DS report 12/26 & 12/27/2006

[dbdolan]

The Tuesday and Wednesday after Christmas were absolutely perfect for riding. I started out around 11:30am the day after Xmas and went dirt road exploring NE of Navasota out to Independence and then up to Caldwell and over to Bryan. The plan was to do a route I had quickly made which was to go from Montgomery - Navasota - Independence - Caldwell -then NE to Cottonwood - and back down to Montgomery, the super loop of dirt roads (or at least as many as I could find.)

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota.jpg

I got half of the route done on Tuesday which was from Montgomery and the whole east side of highway 6 and made it home back to Tomball just before dark.
This an old wooden bridge on old highway 105 before it dead ends just NW of Dobbin.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06007.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06010.jpg

I worked my way via mostly county roads which were unpaved over to Navasota. I had to jump onto the pavement for short stretches to connect up with the planned route. I came across a few CR roads that were not accessible so I re routed a few times.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06014.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06017.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06019.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06025.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06024.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06027.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06032.jpg

The closer I got to Independence the Oak trees became monstrous, I just love this area and the history.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06035.jpg

Found the the old Independence Cemetery

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06036.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06038.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06045.jpg

Right after these photo's and after I put the camera away, I was riding down this road and I looked over to the left to see 8 doe's sprinting with me. It was amazing as they leaped over the barbed wire fences as a group and continued to ride with for a mile or so.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06047.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06048.jpg

As I started heading back toward Snook the terrain became fairly flat with farm land as I approached the river bottom.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06052.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06053.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/DSNWNavasota12-26-06055.jpg

As I got back to the Bryan area it was approaching 4:30 pm and it was time to head back home so I slabbed back home before it got to cold.

[dbdolan]

Day #2

Well I was determined to actually finish this route so I headed out about the same time 11:30am. Wednesday was even more perfect than the day before, so I headed back up to Bryan via. Plantersville (1774) up to Anderson and up to 30 and picked up the route at Democrat road. Hey Tourmeister I found the cool old bridges on this nasty potholed lined dirt road.
Sorry about the quality of the pics, my digicam wasn't working properly so I had to use my cell phone.

The bridges at Democrat crossing
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1358.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1400.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1247.jpg

I was pretty much on dirt roads for most of the East side of Highway 6 as I made my way toward Cottonwood and back down to Montgomery.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1343.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1344.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1503.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1506.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d130/dbdolan/DS%20NW%20of%20Navasota%2012-26-06/12-27-06_1504.jpg

Good stuff.... the dirt was prime due to the recent rain, the Walker loop was beautiful as I approached it around 4pm. and then back to Montgomery.
I made it back home again right at 5:30pm. as the sun was fading.
Here is the final route after I combined the tracks from both rides into the super loop route that is about 70% dirt and 30% slab and is about 254 miles.
Well I did about 500 miles in 2 day's to explore this route and it was some sweet riding even though my speedo quit working half way through day 2, I am hoping it is just a broken cable as I just rolled over to 18,000 miles of DSin'.

[Tourmeister]

I was thinking about you while I sat starting out the window... good thoughts of course ;-)

[Snoopster]

I was thinking about you while I sat starting out the window... good thoughts of course ;-)

Did you start out the window & Beth pull you back in. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Tourmeister]

hehe.... see, it causes drain bammage sitting here all day...

[Hemibee]

Nice ride report. I've got to start thinking a little harder about a D/S bike.

[dbdolan]

I love this time of year even though most of the scenery is dead. Hemibee let me know when you get one of them ds bikes :rider: The last couple of years since I bought the KLR have been very therapeutic. I ride it to work on sunny day's and then it is ready to roam on the weekends. It is one durable and reliable machine and you have seen the flogging I give it occasionally.

[ysr612]

I am going to save that route thanks. Looks like a lot of fun.

[Duke]

Hey Bryan... Thanks for making the effort to put the route track together. I will be retracing your track soon.

Your getting pretty creative with your pics too.

Good Job!

Duke

[Hemibee]

IHemibee let me know when you get one of them ds bikes :rider:

Thought about d/s'ing my current bike. I could add/remove the lights and plate as the ride requires but would have to find a new seat also........Think I just might have to wait, sell a few (bunch) more pens and game calls to pay for it.

[Tekisasu DR]

Bryan,

Thanks for sharing the info!

I had 12/26 off and debated a bit if I want to join or not. I decided to stay home till the afternoon so that temperature could get high enough for my lazy bum to be active enough to go my own ride...

Thanks!
Ken

[dbdolan]

Thanks, It was almost too cold for me also Tuesday. Luckily it warmed up as the day went on.
I need some GPS help, when I try and put that super loop .gdb route back on my gps it gives me a warning "route truncated" and it cuts off the 2nd half of the route. Any ideas?

[Tekisasu DR]

I had similar situation when converting .gdb to Magellan GPS format.
Using the following software, I saved one track each to separate files, then converted.

http://www.easygps.com/

To save only one track from multiple tracks saved in one .gdb file, delete all tracks except the one, then save it. Repeat it until you save all the tracks.

Thanks!
Ken

[james.cain]

Bryan:

Nice track thanks for the report and GPS files.

[magus]

Very nice trip report and thanks for posting the GPS file Bryan - it's nice to share.

[dbdolan]

Has anyone tried to load that route in there gps? I think that route I posted may need to be redone, I tried all the suggestions on fixing it but it still gives me a route truncated message after i load it onto the device and it cuts off half the route. From what I have read I have put to many waypoints into it and it is freaking, I am going to retrace the route with less waypoints and reupload it to the site.

[Tourmeister]

You get 50 waypoints if you want the route to follow the road contours on the map. More than 50 and the GPS will just start going in straight lines from one point to the next as the crow flies.

[Duke]

I am going to retrace the route with less waypoints and reupload it to the site.

Let us know when you plan to ride the route, I might would like to tag along.

Cheers,
Duke

[dbdolan]

Okay I removed the old attachment of the big loop Montgomery-Navasota-Independence-CottonWood route and replaced it with an edited version which will now correctly load onto my gps. If you downloaded the previous version delete it and use this one. So when are we all going to try it?:rider: It is 249 miles and it will take about 8 hrs. 57 min.:trust:

[dbdolan]

Woops forgot to attach the files :doh: here you go.