Tourmeister
05-10-2004, 01:43 AM
Howdy,
:tab Well... I bought the GS to do some exploring off the beaten path. Having done every FM and other type of road around, I have been itching to rekindle the excitement of exploring the unknown. Here are some pics from some of the roads and areas all within 50 miles of home. The first set is from mid April.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01599.JPG
Hoke Rd #2. This is a nice sandy and often rutted dirt road. Comes out somewhere on Hwy 30 way West of Huntsville.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01600.JPG
It is much looser than it looks. Getting used to the feel of the bike squirming around under me is a whole new experience :shock:
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01602.JPG
At the end of a long, bumpy, dusty dead end road, I found this nice looking lake. I had to ride down across a fairly steep and rutted pasture to get here. Was fun!
:tab These next images are all from a small cemetery hidden in the woods with no kind of marking at all. The locals had to tell me how to find it. I rode up a nasty deep sandy wash to find the gate. I believe that it is primarily a family, or small local group of families, that are buried here. Looking at many of the grave markers, it is obvious that most of the interred had little money. They used any kind of unique items they could to distinguish one grave from the other. Often, there was no indication of who was buried in the graves.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01603.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01604.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01605.JPG
:tab This last set of images is from another cemetery only a few miles from the first. Now it is obvious that the families buried here had quite a bit more money. Many of the names are of families that are prominent in Huntsville and go way back to its' founding. Most of the dirty looking grave markers have burial dates from the mid to late 1800's.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01606.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01608.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01609.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01610.JPG
:tab The cool thing about my GPS software is that it shows the locations of tons of these tiny little backwood cemeteries. The challenge is finding roads to access them that are actually open to the public. Some are off in the woods behind closed gates on private property.
:tab I have been exploring more of the local backroads in the last week. The following are pics from just this evening while I was wandering around on the many miles of Forest Service roads in the Sam Houston National Forest.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01732.JPG
I did not have my tailbag locked. It was latched close though. One particularly bad pothole made it pop open. At the time I did not think anything had come out. I closed it and continued on my way. However, when I got to this "road", a nasty hump in the road made it pop open again and send everything flying. It was then that I realized I had lost one of the covers for my Hella Auxillary lights. I looked and looked, here and at the first place where the bag opened and could not find it. Oh well. Now I know to LOCK the freaking latch to keep it from opening!
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01734.JPG
This road looks nice and smooth in the picture right? Well, it is very loose sand that is about 1-2 inches deep. Nothing major for an experienced offroader. I am not that person yet! I manage not to drop the bike, but I also manage to keep my heart rate up pretty high. Standing on the pegs and letting the bike wiggle around under me really helps.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01735.JPG
I managed to skirt around the left side of this mess both coming and going. However, there were several others not quite this bad that I had no choice but to go through. I just moved my weight back and stood on the pegs. Seemed easy enough. So why was it so freaking hard at Big Bend with John and Bill :scratch
:tab These last pics are all on the Northwestern shore of Lake Conroe. This is a great place to camp. However, only somewhat narrow four wheeled drive vehicles or bikes will be able to get back here. The roads are quite rough and many vehicles would high center on the huge humps in the roads. I see quite a few deer back in here also. But I am running almost at an idle in first gear with the clutch all the way out, maybe 5-10mph. Stopping is not to hard even though I am using mostly the back brake. No ABS when on the dirt, I shut that off.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01736.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01737.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01738.JPG
Looking across to the Eastern shore
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01739.JPG
Across a small bay on the Western shore
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01740.JPG
In the middle of nowhere and loving it!!
:tab I found a few more new roads on the way home in the dark. The Hella lights are great for night riding. They really light the place up so I can spot the critters. I kept having to stop because my GPS batteries were low and I could not leave the backlighting on all the time to see where I was. Hopefully, that won't be an issue in about a week when the new GPS arrives :dude:
:tab I sure am enjoying the new GS. :chug:
Adios,
:tab Well... I bought the GS to do some exploring off the beaten path. Having done every FM and other type of road around, I have been itching to rekindle the excitement of exploring the unknown. Here are some pics from some of the roads and areas all within 50 miles of home. The first set is from mid April.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01599.JPG
Hoke Rd #2. This is a nice sandy and often rutted dirt road. Comes out somewhere on Hwy 30 way West of Huntsville.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01600.JPG
It is much looser than it looks. Getting used to the feel of the bike squirming around under me is a whole new experience :shock:
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01602.JPG
At the end of a long, bumpy, dusty dead end road, I found this nice looking lake. I had to ride down across a fairly steep and rutted pasture to get here. Was fun!
:tab These next images are all from a small cemetery hidden in the woods with no kind of marking at all. The locals had to tell me how to find it. I rode up a nasty deep sandy wash to find the gate. I believe that it is primarily a family, or small local group of families, that are buried here. Looking at many of the grave markers, it is obvious that most of the interred had little money. They used any kind of unique items they could to distinguish one grave from the other. Often, there was no indication of who was buried in the graves.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01603.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01604.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01605.JPG
:tab This last set of images is from another cemetery only a few miles from the first. Now it is obvious that the families buried here had quite a bit more money. Many of the names are of families that are prominent in Huntsville and go way back to its' founding. Most of the dirty looking grave markers have burial dates from the mid to late 1800's.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01606.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01608.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01609.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/041604-wandering/DSC01610.JPG
:tab The cool thing about my GPS software is that it shows the locations of tons of these tiny little backwood cemeteries. The challenge is finding roads to access them that are actually open to the public. Some are off in the woods behind closed gates on private property.
:tab I have been exploring more of the local backroads in the last week. The following are pics from just this evening while I was wandering around on the many miles of Forest Service roads in the Sam Houston National Forest.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01732.JPG
I did not have my tailbag locked. It was latched close though. One particularly bad pothole made it pop open. At the time I did not think anything had come out. I closed it and continued on my way. However, when I got to this "road", a nasty hump in the road made it pop open again and send everything flying. It was then that I realized I had lost one of the covers for my Hella Auxillary lights. I looked and looked, here and at the first place where the bag opened and could not find it. Oh well. Now I know to LOCK the freaking latch to keep it from opening!
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01734.JPG
This road looks nice and smooth in the picture right? Well, it is very loose sand that is about 1-2 inches deep. Nothing major for an experienced offroader. I am not that person yet! I manage not to drop the bike, but I also manage to keep my heart rate up pretty high. Standing on the pegs and letting the bike wiggle around under me really helps.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01735.JPG
I managed to skirt around the left side of this mess both coming and going. However, there were several others not quite this bad that I had no choice but to go through. I just moved my weight back and stood on the pegs. Seemed easy enough. So why was it so freaking hard at Big Bend with John and Bill :scratch
:tab These last pics are all on the Northwestern shore of Lake Conroe. This is a great place to camp. However, only somewhat narrow four wheeled drive vehicles or bikes will be able to get back here. The roads are quite rough and many vehicles would high center on the huge humps in the roads. I see quite a few deer back in here also. But I am running almost at an idle in first gear with the clutch all the way out, maybe 5-10mph. Stopping is not to hard even though I am using mostly the back brake. No ABS when on the dirt, I shut that off.
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01736.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01737.JPG
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01738.JPG
Looking across to the Eastern shore
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01739.JPG
Across a small bay on the Western shore
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/050904-SHNF/DSC01740.JPG
In the middle of nowhere and loving it!!
:tab I found a few more new roads on the way home in the dark. The Hella lights are great for night riding. They really light the place up so I can spot the critters. I kept having to stop because my GPS batteries were low and I could not leave the backlighting on all the time to see where I was. Hopefully, that won't be an issue in about a week when the new GPS arrives :dude:
:tab I sure am enjoying the new GS. :chug:
Adios,