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I’m a 62 year old who did a fair amount of offroad riding 15-25 years ago, but has been more recently riding street bikes exclusively (currently GL1800). I’ve been thinking about getting back into offroad riding (while I could still handle it!), and decided to purchase a new WR250R to make a run at the Continental Divide route.
My plan was to take two weeks starting on June 26th, trailer the bike from Houston to Deming, NM, store the van and trailer at AT Storage (recommended by Ray Hooper (Hoop) and Chris Hardy (mcrider), and then head north along the route (using Ray and Chris’s & BigDog’s generously provided GPS tracks). After five days, I would be in Colorado – when I would head to Durango to meet my two sons (who were flying in) to spend three full days riding the jeep routes around Silverton (my two grown sons in a rented jeep – me on the WR250R). Following that, my two sons would fly home; I would slab it back to Deming to load up the trailer and van with a plan to stop for two days of riding in Big Bend before getting home to Houston on July 11th. Here’s the van and loaded trailer before departure (I ended up leaving after work on the 25th). I added the 3.5 gallon Safari gas tank, rear rack, and bash plate to the stock WR. I also purchased a Great Basin Giant Loop bag for on-bike storage.
Here are a couple of shots of the view from I-10 as the terrain starts to get more interesting, east of Fort Stockton, on my way to Deming, NM:
I reached Deming ahead of my schedule, arriving late the evening June 26th. The following morning, I unloaded the equipment I would be taking on the bike (into the motel room), and headed off to AT Storage to leave the van and trailer (riding the bike back to the motel to load it up). I had initially planned to mix some camping with an occasional stop at a motel. However, as I reconsidered the total amount of stuff that would require me to carry – I made a last minute decision to leave the tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat with the van. Even with that change, I ended up carrying more than I should have – I’ll go through “what I would do differently” at the end of this report. Anyway, here’s the bike loaded at the motel just prior to departure:
Given I was now planning to hit a motel each night, I loaded the gps tracks from Hoop and mcrider (they had also done the motel tour) into an old Garmin GPSV that I had strapped to the front crossbar, and headed ~40 miles west on I-10 to pick up the point where the CDR crosses it heading north. As I approached the exit, I noticed that a train was currently heading east on the track that paralleled I-10, blocking Separ road at that point. Coincidently, there was another rider on a KLR650 waiting for the train to pass. I pulled up beside him and asked if he was doing the CDR, and he told me he was only going to Silver City. We decided to ride together to Silver City. About half way there, we took a break, and I found out that the other rider’s name was Logan and that he lived/worked in Silver City. Here’s a shot of Logan, just before I continued on from Silver City:
I then headed north along the CDR, enjoying the ride and taking pictures (and ignoring the fact that I had a fair distance to go to reach the motel by nightfall).
I think the animals in this next shot are Mule Deer. In any case they were impressively large, plentiful, and spooked by motorcycles. Several times I came up herds of 80+ grazing in a patch that covered my path – and as I approached each animal seemed confused as to what to do until one would finally bolt – and then the rest would also bolt – but not necessarily in the same direction. More than once I was concerned that an animal ¾ the size of a full grown cow was going to run into me! Anyway, it never happened, but I did see some impressive charging herds, but never with enough warning to get the camera out when I was close.
It’s now starting to get late and I’m nowhere near civilization (I’m about 30 miles south of Datil, and have covered about 165 miles the first day despite starting close to noon). I ended up plodding along in the dark until ~9:30 p.m., when I realized I may as well pull off the trail and try to sleep. I rode the bike about 100 yards off the trail into a small clump of trees. I knew it would get fairly cold, so I put on as much clothing as I could (including my rainsuit), and lay down on a plastic poncho that I put down as a ground cover. I was fully covered (including wearing a full helmet with the face shield closed), and had no issue with bugs or animals (although I could hear animals moving around during the night). However, it was seriously cold! I ended up wrapped in the plastic poncho, getting short bursts of sleep between fits of waking up due to the cold.
When the sun came up, I quit trying to sleep, and headed back to the trail. One of the issues that had slowed my forward progress that first day, was that my Garmin GPSV had started crashing quite frequently (eventually, every time I hit a bump), and when I came to a fork in the road, I basically had to reboot the GPS while stationary to get a reading on which way I was to go. This issue coupled with a general lack of sleep led me to decide to head to a big enough town that I could get a replacement GPS (basically, the only way I had to follow the route was the previously stored GPS tracks). I followed the CDR to where it hit route 12, and inquired at the corner gas station as to where the nearest WalMart was (Socorro, NM). I headed off to Socorro, checked into a cheap hotel ($29 with cable TV and free Wi-Fi), and headed off to the WalMart. Unfortunately, the only GPS they had were the non-waterproof car type (& they only had about 4 of those), so I went back to the motel to inspect the GPSV. When I removed the batteries, I noticed that the “nubs” that stick out on the positive end of the AA battery were worn flat! The repeated shock (the GPSV was hard mounted on the handlebar) had worn the “nubs” off, and apparently (even though I had hard wired the power to the device) the intermittent power connection to the battery was enough to crash the GPS when I hit a bump. Anyway, the solution was to remount the GPSV in a much more shock isolated position. I accomplished this by “velco-ing” it to the top of the tank bag and additionally securing it by zip locks to the crossbar. This actually worked very well, and the GPS worked perfectly for the rest of the trip.
Halfway from Datil to Socorro, I took these pictures. The second is of the Very Large Array.
Having finally gotten the GPS sorted out, here's a picture that shows route 66 that I took on my way to Grants to re-join the CDR:
These were taken halfway between Grants and Cuba:
And this is one of my favorite shot's - kind of a remote road to forever:
I spent that night in Cuba
On the morning of June 30th, I headed about 6 miles east of Cuba on 126 to pick up the CDR. The terrain was starting to get some elevation and much more vegetation:
This last shot above was taken about 30 miles east of Cuba. When I first approached this 4-way intersection, there was a large tanker truck and a pickup truck just beyond the sign. I spoke to both drivers and was told that the road was closed due to forest fire (the tanker was full of water to re-supply the fire fighters). The woman driving the pickup was escorting the tanker to the fire. Their first suggestion to me was to “go back where I came from”. I explained that this was not a good choice for me, and Margot volunteered to lead me through the area to safety if I would wait 40 minutes for her to return from escorting the tanker. I agreed, and waited. During my wait, two guys on KTM’s drove up looking for the third rider in their group. They we riding locally, and we spoke for ~10 minutes before they headed back to the west. After close to 90 minutes, I started to think that Margot may have forgotten about me, and as the direction she had driven (left turn toward the north) was in fact my intended route, I decided to proceed without waiting any longer for her return. After about 10 minutes, I came upon both the pickup and the tanker truck coming up the hill towards me. Margot explained that she had a flat tire, and had been delayed getting it changed. She was very apologetic, but explained that my planned direction was impossible as the route was literally though the fire. I agreed to follow her back to the spot where we first met, where she would then lead me out of the area. Before doing that she explained that the route we were about to take would go through the reservation which had been closed to outsiders for the past ten years (but had allowed access to fight the fire). I followed her at a brisk pace (once she had left the tanker) for about 30 minutes.
Here's a shot showing one of the water storage units:
Here's a picture of Margot where she dropped me off:
Margot dropped my at the west end of route 5 near these Puye ruins cliff dwellings:
I then headed up route 84 to Abiquiu to spend the night (only 78 miles today, because of the forest fire detour delay).
Here are some shots from the morning of July 1st, heading towards Vallecitos:
This is an old cabin north of Vallecitos:
It continued to rise:
This next one is taken about three miles south of the Colorado border:
Near Cumbres, Colorado I came upon a narrow gauge railroad operation:
I stayed in Chama that night, before heading to Durango on the 2nd to meet my two sons who were flying in.
My two sons flew in very late on July 2nd, and (as planned) we rented a jeep for three full days on the morning of July 3rd.
We headed off on the jeep trails around Silverton, eventually going over Imogene Pass.
The approach up to Imogene Pass still had significant snow:
Looking across the valley from the top of Imogene, you could see several snow boarders climbing and then boarding down this slope:
This is a shot from the free lift in Telluride, looking back at the city.
At this point I got what I think is a high ankle sprain.
To be honest, I’m not sure when it happened – as it only really hurt when I was off the bike and flexing my ankle by walking. At the really high passes (above 13,000 ft.), the lack of oxygen rendered the WR250R (with my weight ~ 230) very marginal on the steeper uphill slopes. Basically, I had to slip the clutch quite a bit to keep moving. Anyway, on the 2nd & 3rd day riding with the jeep – my two sons would drive the jeep over the upper passes, and I would take the paved road around to meet them on the other side.
Here's a video my son Steve made during the ride:
We ended up back in Durango, late in the afternoon of the 5th - turned the jeep in - and spent the evening in Durango, before the two of them flew home on the morning of the 6th. I then headed for I-25 and Deming, NM.
I arrived in Deming on the 7th, retrieved my van and trailer from storage, and headed to Marathon, TX on the 8th. I stayed at the Marathon Motel & RV Park the evening of the 8th, and headed into Big Bend on my bike on the morning of the 9th.
When I came to the Park check in station, I was informed that most of the offroad routes were closed. The tropical depression had dumped a huge amount of rain on the area (yes, it's basically a desert), and there was water flowing vigorously over many of the back roads. I was told that the Old Ore Road was the only one open, so I ended up doing that route in one day, and heading back to Houston a day early.
I really enjoyed riding in Big Bend, and definitely plan to go back when more of the routes are open.
All in all, it was a great trip. A couple of things I would do differently:
1. Carry even less stuff. About half of what I had, I never used.
2. Get proper offroad boots and lower leg pads. I saved some money not getting these, and 100% of my "injuries" would have been prevented if I had proper gear.
3 Plan the routes to the motels with some care. This could have been smoother
In general, I think the choice of the WR250R was about perfect for me on the CDR. It was only when I went to even higher altitudes, that the smaller displacement became a problem. In my opinion, I could do the full CDR (Including Indiana pass) on this bike without problem, and the lighter weight made it much easier over most of the trail.
My plan was to take two weeks starting on June 26th, trailer the bike from Houston to Deming, NM, store the van and trailer at AT Storage (recommended by Ray Hooper (Hoop) and Chris Hardy (mcrider), and then head north along the route (using Ray and Chris’s & BigDog’s generously provided GPS tracks). After five days, I would be in Colorado – when I would head to Durango to meet my two sons (who were flying in) to spend three full days riding the jeep routes around Silverton (my two grown sons in a rented jeep – me on the WR250R). Following that, my two sons would fly home; I would slab it back to Deming to load up the trailer and van with a plan to stop for two days of riding in Big Bend before getting home to Houston on July 11th. Here’s the van and loaded trailer before departure (I ended up leaving after work on the 25th). I added the 3.5 gallon Safari gas tank, rear rack, and bash plate to the stock WR. I also purchased a Great Basin Giant Loop bag for on-bike storage.
Here are a couple of shots of the view from I-10 as the terrain starts to get more interesting, east of Fort Stockton, on my way to Deming, NM:
I reached Deming ahead of my schedule, arriving late the evening June 26th. The following morning, I unloaded the equipment I would be taking on the bike (into the motel room), and headed off to AT Storage to leave the van and trailer (riding the bike back to the motel to load it up). I had initially planned to mix some camping with an occasional stop at a motel. However, as I reconsidered the total amount of stuff that would require me to carry – I made a last minute decision to leave the tent, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat with the van. Even with that change, I ended up carrying more than I should have – I’ll go through “what I would do differently” at the end of this report. Anyway, here’s the bike loaded at the motel just prior to departure:
Given I was now planning to hit a motel each night, I loaded the gps tracks from Hoop and mcrider (they had also done the motel tour) into an old Garmin GPSV that I had strapped to the front crossbar, and headed ~40 miles west on I-10 to pick up the point where the CDR crosses it heading north. As I approached the exit, I noticed that a train was currently heading east on the track that paralleled I-10, blocking Separ road at that point. Coincidently, there was another rider on a KLR650 waiting for the train to pass. I pulled up beside him and asked if he was doing the CDR, and he told me he was only going to Silver City. We decided to ride together to Silver City. About half way there, we took a break, and I found out that the other rider’s name was Logan and that he lived/worked in Silver City. Here’s a shot of Logan, just before I continued on from Silver City:
I then headed north along the CDR, enjoying the ride and taking pictures (and ignoring the fact that I had a fair distance to go to reach the motel by nightfall).
I think the animals in this next shot are Mule Deer. In any case they were impressively large, plentiful, and spooked by motorcycles. Several times I came up herds of 80+ grazing in a patch that covered my path – and as I approached each animal seemed confused as to what to do until one would finally bolt – and then the rest would also bolt – but not necessarily in the same direction. More than once I was concerned that an animal ¾ the size of a full grown cow was going to run into me! Anyway, it never happened, but I did see some impressive charging herds, but never with enough warning to get the camera out when I was close.
It’s now starting to get late and I’m nowhere near civilization (I’m about 30 miles south of Datil, and have covered about 165 miles the first day despite starting close to noon). I ended up plodding along in the dark until ~9:30 p.m., when I realized I may as well pull off the trail and try to sleep. I rode the bike about 100 yards off the trail into a small clump of trees. I knew it would get fairly cold, so I put on as much clothing as I could (including my rainsuit), and lay down on a plastic poncho that I put down as a ground cover. I was fully covered (including wearing a full helmet with the face shield closed), and had no issue with bugs or animals (although I could hear animals moving around during the night). However, it was seriously cold! I ended up wrapped in the plastic poncho, getting short bursts of sleep between fits of waking up due to the cold.
When the sun came up, I quit trying to sleep, and headed back to the trail. One of the issues that had slowed my forward progress that first day, was that my Garmin GPSV had started crashing quite frequently (eventually, every time I hit a bump), and when I came to a fork in the road, I basically had to reboot the GPS while stationary to get a reading on which way I was to go. This issue coupled with a general lack of sleep led me to decide to head to a big enough town that I could get a replacement GPS (basically, the only way I had to follow the route was the previously stored GPS tracks). I followed the CDR to where it hit route 12, and inquired at the corner gas station as to where the nearest WalMart was (Socorro, NM). I headed off to Socorro, checked into a cheap hotel ($29 with cable TV and free Wi-Fi), and headed off to the WalMart. Unfortunately, the only GPS they had were the non-waterproof car type (& they only had about 4 of those), so I went back to the motel to inspect the GPSV. When I removed the batteries, I noticed that the “nubs” that stick out on the positive end of the AA battery were worn flat! The repeated shock (the GPSV was hard mounted on the handlebar) had worn the “nubs” off, and apparently (even though I had hard wired the power to the device) the intermittent power connection to the battery was enough to crash the GPS when I hit a bump. Anyway, the solution was to remount the GPSV in a much more shock isolated position. I accomplished this by “velco-ing” it to the top of the tank bag and additionally securing it by zip locks to the crossbar. This actually worked very well, and the GPS worked perfectly for the rest of the trip.
Halfway from Datil to Socorro, I took these pictures. The second is of the Very Large Array.
Having finally gotten the GPS sorted out, here's a picture that shows route 66 that I took on my way to Grants to re-join the CDR:
These were taken halfway between Grants and Cuba:
And this is one of my favorite shot's - kind of a remote road to forever:
I spent that night in Cuba
On the morning of June 30th, I headed about 6 miles east of Cuba on 126 to pick up the CDR. The terrain was starting to get some elevation and much more vegetation:
This last shot above was taken about 30 miles east of Cuba. When I first approached this 4-way intersection, there was a large tanker truck and a pickup truck just beyond the sign. I spoke to both drivers and was told that the road was closed due to forest fire (the tanker was full of water to re-supply the fire fighters). The woman driving the pickup was escorting the tanker to the fire. Their first suggestion to me was to “go back where I came from”. I explained that this was not a good choice for me, and Margot volunteered to lead me through the area to safety if I would wait 40 minutes for her to return from escorting the tanker. I agreed, and waited. During my wait, two guys on KTM’s drove up looking for the third rider in their group. They we riding locally, and we spoke for ~10 minutes before they headed back to the west. After close to 90 minutes, I started to think that Margot may have forgotten about me, and as the direction she had driven (left turn toward the north) was in fact my intended route, I decided to proceed without waiting any longer for her return. After about 10 minutes, I came upon both the pickup and the tanker truck coming up the hill towards me. Margot explained that she had a flat tire, and had been delayed getting it changed. She was very apologetic, but explained that my planned direction was impossible as the route was literally though the fire. I agreed to follow her back to the spot where we first met, where she would then lead me out of the area. Before doing that she explained that the route we were about to take would go through the reservation which had been closed to outsiders for the past ten years (but had allowed access to fight the fire). I followed her at a brisk pace (once she had left the tanker) for about 30 minutes.
Here's a shot showing one of the water storage units:
Here's a picture of Margot where she dropped me off:
Margot dropped my at the west end of route 5 near these Puye ruins cliff dwellings:
I then headed up route 84 to Abiquiu to spend the night (only 78 miles today, because of the forest fire detour delay).
Here are some shots from the morning of July 1st, heading towards Vallecitos:
This is an old cabin north of Vallecitos:
It continued to rise:
This next one is taken about three miles south of the Colorado border:
Near Cumbres, Colorado I came upon a narrow gauge railroad operation:
I stayed in Chama that night, before heading to Durango on the 2nd to meet my two sons who were flying in.
My two sons flew in very late on July 2nd, and (as planned) we rented a jeep for three full days on the morning of July 3rd.
We headed off on the jeep trails around Silverton, eventually going over Imogene Pass.
The approach up to Imogene Pass still had significant snow:
Looking across the valley from the top of Imogene, you could see several snow boarders climbing and then boarding down this slope:
This is a shot from the free lift in Telluride, looking back at the city.
At this point I got what I think is a high ankle sprain.
To be honest, I’m not sure when it happened – as it only really hurt when I was off the bike and flexing my ankle by walking. At the really high passes (above 13,000 ft.), the lack of oxygen rendered the WR250R (with my weight ~ 230) very marginal on the steeper uphill slopes. Basically, I had to slip the clutch quite a bit to keep moving. Anyway, on the 2nd & 3rd day riding with the jeep – my two sons would drive the jeep over the upper passes, and I would take the paved road around to meet them on the other side.
Here's a video my son Steve made during the ride:
We ended up back in Durango, late in the afternoon of the 5th - turned the jeep in - and spent the evening in Durango, before the two of them flew home on the morning of the 6th. I then headed for I-25 and Deming, NM.
I arrived in Deming on the 7th, retrieved my van and trailer from storage, and headed to Marathon, TX on the 8th. I stayed at the Marathon Motel & RV Park the evening of the 8th, and headed into Big Bend on my bike on the morning of the 9th.
When I came to the Park check in station, I was informed that most of the offroad routes were closed. The tropical depression had dumped a huge amount of rain on the area (yes, it's basically a desert), and there was water flowing vigorously over many of the back roads. I was told that the Old Ore Road was the only one open, so I ended up doing that route in one day, and heading back to Houston a day early.
I really enjoyed riding in Big Bend, and definitely plan to go back when more of the routes are open.
All in all, it was a great trip. A couple of things I would do differently:
1. Carry even less stuff. About half of what I had, I never used.
2. Get proper offroad boots and lower leg pads. I saved some money not getting these, and 100% of my "injuries" would have been prevented if I had proper gear.
3 Plan the routes to the motels with some care. This could have been smoother
In general, I think the choice of the WR250R was about perfect for me on the CDR. It was only when I went to even higher altitudes, that the smaller displacement became a problem. In my opinion, I could do the full CDR (Including Indiana pass) on this bike without problem, and the lighter weight made it much easier over most of the trail.
Looks like you had a great time. I HIGHLY recommend getting a good pair of dirt boots. They have saved my feet and ankles many times. Since you were riding alone, did you have any kind of plan for rescue in the event something happened and you would have been unable to ride out? Cell phone, SPOT, etc,...?
