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[racerxr650r]

I just found this page. Great to see dual-sporters in my neck of the woods. I live up in Denton and have been "dual-sporting" in this area off and on for 10 years now.

I used to do rides up along the Red River Valley past Muenster/Bulcher, St. Jo, Spanish Fort, and into the LBJ Grass Lands. Fun rides and nice scenery. I kinda got tired of riding on gravel all day, so I haven't done a local ride in a long time. The worst dirt roads around here are still passable on a V-Strom or 1150GS. I enjoyed riding them on my old XT500 most.

Now days I haul my bike to places like Muenster, Lake Murray, Cross Bar Ranch, New Mexico, or Colorado. Best to have another ride home if you are going to be taking on the nasty trail. Six months ago I crushed a radiator on the my XR650R while riding at Rocky Ridge. I was lucky that my Dodge was my ride home, not the XR.

I just bought some supermotard wheels for the XR so I guess I will be updating the plate and insurance. So I might be looking for a DS ride again as well (on the dirt wheels/tire of course). I'll keep an eye on the posted rides in this area. I would also love to haul the bike up to SE Oklahoma and explore. In the mean time, you can find me tearing it up at Muenster, Lake Murray, or Cross Bar Ranch.

BTW, I dug up some old DS ride pics from this area and attached to this thread. I miss that XR600. I Never should have sold it.

[estlerd]

Welcom to TWT.
I live in Denton also. Been riding since my early teen's 40 or so years ago. Both street & dirt. I currently ride an 1150GS & stick mostly to pavement. Nice photo's you posted. The iron bridge looks like the one on Sam Bass Rd.

[racerxr650r]

Good guess. Actually, it's the bridge over Clear Creek on Rector Road. Just south east of Sanger. I admit, I had to look it up. I'm the worse with road names.

[Sleepy Weasel]

Well, howdy and welcome!

That's a pretty cool avatar picture... where did you get that one taken?

[Teeds]

Welcome to the site.

Make sure you get plated and keep your dirt wheels for the XR. We go to Big Bend and West Texas often. Check out the Van Horn thread in the Ride Reports.

[racerxr650r]

Don't worry, I will always have dirt wheels and knobbies for this bike. Best place to ride it is in the dirt. Also, West Texas is near the top of a short list of places I want to take the bike and ride. I've ridden this bike in Oklahoma, North Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and California. That pretty much leaves West Texas, Arizona, and Nevada on my short list.

[racerxr650r]

The avatar image is from a ride in Colorado/Utah. West of Grand Junction in a place called Rabbit Valley. That image is from a section of trail called the Canyon Rim Trail. At times, there was a 300+ ft sheer drop just a couple feet to my left and rock wall on my right. Great to say you've done it once. Not sure I would do the same trail again. At least, not on a XR650R.

[fastmonstr]

Welcome to the site.

I grew up in Denton and left in the late 80's. I've been riding at Bulcher and Rocky Ridge since I was a kid.

Did you ever ride the trails in the lake bottoms off East McKinney?

[racerxr650r]

I rode out there years ago while it was still open and lots of trails. I think a small portion of it may still be open today. However, it is surrounded by development. Too small and full of dunebuggies and trucks last time I went there. I saw a young girl hit by a buggy. I swore I would never ride there again.

Sure enough a couple of years ago a young kid was killed when he was run over by a dunebuggy. Bikes and trucks/cars are a bad combination on a trail. It's bad enough we have to share our roads with them.

Later,
RacerX

[griffin515]

Welcome to the site.

I grew up in Denton and left in the late 80's. I've been riding at Bulcher and Rocky Ridge since I was a kid.

Did you ever ride the trails in the lake bottoms off East McKinney?


I still live in Denton and was at the gravel pits off Mckinney last weekend.Got a lot more trails there now.a nice housing project around it now.lotsa kiddos

Griffin

[Tourmeister]

Howdy Griffin, Welcome to the site :wave:

Whaddaya riding now?

[RacinRick]

woohoo, I'm ready to get together for some dual sporting with you folks.hope you don't mind some old vintage XL's playin' chase with you big boy's.

[Photojojo]

No discussion on this lately, but have secretly been riding sections all the while acting like the scouting missions were just freindly DS gatherings. trust: I pretty much have all of the first half in GPS tracks. I need some small sections and the Paris to Honey Grove section. XR650racer said he knew most of Muenster to Decatur so it's not dead yet.

Keepin the dream alive. Maybe next year.

[tx246]

sad to say that great iron bridge on clear creek at rector road is gone but the one on sam bass is still there. the rector rd one was replaced by concrete. i think the old iron bridge was donated to guyer highschool and they used it as a walkway over a water retention area. are you guys talking about the trails off of trinity road and the clay pits? i know the lake is down and people have been riding in the bottoms but if you get caught by army corps people or game warden its a very stiff ticket.

ok chris, i hear the chapparal a callin'. lets do the whole thing. maybe get that teeds guy to go. by the way, we did a street bike ride out of talahina, and got there from denton via paris. we fm roaded the whole way and boy i was noticing those good looking county roads in fannin county.

im a denton resident and ride street/mx/offroad/dual sport.... not neccesarily in that order. if you are looking for somebody to ride with, give me a shout.

[griffin515]

headed for fort griffin this sunday.some dual riders some street bikes.just a quick overnighter & campfire coffee...

Griffin

[griffin515]

Good trip to Fort Griffin.not much dirt until we got there and set up camp however,I took off on my own in search of Ed Baily's grave(the gambler Doc Holliday killed with a knife in fort griffin and cause his hasty retreat to tombstone).The cemetery is close to the Brazos and the partialy restored town of Fort Griffin.while searching I discovered the Lambs Head ranch and lots of county maintaned gravel roads.....A really big ranch with lots of cattle guards and open range. If you want to see stars this is the place we saw the space station go over,the milky way and countless shooting stars lots of coyotes howling at night and in the pre dawn hours all in all it was a great campout and ride.
GRIFFIN

PS You can't beat campfire coffee!!