Atascocita, Day In The Woods.

[thumper]

Sittin' here by the fireplace and figured I'd start a new thread. Thanks for going guys. I know you probably haven't made it home yet. It was an eventful day and I throughly enjoyed it. Good ridin' with y'all. I hope you got db's bike home. I think it'll run okay after it dries out a little more. Didn't he say something about a warranty? Anyways I'm downloading pics right now so jump in when ya want.

 

[Tekisasu DR]

Thank you Tim for planning & leading today's ride.
I was expcted a little mud, but not that swamp .

Checked some video's I took. It is shaking up & down. I really started feeling sick. I will upload a couple of shots, and some pictures later.

I left there before Scott came back for Bryan. Hope they are OK after that.

Thanks!
Ken

 

[dbdolan]

Thanks to Tim (Thumper) for having us out for a stroll through the low lands. The KLR and I made it back home in one piece, thank you...thank you ...thank you...GreaseMonkey for hauling my soaked butt back home. I had a great time and it was good riding with everyone, I think I will stick to the dirt County Roads for a while. I am beat, I lost count of how many times I dumped my bike in the mud, sorry for slinging mud all over you Texas Dr. (Ken) as he was helping me get un stuck and I roosted him....sorry :give up:. The last dump was in a huge water hole and I submerged the KLR and that was it for me. We drained all the water out of the air box, carb, and muffler and finally got it started and escaped the woods. On the way back to Thumpers the KLR started sputtering and finally gave up so GreaseMonkey came back with his truck and got me home by 5:30pm... you are the man. I just got done hosing down all the mud and I am draining the oil.....mmmmm choclatey...it looks like chocolate milk I am just going to let it drain for a day or so.
Here are some pics:

 

[dbdolan]

The Dr. is in the house... Texas Dr650 that is. Ken(Texas DR) has a sweet ride cam setup, I hope you got some good stuff.

Here is a quick video clip of Ken coming out of a creek after it ate my lunch.
I meant to take a photo but it was movie mode..

Taking a breather..

Thumpers got her stuck good, Cool DRZ I love the setup.

I got mine stuck real good a few times...

GreaseMonkey wondering what the hold up is...

I did not take very many photo's, I spent most of my time trying to catch up with everyone. Here is the gang waiting on me to hit the timer on the camera,,

I made into the frame on this one..
Me-Bryan (dbdolan) in the front, Tim (Thumper) behind me on the left, Ken (Texas DR), then Scott (GreaseMonkey) on the right.

Here is what my oil looked like through the site glass...

mmmmmm. choclatey.....

ahhhhh good times...good times.... I just hope I can get her back running again.

 

[sandman76513]

ahhhhh good times...good times.... I just hope I can get her back running again.

You ain't kidding about it needing to dry out. Flush it out good several times, hopefully, it will be okay.

 

[DANNYROTH]

Bryan, it looks like you found (and passed) the upper limits of the abilities of the lightly farkled KLR. Why is utter misery so much fun!

Who had packed the skyhook?

 

[stevenrosenblatt]

I am beat, I lost count of how many times I dumped my bike in the mud, sorry for slinging mud all over you Texas Dr. (Ken) as he was helping me get un stuck and I roosted him....sorry :give up:. The last dump was in a huge water hole and I submerged the KLR and that was it for me. We drained all the water out of the air box, carb, and muffler and finally got it started and escaped the woods. On the way back to Thumpers the KLR started sputtering and finally gave up so GreaseMonkey came back with his truck and got me home by 5:30pm... you are the man. I just got done hosing down all the mud and I am draining the oil.....mmmmm choclatey...it looks like chocolate milk I am just going to let it drain for a day or so.
Here are some pics:

Looks like it takes a few weeks after a few rain soaked weeks for the woods to dry out up there. I thought about this ride but the bark busters are not on the XR 400 I just bought. What a mud pit With a KLR going between the trees takes a certain amount of confidence. However at the first sign of mud and deep water between trees, I would have bailed with a KLR. That last stuck photo looked like there was a line taken by other bikes that was the same line the bike was stuck in. Were you not carrying enough speed through it and just sank down due to bike weight?
The pics reminded me of rides in the Pine Barrens of NJ after hard rains. Some guys would ride 1100GS BMWs through similar mud pits. Of course they were way stronger than I was and could literally lift the rear out of mud with the rear rack so that you would hear that sucking sound as the mud released the tire. I'm not worthy. Thanks for the vicarious ride through your pics. I hope the KLR snaps back to life for you.

 

[Tourmeister]

Brian, don't let it sit. Fill it with cheapo oil and run it up to temp for a bit, drain it, repeat until oil no longer looks chocolate colored. Leaving any moisture in there could cause long term problems!

 

[thumper]

It was an eventful day to say the least. The trails were kinda slick and I have to say db easily won the rider of the day award. Lugging that KLR around was a real challenge. He worked three times harder than the rest.

Section One; Green's Bayou. Going in.

Ken playing in the bushes.

The gang rolling out of a nasty little hillclimb.

Scott and the BRP would remain unscathed throughout the day.

Wandering the trails.

Once we made it across the ditch, it was off to the "tree bridge".

Ken reminded me that he doesn't like heights.

Each of us tiptoed across.You can tell by the sag in the bridge that it's not something you'd wanna go blasting over. The ravine is about 15' straight down.

I post more pics on Section Two tomorrow.

 

[thumper]

Hey db, I really hope your bike will be okay. I certainly didn't intend on anyone messing up their stuff. Lets all remember that it didn't happen till the last "puddle" of the day. I wish it was a little drier and I'm glad I eliminated alot of the swamped out trails during my pre-ride.

One more thing.....Lets not forget all the good sections when everyone was hauling butt and not snapping pics.Course I also remember Scott's remark about selling used cars on the weekend.

BTW, I did mention in a previous post that this would require a "spirited" rider on a KLR Your tough man, real tough...hopefully that KLR is too.

 

[Greasemonkey]

Guess it was real nice not to use the kickstand all the time?This stuff is typical creek and river lowlands,some has no bottom.There was real no way to carry any speed on the slimy terrain.We hit some sandy roads that were a blast and they ran right into db's demise.Haven't done this in a long time[mud] and enjoyed it alot.I grew up in E. Texas mud,have a little experience you could say.Preciate it Tim and good to see everyone,been so busy I needed the break.Anytime Brian
Hey Ken where's the video of ironman db?????That could be interesting

 

[Georgiapeach]

Bryan why were you riding through the mud when there were all those logs to jump?

Ok, not funny in that it the mud invaded your oil. I guess we will have to do Weekly tech session oil changes with folks showing up with donated oil. Scott is there any oil Wally World might sell in the the 1 gal containers that he could use? I would be my pleasure to be the first to donate.

And yeah, that was a scary bridge, who builds a bridge with a tree smack in the middle of it? Was it a Bubba bridge?

Ha, ha, ha, I just figured out what BRP was. It was one of those things I heard all the time, but didn't relate the acronym.

 

[dbdolan]

Hey db, I really hope your bike will be okay. I certainly didn't intend on anyone messing up their stuff. Lets all remember that it didn't happen till the last "puddle" of the day. I wish it was a little drier and I'm glad I eliminated alot of the swamped out trails during my pre-ride.

One more thing.....Lets not forget all the good sections when everyone was hauling butt and not snapping pics.Course I also remember Scott's remark about selling used cars on the weekend.

BTW, I did mention in a previous post that this would require a "spirited" rider on a KLR Your tough man, real tough...hopefully that KLR is too.

Tim the way I look at it is, if you aren't dunkin' or droppin' your bike then your not having fun I was just glad to be out riding with you guy's.

 

[dbdolan]

Steve, yep bottom line is that the KLR is just to dang heavy to be riding in mud like that. I couldn't imagine trying to heave a gs around there, course the dunlop D606 did not work very well with the swamp mud. It filled up with mud and it was like riding around on a slick. Georgia I am cutting out of work today after lunch and am going to go buy a 5 qt. jug of cheap oil and start flushing it this afternoon. I let it drain all night so i need to get more oil in it before the rust starts.

 

[Greasemonkey]

Just my thought's db but you really weren't in the water very long.One oil flush and run it up to temp for a while and it should be good to change with good m/c oil and filter.Car oils are not good for the bikes clutches but will be fine for a flush[or use cheap mc oil,castrol is reasonable].Service that puppy up,.Clean your filter and air box real well,get the mud off so it's easier to check out..Then maybe we can try the small loop in a day???

 

[thumper]

Tim the way I look at it is, if you aren't dunkin' or droppin' your bike then your not having fun I was just glad to be out riding with you guy's.

I'm glad everyone had a good time.

We had to skip alot of trails at Green's. The better ones will have to wait for a dryer day.

Section 2 was suppose to be easy, but we ran into a LEO guarding the main trailhead. He was hired to keep the punks out that had been tearing up the property owners equipment. We had a respectful conversation and shared like views of the punks. So we were off to a different section of land.

The first break would have discussion of the fate of our trail ride.

We rode as much as we could on the faster trails and stayed away from the guy's guarded property. I dropped my DRZ pretty hard on a clay ledge that was concealed by leaves. I tried to save it by getting on the wick but it was too slick. Scott rolled up w/o a camera and I think I was back up before the rest of the gang caught up.

Ken's sweet DR after many puddle rinses. I believe he stayed upright most of the day. He made alot of it look easy.

We quickly ran out of trails and decided to check out the swamp. If we could cross it, we would have another 100 acres to ride on.

The BRP in tractor mode.

Ken getting a wardrobe adjustment.

Bryan playing in the puddles.

We decided to abort the swamp mission and get back to dryer ground.

From there it was off to db's demise.

 

[thumper]

Hey Scott, here's a pic of my Teraflex. I think I left a pound of rubber on that concrete embankment.

It truly is a Terrorflex on hard surfaces. I'm just glad I hung with it and feathered my way up. Going back down would not have been funny.

 

[thumper]

And yeah, that was a scary bridge, who builds a bridge with a tree smack in the middle of it? Was it a Bubba bridge?

The pic is kinda miss leading.The tree only looks like it's blocking the bridge. Actually, it's about 10' up the hill. We call it the tree bridge because the main runners are made from two trees that were cut and stripped right there. The bridge is tied off with 1/2'' cables to keep it from floating away.

This level of construction would be way above Bubba's means.Probably was Festus and his brothers.

 

[Hoop]

Looks like some very cool trails for drier weather. Any GPS tracks available???

 

[Tekisasu DR]

Hi all,

Movie is on the way. Let me start from the photos I took.

OK. Tim posted a day before that we were gonna avoid "swamp". I was expected some mud, but I wanna call this swamp already...

Amazingly, all of us managed it good in most section despite of the trail condition. Tim told us, "It will be a lot nicer once we go through this." How many times did you need to say that, Tim ?

This is how soupy the surface was...

Most case, Tim showed us how to go through tough sections. Sometimes how not to...
BTW, I think Scott was only the one who did not get stuck or drop the bike.

After going through muddy & swampy area, we got out to sand pit. It was so open compare with where we have been riding. I felt like it was a little award...

We had a little more fun in this area, then took off toward north to have even more fun.

To be continued...

Ken

 

[Tekisasu DR]

OK. Went up north to somewhere in Kingwood.
This area was nice.

nicer like this... around the enterance.

and muddier in deep! IMO, mud ride is more exciting and thrilling as you do not know if you can go through it OK or not. Do I want to go back there? I will think about it...

At almost end of the day. Bryan had a little water insersion problem, but after working on half-an-hour repair job, we managed to fix it. Look at the smile!

On the way going back, Bryan decided to stop as his oil went to chocolatey...
I think it was the right decision. Thanks for the crying act, Bryan...

Video is coming up next...

Ken

 

[thumper]

Looks like some very cool trails for drier weather. Any GPS tracks available???

I do have tracks but they're not complete. Some of the gang might have tracked this ride but those entry routes could cause problems. The right ways to get to these trails are all underwater.

Twong and I are going to map the ultimate route when it drys out.

None of this land or any of the other connecting trails are fenced or maintained. It's really only good for three things...riding, hunting, and excavating sand. Too bad the kids cause all the problems [vandalism, torched cars, parties,etc..]. It's ironic that they also make most of the more challenging trails.

We alternate these sections and other trails on different weekends. Your not far away. If you wanted to ride it with us you could record tracks for future rides. We usually ride in groups of four or less. The offer stands for any other TWT member too.

BTW, I bet you've got the same situation in Beaumont. Need any riders?

I've also been wanting to do a two day county rd. ride around Lake Sam, maybe camp or get some cabins on the water. Don't know what alls up there, but it sure does look good.

 

[thumper]

Come on KEN...what do you mean "I will think about it". We rode in the off season. Wait till spring when the skeeters and mocassins come out. Then it really gets fun.

Say what you want. You'll be back. You might even run up on a gator.

Good riding with ya.

 

[Tekisasu DR]

Videos are uploaded.

Warning! Handle bar mounted camera got shaked with my each single turn. You might be sick by watching it too long...

Mud Ride

Just tried to look for easier way...

The bridge

Thanks!
Ken

 

[thumper]

Amazingly, all of us managed it good in most section despite of the trail condition. Tim told us, "It will be a lot nicer once we go through this." How many times did you need to say that, Tim ?

Well it did get better. Just took awhile.


Most case, Tim showed us how to go through tough sections. Sometimes how not to...
BTW, I think Scott was only the one who did not get stuck or drop the bike.

Ken

Hey I was just trying to block the wrong way. And that was the ONLY time. Unless your gonna count my little crash.