Big bend was great as usual, and this year the weather was fantastic, minus the day of arrival. That desert mud is pretty sticky
But that meant almost no dust for the next day, which coincided with the intro ride, that was a fantastic blessing. I think I ended up with ~25 riders in my group, I had a great time leading through the meandering trails, with only a couple mishaps
We reached a decision point at the north end of the Top of the World loop, and the riders that wanted a little more scenery chose to take Hen Egg Rd
As this is my sixth or seventh trip to Big Bend, I've been around most of the dirt in the area, so I decided to switch it up and go on a couple hikes. The evening after the intro ride, some friends and I hiked to some secret-ish Native American petroglyphs.
Next day followed the same theme, with more difficulty. We went in along Dog Canyon, and out via Devil's Den. We brought straps and plenty of water
About halfway through, Ilias decided to whip out his drone to scout the route ahead. We all patiently waited until he said "Something has it". Which is....not something you want to hear a drone operator say. And indeed, we took a look at his screen to see a falcon tea-bagging his now broken $1k drone. Absolutely nuts
We eventually used the last known coordinates to track down the drone, it was pretty messed up. We continued onto Devil's Den...
To finish out the day, we loaded up in the truck and headed out to Chisos Basin to catch the sunset. I hopped in the bed to get some photo opportunities
Then, the last "official" day was some riding around Terlingua ranch with Peter's group and some DR650 problems, nothing too interesting. I forgot how terrible I am at riding sand
I did stay another day, but those videos are a secret project...for now
Thanks to all for making this another fun rally!
And some final fancy photos