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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
- Messages
- 51,715
- Reaction score
- 9,354
- Location
- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
Howdy,
So Beth and I take off and do some riding on Good Friday. Mom watches Sarah for the afternoon so we can get away for awhile. We have a blast. As we near Huntsville on the homebound end of the ride, I decide to take the back way home...
It is actually much steeper than it looks in the pics and drops about 30-40 feet from the top while curving down to the bottom. It is all LOOSE gravel. Great fun if you are expecting it!!
The blackberries will be ready for picking real soon!! They are everywhere!!
Flowers are blooming all over. Many of the pastures are solid yellow with this particular little flower!
Clear skies, cool and dry... a perfect day for riding!!
Saturday morning I have a dirt ride planned. Two riders have to cancel, but Texian and Beemin show up, both on GS's. So I figure I'll ride my GS instead of Wasabi's KLR 650, which is temporarily living in my garage, hehe. So we're all on street tires instead of knobbies which means I'll have to keep the route dry and tame. We head East out of Huntsville and pick up some fun gravel roads with lots of sweepers and 90 degree corners, perfect for practicing steering in the loose stuff.
Here are the only pics I managed though...
I drag Bob and Mark down some fun sandy roads through the Sam Houston National Forest with some big mudholes which we splash through. Feels like being six again!! 
We find some real smooth roads with fine gravel and nice curves. The GS feeds in the power so smooth and predictably that sliding the rear tire is a blast. I'm just glad I'm out front 
We eventually wind up in New Waverly and head back up FM 1374 to Stubblefield Lake Road to cut over to FM 1791, again through more of the National Forest. In places, there are huge potholes!! Usually, there is not enough time to dodge them, I just whack the throttle WFO, lean back and hope for the best. In most cases the bike just cruises right on over them and lands on the farside, the rear suspension easily soaking up the impact.
At FM 1791, we head South, cross over FM 149 and head back down into the woods on a nice gravel road that eventually becomes FM 1097 and runs back to FM 149 just North of Montgomery. The last six or seven miles have just been black topped and are incredibly smooth. Think big sweeping curves that go up and down. Once at FM 149, we head down to King's Cafe for lunch. The place is packed.
After lunch we head outside to find out it has gotten a bit on the chilly side of things! I decide to put the liner back in my jacket. I hate being cold, hehe. We make a quick run up through the Forest on FM 149 and then get back on the gravel, and then sand, and then freshly graded dirt and rocks...
The Dogwood trees are blooming everywhere!!
Bob and Mark waiting patiently while I take pics of trees
Notice the burned edges of the road on the right? Everything off the picture to the right is burning. The Forestry service is doing a controlled burn and it is very smoky! Fortunately, the wind is blowing to the right in the pic. Earlier it was pretty thick!
We've been running from 40-60mph depending on the looseness and corners. We eventually dump out onto FM 1486 and head South to Richards for a break at the little gas station in the middle of town. We get some stares from the locals, unsure of what to make of our odd looking and BIG bikes.
After the break, I decide to head us up North to get on the other side of Hwy 30. There are a lot of great little roads between Hwy 30 and FM 1696. We spend a good while stirring up the dust out here until we get up to FM 1696. It has been misting on and off but not enough to really cause any problems and certainly not enough to bother with rain gear. Since we are already this far North, I figure we may as well go check out my favorite mud hole to see if we can get some good photo ops.
We head West on FM 1696 for a while until we reach another little county road and turn North. There is a rotting deer corpse laying on the side of the road and a strange absence of vultures... Not smelly enough for them yet? :scratch Anyway, we wander back into the woods a few miles until we find the little road that gets messy. I decide that parking the bikes and doing a walk through is probably a good idea. If we were to get down in there and things got ugly, getting out would definitely be uglier!! Turns out that the inspection idea is a really good one! There is a stretch about 150-200 yards long that is soft enough that even walking on it we sink in to the dirt.
Doesn't look so bad from here...
Only some minor slippage and pucker moments to get here...
Looks hard, but is very SOFT and spans a few hundred yards, ending in serious mud!!
We turn around...
It is getting late in the afternoon and I am getting cold. Bob and Mark still have to ride back down to Houston, so I decide it is time to start working our way back towards Huntsville. The nice thing about all these roads is that at any give time during the ride, we are seldom more than 20-30 minutes from the house even though we have ridden over 200 miles. We hit some more gravel roads just for good measure before eventually reaching the house around 5:00pm. Bob and Mark hang out for a few minutes and then get back on the road. I don't envy them the next few hours of slabbing. I head inside to find Beth and play with Sarah for a while. Another great day of riding!
Adios,
So Beth and I take off and do some riding on Good Friday. Mom watches Sarah for the afternoon so we can get away for awhile. We have a blast. As we near Huntsville on the homebound end of the ride, I decide to take the back way home...It is actually much steeper than it looks in the pics and drops about 30-40 feet from the top while curving down to the bottom. It is all LOOSE gravel. Great fun if you are expecting it!!
The blackberries will be ready for picking real soon!! They are everywhere!!
Flowers are blooming all over. Many of the pastures are solid yellow with this particular little flower!
Clear skies, cool and dry... a perfect day for riding!!
Saturday morning I have a dirt ride planned. Two riders have to cancel, but Texian and Beemin show up, both on GS's. So I figure I'll ride my GS instead of Wasabi's KLR 650, which is temporarily living in my garage, hehe. So we're all on street tires instead of knobbies which means I'll have to keep the route dry and tame. We head East out of Huntsville and pick up some fun gravel roads with lots of sweepers and 90 degree corners, perfect for practicing steering in the loose stuff.Here are the only pics I managed though...
I drag Bob and Mark down some fun sandy roads through the Sam Houston National Forest with some big mudholes which we splash through. Feels like being six again!! We find some real smooth roads with fine gravel and nice curves. The GS feeds in the power so smooth and predictably that sliding the rear tire is a blast. I'm just glad I'm out front We eventually wind up in New Waverly and head back up FM 1374 to Stubblefield Lake Road to cut over to FM 1791, again through more of the National Forest. In places, there are huge potholes!! Usually, there is not enough time to dodge them, I just whack the throttle WFO, lean back and hope for the best. In most cases the bike just cruises right on over them and lands on the farside, the rear suspension easily soaking up the impact. At FM 1791, we head South, cross over FM 149 and head back down into the woods on a nice gravel road that eventually becomes FM 1097 and runs back to FM 149 just North of Montgomery. The last six or seven miles have just been black topped and are incredibly smooth. Think big sweeping curves that go up and down. Once at FM 149, we head down to King's Cafe for lunch. The place is packed. After lunch we head outside to find out it has gotten a bit on the chilly side of things! I decide to put the liner back in my jacket. I hate being cold, hehe. We make a quick run up through the Forest on FM 149 and then get back on the gravel, and then sand, and then freshly graded dirt and rocks...The Dogwood trees are blooming everywhere!!
Bob and Mark waiting patiently while I take pics of trees
Notice the burned edges of the road on the right? Everything off the picture to the right is burning. The Forestry service is doing a controlled burn and it is very smoky! Fortunately, the wind is blowing to the right in the pic. Earlier it was pretty thick! We've been running from 40-60mph depending on the looseness and corners. We eventually dump out onto FM 1486 and head South to Richards for a break at the little gas station in the middle of town. We get some stares from the locals, unsure of what to make of our odd looking and BIG bikes. After the break, I decide to head us up North to get on the other side of Hwy 30. There are a lot of great little roads between Hwy 30 and FM 1696. We spend a good while stirring up the dust out here until we get up to FM 1696. It has been misting on and off but not enough to really cause any problems and certainly not enough to bother with rain gear. Since we are already this far North, I figure we may as well go check out my favorite mud hole to see if we can get some good photo ops. We head West on FM 1696 for a while until we reach another little county road and turn North. There is a rotting deer corpse laying on the side of the road and a strange absence of vultures... Not smelly enough for them yet? :scratch Anyway, we wander back into the woods a few miles until we find the little road that gets messy. I decide that parking the bikes and doing a walk through is probably a good idea. If we were to get down in there and things got ugly, getting out would definitely be uglier!! Turns out that the inspection idea is a really good one! There is a stretch about 150-200 yards long that is soft enough that even walking on it we sink in to the dirt.Doesn't look so bad from here...
Only some minor slippage and pucker moments to get here...
Looks hard, but is very SOFT and spans a few hundred yards, ending in serious mud!!
We turn around... It is getting late in the afternoon and I am getting cold. Bob and Mark still have to ride back down to Houston, so I decide it is time to start working our way back towards Huntsville. The nice thing about all these roads is that at any give time during the ride, we are seldom more than 20-30 minutes from the house even though we have ridden over 200 miles. We hit some more gravel roads just for good measure before eventually reaching the house around 5:00pm. Bob and Mark hang out for a few minutes and then get back on the road. I don't envy them the next few hours of slabbing. I head inside to find Beth and play with Sarah for a while. Another great day of riding!Adios,
