't move and I know nothing inside of it is going to be missing when I get to camp. Only thing external to it was my sleeping bag on the very back of the bike on the rear rack, and it is held on with 3 voille straps. I like being able to ride and get stupid without worrying or occasionally reaching back there while moving to make sure. Also nice to shed layers and just throw in that beaver tail area and keep moving without playing jinga.

Don't know if I am helping you any. This setup is quite possibly just a stepping stone to the inevitable panniers with larger soft bags if you are touring/camping a lot....and ready to spend some serious jack. But if you ride hard and don't want to carry the kitchen sink, a chair, a stove or spend a fortune, this seems cool. And it can go on other bikes of various sizes easily.

 

[BrockP]

Very Helpful, Thank you. I also purchased the Coyote for the flexibility of throwing it over a variety of bikes with little to no additional accessories such as racks/panniers.
I run the Mototrekk's on a KLR and welcome the space by enabling my lack lack of control to not only bring the kitchen sink but a bedroom suite as well.
Enjoyed your ride report and pictures.

 

[misterk]

Camping sounds good! Your steak being the winner sounds bad!! Smell ya later.....

 

[TNC]

Steve, I have some stories of caving in Texas by high school boys poaching said caves on private ranches back in the day. A friend had an older brother who belonged to an official speelunking club in San Antonio. We "borrowed" his club book and had a few adventures...the last one scaring the crap out of us and causing us to retire from tresspass speelunking. But that's more of a story to be told around a campfire...perhaps some day.

 

[philipbarrett]

I'm trying to remember the name of the cave diving documentary where, after crawling through hundreds of feet of flooded passages they came across a 1970s dive suit standing, complete with all the equipment and the skeletal remains of the speelunker still inside. Chilling, stuff of nightmares.

 

[KsTeveM]

I mentioned my friend two weeks ago today that had a bad crash on his Thruxton. I know more about it and wanted to share. I started to post an ATGATT vs. Semi ATGATT thread, but maybe we don't need another one of those? I will just say, I'm going to be a little more strict with myself. Days I just rode to work, I would wear Helmet, Motorcycle Jacket with armor and then normal jeans/hiking type boots I wear for work.

I'm not going to do that anymore when I commute to work on Fridays. His knee got thrashed pretty good, but still extremely lucky for just wearing jeans. It took a piece of meat out and he got a string of stitches right on his knee cap. Normal enduro knee/shin guards would have stopped all that. He got some other road rash from the jeans, any riding pants with hip pads and reinforced knee stuff would have helped. His leather riding jacket had armor though, you can see that saved him a lot, hopefully none of you ride minus that protection. His gloves....he wears decent gloves with knuckle protection, and the knuckles on those gloves looked rough. I am going to upgrade there for street stuff, I been just wearing my normal Fox Dirt Paw MX type gloves when riding the Africa Twin on the street, didn't consider me bouncing down the pavement. Also, he had a backpack on with a laptop in it. I think the laptop may have contributed to the 6 broken ribs....but who knows, might have also absorbed some of the impact. I only mention it for consideration of what you put in your backpack. I've stopped myself several times even riding dirt on what objects/tools I put in mine. Think to myself, do I want to eat that later? So....this post is just me wanting to talk out loud a little as it might help someone else. Here are some pics to consider, that seems to help with the visuals. I'm curious if it will be totaled. I tend to think so, even though there are a lot good parts there and the motor looks good.

He almost made it, the trucks front bumper caught his tail pipe as he tried to squeak by, with the full might of the Thruxton at that point.

The bag of parts the Fire Dept picked up scattered all over the place at the scene. Glad my buddy wasn't in a bag. Another aspect was being extremely lucky flying through the air and bouncing between two road signs. You don't think about eating a road sign at speed very often. Also, the bike didn't come back and bite him, it dug in here and there and bounced/flew slower. Small favors?

He is extremely lucky and would probably admit at this point he should have slowed down for that funky spot, and maybe not try to predict what the dummy was doing in front of him (or predict the worst if you're hedging your bets). The dummy slowed down, I bet looked in his mirror, didn't see anyone, and did a u turn at the worst possible spot. This all went down by the Salt Lick in Driftwood on FM1826 heading north, barely past FM967. I bet they were trying to turn around to go back to the Salt Lick. I hear that road is way up the list on deadly roads in "Austin". I would slow my roll in any of that congested "Austin" hill country type stuff you are rolling through. What is pretty and fun on a motorcycle can change quickly. Last, I still question some brain trauma, my buddy was wearing these socks when I went to check on him...and requested a DQ Beltbuster when given all options. But I'm glad he is in good spirits and coherent enough to wear socks, however silly looking!!! Those are the kind of socks your wife gives you for Christmas and you say thank you....and then put them in the back of the drawer and never wear them. Am I right? Man card in question, just sayin.

 

[SpiritAtBay]

Good points all. Thanks for posting. We can never be reminded enough.

I think those socks were a gift from the hospital!

 

[bwdmax]

Thanks for posting up the info about his crash and his gear. I sometimes feel like I would ride more if I would just grab my jacket and ride in my jeans, but I won’t do it. I moved to leather gloves a few years ago for any ride that has pavement.

Those socks…I really don’t know how to express my feelings about them.
I guess maybe he is just celebrating being able to walk. Glad he is doing well.

 

[michaellmcc]

Excellent story - photos - history lesson - safety reminder. All good!

 

[jhansen]

Certainly looks like hospital non skid socks to me. Glad he’s up and about.

 

[_RG_]

Scary doggone experience! Glad he's up and about. Gear is a pain but the stuff works.