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James River Loop

JCGeo

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I am planning on trying out the James River loop ride next Saturday (July 29) out of Fredericksburg. Does anyone know the water level of the crossings on the James river or Sandy Creek? I realize things can change in a week, but I will be trucking my bike over to Fredericksburg prior to an early departure Saturday AM, so don't want to make the long trip to be turned around at the first crossing...
John
 
i sure some one will give you a answer i have not been thru there since end of may, has not rain much here in spring branch anyway but they have been having spotty heavy rain around, might give me an excuse to take a ride next week just to see. just got back from riding east of Blanco and Fischer 90 mile loop most the creeks are almost dry are at there normal levels

Aaron
 
I drove it in my truck across Sandy Creek last weekend there was little water anywhere.


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James River crossing doesn't seem to get too low - the way the river widens right there holds water well. Expect it to be about a foot on the south side, I'd suspect.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. Hopefully with an early departure we won't melt along the way.
 
My son and I made it out for an early morning departure out of Fredericksburg on Saturday. We headed over to cross the Janes river and ended up in Llano for lunch at Coopers BBQ. It was great early, but blazing hot after lunch. We had planned to ride down Sandy Creek road after lunch, but decided not to try it when we saw the road closed sign at HWY 16. I suspect we could have made it through, but given how hot we were, I didn't want to chance it, so headed back to Fredericksburg.....Ended up with a 175 Mike loop, 73 mpg on the WRs. My new Safari tank did great, including testing the tank mounts with a get off on the first James river crossing coming up from the south. Photos later....
John
 
That sign is always there. Just ignore it and keep going. The road is fine

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Finally got to the photos....John IMG_1485.jpgIMG_1487.jpgIMG_1482.jpg



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Just figured out how to load photos with Tap Talk....


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Awesome! Thanks for the photos.


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Looks like the crossing was a success. Got to love the mighty WR250R. 4.7 tank with another 1.5 on the back @ 72 mpg = 440 mile range! You don't have to fill up but every other day.
 
Probably a dumb question here...

Based off of your experience, would it be unwise to cross that on a big bike (Super Tenere)?

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So I have seen YouTube videos of someone crossing the James River on a BMW GS, so definitely can be done. Having said that, you cross the James River three times on James River Road with the big crossing being the middle one. When my son and I crossed it a couple weeks ago, I layed my bike down on the first crossing and my son layed his bike down on the third crossing. The alge covered limestone was like riding on ice. I have never fallen off something so fast in my entire life. The long crossing was not as bad where we crossed. I am sure others are better at ridiing on algae covered limestone than I am, but I would not care to ride across it in anything heavier than our WR250Rs.
John
 
I layed my bike down on the first crossing and my son layed his bike down on the third crossing. The alge covered limestone was like riding on ice. I have never fallen off something so fast in my entire life.

So... sounds to me like the recommended way to cross is with a bridge. :giveup:
 
I also rode James River Road a few weeks ago on my KLR, on the hottest day I can remember. I had tried to ride up 433 (Gypsium Mine Road), but the road dead ended at the mine. There were a few gated roads out the North side of the mine, but the one that looked most correct was posted. I ended up heading a little farther West before hooking back to the start of JRR.

There were 4 water crossings, heading North on JRR, the first was really casual. The second was not. It was so slippery that once I dropped my bike in the river, I could not stand to pick it up. I ended up sliding the bike to the bank to get a little traction and still was sliding all over the place. I was super glad not to be on the Africa Twin. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture laying in the river. My wife was taking pano pictures from the road above and missed it. The third crossing, the super long one was not particularly slippery, more intimidating cause it was so far. The fourth crossing was pretty easy.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEJqyYT_mI"]JamesRiverRoad - YouTube[/ame]

Thomas.
 
Probably a dumb question here...

Based off of your experience, would it be unwise to cross that on a big bike (Super Tenere)?

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You could cross it on a street bike IMO.

Its just long and intimidating looking.
 
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