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Things I learned travelling in TX, NM, AZ, and CO...

Joined
Sep 28, 2004
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Location
PF, TX
You can pack a LOT of stuff on a Bandit if you’re creative:

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It’s COLD at elevation, even in August:

cold.jpg



Just because a Forest Ranger tells you a road is “no problem” for an overloaded street bike, it doesn’t mean it’s true…

badroad.jpg


Arizona isn’t ALL desert:

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The Grand Canyon really is pretty grand:

grandcanyon.jpg


The Bandit is not a Strom:

sleepy.jpg


There are some pretty lonely stretches of road out West:

lonely.jpg


A good fire really makes my night complete:

fire.jpg


and, Colorado is a little different from Texas:

coloradopana.jpg



Some stats:

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  • Total Miles: 3,057mi
  • Avg MPG: 44.6mpg
  • High MPG: 53.5mpg
  • Low MPG: 37.1mpg
  • States ridden in: 5 (TX, NM, AZ, CO and I just poked UT)
  • Days on the road: 7
  • Money spent on lodging: $0
  • Money spent on gas: $263.75 (:doh:)

The real ride report is forthcoming. I figured if I posted up an intro, I’ll get off my laurels and do the write up….

Stay tuned,

trey
 
Looking forward to it. I'll be hitting all of those states next year.
 
Looking forward to more. Sorry to see the Bandit on it's side. Hope nothing broke. I dunno, the looks of that road, I think my Vee may have a problem too.
 
This should be good! I can't wait to hear more about seven days on the road and paying $0 for lodging.
 
Good stuff. :thumb: Your Bandit and my Speed Triple look almost like twins loaded up.
 
To be honest. I find my bandit to be a bit better on gravel than my DL1000 was. Lower center of gravity maybe. But then, neither one was loaded down as yours was. Only good thing about my DL was suspension travel to soak up big bumps. I kinda miss that but really love my feet being on the ground better with the bandit.
Neat pictures and looked like a great trip. Thanks for sharing. Fantastic mileage.
 
Looks real similar to a trip I did back in July, although I cheated and got a hotel room on the last night!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the pics.... I can speak from recent experience that you'll still be in awe in 3 months & you are going to start planning the next trip in your head right about...... NOW.
 
Looks real similar to a trip I did back in July, although I cheated and got a hotel room on the last night!

I'm looking forward to the rest of the pics.... I can speak from recent experience that you'll still be in awe in 3 months & you are going to start planning the next trip in your head right about...... NOW.

+eleventy billion I'm ready to go again.
 
I went that way over memorial day but we had a crash (brother broke his leg) on day 4 so it got cut short.

So the next best thing...:popcorn:
 
When I see a KLR laying on its side, I think, "Cool -- what a tough bike." But when I see a Bandit keeled over, it just makes my spleen hurt. :-P
 
Day 1 – Austin, TX to Lincoln National Forest, NM (~Queen, NM) – 536.1 miles

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sa...1.052934,-100.92041&spn=7.008722,9.887695&z=7

Gratuitous starting ODO shot:

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I’m not quite sure I know what I’m getting myself into…

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GPS before I get underway:

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It’s a decent day leaving Austin. A little cool, overcast, but no rain to be seen. I left wearing my JR Alter-Ego jacket stripped down to just the mesh and the JR mesh pants I choose for the trip. Pretty chilly, but I was too stubborn and eager to put some distance between myself and home to pull over and make myself comfortable.

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Bridge around Llano, TX:

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I’d never been a ‘take pics while riding’ guy before, so it took me a while to get the hang of snapping off shots with my left hand.

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Turns out I didn’t take too many pics through here because, well, it’s the flat part of Central TX... it's been seen:

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But FINALLY, I started to see something other than just flat grass…

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I think this was about the time that I got to Iraan, TX, and hit I-10 for about 50 miles. The benefit was I made very good time…

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At last, I made it out of my home state, and I reached the New Mexico border:

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I went all the way up to Carlsbad, not knowing just how out of the way it was, but it turned out, it was the closest place to get gas and that’d be important later on…

Once I left Carlsbad, I got on some smaller FM type roads that were pretty neat. They snaked though the big, rolling hills of SE New Mexico and were surprisingly scenic.

Speaking of snakes, this little guy had just been run over…

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Roads:

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About this time I started to get into the fringes of the Lincoln National Forest, which was my destination for the evening.

lincoln.JPG


The roads seem to magically get 10x more interesting once you enter a National Forest, that was a theme throughout the trip that I was always looking forward to…

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I found the Ranger Station and spent a good 45 minutes chatting it up with the ranger. He was from Texas, he just spends his summers as a ranger for the National Forest. Pretty cool way to spend your summer I’d say.

<insert picture of the ranger that I forgot to take…>

Around the ranger station I ran into my first gravel for the trip… Nothing bad, but it was a handful on the Bandit so loaded down. It was really small pieces of rock, about an inch deep. I could comfortably cruise around 25-30 mph or so on most of it.

I decided to make the trek to a very secluded camping spot the ranger told me about. There was a short cut out of the park from that site, up a NF road, which I would probably need to take because fuel was becoming a bit of an issue.

Turns out, the closest place with fuel was Cloudcroft, NM, and I didn’t have a spare gas can with me… :doh: But I’ll leave that for the next installment….

So I wove my way down the gravel NF roads, thinking I was making quite the little adventurer out of myself, smug in my lack of knowledge of the coming days….

Beautiful scenery right from the NF road leading me to my campsite:

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And at last, I made it to my home sweet home for the night:

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It was early, around 6pm local time I think. “Nice work Trey,” I thought to myself as I checked the GPS to see just what I had accomplished for the day.

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So I began setting up my camp for the evening and in no time, I figured out I was capable of setting up my tent and nothing important fell off that day:

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Now, time for some dinner!

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SPAM, beans, and rice. Dinner of real men who get things done.

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So there I sat, real impressed with myself for not really doing anything except sitting on a motorcycle for 10 hours and not dying.

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I thought my first night called for a toast, so I made a fire and wished myself good health:

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The National Forest system is quite the resource for cheapskates like me. First and foremost, it’s free, yes, FREE to camp in a NF. There usually aren’t many people around, mainly I think because the sites aren’t very developed. I only stayed in one that had any sort of amenities like a picnic table. But that’s a good thing for weirdo anti-social people such as myself.

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Beautiful sunset:

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About now I realized, this was pretty much it. I had been going non-stop since 7am this morning, and now, even if I wanted something to do, I was pretty much out of reach of anything. There wasn’t anyone or anything within 20 miles I would guess.

Ahh, time to relax:

camp4.JPG


I decided I had better call the lady friend and let her know I wasn’t dead on the side of the road somewhere. I had told her I would call her every night and let her know where I was and where I was planning on going the next day just in case the worst were to happen.

phone.JPG


Oops. Despite my phone saying I had a bar of service, it wasn’t going to make a call. Trust me, I sat there like an idiot trying for half an hour.

So what to do? Hop on the bike, ride around until I find some more bars of service? Nope, I don’t know if I have enough fuel to get myself out of here tomorrow, I can’t waste it.

So, I go to bed, with a beautiful sunset and a great fire, but a strange looming feeling that there was a multi-state manhunt for me if Sarah thought I was dead.

sunset3.JPG


fire.JPG


Day 2 takes me all the way to Clifton, AZ or so, and some of the most incredible roads of the trip… stay tuned. I’ll try to post it up in the next day or so…

trey
 
Day 2 takes me all the way to Clifton, AZ or so, and some of the most incredible roads of the trip… stay tuned. I’ll try to post it up in the next day or so…

trey

Nice start. :clap:

Looking forward to the next installment. :popcorn:

Clifton, AZ... I'm sensing AZ 191 in the future. :rider:
 
I could have advised you that Queens, NM has no gas but what fun would that have been.;-) There was a good hamburger place there until about a year ago. :doh: The one on the left isn't bad.

A buddy of mine crashed last year in the LNF when we were riding one of the roads going to Cloudcroft. I was having a great time on the XT but he was on his GS1200 and working like a dog. :mrgreen:

If you come back this way before June let me know, I'm in Carlsbad until then. We can do some more DSing on the Bandits if you like.:rofl: :rofl:
 
Ran through the same states earlier this summer...alone like you did - it's a wonderful thing!! Looking forward to the "rest of the story"...
 
Day 2 – Queen, NM to Granville, AZ – ~465 miles

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sa...068528,-107.039795&spn=3.429129,4.943848&z=8

I didn’t think much of it the night before, but my campsite in the Lincoln NF was at a little over 7,000’ in altitude. It was COLD that morning:

cold.JPG


I remember it was cool when going to bed, I was wearing a sweatshirt, but it was more due to the wind. I woke up in the middle of the night to zip up my mummy bag and it barely did the trick.

A storm was trying to blow in overnight and I learned a valuable lesson… don’t pitch your tent where bushes or tree limbs will brush against it with the wind in the night. I must’ve woken up 30 times thinking something was trying to get into my tent and it was nothing but the wind…. It never did rain, which is good, because I’m not quite sure how waterproof my tent is…

I got up and at ‘em right with the sun, around 6am:

dawn.JPG


morningcamp.JPG


I shivered my way around and broke camp pretty fast, I didn’t even take the time to make my coffee. I was ready to hit the road and see what today had in store for me.

Like I was never there:

breakcamp.JPG


Giddy up!

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So, if you remember, I don’t have much gas. The Bandit has a 5 gallon tank, so in theory, with the 45+ mpg I was getting, I should be able to squeeze 225+ miles out of a tank in a pinch.

So, a quick look at the trip meter tells me I have 70mi on the tank before I ever leave, no problem, right?

It was an absolutely beautiful, if a little chilly, morning heading out. The views from the NF roads were spectacular:

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In this one you can see the road surface I’ve been riding on so far, nothing terrible, just loose gravel:

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Saw this guy along the road, think he was surprised there was somebody way up here so early:

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I get to the fork in the road from where I came from the previous day. I’m at around 85mi on my tank of gas, and I know it’s another 50mi to Carlsbad, but it’s way out of the way and would add close to 100 miles to my total for the day…. So I take the shortcut up FR-67 that the forest ranger had recommended the day before.

IIRC, the way he put it was, “I wouldn’t drive a Cadillac up it, but it’s no problem in my old forest service truck, and it shouldn’t be any problem on a motorcycle.”

I think he must’ve thought I was riding a BMW GS or a KLR or something…

I made it about 15 miles down 67, which was already getting pretty bad, and saw these signs:

rough.JPG


67-1.JPG


67-2.JPG


Uh oh. The road was already bad, if it got so much worse that they posted additional warning signs… couldn’t be good.

But hey, this is an adventure right? I sit at a desk for 50 hours a week and bore myself to tears. This has character building all over it… how hard could it be?

Saw some more wildlife along the way:

rabbit.JPG


I was making terrible time. The roads still weren’t too bad, but I was only moving at about 10mph on average. The biggest thing was the lack of suspension travel on the Bandit. A V-Strom would’ve been in it’s element, but I was beating the **** out of the poor Bandit.

I pulled over pretty often to soak up the view and stretch my legs…

67-3.JPG


67-4.JPG


The views were awesome. I remember thinking, “Road still crap? Yep. View still incredible? Yep.”

67-view.JPG


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Around here the road started getting even worse… at this point though, I was absolutely committed. If I had any chance of making it to a gas station, I had to make it this way…

67-5.JPG


67-6.JPG


View was still pretty though…

67-view3.JPG


According to my GPS, I was only about 5 miles away from a bigger dashed line, I hoped against all hope that meant pavement….

Nope. The next fork in the road was the worst yet:

badroad.JPG


Now, that looks bad enough, but let me clarify a few things… I’m on a Bandit. It weighs 500lbs dry, probably closer to 575lbs ready to ride. I’m loaded down with about 150lbs (complete guess…) of gear that isn’t exactly creating a low center of gravity. Did I mention I’m on Michelin Road2 touring tires on 17” rims?

I didn’t mean to pull off the road for that picture… the rocks and loose surface pushed me off the road. I had a heck of a time getting underway again. It was impossible to maintain the track I wanted, the big rocks would force me every way I didn’t want to go…. Needless to say, I didn’t take any more pictures… I was on a mission to get out of that without laying the bike over…

At last, after about 120 miles of dirt and 12 miles of the worst road ever created, the end was near:

leaving.JPG


PAVEMENT!!!!

pavement.JPG


I was ecstatic. I had made it down a horrible road on an overloaded street bike…. “Who needs a V-Strom?” I gloated to myself.

It was probably that little bit of bad karma that bit me later, but that’s for another day… :uhoh:

The Bandit was out of there, filthy, but no worse for the wear:

dirty.JPG


The astute observer will notice I lost my flip flops somewhere along the way today. If you find some Reef sandals on a NF-67, PM me :lol2:

And not only was I back on pavement, I was back on lovely pavement with zero traffic… awesome:

road2.JPG


road3.JPG


I rolled into Cloudcroft, NM with all of my low-fuel lights going bananas. I had about 205 miles on that tank, no problem!

cloudcroft.JPG


Cloudcroft was high. 9,000’ high, I was surprised at that. It was a neat little town, but it was already noon and I’d barely covered 100 miles that day. I didn’t have time to kick around and spend time there if I wanted to make it to AZ that day.

So off I went, down some great roads and came up on this tunnel going right through the mountain:

tunnel.JPG


And right on the other side of the tunnel I was awarded with quite a view:

view.JPG


view2.JPG


About 10 miles out of Cloudcroft, you come out of elevation, quickly. I had to stop and shed my way from everything I had down to just my mesh:

hot.JPG


Yep, I was back down in the desert, time to make up some ground:

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I passed White Sands National Monument, which was neat to see:

whitesands.JPG


As well as the missile range on the way to Las Cruces… which was kind of eerie:

missles.JPG


There were signs all along the highway that said they would be flashing if the road was closed due to missile testing… :eek2: Glad I missed that.

Before too long, the mountains started to reappear:

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Came around the corner and saw this bull:

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It wasn’t the first or last bull I passed, which were a bit intimidating. They really stare me down, I didn’t know if they thought I was another bull or what… but I gave them plenty of space.

hills.JPG


Getting close to the Apache National Forest the roads started to get better, and the scenery improved ten fold:

apache.JPG


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An older guy on a red V-Strom pulled over at this overlook and we chatted for a bit. He had lived in the area for 40+ years, but was familiar with Austin and couldn’t fathom why anyone would live there…. I was beginning to agree with him at this point on the trip.

Oh well, better hit the road, still 150+ miles to go and the sun isn’t getting any higher:

shadow.JPG


It was beginning to look like Colorado here in SE New Mexico, it wasn’t what I expected to see. Hwy 78 was great.

mountains3.JPG


Next thing I knew, state #3 came into view, Arizona!

AZ.JPG


Right around here I re-entered the Apache NF, and again, the roads got even better:

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Not quite the cactus and desert Arizona is known for:

hills2.JPG


I hit US-191, which would be one of the best roads of the entire trip, and headed North towards Clifton, AZ. My original plan was to make it to Eagar, AZ, but with the slow start I got with the roads in NM, that wasn’t going to happen.

Just outside of Clifton there’s an incredible mining operation:

mine.JPG


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It was already 7pm, it had been a LONG day. I was more tired than I thought. 191 is a road that demands your attention, and I wasn’t up to it mentally.

I was zipping up the mountain, determined to get as far as I could for the day, when a lapse in concentration had me inches from what would’ve been quite a ride. I wasn't going fast, I just let my mind wander for a second and I ended up teetering along the rocky edge with the loose gravel along the shoulder doing its best to give me a stroke.

I managed to keep the Bandit from careening off the side of the mountain, but I thought my heart was going to jump right out from my chest. I needed to stop for the day, no ifs ands or buts about it.

There are NF campgrounds all along 191, I stopped at the one in Granville, ready to call it quits for the day.

camp.JPG


This was the only site I stayed in with a bench and trash receptacles until I got back into Texas, but it was my least favorite. There were quite a few other people camping, the bugs (mosquitoes in particular) were bad, and it was right off the hwy… oh well. Can’t complain about a free campsite, I just got an incredible one the previous night.

Time for some dinner:

dinner.JPG


Noodles, peas, and canned chicken. Dinner for exhausted riders:

dinner2.JPG


I was making myself a little fire, nothing big, I needed to hit the hay before too long, it was already 9pm, when I heard something rummaging around the trash barrel.

Crap. I hadn’t researched what to do in the case of a bear at all… didn’t think I’d need to at the places I was camping. I stood there, with my camera in one hand, flashlight under my chin, and my folding shovel in my other hand ready to take on the hideous beast:

bear.JPG


I could tell that it was small, about 60-70lbs, but I know where a baby bear is, mommy is near.

So there I am, heart racing, the most worthless weapons imaginable ready to fend off a bear if it came to that.

About that time, the guy camping in the site next to me appears and says, “Have you seen that stray dog that’s walking around?”

:doh:

I’m sure I looked like quite the idiot ready to fight this poor, stray, pup… but it was dark and I couldn't get a good look at it.

I expressed my relief to the guy, he offered me some marshmallows and beer, but between being half embarrassed and needing some rest, I declined.

I wish I would’ve joined him in retrospect. The thing I enjoy reading and envy the most about other people’s trip reports is their interactions with the people the run across. I think this is what made Kaneman’s report so great, as well as a few others:

Sly: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=328587

Mr. Cob: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=354338

But oh well, hindsight is 20/20. Can’t do it all on the first trip, gotta save something for next time.

That wrapped up day 2. I fell asleep quick and didn’t wake up all night; it was much more restful than the windy night in New Mexico.

Day 3 takes me to the Grand Canyon, the most difficult and breathtaking chapter of the adventure.

Stay tuned…

trey
 
Looking forward to more. Sorry to see the Bandit on it's side. Hope nothing broke. I dunno, the looks of that road, I think my Vee may have a problem too.

Ha, well, that makes me feel better anyway. I think if I would've let some air out of my tires it would've helped, but I didn't think of it... My dirt riding experience was on 100cc or smaller bikes 5+ years ago...

Texason said:
This should be good! I can't wait to hear more about seven days on the road and paying $0 for lodging.

National Forests. If you can plan a trip around them, you can do a lot on a little. This was a big priority for me, I couldn't afford to spend $30+/night on lodging. They're all over the Western half of the US...

http://www.fs.fed.us/

jsb223 said:
Dude...

Did I see a coleman stove on a Bandit?

Ha, you bet it is. I didn't want to shell out the bucks for a smaller one, and I already had this one thanks to my cheapskate parents stalking the thrift stores in Pagosa :lol:

I figured I wasn't backpacking, so what's the harm of the extra size/weight... Looking back, it took up a LOT of room, which was more of an issue than I anticipated in my planning...

NUTT said:
I can speak from recent experience that you'll still be in awe in 3 months & you are going to start planning the next trip in your head right about...... NOW.

Yep, I've already been looking at Google Maps at work trying to see where I can go headed the opposite direction... :rider:

When I see a KLR laying on its side, I think, "Cool -- what a tough bike." But when I see a Bandit keeled over, it just makes my spleen hurt. :-P

Yeah... that wasn't exactly on my list of things to do before I left. We'll get to that in the next posting...

A buddy of mine crashed last year in the LNF when we were riding one of the roads going to Cloudcroft. I was having a great time on the XT but he was on his GS1200 and working like a dog. :mrgreen:

I'd bet lots of monies it was NF-67 that I show in my last post... it was a handful to say the least...

Thanks to everyone for the interest so far; makes it less of chore to come sit in front of the computer a little more after work and get this done. :thumb:

trey
 
Neat report, stay safe. I just finished a ride out to west TX, on 20 to 10. So I saw the other side of your view from I-10. Looking forward to my own run to NM soon.:rider:
 
great, awesome pics. You've inspired me to map out a national forest "free" campsite route for my next adventure. Dumb question, but did you map out your target campsites before or how did you end up where you did, so to speak?
 
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great, awesome pics. You've inspired me to map out a national forest "free" campsite route for my next adventure. Dumb question, but did you map out your target campsites before or how did you end up where you did, so to speak?

Well, I'd never done anything like this at all, so I was flying by the seat of my pants enough as it were. I planned out where I would try to make it each day, with a couple of fall-back spots if I didn't make it as far as expected.

I had a good idea of how far I could make it in a day, so I used that to make a good guideline for myself. Really, I can't complain either... none of the NF campgrounds were particularly out of my way, and the bad roads I subjected myself to were my own fault...

Only during my 3rd day did I modify my route so I could make my campground on time because I didn't have any other options for a place to stay (except a motel). I'll discuss that in Day 3 when I post it.

National Forests rock :bow:

trey
 
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