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YoBS Ride East Texas and...

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sparkyphotog

sparkyphotog

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Joined
Jan 14, 2007
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Location
Sugar Land, TX
First Name
Bryan
Louisiana and Arkansas. Well, just a little in Arkansas, mostly East Texas and Louisiana.

As most of you know, Calgary-Yogi (Graeme), DFW_Warrior (Bill) and I (Sparky) are riding to Alaska this summer. The Three YoBS are in the thick of trip prep and part of that process is testing our bikes, equipment, packing theories, and ourselves. This past weekend, we did a 2 1/2 day trip with the bikes loaded down as if we were going to Alaska, mostly. There will definitely be some changes, especially to Bill's bike, but I think we are getting close. I for one, think I'm about 80% there. On with the report....

We started by meeting at Mission Tejas State Park northeast of Crockett. Due to work, and the fact that all of my vacation time is spoken for with the Alaska trip, I couldn't leave until about 5:00, which put me in the thick of Houston rush hour traffic. It wasn't too bad, but I really hate rush hour on a bike. I got to camp around 8:00 and Bill and Graeme were already set up and cooking dinner. I set up my tent and unloaded my bike and cooked dinner, then it was off to bed. End of day 1.
 
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Next morning we were all up by 6:30 with Bill cooking up an awesome breakfast of scrambled eggs with elk sausage. :eat: I'm gonna like having this guy along in Alaska! We packed the bikes, then hit the road heading northeast toward Louisiana.

Graeme loading up...
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Bill loading up...
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And my bike half loaded (the others mumbled something about always waiting on me :shrug: )...
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Graeme had a fabulous route planned through the piney woods with lots of great roads. Nothing too technical but fun and curvy with beautiful scenery. We crossed Toledo Bend Reservoir into Louisiana about midday, marking the first time I've ever ridden my bike into another state. The only other time I've taken the bike out of state it was in a trailer.

Bill and Graeme and the bikes at the state line...
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The bikes at the state line...
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A couple of nice young ladies were impressed with Bill and Graeme, so they offered to take a photo of all of us together...
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From there we headed north on LA 191 (ranked by Ride Texas as the #2 best road in Louisiana) to Logansport where we stopped for lunch at Logan's Landing.

Graeme leading the way...
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Logan's Landing...
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I had the fried catfish. Bill tried to steal some of my food...
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After lunch we headed back into Texas and continued in a generally northeasterly direction toward Arkansas. The sky started getting dark and it began to rain. Graeme had tried to save all the dirt riding for Sunday, but we hit some after the rain started. It was only a couple of miles, but it was very muddy and slippery with fully loaded touring bikes. We made it through unscathed and stopped for gas before heading into Arkansas.

Graeme securing something loose on his bike...
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Fuel stop after a wet ride...
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Three-fingered Bill...
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We headed on into Arkansas with the plan being to loop through the southwest corner of the state, then back into Louisiana and hit some more county roads as we made our way to camp at Caddo Lake State Park. However, it was already getting late in the day and was completely dark by the time we crossed into Arkansas. We stopped for short break and decided to take the fastest way to the park. We still went through Louisiana, but no more back roads, we stuck to the main highways. Good thing, too, because we saw lots of deer along the road. :eek2: We all agreed it was the safest decision.

We rolled into Caddo Lake State Park around 8:00, and secured a screened shelter for the night since it was still raining. We cooked on the table, then up-ended it to make room for setting up the tents inside the shelter. Even though it was a shelter, it was only screened in, so the tents were necessary to provide some barrier to the cold.

Indoor camping...
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Bill in his tent...
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Nice legs...
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End of day 2.
 
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I don't know what happened, but my entire smugmug account just disappeared. I can't even log into my account or see my smugmug home page. :eek2: :eek2: Trying to figure out what happened.
 
sparkyphotog said:
I don't know what happened, but my entire smugmug account just disappeared. I can't even log into my account or see my smugmug home page. :eek2: :eek2: Trying to figure out what happened.
Click to expand...

ME TOO..:eek2:. I have years of pictures out there.... Just emailed the help line.

UH OH... ADV is down too.
 
dixonduke said:
ME TOO..:eek2:. I have years of pictures out there.... Just emailed the help line.

UH OH... ADV is down too.
Click to expand...

Me too. The smugmug home page still comes up, otherwise it looks like a trunk line got cut. That's happened to us at work a few times and it instantly kills our web sites. They may have the main home page mirrored off site.

I just watched Live Free or Die Hard last night. This is kind of eerie because it reminds me of the movie.:shock:
 
Well, I guess I'll finish the story tomorrow. Sorry, but I guess you'll just have to wait to see the photos. I don't want to stay up all night waiting for everything to come back up. Goodnight.:yawn:
 
Wow, that was fast. Got an e-mail from smugmug just now.

Hello,
Thank you for your email. We are currently experiencing a technical issue, and we are so sorry! Our engineers are aware of the problem, and working on restoring the site back to normal as quickly as possible.

Steve
Click to expand...
 
I'm here at work and they have Smugmug blocked by websense so I can't see any of the pics anyway...:doh: Ah well, it gives me something to look forward to when I get home.

Just a few notes from my perspective on the ride...

Graeme can plan some awesome routes! Those roads we road were some of the best that I've ridden in a long time. Beautiful scenery, way out in the country, and great pavement with awesome sections of dirt and sand roads thrown in. What's not to like?

Bryan surprised me with his sand riding ability. That GS bucked and kicked in the sand, but Bryan with his stubborn determination would not let it go down. Some of those saves were very, very cool to watch from behind.

Graeme mounted a TKC-80 on the front of his Strom and a Tourance on the rear. At first I was a bit skeptical of it, but it proved to be the hot setup for the type of roads we are riding. As long as it holds up to the type of mileage we are expecting then I too will be spooning one on the bike before the next trip.

I found out that a fully loaded Strom with a semi-bald, 100% street front tire is no good in the sand. Don't ask how I came to find this out, but trust me, I know. And BTW, if no one got pictures of it that means that it never happened!!! But my back really hurts now from muscling up that stupid bike before Graeme and Bryan could come back around the corner.:trust:

I did learn that I need to buy a couple of things before this trip. On the list... new sleeping bag that actually keeps me warm, a couple of Cabella's dry bags to store camping gear, Thermarest pillow that Bryan showed me, and I need to build my "mobile refueling center" for the back of the bike. Trust me, that's going to be a good one. I've already drawn it up and now it's just time to do some cutting and welding.
 
Day 3 dawned cold and damp, but with the promise of clearing skies and warmer temps. We got busy packing up the tents so that we could set the table down and make breakfast. Once again, chef Bill came through with eggs scrambled with elk sausage, and some buffalo sausage with jalapeno thrown in for a bit of a spicy kick. :eat:

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Graeme toasting a great day of riding...
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The bikes loaded and ready to go...
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On the agenda for today was more awesome roads with lots of dirt riding thrown in.

Bill having a stretch...
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The first stretch of dirt was lots of fun, though there were some sandy and muddy parts. Graeme with his tire setup Bill described earlier seemed to have the easiest time of it, although he still got real loose a couple of times. The GS did fine most of the time, but the sandy bits were where I had the most trouble. Bill, thanks for your comments about my saves, but honestly, I think I got lucky. There were a few times where she tried to put me down and I don't exactly know how I kept her upright.

The bikes parked for a break after the first section of dirt...
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Since I'm the one always taking photos, I don't have many of me. Thanks, Bill!
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We rode some more pavement for a while to the next section of dirt. Somewhere in here we road FM 139 which is ranked by Ride Texas as one of the Top 10 roads through a forest in Texas. I would have to agree, it was one of the best roads I've ever ridden in Texas. Thanks Graeme! :clap: :clap:

We got to the next section of dirt and this where things went pear-shaped. We went through this crossroads and the other side was a deep sand pit. Graeme got through fine, and I was second, and got real wobbly going through. I got sideways a little but kept on the throttle and fought it, miraculously making it without falling. I looked in mirror and saw Bill go down. I got on the Chatterbox and told Graeme that he was down and found a firm spot to park it. Graeme found a spot to turn around and started riding back. By the time we got to Bill he was back on his bike riding toward us.

I found out that a fully loaded Strom with a semi-bald, 100% street front tire is no good in the sand. Don't ask how I came to find this out, but trust me, I know. And BTW, if no one got pictures of it that means that it never happened!!! But my back really hurts now from muscling up that stupid bike before Graeme and Bryan could come back around the corner.
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Well, Bill, I may not have photos of your bike on its side, but there was evidence...
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Since Graeme had ridden back down to the sand pit, there was no place for him to turn around, so he had to go back through it again before he could turn around to ride through it a THIRD time. Third times a charm...

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We got his bike back up and we continued on our way. I'm not sure how much dirt we did in total, but I think it was somewhere around 50 to 60 miles. They were really fun roads, too, with only a few sandy spots besides the one we just went through.

Graeme on dirt...
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My GS on the last dirt section...
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We ended the day with a nice easy ride on FM roads into Centerville. Caught a nice view of a sundog as the day ended...
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We stopped in Centerville to gas up before heading our separate ways and I got some BBQ to take home to Mollie. Graeme and I rode I-45 into Houston, and Bill headed north to Arlington. By the time we got home I had logged 986 miles according to the GPS.

Closing thoughts: Graeme's idea of a TKC-80 on the front and Tourance on the rear proved to be a great one. If he can get 6K - 7K out of the 80, then I might consider that set-up for Alaska as well.

Bill uses and old-school stove while I have a Jetboil, and his was much better for cooking. I used the Jetboil adapter this weekend to cook with a regular pot, but it doesn't have a diffuser to spread the flame out, so it is concentrated in the middle of the pot. Not real easy to cook with. May think about a different stove for Alaska.

The Chatterboxes worked very well for us, but it is sometimes hard to understand each other with all the wind noise.

I used the SPOT messanger for tracking, and it worked beautifully. And we didn't have cell service at either camp site, so it was handy to send a check-in message and let my wife know when we got there and when we departed.

I think I've about got my packing where I want it. I do need to get a real rain suit, though. I used my old Frog Toggs, and they were functional, but I hate wearing them.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we each learned a lot. Doing these testing trips is going to really help us get ready for Alaska.
 
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Good write up Bryan. Now I really can't wait to get home and see the pics!
 
SPOT service now gives you the ability to export points as GPX or KML files. I was able to import the KML file from this weekend into Google maps here. I also attached the GPX file in case you're interested.
 

Attachments

1. Whose and what kind of bike with the yellow front end?

2. Will y'all be looking for sand pits or off-tar on the Alaska trip?

3. How many days are ya planning for the Alaska trip?

Oh, great pictures. Looks like ya had fun except for the sand.
 
Quick-Silver said:
1. Whose and what kind of bike with the yellow front end?

2. Will y'all be looking for sand pits or off-tar on the Alaska trip?

3. How many days are ya planning for the Alaska trip?

Oh, great pictures. Looks like ya had fun except for the sand.
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1. It Sparky's. It is one of them fancy BMW GS fire starters.

2. Trip will be over 7,000 miles of which about 700 miles will be dirt roads. Alaska tarmac is not always what we would call tarmac so there maybe more dirt than planned.

3. We are planning 2 days to trailer to Calgary, 17 days for the actually ride and then 2 days to trailer back to Houston.
 
Wish I had of known you were going to be camped at the Mission, I would have run over to meet all of you. I live in Alto and ride a KLR.
 
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