Was totally bummed out with the rain canceling our plans for riding the National Forest Saturday. But then I came across Thumper’s post about Scott’s gps track map and, what is this? He wants to ride on Sunday – Eureka, the game’s afoot once again. I call him Saturday afternoon and we agree to watch the forecast and touch base again. Later, we decide it looks like a go, but let’s check in with each other in the morning and hey, Desmo and dbdolan are in too. When I get up Sunday morning, the thick fog tells me we are going to have a warm day, looks like a go. Phone calls back and forth with Tim and he arrives are my house with a trailer perfect for two motorcycles on the off road variety. So we load up for the ride to King’s. Now, you know I could have ridden there, but Tim has never been, and well, I can’t pass up a free tow. On the road, darn, we are running about 15 minutes late, hope Steve and Bryan are waiting for us. Pull up to the very muddy parking lot of King’s – don’t see anyone yet. Unload the DRZ, then start on Tim’s DR and there from the lot across the road comes Steven, whoohoo, they waited!
Introductions are made, we consult the maps, come up with a tentative plan and head off to the County and Service Roads in and around Sam Houston National Forest.
As I hoped, most of the roads were hard packed with surprisingly few muddy potholes which I mostly managed to avoid (Ok, I did hit one square and the muddy water shot straight up my pant leg directly to sock!) After some stops to reconnect with the map and each other, Steve tells me we are headed to a road which may be muddy and if I want to I can pull over and wait, they will circle back. They know I still have on the stock Deathwings and they abhor mud. We soon arrive here, now I know what Steve was talking about.
I demurely pull over to high ground, grab the camera and let the big boys with their knobbies have a little male bonding time. When they started coming back in, I saw Tim get a little wiggly (which he expertly powered out of) and was confident in my decision to sit this one out. I sent my little video shots to Bryan, they are short, so I hope he can work with them.
We head back over to 1375 and pull over again to check my little gps (just to see how many roads it will show, answer none, but now we know where Huntsville is) and the boys take a little nature break.
This of course, leave me in a lurch, or a bind, maybe in a bit of a pickle, I have to go too – and I need gas. The DRZ’s odo is showing 71 miles and I’m still not sure what my range is, during break in, I hit reserve at 88 miles and we are still in the middle of nowhere according to my etrex legend. Where to now? How about lunch, I know a little gas station/hardware store/convenience store/video pokerama/hamburger joint in Shiro. Ok, Steve and Tim lead the way. After a few minutes we pull over again and Steve is waving to me. Oh heck, is there something wrong with my bike? He then points to the most beautiful little wooden building and says “If you have to go, this would be a good time.” My hero has led me to a Forest Service Outhouse! What a kind and considerate man you are Steve! Tank emptied, we head on off to Shiro. As we travel along the fire roads the seriousness of the recent dry weather manifests itself before us, the forest is black. We pass areas where the trees are still smouldering where they stand, their bark now white ash and smoking. Mercifully, the fire roads perform their function and the blackness stops at the edge of the road with green still on the other side. We make it up to Shiro and find the gas station////hamburger joint. I don’t recall seeing a sign on this building so we still do not know what this place is called, but they make huge fresh burgers and if you order the tots be prepared to share because you will get a bucketful (not a real bucket, silly) Steve and I help Bryan with his tots.
After lunch we decide to retrace our path down through Hoke Road because not one of us believes Bryan actually saw water buffalo on one of the farms we just passed. Sure enough, we see animals that one could describe as water buffalos, unfortunately we did not pull over for a Kodak moment, sorry.
Eventually we wind our way through 1791, then more dirt, around to 1097 eventually meeting back up to 149. It was during this time Bryan did his daredevil live action video holding the Olympus in his lefthand while passing us all on the left. Fortunately, this road was one of the few not pockmarked with muddy puddles and every one stayed in their track to the right.
Finally, we are again on 149 joining all the non-dirt specific motor vehicles of the two wheeled variety and roll back into the parking lot of King’s. Tim wants to stay and find a coke, but I want to head home and decline his generous offer of a return tow. Besides, Steve, Bryan and I are heading the same way. We say our farewells and head south on 149, with Steven infiltrating a pod of loud cruisers as we exit King’s. What’s he trying to do? I hope he can extricate himself unharmed, ahhh past the light of 105 there’s our Steve. At 1488 we wave off Steve on his way to Magnolia, Bryan takes me down to 149 spur where we turn on to Huffsmith-Dobbin(?) which is a delightful little country road which finally intersects with 2978. At 2920 Bryan and I say so long as he turns West, I head South to Boudreaux which now intersects with Champion Forest Bvld which delivers me to Spring Cypress via Glennloch Farms. Come home to find Mark in the driveway installing his new XM roady on the Wing (the old one just broke and this one was only $30!) So I give the DRZ a little shower, a light scrub, shook her off to dry and put her to bed all before nightfall. (Hey, the days are getting longer!) It was a beautiful Spring day in the middle of Winter – ahhh the joys of living in SE Texas. Thank you Tim for getting us all together for a delightful day, and we look forward to exploring with you again in your neck of the woods.