Day Four, Wednesday:
So it seems that the tropical storm that had been brewing off the coast has gone AWOL. One day they are getting all breathless about it in the news and the next it is a non event. Well, cool! It is still pretty hazy and damp outside this morning. I'm getting low on Pop Tarts...
The plan for today is to head North. I want to explore a road that runs up the East side of the Smoky Mountain NP, just to the West of I-40. It means running a good bit of pavement to get there, so hopefully it will be worth it. The whole group is going today, all on the small bikes. A highlight for today should be Hurricane Creek Road. I've seen some pics and read reports from folks on AdvRider, so it looks to be fun! Everyone gears up and we leave just before 10:00am. It seems this has become our pattern for the week, which suits me fine!
We start the day heading North on NC 215. We'll run this up over the Blue Ridge Parkway and eventually get to I-40. The pavement is damp. The woods have that dark wet look. The leaves of the trees are shiny from the moisture in the air collecting on them. It kind of puts me in a bit of a subdued mood... but still... the road begins to bend and twist... the curves are banked and smooth... and the mental funk is soon left behind as I find my groove.
Almost to the top of the ridge at a scenic pull out
The clouds can get THICK up here in a hurry, visibility going from great to white out in seconds!
The large firs stand like gloomy sentinels guarding the road below...
We soon reach the ridge and start down the North side. This side of 215 is known locally as Lake Logan Rd. It roughly follows the Pigeon Forge River down out of the mountains. The top third of the road is quite twisty. In years past, the pavement was almost perfectly smooth. Now it is rough and patched in many places. Still... it is fun nonetheless! There are several cool places along the way down to stop and take in the scenery.
Looking upstream...
I love the natural stone and big arches... much nicer than concrete and steel
We cruise down the road a bit further and come to another bridge. I promise the guys this is the last stop for a while because we've barely gone even a few miles since the last stop.
A good section of the road. A lot of the patches are mid corner.
Looking back up the hill
John provides a sense of scale
I have seen people swimming down there before... the water is COLD
I saw a LOT of these when we lived up in New York when I was a kid.
The pipes would just come out of the side of mountain with spring water pouring out of them. We'd stop and fill up coolers for drinking water. I always wondered how they knew where to stick the pipes and how far back they went. I don't taste the water coming from this one, but it looks nice and clear.
Looking up stream
They were there a second ago...
John and Steve
The rest of the run down 215 is fun. We don't make any more stops because we really do need to get some miles behind us so we'll have time for the fun stuff later in the day. We cross US 276 and run NC 110 on into Canton. A stop light splits the group and we have a few minutes of minor confusion as we try to get everyone back together. Then we head out of town on I-40 West to Cove Creek. Here we stop to top off the bikes. I'm not real sure how far we'll have to go before the next available gas, so I want to make sure we can go as far as possible.
We head Northwest on Cove Creek Rd. (NC 1326 and 1395). It follows the right fork of Cove Creek up into the mountains and brings us to the entrance of the National Park.
Roger - He's always busting with enthusiasm... We're working on that
Just to the right of the entrance sign there are two "roads". They are both blocked with steel posts set in the ground, three each, the middle post being hinged so that it can be laid down to allow vehicles to pass. The middle posts are pad locked into the upright position. It looks like where the entrance is now used to be the center of a switch back on an older road. One fork of the road continues up and to the left around the side of the mountain, the other down and to the right. Checking my topo maps shows the lower section going back down to hit the road we just came up. The upper section appears to roughly follow the path of the newer road, but runs higher along the ridge. Neither look like they have seen motorized traffic in a while, but they are not over grown and there are two clearly visible tracks. I don't see any of the typical signs prohibiting motorized access, but we decide to just play it safe and stick to the new road. Still... looking along the upper path... oh... so... tempting... The new road is called Mount Sterling Rd., and on the topo maps is shown as NC 1397.
As we enter into the park, the road becomes like so many out there, following the side of the mountains... in... out... in... out... up... down... up... down... Sometimes it is almost enough to hypnotize me. So I play around with sliding the back end out of the corners to keep myself entertained and focused. We soon pass the turn for Ranger Station Rd. I had thought about running out and back on it, but it looks like it will take a good bit of time and there doesn't appear to be anything real special about it. I'll probably find out later that there is some kind of Ranger tower out there that is totally cool and regret passing up the chance to see it. Oh well...
We eventually drop down into a valley and the road crosses what I think is Catalooche Creek. I've never figured out how a flowing body of water gets the designation of creek, stream, or river. I've seen "rivers" that were barely a trickle or even dried, and I have seen creeks that were flowing well enough to traverse in a boat. This appears to be one of the latter...
A father passing on the joys of fly fishing to his son... kind of cool to watch them!
The steel/wood bridge over the creek
See those two steel rods coming down behind my bike?
One of those rods is severely pitted, almost all the way through the metal. The bridge hangs from the upper frame via these rods. If one were to let go... John is an Inspection Engineer. This is right up his alley so I show him. I know he's got some pics, but he's slow getting them posted
We continue on past the "creek" and climb up out of the valley to Mount Sterling Gap, at just below 4000 feet. Here on the ridge, the old road I mentioned before intersects the new road. This end looks like it is frequently traveled and it is not blocked. I decide to run up the road a ways just to explore. So all of us head up. It starts out some what steep, rutted, and slightly washed out. It's a good two track and I can see this being a LOT of fun, but it is taking us the opposite direction that we want to be heading. So I stop as it starts to level out.
Tell me you wouldn't want to find out where it goes...
Yeah, Steve is enjoying this road
Well... It would be nice if some local could give me the skinny on this road and let me know if riding it is okay or will get us in a heap of trouble. I make a mental note to keep it in mind for future trips. The frustration of trying to plan routes in this area is that my Topo maps show a TON of trails in the area as dashed lines on the map. Some are roads that can be ridden and some are not. There is no real way to know ahead of time. If I lived out here, I would certainly investigate all of them thoroughly. But since I can only visit and we are trying to maximize riding time, we kind of want to stick with what we know, or have a good idea of, as being roads that get us where we want to go. Which, in this case, is a road that eventually gets us to where we can cross under I-40 and head East.
We return to the intersection on the ridge and continue on the main road. I start to settle back into a nice groove and as I come around a corner I am greeted with a BIG set of surprised eyes!!
This dude is standing in the middle of the road!
For a few seconds, he runs down the center of the road away from me. Then he pauses... turns around... stares at me as I am frantically trying to get my camera out... and calmly walks to the edge of the road and drops down the steep incline into the woods below. I manage to get the shot you see above, but my little point and shoot just can't zoom that well.
He's got a nice rack
Once down in the woods, the Elk just kind of hangs out and starts nibbling some nearby leaves. He doesn't appear worried at all and after we all snap a few shots, we take our leave. We soon reach the edge of the park, where FR 288 meets Mount Sterling Road, and we turn East on FR 288. A bit down the road I spot a neat little camping area next to a stream and decide to pull in for a break and some pictures.
A tent pitched right next to this would make for some quality sleep time
Roger, John, Me, and Steve
While we are standing around goofing off, I hear the sound of a bike approaching. Sure enough, a bike comes around the corner and I motion for him to pull over for a visit.
Mark, of
BigDogAdventures.com, on his tricked out and HEAVILY loaded WR250R... a pleasant surprise.
The hatch marks are bear sightings
Mark just retired about a week and a half ago. Now he's out just goofing off and roaming about. We pepper him with questions about his bike setup, his video recording setup, and all the other thoughtful little bits and pieces he's put into his bike to make it an adventure ready machine. I really like the marks on the gas tank to let him know how much gas he's got! Gonna have to get that done to my KTM. After a nice visit, we get back under way. We still have quite a few miles to go of unknown riding conditions.
The rest of the run over toward I-40 is great. It is just more of the hard packed forest road with loose gravel over the surface. There is a seemingly endless supply of sharp blind corners. As much as I like to zip along, I still slow wayyy down and hug the inside of these corners. Get hit head on by an ATV, have a CLOSE call with a truck or two, and even have a bike come at you on your side of the road and you get a bit paranoid about blind corners...
My plan is to stop at a place called Buzzard's Roost. I found out about it kind of at the last minute and didn't really get to research it enough to know exactly where it is. All I know that it is somewhere near I-40, is up real high, and gives a neat view looking down on I-40. However, we reach the end of the road and I never see anything that looks like it might be it. We stop at one point where there is a rough looking road that runs South, which on the map looks like it kind of follows I-40. I run up that a short way and it doesn't look right. It is fun though and is another that I make a note of for future exploration. Then I turn back to the main road. So we head on down the side of the mountain the last bit to the river below.
I think this is the Pigeon River
We pass a little camp ground area and I spot Mark on his WR, giving him a final wave, we ride on. We cross under I-40 and pick up the start of Cold Springs Creek Rd. It also shows as Harmon Den Rd., on some maps and on the Exit sign for I-40, which causes some confusion later in the day...
Anyway, it starts out like so many other roads in the area and is a pleasant ride.
Eventually Cold Springs Creek Rd., or Harmon Den Rd., whichever you want to call it, runs Northeast and hits Max Patch Rd., at Robert Gap. Max Patch shows as NC 1182 on my maps. My original route idea was to head North here and then cut over into Tennessee and eventually run up to US 25, make a big loop around the North side of Hot Springs, come back down NC 209 and eventually wind up right back at this spot, THEN run Hurricane Creek Rd. Well... it is obvious we won't be doing that as we have already burned a good chunk of day light and it is getting on into the afternoon. So we decided to just lop off all of that and head South on Max Patch Rd., now and hit Hurricane Creek Rd.
Max Patch Rd., is more of the same, fun but not real technical. We head South a few miles and then pick up Wesley Creek Rd., which starts to get more fun...
Steve on his KTM 690
All day long the air has been heavy with the feeling of rain. We've not actually had to ride in any rain yet, but there have been a few short and light sprinkles here and there. It becomes obvious that this area has seen more than a few light sprinkles!
John on his DRZ
Lots of this...
And this...
Roger on his KTM 450
Followed by Steve
And John
Tell me this doesn't make you want to get out and go riding!
Wesley Creek is not long and we are soon at the beginning of Hurricane Creek Rd. There is a light rain/mist. The leaves of the trees are dripping. The rocks are slick and water is running down the road. The air is still and thick... very thick... Up until now I have been fairly comfortable with the various layers I put on this morning. I should probably take some off now, but I figure once we get rolling it will be fine...
A nice smooth and not to steep section at the beginning of the road
Note which way the white KTM is facing... You'll understand in a moment...
Looking back the way we came
And the direction we are heading...
While we are eating some snacks and taking a break, Steve casually taunts Roger with, "I bet you can't get up that..." The "that" he is referring to is a steep climb up the side of the hill that cuts across a switchback, kind of like a lid on the letter U. It is slick, loose, rooted, and steep. Without so much as a triple dog dare, Roger shoots back, "Oh I can get up that with no problem!" The gear goes on without delay and soon cameras are aimed and ready!
Roger drops the bike into gear, hits the gas, and without even a good run up, launches up the hill. Everything is going pretty good until just before the top when the front drops over the little ledge and the rear hangs, spinning and roosting mud. With the front over the ledge and no real danger of sliding backward, Roger is able to feather the clutch, bounce the bike, and get the rear to hook up just enough to push the bike on over the rest of the way. He rolls down around the switch back acting all cool and casual. I know there is video of this. I even have some. But with my country bumpkin internet upload speeds, it would take me weeks to get it uploaded to YouTube!
So we'll have to see if Steve or John can deliver...
With Roger's antics and our snacks out of the way, it is time to see what Hurricane Creek is all about, hype or hard core!? Knowing how I tend to run slower than Roger likes to run, I let him take point. Sure enough, he's off like a rabbit through the underbrush, hopping here and there, bouncing along with apparent ease. I am more like a mule... slow and steady... carefully picking my lines... wary of the wet rocks and roots.
Down the rabbit hole to wonderland...?
More please!
What you see above is actually one of the less technical sections. So the speed has really come down. That combined with the stagnant damp air has me sweating BIG TIME in a few minutes! We don't get very far before I decide it is time to pull over and shed layers!
Had to leave the bike in gear so it would not roll away
Seems John has the same idea in mind
Roger had gone head and came back... He's telling Steve how awesome it gets
Nothing to serious... just sticks and stones... wait... how does that rhyme go...?
A nice straight section coming up where the speed can come up enough to get air flowing through the mesh gear
I really am holding the camera straight and level... and it IS steeper than it looks
With layers shed and water consumed, we take off again, Roger in the lead. The first mile and a half or so of the road appears to have been the worst, but it's not really all that bad. I guess it is harder simply because it drops in elevation pretty quick, from 4000 feet down to about 3000 feet. After that, the descent is more gradual and less twisty, the road just following and occasionally crossing the creek.
Now, if you have read very many dual sport ride reports, you know they pretty much always involve water crossings. I noticed that from a very young age, basically as soon as he could crawl, my son seemed to have a built in mud/water radar that infallibly led him to messy places. It has only gotten worse as he has gotten older. He's five now. The first day he got to ride his CRF-50 with me on the back he got stuck in deep mud in the back of the yard in the only place with any mud at all and which I specifically told him to avoid... I know... What on earth was I thinking...
Anyway, I know a LOT of adult men that don't seem to have outgrown this trait. Maybe it is one of those evolutionary back to the cradle genetic impusles... Salmon swim upstream to their spawning grounds, and if the evolutionary theory is to be believed, grown men gravitate back to the primordial slime and ooze infested puddles from whence they first crawled in some other form... Personally... I think it's just because stomping in mud and making big splashes is FUN!!
Yeah... Roger is just a big kid like all the rest of us
John climbing up the hill out of the creek... this shot sort of gives a good idea of how steep it is
There are places along the "road" where the direction to take is not always so obvious. Sometimes there are side paths that are not really the road but they are used enough that they kind of look like they could be the road. Roger usually slows at each of these and waits for me to show up so we can compare GPS notes and make an educated guess. I am cruising along, feeling pretty good, and as I round a curve I am suddenly faced with a decision. There is a fork in the road and I can't slow in time to actually stop before having to commit to one path or the other. I an epic adventurer fail, I pick the path MORE traveled!
I should have known better...
The path to the right is basically a big V carved out of the side of the hill by water rushing down. This should have been my first clue. After all, we are following the road DOWN out of the mountains to lower elevations, not UP. In the bottom of the V is big rocks, so I run up the far side as I try to make the turn. I get up on the top of the V and complete the turn, but there is a big branch right at head height. Not wanting to test my helmet's impact absorbing ability, I let off the throttle, lose all my momentum and...
They say that if there are no pics... it never happened...
So, if someone had happened to be standing there with a camera... He MIGHT have seen me eject from the bike and land in the weeds across the road... He MIGHT have seen the bike fall all the way over so it was pointing down into the bottom of the V... He MIGHT have seen me grab the bars and heft it back up before anyone with a camera DID show up... He MIGHT have seen me make a graceful remount and fast loop around to get back on the right trail as if nothing ever happened...
Fortunately, there was no one standing there with a camera... so... never happened... right?
I get on down the trail and find Roger waiting. I mumble something about "wrong turn", might have "fallen down", "No worries". We wait for the others to catch up and then take off again.
More puddles
Roger waiting to make sure everyone clears the crossing without problems
We come to yet another water crossing, but this one looks a little more challenging than those we've already done. There are obviously rocks that have been piled up on the downstream side, perhaps to make the crossing itself smoother. Of course, that also means it is usually going to be deeper. But you just can't take for granted that all the big rocks have been moved. Roger plunges in and hangs close to the rocks, revving the motor and making it across without any problems. On the far side at the climb out point, there are a few good sized chunks of rock embedded in the ground. Since Roger made it look easy, I decide to follow in his tracks... almost...
About a third of the way across, I hit a good sized rock with the front wheel that Roger did not hit. I am in no danger of going down, but it deflects me upstream into the deeper water. Nothing to do now but look to the far side, shift my weight back and get on the GAS! The motor starts to chug and I see the front tire going deeper... deeper... uh.... deeper... All but the last inch or two of the top of the tire is now under water. I'm twisting the throttle for all its worth now! I can feel the back tire grinding on the rocks below... almost there... almost... there... And the front tire starts to climb back out of the water as I pick up some speed... just in time to hit the big embedded rocks and launch up the far bank to park behind Roger. It might not have been pretty... but I got the job done and didn't go for a swim
Looking back there is a thick dark mud swirl in the creek where I had been churning up the bottom.
In the image above, Roger went to the right, coming at you. I went to the left of the shot and hit the big rocks in the left foreground. This was about a minute or so after I crossed and there is still churned up mud visible in the water. Steve shows up next and pauses on the far side, seeing the swirling mud from my crossing. Roger walks out a bit onto the rocky side and points to the correct line. Steve sees it and gets across without incident. John arrives and it takes a bit more convincing from Roger, but he too takes the right line and gets across without any problems. From here on out, the road levels and straightens a bit. The speed picks up and the air coming through the gear feels great. We soon reach the end of the road and it just drops out onto the shoulder of I-40 on the Northbound side.
From here, we have to run back up the freeway to where we crossed under earlier, then loop under so we can get on the South bound side and start the ride back toward Balsam Grove. Seems simple enough... right?! I take off and hit cruise speed. There is a bit of traffic, so not all of us can get on at once. Just up the freeway, I reach the exit, check my mirror and see Steve coming. So I go ahead and ride on down to the bottom of the exit. Steve joins me a moment later. I look back to see if John is waiting at the top for Roger, but instead seem him blow right by the exit and across the overpass
Fortunately, he happens to look down and sees me and Steve and waves to let us know. I never see Roger. A minute or two later, John comes down the on ramp on the other side of the road to join us. This is when we find out that Roger was in the fast lane and didn't make the exit, thinking instead that we were still ahead of him and that he had to catch up to us.
The next exit is about 10 miles up the road in Tennessee...
Hopefully, Roger will realize we are not ahead of him and will take that exit and loop back. But he has no idea what the route plan is, so he could miss us completely. I ride up the edge of the off ramp on the Southbound side so I can watch for his return. While stopped, I get out the cell and call his phone to leave him a message... just in case he thinks to check his phone. Then I kick back and wait a bit. I figure he'll be exiting in 5-10 minutes and maybe he'll call then. John and Steve stayed down under the overpass where it is cooler. So I run back down to tell them I left Roger a message, then run back up to resume my watch on the off ramp, positioned where Roger should be able to see me if he goes by me.
I watch...
I eat some peanut butter crackers... some sunflower seeds... some granola bars... more peanut butter crackers...
No Roger... Dang... It's been almost 30 minutes!
My phone rings!! It's Roger!
"Where are you guys?"
"Where back in North Carolina at the same place where we crossed under I-40 earlier"
"I'm at the North Carolina Welcome Center."
"Oh great, then just head back South to Exit 7 for Cold Spring Creek Rd. and we'll be waiting there for you."
"Okay, I'll be there in a few minutes..."
I park the bike under a tree and wait for him to show up at the exit...
I eat another pack of granola bars...
Laying against the base of the tree, a slight breeze blowing, I start to get sleepy. A few 18 wheeler drivers give me a honk or three as they go by. I wave to let them know I am fine.
Ten minutes go by... twenty... thirty...
I am starting to wonder what has happened to Roger. By now, John and Steve have come up and joined me on the side of the freeway. They want an update. I let them know I talked with Roger and he should have been here by now. About that time the phone rings again.
"I'm at the overpass, where are you guys?!"
"WHAT!? How can you be there?! I never saw you go by or take this exit..."
"Well... I'm here!"
Totally confused, we head back down under the over pass and sure enough, there's Roger. After a quick discussion, we realize that when he told me he was as the NORTH CAROLINA visitor center, my brain was so convinced he was calling from Tennessee, I heard, "I'm at the Tennessee visitor center", hence my directions for him to come back SOUTH. Needless to say, that created a good bit of confusion on his end. It seems that in the few moments I went back under the over pass to talk with Steve and John, Roger had ALREADY come South and passed the exit, so I did not see him. Then he called and because I thought he was still North of us, I told him to come South. He did indeed go South for a while, but then came back when he noticed the exit numbers getting bigger. He eventually found the right exit because I told him the number. However, remember the name I mentioned earlier that was on the exit sign...? It is NOT Cold Springs Creek Rd., but is instead Harmon Den Rd.
Well, with that bit of brain farting out of the way and an hour or more blown (well not really, I enjoyed the eating and rest
, while Roger packed on an extra 40 miles or so to today's ride
), we get back on I-40 and run South. For a freeway, this stretch of road is actually kind of fun, when I am not getting tossed around by the wind blast from 18 wheelers, of which there are many. It runs along a valley formed by the Pigeon River and the shores of Waterville Lake. Fun as it may be though, I want off. So we take the exit for Fines Creek Rd., and head East back into the mountains.
Fines Creek is a nicely paved country road that runs over to Max Patch Rd., the same one as before, but now at the South end where it is paved. We turn right and run a short ways to NC 209 and head South. If you have never ridden NC 209, put it on your bucket list. It's is great. I try to run it almost every time I come out here. Because we truncated the Northern most section of today's route, we missed riding the section just South of Hot Springs. No worries though, it is on the schedule for tomorrow's more street focused ride
Anyway, we run it South for a few miles and find the start of Upper Crabtree Rd., another nice paved country road. A few miles later we cut back South and run Crabtree Mountain Rd., up over the mountains.
Crabtree Mountain road is a LOT of fun. It climbs about 1000 feet pretty quickly up to Crabtree Gap and then drops down the far side just as quickly. The pavement is mostly dry so we can have a little fun! The down side has a short series of tight switch backs.
Looking down hill to the next 15 mph curve
Steve
Can you see the grin?
John
John and Roger
As we near the base of the mountain, the houses are more frequent, which means more driveways, which means slowing down. And then I see this...
The other side
I really needed a third shot to get it all. It is pretty cool. There are a lot of other wood sculptures in the yard nearby. I don't know if they are for sale or just to take up space in the yard. So off we go... down the gently sloping road toward I40 at Canton. Just a bit further down the road I come to a stop sign, see Steve behind me, but not Roger and John. While stopped at the intersection, a car pulls up next to us with the window down and asks if there are two more with us...
"YES!"
"Well, I think one of them crashed back there a short way."
Steve and I get turned around and start to zoom back up the hill but quickly, and much to our relief, find John and Roger coming down to find us. A thumbs up indicates everything is fine. I don't see any obvious signs of problems, so I guess we are good to go
We reach Canton and Roger indicates that we need gas. I let him know that I am planning to stop here in town. First, we pull over in a Subway parking lot because it is starting to get cool again and we need to layer up before we head back up and over the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is when John tells me that he fell over a while ago on the side of the road because he went to put a foot down and there was nothing there. It was one of those slo-mo oh-no moments where he couldn't stop it and just tipped right on over
Been there... done that... The people in the car did not see the tip over, just the aftermath, hence their belief that he crashed.
We get back on the road and instead of heading through the center of town again, we take NC 215 down the West side of the Pigeon River back to US 276. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However, as we head out of town the traffic comes to a stop. There are emergency vehicles with lights flashing up ahead of us. It seems we are at the tail end of an accident clean up and they are almost done. So we wait a few minutes and then continue on our way. We make a quick stop for gas and discuss the remaining riding plans.
Earlier, John high sided, or so I was told. No one got it on video or got any pics. So... He and the bike were fine, but between that and his recent tip over, he's getting stiff and about ready to call it a day. I kind of still want to run up 276 to the parkway, a stretch we have not done yet and which is not on any of the remaining routes for the week. Like 215, it is twisty and fun! Roger is up for more. Steve decides he'll ride with John and take the "direct" route home, 215 right up over the parkway to Balsam Grove. Roger and I will take the less direct way home. We gas up the bikes and go our separate ways.
NC 276 follows the East Fork of the Pigeon River, which flows down from the Blue Ridge. There are a lot of homes along 276 as it doesn't really get twisty and fun until right at the base of the ridge. There it climbs fairly steeply up the side of the mountain. Like 215, the pavement is not as good as it has been in years past when I've been here, but it is still good fun. Roger and I zoom to the top of the ridge in short order and start down the South side of 276. My plan now is to pick up FR 475B (the road that starts down near the fish hatchery on Government Rd. The South side of 276 looks like it might have gotten some more rain since yesterday so I take it easy going into the tight corners. We soon reach the start of 475B and head into the woods.
We make quick work of 475B and soon reach Government Rd. We blow through the short stretch of pavement leading from 475B to the parking area at the start of the dirt part of Government Rd. As expected, the road is still pretty wet. There are puddles in the areas with the gravel. However, once we get to the part that had been graded the other day, it is still soft and muddy! Nothing to do but have some fun with it!!
Roger hangs back a bit to avoid getting caked in the mud flinging from my rear tire. While I am roosting through the corners, I stop to think what it might be like right now if I were still on my trusty old KLR 650... I definitely do not think I would be having this much fun! My KLR has been a great bike, but it just never instilled the confidence in handling that the KTM does. I have seen people do amazing things on KLRs, so I know it is more a problem with the operator than the bike. There is just something about the KTM that tells my brain that there is no reason to panic... that things are not are not as bad as they might appear... that this is no problem. And so my brain releases the right wrist to have its way
Roger and I have our fun, and before we know it we are at the start of Shoal Creek Rd., and soon pulling into the driveway. Another day of solid riding under the buns! We find John and Steve relaxing and join them. Tonight we cook brauts
My back is flaming, so I grab a pain killer and muscle relaxer early rather than late
Lotsa splattering from the mud
A day of playing in the water and mud with friends... I'd call that a quality day