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- Joined
- Oct 20, 2010
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- Location
- Victoria
- First Name
- Gary
- Last Name
- Turner
This year for spring break we decided that we should go riding as a family. I have taken my kids to various places to ride, but never in a rocky desert type setting. I took them to Big Bend two years ago for spring break, but no drivers license means no riding in the park. I had read on TWTEX of a place just outside of Dryden. Birdsong Outpost is a private ranch of approximately 3,200 acres that allows riding of off-road machines. There are four cabins and a few RV spots, we opted for a cabin. The cabin is much like a tiny house with a queen bed, couch, chair, cooking area, bath room, and a loft with another queen bed. These cabins are not a luxury spa, but they will get the job done for a place to stay for a few days.
The players for those that don’t know us are: Lorraine my wife who is organizer of most of our travels, she keeps us feed and keeps up with when we must be somewhere. She is not a moto rider; even though she can she just doesn’t have the desire. She will be riding a Honda Foreman 450es quad. Colton my son who is 14 and just moved from a CRF150F to an XR250R, I load both since he has never ridden in rocky terrain and can’t quit get to the ground on the 250. Emily my daughter who is 12 will be riding her CRF110, she doesn’t ride that often but always enjoys it when she does. Emily doesn’t like to shift for some reason so she puts the 110 in second gear and that’s where it stays. I will be on my do it all bike my KTM 525exc.
Day1 is finish packing and driving west with a few stops along the way for fuel, ice and a WalMart stop those last minute items.
I reach Dryden and turn down the road that takes us to the ranch. The locals area has been getting rain and there is water across the road in the low spots. It is not flowing and the ground is hard and rocky so no problem. The road is rough but not too bad, it takes us about 30mins to go seven miles to the ranch.
When we arrive there is some folks from Midland next to us in a cabin with side-by-side atvs and a family from Corpus in a motor home with a gaggle of quads. I visit with them about the trails and the ranch for a few minutes and then go about the chore of unpacking everything we had just packed a few hours before. The sun begins to set as Emily says “Dad can you take me for a ride on the 4 wheeler”. We gear up and jump on the 4 wheeler and Colton jumps on the 250 since it has a headlight and we head of into the unknown for a quick look. It gets dark fast in the mountains for those who don’t know, so headlight soon become mandatory as the smooth dirt trail turns quickly to rocks and an off camber decent to the bottom of wash. I roll through the bottom and give Colton some room as he waits at the top of the other side, he rolled in through a few baby head rocks and got smoothly on the gas and up the other side without much fanfare. I knew at that point we were going to have a good few days of riding and he was going to love the 250R. There were a few more washouts and then a turn back to the cabins.
Day2 we woke to a cool crisp morning and headed out to explore the ranch. I started down the trail we had ridden the night before and when we got to the first wash Emily balked and said no way. I talked to her she decided to press on. She was on little tires, so the rocks are huge to her.
The trail we took back to the cabin the night before had a tee in the road so I chose the left turn this time and was greeted with a sharp left hand turn to a long uphill with a couple steps along the way. I knew this was going to be a no go for “E” at this point. We poked around for some easier riding and found a little. We passed the owners house and he came out side and chatted for few minutes, he had noticed that we turned around on the hill and shared that if we went back down the county road there was a gate that lead to the north side of the ranch were we would find some easier riding.
I did a little solo exploring in the afternoon. I ended up bushwhacking across the far east corner of the ranch. I eventually found a goat path that lead me to a water trough that put me back on a road.
The players for those that don’t know us are: Lorraine my wife who is organizer of most of our travels, she keeps us feed and keeps up with when we must be somewhere. She is not a moto rider; even though she can she just doesn’t have the desire. She will be riding a Honda Foreman 450es quad. Colton my son who is 14 and just moved from a CRF150F to an XR250R, I load both since he has never ridden in rocky terrain and can’t quit get to the ground on the 250. Emily my daughter who is 12 will be riding her CRF110, she doesn’t ride that often but always enjoys it when she does. Emily doesn’t like to shift for some reason so she puts the 110 in second gear and that’s where it stays. I will be on my do it all bike my KTM 525exc.
Day1 is finish packing and driving west with a few stops along the way for fuel, ice and a WalMart stop those last minute items.
I reach Dryden and turn down the road that takes us to the ranch. The locals area has been getting rain and there is water across the road in the low spots. It is not flowing and the ground is hard and rocky so no problem. The road is rough but not too bad, it takes us about 30mins to go seven miles to the ranch.
When we arrive there is some folks from Midland next to us in a cabin with side-by-side atvs and a family from Corpus in a motor home with a gaggle of quads. I visit with them about the trails and the ranch for a few minutes and then go about the chore of unpacking everything we had just packed a few hours before. The sun begins to set as Emily says “Dad can you take me for a ride on the 4 wheeler”. We gear up and jump on the 4 wheeler and Colton jumps on the 250 since it has a headlight and we head of into the unknown for a quick look. It gets dark fast in the mountains for those who don’t know, so headlight soon become mandatory as the smooth dirt trail turns quickly to rocks and an off camber decent to the bottom of wash. I roll through the bottom and give Colton some room as he waits at the top of the other side, he rolled in through a few baby head rocks and got smoothly on the gas and up the other side without much fanfare. I knew at that point we were going to have a good few days of riding and he was going to love the 250R. There were a few more washouts and then a turn back to the cabins.
Day2 we woke to a cool crisp morning and headed out to explore the ranch. I started down the trail we had ridden the night before and when we got to the first wash Emily balked and said no way. I talked to her she decided to press on. She was on little tires, so the rocks are huge to her.
The trail we took back to the cabin the night before had a tee in the road so I chose the left turn this time and was greeted with a sharp left hand turn to a long uphill with a couple steps along the way. I knew this was going to be a no go for “E” at this point. We poked around for some easier riding and found a little. We passed the owners house and he came out side and chatted for few minutes, he had noticed that we turned around on the hill and shared that if we went back down the county road there was a gate that lead to the north side of the ranch were we would find some easier riding.
I did a little solo exploring in the afternoon. I ended up bushwhacking across the far east corner of the ranch. I eventually found a goat path that lead me to a water trough that put me back on a road.
Those rocky hills can be very intimidating, even for adult riders. I know I would have been having to work pretty hard to convince Sarah to ride some of that stuff. She likes smooth surfaces 
This has to do wonders for Emily's confidence. Nice to see the jacket being put to good use!
