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West Central Texas ride (week before Xmas)

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JohnHoaglun

JohnHoaglun

Joined
Nov 28, 2021
Messages
48
Reaction score
52
Location
Conroe, Tx
First Name
John
Last Name
Hoaglun
I am off from work for two weeks in December (2021). The week before Xmas and the week between Xmas --> New Years. I am thinking about jumping on the 790 Adventure and hitting the road for a couple of days. I have no specific target in mind other than to ride and take some photos for a few a days.

I was doing a little bit of Google Searching and I came up with screen capture of the attached map/picture. I am thinking that it will probably be a hotel trip so that I don't have to haul my camping gear and can travel a bit more lightly. Weather at this time of year is always roll of the dice but I am flexible on the time, route, etc. I will be leaving from home in the Conroe/Houston area.

I would love to hear your ideas on places to consider for the trip.

Thanks, John
 

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JohnHoaglun said:
I am off from work for two weeks in December (2021). The week before Xmas and the week between Xmas --> New Years. I am thinking about jumping on the 790 Adventure and hitting the road for a couple of days. I have no specific target in mind other than to ride and take some photos for a few a days.

I was doing a little bit of Google Searching and I came up with screen capture of the attached map/picture. I am thinking that it will probably be a hotel trip so that I don't have to haul my camping gear and can travel a bit more lightly. Weather at this time of year is always roll of the dice but I am flexible on the time, route, etc. I will be leaving from home in the Conroe/Houston area.

I would love to hear your ideas on places to consider for the trip.

Thanks, John
Click to expand...
The perfect Big Bend Bike. Several of us will be there at the Terlingua resorts camp ground with trailers, tents and there is a hotel there also. Every one welcome and some will be there till a week after the new year. I will be there 27th-3rd unless the weather turns ugly.
 
JohnHoaglun said:
I am off from work for two weeks in December (2021). The week before Xmas and the week between Xmas --> New Years. I am thinking about jumping on the 790 Adventure and hitting the road for a couple of days. I have no specific target in mind other than to ride and take some photos for a few a days.

I was doing a little bit of Google Searching and I came up with screen capture of the attached map/picture. I am thinking that it will probably be a hotel trip so that I don't have to haul my camping gear and can travel a bit more lightly. Weather at this time of year is always roll of the dice but I am flexible on the time, route, etc. I will be leaving from home in the Conroe/Houston area.

I would love to hear your ideas on places to consider for the trip.

Thanks, John
Click to expand...

Big Bend is our goto Winter riding destination. The Hill Country is nice, but the weather tends to be better in Big Bend. From the Houston area, you could do both. Hit the HC on the way to BB.

Here's the Thread for the BB trip.
 
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Rockin a 790 I'm guessing you prefer the dirt. Check the gps files thread for trax or just dig into Sander's wealth of hc trax. BB is totally cool and you'd be with a great group out there if the dessert is calling.
 
I am fine with dirt or pavement.... the bike & gear can handle both :-)

I am comfortable in Hill Country solo. I am not comfortable in desert/Big Bend solo since I have never been there before. I have a week to figure out a plan.

Thanks, John
 
Dahveed said:
Big Bend is our goto Winter riding destination. The Hill Country is nice, but the weather tends to be better in Big Bend. From the Houston area, you could do both. Hit the HC on the way to BB.

Here's the Thread for the BB trip.
Click to expand...
Do both is a very real option as I have the time.
 
I think that the trip Hill Country trip is a "go." I am working on the lubing the chain, airing up the tires, getting the Inreach working with my phone and Zumo XT. The cameras and drone are ready for a trip. Tentatively I will arrive in Fredericksburg or Kerrville Tuesday night and get a hotel. I will then day trip Wednesday & Thursday then head home to Conroe on Friday.

I have not figured out the mileage yet for this trip... but I have 2500 till my next oil change. :-) I will probably change the oil over the weekend and then think about when I get my tires swapped out. I will be moving from the K60 Scout back to Trailmax Mission.

Cell: 612-381-7952

Thanks, John
 
I just tackled the challenge of route planning. Rever --> Basecamp --> Zumo XT Track --> Zumo XT Trip. --OMG

I consider myself fairly in-tune with tech. I am security architect as my day job so computers and integrations are not something that I get too worried about. --Hey, how hard can it be? --Famous last words.

I was using the web version of Rever which was soooooo slow on my Mac that I was having to wait 60 seconds between adding stops on map as I was tweaking my trip. It was almost unusable (my Mac is pretty fast... I use it for Lightroom and Final Cut doing 4k videos.). I then figured out how to export the maps a GPX file. Then basecamp keep complaining about the GPX so that took 10 minutes to get beyond. Then I figured out how to convert a track to trip inside of the Zumo XT.

Here is a nice video from Rever that will help outline the process... but it is not exactly the same. (Close enough to allow you to figure it out.)

Rever Tips: How To Download GPX File & Transfer to Garmin GPS Device

How to get your REVER planned ride or a tracked ride onto your Garmin GPS unit.
www.rever.co www.rever.co

I had hoped to make day1 of the trip more interesting but the reality is that the trip as outlined is ~300 miles and about 5.5 hours of ride time. In reality it will probably take longer with stops for photos, gas, and food.


Rever:
Screen Shot 2021-12-20 at 11.11.48 PM.png

Basecamp:
Screen Shot 2021-12-20 at 11.12.13 PM.png



Zumo XT:

IMG_5064.png
 
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I’d recommend you map routes directly on Basecamp. That route looks like something I can put together in 20 seconds.
 
Heat is your friend anywhere this time of year. I camp off my bike, but honestly I long for the days when I had a toy hauler :-)
 
JohnHoaglun said:
I just tackled the challenge of route planning. Rever --> Basecamp --> Zumo XT Track --> Zumo XT Trip. --OMG
Click to expand...
I feel the same way. In dang near 2022, it should be much easier than Garmin makes it.

I guess Adventure riding starts with the adventure of trying to decode Garmin's crappy apps.
 
Well, try to price something online to ship on ups and then go to drop it off. Double the app price now. I guess it's too much work to fix the app before demand drops and prices collapse a bit again . Blatently dishonest company.
 
I got on the road a little later than expected this morning. I had two items to take care of then the internet went down as soon as I started them. I gave up and hit the road.

The trip was mostly uneventful other than I found a water crossing wider and deeper than I was willing tackle on a solo trip. So I decided to try some alternative routes to get around it and was getting a little nervous about running out of sunlight behind the hills.

All is good… the hotel in Kerrville will be base camp for a couple of days.

A quick drone shot from todays ride.
9527E11F-BD06-473F-90C1-9C61393233B8.jpeg


Thanks, John
 
Here is my tentative route for Wednesday: (All south of I10.... ~170 miles planned before I start exploring)
Wednesday.png



Here is my tentative route for Thursday: (Mostly north of I10 and about 200 miles before I start exploring)
Thursday.png


Ignore the numbers... they are simply waypoints that I was using to figure out some interesting segments while I was creating a basic GPX file (Rever--> Basecamp--> Zumo XT)

Thanks, John
 
Jarrett said:
Where was that pic located?
Click to expand...
Southwest of Kingsland + south of the Llano River. About 1 mile east of highway 71 and County Road 309.

I was flying the drone about 1500 feet north of the county road. Flying cameras... amazing tools. :-)
 
Update for end of day Wednesday:

The loop for today was awesome. It had a nice mix of slow tight turns + switchbacks and longer sweeping turns. I picked up a sandwich in the morning and stored it in my pannier not knowing what my lunch options might be. I did not stop for photos as much as I might have hoped for but the ride was better than expected. I almost ride the today's trip a second time in reverse but it would have been dark by the time I would have wrapped up.

Lunch stop: (Infrared image)
6IR00122.JPG


Scenics:
6IR00134.JPG

6IR00136.JPG

A6309129.jpg

A6309131.jpg
 
Today I put in about 250 miles mostly north of I10. The first 100 miles were part of the plan that I had posted earlier. After stopping for lunch I decided to explore and just pointed the bike at anything on the map that said "mountain." Today's ride was completely different than yesterday... both good in their own way.

6IR00169.jpg

6IR00167.jpg


6IR00174.jpg

6IR00147.jpg


Thanks, John
6IR00158.jpg
 
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