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Post your Day Rides Here!

Thanks Will!
Went to Marlin and back today via Cameron, Jones Prairie, Cross roads and Calvert, then up the east side of the Brazos, west on 712, and back home through Cedar Springs, Pleasant Grove....perfect day for riding..about 200 miles.
pic1-Walnut creek north of Calvert on 123, (sunshine road)...pretty little sand bottom creek!
pic2- Walnut Creek Mine Pond...perfectly clear.....kinda just wandered on the property for this picture
pic3-High Bank store
pic4-Brazos Falls Park on 713 outside Calvert....nice place for late lunch!
Hogs and their sign everywhere near the Brazos, soil is just beautiful 'round there!!
:sun:
 

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The mighty VStrom and I met our match in a freshly irrigated field near Calvert! Great riding opportunities out there. I remember Sunshine road. Cool little town. If I recall we headed North and West and found some great roads that ended up being deadends. Oh well, never know 'til ya try!
 
Between calls and appointments I circumvented Lake Buchanan today....but not quite like I had planned!!! Left Thorndale, through Detmold, Hoxie, Circleville to 29 and G-town, then just east of Liberty Hill I took Williamson CR260 to 258 by the Tejas camp to 256 and to 3405 to 207 to 200/Burnet276 to 272 through Joppa then BC200 west to hwy 963 to 108 to Burnet CR110. CR110 travels through 5 privae ranch gates and some BEAUTIFUL country! I loved it! Came out on 2341 south of Canyon of the Eagles, then traveled through their park to head north to Lampasas.....but NOOOOO. The Goodrich ranch gate is locked and no one is allowed through......so I went back down 2341 to the west side of the lake, north on 261 to the LCRA park at the end of the road.....of course, the water is another half mile away!!! So to anyone wanting to practice their deep sand riding (the exposed island) or their mud riding (near the water), why just BRING IT ON! Just watch out for the stumps!

Pic1-Built by Missouri Valley Bridge company, this one's on private property...boo!
Pic2-1st gate on Burnet CR110 (Fry Cemetery Road) These particular hills have red rocks like Bastrop or Eastern Milam County, but covered with lichens...awesome!
Pic3-Green Rock wall on 2341
Pic4-This is on the exposed island accessed from the west side of Buchanan, notice the rock formation in the distance? That beautiful formation is visible from 2341 on the EAST SIDE of the Lake.....that's how low the lake is....and Yes I got too close and dropped the front tire in the mud....it was no fun to get it back out again...:doh:
Pic5-It was creepy riding amongst all the stumps.....felt like a cemetery...at times I actually had to pick a lint through them!
More to come....made 350 miles today
:sun:
 

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Great report as usual. I've been on most of that except 108 because I thought it ended before 2341, but I knew that the Naruna road was a deadend. I'm still gonna ride it someday, I'll bet it's sweet! Haven't been on W side of Lake either-gotta go. I haven't been all the way to Colorado Bend SP as well, only part ways to a couple of fish camps, great road though. Keep up the "hard" work! ha!
 
From the Buchanan Island sand pit I continued north on 261 to 2241 then west on Llano CR217, some big fancy ranches here so the road is paved :thumbd: but some nice views, back to 2241, then north on CR216 and found a GEORGEOUS valley west of Lockhart mountain, near the New and Crabtree Ranches, and found a marker for the Little Llano School, then north on 16 and east on Babyhead Mtn/ San Saba 332....I think of this road as sort of a little Willow Loop, with gravel in the middle of it! The soil changes texture and color three times in this short stretch or road!! Anywho, onward to 501 through Chapel to Bend, 580 to Nix, then south to Naruna to Burnet CR104,106 into Lampasas....right before Lampasas I found the coolest old Limestone house with four chimneys and many additions on the back....fences and signs everywhere I couldn't get real close to it...then 183 to Florence, G-town, circleville Hare and home! :sun:
Pic1-This picture does NOT do the valley justice, after the rain it was green and fresh and pretty!
Pic2-The Marker for the Little Llano School
Pic3-Dark Brown/Reddish soil on SSCR232
Pic4-"Liatris punctata" the Dotted Gayfeather is the rain lilly of the Texas Hill Country....beautiful purple and showy right now! We have a similar version in my sandy woods that is white and yellow, not as showy.
Pic5-The neat Limestone house SW of Lampasas, take 580 W to 1494 SW, stay left and you can't miss it!
 

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Nice report Mark. You'll convert me to the dirt side yet with gems like these.
 
Nice report Mark. You'll convert me to the dirt side yet with gems like these.
Working on Greg's "conversion" I invited him to ride the DR 200 sometime, and he took me up on it today......nice ride to and fro Lexington, we saw wild hogs, damaged buzzards, does with multiple fawns, squirrels......oh and I took a corner too fast and did not respect the surface differences nor the throttle and busted my keister......hardest I've ever been down......bent my handlebars.....but you do know that Gravel Guy's bounce, right? :lol2: Anyhoo, we finished the ride and I'll let Greg post the perty pictures, I only have one from today....:sun:
 

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Handlebars will bend several times before they break. Glad you came through relatively OK. May need a little extra mead this evening. ;-)
 
The planets aligned and we were able to get out for a low orbit south of Mark's house. My first dual sport ride in decades and it was a blast. I learned lots of interesting stuff along the way much like what gets posted in Mark's ride reports. He's a tough guy that shook off a short sharp low side and insisted we continue on with the ride. Thanks again Mark for loaning me the bike and for the great ride today.

The all important pre-ride briefing.
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A quick bike nap and we're on our way again.
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Ankoles.
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Bonus Pick: 747/Shuttle Endeavour approaching from the east
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My FB video of the shuttle flying overhead this morning: Link
 
Thanks Bruce, and Greg for coming out to ride...you did good! I think a DS is in your future! :sun:
 
Gravel Guy pic1-MP Caboose, guess where?
Between austonio and midway=rattlesnake ranch
 
Working on Greg's "conversion" I invited him to ride the DR 200 sometime, and he took me up on it today......nice ride to and fro Lexington, we saw wild hogs, damaged buzzards, does with multiple fawns, squirrels......oh and I took a corner too fast and did not respect the surface differences nor the throttle and busted my keister......hardest I've ever been down......bent my handlebars.....but you do know that Gravel Guy's bounce, right? :lol2: Anyhoo, we finished the ride and I'll let Greg post the perty pictures, I only have one from today....:sun:
Mark, you're supposed to be setting the example! ha!
 
Grapeland....wasnt sure if there was a caboose at rattlesnake ranch
 
The caboose is between the depot/museum and the blacksmith building.
Museum for sure but I thought the other was a plumbing/hardware supply? Were you guessing? I think you should consider changing your avatar to Johnny Cash...:lol2:
 
It is a replica of a blacksmith shop and part of the museum. Inside is a functional forge and some old tools. It is/was open weekends only.
 
255 miles from Thorndale to the Attwater Prairie Chicken Wildlife Refuge and back...not much to see there but gates and FLAT country....nice sandy roads 'round there though!
Pic1- Concrete house on Prihoda road in Fayette Cty. I bet some guy poured his heart into it, and some lady said no......maybe not? I'd roof it, it looked sound!
Pic2-Church Creek north of the Attwater
Pic3-Sign outside the Preserve, didn't see any Prairie Chickens....they got'em hid good.
pic4-Czech history sign near Nelsonville
Pic5- an Angus swim meet on Lee CR 131....one of my new faves!

:sun:
 

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Gravel Guy gave me a huge assist this week and helped me finish my Rally Raid for Roll the Bones 3. We enjoyed desolate roads inhabited only by occasional livestock and wildlife. The heavy rains of a week ago were but a distant memory as road crews take advantage of the moist conditions and promptly begin grading, churning the dust back to the top!
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq6WGXf1Qq0"]Gravel Guy races Maintainer! - YouTube[/ame]
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[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye6AwDGxBLw"]Gravel Guy on the gas! - YouTube[/ame]
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Saturday 10/6/12 I had the plan of riding up to the Fly-In at the Cypress River Airport near Jefferson, then continuing on to the bike show at the NTNOA rallye at Lake o' Pines. Well, you know what they say about plans.......

On the way I scouted out one of the suggested off-pavement roads during the Uncertain?Rendezvous sidecar gathering:
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Soon after arriving at the airport the temp began to drop as misty rain increased. The Fly-In was a rain out except for this restored DC-2/C-47 with quite a history -- seeing it fly over and land was worth the ride.
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The history of this plane: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQQB0RmtJPY"]Aero-TV: A Detailed History - Scott Glover's Restored C-47 - YouTube[/ame]

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Due to the continuing misty rain I changed my plans and headed home, detouring to scout some more off-pavement routes and crossing the bridge over Carter's Lake -- after I exercised poor judgment resulting in a front tire washout, tweaking my handledbars :doh:

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Lee, hope you are ok?! :sun:
Missed you in Lindale; we had a blast!!

And Mudclod; thanks for the perty pictures!! We had a great day riding! :clap:
 
Lee, hope you are ok?! :sun:
Missed you in Lindale; we had a blast!!

And Mudclod; thanks for the perty pictures!! We had a great day riding! :clap:

Mark, the weather didn't cooperate for the full planned ride, so on an ad-lib detour I led the bike into an encounter with some slick oilfield pipe in the rain. My left hand is "swole-up pretty good" and have a sore foot and helmet is scratched up ugly; could've been worse - the riding gear prevented worse injury. You really shouldn't ride out in the middle of nowhere by yourself.

+1 to Mudclud for the pics -- does look like a great day riding.
 
You guys need to quit crashing and hugging trees.

Anyway. ;-)

Snuck out late last week for some ADV Rally fun in the Hood River area. After dropping the fam off at PDX during evening rush hour on Friday (and seeing lots of KLRs and DRZs and a 990 heading the other direction) I beat feet for Parkdale, arriving just in time to meet a very worried Mrs. Hostess (MustangShelly) heading for the hospital and get a text from a buddy (CrashGordon) telling me they'd just loaded Mr. Host (Applejam) into an ambulance. Turns out Applejam had smacked a Dodge full of hunters on his 950 and did himself pretty good, opening up his leg from thigh to calf. It looked bad. I tossed up my tent in a likely spot and then milled around with a rather stunned crowd until we got the fires going and the beers going, at which point things started to relax.

I was struck by the hospitality given the circumstances, and amazingly it kept getting better.

I may have had one or two beers too many but compared to some others I felt good Saturday morning.

The mid-20 night time low did make the obligatory pee-run a little hurried.

After rubbing the Hangover out of our eyes we all sat and gazed northward for awhile. The view from their front yard doesn't suck.
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Given the previous night and the excellent breakfast things were pretty slow moving Saturday morning. I was lucky to stumble in with Neil (Squishy) and another ADVer named Kenyon and we headed for the ridgeline to the East.

*Really* nice track up to the vantage point. Rocky and nasty first gear stuff in a few spots.
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Staggering view of the valley from the top. Apple and pear orchards clogging the valley to the north.
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Squishy on his way up, and dang if he didn't ride a monster wheelie the rest of the way, just after my shutter closed. We're idiots for not doing it again, would have been a great shot.
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We had a hard time tearing ourselves away.
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This must be some kind of Maori salute to the mountain gods or something, because you'll see him doing it in a few other pictures I'm sure. (Squishy is a bit New Zealander.)
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Had a good time coming back down. Did this shot over my shoulder in the sun and couldn't even see Neil in the screen. At least it provides some scale... things are pretty big in north west Oregon.
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After that we headed vaguely north on really fun powerline roads. Finally got what could have been a good shot of Kenyon if I'd have pulled the trigger about .5 second faster. A pretty good little rubble climb.
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See! The Maori Salute again! Really cool country heading north towards The Dalles. Super dry though... lots of very sorry looking oak? trees further up the valley.
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Awesome views of Mt. Adams shrouded in forest fire smoke on the way north. Stupid me, taking a picture with a fence in it because I was having too much fun riding and didn't get off the bike for 30 seconds.
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Hungry and thirsty! Time to get! Dropping back down towards The Dalles and the Columbia River.
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After a nice lunch at Clocktower Ales in The Dalles (well... after Squishy lit a little fire under our waitresses' butt) we headed over a really fun piece of tarmac (Chenoweth Creek I think) towards Mosier. Only one bit of *not* fun as some lady decided to pass a tractor on double yellow coming towards us. I made sure she knew she was Number 1 and we all got off on the shoulder to let her by :angryfire From Mosier we tried route finding straight west to Hood River (old Hwy 30 is closed) until running into this sign. I was amused, but the gent we talked to in Mosier said it used to be a great ride.
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Back to Mosier again, we took Husky Rd to Elder and back over to Hwy 35. Really nice road again. Here's a final glamor shot of the Three Stooges in a clear cut on the way out.
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We cruised back to the AJ/Shelly pad and were very glad to see AJ "walking" and talking. I drank some more suds and stuffed myself with phenomenal food, including some excellent rabbit crock-pot action. Things got pretty festive and I could hear the party in my earplugs until at least 1:30 AM ;-) There was one Golden Retriever moment when one of the goof balls smacked my drink, sitting comfortably in it's drink holder in my chair, launched it, and dropped it upside down in my lap. Thankfully I had an extra pair of long johns and my dirty riding pants or it could have been a chilly night :)

Woke to another brisk morning (love my new Mountain Hardware Switch 20 bag, BTW) on Sunday. Yes it's another hack "drawing in the frost on the motorcycle seat" shot
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Had an excellent breakfast (again), washed some dishes and said my goodbyes. Really excellent group of folks these motorbike people. I'd loaded the bike in a buddy's trailer the night before so it was full Nurburgring Mode in the Passat on the way down a deserted Hwy 35 and out of the mountains the next morning, really fun. Shaved 30 minutes off the GPS estimated arrival time... :)
 
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