2012 Uncle's Around the Bend - Blood, Sweat, and Beer

[Trail Boss]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

(Izz's photo)

Izz's photo? No way - he is standing in the background sending a text message on his smart phone.

Okay, who really took this incriminating picture?

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by Trail Boss

Izz's photo? No way - he is standing in the background sending a text message on his smart phone.

Okay, who really took this incriminating picture?

And speaking of which, what is Milton rolling, er, I mean doing, in that photo also?

[tricepilot]

Originally Posted by Trail Boss

Izz's photo? No way - he is standing in the background sending a text message on his smart phone.

Ah, he bought the rights to the photo. He's a wise investor, you know

[Trail Boss]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

what is Milton rolling...in that photo also?

Yeah, what is Milton rolling? Milton, did you start rolling your own cigs with Bugler tobacco?

[Tourmeister]

Saturday morning... 6:00am... I'm awake... What the !@#$%! is wrong with my internal clock!? Might as well get up and go get breakfast again... Last night Chuck decided he'd like to ride with me and Roger, and Richard said something about maybe riding with us. I catch up with both and we make a plan to just have everyone meet at our motel 9:00am... ish... That gives me time to get back to the motel for a HOT shower to get the muscles loosened up a bit. I move pretty slow in the mornings, especially if I don't get a hot shower.

Walt, Robert, Andy and Carla getting ready to head out


Chuck and Roger


The plan for today is to ride the National Park. Chuck and Roger have never been there. Despite having been there numerous times, I have somehow managed to never ride Old Marathon Rd, Dagger Flats Rd., or Old Ore Rd., so it is decided that we will run those in the morning and then hit the River Rd., and Black Gap Rd., in the afternoon as we work our way back to Terlingua. Apparently a front came through last night because it is COLD this morning...

Richard arrives, we get gas in Study Butte, and then head North for the run up to the start of the Terlingua Lodge Rd., which leads to Old Marathon. At first it is not too bad. I asked Richard to keep the speed around 55mph because the real low gearing (13/52) on my KTM makes running much faster a real buzzfest. Then the hands start getting cold... the toes... the nose... It occurs to me that I probably should have put on a sweat shirt under my internal rain liner, just to create some kind of air barrier between my skin and the liner... By the time we reach the turn off for the lodge road, I am pretty chilled, but the sun is getting higher and the speed drops, so I soon warm up a bit. Then we reach the start of Old Marathon Rd.

Richard tries to get me to take the lead, something about not wanting to slow up the guys on the "real dirtbikes"... Well, never having been here before and having no clue where I am going, I assure him that he is doing a fine job of leading and I have no worries that his pace will be just fine. So he takes off in a cloud of dust, Chuck giving chase, me following their dust clouds and Roger bringing up the rear. Don't ever let Richard tell you that riding his Italian mistress makes him go slower...

There are a few places where we come to intersections and Richard does a good job of waiting to make sure none of us get lost. Other than that, I rarely see him. Even though the wind is blowing, it seems like the dust clouds from him and Chuck linger a long time, forcing me to drop back pretty far before I can actually see where I am going. If you have never been down this road, let me explain. Much of it is really straight with loose sand and river gravel. I love that kind of stuff... so long as I can see. It might be tempting to think the road will just keep going straight. However, as soon as that assumption is made, it makes a couple of tight turns or climbs over some hills. I know this because I usually see a bigger than normal dust cloud coming from Chuck as he wrestles his heavily laden and squirming XR650R through the corners. The pace is pretty high. I spend most of my time in 6th gear. I have forgotten about being cold. I also forget about taking pictures... Soon we pass into the National Park and a short while later we reach Hwy 385, the main highway leading into the park from Marathon.

Chuck pondering the joys of kick starting a cranky XR650R


After a quick "pit stop" at 385, we head South on the highway a few miles to find the start of Dagger Flats Road. We stop to regroup at the beginning of the road, then Richard takes off again. The terrain is kind of rolling now and the road is narrow with loose gravel tracks. We quickly reach and pass the start of Old Ore Road. Richard said something about there being a "Cactus forest" at the end of Dagger Flats, which sounded interesting. There are a few tight corners here and there, but for the most part the road just wanders up and down, back and forth until we eventually reach a turn around at the end. Sure enough, there are a ton of cacti... or whatever they might be called...

Chuck starts kicking long before we get ready to leave...


These things... all over the place. Kinda cool.






A nice soft landing place if you blow a corner...


Chuck gets the XR fired and we start back toward Old Ore Road at a nice pace. I find Richard and Chuck waiting, then we head South at a quicker pace...

Chuck raising some dust in the distance


Now we all know, when the riding gets really good, you either get a LOT of pictures because the group stops to watch each person navigate some bit of nastiness or the group never stops because they are just having so much fun riding they forget about taking pictures. This ride is more of the latter, but I still make myself stop, turn around, and go back for at least a few pictures just in an attempt to catch some of the flavor of this road.

LOTS of opportunities for pinch flats on the front tires because of rock ledges sticking out of the ground, a mild one shown here




For the most part, the pace is pretty quick and the road not too bad. There are some bad sections, but they are usually pretty short with longer easy sections between them. Richard stops at a nice place that gives a great view of the Chisos mountains.

Chuck's XR, looking South


Looking North - It looks flat, but there are LOTS of wash outs that cannot be seen in the distance, making for a fun ride


The Chisos Mountains - The road follows that plateau on the left and soon drops back down to lower ground


Somewhere in here we pass a group of riders heading the other direction. I don't recognize any of them though.

Heading down into another low lying wash area - note the cool stratification of the rock face in the distance. There is a lot of that in this area.


Roger rounding the curve and dropping down off the ridge into the wash area


And then another short climb back onto another ridge




More stratification - note the road dropping from center to right on the ridge across the wash. We just came from there.


Now, I am starting to get this odd feeling that whenever I go on rides with Roger, I become gravitationally challenged. I could be a coincidence... but it sure seems like I fall down on every trip I take with him, or get hit by an ATV, or... Anyway, he is good about picking up the pieces. So why am I telling you this...? Well... because I am just minding my business, not riding particularly fast, or even engrossed in a tough section of riding, when out of nowhere I find myself in quite the motorsickle pickle!!

Recall that I have mentioned there being innumerable washes out here. Well I am dropping down into yet another and climbing out the far side. As I crest the far side, the ground levels out and the road appears to just continue straight into the distance, perhaps a quarter mile, where I see Richard and Chuck waiting. My vision returns to the ground closer to me and this is when I see it... The road has been completely washed out, and I am not talking about another dip. I am talking about the road is GONE and now detours to the left around a tree that used to be on the side of the road. There is no way I can continue straight and I have already started accelerating!!!

Nothing to do but brake like a mad man and get ready for a hard zig zag around the tree. There is a LOT of mental processing going on here in the space of a few brief moments in time. I am alternating between locked front tire and easing off the lever, scanning for the route around the trees, feeling for the traction, mentally preparing to shift my weight and push hard for the swerve, and trying to see around the tree so I can complete the maneuver. I leave a pretty long skid mark in the gravel, swerve HARD left and then HARD right... and there is a HUGE bush right in the way!!

I try HARD to lean my body and the bike to the right, away from the bush, while also getting set for a HARD push back to the left to keep me on the road. I'm hoping that the hand guard and bar will just shove the branches out of the way and let me wobble on down the road back to some semblance of stability...

No. Such. Luck.

Almost faster than my brain can process, the bush grabs the bars and I am slapped on the ground... OUCH! I feel a sharp pain in my left foot. I've felt this before... recently... in the same !#$% foot!! The bike slides a few feet beyond me and comes to rest on its left side. I just roll back over onto my back and stretch out the legs. Nothing much to do now except wait for the adrenalin to come down so I can find out if I am really hurt or not. Within a few moments the pain is already fading. I look up to see Roger standing over me... a sight all too familiar... "Are you okay!?" "I'll know in a few minutes, just pick the bike up please."

After another minute or so of kicking back I ask Roger to help me stand. Weight on the foot produces no pain. Moving the foot produces no serious pain. Looks like another sprained ankle I *just* got the same ankle back to about 95% from a nasty sprain/smashing out at the BBRSP after Christmas. Great I walk around a bit to make sure it is good. Richard comes zooming back down the trail to see what is keeping us. I show him my tree trimming results and Roger gets a shot of the half dollar diameter sized branch I snapped off with the bars.

The dreaded washout


It is about a 3 foot drop


The red line is the crest of the wash. Before washing out, the road made a perfectly straight line coming right out of the screen at you. Now the wash out comes within about a foot or so of the base of the tree and the lower branch is not much higher than the bars on the bike. Richard is sitting almost in my tire tracks, but the bush no longer sticks out that far... The removed branch sits on the ground to the right of his front tire.

Once again, good gear pays off. Other than the ankle, I don't recall feeling any other impacts or pains. I do have quite a few cactus needles sticking out of the lower left pants leg. I remount the bike. It fires right up. No damage or even apparent scuff marks. However, there is a LOT of bits and pieces of green stuff in all the cracks and crevices around the handle bar, fender, head light fairing, etc,... I'll be picking that out for days. Satisfied I am in riding condition, we take off riding again. I stand and test the foot and it does not hurt. I think I just over extended it up/down when it hit the ground and the bike came down.

I soon get back into a nice groove and chase Richard to the end of Old Ore Road where it drops out onto Rio Grande Village Dr., the road that runs to the East end of the park.

Chuck at the end of Old Ore, a great ride despite the attack bushes...


We cruise on down to the Rio Grande Village where we gas up and have "lunch". BigA, Dirtbomb and a few other riders are there. They came across the South side of the park on River Road and are about to head up Old Ore the way we came. We mention the guys on the Strom and 1200 GS and ask them to watch for them and make sure they are okay.

A local resident watches me top off the tank... at $4.30 something a gallon!! Location, location, location...


We take a nice break, eat some snacks, and just relax for a bit. I get out the tools and adjust the left side hand guard. It rotated up a little and I loosen it so I can move it back down where it belongs. The other guys take off. Richard is slabbing back to Terlingua because he has to get things setup for the banquet this evening. So Chuck, Roger and I decide to run the River Road to Glen Springs, Black Gap, and then continue River Road over to Santa Elana Canyon. We'll finish up with Old Maverick and head to Terlingua. Now I get to lead and set the pace...

The last time I was out here on River Road, I lost a foot peg on the KLR somewhere along the way between Glen Springs Road and the pavement at Rio Grande Village Road. That was a hoot of a ride!! After getting home, someone posted in the ride report thread that they had found a KLR foot peg on River Road and wanted to know if it belonged to anyone on TWT. Before I could respond multiple people posted pics of my bike missing a foot peg The rider graciously mailed it back to me at his cost and would not let me pay him for it. Nice guy!

So anyway... back to this ride. River Road is not as silty and sandy as it was last time. Last time there was a lot of road construction equipment and the sand had all been freshly graded into deep piles. This time it is nicely packed. It starts out mostly flat...

Like this


Reminds me of that "Sand Art" where they put different color sands inside a glass to create mountain scenery.


We reach the turn for Glen Springs Road pretty quick and turn North. This is a fast easy road. Basically, pick a rut, left or right, and just run. Nothing real challenging here at all, but it is nice scenery. Shortly before reaching Black Gap Road, we stop at a neat over look spot.



The road continues in a somewhat Northwesterly direction along the top of this drop off


Looking kind of Southwesterly


That's some good looking scenery


If you are coming from the South, you have to watch for the turn off onto Black Gap Road. It is right at the top of a short steep hill climb and is a hard cutback to the left. It starts out with a short drop back down into a low lying creek area, runs across some flats for a bit, then gets to the fun stuff.

Just after the turn off from Glen Springs


The start of the fun stuff - I am on the road, which runs right and then starts dropping down through the center of the shot along that ridge in the midground


Steeper than it looks Seriously, what you can't see is that the road drops to the right pretty steep and out of the picture before coming back into the picture much lower down




This is after the first rocky steep section


The rocks behind Chuck kind of give an idea of the steepness of the slope, but the road cuts across the slope


We reach the bottom and take off along the road. It is rough and rocky with lots of small washes. It soon comes to a place familiar to anyone that has ridden through here. There is a little section of the road that cuts through a short NARROW (the width of the road) canyon of sorts. Heading South, there is about a 2-1/2 to 3 foot ledge where people have piled up rocks to make it easier to climb. After the ledge, concrete has even been poured and there are rocks embedded in it. At the top of the ledge the road immediately curves right and then pops out into some fun sand.

Now... I really can't explain it, but I have NEVER made it through this short section "cleanly". What I mean by that is that I get through it, but it is never pretty or graceful, and I have done it going both ways on the KLR. So I am thinking with the KTM things should be different... right? So I pick a line, give the bike a little gas, launch up the ledge with no problem, and immediate smack a rock that bounces me off line and kills my momentum! I stop, just a few feet from the left wall. I don't drop it, but I am not moving. I look back just in time to see Chuck coming up the ledge on a line that will take him between me and the wall He's on the gas and committed. I lean right to give him as much room as possible and wait for him to fall on me... Astoundingly, he almost rides the wall itself and motors around me!! Impressive!! Roger watches all this and is probably wondering what in the world is going on I ease the clutch out and get going again, pulling up out of the way so Roger can get through. Well... it wasn't pretty again, but it was clean enough...

Once beyond this little section, the rest of the road opens up and the pace quickens. One still has to be cautious though because there are many small washes that are only a foot or so across and maybe 8-10 inches deep, but sometimes they can be in bad spots. A nice thing about the 530 is that it easily lofts the front end over those spots and rides through on the back tire, something I could never manage on the KLR. There are also lots of places where one track is higher than the other and I have to commit to one or the other to avoid the off camber slope between them. It wouldn't take much of a lack of focus to find the front end of the bike getting all crossed up and leading to an impromptu gravel/cacti inspection... Somewhere just before reaching the River Road I come upon a coyote or maybe a large fox in the road. It its head buried in a shrub on the side of the road and we don't see each other until I am almost on top of him! He springs off into the undergrowth and narrowly avoids being added to my LONG list of critters killed by the various bikes I've ridden. Someone once teased me about getting little black silhouette "kill" stickers to put on my bikes, deer, rabbits, frogs, buzzards, owls, turtles, dogs, cats, snakes... It's been a gruesome riding career

We regroup where Black Gap meets River Road and then it is game on. It is getting on in the afternoon and we still have a ways to go before we get back to Terlingua. Our plan was to get back to the motel by 4:00pm to meet Doug and David to load all the bikes. Not happening... What is happening is that I am feeling really relaxed and smooth on the bike. I get into that zone where I really stop thinking consciously and just start riding, one with the bike and the terrain. It is hard to describe... it is just FLOW... I move through the terrain, the terrain moves through me, the bike the bridge between man and nature. At this point, picture taking is long forgotten. Specific spots are not lodged into memory. Rocks, river gravel, silt beds, climbs, descents, scrub trees that hug the road, two KLRs floundering through the deep sand/silt with piles of luggage... Wait... WHAT!?

That last bit snaps me out of the groove and back to the world of the thinking. These two guys are getting it done, but they are working. Man... that brings back some memories!! I hang back a bit until I am pretty sure they see me. They move to the right, do a few head checks in the mirror, and then I cruise by them and try not to kick up to much dust in their faces until I get a good ways beyond them. Then it is back to cruise mode... until I top a hill and see an official looking SUV parked to one side... Border Patrol. We give each other a friendly nod, I make the turn at the intersection where he is sitting and then it is a short run from there to the pavement where we stop for a break.

The two KLR riders, Galen and Rueben. Not part of the weekend event, just out having fun on their own.


The KLR riders head on down the road ahead of us toward Santa Elana Canyon. It is already 4:00pm. So we elect not to park and walk down to the river at the Canyon. Instead we run the sweet paved road to the overlook near Old Maverick road and take a few pics.

Not the best time of day lighting wise...


Mexico on the left, Republic of Texas on the right




Roger and Chuck, fun guys to ride with


While we are at the overlook, the two KLR guys show up and I spend a few minutes talking with them while Chuck works on getting the XR started. They are from Big Spring and know nothing about Uncle's ride or Two Wheeled Texans!? With that small deficiency of important knowledge corrected, I hear Chuck's XR fire to life and bid them farewell. Time to haul up Old Maverick Road and get serious about getting back to Terlingua in time for dinner. As I am cruising down Old Maverick in sixth gear, it occurs to me that 14/52, 13/50 or even 13/48 gearing might be better suited for the riding we've been doing. The 13/52 us fantastic in the BBRSP though.

We soon reach the main park road had turn West. We stop at the park entrance sign for the obligatory pictures,







That out of the way, we head for town, taking a slight detour around the East side of town on a fun little dirt road that comes out by the airstrip on Hwy 170. Chuck peels off for the El Dorado. Roger and I head for the motel. We get the bikes loaded up pretty quickly. Then it is time for showers and beer. Doug and David show up after a short while and we get their bikes loaded as well. We drop the trailer and drive over to the banquet for a great evening of food and entertainment.

The view from the front porch of the hotel late in the evening




The place for the banquet is great. The evening is beautiful, even if a bit chilly once the sun sets. The food is superb, especially the Pecan cobbler The after dinner entertainment is... HOT

The banquet area


No... it is NOT a TRON nerd convention...


Carla and Richard doing the door prize thing


The power behind the whole weekend... Connie, who graciously supports Richard's, and all of ours, motorcycling addiction


After the entertainment, folks start drifting away to their various hotels and campgrounds. Most bikes are already loaded in the backs of trucks or on trailers. No doubt there will be a lot of folks heading out early in the morning, us included. We hope to leave by 6:30am for the 12 hour run home. We hit the sack pretty early.

Morning comes and we pull out right on time. As we are pulling out, we see a few riders on KLRs and even a Sherpa heading out. It is 35 F and still dark... I can already feel their numbness for them and they haven't even really hit the road yet... I HATE being cold. The thought of that ride makes me shiver. We stop for drinks and snacks at the gas station at 170/118 and see the guy on the Sherpa. He at least has a heated vest. The heated gloves are apparently not working. Riding across West Texas on a Sherpa in cold weather like this... He gets points on his man card I slide back into the truck and turn up the heat

We drop off Doug and David in Brenham, say our goodbyes, and set course for Huntsville, rolling in right around 6:30pm. Another great weekend of riding in the books After Roger gets loaded and on the road for Tomball, I head inside to look for some Ibuprofen. The ankle is a little stiff from sitting all day. I think it might be time to start shopping for some new boots. The SIDIs are pushing seven years old.

It's good to be home.

[cdc]

It seem these 'Dirt Riders' spent half their time repairing tires, injectors, working or picking up their bikes!
I better keep my mouth shut next time I'm close to Dirt, or risk breathing the 'Dirt Bug'...
GREAT Reports.


From mobile

[miltonotto]

Originally Posted by Trail Boss

Izz's photo? No way - he is standing in the background sending a text message on his smart phone.

Okay, who really took this incriminating picture?

Originally Posted by izz

photos by Edwin

[Robert K]

Originally Posted by cdc

It seem these 'Dirt Riders' spent half their time repairing tires, injectors, working or picking up their bikes!
I better keep my mouth shut next time I'm close to Dirt, or risk breathing the 'Dirt Bug'...
GREAT Reports.


From mobile

You better be careful. I think I saw proof that you are now one of the "dirty bikers". Next thing you know you are going to drink the Orange Koolaid or something like that.

[_RG_]

Oh yes...THAT tree.



Great pictures.

[miltonotto]

After my flat and rescue by The Three Musketeers, JT, Izzy, and Edwin, we made haste to Presidio where several more riders were waiting.
I had no idea, I thot this was a JT & Izz Run, but no matter.
We were soon in Mexico, flying down dusty roads.

Coming around a right hand sweeper, Firestarter Mark dang-near missed the sharp zag
and neatly landed himself at the very edge of a 15 foot plunge into the river.
It could have been worse, getting implanted into the bridge itself.
X marks the spot where he came to rest.
He was going so fast he set the brush on fire.


Mark pretty much shakes it off, but there is a little tweaking to do with the bars.
JT jumps in on another rescue.

Originally Posted by izz

Another view of the bridge
Photo by Edwin, posted by Izz

We come up to a locked gate. Some discussion insues.
It took a few minutes to remember This Is Mexico.
Edwin does the honors.


Peguis Canyon, Mexico


Friday’s group. Me, JT, Izz (with pet rocks), Chad, Edwin (kneeling) Mark & Wes.

[greeneggs&ham]

Day 4 Saturday – Epic Ride

The last day dawns with a cold front coming thru overnight. A beautiful morning. The plan today is to load the bikes and take a second ride at the State Park, this time heading south to the Aso loop. RG seems to know the way, so 3 trucks loaded, we head out. We start off with RG leading, Steve and Mark up front, then Chad, TexasNH, Eric and me. Wes is just riding somewhere in the pack. At some point, Wes and Chad trade bikes, then later, Steve and Wes trade bikes. Soon, I can’t keep track of who is on whose bike! It was the Great Bike Swap, but that seems to be the way the day was flowing. After a few miles of riding, we jump off on a trail that starts real close to the park office. We head south about 3 miles and come to a stop. Since I was carrying a GPS, RG decided it may be better for me to lead. That’s fine, not that I know where we are or where we are going, but I do have a GPS. RG told me that we’re looking for The Hill and you’ll know when you see it because the sign will say “Epic Trail.” I’m good with that – I can read signs! So off we go. Wes and I split time in front and I don’t think I stopped again ‘til I saw the sign. To the left was a hill and several riders helping other riders get up. This must be it. So RG went first; he wanted to get pictures! We gave him a couple of minutes, then Mark took off, then Wes and so on. There was a small prehill with a staging area on it. Everyone got up that one except TexasNH. He gave it a great effort, but that small motor, coupled with the large loose rocks just could not be overcome. So I motored around him, and went up to the staging area. I walked back down and he was extracting everything that little 200 had. I asked him if he wanted a push, but at that moment I could tell he had spent too much energy trying. So I took over and I could not get it any further up than he did. Down the hill I went, it just didn’t have the oomph to start in the middle of the hill. From the bottom and with some momentum, I was successful, not easy but it was up the first small hill. Well, that next one was much taller, but the riders that were there said the big hill had more traction and was easier. I told TexasNH that I would take my bike up and then come back down if he thought he could not make it. His only comment was “you need to come back down!” Off I went to the big hill. When I got to the top, I started back down and Wes, being part of the way down anyway, yells up at me, “you want me to go get TexasNH?” “Yeah,” Next thing I knew, here comes TexasNH, again whipping that little 200 for all it’s worth. Here’s a picture from the top. He made it!



I have to say, for someone with so little time on a dirt bike, he sure gave a great showing. He didn’t give up all day.

We’re at the top, and remember I have the GPS, so we head off to the southwest. About 3 miles down the trail, we top a hill and here’s a tent and a Toyota FJ. It seems we are nowhere near where I thought we were, so back down the trail we went and we have to go back down that hill we just climbed!

Other than one rider getting off the trail on the side of that hill and trying to get his bike out, it was pretty uneventful ‘til we reached another hill. At the bottom were 2 KLR riders that told us this is the real King Kong hill, and at the top there were several more riders waiting. Well, it took about 15 minutes to get everyone up this one. There is video earlier in this thread from RG.

As we continued on, and if you have read all the posts, you know that toward the end of this ride we offered TexasNH an easy way out to the park road or 4 more miles of this rough 4WD trail. He chose the rough 4WD trail! Once again, it was his attitude that impressed every one of us. That’s why the only picture I have of this ride is of TexasNH. (Besides the fact that I just didn’t take any other pictures!)

The day was great. As RG said, there was something special about this day. It was a little slower, a little cooler, just as scenic as each of the other 3 days.

Thanks for a great ride, guys!

Again, Thank You Uncle, Richard, Connie and everyone who helped put this on. Also, I noticed that Robert K and Carla had donated a lot of the gear that was given away at the Saturday Night Banquet. Thank you for you support!

Sam

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention – as the others were loading their bikes to return to Terlingua, Wes and I decided to ride instead of trailering. About a mile past Lajitas while following Wes, I saw a large puff of white smoke from his bike and smelled coolant. He slowly pulled over to the side. When I reached him, he said, “I heard a loud clunk and the rear wheel locked up.” Short examination later revealed that the engine was locked up. Wes’ attitude was – it was the last ride on the last day and he was going home – if it was going to happen, that’s the best time! But River Road doesn’t like Wes – one tire, one motor – 0 for 2.

[miltonotto]

Friday's route out of Ojinaga

[Gravel Guy]

[BajaRat]

I can't remember the name of the place, but there is a great pizza joint just West of town on Hwy 170. doesn't look like much from the outside but they have great pizza!!


Long Draw Pizza....Nancy is the owner.

[miltonotto]

Originally Posted by tricepilot

(Edwin's photo)

Wait, isn't that JT fixing the flat?

Well, JT had the tools....

[Trail Boss]

Day 1 continued



After a fun hour or so of riding we reached the turn-off for Black Gap Road. While it is only 8.5 miles long, Black Gap Road is arguably the most difficult motorcycling road in the park. The park service does not maintain Black Gap, a fact which becomes quickly obvious as you transition of River Road to Black Gap. The road is narrower, the ruts are deeper, the wash-outs more numerous, and the vegetation is encroaching onto the road. Sweet.













Remember that our morning group was too large so we divided into 2 smaller groups? Well, we had been playing leap-frog with the other group. They were in the lead when we arrived at the turn off for Black Gap, so they led the way up the road. Later on, near the north end of Black Gap Road, we caught up to them stopped on the side of the road. One of their members had run his V-Strom off the side of the road and done a little damage to the bike. A makeshift repair was underway when we arrived so after taking a pic or two my group continued on.








A short time later we reached the end of the dirt. From there it was pavement back to Terlingua and the fajita dinner at the High Sierra. Connie and Carla Cay were checking riders in as they arrived and there was lots of visiting (and eating) going on. Overall, it had been a superb day.







I'm headed to Mexico on Day 2 so I meant to make early night of it but Connie, Stuntman Jeff, and Uncle wanted to party in the palapa. Finally, about 11 pm I stumbled off to bed. 6 am comes way too early.

[SilverBullet]

Originally Posted by miltonotto

We come up to a locked gate. Some discussion insues.
It took a few minutes to remember This Is Mexico.
Edwin does the honors.

Really guys? How is breaking into someone's property justified? Don't mean to rain on the parade of good ride reports in this thread but this is the kind of thing that gets off road riding areas restricted even further. A locked gate means private property and should be respected correct? Or is there different protocol for locked gates in Mexico (not being sarcastic, I really don't know)?

_

[Trail Boss]

Originally Posted by SilverBullet

Or is there different protocol for locked gates in Mexico (not being sarcastic, I really don't know)?

_

There is a different protocol. Usually with a gate with a lock on it right next to it will be a gap in the fence that everyone (i.e. the locals) use to bypass the gate. I don't fully understand it but that's the way it is.

[oilfieldtrash]

Originally Posted by SilverBullet

Really guys? How is breaking into someone's property justified? Don't mean to rain on the parade of good ride reports in this thread but this is the kind of thing that gets off road riding areas restricted even further. A locked gate means private property and should be respected correct? Or is there different protocol for locked gates in Mexico (not being sarcastic, I really don't know)?

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Wow, way to come on with the strong language and then state that "you really don't know".

You should have seen how furious the gentleman was we met after we went through the gate. He was so mad he spent about 15 minutes chatting it up with Edwin and proceeded to tell us to literally ride through his backyard, down a cow trail, and then up a wash to get where we wanted to go.

May I suggest you edit your original post to read: How does one deal with the situation of a locked gate in Mexico?

You see, this is much nicer, less accusatory, and will help everyone out with a bit of knowledge for the future.

[SilverBullet]

Originally Posted by oilfieldtrash

Wow, way to come on with the strong language and then state that "you really don't know".

You should have seen how furious the gentleman was we met after we went through the gate. He was so mad he spent about 15 minutes chatting it up with Edwin and proceeded to tell us to literally ride through his backyard, down a cow trail, and then up a wash to get where we wanted to go.

May I suggest you edit your original post to read: How does one deal with the situation of a locked gate in Mexico?

You see, this is much nicer, less accusatory, and will help everyone out with a bit of knowledge for the future.

No editing to original post needed.

I was not accusing anything just stating what the picture showed, somebody breaking and entering into a property. Richard explained the locked gate part which I specifically questioned because of not knowing the protocol for. Now I understand that and that an opening near a locked gate gives implied access permission. But unraveling and taking down a barbed wire fence to gain access? No matter what the gentleman you met this time thought about it, I would not count on it going so smooth everytime.

And for spreading knowledge, this was exactly the reason I posted. I wouldn't want someone seeing this post to think that is a perfectly acceptable action to take in Mexico.

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