Had a nice long DS trip. Ride report below. Enjoy 
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Trip to Austin and back from DFW August 7-9
- Thread starter RadicalTireSkid
- Start date
Ok so time for a ride report on that bad***** trip. Man what a ride it was. So txtransplant and I embarked on the southward journey at roughly 7am from a south fort worth Dennys after smacking down some tasty grand slamwhiches. The morning was cool (as you may remember a very unseasonably cool weekend for early August in TX). I think it was about 70 deg with a high of like 82.
*** BTW the ride back up was much better rte and more entertaining to read**
Anyway the ride down was pretty good. This route I created from scratch just by basically looking at google maps roads and creating a route (with some familiar routes near Lake Whiteny from the 2013 Roll the Bones Ride). So it ended up being about 8.5 hrs total and 7.5 hrs of riding.
97% of the roads shown above were on this route. The route was definitely fun. A ton of back paved roads with good curves. Still a lot of fun on a KLX400 and WR250. Can't count how many times the back end started floating on me mid corner but I still make it through (on dry pavement mind you).
So after about ya know an hr of so of riding we finally hit dirt. Did the 1145 loop. Then headed into town for some petro. Man, so while heading in i saw a neat side road heading to a gas station. Really nice paved sweepers. So nice i decide to hit one of them entirely too fast. Halfway through the turn I realized my speed and started to tap the rear brake in a panic. Rear slide out on me whilst tapping 3 times. I asked txtransplant to comment since he was directly behind me. He says "yea it looked like you knew what you were doing"... I didn't, but i bet it looked cool.
So after gas we head on. Keeping a brisk pace. The GPS paced 45 mph moving average after 300 miles. Made very good time. After a while we headed to an old river crossing for revenge. This river crossing was flooded over about 1ft when last seen. This time it was only about 2-3 inches. We stopped and took some pics. Txtransplant decided to try out the rope swing. This was Rd 3555/3550. Funny moment when we noticed the same skinny ***** horse was just hangin by the road that we saw the first time through.
*** BTW the ride back up was much better rte and more entertaining to read**
Anyway the ride down was pretty good. This route I created from scratch just by basically looking at google maps roads and creating a route (with some familiar routes near Lake Whiteny from the 2013 Roll the Bones Ride). So it ended up being about 8.5 hrs total and 7.5 hrs of riding.
97% of the roads shown above were on this route. The route was definitely fun. A ton of back paved roads with good curves. Still a lot of fun on a KLX400 and WR250. Can't count how many times the back end started floating on me mid corner but I still make it through (on dry pavement mind you).
So after about ya know an hr of so of riding we finally hit dirt. Did the 1145 loop. Then headed into town for some petro. Man, so while heading in i saw a neat side road heading to a gas station. Really nice paved sweepers. So nice i decide to hit one of them entirely too fast. Halfway through the turn I realized my speed and started to tap the rear brake in a panic. Rear slide out on me whilst tapping 3 times. I asked txtransplant to comment since he was directly behind me. He says "yea it looked like you knew what you were doing"... I didn't, but i bet it looked cool.
So after gas we head on. Keeping a brisk pace. The GPS paced 45 mph moving average after 300 miles. Made very good time. After a while we headed to an old river crossing for revenge. This river crossing was flooded over about 1ft when last seen. This time it was only about 2-3 inches. We stopped and took some pics. Txtransplant decided to try out the rope swing. This was Rd 3555/3550. Funny moment when we noticed the same skinny ***** horse was just hangin by the road that we saw the first time through.
So next we get into valley mills and such. Again mostly paved windy country roads. Some dirt included. It's harder to distinguish dirt roads from paved than I thought on Google Maps. So the head on through there and onto the westerly side of Gatesville.
Luckily I found the next road on some online DS maps. 3137 was the best dirt road we hit on the way down. The road is probably impassible by car without some serious scraping. It had some rocky ledges while heading up a steep rocky uphill at one point. Blast to ride. After a couple more decent dirty roads we again hit pavement. We get onto pavement and transplant almost smacks a squirrel haha. So now I'm leading about 30 minutes later. Another squirrel pops up in the middle of the road. I keep straight and the squirrel is frozen with fear. I had one foot hanging down for knee/leg relief which didn't move. Before I knew it I was right on the furry lil guy and he b-lines directly into my foot! LOL! Transplant said the squirrel did a radical mid air 360 pop-shove-it and landed right side up to blast off the road.
Here came our first disappointment of the day. So i purposely skewed the route to hit this road. I looked awesome. Nice and curvy with elevation change and definitely dirt. Well we headed down and there was a stupid freakin gate. It's rte 143 btw. Some rancher decided to ruin our fun. As I look at the maps, the gate is in the shadow of a tree so... I did notice an old beatup house though with a newish 05-07? GSXR600 sitting outside. I found this funny because the house had no garage/shed, no bike cover, and it was 2 miles to paved road. So then we joggled around on all pavement.
Next dissapointment rte 47. Again a rancher has to ruin the day. This gate on the maps looks to me more like a cattle guard. I was wrong. Again have to loop around the awesome road. Horrible nav skills I know. Mind you the roads around are still fun IMO, but I was aiming for dirt.
Again we loop around and get some dirt under the tires. Then again its pavement until we finally hit rte 32. We finally hit some nice scenery and an unblocked road!!!
3137 below
Luckily I found the next road on some online DS maps. 3137 was the best dirt road we hit on the way down. The road is probably impassible by car without some serious scraping. It had some rocky ledges while heading up a steep rocky uphill at one point. Blast to ride. After a couple more decent dirty roads we again hit pavement. We get onto pavement and transplant almost smacks a squirrel haha. So now I'm leading about 30 minutes later. Another squirrel pops up in the middle of the road. I keep straight and the squirrel is frozen with fear. I had one foot hanging down for knee/leg relief which didn't move. Before I knew it I was right on the furry lil guy and he b-lines directly into my foot! LOL! Transplant said the squirrel did a radical mid air 360 pop-shove-it and landed right side up to blast off the road.
Here came our first disappointment of the day. So i purposely skewed the route to hit this road. I looked awesome. Nice and curvy with elevation change and definitely dirt. Well we headed down and there was a stupid freakin gate. It's rte 143 btw. Some rancher decided to ruin our fun. As I look at the maps, the gate is in the shadow of a tree so... I did notice an old beatup house though with a newish 05-07? GSXR600 sitting outside. I found this funny because the house had no garage/shed, no bike cover, and it was 2 miles to paved road. So then we joggled around on all pavement.
Next dissapointment rte 47. Again a rancher has to ruin the day. This gate on the maps looks to me more like a cattle guard. I was wrong. Again have to loop around the awesome road. Horrible nav skills I know. Mind you the roads around are still fun IMO, but I was aiming for dirt.
Again we loop around and get some dirt under the tires. Then again its pavement until we finally hit rte 32. We finally hit some nice scenery and an unblocked road!!!
3137 below
So now we hit 32. Cool road. After that. Again more pavement and into Lampasas. Then hit a lil dirt (if i remember correctly) and then more pavement haha. Don't let me plan a route! Through Bertram and then down 1174 for the 3rd disappointment of the day.
Its starting to get hot. The sun is beating down but the air is fine. Sweating a lil bit and finally hitting the camelback hard I'm excited for the last few nice roads of the day. So now we are supposed to hit Mnt Creek rd onto 328. Mnt Creek rd would have been awesome if it was a real passable road. It's aparently a nature reserve and only walk-through is allowed. BS!!!!
But little did we know how awesome 328 would be. We skiddadle on down and what a road that is. Its paved.. but man. Great great scenery and some smooth paved roads with river crossings mixed in. So glad i found this road. It will be hit with my dorsoduro in the future. Mark this one on your map if you love pavement. You will not be disappointed!
Nearer and nearer to our destination down we go on 1431. Sling a righty onto Anderson Mill and roger onto Lime Creek. Again... wowzers. This road must be slayed by my dorso before I die. So many curve with so little traffic near a big city. Mind you im trying to ride my DS like a sport bike. Things get fishy but I make it through unscathed. What a blast. The finale of our ride was not a disappointment. No boring ending stuck in traffic trying to get to the lodge. We reach our incorrect destination and decide to grab some food and brew at the Iguana Grill. Great view and food. We found the correct destination and headed for the party. Binge drinking began promptly.
On a side note. Beside the rental house was a hill with a bunch of rocky billy goat paths for 4x4 trucks and 4 wheelers. That was neat. Txtransplant and I hit these a couple times over the weekend to kill time.
Write up on the trip north is next. Much much better roads and ride. Special thanks to Oldsloguy for the routes. He is the route master Jedi. I hope to be 1/2 as good as him at route making someday.
River crossing on 328
Loop 1145
Its starting to get hot. The sun is beating down but the air is fine. Sweating a lil bit and finally hitting the camelback hard I'm excited for the last few nice roads of the day. So now we are supposed to hit Mnt Creek rd onto 328. Mnt Creek rd would have been awesome if it was a real passable road. It's aparently a nature reserve and only walk-through is allowed. BS!!!!
But little did we know how awesome 328 would be. We skiddadle on down and what a road that is. Its paved.. but man. Great great scenery and some smooth paved roads with river crossings mixed in. So glad i found this road. It will be hit with my dorsoduro in the future. Mark this one on your map if you love pavement. You will not be disappointed!
Nearer and nearer to our destination down we go on 1431. Sling a righty onto Anderson Mill and roger onto Lime Creek. Again... wowzers. This road must be slayed by my dorso before I die. So many curve with so little traffic near a big city. Mind you im trying to ride my DS like a sport bike. Things get fishy but I make it through unscathed. What a blast. The finale of our ride was not a disappointment. No boring ending stuck in traffic trying to get to the lodge. We reach our incorrect destination and decide to grab some food and brew at the Iguana Grill. Great view and food. We found the correct destination and headed for the party. Binge drinking began promptly.
On a side note. Beside the rental house was a hill with a bunch of rocky billy goat paths for 4x4 trucks and 4 wheelers. That was neat. Txtransplant and I hit these a couple times over the weekend to kill time.
Write up on the trip north is next. Much much better roads and ride. Special thanks to Oldsloguy for the routes. He is the route master Jedi. I hope to be 1/2 as good as him at route making someday.
River crossing on 328
Loop 1145
Ok so time for the ride up from Lake Travis. This trip was THEEE best DS ride I've ever had. AMAZING scenery and AMAZING roads. Again amazing August weather. It was probably in the low 80s when we left with a foreseen high of low 90s I think.
We embark from the lodging around 11am hitting the mentioned billy goat paths above. Then start cooking up 71 in a northerly westerly direction. 38 miles of brutal highway. Let me explain that my KLX for some reason creates a on/off resonance frequency shake while riding over 50mph on highway (dont notice as much on bumpy back paved roads). Anything over 20 minutes of that shake gets really really annoying. Come to think of it I'm going to start a thread on this topic and see if anyone has had the same problem.
Anyway, this entire trip I was worried about gas because the stops were so far from each other with a mix of shady looking gas stations via google maps. I have the stock 2.6 gallon tank. The first stretch was my most concern. We headed up 71 and got gas around 10 miles before dirt start.
The 38 miles of brutal boring mind boggling highway was totally worth it once we got to 310. First of many many dirt roads all day but this road was great. Right off the highway and great scenery/dirt mixture was such a relief from compared to the trip down. The road was powdery and had good shade trees on both sides. We keep heading on through the "town" of click which is not a town haha onto 315. First amazing road of the day. The road barely looks used at some points. Maybe someone comes through like 2 times a month? Right at the beginning there was a big open field with a MEGA RANCH. What a great view. There's also these awesome sand bottom dried up river crossings. That was cool. By the way, dont go off the river crossing onto the river bed. I tried it on the KLX and barely made it out 2nd gear pinned with a fairly knobby rear tire. It's like grainy pebble-like quicksand. But yea. Amazing amazing road. Hilly + dirty + scenic = awesome. See pictures of the first crossings below.
So we head on dirt and dirt with a short stint on highway and dirt. I also apparently ran over a 5ft python at one point. Stopping to take a few pictures here and there. We get onto another amazing road 110. In reflection I should have written this report within a few days after the ride. It's a little hard to remember the exact roads that I loved the most. It became a blur of awesome after a while haha. Also txtransplant had a GPX file going so most of the time I didn't have to remember where we were as he lead.
We embark from the lodging around 11am hitting the mentioned billy goat paths above. Then start cooking up 71 in a northerly westerly direction. 38 miles of brutal highway. Let me explain that my KLX for some reason creates a on/off resonance frequency shake while riding over 50mph on highway (dont notice as much on bumpy back paved roads). Anything over 20 minutes of that shake gets really really annoying. Come to think of it I'm going to start a thread on this topic and see if anyone has had the same problem.
Anyway, this entire trip I was worried about gas because the stops were so far from each other with a mix of shady looking gas stations via google maps. I have the stock 2.6 gallon tank. The first stretch was my most concern. We headed up 71 and got gas around 10 miles before dirt start.
The 38 miles of brutal boring mind boggling highway was totally worth it once we got to 310. First of many many dirt roads all day but this road was great. Right off the highway and great scenery/dirt mixture was such a relief from compared to the trip down. The road was powdery and had good shade trees on both sides. We keep heading on through the "town" of click which is not a town haha onto 315. First amazing road of the day. The road barely looks used at some points. Maybe someone comes through like 2 times a month? Right at the beginning there was a big open field with a MEGA RANCH. What a great view. There's also these awesome sand bottom dried up river crossings. That was cool. By the way, dont go off the river crossing onto the river bed. I tried it on the KLX and barely made it out 2nd gear pinned with a fairly knobby rear tire. It's like grainy pebble-like quicksand. But yea. Amazing amazing road. Hilly + dirty + scenic = awesome. See pictures of the first crossings below.
So we head on dirt and dirt with a short stint on highway and dirt. I also apparently ran over a 5ft python at one point. Stopping to take a few pictures here and there. We get onto another amazing road 110. In reflection I should have written this report within a few days after the ride. It's a little hard to remember the exact roads that I loved the most. It became a blur of awesome after a while haha. Also txtransplant had a GPX file going so most of the time I didn't have to remember where we were as he lead.
So if you haven't figured out by now I'm not a great story teller haha. This is my first ride report so give me some slack.
As we continue the journey....
So after a little bit of dirt I'm starting to run low on gas. Starting to get worried. Well not too worried because i know transplant has a 5 billion gallon tank I'm sure i can siphon out of, but still. Its best that I dont run out of gas. I was hoping there was a gas station in the little town of Castell. NOPE! Just a cool looking little general store. We stroll down the road a bit to look around the town and here strolls up a BEAutiful Shelby Cobra! Crazy to see such a nice car out in the middle of nowhere! So we press on over the bridge and hang a lewy down 104. Another gorgeous road. You can even see some paths to ride down on the river. Pressing to keep good time we stroll on.
Keeping a slower pace than the trip down its easier and less taxing on the soul. Much less butt cheek squeezing haha and still a great time. Somewhere on the stretch between 29 and 71 we stopped to take some pictures of a dilapidated house. The air was calm and quiet. Peaceful. I was walking in to take a peak and heard some creepy scraping noises. Texas Chainsaw massacre time. Nah just a Westerly southern racoon-squirrel-fox but got the hair standing a bit.
Finally hit 71 and head right to Llano for petro. I know the tank is close depletion even though I somehow didn't hit reserve yet. Of course I did tap into reserve about 2 miles into the 13 mile trip to Llano. Gas pump says I put in 2.4 gallons. tank size is 2.6! Transplant and I head to coopers BBQ for some much needed grubbage. Let me tell you. Hole in the wallish BBQ place but it was freaking packed. Packed for a reason because that brisket was the bee's knees!
Tummies and tanks filled we backtracked to some much needed dirt. Again.. that highway stuff was killer. Especially with the soreness finally kicking in. 410 and 310 were some more great roads. Really in the middle of nowhere. Major breakdown here and may as well call it quits and bunk down back in Llano for the night. By this now I think the time is around 2-3pm. I think on one of these turns transplant almost takes a digger on a lefty. His front end slides a bit but he holds it together like a champ. Exciting view from behind.
Also around this area maybe 346 we started seeing deer. If you're a deer hunter like I am, you care. 3 bucks seen total. 2 that looked like future 6-8 pts and 1 future 12ish pt all with their velvet. Accompanying the males were random fawns and females scampering along the road. One fawn literally ran alongside the road for probably 1/4 mile before it figures the fence has no hole and shoots in front of us to the unfenced other side.
As we continue the journey....
So after a little bit of dirt I'm starting to run low on gas. Starting to get worried. Well not too worried because i know transplant has a 5 billion gallon tank I'm sure i can siphon out of, but still. Its best that I dont run out of gas. I was hoping there was a gas station in the little town of Castell. NOPE! Just a cool looking little general store. We stroll down the road a bit to look around the town and here strolls up a BEAutiful Shelby Cobra! Crazy to see such a nice car out in the middle of nowhere! So we press on over the bridge and hang a lewy down 104. Another gorgeous road. You can even see some paths to ride down on the river. Pressing to keep good time we stroll on.
Keeping a slower pace than the trip down its easier and less taxing on the soul. Much less butt cheek squeezing haha and still a great time. Somewhere on the stretch between 29 and 71 we stopped to take some pictures of a dilapidated house. The air was calm and quiet. Peaceful. I was walking in to take a peak and heard some creepy scraping noises. Texas Chainsaw massacre time. Nah just a Westerly southern racoon-squirrel-fox but got the hair standing a bit.
Finally hit 71 and head right to Llano for petro. I know the tank is close depletion even though I somehow didn't hit reserve yet. Of course I did tap into reserve about 2 miles into the 13 mile trip to Llano. Gas pump says I put in 2.4 gallons. tank size is 2.6! Transplant and I head to coopers BBQ for some much needed grubbage. Let me tell you. Hole in the wallish BBQ place but it was freaking packed. Packed for a reason because that brisket was the bee's knees!
Tummies and tanks filled we backtracked to some much needed dirt. Again.. that highway stuff was killer. Especially with the soreness finally kicking in. 410 and 310 were some more great roads. Really in the middle of nowhere. Major breakdown here and may as well call it quits and bunk down back in Llano for the night. By this now I think the time is around 2-3pm. I think on one of these turns transplant almost takes a digger on a lefty. His front end slides a bit but he holds it together like a champ. Exciting view from behind.
Also around this area maybe 346 we started seeing deer. If you're a deer hunter like I am, you care. 3 bucks seen total. 2 that looked like future 6-8 pts and 1 future 12ish pt all with their velvet. Accompanying the males were random fawns and females scampering along the road. One fawn literally ran alongside the road for probably 1/4 mile before it figures the fence has no hole and shoots in front of us to the unfenced other side.
Ok so now we head into Richland springs. No gas. Its been getting a little hot since the BBQ. I'm starting to hit the camel back more often to keep hydrated. We head onto cotton belt rd/236 for the only setback of the day.
The BBQ is setting in and the sun is getting hot. What a great time for the most boring road of the trip. It's dirt though so its okay. But literally dirt in the straightest line of all time for 8.5 miles. I start to doze a little but not too bad. Just losing my focus. Of course the end of the enless straightest stretch of doom has a 90 degree lefty at the end. I'm not 100% and hit the turn a little hot. I almost pulled through haha but alas the front end swapped out and and went down in a hearbeat. Slid for about 15 ft and it was over. Got up and dusted off. Lifted the bike and everything looked fine, until I tried to start her up. Freaking clutch handle broke haha. **So now I have 2 clutch handles in my garage and plan to bring a spare for trips now on haha.**
We stare at it for a bit and I make the call to just press on. Thinking about it only ever absolutely need it at stop signs or lights mostly. So now every time i stop i either run beside the bike and jump on and click it in gear or i set up the rear in loose dirt and slam it in 1st with instant rear spin. Transplant lead from now on pretty much to help me at stop signs and turning onto roads. I just california rolled as much as I could until I got the all clear signal. Also happy to report that my jimmied up grey box stayed on. Slight miracle as well since its just bolted to the plastics haha.
Soon after we hit another really neat spot during the trip. This sweet freakin cable bridge in the middle of nowhereland. Pictures are below. I may need to remind you that the roads are pretty much all equally great around this region. Constant scenery and still just endless dirt. Cannot wait to stroll through these parts again.
Keeping on we get onto 574 and head into Goldwaithe for gas. I also devise a plan to save my run on bump gate road. I really wanted to hit the gates on my own but without a working clutch... this seems impossible.
The BBQ is setting in and the sun is getting hot. What a great time for the most boring road of the trip. It's dirt though so its okay. But literally dirt in the straightest line of all time for 8.5 miles. I start to doze a little but not too bad. Just losing my focus. Of course the end of the enless straightest stretch of doom has a 90 degree lefty at the end. I'm not 100% and hit the turn a little hot. I almost pulled through haha but alas the front end swapped out and and went down in a hearbeat. Slid for about 15 ft and it was over. Got up and dusted off. Lifted the bike and everything looked fine, until I tried to start her up. Freaking clutch handle broke haha. **So now I have 2 clutch handles in my garage and plan to bring a spare for trips now on haha.**
We stare at it for a bit and I make the call to just press on. Thinking about it only ever absolutely need it at stop signs or lights mostly. So now every time i stop i either run beside the bike and jump on and click it in gear or i set up the rear in loose dirt and slam it in 1st with instant rear spin. Transplant lead from now on pretty much to help me at stop signs and turning onto roads. I just california rolled as much as I could until I got the all clear signal. Also happy to report that my jimmied up grey box stayed on. Slight miracle as well since its just bolted to the plastics haha.
Soon after we hit another really neat spot during the trip. This sweet freakin cable bridge in the middle of nowhereland. Pictures are below. I may need to remind you that the roads are pretty much all equally great around this region. Constant scenery and still just endless dirt. Cannot wait to stroll through these parts again.
Keeping on we get onto 574 and head into Goldwaithe for gas. I also devise a plan to save my run on bump gate road. I really wanted to hit the gates on my own but without a working clutch... this seems impossible.
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It's an Adventure! lol Great report keep it coming
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So we sit at a gas station in goldwaithe. It's about 5-6pm and running out of daylight. My plan to fix the clutch handle is the oldest trick in the book... J B WELD! I puddied it up real good mixing with sticks. applied generously and we electrical taped the clutch firm into place. Plan was not to use the clutch until bump gate rd. I made it out of town and we pressed onward in search of glory.
I was successful for a while. Made it all the way to the Y at 338 about 30-45 min in. Something weird happened like I was checking the roll chart or something and then the Y was there. I pulled in the clutch by basic instinct to like down shift or something and slow down for the turn. Well... the clutch did pull for like maybe 1/2 inch or so cuz I heard the engine let loose from the gears. It still re-broke. I tried to finangle it back together down the road hoping it would re-bond before the gates. I shouldn't have 2nd guess his lead I guess haha.
Onward and forward we finally hit bump gate road. Cool freaking road. I also can't forget about the camels we saw haha. I forget if it was before or after bump gate but there was a freaking heard of camels on the side of the road! We get to the first gate... Moment of glory? no. Clutch is gone. Transplant gets to hit the gates and hold them open for me. About 2-3 gates in he lets me lead to clear my lungs of dust. I couldn't say no. I'm smokin along havin a good time and then there's another bump gate haha. I guess we thought they were done. I locked the rear in a gurlging, jolting stop and stalled the bike. I had to wait for the gate master to open.
After that fiasco it was again just miles and miles of glorious dirt, great views, etc... It was a blur of awesome. Every road is great. Pretty much no traffic. Only thing that worried me was that we were seeing more and more deer. Oh yea, and daylight was running slim.
I was successful for a while. Made it all the way to the Y at 338 about 30-45 min in. Something weird happened like I was checking the roll chart or something and then the Y was there. I pulled in the clutch by basic instinct to like down shift or something and slow down for the turn. Well... the clutch did pull for like maybe 1/2 inch or so cuz I heard the engine let loose from the gears. It still re-broke. I tried to finangle it back together down the road hoping it would re-bond before the gates. I shouldn't have 2nd guess his lead I guess haha.
Onward and forward we finally hit bump gate road. Cool freaking road. I also can't forget about the camels we saw haha. I forget if it was before or after bump gate but there was a freaking heard of camels on the side of the road! We get to the first gate... Moment of glory? no. Clutch is gone. Transplant gets to hit the gates and hold them open for me. About 2-3 gates in he lets me lead to clear my lungs of dust. I couldn't say no. I'm smokin along havin a good time and then there's another bump gate haha. I guess we thought they were done. I locked the rear in a gurlging, jolting stop and stalled the bike. I had to wait for the gate master to open.
After that fiasco it was again just miles and miles of glorious dirt, great views, etc... It was a blur of awesome. Every road is great. Pretty much no traffic. Only thing that worried me was that we were seeing more and more deer. Oh yea, and daylight was running slim.
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I love where I ride. Now you know why.
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i have 1-2 more to write up. I'll finish tomorrow. Thanks again for the routes!!!
- Joined
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- Hancock
It's what I do and I love doing it. 
Ok time to finish this sucker up.
ON and on we go. North on 1690 slipping onto the southern side of Bee House and across 183. The camel back is running dry and my **** is sore (not as sore as I thought it would be at 7-8 hours in). 158 I remember was a nicer one on this stretch because of the curves and it was kind of in a valley, but still everything is getting flatter and flatter. Also, more and more deer. Also, less and less daylight. It's around 9 pm now. We stop at the intersection of 160 and 84. Transplant and I talk a bit. We decide to wuss out and head home from Hamilton
. Even though transplant has a GPX file its impossible to side check the roll chart in the dark. Also, the threat of deer and wild animals looms. Smacking an armadillo at 9pm on a Sunday in the darkness would not be good at all.
Still hit some nice roads on the way. 162, 434 nice. Finally stroll into Hamilton and fuel up at a gas station infested with trillions of grasshoppers. It was so bad I counted dozens inside the store haha. By the way for some wierd reason the person working the counter decided to leave the front door open. Wierd. We head out at about 10pm. THEE WORST PART OF THIS TRIP. 120 miles of brutal highway on my lumpy jumpy KLX. Getting stuck at lights with no clutch. People staring at me because I'm at a redlight standing beside my bike haha. Maybe they got it when they saw me running alongside to get her started... maybe they thought i was stupid or somethin. Already sore to the bones and now I take this beatdown. NOT COOL. I guess it's better than smashing a deer via dualsport piledriver. I finally arrived home at midnight. Sore as **** but still a great day.
All in all amazing trip. Again I'll mention major kudos to oldsloguy for his routes. We probably spent 2-3hrs on the phone plotting this trip. He was on his paper maps while I'm marking them down on google maps. Txtransplant and I have unfinished business in the near future to finish the route. Transplant's GPS guestimated we would be home around 2am if we pressed on through the darkness. Sorry for no pictures in this region. I'll probably updated this thread when we complete the journey and get some fresh pictures to add in.
Thanks for reading!
ON and on we go. North on 1690 slipping onto the southern side of Bee House and across 183. The camel back is running dry and my **** is sore (not as sore as I thought it would be at 7-8 hours in). 158 I remember was a nicer one on this stretch because of the curves and it was kind of in a valley, but still everything is getting flatter and flatter. Also, more and more deer. Also, less and less daylight. It's around 9 pm now. We stop at the intersection of 160 and 84. Transplant and I talk a bit. We decide to wuss out and head home from Hamilton
. Even though transplant has a GPX file its impossible to side check the roll chart in the dark. Also, the threat of deer and wild animals looms. Smacking an armadillo at 9pm on a Sunday in the darkness would not be good at all.Still hit some nice roads on the way. 162, 434 nice. Finally stroll into Hamilton and fuel up at a gas station infested with trillions of grasshoppers. It was so bad I counted dozens inside the store haha. By the way for some wierd reason the person working the counter decided to leave the front door open. Wierd. We head out at about 10pm. THEE WORST PART OF THIS TRIP. 120 miles of brutal highway on my lumpy jumpy KLX. Getting stuck at lights with no clutch. People staring at me because I'm at a redlight standing beside my bike haha. Maybe they got it when they saw me running alongside to get her started... maybe they thought i was stupid or somethin. Already sore to the bones and now I take this beatdown. NOT COOL. I guess it's better than smashing a deer via dualsport piledriver. I finally arrived home at midnight. Sore as **** but still a great day.
All in all amazing trip. Again I'll mention major kudos to oldsloguy for his routes. We probably spent 2-3hrs on the phone plotting this trip. He was on his paper maps while I'm marking them down on google maps. Txtransplant and I have unfinished business in the near future to finish the route. Transplant's GPS guestimated we would be home around 2am if we pressed on through the darkness. Sorry for no pictures in this region. I'll probably updated this thread when we complete the journey and get some fresh pictures to add in.
Thanks for reading!