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Adv ride from Austin to birdsong outpost in dryden Texas

Joined
Jan 31, 2006
Messages
1,307
Reaction score
51
Location
Pflugerville (No. Austin) TX
Home safe. Awesome group, awesome ride. Thanks for everything. Great planning and route Ken, you know your stuff. Thanks John and Dave and Dao. Good seeing you again Bill.
By far, the best ride ive been on in Tejas! Cant wait for the next one.
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Home safe and sound as well.
Thanks Ken for putting all this together. It was beyond epic to say the least.
John, Dave, Scott... I had so much fun hanging out w/ you guys.
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Finally made it home myself about 45 minutes ago, whew long day. Today's route got mandatory detours after the low water crossings outside of Junction were 3-5 ft deep running rapids. But no rain today, was a beautiful day.

Fantastic ride Ken! All new faces but it was a great group to ride with.

_
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Pics please!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

teaser

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Pics please!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Teaser 2
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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

I see you got my best side in each of those photos.

First photo everybody's concerned, getting Dao's bike upright, assessing damage and he's just standing there checking his text messages. Lol

_
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Confronted this, coming back home via Junction, TX.

:giveup:
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:photo:
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:angryfire
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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

I
.... getting Dao's bike upright, assessing damage and he's just standing there checking his text messages. Lol

_

...no, I wasn't checking my text. I was seeing how much farther before we find us a Starbucks :lol2:
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

I kept saying (to myself)...."these guys don't know where to find a starbucks...I have no idea why I'm riding with them..."

Here, they're quibbling about which way is the faster way to a starbucks...

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... perhaps going through the tunnel's the quicker way to starbucks....who knows at this point.
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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Maybe starbucks is on the other side of this mountain....
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Ken, standing below, was the point man. He pointed for us to go to the left side. The line that Dave took in this pic is the right one to go up. My bike didn't want to go that way. Instead it deflected off to the other side, and threw me into a trench of nothing but huge jagged bowling ball size sharp edge rocks. I cleaned it, but it wasn't pretty to say the least. Ken had the best seat in the house. He was ecstatic, cheering me on to make that commitment! I puckered my way up that crazy last man standing stuff. Couldn't believe this hippo vstrom can do that kind of trenching. But those "gong" sounds coming off the skid plate was pretty **** annoying...
 
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Speaking of skid plate...mine's a brand spanking new weld 86 skid plate. Somewhere along the trail, my bike just died, and it wouldn't start up.
QUickly found out my kickstand switch & a wire got clobbered...
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The big square rock midway at the bottom line of this photo is probably what did me in when I scraped past it.
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Got to use my brand new suzuki tool kit to unbolt the switch off the frame, cut the wires clean off the switch, stripped them, connected them, and then Ken offered me up some trick looking wire connector that will outlast a nuclear holocaust. All's well that ends well....but I'm going to send in a request to weld 86 to add a little more material under the switch on their skid plate even though I'm going to delete the safety switch off this bike for good.
 

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Butter up some more popcorn, SAB.

OK, since Ken posted up a pic of my bike taking a nap by the mud hole, I may as well put the blame on equipment malfunction....
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She's sound asleep, snoring away...
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photo op time...
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I will say that said malfunction will rear its ugly head again before the trip's over....
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

i made more popcorn for one semi-paragraph??

(tapping foot)
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Ken set us up with two cabins, as well as having the owner stock us up w/ a large tube of ground meat, hamburger buns, charcoal, eggs, sausage, cheese, tortillas, 2 cases of beer, and two 5 gal cans full of fuel.
All the comforts of home out in the middle of nowhere. IT doesn't get any better,nor as tranquil, as this.

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Man, all this posting is making me hungry....time to make me some grub...

WHich reminds me of these fabulous chalupas we had for lunch on our way into Dryden. This lunch plate and ice tea for $9...simply delicious!
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Doesn't take much to make me smile when it comes to food...:eat:
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Stay tuned...i'm off to do some family stuff for now.
 

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

Cool. I'm glad you are alive and well. More pics and story please.
 
Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

a pic of the gang...
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Dave on his Super Tenere:
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John on his Triumph Tiger 800:
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Scott & his KLR650 w/ big bore kit:
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Ken Ingram on his Super Tenere:
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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

One point during the day, Ken wanted to lead us down a dirt service road that runs along the railroad tracks. So We got off pavement and started our dirt adventure here, in front of a church too. Good omen? Of course!:rofl:
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From what I can remember, this was to be a short 5-10 mile run along the service road, and then we would come on out on the main road.
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Ken pulled through once again. The riding was just simply amazing! We were bookin' it hard , taking no prisoners. Pin and :lol2:
Look at that winding dirt road along the railroad! :rider::rider:

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Then midway, we had to climb up the side of a mountain, the same climb I described earlier:
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Then after we got over and through to the back side of the mountain,
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Everyone pulled over.
 

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

OK, I'm going to tie it all in.

The road had been washed out, eroded to the point that we had very few options open to us on these big ol' bikes.
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ANd even if we did manage to make it through the soft sandy wash out, the climb immediately after that won't have any distance to get a run up it. You can see the hard right turn in the pic, with a bunch of boulders that had to be conquered while on the gas. We put a vote to it, and majority said, pass.
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So now we get to go back down the side of the mountain, and at some point on the way back, we found an alternate path as it was so close to the main road. BUT! there was no easy way through it. Either go up an even nastier climb and possibly lead us to a dead end, or ride alongside the railroad track for a mile or two until we can bail out onto the dirt service road. Guess what we agreed to do?
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CRAZY, ain't it! :eek2: I know! Not only that, it was drizzling too, so the black rocks and the railroad ties got slicker than ice.

After about a mile or two riding as close as I can along the edge of the rail, my bike got hypnotized by all the rail road ties whizzing by her, and well, she took a nap on me once again.
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Scott had gone so far ahead, we couldn't even see him anymore. How much farther must we continue along the railroad track until we can get back on the dirt road? Ken noticed a dirt road on the other side of the track, so he jumped the track, went to the other side to scout ahead. That guy - he just blows my mind away w/ what he can do on his Tenere.

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Then we see Scott coming towards us on the rail road track, lights flickering on hi/lo/hi/lo. We freaked out thinking he's trying to tell us a train's coming. SO we moved helmets, camelbacks, bikes out of harm's way.
Thank goodness, He brings news that the end of all this madness is but a 1/4, 1/2 mile away. The service road is right around the bend, and a mile after that, a gas station awaits us. So he spins the tail end of his KLR around by hand.:clap: like it weighs nothing.

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By now, Ken had returned, saying the other side of the track is a dead end. SO we helped him jump the tracks again.
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Then we rode on out of there. About a mile before we got on the road, the train comes down the tracks.
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All that work, and still no Starbucks!
 

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Re: 5/22-5/24 Adv Ride explore Dryden TX ranch property

OMG!
ok. thanks. that was a good bedtime story.
look forward to next chapter.

:sun:
 
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