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I'm not much for stopping to eat at a restaurant when I could be riding. I do carry cold water, snack bars or something easy to carry, stop at a cool place for a short rest to eat drink relieve myself. Then back to riding.
I’m generally in the same boat… for a 4-5 hour ride I might have 10-15 minutes of stoppage time. Probably because I’m trying to maximize my time out since I unfortunately can usually only ride once or twice a week.
 
Took the 450 out for a bit of gravel cruising this morning. Ran up to Lavaca county and hit a few roads listed in the Flatonia thread. Ended up with 175 miles and was gone for 4:33, moving showed 4:07. Two gas stops in there, not quite trusting how far I can get on the new tank yet but the computer shows 40 mpg which should get me solidly over 100 miles. Out of the 4:07 moving I tried something different and recorded the gravel section on my GoPro. Ended up with 2:08 of gravel video so would guess it was around 40% gravel, since I ran about 45 on the gravel and 55 or 60 elsewhere. The rest was hard surface county backroads.

Grabbed a few images from the GoPro footage, poor framing due to that but still photos.

I always like the big oak trees in that area.

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Crossed quite a few of these type bridges.

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Had some corners you could see around which are always a bit of fun.

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Cattleguards were also prevalent.

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Some not as cared for as others.

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Made on wrong turn and went down the drive to this house. The drive was actually nicer and wider than the road I was on with no gate. Just a nice jump style cattleguard.

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Saw quite a few critters. Coon, rabbits, and deer.

Yes there is a rabbit in the photo and a view down a straight haul not far from my house.

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These deer, one of them is on the left across the fence, were a lot closer than they look. Another one had crossed theroad so I slowed up to watch for the "wait for me" deer, sure enough two of them.


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On the way home I hit the one bit of two-track I know of that is remotely close to me. A whole 1.5 miles!

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The tire on the back of the 450 is the loudest tire I have ever heard. Between 40 and 50 on a hard surface it is unbelievably loud. Once over 50 it starts getting quieter and at 55 or 60 is not bad. I am glad it needs replaced as I think I would replace it anyway just due to the noise in that 40-50 range.
 
Hotter than a firecracker 100, lol. Took little run through the SHNF, sorry just my thing and close. Checked out a couple of special roads. One had a pretty challenging tree go round that ked to total washout. So got to do tree twice! Left it 85* finished at 97*. Too warm for me, lol. Had visit from official looking Tahoe, hmmm what now. As he got closer the engine rumble would not be in a cop car. He had a serious engine in this thing, lol.
 

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@GSTJOHN and myself braved the heat to ride dirtbikes at Cole Fun Pit, put on by TRH. My wife laughs at me when I told her I drove 2 hours and fifteen minutes to ride 13 and half miles. Lol. This is 1st and 2nd gear stuff for me. Pretty darn tight. Sad to say averaging around 10mph. Make no doubt about it, when Honda built the CRF450R, they didn't have this trail in mind. It's a fight. Still a good time on 2 wheels.
 
My Sunday trip to Drifters with a little dirt roads afterwards. Riding after lunch means riding in the heat, duh. Running this 2 track and thought it looked funny. Another washout! Everything sure is nice and green anyway.
 

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Glad you saw it!
I've never ventured down this path, although ride by it all the time. It wasn't an o**** moment, I was just putting along. Just was really surprised to find it, nothing blocking the route or washout??
 
Yep, I've come across washouts like those before on East Texas roads, so speeds were definitely higher. Luckily, they were on straightaways that allowed for good vision ahead, so you could see them coming, but even better, the county (?) had already put up a barricade. I don't want to imagine how disastrous it could have been!
 
I made a short ride down towards Fredricksburg last week with two goals in mind - hike Enchanted Rock State Park and ride some of my favorite roads North of Fredricksburg. I am dubbing this Motohikling.

I dropped the family off at Grandparents house in the afternoon, headed home, geared up, and hopped on my already packed motorcycle. It was a pleasant ride with Hurricane Beryl off doing it's thing to East. There were lots of little showers popping up around and cool breezes to enjoy despite it being July in Texas. This was working out exactly as planned.

I camped at a small family campground near the park with the intention of getting up early and heading straight over there. The campground was okay but I probably wouldn't go back. The shower and restrooms clearly hadn't been cleaned or otherwise taken care of in ages. The water from faucet didn't look safe to drink because it looked like it had been in the pipes a long time. It cleared up eventually and I used it to wash up at least. I had plenty of drinking water on the bike anyway.

The view was good at least and it was nice watching the sunset and sunrise from my campsite.

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I enjoyed Enchanted Rock State Park since I'd never had a chance to go. Everytime I've considered going before they were full but a couple of days after July 4th it was probably as close to deserted as they get. That rock is really tall. Taller than it looks. I'm in decent enough shape and my legs were getting tired by the time I got back down.

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I was leaving the park by around 0930 and was already making some plans to come back in the fall and enjoy some longer hikes with the kids. The Canyon trail that goes back towards the lake was particularly nice. I may not bother climbing up the rock again though.


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I got rained on and stuck behind service trucks on Willow City Loop so that kind of ruined that part of the trip but the other roads were deserted and dry as I slowly made my way back North to Pepperbelly's in San Saba for a burger. The last time I was at Pepperbelly's it was about a decade ago with @slowoldguy (may he rest in peace) during a Roll the Bones rally so I was excited to go back and see if the food was as good as I remembered. I had the Jalapeno Bacon Burger and it was quite tasty. The chips and salsa were great too.

After eating it was time to fuel up, top up the water jug with electrolytes, and get home as fast as I could since temps were cool for July but still getting up into the high 90's.
 
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@GSTJOHN, myself, and another old man, lol, combines ages=212 years, tried riding Cycleland Saturday. During a heat advisory! I had no idea the hurricane still carried the punch it had all the way up there. It was a miserable exercise. Less than 1/2 mile in came to a creek crossing blocking the exit! So after cutting the tree with a shared handsaw, I tried exiting the creek over 2 exposed roots, yep, I got stuck bad. So lift and get stuck again. Finally out but already whipped and we're just started. Over the next couple miles Larry and Glenn both had their moments also. Being old and stubborn we continued on. The sections up there have names, we finished Gambler, could have exited but tried Rockin Robin. Most of it was really fun, it had recently been logged and only had 3 or 4 trees down. Couple top big for old guys to hop, so lift and drag the bikes over. We finish RR, deciding to retreat or try another section we agree next downed tree we bail. Didn't make 50 yards in and it was totally blocked! Enough for this day. As my watch shows we "rode 8.9" miles in 2 and a half hours! Now there was a lot of struggle in that, some sitting time resting, and a couple places we did some minor repairs for the next fools! AND I STILL HAD FUN!

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@GSTJOHN, myself, and another old man, lol, combines ages=212 years, tried riding Cycleland Saturday. During a heat advisory! I had no idea the hurricane still carried the punch it had all the way up there. It was a miserable exercise. Less than 1/2 mile in came to a creek crossing blocking the exit! So after cutting the tree with a shared handsaw, I tried exiting the creek over 2 exposed roots, yep, I got stuck bad. So lift and get stuck again. Finally out but already whipped and we're just started. Over the next couple miles Larry and Glenn both had their moments also. Being old and stubborn we continued on. The sections up there have names, we finished Gambler, could have exited but tried Rockin Robin. Most of it was really fun, it had recently been logged and only had 3 or 4 trees down. Couple top big for old guys to hop, so lift and drag the bikes over. We finish RR, deciding to retreat or try another section we agree next downed tree we bail. Didn't make 50 yards in and it was totally blocked! Enough for this day. As my watch shows we "rode 8.9" miles in 2 and a half hours! Now there was a lot of struggle in that, some sitting time resting, and a couple places we did some minor repairs for the next fools! AND I STILL HAD FUN!
Every ride is a good ride...some a little more memorable for the trials, tribulations and laughs. Another awesome ride with Good Friends.!!!
 
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