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klrno2
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Crosstimbers…native Texans…and 25 years of visitation.
My husband and I have been visiting the Lydon B. Johnson National Grasslands in Wise County, Texas since 1980. Time was, years ago, that we were there nearly every weekend, with our junkyard dog, Butch, running around in whatever old pickup we happened to be driving at the time.
When we first began playing out there, there weren’t any rules that we knew of, other than no off-roading. The entire Crosstimbers region of Texas is extremely susceptible to severe erosion, hence the no off road rules. You used to could shoot anywhere, camp anywhere, hunt anywhere.
Sometimes, it’s really green there….
Sometimes, it’s really dry there…
Over the years, the number of people utilizing the place has grown, a lot. The rules have been added to, and added to again, until the place is not a place that we play much anymore. We do still ride there, but we rarely stop and play anymore.
We decided to take a ride and camp off the bikes in the middle of the week. We loaded up the bikes…
Made sure that we had some evening entertainment…
And away we went.
On the way there, we ran through Aurora, Texas. Now, only a few weeks ago, we had planned a ride report about the small town of Aurora and her still active, yet historical cemetery. You know, the one where the UFO crashed in 1897 and the townsfolk buried the “little man” from the spacecraft in the local cemetery. But the History Channel stole our thunder and aired an hour long program about the event recently. So we were just passing through, but my husband’s KLR had a flat tire by the time we reached Aurora. We stopped there to take care of the lack of air. Turned out that the valve stem had pulled free from the heavy duty tube, and we had no spare tube. We pulled the rear wheel off of his bike, unloaded my bike, loaded the flat tire on my bike, and he rode on in to the next largest town (that we knew had a motorcycle shop) to get the tire repaired. Meanwhile, I waited.
Now, so far, the day had been partly cloudy with mild temperatures. But there in Aurora, it was overcast and cold. Not just cooler than elsewhere, but cold, so cold that my feet were freezing and I was beginning to shiver. The townsfolk that drove past me were just as cold, which is really rare for a small town in Texas. Well, there were a few folks that seemed to be from the cast of Deliverence that stopped and asked if I would like their help. Uh, no thanks. Even stranger, I had taken some photos of my husband’s KLR, sans rear wheel, and my KLR loaded with his wheel and him ready to go to town, but the camera just refused to operate there. Later in the day, that same camera took photos flawlessly. I was glad to see him return, get the wheel mounted and get out of that place, after about 1.5 hours of being there.
We arrived at the Grasslands, picked a camp spot with good wind protection, and set up camp.
We had posted previous to this ride on KLR650.net, in case anybody wanted to join us, that we would decorate our camp with two small American flags. So, as promised….
Between the flat tire eating up a bunch of the afternoon, and setting up camp, we were out of time to ride, but tomorrow’s another day.
We tried some BackPacker’s Pantry freeze dried food – Beef with Mexican Rice – and found it to be thoroughly inedible. Hungry and cold – campfire and burn bans in effect – we resorted to meat on a stick. At this point in our story, I cannot confirm nor deny the possibility of a rumor that any game or non-game animal may or may not have been taken legally or illegally for sustenance, or that any local or non-local tree remnants may or may not have been fired for warmth and charring of said meat on a stick.
The next day, we rode. We hardly stopped for any pictures because we were having too much fun. We covered some gravel roads that we weren’t all that familiar with but that had good curves and elevation change. So, at this point, for your entertainment, I’ll post a selection of photos that have been taken over the last two years, or were taken during this week’s ride…
Sometimes, mother nature even provides a tasty road side snack…
There’s lots of history in this area. We’ve found arrowheads and petrified wood on some of our hikes there. In and around the small towns are some pretty neat old buildings and such, like this gas station and motel built of petrified wood.
Or this noted battle – you gotta wonder though, if the Indians…er…native Americans had won the fight, would the list of names be Indian?
There’s plenty of fun gravel roads, barely maintained back county roads and some pretty nice twisted two lane black top here and there. Y’all come ride North East Texas and her lovely Crosstimbers region, you’ll be glad you did.
Y’all come back now, ya heer?
My husband and I have been visiting the Lydon B. Johnson National Grasslands in Wise County, Texas since 1980. Time was, years ago, that we were there nearly every weekend, with our junkyard dog, Butch, running around in whatever old pickup we happened to be driving at the time.
When we first began playing out there, there weren’t any rules that we knew of, other than no off-roading. The entire Crosstimbers region of Texas is extremely susceptible to severe erosion, hence the no off road rules. You used to could shoot anywhere, camp anywhere, hunt anywhere.
Sometimes, it’s really green there….
Sometimes, it’s really dry there…
Over the years, the number of people utilizing the place has grown, a lot. The rules have been added to, and added to again, until the place is not a place that we play much anymore. We do still ride there, but we rarely stop and play anymore.
We decided to take a ride and camp off the bikes in the middle of the week. We loaded up the bikes…
Made sure that we had some evening entertainment…
And away we went.
On the way there, we ran through Aurora, Texas. Now, only a few weeks ago, we had planned a ride report about the small town of Aurora and her still active, yet historical cemetery. You know, the one where the UFO crashed in 1897 and the townsfolk buried the “little man” from the spacecraft in the local cemetery. But the History Channel stole our thunder and aired an hour long program about the event recently. So we were just passing through, but my husband’s KLR had a flat tire by the time we reached Aurora. We stopped there to take care of the lack of air. Turned out that the valve stem had pulled free from the heavy duty tube, and we had no spare tube. We pulled the rear wheel off of his bike, unloaded my bike, loaded the flat tire on my bike, and he rode on in to the next largest town (that we knew had a motorcycle shop) to get the tire repaired. Meanwhile, I waited.
Now, so far, the day had been partly cloudy with mild temperatures. But there in Aurora, it was overcast and cold. Not just cooler than elsewhere, but cold, so cold that my feet were freezing and I was beginning to shiver. The townsfolk that drove past me were just as cold, which is really rare for a small town in Texas. Well, there were a few folks that seemed to be from the cast of Deliverence that stopped and asked if I would like their help. Uh, no thanks. Even stranger, I had taken some photos of my husband’s KLR, sans rear wheel, and my KLR loaded with his wheel and him ready to go to town, but the camera just refused to operate there. Later in the day, that same camera took photos flawlessly. I was glad to see him return, get the wheel mounted and get out of that place, after about 1.5 hours of being there.
We arrived at the Grasslands, picked a camp spot with good wind protection, and set up camp.
We had posted previous to this ride on KLR650.net, in case anybody wanted to join us, that we would decorate our camp with two small American flags. So, as promised….
Between the flat tire eating up a bunch of the afternoon, and setting up camp, we were out of time to ride, but tomorrow’s another day.
We tried some BackPacker’s Pantry freeze dried food – Beef with Mexican Rice – and found it to be thoroughly inedible. Hungry and cold – campfire and burn bans in effect – we resorted to meat on a stick. At this point in our story, I cannot confirm nor deny the possibility of a rumor that any game or non-game animal may or may not have been taken legally or illegally for sustenance, or that any local or non-local tree remnants may or may not have been fired for warmth and charring of said meat on a stick.
The next day, we rode. We hardly stopped for any pictures because we were having too much fun. We covered some gravel roads that we weren’t all that familiar with but that had good curves and elevation change. So, at this point, for your entertainment, I’ll post a selection of photos that have been taken over the last two years, or were taken during this week’s ride…
Sometimes, mother nature even provides a tasty road side snack…
There’s lots of history in this area. We’ve found arrowheads and petrified wood on some of our hikes there. In and around the small towns are some pretty neat old buildings and such, like this gas station and motel built of petrified wood.
Or this noted battle – you gotta wonder though, if the Indians…er…native Americans had won the fight, would the list of names be Indian?
There’s plenty of fun gravel roads, barely maintained back county roads and some pretty nice twisted two lane black top here and there. Y’all come ride North East Texas and her lovely Crosstimbers region, you’ll be glad you did.
Y’all come back now, ya heer?
Man, if that doesn't make you want to go camping and riding... There's just something that ain't right in yer head! Thanks for the info! Your cemetery stop reminds me that I need to set up a forum for cemeteries. There are tons of them scattered all over Texas, many in very remote and isolated areas accessible by DS bikes. I have been to quite a few and really enjoy looking for them. Often times locals see me and come over to visit and I get a dose of the local history in the area. Other times I enjoy just walking around them alone or sitting quietly for a while. Thanks for the post!
When I get my bike, I want to look at a ds as well. I could find a rider hubby and I could find a ds....want to leave both options open.
Thanks for the pictures, KLRno2, I enjoyed looking at them.
Only speaking for myself here, but I often have a hard time thinking on my feet and speaking off the cuff; expressing my thoughts in writing seems to come much more naturally for me.
Next time I'll just send her a PM. 
now back to the report
