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- Friday
Okay... I finally got all the pics resized and uploaded, so take a leak, grab a drink and get comfy because there are a bunch
I get an unexpected PM from Roger "Rsquared" Rogers back in November asking if I want to make trip to Big Bend Ranch & State Park with him after Christmas. I'd never ridden at BBRSP but had seen ride reports from the area and it looked interesting. The ride is hosted by the guys at RideDualSport.com. I definitely want to make this ride! The only problem is that I just did a ride in Central Texas (Roll The Bones) In October and am not sure if I can swing the time off. I run it by Beth (wife) and Boss (my Dad) and both agree I can get the time off. So a little planning with Roger, prepping the bike with a new chain and 13/52 sprockets, Giant Loop Mojavi bags, and new tires, and I am good to go. The plan is for Roger to be at my place in Huntsville at 5:00am... a full 5-1/2 hours before my normal wake up time! All I have to do is be awake enough to get the bike and gear in the truck and he'll take care of the driving duties since he's a crazy early morning person anyway...
We pull out right around 5:45am... and make it to Sauceda right around 6:30pm, just before dark. We make a few introductions, claim a bunk spot, and pretty much hit the sack about 5-1/2 hours earlier than my normal sack time Ear plugs are a must when sleeping in a bunk house!
I opted for the bunkhouse because I am not wild about camping in really cold weather or sleeping on rocks. I'm thinking there is no heat in the bunkhouse. Like camping, that is no problem so long as you stay under the covers, but then there is that 4:00am run to the little boys room on a COLD floor and having to get out from under the covers come morning... At least the breakfast makes up for it. I don't normally eat breakfast, but I figure I'll need the energy for the riding to come. Breakfast is at least at a nice reasonable time... 8:00am. I am NOT one of those guys that has to be on the bike at the crack of dawn. I like rolling out sometime around 9:00am... ish... So this makes for a good morning for me. I eat a nice relaxed breakfast, gear up, and meet out in the parking lot where we break up into groups.
Apparently, Jbay forgot to grab the key out of his KTM 350 and it bounced out while they were driving to the park... uh oh... No spare!! He loads it in his truck and brings it over to the bunkhouse before everyone heads out to ride, hoping to find a solution...
Roger saves the day
He hot wires the bike so Jbay's son Matthew will have a ride
I have no real plan, other than following someone else. I often end up leading rides even when I don't want to just because no one else will. This time I want to follow! Roger agrees to lead. Mark "Subcomm" joins us, and we head over to the camping area to pick up Jbay and Matthew.
The camping area - maybe a mile from the bunkhouse
A nice soft spot to land if you fall off your bike...
Roger ready to roll with his GoPro mounted on his head
Roger KTM 450 EXC, Matt KTM 350 and Jbay XR650L (Mark is on his CRF 450 - not pictured)
Back in mid November I picked up a slightly used 2010 KTM 530 EXC and this is going to be my first serious ride on it. I am pretty stoked. I did a day of riding trails in the Sam Houston Nat Forest a few weeks back with Roger. The bike was great... I was sucking wind!! Still, the improvement over my KLR 650 is beyond description. So I am eager to see how the bike handles the terrain here in the park, especially since I have it geared like a mountain goat.
I think we briefly mentioned something this morning about exploring over by the Solitario... whatever... I'm just following Roger. The roads start out wide and smooth, graded gravel with sweeping curves. The speed limit is 25mph... It's doable, but it takes some serious effort!
We head off to the NE corner of the park and soon find a sign of things to come
The red circle up and left is Roger taking off, followed by Mark (second red circle). From here on out, the riding only gets better!! In no time at all we are into some steep, off camber, loose and rocky climbs. I'm just not feeling it. I feel like I am bouncing all over the track, barely keeping the bike under control, and I am working WAY too hard. Sometimes it takes me a while to loosen up when we start riding early like this... So I figure I'll just push on and things will get better as I warm up a bit. When I crest the hill I see Mark and Roger waiting further down below, I stop to wait for Jbay and Matt. But it seems like it is taking a while... While waiting I shed a few layers of clothes. Here in the desert it starts out cold, but warms up FAST as soon as the sun starts climbing into the clear sky. While I am stuffing the extra layers into a side bag, Mark doubles back to check on the other guys and soon returns with them in tow...
Mark on his sweet Honda, followed by Matt in the background
While we are stopped, Jeff and MedicJeff show up and join our group. This is MedicJeff on his KTM 450 EXC
With our group now up to seven riders, we start off again. In no time at all we are back to climbing long steep hills. One in particular is long and turns to the right about half way up. I am chugging along in second gear, standing and leaning forward, trying to relax and stay on the gas. The back end is bouncing around like my five year old son when I tell him to sit still... and it catches a rock... The back end steps out right as I am getting on the gas and the bike just spins out from under me, the top of the hill just a few yards away! I step off to the side with little effort but unlike a normal step off, this time something catches my right thumb and tries to fold the fingernail back on top of itself. Yes... it HURTS!! I get the bike righted right about the time Jeff comes up behind to assist me. I mention the thumb and he and MedicJeff ask if I want to take the glove off and have a look. I don't. You see, I have this bad habit of going into shock. So long as I don't look, I am good. The inside of the glove is warm, wet, and sticky. Whatever has happened has happened and me looking at it is not going to help. So nothing to do but keep the glove on and keep riding... I'll take a look later when we finish riding for the day.
I get the bike refired and complete the climb, only to drop down the backside of the hill to start another climb, and then another, and another.... One in particular has a wash out about 18 inches deep crossing the road RIGHT at the beginning of the climb, perfectly placed to prevent me getting my momentum up for the start of the climb. I roll it and then hit the gas! The low gearing os working great and the bike accelerates nicely. The clear part of the track is smooth but has a nasty off camber slope to it. The back of the bike is trying to slide down into the rough stuff and drag the rest of the bike with it. The back tire wins and I am soon bouncing off rocks I'd rather avoid. I stay on the gas and eventually manage to clear the hill, roll the back side and start up another that doesn't look so daunting.
The exertion of the previous hills is catching up to me and I get soppy. I lose my momentum, fail to pull in the clutch for a down shift, stall and just tip over. I step off the bike as it lays down. Great... This is a short hill but it is steep! I get the bike up, refire it, and try to resume my climb. The rear spins, kicking gravel out and grinding up the tire. I roll back a little. When I try to stop, the front tire just slides backward despite a fist full of front brake! I ease the clutch out and the tire grips momentarily so I get on the gas. I get short run of maybe a foot or two, but it is enough for me to get up the momentum to get going again. A few more hills and I find Roger, Mark and MedicJeff stopped for a break. I happily join them, feeling like my lungs need to be taking in about twice as much air as they are getting. There is nothing like a few good hill climbs and a few thousand feet of altitude to make one feel like a couch potato...
MedicJeff again
Mark contemplating what lies ahead...
The other Jeff taking a break
A relatively level spot
At this point, Roger listens to me whining about feeling like I am just bouncing all over the place and suggests that I should take a bit of the compression damping out of the forks. He kindly does it for me. We'll see if that helps. We wait about five minutes or so and then Roger doubles back. A few more minutes and MedicJeff doubles back. A few more minutes and they come rolling back with Jbay and Matt in tow, both of whom look a little a little winded, but the looks on their faces tells me they are having fun! We rest a bit more and then take off. The riding becomes less technical, the hills more rolling instead of the steep up/down we've been doing. It is a welcome break as it lets me sit for a while instead of standing. We eventually come upon what looks like an old ranch house with a wind mill. From this point on, the road is well graded again and wide.
Not a lot of green and pretty out here this time of year...
Lots of big sky here in the desert
And the road goes on and on...
The group catching up
It is still relatively early in the day and we are not ready to call it quits. I convince Roger that we should explore a road running off to the North. It is also wide and graded, but it is fun because it really flows well. We run a HARD 25mph on this road... Alas, it ends in a locked gate at the park boundary. This is a road I had tried to make a loop of back in 2004 when leading a ride. At that time, we only got as far as the first gate on the main entrance at the West side of the park. The park was not open to the public then. Getting through this gate would let us loop all the way back up to the Case Piedra Rd., across the Bandera Mesa, which could then be run back down to the West side of the park to the main entrance. It would make a good day loop, probably not real technical, but definitely scenic and more suitable to any bikes bigger than the 650cc DS bikes. I don't think I would recommend the hard stuff we were riding earlier for any DS bike over 650cc. It is DEFINITELY NOT a good route for bikes like Vstroms, Versys, 1150/1200 GSs, and the like unless the rider is VERY experienced! Anyway... locked gate... right. So we back tracked and headed toward the bunkhouse on the main road, looking for interesting side roads along the way.
We find a few short roads that run out to camping spots. They are fun but short. The suspension changes to the forks do make a noticeable difference and I feel much more in control instead of just along for the ride...It also helps if I run a little faster on the climbs and descents, just letting the bike absorb the hits. At one of the stops I suggest to Roger that maybe we can make a loop that runs South of the Bunkhouse and then call it a day. So off we go, except that he takes a left turn before the left turn I was thinking off and I don't realize it... The road starts out fun...
I love this stuff...
Then it starts getting rocky and we are back to descents and climbs, Matt coming up to a sharp turn that starts a nice descent
MedicJeff, Roger, Mark and Jeff waiting part way down the hill for the group to reform
So I am cruising along and come to a rise. As is my custom when I cannot see beyond the rise, I roll off the gas so that just as I crest the rise, I am carrying very little speed. I have learned that it is not uncommon for these kinds of roads to make VERY sharp turns on the backside of hills. As I crest this particular hill, I see Jeff laying in a bush on the side of the road, his DRZ laying on its side in the road, and Jeff moving like he has that confused what in the world is going on thing happening inside his helmet... I roll to the bottom of the short gulley, park and head over to help him. He seems to be favoring his right leg as if it is hurting. I'm thinking this could be bad. We are not terribly far from the main road, but the main road IS terribly far from anything else. Help would be a long time coming if he is not able to ride out! As I reach him, he gets up and is able to stand and walk. He says nothing hurts too bad and he thinks he's okay. So we get the bike up and try to restart it. It's flooded as expected and he has to crank it a bit before it clears, but then it catches... and it is making a very odd noise...
Jeff kills the engine and mentions the noise. Sounds to me like the starter gear is not disengaging. Hit turns the ignition back on and when he pulls in the clutch the bike starts even though he didn't hit the starter button... what the!? He kills it again, plays with it a bit, and it seems like the starter button is screwed up somehow. Anyway, he finally gets it running without the noise and is able to resume riding.
I don't know what is special about that bush on the left, but Jeff thought it worthy of a CLOSE personal inspection...
James and Matt wait patiently for us to get going again
We find the lead part of the group waiting not far ahead. We stop for a break and they set to figuring out what is going on with Jeff's bike and working up a solution.
Roger, MedicJeff, Jeff, and Mark putting together a little impromptu maintenance day. Would it be an official DS ride without one?
Behind that mask is an ear to ear grin, Matt is having a blast!
MedicJeff thinks, "Dude, I have NEVER seen that happen before!" The little circuit board inside the switch cracked away from its mount and was causing the starter to stay activated.
About this time, I am looking at the GPS and I realize we are not on the road I had intended for us to take. We are on the North end of the Fresno Canyon Rd.
We decide to forgo this route for today, find the right road, and head for the Bunkhouse. We'll come back for this tomorrow when we are fresh. The road we were originally trying to find is the East side of the Llano loop, which we find just a short ways back to the West on the main road. We turn South and head off across the desert. The road is mostly flat and easy, but soon we are in the deep loose gravel. The dust is thick and at times I can't even see the road right in front of me! It is a mix of river bed gravel, sand, and some mild silt. I love it. Roger picks up the pace and off we go! It doesn't take long to reach the end of the road, an intersection of the Madrid Falls road, where we turn North and quickly arrive back at the Bunkhouse for some front porch bench racing and relaxing.
Brad seems to always be explaining something to someone... I would benefit greatly from this later in the evening...
Base camp for the weekend
A real nice area next to the bunkhouse with picnic tables, grills, a BBQ smoker pit, and a great fire circle with wood
Ask Brad what he paid for this KTM... seriously.... It is borderline criminal, hehe... It has so many goodies even he doesn't know what all it has on it!
Dinner is served at 6:00pm. I have to say the fajitas are about the best I've ever had!! The rice, beans, salad... all of it is just incredibly good!
A few shots of the main common area in the Bunkhouse
After dinner, the park manager, Barrett, gives a really good presentation. He covers all the common sense rules like obeying the speed limit, not setting the place on fire, not molesting the local wildlife and fauna, not collecting stuff to take home, etc... Then he gives us pointers on places to visit in the park, which roads are good, and some of the history of the park/region. The best part is the map he prepared for us. He has all the roads highlighted, loops shown, difficulty ratings, and more! This is when we find out that the stuff we did earlier today is the "gnarliest stuff in the park!" Nothing like jumping in feet first!! I grab a few pics of the map so I can have it handy for the next few days of riding.
We did the two upper right loops today, the dead end road to the North (you can see the loop I was talking about here, going up Bandera Mesa). We did all the little short roads in that area and the North part of the long green road just West of The Solitario (Fresno Canyon Rd). Then we did the Llano loop, the little pink one South of the Ranger station, which is where the Bunkhouse is located.
The left red road is King Kong Hill, I think the right one is Suicide Hill(?). The much talked about Guale 1 & 2 overlooks are at the end of the green road in the lower left corner.
The Jackson and Los Alamos loops are what we did today, we never made it down into the Solitario area
The Cienega Loop. We plan to do this the last day. It is in the FAR NW corner of the park.
After the presentation, I approach Barrett and mention that I had been out here some years back wanting to make that loop up to Bandera Mesa and that we reached the locked gate earlier today. To my surprise, he mentions that if we had told him ahead of time that we wanted to ride that road, he could have had the gate unlocked for us!! So that is definitely something I will have to remember when I go back out next time... and there WILL be a next time! After hanging out for a while visiting with other folks and popping some ibuprofen, we decide to call it a night around 10:00pm.
Oh yeah... that thumbnail? It ripped away around the front of the thumb and there was some mild bleeding. There is a bright white crease line from side to side about a third of the way back where it bent pretty good. However, it DID NOT detach all the way back to that point!! Doesn't look like I'll lose it, but it is TENDER!!! I still can't figure out what in the world I caught it on as the bike was falling away from me... strange...
[Day two in the works...]
I get an unexpected PM from Roger "Rsquared" Rogers back in November asking if I want to make trip to Big Bend Ranch & State Park with him after Christmas. I'd never ridden at BBRSP but had seen ride reports from the area and it looked interesting. The ride is hosted by the guys at RideDualSport.com. I definitely want to make this ride! The only problem is that I just did a ride in Central Texas (Roll The Bones) In October and am not sure if I can swing the time off. I run it by Beth (wife) and Boss (my Dad) and both agree I can get the time off. So a little planning with Roger, prepping the bike with a new chain and 13/52 sprockets, Giant Loop Mojavi bags, and new tires, and I am good to go. The plan is for Roger to be at my place in Huntsville at 5:00am... a full 5-1/2 hours before my normal wake up time! All I have to do is be awake enough to get the bike and gear in the truck and he'll take care of the driving duties since he's a crazy early morning person anyway...
We pull out right around 5:45am... and make it to Sauceda right around 6:30pm, just before dark. We make a few introductions, claim a bunk spot, and pretty much hit the sack about 5-1/2 hours earlier than my normal sack time Ear plugs are a must when sleeping in a bunk house!
I opted for the bunkhouse because I am not wild about camping in really cold weather or sleeping on rocks. I'm thinking there is no heat in the bunkhouse. Like camping, that is no problem so long as you stay under the covers, but then there is that 4:00am run to the little boys room on a COLD floor and having to get out from under the covers come morning... At least the breakfast makes up for it. I don't normally eat breakfast, but I figure I'll need the energy for the riding to come. Breakfast is at least at a nice reasonable time... 8:00am. I am NOT one of those guys that has to be on the bike at the crack of dawn. I like rolling out sometime around 9:00am... ish... So this makes for a good morning for me. I eat a nice relaxed breakfast, gear up, and meet out in the parking lot where we break up into groups.
Apparently, Jbay forgot to grab the key out of his KTM 350 and it bounced out while they were driving to the park... uh oh... No spare!! He loads it in his truck and brings it over to the bunkhouse before everyone heads out to ride, hoping to find a solution...
Roger saves the day
He hot wires the bike so Jbay's son Matthew will have a ride
I have no real plan, other than following someone else. I often end up leading rides even when I don't want to just because no one else will. This time I want to follow! Roger agrees to lead. Mark "Subcomm" joins us, and we head over to the camping area to pick up Jbay and Matthew.
The camping area - maybe a mile from the bunkhouse
A nice soft spot to land if you fall off your bike...
Roger ready to roll with his GoPro mounted on his head
Roger KTM 450 EXC, Matt KTM 350 and Jbay XR650L (Mark is on his CRF 450 - not pictured)
Back in mid November I picked up a slightly used 2010 KTM 530 EXC and this is going to be my first serious ride on it. I am pretty stoked. I did a day of riding trails in the Sam Houston Nat Forest a few weeks back with Roger. The bike was great... I was sucking wind!! Still, the improvement over my KLR 650 is beyond description. So I am eager to see how the bike handles the terrain here in the park, especially since I have it geared like a mountain goat.
I think we briefly mentioned something this morning about exploring over by the Solitario... whatever... I'm just following Roger. The roads start out wide and smooth, graded gravel with sweeping curves. The speed limit is 25mph... It's doable, but it takes some serious effort!
We head off to the NE corner of the park and soon find a sign of things to come
The red circle up and left is Roger taking off, followed by Mark (second red circle). From here on out, the riding only gets better!! In no time at all we are into some steep, off camber, loose and rocky climbs. I'm just not feeling it. I feel like I am bouncing all over the track, barely keeping the bike under control, and I am working WAY too hard. Sometimes it takes me a while to loosen up when we start riding early like this... So I figure I'll just push on and things will get better as I warm up a bit. When I crest the hill I see Mark and Roger waiting further down below, I stop to wait for Jbay and Matt. But it seems like it is taking a while... While waiting I shed a few layers of clothes. Here in the desert it starts out cold, but warms up FAST as soon as the sun starts climbing into the clear sky. While I am stuffing the extra layers into a side bag, Mark doubles back to check on the other guys and soon returns with them in tow...
Mark on his sweet Honda, followed by Matt in the background
While we are stopped, Jeff and MedicJeff show up and join our group. This is MedicJeff on his KTM 450 EXC
With our group now up to seven riders, we start off again. In no time at all we are back to climbing long steep hills. One in particular is long and turns to the right about half way up. I am chugging along in second gear, standing and leaning forward, trying to relax and stay on the gas. The back end is bouncing around like my five year old son when I tell him to sit still... and it catches a rock... The back end steps out right as I am getting on the gas and the bike just spins out from under me, the top of the hill just a few yards away! I step off to the side with little effort but unlike a normal step off, this time something catches my right thumb and tries to fold the fingernail back on top of itself. Yes... it HURTS!! I get the bike righted right about the time Jeff comes up behind to assist me. I mention the thumb and he and MedicJeff ask if I want to take the glove off and have a look. I don't. You see, I have this bad habit of going into shock. So long as I don't look, I am good. The inside of the glove is warm, wet, and sticky. Whatever has happened has happened and me looking at it is not going to help. So nothing to do but keep the glove on and keep riding... I'll take a look later when we finish riding for the day.
I get the bike refired and complete the climb, only to drop down the backside of the hill to start another climb, and then another, and another.... One in particular has a wash out about 18 inches deep crossing the road RIGHT at the beginning of the climb, perfectly placed to prevent me getting my momentum up for the start of the climb. I roll it and then hit the gas! The low gearing os working great and the bike accelerates nicely. The clear part of the track is smooth but has a nasty off camber slope to it. The back of the bike is trying to slide down into the rough stuff and drag the rest of the bike with it. The back tire wins and I am soon bouncing off rocks I'd rather avoid. I stay on the gas and eventually manage to clear the hill, roll the back side and start up another that doesn't look so daunting.
The exertion of the previous hills is catching up to me and I get soppy. I lose my momentum, fail to pull in the clutch for a down shift, stall and just tip over. I step off the bike as it lays down. Great... This is a short hill but it is steep! I get the bike up, refire it, and try to resume my climb. The rear spins, kicking gravel out and grinding up the tire. I roll back a little. When I try to stop, the front tire just slides backward despite a fist full of front brake! I ease the clutch out and the tire grips momentarily so I get on the gas. I get short run of maybe a foot or two, but it is enough for me to get up the momentum to get going again. A few more hills and I find Roger, Mark and MedicJeff stopped for a break. I happily join them, feeling like my lungs need to be taking in about twice as much air as they are getting. There is nothing like a few good hill climbs and a few thousand feet of altitude to make one feel like a couch potato...
MedicJeff again
Mark contemplating what lies ahead...
The other Jeff taking a break
A relatively level spot
At this point, Roger listens to me whining about feeling like I am just bouncing all over the place and suggests that I should take a bit of the compression damping out of the forks. He kindly does it for me. We'll see if that helps. We wait about five minutes or so and then Roger doubles back. A few more minutes and MedicJeff doubles back. A few more minutes and they come rolling back with Jbay and Matt in tow, both of whom look a little a little winded, but the looks on their faces tells me they are having fun! We rest a bit more and then take off. The riding becomes less technical, the hills more rolling instead of the steep up/down we've been doing. It is a welcome break as it lets me sit for a while instead of standing. We eventually come upon what looks like an old ranch house with a wind mill. From this point on, the road is well graded again and wide.
Not a lot of green and pretty out here this time of year...
Lots of big sky here in the desert
And the road goes on and on...
The group catching up
It is still relatively early in the day and we are not ready to call it quits. I convince Roger that we should explore a road running off to the North. It is also wide and graded, but it is fun because it really flows well. We run a HARD 25mph on this road... Alas, it ends in a locked gate at the park boundary. This is a road I had tried to make a loop of back in 2004 when leading a ride. At that time, we only got as far as the first gate on the main entrance at the West side of the park. The park was not open to the public then. Getting through this gate would let us loop all the way back up to the Case Piedra Rd., across the Bandera Mesa, which could then be run back down to the West side of the park to the main entrance. It would make a good day loop, probably not real technical, but definitely scenic and more suitable to any bikes bigger than the 650cc DS bikes. I don't think I would recommend the hard stuff we were riding earlier for any DS bike over 650cc. It is DEFINITELY NOT a good route for bikes like Vstroms, Versys, 1150/1200 GSs, and the like unless the rider is VERY experienced! Anyway... locked gate... right. So we back tracked and headed toward the bunkhouse on the main road, looking for interesting side roads along the way.
We find a few short roads that run out to camping spots. They are fun but short. The suspension changes to the forks do make a noticeable difference and I feel much more in control instead of just along for the ride...It also helps if I run a little faster on the climbs and descents, just letting the bike absorb the hits. At one of the stops I suggest to Roger that maybe we can make a loop that runs South of the Bunkhouse and then call it a day. So off we go, except that he takes a left turn before the left turn I was thinking off and I don't realize it... The road starts out fun...
I love this stuff...
Then it starts getting rocky and we are back to descents and climbs, Matt coming up to a sharp turn that starts a nice descent
MedicJeff, Roger, Mark and Jeff waiting part way down the hill for the group to reform
So I am cruising along and come to a rise. As is my custom when I cannot see beyond the rise, I roll off the gas so that just as I crest the rise, I am carrying very little speed. I have learned that it is not uncommon for these kinds of roads to make VERY sharp turns on the backside of hills. As I crest this particular hill, I see Jeff laying in a bush on the side of the road, his DRZ laying on its side in the road, and Jeff moving like he has that confused what in the world is going on thing happening inside his helmet... I roll to the bottom of the short gulley, park and head over to help him. He seems to be favoring his right leg as if it is hurting. I'm thinking this could be bad. We are not terribly far from the main road, but the main road IS terribly far from anything else. Help would be a long time coming if he is not able to ride out! As I reach him, he gets up and is able to stand and walk. He says nothing hurts too bad and he thinks he's okay. So we get the bike up and try to restart it. It's flooded as expected and he has to crank it a bit before it clears, but then it catches... and it is making a very odd noise...
Jeff kills the engine and mentions the noise. Sounds to me like the starter gear is not disengaging. Hit turns the ignition back on and when he pulls in the clutch the bike starts even though he didn't hit the starter button... what the!? He kills it again, plays with it a bit, and it seems like the starter button is screwed up somehow. Anyway, he finally gets it running without the noise and is able to resume riding.
I don't know what is special about that bush on the left, but Jeff thought it worthy of a CLOSE personal inspection...
James and Matt wait patiently for us to get going again
We find the lead part of the group waiting not far ahead. We stop for a break and they set to figuring out what is going on with Jeff's bike and working up a solution.
Roger, MedicJeff, Jeff, and Mark putting together a little impromptu maintenance day. Would it be an official DS ride without one?
Behind that mask is an ear to ear grin, Matt is having a blast!
MedicJeff thinks, "Dude, I have NEVER seen that happen before!" The little circuit board inside the switch cracked away from its mount and was causing the starter to stay activated.
About this time, I am looking at the GPS and I realize we are not on the road I had intended for us to take. We are on the North end of the Fresno Canyon Rd.
We decide to forgo this route for today, find the right road, and head for the Bunkhouse. We'll come back for this tomorrow when we are fresh. The road we were originally trying to find is the East side of the Llano loop, which we find just a short ways back to the West on the main road. We turn South and head off across the desert. The road is mostly flat and easy, but soon we are in the deep loose gravel. The dust is thick and at times I can't even see the road right in front of me! It is a mix of river bed gravel, sand, and some mild silt. I love it. Roger picks up the pace and off we go! It doesn't take long to reach the end of the road, an intersection of the Madrid Falls road, where we turn North and quickly arrive back at the Bunkhouse for some front porch bench racing and relaxing.
Brad seems to always be explaining something to someone... I would benefit greatly from this later in the evening...
Base camp for the weekend
A real nice area next to the bunkhouse with picnic tables, grills, a BBQ smoker pit, and a great fire circle with wood
Ask Brad what he paid for this KTM... seriously.... It is borderline criminal, hehe... It has so many goodies even he doesn't know what all it has on it!
Dinner is served at 6:00pm. I have to say the fajitas are about the best I've ever had!! The rice, beans, salad... all of it is just incredibly good!
A few shots of the main common area in the Bunkhouse
After dinner, the park manager, Barrett, gives a really good presentation. He covers all the common sense rules like obeying the speed limit, not setting the place on fire, not molesting the local wildlife and fauna, not collecting stuff to take home, etc... Then he gives us pointers on places to visit in the park, which roads are good, and some of the history of the park/region. The best part is the map he prepared for us. He has all the roads highlighted, loops shown, difficulty ratings, and more! This is when we find out that the stuff we did earlier today is the "gnarliest stuff in the park!" Nothing like jumping in feet first!! I grab a few pics of the map so I can have it handy for the next few days of riding.
We did the two upper right loops today, the dead end road to the North (you can see the loop I was talking about here, going up Bandera Mesa). We did all the little short roads in that area and the North part of the long green road just West of The Solitario (Fresno Canyon Rd). Then we did the Llano loop, the little pink one South of the Ranger station, which is where the Bunkhouse is located.
The left red road is King Kong Hill, I think the right one is Suicide Hill(?). The much talked about Guale 1 & 2 overlooks are at the end of the green road in the lower left corner.
The Jackson and Los Alamos loops are what we did today, we never made it down into the Solitario area
The Cienega Loop. We plan to do this the last day. It is in the FAR NW corner of the park.
After the presentation, I approach Barrett and mention that I had been out here some years back wanting to make that loop up to Bandera Mesa and that we reached the locked gate earlier today. To my surprise, he mentions that if we had told him ahead of time that we wanted to ride that road, he could have had the gate unlocked for us!! So that is definitely something I will have to remember when I go back out next time... and there WILL be a next time! After hanging out for a while visiting with other folks and popping some ibuprofen, we decide to call it a night around 10:00pm.
Oh yeah... that thumbnail? It ripped away around the front of the thumb and there was some mild bleeding. There is a bright white crease line from side to side about a third of the way back where it bent pretty good. However, it DID NOT detach all the way back to that point!! Doesn't look like I'll lose it, but it is TENDER!!! I still can't figure out what in the world I caught it on as the bike was falling away from me... strange...
[Day two in the works...]
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