Uncle is Great, Beer is Good, Dual Sport Riders are Crazy - Around the Bend 2010

[miltonotto]

Quick Report: Uncles on a street bikeFun trip, good company, fast riding, no accidents, good food, lots of beer. Perfect!

Great photos Pedro

 

[miltonotto]

Re: The Most Difficult Road I've Ever Ridden

Today's plan was to explore the far northeast corner of The Ranch. We wanted to ride the newly opened, unmaintained, high clearance 4 wheel drive roads in that part of the park. Specifically we wanted to explore the Los Alamos Loop and McGuirk's Loop.

Wow. Now that's gnarly.
I'm not sure what it is, but methinks its Chuck that always gets you to the gnarly roads.

 

[wr250r]

how many miles between fuel stops while riding big bend. I am trying to decide how much fuel i need to carry extra. My wr250r only has a 2gal tank. I can bring 1 extra gal rotopax.

 

[miltonotto]

how many miles between fuel stops while riding big bend. I am trying to decide how much fuel i need to carry extra. My wr250r only has a 2gal tank. I can bring 1 extra gal rotopax.

Personally I'd bring the 1 gal extra, JIC (Just In Case).

 

[wr250r]

i am for sure bringing 1 extra gal. just not sure if i need to buy some msr fuel bottles.

 

[Trail Boss]

how many miles between fuel stops while riding big bend. I am trying to decide how much fuel i need to carry extra. My wr250r only has a 2gal tank. I can bring 1 extra gal rotopax.

It depends on where you are riding (the national park, the state park, etc) and what route you choose to ride.

There are only 2 gas stations in Big Bend National Park. If you plan your route around those 2 gas stations, then your 2 gallon tank will likely be sufficient for a day ride.

There is no gas available in the state park. If you gas up in Presidio and then ride into the state park your 2 gallon tank will probably be sufficient for a day ride.

I have a 150 mile range on my Husky, which was more than enough to ride both the state and national park as long as I planned the route accordingly.

 

[Tom]

Plus, depends how much riding you intend to do in the SP. The ride we took was 90 some od miles from 170 and back.

 

[Mextrekadv]

i am for sure bringing 1 extra gal. just not sure if i need to buy some msr fuel bottles.

Chad from Oklahoma should be able to chime in on this. He had a late model fuel injected WR250 with a 1 gallon Rotopax and I don't think he touched it. Looked super sweet!

 

[OakCliffThumper]

WR250R, I have a TW200 with only 2 Gal capacity. I rode all day in the National Park and was able to fuel up at Rio Grande Village. I did Terlingua, went through the park, rode Old Ore North to South and then to RGV where I filled up. Then we went River Road East and up Glenn Springs, and back to town. I had plenty of fuel and never even got into reserve.

That said, I have the Kolpin Jr. fuel pack and carry an extra gallon or so JIC. The second day I was there I rode pavement most of the day. I didn't fill up when I had a chance and that day I ended up using the Kolpin gas.

Best bet for you, IMHO, is to get the Rotopax or the Kolpin. It's good insurance.

 

[thumper_tx]

i am for sure bringing 1 extra gal. just not sure if i need to buy some msr fuel bottles.

I just put the Aqualine on my WR250R. A bit pricy but gives an honest 3.6 gallons and 180 -200 mile range easily.
Most folks on the WR forum are biting the bullet and getting the tank because there is so little room on the bike to take other things you need.

Just my 2 cents....

 

[izz]

When we stopped for lunch in the State Park I noticed that I was lucky that these thorns were stuck in my pants instead of my tires.

 

[jredford]

Heres and over the top HDR of the "Rat" grazing at the stable...

 

[Voni]

Gorgeous!

Voni
sMiling

 

[solorider]

On the way over to Big Bend, crashed at Pete's brother's house in San Antonio. The three stoo...err..steeds:

Darn it, how did that mini-me get in there...

On the way, this is before or right when we got to Del Rio. Pete's bike was pissed about something and leaked some oil on is boot so I went ahead knowing they'll catch me soon:

Ahh, yes, getting closer. I can feeeel it:

Next day on Old Ore Road:

And, the beginning of Saturday's adventure. I'm working on a write up for this, it will be good. TP hurry up and get me the video!

Finally no pics for the return trip back to Houston on Sunday. I left about 8:30am and entered my house at 9:30pm. Did pretty well considering the strong cross winds. Anthony caught up with me on HWY385 I think and we rode together till Austin. Anthony, shoot me a PM about the iphone adapter.

 

[Husky Varmit]

AAARRRRGGHHHHHH..........

You finally find some roads that are more than 5th gear straightaways and I am 100 miles away in the National Park. Oh well, just a good excuse to head back over there.

"This turned out to be the most difficult road I've ever ridden. It definitely hasn't been maintained in the past 100 years. I joked that the last vehicle that came through here was the wagon that made this road 100 years ago. It was very rough and overgrown. And tough to follow. In many places you just couldn't tell exactly where the road went and on more than one occasion we ended up off-route and had to backtrack to find the road."

 

[tricepilot]

IPhone in the Rio Grande

Solorider crossing the Rio Grande/Terlingua Creek to get to the hike in Santa Elena Canyon

He says it was worth losing the IPhone over this

 

[tricepilot]

This was the Holy Grail

We wanted to get on that path, bad

But the river was in the way

 

[tricepilot]

What We Should Have Used

A Far Flung Adventure kayak float down the Rio Grande.

He said he was not for hire to get us across to the hiking trail.

 

[oilfieldtrash]

how many miles between fuel stops while riding big bend. I am trying to decide how much fuel i need to carry extra. My wr250r only has a 2gal tank. I can bring 1 extra gal rotopax.

Chad f/ OK here. When I rode Big Bend at the Around the Bend Ride on my WR I never needed my Rotopax. We went 145 miles the first day, 145 the second, and 170 the third. Just make sure you fill up w/ fuel at every opportunity and I don't think you'll ever need your Rotopax.

I think the closest I ever got to running out of fuel was about 5 miles deep after my low fuel light came on. In case you don't know, the odometer has a function that makes it count up f/ 0 once the low fuel light comes on.

I should also tell you another guy who rode w/ me everyday was on a wr250r and his fuel mileage was alway within 2 or 3 miles of mine and he weighs 80 more lbs than me. I am running 13/48 and my buddy was is running 12/43 if that helps you any.

Let me know if you have any more wr250r specific questions.

 

[Iceman Jack]

Now, I really want to hear the story about how those guys went for a ride in Terlingua Ranch (I think it was Hen Egg Road), and wound up in Presidio. And better yet can they map it for us?

The two guys you are referring to are Bill Pando and Stormin Norman Delamar,both of them,I think are 70 years young. I know for a fact that when you ride with Norman that you better be ready for a haul *** adventure!
Here's Bill and Norman's story,written by Bill (Wild Man) Pando.

Lost Loop: Quest for Hen Egg Northwest

It was Friday morning, first of two full-day rides. We decided to put off going east to Big Bend National Park until day two when Brownlee and Hannemann would be joining us. The other day, a plan for day one, was to ride the trails north of Terlingua in the eastern section of the Big Bend Ranch area. We had ridden several of the trails last year, and could make a pretty full day out of that area. We took Sawmill Road north out of Terlingua, then went west to Solitario Hunt Camp Road.

Before we left the Chisos Mining Co. Motel, there had been some talk of hunting a way to make a new loop west from the mapped roads of the Hen Egg area, by going either southwest, or west and then north, from the southwest end of Solitario Hunt Camp Road, then heading either south back toward the Sinkhole or Highway 170 back to Terlingua, or turning north to hunt a connecting road back to the northwest part of Hen Egg Road. But just talk, possibly for a tomorrow ride.

When our group of 7 or so riders gets to the west end of Solitario Hunt Camp Road, we stop, reopen talk about a Hen Egg connect loop, and talk about heading south on an unmarked 2-track road. Norman and I decide to check out the road and see if it is okay for bikes without knobby tires. Then we see 3 riders approaching us on that road. Norman doesn’t wait on the 3 riders, but takes off headed south. The rest of us wait until the 3 riders get to us and ask them where the road goes. They don’t seem very friendly, but do say that the 2-track road forks, one leg ending at a mine, and the other leg headed toward a nice ranch home where they felt they would encounter a private property dead-end, so they just came back. After that 15-second conversation, the 3 riders take off headed east on Solitario Road where we had come from.

MC and I take off south chasing Norman while our fellow riders wait on the southbound trail review. A half-mile south, we meet Norman coming back, who pronounces the trail “okay” for non-knobbies. MC goes back to get our other riders, and Norman and I proceed south down the unnamed trail, which has a couple of fairly rough rocky downhills. After a couple of miles, the road forks, we stop, and MC shows up alone. He says one of the rocky downhills proved a problem for non-knobbies, and a bigger problem going back uphill, so they were going back to Solitario Road and heading north toward Hen Egg Road. Norman and I discuss the mine the 3 riders found, and decide to go on exploring the trail to the mine, or private property, or wherever. MC rides off back east on the 2-track road, and we watch him disappear over the hill, the last glimpse of a human we will see until about 9 or so hours later.

The two of us take the right fork, hopefully to the mine. The trail is a very smooth hilly 2-track, very few rough sections. Nice trail. Fast trail. 2 or 3 miles later, we see the mine. We figure it’s the mine the 3 guys said they went to. Looks like an old place, actually many digs all over the side of a gentle hill, but the largest dig area has a fairly new locked angle-iron cage built over the mine shaft. I look down through the angle-iron cover and say “it’s about 20 feet deep”. Norman says “no, its way deeper than that. Norman drops a small rock down through the angle-iron and several seconds later, we hear a quiet distant “thunk”. It’s a very deep, dark hole.

We poke around what used to be a cabin, then look at a few of the other digging spots. Galvanized roof metal is scattered all around. We go to get on our bikes and my gloves aren’t there. I remember putting them under my arm while at the old cabin, go find them, and we are ready to go. I take a swig from my water bottle and wish I’d brought more than one bottle. We head north, hopeful of finding a loop heading back east to Hen Egg Road. Our little rocky road takes us over the next hill, one of many hills we were to see as we headed ever north, hoping for an eastbound trail or road.
After going up and around several hills generally north, we get to the top of one hill and the trail ends. We ease down a steep, rocky trail straight ahead, which ends, but if we go over a drop-off, we see a possible trail continuing on the other side of the rocky wash at the bottom. Problem is, once we go over the drop-off, we may not be able to get back up it. We each have part of one bottle of water left, and a breakfast bar which we split right then and there. We talk about the situation, then decide to stay the course, take the drop-off, and keep going north. This was our first point-of-no-return. When we get to the other side of the rocky wash, the place we spotted turns out not to be a trail. So we follow the rocky wash headed northeast until we find what may have at one time been a trail, and take it headed north.

Since I had a couple of days of green-apple-quickstep right before we left for Terlingua, I was still a little dehydrated. Thirsty, I take the last swallow of water from my lone water bottle. This is where I got my first fear about dehydration. Soon we come to a rocky spot in the wash where there is a little muddy sand. I stop with my tire in the widest part of the muddy spot, rev and clutch it good, and dig a foot-deep trench in the wet dark brown sand. I pull forward and stay there for a minute watching the dirty water ease in, filling up the tire-width little ditch I had made, which happened fairly fast. I find a rock to put under my kickstand, prop the bike up, bend down and take a drink of the muddy-looking water. It didn’t taste muddy or gritty, just wet and good, and a little cool. No telling what heavy metals were in the water, but I figured if I didn’t get something to drink soon, I was going to dehydrate to death soon anyway.

Back on my bike and following Norman’s tracks, I find Norman waiting on me. A mile or so later, we top another hill, the trail ends, and to our left is a familiar situation – cobby boulders, then a large, slick rock angled steeply downhill, probably not makeable going back up, but we go down it anyway. I stop and look back up at the rock and realize that now there really is no turning back.

We go another mile or three, who knows, through the rocks, and drop down another steep, loose downhill slide into a sandy wash at the bottom. Looks like what may have been a trail on the other side, but too steep and loose to climb, plus it is rutted out about 20 feet up. We evaluate the possibility of going back the way we came. The sun is getting low, daylight time is flying by. We look at our watches, it is 3:45 pm. Wow. We figure if we could make it up the steep, slick rock uphills, it would take at least 3 hours to get back the way we came, even in the sunshine. In evening shade or darkness, no chance. So onward it is.

Norman goes further east up the sandy wash to a place where he can run north at a hill up the other side. He makes it up to the first level, then disappears walking off to the west. I hike up the original washed–out trail, then climb back down while Norman disappears back up the hill above where his bike is. I get on my bike and go further east up the rocky wash to a 3-foot step-up, get off, pile up rocks, get back on my bike and bump over it, only to find the trail soon bends right around into a 20-foot smooth vertical wall where water drops into the wash when it rains. Impossible dead end.

I bail off the step-up and ride back down the wash, past where Norman disappeared, then about 1/8 mile further west to a place where in the distance I can see a smooth narrow trail leading to what appears to be a wider, flat wash. Looks promising. I turn back and head back to tell Norman about the trail. Before I get back to where his bike was, I hear Norm yelling. He is up high looking down at a heavily-brushed gully near where I am. He points out a trail that he says he thinks is makeable. I walk over and look up the gully, and see a 4 or 5 foot square rock sitting right in the middle of the gully, totally blocking it. I yell at Norman that it is blocked by a big boulder. Norman points at another possible way and says he thinks he can make that one. I say I can’t, and won’t try it, and yell that I’m going west (downstream, when it does rain) to check out the trail I saw. I find the narrow trail and it leads to a wide, flat sandy wash and generally flat area, easily the most rideable place we have seen in a couple of hours. I stop to turn around and go back for Norman, then hear his bike coming fast.

He stops where I am, and at first we gloat about how good we are, then mention how lucky we are, then head out sort of north by northeast. On our right is a high cliff, which may be where we would have wound up if we could have made it up Norman’s loose hill. We see some more sort of muddy sand, with fresh footprints in it, today’s prints, possibly even just-a-little-while-ago prints. We keep going a half mile or so up the smooth sandy wash and see 2 parked vehicles a couple hundred yards ahead, and a third vehicle pulling up. All three vehicles are the one-wheel-drive suv-wannabe soccer-mom crossover cars. We can see a guy get out, then walk out of sight to the east somewhere. We decide that these guys must have left the footprints we had been seeing.

By the time we get to where the guy was, he is gone, no one in sight. There is an intersection near where they are parked, with a “no motorized” sign on one road, and their tracks are on the other road, which is the way we go. We pass several unmarked Y’s and intersections, none of them marked. Then we cross a road with 2 signs that point left (west), but the names on the signs, “Sauceda” and “Las Cuevas”, aren’t on our maps or the GPS, and it looks like the car tire tracks go east. Turns out they are on the Big Bend Ranch State Park road map, which we should have had but didn’t. So we go east, still clinging to our hopes of a trail going east to Hen Egg, rather than having to head west and eventually come out near Presidio. We get to a 3-way intersection where a big new sign points east to “Las Alamos”. The road shows on Norman’s GPS, so we decide to take it. After about a mile the road gets really skinny. Norman stops and says “this can’t be right, let’s go the other way.”

We go back to the 3-way intersection. There are 2 other signs, both pointing the same way (west). One says “Alazan Ranch” and the other says “H Strachan 3.0”, The third way is north. We go north. About ¼ mile north there is a cattle guard with a low chain and a sign that reads “Park Limit. Do Not Enter.”. We enter, riding over the loose, low-hanging chain. A big sign on the right says “Matthews Bandera Ranch, Private Property, Do Not Enter. Trespassers will be prosecuted”. We go about a mile and can see 2 huge ranch house areas about a mile east of us. We stop and decide to go back and try the Los Alamos road a little further. We go as far as we went before, toward Los Alamos, and keep going, until the road ends at a house with a white wood gate. No one at home. In little chrome hardware store letters tacked onto the white wood fence are the words “LOS ALAMOS”.

We go back to the 3-way intersection, having tried everything but the “Alazan” road. We analyze our current situation. We have 2 maps, a high-dollar Garmin GPS, and a compass. The maps have no longitude/latitude numbers on them, and do not show most of the trails we have been on. We have merged with and crossed many roads and trails, some with signs naming either roads or places, and none of the names is on either of the maps or the GPS map. We have followed unmarked trails that seem to have gone unused for years, possibly decades. We are lost. We are running out of daylight, out of ideas, and out of luck. And Norman is almost out of gas.

So two 70-year-olds, lost in a remote area with wilderness all around us, sit there quietly for a moment, thinking. One of the riders is a bona fide A or Double-A rider, riding a new motorcycle, and with hundreds of first-place trophies and five full-season overall class wins in every “over” class from Over-30 to Over 60. The other rider is a bona fide squid on a bike that is 7-years-old but fairly well-prepared. On his trophy shelf are a couple of 5th place trophies and a Roy Pool “best helper” plaque. We each separately decide that we can make it out tonight. But other than going back to the two signs we passed a dozen turns back, this may be our last chance. If this doesn’t work out, we build a campfire, pool our gas, hide one bike, and ride double in the morning to find the way out. Norman decides to wait and conserve fuel while I ride the 3 miles to H Strachen, whatever that is.

About a mile west of where I left Norman, there is a 3-wall airplane hanger with a wind sock by it. A ranch house is visible about another mile or two further west. I head there, and after only a couple hundred yards, I see a cowboy riding a beautiful brown and white paint about halfway between a windmill and the dirt road I am on. I stop, pull off my helmet, and wait for him to get there. He stops about 10 yards from me. I say “Howdy”. “I need some help”. He moves his tobacco chew to one side of his mouth, spits a small amount of juice out, and says “I Figured”.

He gets down off his horse, walks over, pulls off his right glove, sticks out his hand to shake, and says “Alonzo”. I say “My name is Pando. A friend and I are lost, have been lost for hours, and he is a couple of miles back up this road at the Alazan sign, almost out of gas.” Alonzo says “Go on down to the ranch, tell my boss Mr. Strachan that you need some gas, and he’ll pour you up a gas can. Then I’ll get there and we’ll draw you a map to get out of here”. I tell him that my friend isn’t completely out, so I’ll go fetch him and then go to the ranch house. Alonzo says he’ll be there before I get there. He rides off, and I ride back to get Norman.

When we get to the ranch, Alonzo and Mr. Strachan come out to greet us. There are cats and dogs running around, one of the dogs yapping. Mr. Strachan says “We can help you get out of here, but you have to take 4 cats with you when you go”. We all laugh. Good guys. Norman tries to pay Alonzo for gas, Alonzo says “no”, then tops off Norman’s tank. A little slops over the top and Alonzo quickly wipes off Norman’s tank with a clean rag. Norman gets Mr. Strachan to take some money, Mr. Strachan hands it to Alonzo and says to him “When we get back inside, we’ll flip for it”.

Strachan and Alonza then describe a route out of there, we ask lots of questions about their directions, thank them profusely, and then leave. They said “Go east to the haystack, angle right, stay on the main road to a gate, about a mile, go right out of the gate to another gate, about 2 miles, then 5 more miles to the Big Bend Ranch Headquarters.” Several times they both said “When you see a sign that says ‘Casa Piedra’, don’t go right, go left”. “Then stay on the main road about 10 miles, or 20 miles, to the Main Ranch Entrance”. By the time we get to the haystack, the sun is way down low and in our eyes almost all the way to the Ranch Headquarters. Then it was dark to the highway. All their distances were guesses and way off, but we made all the correct turns, being very careful not to go to Casa Piedra, and about 40 miles later, get to Highway 170 where a sign says “Presidio 7 miles” and points right. Before we got that far I tried for a cell, but didn’t get one. At the highway I seemed to have a cell, but when I pressed “dial” my phone would hang up.

So we turn left on the highway to Lajitas and Terlingua. Pitch dark, yellow reflectors on the middle stripe, and white reflectors on short posts on the side of the road. Enduro headlights are terrible. About 2 miles down the highway, Norman is going 65 mph and comes within 1 foot of hitting a dark brown cow ambling slowly across the highway. I guess it wasn’t Norm’s time to die. I slow way down. Later on, I didn’t see them, but Norm also came close to hitting two donkeys and a mule deer. About 10 miles before we get back to Lajitas, I run out of gas, Norman has me lay the bike down flat on its side to get all the gas on the petcock side, then we poke along all the way back past Terlingua to Study Butte around 9:30pm, gas station is closed, Mexican Food Place isn’t. We go in, order food, then try making calls to let folks know where we are. Made it back to the motel but ran out of gas the next morning on the way to the gas station. Fun ride! 170 miles. Next time we’ll take other riders.
Finding a Sinkhole/BlackMesa/SolitarioHuntCampRoad loop will be a fun project for tomorrow (which it was).
__________________

 

[TexasShadow]

Lost Loop: Quest for Hen Egg Northwest

That was a fantastic story!!

 

[TexasShadow]

Heres and over the top HDR of the "Rat" grazing at the stable...

I love that!!!

 

[Iceman Jack]

An FYI. The older gentleman that broke his collar bone Friday,out on River Road West is doing pretty good. Yesterday was the first day that he felt some improvement.
His son told me a pretty funny story today. He said the EMT had him on oxygen and was asking him questions to make sure he was coherent. The EMY said do you know what day it is,he said Friday,then he asked if he knew where he was,he said BB National Park,then the EMT said, who is the president of the United Sates? His answer was "Unfortunately I do" I laughed my *** off. I guess if you are 75 year old you can say what ever the **** you want!

 

[jredford]

First of all many thanks to Richard for putting this on. Without Richard and Uncle I would not have been there. You guys are awesome! Here are some pictures from the ride out from Houston.

Here's a picture of Jim Green gassing up at Buccee's...he's really very talented.

Outside of Uvalde we noticed a large cloud of smoke, 25 miles later we tracked it down and we found a field on fire. Controlled burn.

Except there was no one there. What the heck...

Outside of Del Rio we ran into some military aircraft

Some deer in search of a KLR to dive in front of...

The Gage in Marathon...

Colorful pic of the GAGE

The long road west..

Jim and I stopped in Alpine at the McDonalds for dinner. We left and encountered one of the most spectacular sunsets we had ever seen. Here are some of the pics from that sunset...

and another..

Pointing to the beauty of the heavens...

Magnificent colors everywhere...

This is a silhouette of the mountains is done in a panorama. This photo is unprocessed except for the cropping and the border. WOW!

Day 2 coming soon!

 

[tjrockit]

The two guys you are referring to are Bill Pando and Stormin Norman Delamar,both of them,I think are 70 years young. I know for a fact that when you ride with Norman that you better be ready for a haul *** adventure!
Here's Bill and Norman's story,written by Bill (Wild Man) Pando.

Lost Loop: Quest for Hen Egg Northwest

Excellent read and story. Quite the adventure you guys had!!