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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
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- Location
- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
I posted in some of the Facebook motorcycle groups I participate in that I would be leading a ride this Saturday. Parts of the route are very familiar to me and parts of it will be new to me. I like to keep the unknown aspect of adventure riding in my rides when possible. We've had a lot of rain in the last few weeks here in East Texas. There is a lot of red clay in East Texas... So things can get a bit dicey at times depending on the weather. The first half of the route runs up the East side of the Trinity River between Huntsville, Tx., and Elkhart, Tx. This means elevation changes. Elevation changes mean sand when we get down low, clay somewhere in the middle, and usually gravel/dirt up on the high spots. So this route should have it all!
Right up until I head out to the garage this morning I am debating which bike to take, my 2017 BMW R1200 GS Rallye or my 24 Husky 701 Enduro... I like the 701 for stuff I am not familiar with and that might be "iffy". There is no getting around the fact that it weighs a LOT less than the GS. But... I gave the GS a nice bath a few weeks ago to make it pretty again and it has been sitting in the garage feeling a bit neglected of late. It is calling to me... Wooing me with that silky smooth torque and plush ride. It also has the better back tire of the two bikes right now, so the GS it is!
My usual start spot is on the North side of Huntsville and I start the ride at 9:00am, a bit later than some folks might like to get rolling, but that allows people from out of town to have time to get here if they want to join me. Some times I get 4-5 riders, some times it is just me, but today there is one other, David Frazer on his KLX 300. He's ridden with me on several other recent longer weekend rides and the KLX 300 gets the job done. We wait around a bit while I chug a Red Bull and down a Snickers, giving any potential late comers a few minutes, then head out right after 9:00am.
It is not particularly hot yet, but the humidity is WAY up there! We were sweating before we even got out of the parking lot! Living in Texas for most of my life, you might think I'd be used to the humidity. You'd be wrong. There is no getting used to it. You deal with it, but it always kind of sucks, kind of like the freezing cold weather for all those nutcases living North of Dallas... :P Within a few minutes it feels like I have a wet blanket on my head and the helmet liner gets soaked. I do have 3 liters of iced water in my back pack bladder. That just means I won't run out of sweat!
Dave mentions he has new suspension on his KLX and he is looking forward to testing it out. So right off the bat I pull an audible and change the route to head for some roads I know will be bumpy
We cross the Trinity River just North of town and head toward Lovelady on dirt roads. As soon as we hit dirt I notice that I am really feeling one with the GS today. It is hard to describe. There are days when I wonder why I still have the bike and then there are days when I wonder how I could do without it. Today is one of the latter days!
I generally like to run the bike in 4th gear around 4K rpm for the faster dirt sections and maybe 3rd gear at 4K rpm for the slower sections. That puts the motor in the rev range where it is cushy cruising but high enough in the power band that if I need to whack the throttle to lighten the front end there is enough response from the engine to get the job done. This means I am running 20-55mph because the power band on the motor is so wide in each gear. Often times I can just leave it in 4th and torque through the corners, zip up to ludicrous speed until the next corner, engine brake with maybe a touch of actual brakes for the next corner, rinse and repeat. It just makes it soooo easy to get into that physical and mental flow state.
Dave's early impressions of his suspension seem to be positive... mostly. I hear the occasional "Gahh!" or "Ooof!" over the comes when he hits a few of the bigger holes. The KLX has a harder time getting the front end light. Even so, it helps to actually see the holes before hitting them! He mentions a few of them took him by surprise. Zipping in and out of the bright sunlight and dark shade can make spotting changes in the surface a real challenge! There are some cross ruts in some sand sections that are almost impossible to see until we are virtually on top of them. This is one of the reasons I stand on the GS pretty much 100% of the time when I leave the pavement. The bike does a MUCH better job of handling those surprise hits, it is easier to control, and it gives me a better view of what is coming at me.
We work our way over close to the Trinity River where it crosses Hwy 21. This goes from a low sandy area, through a red clay around, up to a high point where there is a small cemetery with a great view, then back down into the clay and more sand. The red clay is actually dry already, but has some serious ruts and pot holes from the local traffic. It is not too bad so long as I pick a tire track and just stick with it, crossing to the other track only if I really need to. The sand sections are all very nicely packed!
We turn Northeast and start running roughly parallel to Tx 21 toward Crockett. Here the route cuts through one of the numerous rural subdivisions popping up everywhere. The area looks like it used to be timber farming land because the trees are closely packed, tall, and thin. Most of the lots are marked as sold, but only a few have any kind of construction or actual homes on them. Most are still heavily wooded. However, the road through this section is a very nicely maintained and smooth gravel road with a lot of fun curves. If more homes ever do get built back in here, it would not surprise me if they try to gate off the road to keep people out. This is what many of the other subdivisions have done. A LOT of what show as county roads on the maps are now behind locked gates and on private land. On the far side of the subdivision, the road goes back to a red clay rutted narrow lane snaking through dense piney woods.
Somewhere North of FM 1280, my phone rings... My family knows I am out riding and they normally don't bother me unless they really need something. I am on 24/7/365 emergency call for my business. So, this likely means an emergency job. Sure enough, when I answer the call, it is one of my regular customers. I skid to a stop at an intersection so I can focus on talking to him. Fortunately, it is not a difficult job. I get what I need from him and let him know I will be home later this evening. However, there are times when I just have to cut the ride short and head for the barn because they cannot wait. I get lucky this time. With that done, we head off down another really narrow red clay road into the dark woods... and into more sand.
We cross Tx 21 and head North. Here is where things get fuzzy. It has been a LONG time since I did any riding out in the area between the Trinity River and Crockett. There aren't a lot of roads to choose from and I have some vague memories of roads not going through, but I just can recall. I guess that is one of the benefits of being an older adventure rider, a bad memory makes for lots of new adventures!
The real fun begins on the North side of Tx 7 heading toward Houston County Lake.
The dirt road we are on is a nice well traveled road. There are homes and ranches as expected. Then we go around a corner and all that changes. The road starts looking like one of those roads you expect to just peter out into nothing as soon as you really start enjoying it. I try to remain hopeful as it turns into two skinny tracks through deep grass/weeds, a bit of clay, some mud, some sand, and even a smattering of gravel here and there. It twists and winds, it climbs and drops. The trees are thick and the shade is much appreciated! And then, rather unexpectedly, the road actually starts to look better, like we may actually get through after all!
Then I come around a corner to see a full on mud bog, like where ATVs and side by sides have been playing. There is no riding around this. At best, I can only hope to navigate one side. This is where the weight of the GS becomes and issue, even on a day when I am gelling with the machine! I decide to roll in cautiously on the right side in a tire rut. Trying to ride the very edge can be tough because the weight of the bike will make it want to slide down into a nearby rut anyway. Better to just embrace the rut and roll with it!
I get about five feet into it and everything seems to be going great. Then the front end drops precipitously, sliding as it goes. I have to stab my right foot down into the chocolate milk to keep the bike from going over. It feels like hot goo is going up the inside of my pant leg!! I get the bike stable and get back on the gas, gently so as not to dig my rear in deeper to what seems to be a very soft bottom. The last thing I want to have to do is get off and wrestle this thing out of the muck!! Gently... Gently... Just a bit more gas and I start rolling. I manage to get back up on the pegs and let the bike just kind of slide and wiggle as I make my way to the far side and climb out.
Dave and his KLX make through seemingly without effort...
We go a bit further, hit a few more smaller and shallower puddles, and soon come to an old wooden bridge across a nice creek. Actually, my map shows it as being Hurricane Bayou and it feeds into the Trinity River not far from here. It is flowing quite nicely. We stop and poke around for a few minutes, mostly taking time to drink some of that ice water in my backpack, and then continue on our way. After crossing the bridge the road just just a rough two track path twisting through the woods. It is bumpy, but not hard to ride. It soon drops us out on a much more traveled dirt road that appears to have been recently graded. It runs directly from the West side of Crockett over to the Trinity River at a place called Hall's Bluff.
My old topo maps have a lot of detail that newer maps don't show, like cemetery locations and names, church locations and names, and even towns that no longer exist. Such would be the case with Hall's Bluff Town. All I see are trees. My topo map even shows a place called Trinity River Loading and Landing. I can only assume that the river was a major transportation artery wayyyy back in the days before roads really existed in East Texas. The woods are so thick I can't see the river even though we are only about 500 feet from it according to the GPS. The road makes a big U turn bend back to the Northeast and heads away from the river, climbing up onto a ridge. Right at the highest point we come to an intersection just a hair South of Houston County Lake and turn Northwest, dropping back down into the thick woods.
Houston County Lake is not very large. It is feed by Little Elkhart Creek, which continues on the downstream side of the earthen dam. We drop down into this little creek valley, then climb out the other side. The road now is mostly red clay/dirt with some gravel beat into it. It is hard and rough. We soon cross over Big Elkhart Creek and get much closer to the Trinity River again. It seems like around every other corner there sits an old tiny wood frame church, painted long ago in white, now rotting and tattered, with a small cemetery nearby. The headstones look old and weathered. Occasionally there will be a fresh grave. There are long family histories here, many of which predate Texas becoming a U.S. state.
We've been running right between the Trinity River and Big Elkhart Creek for a bit, but now head much closer to the creek.. Just before we would cross it, we turn North on a dirt road that runs parallel to the creek. We don't get in very far before I tell Dave I have a feeling this is going to be one of those roads... The further we go, the more it looks like it is going to come to a locked gate at any moment. We press on. The gravel gives way to sand. The sand gives way to mostly grass with two skinny tracks of sand. The two skinny tracks give way to another monster mud pit, and I can see what looks like a few more in the distance
But I can't see a gate... So...
The left side looks like there might be a slightly wide enough section to stay out of the main part of the pit even though it has water on it as well. There is a lot of brush and face slapper branches sticking out from the fence line. I easy my way over and start shoving my way through the foliage. My front wheel is squirming all over the place. I am moving forward pretty well and then it happens...
The rear tire starts to dig in and sink!!
No no no no... I can smell the muck from here! I do NOT want to get stuck here! I keep my feet out just enough for some stability and my left leg gets caught in some briar vines, pulling it back as I creep forward. I yank on it, trying to get it free, hoping not to lose what little momentum I have going for me. I manage to rip the vines and get my foot out. I keep the gas on ever so gentle, not wanting to let the bike stop but also not wanting to spin the rear tire so bad that it just digs in deeper and deeper. The bike just keeps inching forward at an agonizing snail's pace, but it is still moving!! Mud is sloshing up all over the back of the bike and my legs. Some of it is getting on the cylinder heads and cooking. It stinks! I eventually make my way out the far side and reach slightly firmer ground, then wait for David.
The KLX gets the job done with out any problems at all
My big pig wants to wallow in the mud. His bike is more like those water spiders that just kind of glide across the surface :P
The entire road is mostly soft mud and grass now. There are a few more good sized puddles, but these seem to have only slightly better bottoms and I am able to keep the bike moving much better. It still wants to tuck the front and slide out from under me if I stop paying attention for even a fraction of a second, but it is easier. About the time the ground starts to actually dry out a bit and the worst of it looks to be over, we come around a corner and...
There is the locked gate.
Wonderful...
David gets turned around first and leads the way back. He wants to get ahead and be ready with his camera... you know... just in case things don't go as planned. I'm a good sport and give him time to get ahead of me. He makes it look so incredibly easy! He keeps telling me to take the left side, so I do, even though what might be good for his feather weight bike might not work out quite so well for my bulky sow.
Amazingly, things do go better. The ground is still very very soft and I have to catch the front end a few times, but I manage to get through the first few holes without too much trouble. There is still that last one though, the one where I was barely able to keep moving. I decide to just keep going with the going left and head in. The side is quite narrow and I eventually just have to commit to the puddle, dropping down into it. Fortunately, the bottom on this side is a bit more firm and I am able to get enough traction to keep the bike moving mostly forward until I oozes out the far side.
Mission accomplished!!
We start working our way back to the previous road. A bit before getting to it, we come upon a few side by sides blocking the road with their drivers sitting around them. There are several dogs wandering around as well. We get some priceless slack jawed stares as we come up and cautiously roll around them. You'd think they'd never seen motorcycles before
We reach the main road and of course I turn the wrong way before I notice there is a road we came past just before this road. I never even saw it. In the woods it is easy to sometimes ride right past a road without realizing it unless I am looking directly at it because the woods hide it from view when I am buzzing along. So we practice our tight u-turn skills and go back to look for this other road that looks like it might get us where we want to be and back on our planned track.
The road is just a straight gravel road through some HUGE green pastures. It sits about a hundred feet above the Trinity River. After a few of those 90 degree "pasture corners" we turn off the "main road" onto a smaller county road. The main roads are well graded and wide enough for two vehicles to easily pass each other if they move to the edges. The lesser side roads are basically wide enough for one vehicle. Meeting another vehicle could pose serious challenges, especially when it has been wet and the edges are soft and muddy. This little side road drops down into a steep valley and crosses Box Creek. It then proceeds to climb and drop, over and over before eventually coming out onto a high ridge a few hundred feet higher than where it started. Soon after it turns into a single lane tar paved road. The whole stretch after crossing Box Creek was really fun!
We continue North to FM 294, the furthest North point of our route. Here we turn East and make our way to Elkhart and grab gas/lunch at a nice Shell station in town that has a grocery, meat market, deli, and grill. The food is very good and very reasonably priced. Best of all, they have the AC cranked down nice and cold! We are both soaked and soggy from the humidity. At least when I ride in places like Colorado the sweat evaporates and actually keeps me cooler... No such luck here. It is just like a sauna that goes to eleven.
While we are in the cool air I take a few minutes to call a fabrication shop that builds the hardware I design for a living. The job I got a call about earlier is easy enough that I can give them enough info about the design that they can give my client a reliable price quote for fabrication to get the process rolling. They won't be able to start fabrication until tomorrow anyway, so waiting on me to get home to do the actual formal design this evening isn't going to hold up the process. It also makes my client less anxious about waiting to hear anything back from me or the shop.
With the bikes gassed and our bellies full, we head out of town looking to find our next dirt road. I make a wrong turn again. Fortunately, I realize it pretty quick and we get back on track. Then a few miles later I miss a turn completely even though I was looking for it!? I pull over, check the map, David confirms his map shows a road where the route is supposed to go, and we turn around. Sometimes the roads are 100% behind locked gates, long since abandoned and reclaimed by pastures. We cruise back slowly. I zoom wayyy in on the GPS to make sure I don't ride past the spot. And then right there on the side of the road where it is supposed to be is a dirt road. I must have been looking the other direction as I came through the corner, which was curving away from the road, and totally missed it.
I am glad this road exists and goes through. It turns out to be a really good ride! We start by immediately crossing Box Creek and then begin a twisting climb up and over a ridge, dropping down to Kennedy Creek, looping back around and crossing it again, and finally running back up toward Box Creek just South of Elkhart. The road comes a sandy ditch for lack of a better description. The "shoulder" of the road is a foot high wall of sand on both sides that channel rain water right down the road like a creek. We can see the swirl marks in the sand from the recently flowing water. Right now it is nicely packed and firm, until I put my camera away and get on the gas, then the back end just starts trying to act like a trenching machine! I stay on the gas and get up on the pegs as the bike fishtails around before getting up on top of the sand and straightening out.
We turn Southeast toward the town of Grapeland, the site of frequent Bluegrass festivals every year. Just before Big Elkhart Creek, we turn to the Southwest and run into some hills. The whole area between Grapeland, Elkhart, and the Trinity River to the West has a lot of hills with rapid elevation changes and creeks. It makes the roads exceptionally fun. We eventually come out onto FM 227 West of Grapeland and head West toward Houston County Lake. Once we get around the lake we start doing a bit of back tracking.
This route has a lot of loops that intersect each other, so we keep coming back to spots we've already been too. It can sometimes make navigation confusing because it is easy to get mixed up on the loops. We hit a section where the road was recently graded and it is that nice brown dirt with some rocks and branches thrown in to keep things interesting. It is tight and twisty with fast elevation changes. I am totally in a groove and having a blast. Then I look down at the GPS and it occurs to me I might have missed another turn.... So we turn around.
We get back to the turn and head South into the woods. It is a narrow rough two track. As we head into the woods, two teens riding two up on some kind of Chinese dirt bike come zipping out of the woods going the other way. No gear on at all. The blissful ignorance of youth... I wave at them and keep going. David is out front. Then I hear him come over the comes asking if this looks familiar...? Well... yeah. There are lots of trees and we're on a dirt road. It looks super familiar!
And then we roll up on the old wooden bridge we crossed earlier after the first mud bog of the day. DOH!! This looks specifically familiar now!
So we turn around and head back to the main road... This is when I realize that I did actually miss a turn, but it was wayyyy back by Houston County Lake! We should have stayed on FM 229 all the way into Crockett, but that was pavement, and even though it WAS the planned route, I was so intent on getting back on dirt I did not realize the last six or seven miles should have been looking specifically familiar.
Eh... Whatever. It was fun. So I just decide to get back on the fun road and run it all the way to Crockett. It is way better than any paved road. However, a few miles outside of town it become paved. As we roll up to the loop around town, I ask David if he is up for stopping somewhere with AC and a place to sit inside for a few minutes. He happily agrees. We wind up on the far side of the loop on the other side of town at a Whataburger. We both get milk shakes. They have the AC cranked down. It is heaven... By the time we are ready to leave, my shirt is almost dry!
Refreshed and ready for action, we head South out of Crockett toward Lovelady. I call another audible and make an on the fly route change. The alternative route has much less traffic even though the original route is dirt as well. It just gets a bit more off the beaten path and is a bit wigglier as it crosses the distance between Crockett and Lovelady. David is not in a hurry to get home so he happily follows where I lead.
At Lovelady, I do it again. The original plan was to head down Tx 19 a bit from Lovelady and then run Old Trinlady road to Trinity and then pavement back to Huntsville. Despite the heat, I am still having so much fun on the GS today that I am not ready to be done with the dirt. So we head West out of Lovelady on some of my favorite local backroads. This quickly leads us to a very long "puddle" that is the entire width of the road with no way around on the edges. I have done this a few times and it is not too deep. The bottom is also fairly firm. I skirt the left edge and get across with no issues. David gets across easily as well. I drag him down a few more suspension testing roads and we eventually come out near FM 230/3478 just North of the Trinity River. From here it is a pavement run the last few miles back to the Park-n-Ride lot where David left his truck this morning.
I check my GPS as we reach our start point and it shows almost exactly 250 miles for the route. I had said in my ride notice we'd be getting back around 4-5pm. It is now 5:00pm :P I am hot and tired. David assures me he needs no help loading his bike into the back of his truck and tells me to head home. I don't argue.
At home I park the bike in the garage, head inside, shed my gear and get a cold drink. Then it is back to the grind. I spend the next few hours cranking out a design for my client so the shop can get rolling on the fabrication first thing in the morning. After that, I grab a quick shower, head to Chikfila for dinner, and swing by to visit my Mom in town.
I think I definitely have a new stretch of favorite road in the area now. The problem is that it is the section way up there on the Northernmost part of the route before we got to Elkhart for lunch. The 30-40 minutes before lunch was just fantastic. It is a bit far for an evening ride after work, which means weekends only and the risk of being far from home if I get another work related call.
David had no issue hanging with my GS on his KLX 300 today. I don't know if he was wringing its neck to do it, but most of the time when I glanced back or checked my mirrors, I could usually see his headlight somewhere back there or right on my butt!
The pit that tried to swallow my front tire
Miles of this
The left side of this is where my rear started just sinking into the muck
The last puddle heading in and the first heading out. David is almost all the way back to the first puddle.
After a LOT of the mud has been slung or shaken off before we stopped for lunch.
This should be called Sandy Creek Road
Right up until I head out to the garage this morning I am debating which bike to take, my 2017 BMW R1200 GS Rallye or my 24 Husky 701 Enduro... I like the 701 for stuff I am not familiar with and that might be "iffy". There is no getting around the fact that it weighs a LOT less than the GS. But... I gave the GS a nice bath a few weeks ago to make it pretty again and it has been sitting in the garage feeling a bit neglected of late. It is calling to me... Wooing me with that silky smooth torque and plush ride. It also has the better back tire of the two bikes right now, so the GS it is!
My usual start spot is on the North side of Huntsville and I start the ride at 9:00am, a bit later than some folks might like to get rolling, but that allows people from out of town to have time to get here if they want to join me. Some times I get 4-5 riders, some times it is just me, but today there is one other, David Frazer on his KLX 300. He's ridden with me on several other recent longer weekend rides and the KLX 300 gets the job done. We wait around a bit while I chug a Red Bull and down a Snickers, giving any potential late comers a few minutes, then head out right after 9:00am.
It is not particularly hot yet, but the humidity is WAY up there! We were sweating before we even got out of the parking lot! Living in Texas for most of my life, you might think I'd be used to the humidity. You'd be wrong. There is no getting used to it. You deal with it, but it always kind of sucks, kind of like the freezing cold weather for all those nutcases living North of Dallas... :P Within a few minutes it feels like I have a wet blanket on my head and the helmet liner gets soaked. I do have 3 liters of iced water in my back pack bladder. That just means I won't run out of sweat!
Dave mentions he has new suspension on his KLX and he is looking forward to testing it out. So right off the bat I pull an audible and change the route to head for some roads I know will be bumpy
We cross the Trinity River just North of town and head toward Lovelady on dirt roads. As soon as we hit dirt I notice that I am really feeling one with the GS today. It is hard to describe. There are days when I wonder why I still have the bike and then there are days when I wonder how I could do without it. Today is one of the latter days!I generally like to run the bike in 4th gear around 4K rpm for the faster dirt sections and maybe 3rd gear at 4K rpm for the slower sections. That puts the motor in the rev range where it is cushy cruising but high enough in the power band that if I need to whack the throttle to lighten the front end there is enough response from the engine to get the job done. This means I am running 20-55mph because the power band on the motor is so wide in each gear. Often times I can just leave it in 4th and torque through the corners, zip up to ludicrous speed until the next corner, engine brake with maybe a touch of actual brakes for the next corner, rinse and repeat. It just makes it soooo easy to get into that physical and mental flow state.
Dave's early impressions of his suspension seem to be positive... mostly. I hear the occasional "Gahh!" or "Ooof!" over the comes when he hits a few of the bigger holes. The KLX has a harder time getting the front end light. Even so, it helps to actually see the holes before hitting them! He mentions a few of them took him by surprise. Zipping in and out of the bright sunlight and dark shade can make spotting changes in the surface a real challenge! There are some cross ruts in some sand sections that are almost impossible to see until we are virtually on top of them. This is one of the reasons I stand on the GS pretty much 100% of the time when I leave the pavement. The bike does a MUCH better job of handling those surprise hits, it is easier to control, and it gives me a better view of what is coming at me.
We work our way over close to the Trinity River where it crosses Hwy 21. This goes from a low sandy area, through a red clay around, up to a high point where there is a small cemetery with a great view, then back down into the clay and more sand. The red clay is actually dry already, but has some serious ruts and pot holes from the local traffic. It is not too bad so long as I pick a tire track and just stick with it, crossing to the other track only if I really need to. The sand sections are all very nicely packed!
We turn Northeast and start running roughly parallel to Tx 21 toward Crockett. Here the route cuts through one of the numerous rural subdivisions popping up everywhere. The area looks like it used to be timber farming land because the trees are closely packed, tall, and thin. Most of the lots are marked as sold, but only a few have any kind of construction or actual homes on them. Most are still heavily wooded. However, the road through this section is a very nicely maintained and smooth gravel road with a lot of fun curves. If more homes ever do get built back in here, it would not surprise me if they try to gate off the road to keep people out. This is what many of the other subdivisions have done. A LOT of what show as county roads on the maps are now behind locked gates and on private land. On the far side of the subdivision, the road goes back to a red clay rutted narrow lane snaking through dense piney woods.
Somewhere North of FM 1280, my phone rings... My family knows I am out riding and they normally don't bother me unless they really need something. I am on 24/7/365 emergency call for my business. So, this likely means an emergency job. Sure enough, when I answer the call, it is one of my regular customers. I skid to a stop at an intersection so I can focus on talking to him. Fortunately, it is not a difficult job. I get what I need from him and let him know I will be home later this evening. However, there are times when I just have to cut the ride short and head for the barn because they cannot wait. I get lucky this time. With that done, we head off down another really narrow red clay road into the dark woods... and into more sand.
We cross Tx 21 and head North. Here is where things get fuzzy. It has been a LONG time since I did any riding out in the area between the Trinity River and Crockett. There aren't a lot of roads to choose from and I have some vague memories of roads not going through, but I just can recall. I guess that is one of the benefits of being an older adventure rider, a bad memory makes for lots of new adventures!
The real fun begins on the North side of Tx 7 heading toward Houston County Lake.The dirt road we are on is a nice well traveled road. There are homes and ranches as expected. Then we go around a corner and all that changes. The road starts looking like one of those roads you expect to just peter out into nothing as soon as you really start enjoying it. I try to remain hopeful as it turns into two skinny tracks through deep grass/weeds, a bit of clay, some mud, some sand, and even a smattering of gravel here and there. It twists and winds, it climbs and drops. The trees are thick and the shade is much appreciated! And then, rather unexpectedly, the road actually starts to look better, like we may actually get through after all!
Then I come around a corner to see a full on mud bog, like where ATVs and side by sides have been playing. There is no riding around this. At best, I can only hope to navigate one side. This is where the weight of the GS becomes and issue, even on a day when I am gelling with the machine! I decide to roll in cautiously on the right side in a tire rut. Trying to ride the very edge can be tough because the weight of the bike will make it want to slide down into a nearby rut anyway. Better to just embrace the rut and roll with it!
I get about five feet into it and everything seems to be going great. Then the front end drops precipitously, sliding as it goes. I have to stab my right foot down into the chocolate milk to keep the bike from going over. It feels like hot goo is going up the inside of my pant leg!! I get the bike stable and get back on the gas, gently so as not to dig my rear in deeper to what seems to be a very soft bottom. The last thing I want to have to do is get off and wrestle this thing out of the muck!! Gently... Gently... Just a bit more gas and I start rolling. I manage to get back up on the pegs and let the bike just kind of slide and wiggle as I make my way to the far side and climb out.
Dave and his KLX make through seemingly without effort...
We go a bit further, hit a few more smaller and shallower puddles, and soon come to an old wooden bridge across a nice creek. Actually, my map shows it as being Hurricane Bayou and it feeds into the Trinity River not far from here. It is flowing quite nicely. We stop and poke around for a few minutes, mostly taking time to drink some of that ice water in my backpack, and then continue on our way. After crossing the bridge the road just just a rough two track path twisting through the woods. It is bumpy, but not hard to ride. It soon drops us out on a much more traveled dirt road that appears to have been recently graded. It runs directly from the West side of Crockett over to the Trinity River at a place called Hall's Bluff.
My old topo maps have a lot of detail that newer maps don't show, like cemetery locations and names, church locations and names, and even towns that no longer exist. Such would be the case with Hall's Bluff Town. All I see are trees. My topo map even shows a place called Trinity River Loading and Landing. I can only assume that the river was a major transportation artery wayyyy back in the days before roads really existed in East Texas. The woods are so thick I can't see the river even though we are only about 500 feet from it according to the GPS. The road makes a big U turn bend back to the Northeast and heads away from the river, climbing up onto a ridge. Right at the highest point we come to an intersection just a hair South of Houston County Lake and turn Northwest, dropping back down into the thick woods.
Houston County Lake is not very large. It is feed by Little Elkhart Creek, which continues on the downstream side of the earthen dam. We drop down into this little creek valley, then climb out the other side. The road now is mostly red clay/dirt with some gravel beat into it. It is hard and rough. We soon cross over Big Elkhart Creek and get much closer to the Trinity River again. It seems like around every other corner there sits an old tiny wood frame church, painted long ago in white, now rotting and tattered, with a small cemetery nearby. The headstones look old and weathered. Occasionally there will be a fresh grave. There are long family histories here, many of which predate Texas becoming a U.S. state.
We've been running right between the Trinity River and Big Elkhart Creek for a bit, but now head much closer to the creek.. Just before we would cross it, we turn North on a dirt road that runs parallel to the creek. We don't get in very far before I tell Dave I have a feeling this is going to be one of those roads... The further we go, the more it looks like it is going to come to a locked gate at any moment. We press on. The gravel gives way to sand. The sand gives way to mostly grass with two skinny tracks of sand. The two skinny tracks give way to another monster mud pit, and I can see what looks like a few more in the distance
But I can't see a gate... So...
The left side looks like there might be a slightly wide enough section to stay out of the main part of the pit even though it has water on it as well. There is a lot of brush and face slapper branches sticking out from the fence line. I easy my way over and start shoving my way through the foliage. My front wheel is squirming all over the place. I am moving forward pretty well and then it happens...
The rear tire starts to dig in and sink!!
No no no no... I can smell the muck from here! I do NOT want to get stuck here! I keep my feet out just enough for some stability and my left leg gets caught in some briar vines, pulling it back as I creep forward. I yank on it, trying to get it free, hoping not to lose what little momentum I have going for me. I manage to rip the vines and get my foot out. I keep the gas on ever so gentle, not wanting to let the bike stop but also not wanting to spin the rear tire so bad that it just digs in deeper and deeper. The bike just keeps inching forward at an agonizing snail's pace, but it is still moving!! Mud is sloshing up all over the back of the bike and my legs. Some of it is getting on the cylinder heads and cooking. It stinks! I eventually make my way out the far side and reach slightly firmer ground, then wait for David.
The KLX gets the job done with out any problems at all
My big pig wants to wallow in the mud. His bike is more like those water spiders that just kind of glide across the surface :P
The entire road is mostly soft mud and grass now. There are a few more good sized puddles, but these seem to have only slightly better bottoms and I am able to keep the bike moving much better. It still wants to tuck the front and slide out from under me if I stop paying attention for even a fraction of a second, but it is easier. About the time the ground starts to actually dry out a bit and the worst of it looks to be over, we come around a corner and...
There is the locked gate.
Wonderful...
David gets turned around first and leads the way back. He wants to get ahead and be ready with his camera... you know... just in case things don't go as planned. I'm a good sport and give him time to get ahead of me. He makes it look so incredibly easy! He keeps telling me to take the left side, so I do, even though what might be good for his feather weight bike might not work out quite so well for my bulky sow.
Amazingly, things do go better. The ground is still very very soft and I have to catch the front end a few times, but I manage to get through the first few holes without too much trouble. There is still that last one though, the one where I was barely able to keep moving. I decide to just keep going with the going left and head in. The side is quite narrow and I eventually just have to commit to the puddle, dropping down into it. Fortunately, the bottom on this side is a bit more firm and I am able to get enough traction to keep the bike moving mostly forward until I oozes out the far side.
Mission accomplished!!
We start working our way back to the previous road. A bit before getting to it, we come upon a few side by sides blocking the road with their drivers sitting around them. There are several dogs wandering around as well. We get some priceless slack jawed stares as we come up and cautiously roll around them. You'd think they'd never seen motorcycles before
We reach the main road and of course I turn the wrong way before I notice there is a road we came past just before this road. I never even saw it. In the woods it is easy to sometimes ride right past a road without realizing it unless I am looking directly at it because the woods hide it from view when I am buzzing along. So we practice our tight u-turn skills and go back to look for this other road that looks like it might get us where we want to be and back on our planned track.
The road is just a straight gravel road through some HUGE green pastures. It sits about a hundred feet above the Trinity River. After a few of those 90 degree "pasture corners" we turn off the "main road" onto a smaller county road. The main roads are well graded and wide enough for two vehicles to easily pass each other if they move to the edges. The lesser side roads are basically wide enough for one vehicle. Meeting another vehicle could pose serious challenges, especially when it has been wet and the edges are soft and muddy. This little side road drops down into a steep valley and crosses Box Creek. It then proceeds to climb and drop, over and over before eventually coming out onto a high ridge a few hundred feet higher than where it started. Soon after it turns into a single lane tar paved road. The whole stretch after crossing Box Creek was really fun!
We continue North to FM 294, the furthest North point of our route. Here we turn East and make our way to Elkhart and grab gas/lunch at a nice Shell station in town that has a grocery, meat market, deli, and grill. The food is very good and very reasonably priced. Best of all, they have the AC cranked down nice and cold! We are both soaked and soggy from the humidity. At least when I ride in places like Colorado the sweat evaporates and actually keeps me cooler... No such luck here. It is just like a sauna that goes to eleven.
While we are in the cool air I take a few minutes to call a fabrication shop that builds the hardware I design for a living. The job I got a call about earlier is easy enough that I can give them enough info about the design that they can give my client a reliable price quote for fabrication to get the process rolling. They won't be able to start fabrication until tomorrow anyway, so waiting on me to get home to do the actual formal design this evening isn't going to hold up the process. It also makes my client less anxious about waiting to hear anything back from me or the shop.
With the bikes gassed and our bellies full, we head out of town looking to find our next dirt road. I make a wrong turn again. Fortunately, I realize it pretty quick and we get back on track. Then a few miles later I miss a turn completely even though I was looking for it!? I pull over, check the map, David confirms his map shows a road where the route is supposed to go, and we turn around. Sometimes the roads are 100% behind locked gates, long since abandoned and reclaimed by pastures. We cruise back slowly. I zoom wayyy in on the GPS to make sure I don't ride past the spot. And then right there on the side of the road where it is supposed to be is a dirt road. I must have been looking the other direction as I came through the corner, which was curving away from the road, and totally missed it.
I am glad this road exists and goes through. It turns out to be a really good ride! We start by immediately crossing Box Creek and then begin a twisting climb up and over a ridge, dropping down to Kennedy Creek, looping back around and crossing it again, and finally running back up toward Box Creek just South of Elkhart. The road comes a sandy ditch for lack of a better description. The "shoulder" of the road is a foot high wall of sand on both sides that channel rain water right down the road like a creek. We can see the swirl marks in the sand from the recently flowing water. Right now it is nicely packed and firm, until I put my camera away and get on the gas, then the back end just starts trying to act like a trenching machine! I stay on the gas and get up on the pegs as the bike fishtails around before getting up on top of the sand and straightening out.
We turn Southeast toward the town of Grapeland, the site of frequent Bluegrass festivals every year. Just before Big Elkhart Creek, we turn to the Southwest and run into some hills. The whole area between Grapeland, Elkhart, and the Trinity River to the West has a lot of hills with rapid elevation changes and creeks. It makes the roads exceptionally fun. We eventually come out onto FM 227 West of Grapeland and head West toward Houston County Lake. Once we get around the lake we start doing a bit of back tracking.
This route has a lot of loops that intersect each other, so we keep coming back to spots we've already been too. It can sometimes make navigation confusing because it is easy to get mixed up on the loops. We hit a section where the road was recently graded and it is that nice brown dirt with some rocks and branches thrown in to keep things interesting. It is tight and twisty with fast elevation changes. I am totally in a groove and having a blast. Then I look down at the GPS and it occurs to me I might have missed another turn.... So we turn around.
We get back to the turn and head South into the woods. It is a narrow rough two track. As we head into the woods, two teens riding two up on some kind of Chinese dirt bike come zipping out of the woods going the other way. No gear on at all. The blissful ignorance of youth... I wave at them and keep going. David is out front. Then I hear him come over the comes asking if this looks familiar...? Well... yeah. There are lots of trees and we're on a dirt road. It looks super familiar!
And then we roll up on the old wooden bridge we crossed earlier after the first mud bog of the day. DOH!! This looks specifically familiar now!
So we turn around and head back to the main road... This is when I realize that I did actually miss a turn, but it was wayyyy back by Houston County Lake! We should have stayed on FM 229 all the way into Crockett, but that was pavement, and even though it WAS the planned route, I was so intent on getting back on dirt I did not realize the last six or seven miles should have been looking specifically familiar.
Eh... Whatever. It was fun. So I just decide to get back on the fun road and run it all the way to Crockett. It is way better than any paved road. However, a few miles outside of town it become paved. As we roll up to the loop around town, I ask David if he is up for stopping somewhere with AC and a place to sit inside for a few minutes. He happily agrees. We wind up on the far side of the loop on the other side of town at a Whataburger. We both get milk shakes. They have the AC cranked down. It is heaven... By the time we are ready to leave, my shirt is almost dry!
Refreshed and ready for action, we head South out of Crockett toward Lovelady. I call another audible and make an on the fly route change. The alternative route has much less traffic even though the original route is dirt as well. It just gets a bit more off the beaten path and is a bit wigglier as it crosses the distance between Crockett and Lovelady. David is not in a hurry to get home so he happily follows where I lead.
At Lovelady, I do it again. The original plan was to head down Tx 19 a bit from Lovelady and then run Old Trinlady road to Trinity and then pavement back to Huntsville. Despite the heat, I am still having so much fun on the GS today that I am not ready to be done with the dirt. So we head West out of Lovelady on some of my favorite local backroads. This quickly leads us to a very long "puddle" that is the entire width of the road with no way around on the edges. I have done this a few times and it is not too deep. The bottom is also fairly firm. I skirt the left edge and get across with no issues. David gets across easily as well. I drag him down a few more suspension testing roads and we eventually come out near FM 230/3478 just North of the Trinity River. From here it is a pavement run the last few miles back to the Park-n-Ride lot where David left his truck this morning.
I check my GPS as we reach our start point and it shows almost exactly 250 miles for the route. I had said in my ride notice we'd be getting back around 4-5pm. It is now 5:00pm :P I am hot and tired. David assures me he needs no help loading his bike into the back of his truck and tells me to head home. I don't argue.
At home I park the bike in the garage, head inside, shed my gear and get a cold drink. Then it is back to the grind. I spend the next few hours cranking out a design for my client so the shop can get rolling on the fabrication first thing in the morning. After that, I grab a quick shower, head to Chikfila for dinner, and swing by to visit my Mom in town.
I think I definitely have a new stretch of favorite road in the area now. The problem is that it is the section way up there on the Northernmost part of the route before we got to Elkhart for lunch. The 30-40 minutes before lunch was just fantastic. It is a bit far for an evening ride after work, which means weekends only and the risk of being far from home if I get another work related call.
David had no issue hanging with my GS on his KLX 300 today. I don't know if he was wringing its neck to do it, but most of the time when I glanced back or checked my mirrors, I could usually see his headlight somewhere back there or right on my butt!
The pit that tried to swallow my front tire
Miles of this
The left side of this is where my rear started just sinking into the muck
The last puddle heading in and the first heading out. David is almost all the way back to the first puddle.
After a LOT of the mud has been slung or shaken off before we stopped for lunch.
This should be called Sandy Creek Road
Had I been alone I wouldn't have even considered it, even on my 701. A decent two strap would be good to have. Ideally, it could be attached to the person still on solid ground and they could pull the bike either way while I kept it upright.