Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Until next time, adios !
And that was our Big Bend Dirt Ride week bonanza.
The pic below was taken on Saturday morning before we left the BBRSP. Scot had left at 3am in the morning and was on the way. Our bikes are loaded and we are ready for the 600+ miles to come.
Ride on, my friends !
Posted with BlogsyRelaxing after a hard day's ride
Dinner was at 5:30pm on Friday and Victor prepared us another great Mexican dish which we helped go down with a nice bottle of red wine.
The weather was excellent so gang sat outside on the porch shooting the breeze ...
In the meantime, I was arriving from my bicycle ride.
Airstrip
As we were coming back from Friday's ride, Graeme noticed a sign that said Airstrip so he turned into it and we were surprised to see a very nicely paved runway with two planes on it.
We thought it would be good to add ourselves and bikes to the fun ...
Sleeping quarters
As the bunkhouse was not full, each of us had a small room with two beds. We slept on one and put the gear on the other. It worked out great.
These pics were taken on our last morning ...
It was a all men's quarters with community bathrooms.
Casey
While we were at the BBRSP we met with Casey who has been in the park for some weeks. He has walked many of the trails and likes to sleep under the stars.
Here is Casey with Craig discussing the various options on the BBRSP map on the wall.
We left a whole lot of food and I am sure Casey will enjoy it for a week or two.
Riding in Big Bend Ranch State Park
One of the first things you need to do when you get to the BBRSP is to read about the park and also what you can and cannot do.
As related to dual sport riding they give you some pages which explain the conditions of the roads and also give you some ideas of loops or out-and-back rides.
They classify roads from Class 1 to Class 4 as follows:
And here are some of the rides we could have taken.
In the end, we did the Road to Nowhere out-and-back, Los Alamos loop and Oso Loop and rode a number of other side roads.
Scot, Craig and I rode the KTMs and Graeme went on his GSA. We were very impressed on some of the stuff he was able to do and shows how impressive these bikes are when well ridden.
On the way to The Solitario
Los Alamos loop
Having lunch at Tres Pampelones
On the Road to Nowhere
The Other Side of Nowhere
Oso loop
How tough was the ride, you may ask. May be this back tire on Graeme's bike which was in quite good condition on the morning of the ride gives an idea. By the way this is an Heidenau K60 tire which is supposed to be the toughest there is.
Another way is to see how the inspection plate got bent back on both KTMs when bike bottomed out and back tire touched it and flipped plate right back.
It was AWESOME !
Breakfast on Friday
When we set up our trip, Scot (and then later Graeme and Craig) had ordered breakfast for Friday morning.
At 8am the kitchen magically opened up, the bell was rung and we had scrambled eggs with sausage and pancakes.
The pancakes were perfect ... crisp on the outside and nice and fluffy In the inside.
Even the photographer was not fast enough ... first pancake nearly finished !
FM170
FM-170 is a 120-mile scenic highway starting in Terlingua, near Big Bend National Park, and passing north along the Rio Grande through some of the remotest lands in the United States. Nobody gets on FM-170 by mistake. It is arguably the most scenic highway in the state of Texas, rivaling those near the Guadalupe Mountains or even those in Big Bend National Park. The road starts in the Terlingua-Study Butte area, branching off of Texas highway TX-118. The first few miles is basically a scrabble of hotels, businesses and homes, all serving the tourists who come to the Big Bend. As you travel on the FM170 you pass Terlingua and the entrance to the ghost town, Lajitas, Big Bend Ranch State Park, Presidio, Ruidosa and finally giving up the ghost in the community of Candelaria, surely one of the more remote towns in the entire United States.
There's a town in Mexico just over the border; it seems it's okay for Americans to walk over the footbridge, but it's technically illegal to come back that way as it's not an official border checkpoint.
This is a very rare instance of a highway "dead-ending". Very few places in the United States do this. But does it really end? Yes, the paved FM-170 ends, but a continuation road called Chispa Road goes on from here. Where does it go ? It seems, it eventually worms its way north and east a bit to come out on some FM roads southwest of Van Horn, about 70 miles in all.
We rode the FM170 to Presidio one day and then back from Ruidosa when we went to the Hot Springs.
It is motorcycle Mecca as it is very winding, it has ups and downs of various sizes and quite dangerous blind corners. Graeme's comment was that it was the closest he has ridden that has similarity with Isle of Man.
One of the coolest places on this road is a hill from where you can see the Rio Grande from up on high and is a great photo op place.
We stopped and took a ton of photos ...
Pinto Canyon
This was the ride on Thursday. Craig could not make it and as Greame needed to first go to Presidio for an inspection sticker, I went with him. Scot went ahead and as it turned out we were never able to meet with him that day.
After our detour in Presidio, we took a dirt road through Casa de las Piedras north towards Marfa.
After having lunch at Mandos and an espresso with the barista Eli at the coffee shop we turned south and went towards the Pinto Canyon.
I will use an explanation of our trip that I found on the Internet which I thought it was very well written and quite accurate ...
"
My favorite drive in Texas begins west of downtown Marfa, by the Texaco station. In less than a minute civilization is a memory as the road is swallowed by the waist-high grasses of the Marfa Highlands. The 7,730-foot Chinati Peak rises from the horizon under a perfect blue sky marred only by a distant thunderhead, and the rolling terrain slowly gains altitude. Telephone lines and barbed-wire fences disappear, and nothing is left but road, land, and sky.
Thirty-two miles from Marfa the pavement ends and the excitement starts. At first the dirt road is almost as wide as the paved portion, but after a couple of miles, it drops precipitously, twisting and turning down hairpin curves from a ridgetop into Pinto Canyon. Scrub oak and mesquite appear in this sheltered basin, where some of the low-water crossings are so jammed with gravel and stones that you have no choice but to slow to a first-gear crawl.
The dirt track winds through the canyon for ten miles, passing an abandoned mining operation before dropping out of the Chinati Mountains onto a long desert slope that reaches all the way to the verdant Rio Grande floodplain. At the unmarked fork in the road, bear left for Ruidosa. A few miles and three mailboxes later, a stop sign at the quiet village of Ruidosa marks the junction with FM 170. Don't take the return to pavement as a license to hotfoot it. You'll miss the La Junta General Store and Ben's Lounge, the only way stations open to travelers on my favorite drive, and the winding twelve-mile drive to Candelaria is punctuated with numerous low-water dips and unexpected obstacles, such as the family of five javelina that sauntered across my path. A few folks are stirring, taking note of the arrival of an unfamiliar vehicle. Mexico is just across the river, but notions like borders and sovereignty have little meaning here. This is as remote as a town on a highway can get.
"
It was another unforgettable day of riding and we have to thank Scot over and over again to use all his UPS logistics experience in putting together these outstanding routes.
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