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jglow
0
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2009
- Messages
- 64
- Reaction score
- 5
- Location
- Mckinney
- First Name
- Jordan
- Last Name
- Glowicki
As many of you here in Texas know, we have been living in our own little slice of **** here lately with the endless days of 100+ degree days 
. I have been having a serious case of cabin fever while trying to avoid the heat. I even resorted to playing video games...
Which I am not very good at - too many buttons now-a-days
. The effort to relieve my boredom was moved outside...
My five dollar slip'n slide
:
Which I found out is too short, and I am much to heavy for, as it is pretty painful as a grown adult to run and commit to landing on your belly
.
Then it was an attempt at a maybe more appropriate grown up activity of swinging a golf club...
But it appears I am even worse at golf than even video games. And my form lends itself more to snake killing than driving a golf ball
.
I was resorting to all the above activities because I figured it was just too hot to go ride. Last minute, Friday night I decided to quit being such a weenie, suck it up, and go ride. But where to? I didn't want to just ride on the road - I wanted to ride some trails. After a bit of internet usage, I discovered that I had a couple of options for some parks with trails that were actually open. The problem was that they were like 2 hours away from me, and I would still have to pay an entrance fee and dodge atv's all day, so instead I resorted to old faithful - The Ouachita N.F. in Southeast Oklahoma. It's only 3 hours from my driveway to on the bike riding
. I texted a new riding buddy, but he was all booked up with work for the weekend - this would be a solo trip. My better judgment told me to take it easy, maybe just run some fire roads, or atv trails in Wolf Pen Gap, but I was wanting a bit more of a challenge, and I nearly bit off more than I could chew. My newly hatched plan was to ride the CNT (Choctaw Nations Trail) from Talihina, State Park 30 miles East to Billy Creek. Let's get started 
.
I woke up at 4:30am Saturday morning, and on the road by 5am. A relatively uneventful ride up (only needing to dodge a deer or two), delivered me to the Talihina State Park. Straight out of the back of the park, you pick up the CNT.
The trail is not bashful, and let's you know quickly what you are in for:
Very technical terrain. A ton of rocks, and some tighter tree sections. It was already getting hot, but since I was totally shaded from the direct sunlight, it felt nice while moving. I would let the bike rest occasionally
...
The CNT is marked with orange blazes, as well as "CNT" signage occasionally. I also had some tracks that were posted up by Krabill over on Advrider. Even with those, I still managed to lose the trail a handful of times. It's hard in some areas to distinguish which rock garden you should be in.
This one took a while to get pointed back the right direction:
Back on the trail... That took some effort.
I was getting pretty worn out, going through my water pretty quickly, and I was feeling really jittery too. Maybe a combination of being up so early, too much coffee, and a crumby breakfast
. About 10 miles into the CNT, the trail took one of my front turn signals. Looking forward was a fairly steep rocky climb, duh...
I decided I didn't want to destroy the bike here. Well... At least not while I was by myself. I back tracked a 1/2 mile to a fire road and bombed down into the little town of Whitesboro. They have a little convenience store there. I had some gatorade, refilled my camel back, grabbed a sausage biscuit, and sat outside while listening to the older local men tell it how it is. From here I went a little further East on the Hwy over to Billy Creek Campground. This is where the Southern Part of the CNT ends. I hung out in the campground for a bit, had my sausage biscuit, drank the rest of my gatorade, and tried to cat nap on the picnic table. I felt a ton better when I pulled out of the camground, and although better judgement again suggested I just run the fire roads of the area - the trail was calling back to me
. I had tracks for the CNT North also, and tried to follow that for a bit.
A lot of effort was put into getting through the dried creek...
Only to find what looked like to me to be a new relatively new sign forbidding motorized traffic "beyond this sign". This reminds me... I noticed a lot of new signs noting similar messages about trails closed and/or warning to only stay on approved roads - all dated May 2011. Looks like the Forest Service is implementing the new "Off-Road Travel Management Program" thing
Backtracking out of the CNT North, I passed by the termination of the CNT South (sorry if this is getting confusing - it's really not that important, basically I am just running over rocks in Oklahoma). I pull in to have a look at the trail.
Totally dry. There should be a lot of water flowing through here. I have sampled this part before back in April 2010:
(I used to have a KLX250S)
I guess they aren't getting any rain in Oklahoma either.
Anyhow, I know I was planning on not really thrashing the bike anymore, but I figured I would just ride the CNT back West to where it crosses the next forest road. I came to the next forest road, and was feeling good - that break earlier really helped me shake off the morning funk. I continued West on the CNT...
More rocks, steep climbs, and descents.
And eventually crossing over the section that I bailed on earlier in the day
. Stopping to take a pic mid-section, behind:
Ahead:
From here, I only had a little bit further to ride out to pick up the road out, and back to the truck, which involved a really steep climb up the trail before it junctions with the Forest Road "Deadman Trl".
It was 109 when I got back in the truck
. The little wr250r did very well, with the heat, and kept cool - even though my overall speed was doing little to contribute to any airflow through the radiator. I ended up only -1 front signal, and maybe needing to re-shape the handgaurds... Not too bad! I myself was totally whooped. I rode for 6 hours and did 61 miles. Pretty tough stuff. And in the end, the heat really wasn't even that bad. Sure it was kinda miserable when you were working hard on picking up the bike, but being in the shade of the trees while riding on the trail made it more than bearable. The most uncomfortable I was, was when I was riding back to the truck via the exposed pavement. I got back home by 5pm. Totally worth while marathon trip.
Jordan
. I have been having a serious case of cabin fever while trying to avoid the heat. I even resorted to playing video games...Which I am not very good at - too many buttons now-a-days
. The effort to relieve my boredom was moved outside...My five dollar slip'n slide
:Which I found out is too short, and I am much to heavy for, as it is pretty painful as a grown adult to run and commit to landing on your belly
.Then it was an attempt at a maybe more appropriate grown up activity of swinging a golf club...
But it appears I am even worse at golf than even video games. And my form lends itself more to snake killing than driving a golf ball
.I was resorting to all the above activities because I figured it was just too hot to go ride. Last minute, Friday night I decided to quit being such a weenie, suck it up, and go ride. But where to? I didn't want to just ride on the road - I wanted to ride some trails. After a bit of internet usage, I discovered that I had a couple of options for some parks with trails that were actually open. The problem was that they were like 2 hours away from me, and I would still have to pay an entrance fee and dodge atv's all day, so instead I resorted to old faithful - The Ouachita N.F. in Southeast Oklahoma. It's only 3 hours from my driveway to on the bike riding
. I texted a new riding buddy, but he was all booked up with work for the weekend - this would be a solo trip. My better judgment told me to take it easy, maybe just run some fire roads, or atv trails in Wolf Pen Gap, but I was wanting a bit more of a challenge, and I nearly bit off more than I could chew. My newly hatched plan was to ride the CNT (Choctaw Nations Trail) from Talihina, State Park 30 miles East to Billy Creek. Let's get started .I woke up at 4:30am Saturday morning, and on the road by 5am. A relatively uneventful ride up (only needing to dodge a deer or two), delivered me to the Talihina State Park. Straight out of the back of the park, you pick up the CNT.
The trail is not bashful, and let's you know quickly what you are in for:
Very technical terrain. A ton of rocks, and some tighter tree sections. It was already getting hot, but since I was totally shaded from the direct sunlight, it felt nice while moving. I would let the bike rest occasionally
...The CNT is marked with orange blazes, as well as "CNT" signage occasionally. I also had some tracks that were posted up by Krabill over on Advrider. Even with those, I still managed to lose the trail a handful of times. It's hard in some areas to distinguish which rock garden you should be in.
This one took a while to get pointed back the right direction:
Back on the trail... That took some effort.
I was getting pretty worn out, going through my water pretty quickly, and I was feeling really jittery too. Maybe a combination of being up so early, too much coffee, and a crumby breakfast
. About 10 miles into the CNT, the trail took one of my front turn signals. Looking forward was a fairly steep rocky climb, duh... I decided I didn't want to destroy the bike here. Well... At least not while I was by myself. I back tracked a 1/2 mile to a fire road and bombed down into the little town of Whitesboro. They have a little convenience store there. I had some gatorade, refilled my camel back, grabbed a sausage biscuit, and sat outside while listening to the older local men tell it how it is. From here I went a little further East on the Hwy over to Billy Creek Campground. This is where the Southern Part of the CNT ends. I hung out in the campground for a bit, had my sausage biscuit, drank the rest of my gatorade, and tried to cat nap on the picnic table. I felt a ton better when I pulled out of the camground, and although better judgement again suggested I just run the fire roads of the area - the trail was calling back to me
. I had tracks for the CNT North also, and tried to follow that for a bit.A lot of effort was put into getting through the dried creek...
Only to find what looked like to me to be a new relatively new sign forbidding motorized traffic "beyond this sign". This reminds me... I noticed a lot of new signs noting similar messages about trails closed and/or warning to only stay on approved roads - all dated May 2011. Looks like the Forest Service is implementing the new "Off-Road Travel Management Program" thing
Backtracking out of the CNT North, I passed by the termination of the CNT South (sorry if this is getting confusing - it's really not that important, basically I am just running over rocks in Oklahoma
). I pull in to have a look at the trail.Totally dry. There should be a lot of water flowing through here. I have sampled this part before back in April 2010:
I guess they aren't getting any rain in Oklahoma either.
Anyhow, I know I was planning on not really thrashing the bike anymore, but I figured I would just ride the CNT back West to where it crosses the next forest road. I came to the next forest road, and was feeling good - that break earlier really helped me shake off the morning funk. I continued West on the CNT...
More rocks, steep climbs, and descents.
And eventually crossing over the section that I bailed on earlier in the day
. Stopping to take a pic mid-section, behind:Ahead:
From here, I only had a little bit further to ride out to pick up the road out, and back to the truck, which involved a really steep climb up the trail before it junctions with the Forest Road "Deadman Trl".
It was 109 when I got back in the truck
. The little wr250r did very well, with the heat, and kept cool - even though my overall speed was doing little to contribute to any airflow through the radiator. I ended up only -1 front signal, and maybe needing to re-shape the handgaurds... Not too bad! I myself was totally whooped. I rode for 6 hours and did 61 miles. Pretty tough stuff. And in the end, the heat really wasn't even that bad. Sure it was kinda miserable when you were working hard on picking up the bike, but being in the shade of the trees while riding on the trail made it more than bearable. The most uncomfortable I was, was when I was riding back to the truck via the exposed pavement. I got back home by 5pm. Totally worth while marathon trip.Jordan
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