South of Athens

When I was a kid, my folks lived south of Athens on a ranch between LaRue and Poynor. I graduated LaPoynor in '77.

I had a motorcycle as my only means of transportation and social life.

There are a LOT of FM rides leaving Athens on hiway 19. Unfortunately, after all these years, I can't recall specific FM road numbers. But, any of the FM roads that jettison off Texas 19 or State 175 are great rides. Some will take you all the way to Palestine, Jacksonville or Tyler..

I particularly liked the FM that goes from Chandler, skirts around the north side of Lake Palestine, through Moore's Station, Poynor, Brushy Creek and then on to Palestine.

There are some nice rides leaving Frankston. One in particular leads you past the old compound of the pre-David Koresh Branch Davidians, called "Holy Ground". As kids we used to spin yarns about the "Holy Grounders" and how they would abduct kids ... crazy stuff ... we were kids, what can I say.

Leaving LaRue and heading west all the land on the south belongs(ed) to the Murchisons ... the Murchisons of Dallas Cowboy fame. Had a school buddy whose father worked there and I got to ride my old dirt bike (SL 175 ) out there a lot. The land stretched almost to Poynor and took in a nifty "mountain". We rode up, around, down ... every where on that mountain.

We even rode the train tracks (again, we were kids) from LaRue to poyner a few times. There were some nifty trestle bridges to cross.

Now that I'm back in the saddle after so many years, I have a real hankerin' to re-explore those old roads ...

FM's 314, 315 and 837 are all real good. Those are between Athens and Lake Palestine. I don't know when you were last out there, but the area around the Lake is really growing up and the traffic is increasing proportionately. We just recently spent a weekend on the Lake. Left the bike at home though Tyler is really spreading to the South so a lot of those nice little FM's are becoming heavily travelled. It seems everyone is fleeing the DFW area to East Texas

Too bad ... some really nice forest through there.

315(?) goes to Poynor and then on to Brushy Creek. At Brushy Creek, left will take you Frankston, straight to Palestine and right, back to Athens ... all very nice rides.

And about 3 or 4 miles before you get to Poynor, there is a road to the right that goes up and over that "mountain" It will come out in LaRue. About 1/2 way between the cut-off and LaRue, a road goes back to the right again and it takes you to New York. And there is yet another tiny road leaving New York that will take you to Brownsboro.

Man ... you are making me homesick ...

My high school sweetheart, who later became and still is my wife, lived in New York, Texas.

Give me a shout and we will ride with ya. Dave knows roads...

here is a link to some of my routes... http://community.webshots.com/user/dterre use the "view full size" mode to get details.

Several of us are in Tyler/Whitehouse area. We ride those roads (and much more) all the time.

Dave

Dang, Dave. Those look nice. I'm going to have to head east.

slowoldguy said:

Dang, Dave. Those look nice. I'm going to have to head east.

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Let me know when you can get over here. We ride just about every weekend and would love to join you.

Dave

Dave, have you got anything in your bag of tricks getting us from the Waco area to Palestine? Once we get to Palestine, how long is the route you have mapped?

slowoldguy said:

Dave, have you got anything in your bag of tricks getting us from the Waco area to Palestine? Once we get to Palestine, how long is the route you have mapped?

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The entire route is over 200 miles but we don't need to do all of it. We could meet in Palestine and go as far as you want. I've got some other great roads in the Palestine area that are not marked on those maps. We could make a shorter loop out of those. Let me know.

Dave