Three Day, 1100 Mile Dual Sport
Ride to Langtry and Back
Hey there, fellow dual sport riders. Are you, like me, constantly looking
for new, fun dual sport roads to ride? Do you find yourself routinely
studying your collection of maps in a quest to find likely dual sport riding
opportunities? In short, does the spirit of discovery and adventure run
strong in your veins? If so, then I’ve got some great Texas dual sport
roads to tell you about. Three of us spent three days exploring as many
dual sport roads as we could ride between Austin and Langtry, TX and back.
In the process, we rode some great paved and unpaved roads – roads that you,
my fellow DS riders, likely want to hear about, and you, my fellow Texans,
can go ride them yourself.
In fact, I will go so far as to say that I think my riding partners and I
may have discovered the best dual sport road in Texas that’s not in the Big
Bend region. Big Bend has so many wonderful dual sport roads that
everything else seems to pale in comparison. While the road I’m referring
to isn’t as good as some of those rare gems in the Big Bend area it is the
best I’ve found outside of that area. It’s an excellent road. As an
alternate, we could call it the last great dual sport road in the hill
country. What I mean by that is that not only is it a wonderful, scenic
unpaved road, but it’s long too – it took about 2 hours to ride its length.
Most dual sport roads in the hill country, while scenic and fun, are
entirely too short, being just a few miles (or less) in length. Blame it on
advancing civilization. This road is the exception. It’s long. And as an
added bonus, it’s in the heart of the hill country, making it much more
accessible for many DS Texans than the roads located a heck of a long way
over to the west in the Big Bend region. It’s a road you will want to put
on your “must ride” list.
My story isn’t about that single road though. We traveled many, many other
great roads as we made our way to Langtry along the back way. If you’re
interested in a great three day dual sport ride then our route might be of
significant interest to you. I suspect most of the roads on our journey
will be new to many of you since I’ve only read of a very few other riders
having run them before.
The Plan
For the past few years my Uncle Roger and I have taken a 3 day hill country
ride on Easter weekend. This year’s plan was a 3 day dual sport ride since
I had picked up a KLR last summer. I already knew there was one particular
dual sport road in the hill country that I wanted to go explore, but we
would be able to get to and ride that road in just one day. What to do for
the next 2 days of riding? After pouring over the recently updated Roads of
Texas atlas, I mapped out a route that took us through the Texas hill
country and then on to west Texas. Our route included a jog south down to
Langtry, TX, home of Judge Roy Bean, Law West of the Pecos and 2 nights in a
motel in Sonora, TX. In addition to Uncle and me, two of my fellow KLR
riders – Mike and Randy – planned to ride with us.
Unfortunately, on the Monday prior to our ride, Uncle called with bad news.
His rear shock was blown and leaking oil, making his bike unrideable. He
ordered a replacement shock, but it would be two weeks before it arrived.
In short, he was not going to make the ride. I put out a call for a 4th
rider on KLR650.net and Two Wheeled Texans, but with such late notice there
were no takers. The Three Amigos – Randy, Mike and I - pressed on with our
ride plans.
Day 1 – Friday –The Best Dual Sport Road Outside of Big Bend - 380
miles
I smoked out of Austin at 7:45 a.m. Friday morning. It was cool and cloudy
even though the weatherman said it was going to reach 90+ degrees by
mid-afternoon. Despite predictions of very hot weather for the afternoon,
the morning was perfect riding weather and just cool enough to require a
jacket. Traffic was light and I was soon out of Austin. The plan was to
meet Randy in Dripping Springs and then for the two of us to meet up with
Mike in Blanco.
Randy and I met up in Dripping Springs and, after he topped off his gas
tank, we pointed our bikes west and headed toward Blanco. After a short
trip on Hwy 290, we turned onto Hwy 165 for the run into Blanco. Once in
Blanco, we found Mike ready and waiting for us.
Randy and Mike, ready for 3 days of fun and adventure
From Blanco our route took us south and west to Boerne. At the first stop
light in Boerne, Randy pulled up next to me and asked if I wanted to see
Dennis’ restaurant. A few weeks back, during one of our Central Texas KLR
650 group rides, we had met Dennis, a fellow KLR rider, out on the road.
Dennis owned a restaurant in Boerne and extended an invitation for us to
ride with him and have lunch at his restaurant. A week or so later Randy
and his wife had stopped by Dennis’ restaurant for dinner and Randy was
raving about the food. It sounded good to me, so with Randy leading the
way, we made our way to Dennis’ restaurant, the Boerne Vistro.
Boerne Vistro
The restaurant wasn’t open yet as it was only 10:30 a.m. but the wait staff
was prepping to open so, dressed in all our riding gear, we entered a side
door and asked if Dennis was around. Sure enough he was there and the
hostess went off to get him. Dennis came out, greeted us warmly, and
strongly suggested we should let him feed us breakfast. Not wanting to be
rude, we quickly accepted. A short time later, he returned with a heaping
plate of breakfast tacos, family style. They were fantastic!
Dennis, Mike, Randy, and a great plate of breakfast tacos, Italian style
While devouring our food we explained our plan to Dennis and tried to
convince him to join us for at least the rest of the day. Nothing doing,
though. Friday is a busy day and he couldn’t get away from the restaurant
without sufficient prior notice. We agreed to schedule a ride with him in
the near future and headed out. While leaving, we spotted his KLR parked
next to the restaurant and I persuaded him to pose for a picture.
Dennis and his KLR
Bellies full we continued our journey west. We ran Hwy 16 west from Bandera
to RR 337 (one of the 3 sisters) for our first taste of serious riding.
After a twisty time on 337 we arrived in Leakey. From there we headed north
on RR 336 (another one of the 3 sisters) for several mile until we reached
our first true dual sport road of the trip – RR 3235. If you’ve got the
latest edition of The Roads of Texas Atlas turn to page 131 to follow my
route. RR 3235 starts at RR 336 between Leakey in the south and Hwy 41 in
the north. 3235 runs west, turning into an unpaved route and eventually,
many miles later, joins into RR 2631 which ends at RR 335 (the third
sister). I think the unpaved section is actually called Bullhead Rd, but
don’t know that for sure, so I will refer to it as RR 3235.
3235 is a very good dual sport road. Shortly after reaching the unpaved
section, you drop down into a valley and basically parallel a stream all the
way to 2631.
Mike on the northern section of RR 3235
Randy dropping down to the creek on RR 3235
3235 is quite rocky, especially the sections that cross the stream. Here
are some shots I took as we made our way west.
Mike on 3235
Randy on 3235
A little further down the road
Some twists on 3235
Randy on 3235
Mike enjoying a little shade on 3235 – it was starting to get hot just
like the weatherman predicted
We ran across several bump gates on 3235
I believe a fellow rider must have been here before due to the “Stupid
Hurts” sticker. There’s even a Kinky for Governor sticker out here in
the boondocks.
Drink of water, repack a few things
Once we reached RR 2631 we rode west to RR 335. From there it was a quick
trip south to Hwy 55 and on south to Camp Wood. This would be our last
chance for food and gas for a while, so we stopped in at BJ’s café and sweet
shop. It turned out to be a good choice.
BJ’s café and sweet shop
The Three Amigos – Randy, Rich, Mike (left to right) – enjoying a late
lunch
BJ – proprietor
The sweet part of the sweet shop
Mike, that smooth talker, made a new friend of the waitress
Bellies once again full, off we went in search of more dual sport roads. We
hung a right onto CR 390 and headed west. (Your Roads of Texas atlas shows
the county roads in this area but does not provide the county road number.
Your MS Streets and Trips shows the county roads too, but the numbers are
most likely wrong as the county roads numbers have all changed recently due
to 911 requirements. To the best of my ability, the CR numbers I use are
current.)
CR 390 was a fun, but paved, road. Shortly outside of town we it climbed up
a hill and afforded us a great view of the hill country.
Hill Country view from CR 390
Once we reached the end of CR 390 we turned north onto CR 380. This turned
out to be a very good, unpaved road with one serious flaw – a huge number of
gates. We rode CR 380 north to Barksdale and must have gone through 20
gates in 8 miles. If it hadn’t been for all the gates this would have been
a terrific road. The gates were so close together that you just couldn’t
enjoy the ride. My recommendation is to avoid CR 380 between Camp Wood and
Barksdale when you are in the area.
Once we got near Barksdale it was a different story. We turned onto CR 353,
which turned out to be an excellent unpaved road with multiple water
crossings. These were not your everyday run of the mill water crossings
either. They consisted of fairly large rocks, golf ball sized up to
football sized, which made crossing a real adventure. Luckily the crossings
weren’t excessively deep (maybe 12 inches at the deepest) or wide and all 3
of us managed to stay upright.
CR 353 carried us to CR 350 – which is the best dual sport road outside of
the Big Bend region. Again referencing your Roads of Texas atlas, you can
see CR 350 running from Hwy 55 north of Barksdale in the east all the way
over to hwy 674 in the west. The first half of CR 350 runs directly through
the hill country and is superb. The western half of CR 350, where it runs
into Hwy 674, transitions you to terrain of west Texas. (Actually, I
believe the western half of CR 350 is actually CR 310 but can’t verify
this.)
Mike on one of several water crossings on CR 350
At one of the water crossings we came upon this 4 wheeled version of the
KLR
We happened upon this “fixer er upper” special in a beautiful valley
A shot of the western half of CR 350. Not all of it is this straight
though.
After about 2.5 hours of riding (including several stops for water,
pictures, and marveling at the terrain) we reached Hwy 674. None of us had
a GPS and there were lots of roads that intersected CR 350, so at times we
weren’t completely sure we were on track. These other roads tended to be
smaller and obviously less traveled, so we were able to distinguish between
the main road (CR 350) and the off-shoots. This strategy worked and we
successfully reached Hwy 674.
On Hwy 674 we rode north towards Rocksprings. 674, while paved, is a
really fun, twisty road that I recommend to you. I shot the following
picture on the northern end of Hwy 674, looking south along a valley.
From Rocksprings we road Hwy 55 west to Hwy 277 north to Sonora and our
motel for the night. America’s Best Value motel was to be our base of
operation for the next 2 nights and at $45 per night was appropriately
priced for the KLRista brigade.
A little maintenance in the motel parking lot.
Day 1 ended with supper at a local Sonic drive-in and 380 miles on our
odometer. It had been a marvelous day of riding and the discovery of a real
gem of a dual sport road.
Day 2 – Saturday – A great bridge, Judge Roy Bean, and a locked gate –
334 miles
After a very long day 1 of 380 miles and about 12 hours of travel, we
finally settled down for the evening at our motel. One of the last things
Randy said to us before heading off to bed was that his arm was bothering
him. Both Mike and I had noticed Randy favoring his arm throughout day 1.
Obviously something was wrong.
At 6:30 a.m. on Day 2 there was a knock on the door. It was Randy and he
was up and completely dressed. He thought I said we were going to be on the
road at 6 a.m. while I meant for us to get out of bed at 6 a.m. Randy came
into the room, and after we chuckled about the time miscommunication, he
informed us that he would not be able to continue on the ride. His arm was
bothering him a lot, his fingers were numb, and he didn’t think it would
hold up to another long day in the saddle. He apparently had strained it
earlier in the week and the beating it took from the unpaved roads on Day 1
had sent it over the edge. He decided that he needed to head for the house,
hoping the arm would hold out long enough for him ride the bike home.
With that decision made, it was time to hunt down some breakfast. My recon
the previous evening had uncovered a restaurant out by IH-10 that opened
early, so that’s where we went. It turned out to be a wise choice – the
food was good and plentiful. I recommend the “hunter’s special” next time
you are there and hungry – biscuits and gravy, 2 eggs any way you want them,
hash browns, and bacon, sausage, or ham. Mmmm….
Mike and Randy Outside the restaurant
After breakfast we waved goodbye to Randy and Mike and I pointed our bikes
west on IH-10. Admittedly, running an interstate on KLRs is not all that
fun, but we didn’t have far to go and on that day, at that time of the
morning, there was almost no traffic.
About 8 miles up the road we turned south onto Hwy 1989, a paved road that
runs south to the Caverns of Sonora. These caverns are one of the most
active in the world, with more than 90% of the formations in the cave still
“growing”. The cavern is somewhat small in size – about 7.5 miles long –
and has no huge “rooms” or giant formations like its cousin, Carlsbad
Caverns, to the north. However, it has been said that the Sonora caverns
are exceptionally beautiful, perhaps explaining why they have been ranked as
some of the most spectacular cave complexes in the world. The paved road
that runs from Hwy 1989 to the caverns ain’t too shabby either, with quite a
few elevation changes and twisties.
My KLR, posing in front of the Caverns of Sonora sign. I know, I know,
my KLR just makes it all look so much better.
J
Since we had a long way to go, we decided to forego a trip down into the
caverns and opted instead to continue our journey south. A few miles
further south on Hwy 1989 we reach CR 410, and things really get fun. CR
410 is paved, but it is a typical Texas hill country county road – small,
non-stripped, no shoulder, no traffic, cattle guards, scenic and twisty.
It’s a really fun road. More miles south we turn off onto Old Juno Road and
the delight continues. Old Juno Rd is paved too, but it’s just like CR
410. Man, it’s beautiful out there. Along the way we saw turkey, cattle,
and lots and lots of sheep. The road was liberally sprinkled with animal
droppings and it was fun weaving around them as we sped south at 60 mph.
The weather was absolutely superb – a little cool so we had jackets on – but
the sky was clear, we could see forever, and the air was morning fresh.
Gosh, what a fabulous time we were having. Along the way we happened upon
this abandoned truck.
Mike and the Old Truck
I tried to talk Mike into getting inside the truck, but he wasn’t having
anything to do with that idea. He figured there were yellow jackets nesting
in the cab and rattlesnakes all over the floorboard and beneath the
chassis. He wouldn’t get any closer than he did in the above picture. I
figured that wasn’t such a bad policy and made sure I didn’t get too close
when he took my pic with the truck.
Rich and the Truck
At the southern end of Old Juno Rd we hung a right onto Hwy 189. I recalled
that another rider (tourmeister) had commented in one of his stories how
much he liked this road, so I had high expectations for it. My expectations
were easily met. The state has recently laid down some new asphalt and
there was some loose rock on it, but beyond that it was a really fun road.
You can see the new asphalt on Hwy 189 in this picture
We came upon a placard at the intersection of Hwy 189 and Hwy 163. In Feb.
1857 Lieutenant Hood led his Army Calvary troop into a battle with Comanche
Indians on this site. Despite being outnumbered, the superior firepower of
Hood and his men allowed them to fight the Indians to a draw, killing 19 in
the process with a loss of 2 of Hood’s men.
State placard of Hood’s Devil River fight
We ran Hwy 163 south for a few miles, passing the small community of Juno
along the way. Juno is not a town, it’s just a small collection of
buildings with a water source nearby. A few miles south of Juno we reach
Juno Road, the first dual sport road of the day and a fine road it was.
Like so many dual sport roads in this part of Texas, there was lots of
wildlife and livestock everywhere we went. Lots of sheep herding going on
in this part of the country. Cattle ranching too. One little fellow in
particular stood his ground in the middle of the road, completely
undisturbed by our approaching 2 wheeled monsters. Usually, most animals
would give us a good look as we approached and then would run for the hills
in terror. Not this guy. He acted like he saw KLRs riding through his neck
of the woods every day. He even stood there long enough for me to stop, dig
my camera out and snap a picture.
He finally decided that maybe he should wander off to the side of the road
and allow us to pass unmolested. Thanks, buddy. And on our way we
continued.
About halfway along Juno Rd we reached an intersection. One way led north
to FM 1973 and towards Ozona in the north, the other continued on Juno Rd
and led to FM 1024 just seven miles away.
Not yet finished with Juno Rd, we took the left fork and continued on our
way.
Sure enough, just as the sign promised, 7 miles later we arrived at the
intersection of Juno Rd and FM 1024. At this point there was no doubt we
were out of the Texas hill country and were firmly into the terrain of west
Texas. Things flattened out quite a bit and the trees got a lot shorter.
The road got a bit straighter (and faster) too.
Mike on FM 1024
At the end of FM 1024 we reached the best dual sport road of the day –
Langtry Rd. This gem of a road is 30+ miles long and provides a great view
of the varied terrain of west Texas. Langtry Rd is a fairly easy dual sport
road and seems to be well maintained, though it is rocky.
A few miles south on Langtry Rd routed us to the community of Pandale,. TX.
Pandale is not much to look at, a few scattered buildings here and there,
and one convenience store.
Camp Easy convenience store
On the advice of a fellow rider (XR650Rocketman) we stopped in to say hello
to Easy, the store’s proprieter. XR650Rocketman and a fairly large group of
fellow riders had been through this way a while back and had discovered Camp
Easy. They stopped in and Easy and Ida, who run this joint, were surprised
to see such a large group of motorcyclists show up at their place suddenly.
I gather that not many motorcyclists ever come through this place. Anyway,
with all their off-road gear, XR650Rocketmand and group looked like Power
Rangers to Ida so she had to get a picture to show the kids that the Power
Rangers had stopped by on their way to fight evil doers in this part of
Texas. She was kind enough to point out the pictures and tell us the story
when we stopped in.
Mike and Ida. Ida has on an extremely rare “Pandale” t-shirt. When’s
the last time you saw a Pandale t-shirt? See what I mean about how rare
they are?
After sucking down a cold soda, visiting with Easy and Ida, and admiring the
pictures of dead cougars and whatnot other things on the walls, Mike and I
bid farewell to our new friends and resumed our journey south to Langtry.
The reason Pandale exists and has a convenience store out in the middle of
nowhere, (and I do mean the middle of nowhere with not a paved road within 5
miles, and 50 miles to the nearest town), it is a bridge that crosses the
Pecos River. Why would a bridge crossing the Pecos River in the middle of
nowhere be such a draw? Because it’s a really nice bridge, of course.
It really is a nice bridge as you can see from this shot of these 2 girls
leaping off the bridge into the water. If you like jumping off bridges, I
can recommend this one to you, especially on a hot Texas afternoon.
Actually, as nice as this bridge is, I don’t believe it is the real reason
people drive miles of unpaved wilderness roads to get here. Instead, I
think there are 2 other reasons people show up in Pandale. Ida told us that
this is a really good place to put a raft into the Pecos and that it is a 5
day float down to Hwy 90 and the high bridge over the Pecos. So, it’s a
popular place with those crazy river rafters. The other reason people come
to Pandale is that this part of the river is a good place to camp. I
believe it is part of the Amistad National Recreation Area, as I saw as sign
that said something about Amistad but didn’t stop to read it. In any case,
people were camping and swimming here when we showed up. If I only had an
extra hour and a swim suit…
Looking south from the bridge
Campers on the west bank, taken from the bridge
Looking north from the bridge
From the bridge it is 24 miles of unpaved road to Langtry and the only gas
station around (there is no gas at Camp Easy, by the way). This 24 miles of
road is not hard, but it is scenic and entertaining with lots of elevation
changes and ample twists thrown in to keep things interesting. Mike and I
were able to safely maintain a quick pace of about 60 mph for most of the 24
miles, though I bottomed the rear shock heavily on some of the dips. Note
to self - get a Progressive rear shock for KLR.
The Langtry Depot at the intersection of Hwy 90 and the unpaved Langtry
Rd.
KLR’s enjoying a little shade while Mike and I were inside the store
eating ice cream. It was getting a bit warm out.
A short job south and we arrived at Judge Roy Bean’s place. For those who
don’t quite remember the legend, Roy was a colorful western character in the
1800s known as the Law West of the Pecos. His old saloon is now owned by
the great State of Texas and is open to tourists year round.
My KLR and Roy Bean’s Jersey Lilly saloon.
After leaving Roy’s place, Mike and I headed south out of Langtry to see
what was down there. We came upon this huge valley, called the Eagle’s
Nest.
Eagle’s Nest, looking west
Mike found a steep hill to ride up. It looked like fun so I joined him.
Looking west from the top of the hill.
From Langtry we re-traced our steps north for 24 miles up Langtry Rd and
back to the bridge. We wanted to ride west on Felder Draw Rd and this was
the only way to get to it. Here’s a shot of Camp Easy in the distance, shot
from the intersection of Felder Draw Rd and Langtry Rd.
Our plan was to travel west on Felder Draw all the way over to Hwy 349.
From there we were going to head north on Hwy 349, then west on Hwy 3166 to
Richland Springs Rd. My map indicated we could run Richland Springs Rd back
east, cross the Pecos again, and end up at Hoover Divide Rd. From there we
would generally work our way east and north, ending our day back in Sonora.
Running west, Felder Draw Rd was really fun. We took a short break at the
intersection of Felder Draw and Pumpville Rd.
Looking back east down Felder Draw Rd.
Looking south down Pumpville Rd
Rich on Felder Draw Rd.
Man, it is really cool riding out here.
We made it to Hwy 349 and ran that north to Hwy 3166 to Richland Springs.
The first part of Richland Springs vaguely reminded me of the northern end
of Pinto Canyon Rd. It dropped down into a deep valley and was really
enticing looking. We attacked it with gusto and giant grins. Woo Hoo! It
looked like we had found an unknown but really fun, twisty dual sport road
Alas, it was not to be. Just a few short miles down Richland Springs our
fun abruptly ended. A dang locked gate barred our way. This road had the
potential to be the best dual sport road on the entire trip, at least the
first 3 miles or so sure indicated it was. But, instead of being a county
road, it was now a private road. Don’t go this way when you are out here.
This severely limited our options for getting back to Sonora. We didn’t
have enough time before dark to work our way back east on Felder Draw Rd and
then crosscountry to Sonora. Instead, we were faced with lots of paved
road, first north to Sheffield and the east to Sonora. Drat! But, it was
the only real choice we had. The roads out here are really long, but there
aren’t many options. So we reluctantly retraced our steps back to Hwy 349
and ran that north to Sheffield and then east to Sonora. Unfortunately we
had to ride IH-10 many more miles than I wanted to.
Hwy 349 wasn’t all bad though, as this picture proves.
We stopped at a gas station in Sheffield and got a cold drink. I noticed
a building across the street with a really interesting sign hanging from the
roof.
Cemetary, kitchen attached? What the heck does that mean? Can anyone here
enlighten me?
Headed east from Sheffield on Hwy 290 we came upon a wonderfully scenic
overview of historic Ft. Lancaster. Here are a couple of pics.
An hour or so later we arrived back in Sonora. It had been a wonderful day
though it was too bad about Richland Springs Rd. Of course, that’s one of
the things about going exploring; you never know what you might find.
Day 3 – Lost for an hour, one more really good dual sport road, and a
crash
The end of Day 2 saw us back in Sonora at our motel. As we settled down for
the evening I placed a call to check on Randy. Had he made it home okay?
How was the arm? Unfortunately, all I got was his voice mail. The only
thing we could do was leave a message and hope that he had made it home
safely.
Our plan for Day 3 was to pretty much head due east, running as many of the
unpaved back roads as we could while making a fairly straight shot for
Austin. Mike and I had previously ridden all but 1 or 2 of the roads on our
planned route back to Austin, so we weren’t really expecting any surprises
along this route.
However, an idea was tugging at my brain. CR 350, that great dual sport
road from the first day, had another option that we had not ridden. CR 350
“Y”s about half-way between Hwy 55 and 674. The right side of the “Y” goes
north and east back to Hwy 55. The left side of the “Y” continues west and
south to Hwy 674. Mike and I had ridden the part that went to Hwy 674, the
left part of the “Y”, but had not ridden the other option. Of course, this
brought up the question, what was the other choice like? Was it equally as
good as the other parts of this wonderful road? Instead of riding roads we
had ridden previously and already knew, why not change our plans and go ride
the unridden part of CR 350. I brought up the idea to Mike and he quickly
agreed.
Of course, this meant that we would have to come up with a whole new route
for day 3 – one that included our target road. More examination of the map
revealed another tasty looking morsel. It is about an hour of boring slab
from Sonora to Rocksprings – not something we wanted to ride. And not
something you want me to ride either – how boring my story would be writing
about riding a boring road. It’s much better if Mike and I find some knarly
backroad, have a fun adventure on it and then write about it here.
J
Another option was to run Hwy 1691 southeast to CR 900, aka Old Junction Rd,
but a fellow in Rocksprings had told me that there was a locked gate on Old
Junction Rd. We had already had our fill of locked gates and if there truly
was a locked gate there it would eat up multiple hours having to backtrack
to Sonora to start all over again.
One other option was available and it looked pretty good. We could head
south down 277 till we reached an unpaved road, CR 450, that the map shows
to run east from Hwy 277 over to Hwy 377. Yeah, let’s ride that road. It
should be fun. From there we would run Hwy 377 to Rocksprings, then south
on Hwy 55 to our target dual sport road. Cool, I love it when a plan comes
together.
The first order of business for Day 3, though, was breakfast. I’ve got
nothing against sticking with a winner and neither does Mike, so we headed
back to the same restaurant that we had eaten in yesterday morning. This
time around Mike got the “all you can eat” pancakes while I went for eggs,
toast, and sausage. Mmmm…. Breakfast is the most important meal of the
day, right?
We blazed south out of Sonora, leaving a smoking trail of rubber behind us
and great adventures in front of us. Well, since we were both riding KLRs
it wasn’t exactly a trail of smoking rubber; it was more like a trail of
dust from yesterday’s ride, but hey, what are you gonna do? Anyway, we had
an uneventful ride south on Hwy 277.
Mike was in charge of navigation, since at this point in the trip we only
had one map. Darn, I forgot to tell you the story of the missing map.
Yesterday, shortly after leaving the Langtry Depot Mike discovered that his
map was gone. It was in his map case on his tank bag at the Langtry Depot
(check the pictures of the bikes at the depot, you can clearly see the map
is in his tank bag). He didn’t take the map out while we were at the depot
and he didn’t take it out at Judge Roy Bean’s place. But when we got down
to the Eagle’s Nest, he discovered his map was missing. The only thing we
can figure is that someone took it out of his bag after I snapped the pics
of the bike at the Langtry Depot. Several groups of people came and went
after I shot that picture and while we were inside eating ice cream. How
low can you get, stealing a man’s map? Mike was so mad about the stolen map
that he kept losing his concentration and in the next 45 minutes nearly
crashed 3 times. Gotta be that Irish blood in him, ‘cause I’m telling you
he was madder than a wet hen.
I still had my map though so I gave it to him in the hopes that it might
calm him down some. I didn’t want my buddy running off some 100 foot cliff
into a ravine because he was thinking about his map and not the road ahead.
Today, when we took off, Mike still had the only map and therefore, by
default, was in charge of navigation. When we got in the vicinity of where
CR 450 should have been, the only roads we saw were gated, seemingly private
roads. So we kept riding south on 277. We ended up going too far south and
hit the Val Verde county line, which we knew was too far south. We made a
U-turn and slowly worked out way back north, slowing at every little road
that intersected with our paved road. Shortly we came upon a likely road.
It had some oil company signs and a gate, but it was close to where the map
said CR 450 should be and it didn’t have any signs that said “private road”
so we thought maybe this was our road. Once we got through the gate off we
went, leaving a cloud of dust behind us.
Hey, this was a fun road. It immediately went through a creek bed, up a
hill, around a turn, then another one, back down into the creek, and so on.
This is really looking good. Then we reached an intersection. There isn’t
an intersection on the map though. Which way should we go? We guess, and
blast off again. Another intersection. Another guess. Blast off.
Another intersection. What the heck? All the roads look alike, and they
all look really fun. Crap, now we are lost and haven’t a clue which is the
county road and which are the oil field roads that dead end up around the
next curve or 10. You could spend hours and hours running around on all
these fun but unmarked dirt roads.
Time to backtrack to the highway as this obviously isn’t CR 450. We ran the
highway a little further north and came upon another road with gate and oil
field signs. Maybe this is the right road. It’s certainly in the right
location according to the map and the direction it heads off matches our
map. But, there is no official road sign or county marking. What the heck,
let’s run it anyway. We get through the gate and wick the throttle open. A
mile down the road the same thing occurs – another intersection not on the
map. We once again guess which way to go and continue on our way. Then we
reach another intersection and another, and so on. Shortly, we are back at
the oil field roads from earlier. These roads are all great fun, I mean
really, really fun with all the twists and elevation changes, but where the
heck do they go? Who knows if they dead end somewhere out in the middle of
nowhere or if one of them will eventually lead us all the way over to Hwy
377?
After an hour of so of exploring all these roads and not getting any closer
to our destination, we call it quits. We could ride around here all day,
having a great time, but then end up back exactly where we started. While
it would be some really fun riding since all these roads were excellent dual
sport roads, I needed to get home sometime today. Reluctantly we decided to
back track to the highway yet again and then slab it all the way over to
Rocksprings. But, dang it, I’m calling the county commissioner first thing
Monday morning to find out the deal. Is there really a county road that
joins these 2 roads, ‘cause if there is it’s got to be truly superb road.
Our trip via slab over to Rocksprings was uneventful, as expected. From
there we headed south on hwy 55 to our target road for the day – CR 350
(except my map said this branch of CR 350 was named CR 310). A few miles
outside of Rocksprings we spotted the road sign – CR 310 on the right
ahead. Game on!
CR 310 turned out to be a fine dual sport road. It started off pretty flat,
but other than that it was a fun little road. You could see the hills in
the distance, hills that the road was clearly heading for.
Mike on CR 310
Rich on CR 310
We rode south many miles on CR 310, thoroughly enjoying ourselves. At one
stop for a drink of water and a power bar, some of the locals decided to
have a closer look. “Hey, Mike, got a power bar for us, too? How about a
drink of that bottled water?”
Mike and his new friends
Remember those bump gates from Day 1? If not, there were 2 pictures of Mike
at one back in the Day 1 part of my story. Well, there was no shortage of
bump gates on CR 310. Of all the different types of non-automatic gates in
the world, bump gates are my favorite. For those you of not familiar with
bump gates, they are a particular type of gate that can be opened with your
vehicle. You ride right up to them, bump into them with sufficient speed
and they swing open. You drive through and the spring on the gate
automatically closes it behind you. No problem. All other gates require
you to get out of your vehicle, open the gate, get back in your vehicle,
drive through the opening, get back out of your vehicle, close and latch the
gate, get back in your vehicle and continue to the next gate. Do that 5-10
times in a short distance and I guarantee you will be mumbling words under
your breath that would cause your mamma to wash your mouth out with soap if
she heard you say. Back on Day 1 I advised you to avoid CR 380 between Camp
Wood and Barksdale due to an excessive use of latch gates. Well, CR 310 had
nothing but bump gates. If it has to have a gate on it, a bump gate is a
great choice.
The only challenge with bump gates is they don’t teach you how to open one
with your motorcycle at the MSF course. Or at the Advanced Rider Course.
Or at the off-road riding course. Or at any motorcycle riding course, for
that matter. You learn strictly OJT. At first, you don’t bump the gate
hard enough and it doesn’t open all the way. Did I mention that bump gates
are really heavy? They are necessarily much heavier than other gates – I’m
not a physicist or anything like that so I can’t fully explain why they must
be much heavier than some lightweight aluminum gate, but trust me, they are
heavier because that weight is part of what makes them work so well.
Anyway, since they are heavy you gotta solidly bump them. When you don’t
bump them hard enough, they don’t swing open and then you are stuck with
this freakin’ heavy gate leaning against your bike trying to knock you
down. Then you have to go through all sorts of contortions trying to push
or kick the gate open wide enough to get your bike the rest of the way and
of course you are on your bike this whole time, trying to balance it and not
fall down. Not a pretty sight and the rider looks ridiculous while doing
it.
Once you figure it out though, you are golden. You ride up to the gate,
place your front tire against it, dump the clutch, rev the throttle and go
for it. As the gate swings open in an arc you turn the front wheel to keep
it pushing against the gate, timing it perfectly so that you give the gate
sufficient momentum to open completely, and then you just drive on through,
pretty as you please, looking like the skilled, resourceful rider that you
are. Your buddy then rides through, right behind you, easily clearing the
gate as it finishes swinging open and long before it swings back closed.
One push, 2 riders. Sweet!
Did I mention that bump gates are heavy? The thing about bump gates is that
they need to be heavy to work right, but that doesn’t mean they all weigh
the same. Some are heavier than others. Each manufacturer independently
figures out what they think is the perfect weight for a bump gate, so, of
course, you end up with bump gates of all different weights, depending on
who made the gate. Which, as you’ve probably already figured out, means
that it takes varying amounts of throttle to open bump gates of different
weights. That’s a critical point that would be a mistake to overlook.
Unfortunately, since there isn’t a “bump gate motorcycle course” you can
take, you are forced to learn this small, but oh-so-important lesson out in
the field, at what you could call “Bump Gate University”. The thing about
Bump Gate University is it isn’t shy about failing you if you dork things
up.
So, why the long dissertation on bump gates? You can see it coming like a
freight train down the freeway, can’t you? Mike and I, after successfully
negotiating a dozen bump gates were thinking we had graduated at the top of
the class at good ‘ol Bump Gate University, and were now making quick work
of all the bump gates on CR 310. Then came that one, really, really heavy
bump gate. Really heavy. What the hell was that bump gate manufacturer
thinking when he made this one? Why did he have to make it so heavy? And
to make mattes worse, you couldn’t tell just by looking at it that it was
extra heavy – it looked like all those other bump gates we had been
through. But, it wasn’t. Hidden inside was some super heavy material, just
waiting for some innocent dual sport rider to come along and try to move
it. Well, there I was, totally unaware of the treachery that lay in wait.
I pulled up to this gate, just like all the others before, put my front tire
against the gate, dumped the clutch, and gave it just the right amount of
throttle. NOT! Not near enough throttle for this extra heavy gate and it
barely moved. It certainly didn’t swing open like all the other bump
gates. I barely made it without it whacking into the back of my bike and
sending me flying. And Mike was right behind me and trying to get through
the gate on my push. This wasn’t going to be pretty. I glanced over my
shoulder and saw Mike going for it. I thought he had realized the problem
and was going to ram the gate with his bike. Such was not the case. He was
just trying to get through the gate on my push. The gate had other plans
for Mike though and slammed into his bike. Poor Mike was caught totally
unprepared by the ferocious attack by this bump gate. Down he went.
What do you think the chances were that there would be some nice soft dirt
right there for Mike to land on? Versus the chances of the sharpest,
nastiest rocks in the entire county being right there where the bump gate
was knocking Mike down? You guessed right – those rocks were waiting right
there for the express purpose of Mike falling on them. Down he went.
I parked the bike as quickly as I could and ran to Mike’s aid. We finally
shoved the gate off his bike and managed to the get the bike upright. Only
a little gasoline had leaked out of the carburetor onto the ground. Once
the bike was upright though, Mike realized that his ribs were really
hurting. He grabbed his side with a mighty wince. I really thought he had
cracked a rib from hitting those big rocks.
After a few minutes he was finally able to catch his breath and had pretty
much decided his ribs might not be broken, but I could tell they were
hurting a lot. He gathered his wits and started evaluating the damage to
the bike. The hand guard and clutch lever had shifted out of position, but
that was about it. So, Mike picked up one of the rocks he had fallen on and
used it as a hammer to get his hand guard and clutch lever back into
position.
Once all the excitement had passed, Mike gave the bump gate the finger
and we continued on our way. Here’s another shot of CR 310, looking
southwest.
As luck would have it, the very next bump gate was just as heavy as the last
one. This time Mike was in the lead and it was his turn to bump the gate
open. As he attempted to bump the gate open, he experienced the same
problem I had – the gate was heavier than he expected and he didn’t bump it
hard enough. It swung open just wide enough to let him through and then
started swinging shut.
The other thing about bump gates is that they swing open from either
direction. They are kind of like a pendulum, swinging in one direction and
then back in the other direction, in an race, until they eventually stop in
the middle. Well, I’m behind Mike and can’t get through on his push and
here comes that heavy ass gate, swinging at speed right toward me. I can
tell it’s going hit my bike and knock me down or worse. I start
backpedaling with some serious urgency, trying to back up enough so that the
gate will miss me. I almost made it, too. The gate struck a glancing blow
to my front tire and wrenched it to the left. I just managed to keep from
falling.
After the gate stopped swinging, I bumped it open and rode through. Mike
swore later on that he wasn’t really trying to get back at me for the
earlier bump gate incident. I believe him, mostly.
J
We continued south until we reached the “Y” intersection. That bump gate
in the background is the one you go through to go southwest and reach Hwy
674.
Looking back the way we had just come.
Looking east, the way we were headed.
We hung a left at the “Y” and headed east down CR 350 back towards Hwy 55.
This road was just as fun this day as it had been on Day 1.
One of the water crossings on CR 350.
Mike and a water crossing
After about an hour of riding, we arrived back at Hwy 55. We headed south
down 55 towards Camp Wood. There weren’t many cars on the road with it
being Easter morning and all, so I took advantage of the situation and
grabbed a couple of action photos of Mike while riding down the road.
We gassed up in Camp Wood and then made a bee-line for Austin. The
adventure was over, but the ride wasn’t finished yet. We still had to make
our way to Austin, which was about another 3 hours up the road. I won’t
bore you with the details, but we ran paved road all the way home. Just
another perfect riding day in the hill country.
Thus ended our 3 day adventure through the hill country and west Texas.
Epilogue
After arriving home Sunday evening, I checked my cell but there was still no
word from Randy. I still didn’t know if he had made it home safely on
Saturday and was candidly starting to get quite concerned. On Monday, I
finally got an email from him letting me know he had made it home okay. His
arm had given him fits all the way home but he had made it safely. He tells
me the arm is much better now.
I called the County Commissioner for Edwards County to discuss CR 450. He
explained to me that the county had abandoned that road several years back.
It seems the landowners along that road all got together and petitioned the
county to abandon this road. The county agreed, so what used to be CR 450
is now a private road. That’s really too bad, because the section I rode
made me believe this would have been a real gem of a dual sport road.
Gas was pretty readily available during this trip. The ride from Camp Wood
to Rocksprings on Day 1 was probably the longest distance between gas
stations. I don’t know the exact distance but I’d estimate 180 miles or
so. The 2nd longest distance between fuel stops was from Sonora
to Langtry, a distance of about 120-130 miles or so. (Sorry, I’m not more
precise, but my odometer doesn’t work so I measure distances via how much
fuel I burn between fill ups.)
In summary I have to say that this 3 day trip was really excellent. I’d
have no reservations recommending a similar trip to any of my fellow dual
sport riders out there. This particular route could even be a good choice
for a 3 day weekend when Big Bend, Arkansas, or New Mexico is just too far
away.
This ends my story. Thanks for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it.
