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Is it hot in Big Bend-a ride report?

Day 7
Short day today. Ray wants to leave at 2:30 today instead of early tomorrow morning. No problem, we’ll do something predictable and ride over to Presidio again, stop by the Starlight for lunch and be back in time to load up by 2:30. We met 4 Triumph riders in Presidio. They were all riding tiger motorcycles and had attempted to ride the river road yesterday. It didn’t take them long to turn around.
We stopped at the movie town right beside the highway.
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This is probably a fake, but I’ve seen actual fire places in Taos, NM that look like this.
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Ceiling made of vigas and cane.
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Ray looking too comfortable. It’s time for him to go home.
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The story behind the scene.
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Starlight was closed, but we stopped and took a couple of pics.
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Another old car
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Nice chair. We used to give a trophy similar to this to the racer that had made the worst pass, acted unsportsmanlike, complained or just whined too much. My 5 year old nephew called it the half a horse trophy. We had to stop giving it because racers were competing to get it.
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The Starlight was closed so we ate at our usual spot by the highway. An elderly man was drinking a beer at the bar and I told the waitress that I wanted to pay his tab. She told me that he paid as he ordered and said he had drank 3 beers and would probably drink 1 more. Obviously he was a regular. I got her to refund his money for the first 3 beers and put all 4 on my tab. Doug Blackmon, Chief Therapist/Beer Enthusiast of Doug’s Mental Health Clinic on the Porch joined us at our table. He had been in Terlingua for 44 years. A very interesting conversation was interrupted by our realization that Ray wasn’t going to make his 2:30 deadline. If you ever meet Doug, buy him a couple of beers. I guarantee it will be money well spent.
Tomorrow I hike. At this point I have ridden the DRZ about 1200 miles in 7 days. Will post more when I get back from the races. Guadalupe Peak, Carlsbad Caverns NP, Sitting Bull Falls and the Carlsbad flume are coming up, as well as my autobiography up to 15 years old.
:lol2: Thanks for the ride.....
 
Wow! Sure brought back memories of my trip to the area in June '95 I think? On my new R11GS at that. Two things I remember well. 102F outside which I mentioned to the lady at the store and she say, " Honey , you should of been here last week when it was about 112 or so" . Told her I was glad I came here during a cold spell.
Then the ranger that flagged me down on one of the old roads. Says I really need to stick to the more used roads with my bike as they maybe patrol these roads every few days and if I had a problem, I would more than likely die before someone came along. I did a 180 and stayed on main roads then.
Thanks for the great pictures and narrations.
 
Looks like you had lots of fun there. For how many day you were in travel?

12 days total. 10 riding days. I had 2 weeks, but it started raining on me in southern NM and the dirt roads I wanted to ride were too dangerous to do solo. That just gives me a good reason to go back.
 
More next week after I go show some young people how to get around a race track quickly.

What a great and enjoyable write-up. My wife and I are currently trying to see if we can get down to Big Bend for our first visit. Would it be ok to go in November?

Also, your comment regarding the track, are you talking about TWS in College Station? I'm heading there this weekend. Will be instructing for Drivers Edge.
 
This was my second trip there. The first one was in August so I don't have personal experience in the fall and winter. From what others tell me, November is one of the best months to go, but it can snow or be 90 degrees according to the park service.
The race is the Texas Mini GP this weekend at Denton. The following weekend I will be at TWS for the Lone Star Track Day on Friday and I will be in the 6 hour endurance race on Saturday.
 
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Wow! Sure brought back memories of my trip to the area in June '95 I think? On my new R11GS at that. Two things I remember well. 102F outside which I mentioned to the lady at the store and she say, " Honey , you should of been here last week when it was about 112 or so" . Told her I was glad I came here during a cold spell.
Then the ranger that flagged me down on one of the old roads. Says I really need to stick to the more used roads with my bike as they maybe patrol these roads every few days and if I had a problem, I would more than likely die before someone came along. I did a 180 and stayed on main roads then.
Thanks for the great pictures and narrations.

A good reason for those triumph Tiger riders to turn around on the River Road. I had problems (and fun) on my DRZ.
 
Sorry I never crossed paths with y'all while you were here. By the way... Darren has gotten married and moved to Alpine. He still has the cave down here and we do see the happy couple every couple of months when they come on down.

I thought about you several times. I don't do the smart phone thing, I don't even have text on my folding phone, so I couldn't contact you even if we had service. I knew Darren had gotten married. I haven't seen him since he lived in Taos, NM in '92 or '93.
 
Ahh Dr. Doug. He is quite a character, but be aware that he 'embellishes' his stories. He is in his mid fifties right now, but likes to play act at being much older than that. 44 years around here makes for a better story than say.... ten or eleven. His bad knee has a habit of changing sides when he loses track of his beer count. Love the guy, just have to chuckle at his game that he plays on tourists.
 
It's not a lie if it should have and could have happened that way. The value of his entertainment was much more than the cost of his 4 beers.
 
Day 8
Ray is gone. I haven’t paid for camping tonight so I went ahead and packed up all my goods. As I said earlier, Big Bend is a hiking park and I decided to do another hike recommended by TWT members. Emory Peak, here I come. I had planned to do the south rim trail with a side trip up Emory Peak, but I had a little breaking problem on my day pack. The hike would have taken me 2 days and I would have carried 2 gallons of water, food and sleeping arrangements. Due to room on the bike, I left my good pack at home. Anyway, the thought of a strap breaking 8-10 miles from camp was enough to convince me to do a day hike. The hike up Pinnacles and Emory was around 5.3 miles one way.
The window, looking back toward the basin
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Casa Grande Peak
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About the start of mile 2, I saw a bear. He didn’t like me and took off at a lope. I did get a couple of pics after he looked back and saw I wasn’t in pursuit. He stopped to eat some pears off the prickly pear cactus.
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Worth the walk up for this view alone.
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I saw many of these trees. The bark is smooth and white except where the old bark is still pealing. The brown spots near the leafy branches are old bark that is still pealing. Anyone know what kind of tree it is?
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I only saw one of these. I didn’t bring a long lens and this is as close as I wanted to get with a 55mm lens. The color is unusual.
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I know this is not a good picture, but it was a good place to stop for a snack and a drink.
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On top of the peak. Breathtaking. From my notes, “The last 30 or 40 yards of the hike up Emory are the toughest…… After a 10 minute rock climb, I witnessed a 360 degree explosion of beauty. The Basin, River Road, Santa Elena and Costolon Canyons were all in sight.”
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On the way down.
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Back in the Basin and ready to go. I told the lady in the Basin store that I saw a bear and she told me I could have seen a momma bear and two cubs trying to get into the restaurant trash can if I had gone to the wedding reception instead of hiking. No thanks, Big Bend is for hiking not getting married. At least it is if your 50 anniversary is already planned.
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On the way to Alpine, it started to get cool. At the border checkpoint, the thermometer read 68 degrees. With a slight mist in the air, it was starting to get a little uncomfortable by the time I got to Alpine.


Just riding around Alpine.
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They must be affiliated with UT
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I stopped at the local McDonalds to get a soda and look at a map. A cowboy looking guy asked which direction I was going and I told him I was probably going to Fort Davis. He advised me to wait until tomorrow since he barely made it through a couple of low water crossings in his big 4 wheeled drive truck. I took his advice and stayed in Alpine.
 
Day 9
The shower felt so good last night that I took another this morning before heading down the street to Magoo’s. It was less than $10 for 2 pancakes, 2 bacon, 2 sausage patties, 2 eggs and coffee. Very good too.

I guess that highway designation just about covers us all.
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I saw these extra large agave growing in a circle.
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In the misty mountains. Someone should write a song. Most of the day would be riding in fog or rain, something that isn’t expected in the desert.
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Just east of Van Horn I stopped at this station. I try my best not to buy gas at Exxon, but thought the price differential between gas and diesel warranted a picture to share with my long suffering diesel driving buddies. I bought gas in Van Horn for $2.199.
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Typical high desert scenery along the highway between Van Horn and Carlsbad. I have been down this highway many times when I lived in Carlsbad and Loving NM.
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More misty mountains
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Rain and lightening greeted me in Guadalupe Mountains NP so I decided to bypass my climb up until another trip. I really have to stop postponing things on by bucket list since it keeps getting longer and my time keeps getting shorter. The rain also stopped me from riding some of the dirt roads in the area. I decided to ride past Carlsbad caverns and visit some boyhood homes. It has been 60 years since I lived in Loving, NM and 52 since I lived in Carlsbad.

One of our houses in Loving. There was a family moving in and they told me they were going to fix up the house. I believe we were going to do the same thing. My mom, dad, uncle and seven children lived here.
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I believe it’s a house now, but when I lived in Loving it was a store with shelves all along the walls and a big open area in the middle. No other shelves except along the walls. Milk was kept in a refrigerator with a round top. The name of the store was Blankenship Mercantile. In the middle of the floor there were 2 chairs that were always occupied by 2 elderly women. Upon entry, all children that were alone were greeted with, “Whatta you want boy.” I guess if it were a female it may have been whatta you want girl.
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This was our church. It looks pretty much like it did when I was in the second grade.
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I’ll have more to say about the church later.

This was a convenience store owned by Ray’s mom. Not the Ray that went on this trip with me, the Ray that was a big brother to my brother’s best friend. Ray, at around 16 years old, was a large person. He was about 6’2” and weighed around 400 pounds. I never heard anyone except his mom call him anything except Sidewalk since he was heavy enough to crack sidewalks by walking on them. Of course that wasn’t true, but the nickname stuck. Ray saved 2 small children from sure death, but died in the process. I overheard my dad talking to my mom about it and he said that drowning and burning were two of the worst ways of dying. I don’t know which happened to Ray, but I do know that I have never heard him called Sidewalk since his death.
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Higbee Hole along the Black River. This was a favorite fishing spot even though we seldom caught anything. Now they stock it with catchable trout in the winter and catchable catfish in the warm months.
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On to Carlsbad and Happy Valley. A beach in the desert. This one was called Town Beach or just the beach. At one time there was a 3 story diving tower about 50 yards on the other side of the island. I don’t know why it was torn down. Liability? Silt? Age of the structure? We spent many summer days at the beach or at the Pecos river. Actually, this beach is on the Pecos.
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This was the local hang out for kids in the 9th and 10th grade. Back then we went to Carlsbad Mid High School which was just across the street. My oldest brother had come home on a visit and my grandmother who lived next door to us let him use her 1952 Chevy to go here to get hamburgers for everyone. I don’t remember it being named Becky’s then. It was a car hop kind of place. I guess Sonics are the only ones left now. Anyway, he parked between 2 cars and the occupants of the 2 cars were having an argument. They started shooting at each other and my grandmothers car was shot between the rear door and the rear window. No exit wound so we know the bullet is still inside. The car is in my garage as I type this. The hole has not been repaired. More shooting later. Bunnies and my brother don’t fare any better than Grannie’s car.

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I include this picture because I want to share a story that happened to me in 1970, on the same trip that I first visited Big Bend.
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This house was the home of Edith and Claude, C.I., Johnson. I called just as I got to the edge of Carlsbad, about 15 miles away from their home in Happy Valley, a suburb. Edith answered and told me to come on over and spend the night. When I got there, C.I. was on the roof attempting put on a new roof. The problem was he had a cast the full length of his leg. I promised to stay long enough to roof the small house if C.I. would come down. He finally did and I spent 2 long days finishing his roof. Not the end of the story.

Two years later, I came back through Carlsbad and C.I. was off on a construction job. The roof job came up in our discussions and Edith told me that C.I. knew that I had roofed houses for two years and as soon as he found out I was coming, he got dressed and painstakingly climbed the ladder onto the roof. He knew I wouldn’t leave without his roof being finished.

One of 5 houses we lived in during our 4 years in Carlsbad and the last one. The current occupant is the nephew of our landlord and when I told him about my family, with 9 children then, living in his house, his face lit up. It seems that my mother still owes $8 in back rent. I’m assuming that would be for a month. At that time my single mother’s only source of income was doing washing and ironing for single men that worked at the potash mines. She charged $1.20 per dozen, with a minimum charge of $1.20. Starch was extra. She did all the laundry by hand in a metal tub in the back yard and hung them to dry on the clothline.
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House #1 on Standpipe Road. A shooting story will be added to this house before I post day 10.
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House #2 or #3, I’m not sure which. We didn’t live here long. The roof used to look like an upside down W and leaves and other debris had collected in the bottom of the V shape on the upside down W. We would climb on the roof to throw water balloons at cars and when one would stop to investigate, we would hide in the V. At night, nobody suspected that there was a hiding place behind the store front. Now for the, “We didn’t live here long,” part. My step brother and I were shooting bottle rockets and ……… The good news is a neighbor with a telephone saw the smoke of the fire just getting started and the fire station was only a couple of blocks away. The roof rebuild did not include the upside down W.
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They recently remodeled the Fiesta drive-in theater. It now has 3 screens.
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In 1972, when I was returning from my stint in the Marines, I stopped in Carlsbad and caught up with a childhood friend named Billy George. He was about 20 years old and his very pregnant wife was several years younger. Her younger brother was also living with them. Around sundown Billy suggested we go to the movies. We all got in his car and he drove down a dirt road behind the theater. When he stopped, his very pregnant wife and her brother jumped out of the car. Billy told me that they were going to crawl under the barbed wire fence and I should join them. He would park on the last row and as soon as we were all in the car he would move up to a better spot. I declined and was told that I would have to pay for my own ticket. When we got to the front, there was a large sign that read, “Dollar/Carload.”

Back to Carlsbad Caverns where I stayed at the Campground in White’s city. $20 per night and it includes breakfast at the motel across the street.
 
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There's a type of Madrone that grows only around the Big Bend area. This may be one of them.

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"I really have to stop postponing things on by bucket list since it keeps getting longer and my time keeps getting shorter."

Ain't it the truth!
 
"There's a type of Madrone that grows only around the Big Bend area. This may be one of them."

I googled it and I believe you are right. Thanks.
 
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I promised a shooting story about this house. Actually, it’s not about the house, it’s about Big Bob who we met shortly after moving into this house. An old truck drove into our yard the first Sunday after we moved in and a very tall and lanky man got out. He became Big Bob to us and he has remained a positive influence on me to this day even though I only knew him for a couple of years. Big Bob asked if anyone wanted to go to church and several of my brothers and sisters got excited. Mom said OK. When they returned, Big Bob asked my mom if it would be OK if a couple of the boys joined him on a rabbit hunt. Again, the answer was OK, surprising today, but not so much then, especially if you had 9 children living at home. That began a weekly ritual of Big Bob coming by the house, taking several kids to church and then taking two or 3 boys hunting.
The actual hunting would be frowned upon by most of today’s hunters. We drove around on dirt roads and shot rabbits out of the windows and the bed of Big Bob’s truck. Mostly cottontails, but we would shoot jackrabbits if the cottontails were scarce. We would usually kill 4 to 6 bunnies a weekend. Big Bob would take one rabbit and give the rest to us. At the time I thought that Big Bob just needed some company at church and on his weekly hunts. Of course, I now know that he was giving spiritual guidance to children and much needed nutrition to a single mother with a whole bunch of children.
On one hunt my brother, JD, was riding shotgun with one of Big Bob’s single shot 22s standing upright with the butt of the stock sitting on the seat between his legs. It wouldn’t fit unless it was tilted a little toward the back. The truck hit a rather large bump, the gun butt came off the seat and slammed down toward the floor, the gun fired into the top of the cab and ricocheted into JD’s back. The bullet was just under the skin, about an inch below the entry hole. The consensus was we would never be allowed to go hunting again if mom found out so my oldest brother cut the bullet out using a single edge injector type razor blade. My 15 year old brother became my hero. He would live on to join the Marines, get shot twice in Viet Nan, volunteer to stay in country for another 6 months and survive that also.
 
End of autobiography. I decided not to write about my early childhood church experience in Loving, NM. Next up is Day 10 where I visit an unusual phenomenon in the desert. Anywhere else it would not be unusual.
 
Day 10
Up early, eat a free breakfast at the motel across from the campground, go to Carlsbad Caverns, big hole in ground, bat poop stinks, walking down long steep incline hurts toes, big hole is deep and also beautiful.

Buildings built by the CCC and WPA during the depression. These two organizations were some of the most successful socialist projects ever. Their work gave us numerous flood control projects, state parks and many national projects. Blue Ridge Parkway was another of their projects. Part of the New Deal, the training gained in the CCC and WPA allowed our country to prosper after WWII to the point where we were the envy of the rest of the world for more than 30 years.
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The entrance.
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I’m going to post a few pictures taken without flash or a tripod. If you want to see what Carlsbad Caverns really looks like, you have to witness it in person.
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62 feet high
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Those of you that have been to the caverns several times know that I left out some stunning formations close to the lunch room. My camera battery showed full when I entered the cavern, but it went dead with about ¾ of a mile to go.
I rode the 9 mile dirt loop on the west side of the caverns. It was neither a stunning ride or a challenging ride. The paved ride back to White’s City is a nice ride and does have a couple of scenic turnouts that should be checked out.
Butterfly seen at one.
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The sign says this cave has been used as a home for many years.
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After the cavern, I decided to go to Sitting Bull Falls. In east Texas, it would just be another small creek. In the New Mexican desert it is very unusual .
Lots of trees in this forest
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The falls are fed by a spring not too far upstream.
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The actual falls
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Another socialist project built by the WPA at Sitting Bull Falls.
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Back to Carlsbad and the Pecos River running under the irrigation flume. Usually the river is a trickle here, with most of the water stored in lakes upstream. Recent rains have turned it into a torrent. The concrete flume in the background replaced a wooden one that was swept away by the Pecos.
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As early teens, we would ride our bicycles across the sides of the flume. Each side is about 1 1/2’ thick. I measured with my size 10 shoe and it’s slightly over two shoe lengths wide. I was surprise that there was no gate installed.
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I’m muddy, wet and tired. The plan was to ride dirt roads around Carlsbad and up towards Cloudcroft. Rain has changed that plan. I also wanted to visit with long lost relatives in and around Carlsbad, but I didn’t want to stand at the door talking and I was too dirty to enter anyone’s house. I went home.

This is west Texas cotton, about twice as high as a water bottle. The saying, we’re in high cotton, meaning things are looking good, came from having to bend over so far to pick cotton in arid regions. High cotton meant less bending over. As a 6 year old child, I picked cotton that was taller that I was. Now we were in some high cotton.
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A play on words (letters) or did he just have 3 horseshoes to create his brand.
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The upper part of this cabinet held maps belonging to Mr. Post of Post cereal fame. The cabinet is still in the office that Mr. Post built when he started the town of Post, Texas. There is a museum there now. The exhibits change regularly because of limited floor space. Probably 300 to 500 pieces on display each time I have been there. Post, Texas museum. Do yourself a favor and stop in next time you drive through. It’s free. Hurry, the current display includes an authentic shrunken head from New Guinea.
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A replica of the sword that knighted Columbus, complete with jewels and real gold.
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An eagle carved from a gnarly tree root.
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Two of the reasons I hurried home. My dog and my new best friend.
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I found a picture of one of the javelinas we saw. There were 5 or 6 in this herd.
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I hope you enjoyed my post. I know that I got a little windy with my “autobiography,” but memories flooded back to me as I viewed thing in Carlsbad and Loving. I wanted to share them with more than my wife.
 
This has been an amazing thread. Thanks to Humanrace for sharing it with us.

Sent from my C6903 using Tapatalk
 
It was a joy to do the ride also.:rider:
Thanks for all the kind words and I hope to see you on the road or trail.
 
Good report, makes me want to go back. Only been once for the 2014 Uncle's ride. Want to do some hiking next time.

Yes, thanks for the nice report. I had seen the thread but hadn't looked at it until it was mentioned at Sissy's yesterday.

My first trip to BB was also for Uncle's in 2014 and want to go again in 2016. A broken leg kept me from attending in 2015.
 
You shared a picture of the U Lazy S. That ranch is outside of Post and is in the family of one fast dude on a dirt bike. In fact, he won a National Enduro about seven or eight or so years ago at a race location near Fluvana. His name is Cole Kirkpatrick. For several years, he was one of the top 10 faster riders here in the USA as far as Enduro racing.

Additionally, I believe the original Post Enduro Association in the early 70's was located on land owned by the same family and very near where you took the picture. This was during the heyday of Enduro riding and the original Post Enduro would have massive turnouts and participation. One of the oldtimers here :lol2: like IrishCoffee probably rode those races.
 
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