Post
by phoo » Sun May 12, 2013 4:59 pm
I pretty much struck out on my own for this trip, which was actually pretty nice because I went at my own pace (read alone out front ;-) ), which was fantastic for not eating anyone else's dust.
I did the entire route. The route sheet was good, except distances were for how long you were on each segment rather than cumulative with resets. Then I messed up trying to make it cumulative, which took me a while to figure out.
The first deep water crossing was cake. The last was deep but smooth and straight. The middle deep crossing was over 2' deep along a natural dam. I don't know the proper way through there, but I knew to stay upstream of it yet it got so deep I was afraid of swamping my carb and ended up holding the front end up in the water with the back sunk in while I gingerly made my way across on the top of the dam. I had considered trying to ride across the dam but it was narrow, rough, and slippery. There is a picture in my Facebook of someone who tried crossing downstream of the dam, where water cascading over the dam digs a trench on the other side. The water was up to his gas tank.
Overall, I think the route was really well done. I am keeping the 100+ mile route sheet for future reference (and will post it here), but for $40, a ride on public roads with no support vehicles should have included a light breakfast and had a cookout at the end. There wasn't even a real lunch stop, so there was no impetus to meet any of the other riders. Hence my decision to just solo it. Also, the gas stops needed to be better marked as detours since there was no real need to stop. The last gas stop actually kind of annoyed me. I took a left and went almost two miles to a gas station I didn't need, then went just over two miles back. Net result was I could have taken a left and gone .3 miles. It doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize the previous gas stop, which I also didn't need, I went almost ten miles out of my way because I didn't realize I was supposed to go back the way I came and went the wrong way out of the lot.
Anyway, completely minor complaints and they probably wouldn't even be complaints if not for my decision to ride alone and having enough gas and desire to iron man the entire thing in one shot.
Patrick
2003 Triumph Sprint ST :: 2004 Suzuki SV650R
2016 Beta 300RR :: 2006 Suzuki DRZ400SM
1975 Harley FXE1200