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Texas to Oklahoma Ride – March 25, 2017 – Ride Report
250 Mile Adventure (ADV) Ride
Well, this trip was in the planning for about 2 months. I waited for the right weather to come along to enjoy this long, very ambitious ride. Ambitious being the key word, “very” being the word used to describe my sore butt.
The gathering started just before 8am on Saturday morning at the Tiger Mart in Prosper TX, just off Hwy 289. The adventure consisted of 10 riders, Chris Doherty(myself), Steve Sheridan, Mark Rickards, Kevin Shafer, Keith Haynes, Dan “I bought a vowel” Rubey, Malcolm McKenzie, and Gary and Sylvie Waugh. The bike make up was interesting, a KTM 1190, 800 Tiger XC, KLR and the rest were 250’s and one 200… This was a factor I did not take into consideration during planning… I only thought about mid to large adventure, and not lightweight endures. I will mark this as a lesson learned.. I say that because we are speed limited to 60-65 MPH and range limited. I can only account the lightweight bike riders as being “hardcore iron-***” riders… God Bless’em.
We laid out some ride rules and promptly left at 8am…(which never happens) and headed west… 4 miles into the ride, Sylvie appears beside me and starts telling me something in what sounds like a French accent... I could not understand her, but could only surmise that something was wrong. I turned around and headed back only to find that one of the riders had lost a bolt on his front brake caliper. The magician Gary whips out a spare bolt and installs it from his “wonder pack”. FANTASTIC… so we press forward.
So the day started off cool with overcast sky. I saw the weather report and it called for clear and sunny. I was wondering if the weather was changing, because off in the distance there appeared to be some rain and dark clouds. After about an hour of riding we came across a nice wide bridge across a large creek, so we stopped for some photo opportunities, a drink, and leg stretching. So far the day was great. The dirt roads were just as planned.
As we headed up the road, I saw a sign that said “HOG TOWN RD”, and being an Arkansas Razorback fan, I stopped just to get a picture. Well that was a good thing, because as I was walking back to my bike I noticed that Gary’s tire was low. I had heard them talking before the ride, and they were talking about how low they ran their tires for off road riding. But this was really low…and I pointed it out. Sure enough…It was flat. Now the magic begins!
Gary had run over a 3 inch nail… So we got off the road and assessed the situation. Gary had a spare tube so no big deal. By the time I walked to my bike, pulled out a pop tart and diet coke and walked back, Gary had already pulled the back tire off the bike and was starting to pop the bead. We were all impressed, we are now all students and watching him as though he was a one man pit crew at a NASCAR event. The amount of tools he had squirreled away in his bag was amazing. Lesson learned - always invite Gary and Sylvie on rides.
With the tire squared away, we headed north. Now the dirt roads were plentiful and a couple of really nice ones. I can’t take credit for the idea of this ride, I found a link to RKRUZ’s route, copied the GPX file and modified it. Basically the same but I changed some of the routing. What I found is that the dirt roads in Texas were almost as planned, with only a couple that had been paved since Google Earth had photographed them. But when we crossed into Oklahoma, the gravel was not as plentiful as planned. Some of the longest dirt roads that I had selected were not dirt at all. BUMMER!
One of the main reasons I took this route was that RKRUZ posted some pictures of LARGE catfish heads on fence posts. I wanted to see if they were still there… Now he took the photos in July of 2016. It’s been 8 months since he took those. What we found was that they were still there…a little browner but weirdly enough they were still there…WOW. A noteworthy site.
We ended up in Marietta Oklahoma for lunch and some rest. Half way thru the trip the sun was finally coming out. Mexican food was the flavor over the abundance of fast food that was around. Sitting down and getting to know the riders was a good thing. I found out that Gary and Sylvie were, in my opinion, true hardcore riders. They have done the continental divide trip and are half way thru the US East-West trail. They will pick up at Oklahoma this summer and take three weeks to ride to Washington State…WOW. Wish I could take that much time off.
As we came back east, did I say that the dirt was not plentiful? Well that to me was a disappointment, however, it was another blessing in disguise. We needed to hit Hwy 75 by 2:30 and we did. At that point Gary and Sylvie departed to rush home for a family event. We continued east under an old 1922 concrete bridge and thru a 1903 concrete tunnel just outside Colbert OK.
The last highlight of the trip was crossing the Red River on a large one car bridge at Hendrix Oklahoma. Now we stopped at the Oklahoma side of the bridge and I was expecting an ATV area were we could do just a little dirt riding, however what we found is that the ATV area was gone and it its place was a new concrete bridge being constructed. So if you want to see what I consider an historical bridge, you had better get there before the year is up. I think with the new bridge going in they will take down the old one.
Although we are having fun on the ride, it is getting long in the tooth and I can tell that we need to end it. We made it to Denison and I decide to get to Hwy 289 and book it south before someone’s legs become blood starved and fall off. Its 5pm and we still have about 38 miles to go.
The ride ended well. We were butt sore, sweaty and tired but it would appear that everyone enjoyed the day. Even me. I learned some lessons on how to be a good ride master.
Final lesson. 250 miles in a day is just too long unless you are totally on pavement. Mix in dirt and you can take that down to about 170. Having said that, I will have to go and modify the rest of my planned rides to cut them down to 170 or less.
I would like to thank all of those who went on this adventure ride. Thank you enduring my ambitious nature. I hope to ride with you all again because I really enjoyed it. I do plan on having a ride every month. Please come and join me, I could always use the company and help in fixing my flat when it happens.
250 Mile Adventure (ADV) Ride
Well, this trip was in the planning for about 2 months. I waited for the right weather to come along to enjoy this long, very ambitious ride. Ambitious being the key word, “very” being the word used to describe my sore butt.
The gathering started just before 8am on Saturday morning at the Tiger Mart in Prosper TX, just off Hwy 289. The adventure consisted of 10 riders, Chris Doherty(myself), Steve Sheridan, Mark Rickards, Kevin Shafer, Keith Haynes, Dan “I bought a vowel” Rubey, Malcolm McKenzie, and Gary and Sylvie Waugh. The bike make up was interesting, a KTM 1190, 800 Tiger XC, KLR and the rest were 250’s and one 200… This was a factor I did not take into consideration during planning… I only thought about mid to large adventure, and not lightweight endures. I will mark this as a lesson learned.. I say that because we are speed limited to 60-65 MPH and range limited. I can only account the lightweight bike riders as being “hardcore iron-***” riders… God Bless’em.
We laid out some ride rules and promptly left at 8am…(which never happens) and headed west… 4 miles into the ride, Sylvie appears beside me and starts telling me something in what sounds like a French accent... I could not understand her, but could only surmise that something was wrong. I turned around and headed back only to find that one of the riders had lost a bolt on his front brake caliper. The magician Gary whips out a spare bolt and installs it from his “wonder pack”. FANTASTIC… so we press forward.
So the day started off cool with overcast sky. I saw the weather report and it called for clear and sunny. I was wondering if the weather was changing, because off in the distance there appeared to be some rain and dark clouds. After about an hour of riding we came across a nice wide bridge across a large creek, so we stopped for some photo opportunities, a drink, and leg stretching. So far the day was great. The dirt roads were just as planned.
As we headed up the road, I saw a sign that said “HOG TOWN RD”, and being an Arkansas Razorback fan, I stopped just to get a picture. Well that was a good thing, because as I was walking back to my bike I noticed that Gary’s tire was low. I had heard them talking before the ride, and they were talking about how low they ran their tires for off road riding. But this was really low…and I pointed it out. Sure enough…It was flat. Now the magic begins!
Gary had run over a 3 inch nail… So we got off the road and assessed the situation. Gary had a spare tube so no big deal. By the time I walked to my bike, pulled out a pop tart and diet coke and walked back, Gary had already pulled the back tire off the bike and was starting to pop the bead. We were all impressed, we are now all students and watching him as though he was a one man pit crew at a NASCAR event. The amount of tools he had squirreled away in his bag was amazing. Lesson learned - always invite Gary and Sylvie on rides.
With the tire squared away, we headed north. Now the dirt roads were plentiful and a couple of really nice ones. I can’t take credit for the idea of this ride, I found a link to RKRUZ’s route, copied the GPX file and modified it. Basically the same but I changed some of the routing. What I found is that the dirt roads in Texas were almost as planned, with only a couple that had been paved since Google Earth had photographed them. But when we crossed into Oklahoma, the gravel was not as plentiful as planned. Some of the longest dirt roads that I had selected were not dirt at all. BUMMER!
One of the main reasons I took this route was that RKRUZ posted some pictures of LARGE catfish heads on fence posts. I wanted to see if they were still there… Now he took the photos in July of 2016. It’s been 8 months since he took those. What we found was that they were still there…a little browner but weirdly enough they were still there…WOW. A noteworthy site.
We ended up in Marietta Oklahoma for lunch and some rest. Half way thru the trip the sun was finally coming out. Mexican food was the flavor over the abundance of fast food that was around. Sitting down and getting to know the riders was a good thing. I found out that Gary and Sylvie were, in my opinion, true hardcore riders. They have done the continental divide trip and are half way thru the US East-West trail. They will pick up at Oklahoma this summer and take three weeks to ride to Washington State…WOW. Wish I could take that much time off.
As we came back east, did I say that the dirt was not plentiful? Well that to me was a disappointment, however, it was another blessing in disguise. We needed to hit Hwy 75 by 2:30 and we did. At that point Gary and Sylvie departed to rush home for a family event. We continued east under an old 1922 concrete bridge and thru a 1903 concrete tunnel just outside Colbert OK.
The last highlight of the trip was crossing the Red River on a large one car bridge at Hendrix Oklahoma. Now we stopped at the Oklahoma side of the bridge and I was expecting an ATV area were we could do just a little dirt riding, however what we found is that the ATV area was gone and it its place was a new concrete bridge being constructed. So if you want to see what I consider an historical bridge, you had better get there before the year is up. I think with the new bridge going in they will take down the old one.
Although we are having fun on the ride, it is getting long in the tooth and I can tell that we need to end it. We made it to Denison and I decide to get to Hwy 289 and book it south before someone’s legs become blood starved and fall off. Its 5pm and we still have about 38 miles to go.
The ride ended well. We were butt sore, sweaty and tired but it would appear that everyone enjoyed the day. Even me. I learned some lessons on how to be a good ride master.
Final lesson. 250 miles in a day is just too long unless you are totally on pavement. Mix in dirt and you can take that down to about 170. Having said that, I will have to go and modify the rest of my planned rides to cut them down to 170 or less.
I would like to thank all of those who went on this adventure ride. Thank you enduring my ambitious nature. I hope to ride with you all again because I really enjoyed it. I do plan on having a ride every month. Please come and join me, I could always use the company and help in fixing my flat when it happens.
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Big nails and big catfish heads! 
Howdy Nate! Seems like just yesterday eh? (even though it was over 10 years ago... 
). Met some really great guys and had a fantastic day out, I was surprised by the number of 250 enduro's, but it made it a lot of fun, just a bit slow for those on the larger bikes!! We really look forward to seeing everyone on the next ride (if Chris still allows 250 enduro bikes) and making more new friends.