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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
- Messages
- 52,489
- Reaction score
- 10,997
- Location
- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
Bugged out early today and left the house about 4:00pm to take the “short cut” route to College Station TX A&M weekly bike night. I top off my back pack bladder with 3 liters of ice cold water because it is a tad on the toasty side today! I have to hustle because the road in front of our neighborhood is about to be closed down for a funeral procession of a recently killed Tx DPS highway patrol officer. The road is to be closed from 4:00-5:00pm. I don’t think I have ever seen so many LEO vehicles in our area from local, county, and state agencies!! They were setting up to block all the side roads along the route. I get out with a few minutes to spare and make for the nearest dirt road to get me moving West.
I cut over to I-45 on Pinedale Road from Fm 247 and pick up
Tx 75 South a few miles to Wire Road. About half of Pinedale and all of Wire Road is loose gravel with lots of washboard sections. They are bone dry and DUSTY!! The trees are white from the never ending dust clouds. At the end of Wire Road I run North up Fm 2550 to Roberts Road and 1696. From there it is a few miles of pavement to Guerrant Road and I continue North. There is a lot of loose sand and gravel for several miles until I hit Bishop Road. I like this area because it has some fun elevation changes and nice views. Bishop road eventually loops back around to the West and then South back onto Fm 1696 again.
I backtrack at bit to the East on 1696 to get to the start of Scales Ranch Road. The first few hundred feet is becoming chewed up loose sand. There was a time when it was that way for 3-4 miles. The county keeps coming out and dumping more and more gravel though. In fact, I hit quite a few new chunky patches of it this evening. The Husky 701 just floats right over it; whereas, my 1200 GS just turns it into smaller gravel
Scales Ranch is fun with a lot of corners that wind through fairly thick woods and under brush, almost forming a wall along each side of the road. I do have to run deep and wide into the corners though because there can be oncoming traffic and they are rarely expecting to see anyone coming the other direction, hogging the whole road like it is a one way road!
At Hopewell Road I backtrack East again and pick up the North end of Birdwell Road. This runs mostly South through more woods, crossing several creeks in areas prone to flooding, so the county has been putting down that really big chunky gravel, several inches in diameter and sometimes several inches deep! It makes for some exciting cornering in the numerous tight 90 degree corners
At Morgan Road I start heading West again. This is mostly straight with big pastures and nice homes back off the road away from the ever present dust. It is just a convenient cut over road to get me to Hoke 1 Road, but near the end it has some fun sweeping corners where I can light up the rear of the 701 and drift until I get tired of holding the throttle open. Even with the traction control on, the Husky will still let me spin up the rear almost at will.
I get to Hoke road and find a surprise! This was once a little used narrow rutted two track “road” through woods that come right to the edge of the road and occasionally into the road. Fail to pay attention and your face might get slapped!! About a year ago the county started putting down the big gravel in the worst parts to fill in mud holes we’d play in. Now it looks like they have been running a road grader through, cutting deep along the edges and pushing it up into the middle to raise the road surface. Then they topped it off with several inches of the smaller gravel, maybe 3/8” to 1/2” in diameter. So now it is loose gravel on top of loose sand. Needless to say, it is even more exciting when I get to a spot that has two really tight back to back 90 degree corners!! The last stretch is a straight run down to Tx 30. Here I am able to open up the throttle a bit more and have some fun.
I cross Tx 30 and pick up Hoke 2 Road, continuing South for a bit. It starts out sandy and soon becomes hard pack gravel. It has a few 90 degree corners but is mostly straight. I use it to get over to Pool Road and then Red Top Road. Right where Hoke 2 hits Pool, Pool becomes paved. Red Top starts out paved and soon goes back to sand/gravel. It cuts through some really nice properties. It becomes Cr 233 and eventually crosses Cr 232. Just before that there is a nice home with a big lake behind it and several Longhorn cattle grazing in the front pasture. I see them all the time but have never stopped to get a pic of them. So I decide to stop today when I noticed how huge the horns were on one of them and that one of the horns is literally upside down
Pics taken I continue running West on Cr 233 until it brings me out onto Tx 30 on the outskirts of Shiro. I still have time to burn. Bike night doesn’t start until 7:00pm. So I run 30 West, almost to Roans Prairie and turn South on Fm 2562 to pick up Cr 219. This is another fun gravel/dirt road. Like many in this area though, it seems a new house is being built every time I come out here. All these places used to be in the middle of nowhere, but I guess people that work in Huntsville or College Station have been moving out into the countryside like crazy in the last five years, especially since the whole Covid thing. Before long all my fun roads are going to end up paved
Cr 219 drops out onto Tx 90, a bit North of Anderson. I cut South a mile or so and turn West-ish on Cr 180. This used to be a dead end gravel road, ending at Rocky Creek where the rusting remains of an old metal truss bridge lingered in the woods. For years I never returned to this road because it wasn’t much of a ride and went nowhere. A few years ago I saw someone else mention that they had done a route that went all the way through and came out on Fm 244, the very thing I was trying to do 20 years ago. It would seem that the land owners eventually started selling parcels for new home construction. Now the first mile or two is chip sealed and then it goes to the white dirt. The rusting bridge is long gone, replaced by a sturdy concrete bridge that lacks any and all character. Progress… There are homes everywhere on large acreage lots. Once it becomes dirt, the road is more fun. A few miles before Fm 244 it turns back to chip seal pavement and has some really fun tight twisty corners.
At Fm 244 I head back North towards Carlos at Tx 30, stopping along the way at a nice high point overlooking a lake formed years ago by Lignite mining for a nearby power plant that has long since been converted from coal to either natural gas or maybe fuel oil. I am not real sure. Anyway, I run 244 across 30 and head North to Cr 166 and Cr 164.
Cr 164 runs along side the now abandoned rail bed where coal trains from somewhere like Wyoming brought coal down to the power plant for many years prior to its conversion. Now the rails are gone but the built up gravel bed remains. The locals building on lots across the road appear to have been taking the gravel to use on their driveways. It is very nice gravel and obviously came from the rail bed because of its distinctive color and size. It is also obvious where front loaders have been used to scoop the gravel. I don’t know if the rail company retains ownership or even cares? If not, there are miles and miles of this stuff just sitting here for the taking
Related to power generation, a LOT of land out here has been bought and cleared to make room for solar farms in the last few years. We have to cut down the natural carbon scrubbers to make room for the “green” environmentally friendly solar farms
It’s just one more reason the roads have been widened and improved. The interesting thing is that the panels get covered in the thick white dust from the road, even panels that are pretty far from the road. I have to wonder how much that impacts their conversion efficiency? Any who…
At Cr 162 I cut West again. It’s just fast and furious dust churning and burning back over to Fm 244, where I cross over and keep going. I am heading toward the Navasota River bottoms and the road has some fun curves and elevation changes before it makes the final drop down into the bottoms.
Despite repeated loads of gravel being dumped along this road over the years, it still has some sandy sections. Closer down by the river the trees form white tunnels and there are numerous concrete bridges over wandering legs of the river. After the last bridge, the road opens up and gets quite wide as it runs across the remaining section of the bottoms before it turns and climbs to higher ground. Shortly after hitting higher ground it becomes paved and turns into Long Trussel Road, presumably named this because of the old wooden bridges that existed before being replaced with the newer concrete bridges.
I turn onto Cobb Road, Grassbur Road, and eventually Elmo Weedon Road. These are all chip seal paved and there are some fun 90 degree corners that are banked. I can’t get to silly though as there are deer everywhere in this area and I see them every single time I come through here. Today is no different.
Elmo Weedon takes me back to Tx 30, right on the edge of College Station. After crossing 30, it becomes Harvey Road and runs into town, dead ending into Texas Avenue, the main drag through College Station, fronting the Tx A&M main campus, and continuing on through Bryan. Bike night is at a Chikfila parking lot right off the intersection where Harvey ends. As I roll into the lot a few minutes past 7:00pm, there is already a collection of sport bikes gathering. My Husky, all my riding gear, and the grey beard kind of make me stand out a bit
It’s all good. There are all kinds of bikes and everyone is just happy to be hanging out checking out all the nice rides. I see a lot of familiar faces and meet some new folks as well. After a good crowd arrives, Holly Evans, the TAMU MC club president announces the rules for a slow race competition. I won it last year on my 1200 GS, so I decided to sit this one out and shoot vids instead.
It’s all about where you look. As I watch everyone make their runs, I watch their eyes. Almost every single rider stares at their handle bar or the front fender. No one is looking up! You go where you look is a fundamental rule of riding. Look down, go down. Many riders are barely able to go more than a few feet before losing their balance and stabbing a foot down. Everyone gets multiple tries, so I try convincing some of them to pick something in the distance to focus on so they will keep their eyes up. I watch them to see if they do it. For those that do it, the improvement is immediate and obvious. It is really fun to see something like that click in a rider’s head and make a difference. The eventual winner is riding a sweet super motarded Suzuki DRZ-400. One of the runner ups is on a super motarded Honda CRF 450. The upright seating position, light weight, and wide handle bars give them an advantage over most sport bikes.
Around 8:45pm I finally decide to head home. It is dark and has cooled off considerably. No back roads for now. I just run Tx 30 East back to Huntsville, about an hour’s ride. I have a fantastic head light on my Husky, enabling me to spot the numerous deer in the ditches and on the shoulders. Fortunately, they all stay where they are and none of them freak and run into the road. Been there, done that, got the screws and the scar. So I keep a sharp eye out for them!
I get home about 10:00pm. I tuck the Husky into the garage and call it a night. I think I ran about 200 miles. My shortcut is a real hoot!
I cut over to I-45 on Pinedale Road from Fm 247 and pick up
Tx 75 South a few miles to Wire Road. About half of Pinedale and all of Wire Road is loose gravel with lots of washboard sections. They are bone dry and DUSTY!! The trees are white from the never ending dust clouds. At the end of Wire Road I run North up Fm 2550 to Roberts Road and 1696. From there it is a few miles of pavement to Guerrant Road and I continue North. There is a lot of loose sand and gravel for several miles until I hit Bishop Road. I like this area because it has some fun elevation changes and nice views. Bishop road eventually loops back around to the West and then South back onto Fm 1696 again.
I backtrack at bit to the East on 1696 to get to the start of Scales Ranch Road. The first few hundred feet is becoming chewed up loose sand. There was a time when it was that way for 3-4 miles. The county keeps coming out and dumping more and more gravel though. In fact, I hit quite a few new chunky patches of it this evening. The Husky 701 just floats right over it; whereas, my 1200 GS just turns it into smaller gravel
Scales Ranch is fun with a lot of corners that wind through fairly thick woods and under brush, almost forming a wall along each side of the road. I do have to run deep and wide into the corners though because there can be oncoming traffic and they are rarely expecting to see anyone coming the other direction, hogging the whole road like it is a one way road!
At Hopewell Road I backtrack East again and pick up the North end of Birdwell Road. This runs mostly South through more woods, crossing several creeks in areas prone to flooding, so the county has been putting down that really big chunky gravel, several inches in diameter and sometimes several inches deep! It makes for some exciting cornering in the numerous tight 90 degree corners
At Morgan Road I start heading West again. This is mostly straight with big pastures and nice homes back off the road away from the ever present dust. It is just a convenient cut over road to get me to Hoke 1 Road, but near the end it has some fun sweeping corners where I can light up the rear of the 701 and drift until I get tired of holding the throttle open. Even with the traction control on, the Husky will still let me spin up the rear almost at will.
I get to Hoke road and find a surprise! This was once a little used narrow rutted two track “road” through woods that come right to the edge of the road and occasionally into the road. Fail to pay attention and your face might get slapped!! About a year ago the county started putting down the big gravel in the worst parts to fill in mud holes we’d play in. Now it looks like they have been running a road grader through, cutting deep along the edges and pushing it up into the middle to raise the road surface. Then they topped it off with several inches of the smaller gravel, maybe 3/8” to 1/2” in diameter. So now it is loose gravel on top of loose sand. Needless to say, it is even more exciting when I get to a spot that has two really tight back to back 90 degree corners!! The last stretch is a straight run down to Tx 30. Here I am able to open up the throttle a bit more and have some fun.
I cross Tx 30 and pick up Hoke 2 Road, continuing South for a bit. It starts out sandy and soon becomes hard pack gravel. It has a few 90 degree corners but is mostly straight. I use it to get over to Pool Road and then Red Top Road. Right where Hoke 2 hits Pool, Pool becomes paved. Red Top starts out paved and soon goes back to sand/gravel. It cuts through some really nice properties. It becomes Cr 233 and eventually crosses Cr 232. Just before that there is a nice home with a big lake behind it and several Longhorn cattle grazing in the front pasture. I see them all the time but have never stopped to get a pic of them. So I decide to stop today when I noticed how huge the horns were on one of them and that one of the horns is literally upside down
Pics taken I continue running West on Cr 233 until it brings me out onto Tx 30 on the outskirts of Shiro. I still have time to burn. Bike night doesn’t start until 7:00pm. So I run 30 West, almost to Roans Prairie and turn South on Fm 2562 to pick up Cr 219. This is another fun gravel/dirt road. Like many in this area though, it seems a new house is being built every time I come out here. All these places used to be in the middle of nowhere, but I guess people that work in Huntsville or College Station have been moving out into the countryside like crazy in the last five years, especially since the whole Covid thing. Before long all my fun roads are going to end up paved
Cr 219 drops out onto Tx 90, a bit North of Anderson. I cut South a mile or so and turn West-ish on Cr 180. This used to be a dead end gravel road, ending at Rocky Creek where the rusting remains of an old metal truss bridge lingered in the woods. For years I never returned to this road because it wasn’t much of a ride and went nowhere. A few years ago I saw someone else mention that they had done a route that went all the way through and came out on Fm 244, the very thing I was trying to do 20 years ago. It would seem that the land owners eventually started selling parcels for new home construction. Now the first mile or two is chip sealed and then it goes to the white dirt. The rusting bridge is long gone, replaced by a sturdy concrete bridge that lacks any and all character. Progress… There are homes everywhere on large acreage lots. Once it becomes dirt, the road is more fun. A few miles before Fm 244 it turns back to chip seal pavement and has some really fun tight twisty corners.
At Fm 244 I head back North towards Carlos at Tx 30, stopping along the way at a nice high point overlooking a lake formed years ago by Lignite mining for a nearby power plant that has long since been converted from coal to either natural gas or maybe fuel oil. I am not real sure. Anyway, I run 244 across 30 and head North to Cr 166 and Cr 164.
Cr 164 runs along side the now abandoned rail bed where coal trains from somewhere like Wyoming brought coal down to the power plant for many years prior to its conversion. Now the rails are gone but the built up gravel bed remains. The locals building on lots across the road appear to have been taking the gravel to use on their driveways. It is very nice gravel and obviously came from the rail bed because of its distinctive color and size. It is also obvious where front loaders have been used to scoop the gravel. I don’t know if the rail company retains ownership or even cares? If not, there are miles and miles of this stuff just sitting here for the taking
Related to power generation, a LOT of land out here has been bought and cleared to make room for solar farms in the last few years. We have to cut down the natural carbon scrubbers to make room for the “green” environmentally friendly solar farms
It’s just one more reason the roads have been widened and improved. The interesting thing is that the panels get covered in the thick white dust from the road, even panels that are pretty far from the road. I have to wonder how much that impacts their conversion efficiency? Any who…At Cr 162 I cut West again. It’s just fast and furious dust churning and burning back over to Fm 244, where I cross over and keep going. I am heading toward the Navasota River bottoms and the road has some fun curves and elevation changes before it makes the final drop down into the bottoms.
Despite repeated loads of gravel being dumped along this road over the years, it still has some sandy sections. Closer down by the river the trees form white tunnels and there are numerous concrete bridges over wandering legs of the river. After the last bridge, the road opens up and gets quite wide as it runs across the remaining section of the bottoms before it turns and climbs to higher ground. Shortly after hitting higher ground it becomes paved and turns into Long Trussel Road, presumably named this because of the old wooden bridges that existed before being replaced with the newer concrete bridges.
I turn onto Cobb Road, Grassbur Road, and eventually Elmo Weedon Road. These are all chip seal paved and there are some fun 90 degree corners that are banked. I can’t get to silly though as there are deer everywhere in this area and I see them every single time I come through here. Today is no different.
Elmo Weedon takes me back to Tx 30, right on the edge of College Station. After crossing 30, it becomes Harvey Road and runs into town, dead ending into Texas Avenue, the main drag through College Station, fronting the Tx A&M main campus, and continuing on through Bryan. Bike night is at a Chikfila parking lot right off the intersection where Harvey ends. As I roll into the lot a few minutes past 7:00pm, there is already a collection of sport bikes gathering. My Husky, all my riding gear, and the grey beard kind of make me stand out a bit
It’s all good. There are all kinds of bikes and everyone is just happy to be hanging out checking out all the nice rides. I see a lot of familiar faces and meet some new folks as well. After a good crowd arrives, Holly Evans, the TAMU MC club president announces the rules for a slow race competition. I won it last year on my 1200 GS, so I decided to sit this one out and shoot vids instead.
It’s all about where you look. As I watch everyone make their runs, I watch their eyes. Almost every single rider stares at their handle bar or the front fender. No one is looking up! You go where you look is a fundamental rule of riding. Look down, go down. Many riders are barely able to go more than a few feet before losing their balance and stabbing a foot down. Everyone gets multiple tries, so I try convincing some of them to pick something in the distance to focus on so they will keep their eyes up. I watch them to see if they do it. For those that do it, the improvement is immediate and obvious. It is really fun to see something like that click in a rider’s head and make a difference. The eventual winner is riding a sweet super motarded Suzuki DRZ-400. One of the runner ups is on a super motarded Honda CRF 450. The upright seating position, light weight, and wide handle bars give them an advantage over most sport bikes.
Around 8:45pm I finally decide to head home. It is dark and has cooled off considerably. No back roads for now. I just run Tx 30 East back to Huntsville, about an hour’s ride. I have a fantastic head light on my Husky, enabling me to spot the numerous deer in the ditches and on the shoulders. Fortunately, they all stay where they are and none of them freak and run into the road. Been there, done that, got the screws and the scar. So I keep a sharp eye out for them!
I get home about 10:00pm. I tuck the Husky into the garage and call it a night. I think I ran about 200 miles. My shortcut is a real hoot!
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It would be so easy for LEO to just hang out the next block down and write some massive speeding/reckless driving tickets! I keep waiting for that unmistakable sound of impact and crunching... They still think they are indestructible and have it all "under control". I don't even try to convince them otherwise. Not all of them are that way though. There are some more level headed riders in the group. They wear good gear and just seem like calmer and more reasonable people 
