Travels and Experiments

2008-07-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

2008-06-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

Hill country is a mysterious place. I'm drawn to explore its back roads, known as FM (farm to market), RM (ranch to market) or RR (ranch roads). Once outside the confines of the city, the landscape opens up, traffic dies down, and you begin to feel far away from home and from anyone else. On this particular run, I headed north on Parmer Lane before beginning my trek west onto the scenic 360 loop which took me south to 2224 also known as, the more intriguing, Bee Caves Rd.

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Taking the scenic route..... bypassing the uninspiring I-highway, 35. 2224 is full of long sweeping curves zig zagging over hills and valleys often giving you the vantage point of being on top of the world. At least a small part of the world but no doubt a place where more and more people, including myself, are finding appealing and glad to call home.

My goal was to find the smallest of back roads as I headed west toward Luckenbach to visit a friend.

At a ranch in Luckenbach, TX, this pictures displays the unfortunate "live oak decline". These majestic trees have been under attack by oak wilt for the past 15 or so years. Described as easy to prevent but difficult to treat, oak wilt travels rapidly through the root system to neighboring trees. The only effective way to prevent it's rapid spread is to trench a break in the root system. An extremely difficult and expensive task

Exiting the Ranch.....

Cattle grates =middle of nowhere, TX.

Also known as a "Texas Gate"

No traffic, a gentle breeze and no major highways for miles allows for a very quiet atmosphere. Keep moving though, natures scavengers, the vulchers, are circling above. Out here the cattel roam freely but I didn't encounter any. I had mismanaged my bikes fuel consumption and found myself searching POI's on the GPS for gas stations. I flagged down a rancher on an ATV and asked him to verify the distance to the nearest gas station. To my surprise, the GPS was actually right and the rancher was wrong giving me a false sense of security of "it's only about 15 miles that way". Well, it was more like 30 miles and I was running on fumes, but made it.

2007-09-07T17:47:00.001-07:00

Lake Champlain

Ausable Chasm in eastern New York just before the ferry to Vermont over lake Champlain.

2007-09-07T17:09:00.001-07:00

Lake Placid far below
View atop Whiteface mountain, an alpine environment

Off the beaten path....a waterfall not far from our camp just outside Lake Placid

2007-09-07T16:35:00.002-07:00

Ah......upstate New York!
Photo of me and Brad (my brother in law) courtesy of friendly, but gruff Harley dudes.
Our Moffitt Beach camp. The mosquitoes were distressing in the morning and evenings but deet worked well against them.
My Northface Jacket kept me warm and later on in the trip dry! Highly recommended.
The night before was a cold 33 degrees but my 45 degree sleeping bag performed well. However by sunrise, the cold had finally gotten the best of me. As it turns out early June in the Adirondacks can be surprisingly cold. The locals said it was not normal. Despite the cold, Moffitt beach was beautiful and totally worth the stop.

Inside Adirondack Park on a cold evening, looking for our campsite. Soon after this picture was taken we realized that the map was not accurate thus causing us to drive past our campsite outside the town of Speculator.

2007-09-07T16:31:00.001-07:00

2007-09-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Grand Canyon of the East, Letchworth State Park in upstate New York

2006-04-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here's another trail rider who told us about a town that was only a few miles away. It turned out that the town was 30 miles down the trail and the trail became increasingly treacherous.
Pat coming up the trail

Not sure what the exact temperature was but it was hot. We were told that a person would need a gallon of water a day to survive even if they were standing still. The GS's temp gauge usually reads 5 bars, but on the trail, it got up to 7 bars which is one away from the red. We couldn't get alot of airflow because our speed was only around 10-15 MPH.
Here I am catching up to Pat. After hitting a pretty good sized bump, we both lost some of our gear. I stopped to reattach my sleeping bag and retrieve Pat's water bottle. Pat rode on. While stopping, I took some time to soak in my surroundings. Its interesting to note how quite and still the desert is.

2006-04-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

that's me
Me again
Pat with the thumbs up
Here's me enjoying the trail. I was very happy with how comfortable I was with this big bike offroad and how easy it was to maneuver even at slow speeds on uneven terrain. At this point, the trail was still very even and easy to travel, later, things got much more interesting. The conditions started to get worse a few miles later, we came across large ruts and lots of sand. We also had to dodge huge holes quit often.

Pat took his helmet off for this photo opp.

2006-04-30T15:00:00.000-07:00

The entrance to Big Bend! As we approached the entrance I met another BMW rider who had stopped for a photo. (No picture with him though)

2006-04-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

Southwestern Texas

2006-04-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

South Padre Island

Brownsville, Texas

2006-04-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

April 5

Doing my good deed for the day. This is at a stop just inside of Texas. If you look closely you may notice that I have my jacket sleeves wrapped up in tape. This jacket was flapping in the wind and whipping me all over the place. The problem was that its not a proper touring jacket. However I was never bothered by it before but we were now traveling at about 80-85 mph and it had began to whip around pretty good. When we pulled over I had Pat tape my arms and then once around my waist. I must say that I got some strange looks while I was being taped up.

2006-04-23T11:42:00.000-07:00

April 4

After driving down to the coast, we headed north. Night was approaching and we weren't in any mood to pay for a hotel. We thought we would try the BMW anonymous book and hopefully find a tent space in someone's yard. That attempt was unsuccessful. The person that Pat called from the anonymous book kind of freaked us out. He was making too many references to guns and was unwilling to give us his address so that we could input it into the GPS. He argued with Pat over that idea. He thought he needed a GPS so that he could give us coordinates. He just wasn't willing and didn't understand. Yikes! By this time it was dark, we were tired and I almost got into a accident. Some over eager teenager, trying to impress his friends was driving like an idiot and pulled out in front of me. I almost hit him! Thank God for ABS, although my tire (not sure if it was the front or back) chirped for a split second. After a near collision, we stopped at a KOA campground. We soon found out that it was going to cost us as much to stay here as a hotel. We kept on going and by the end of the night settled for a remote corner of a truck stop. We used the rain cover from the tent and bungeed it down to the bike. Pat and I ate a meal of dinty moore beef stew (very greasy and nasty, but suitable on an adventure trip) and after that, I was ready for nothing else but sleep. I put my earplugs in and I was out. Surprisingly that night was one of the best nights sleep i'd gotten in awhile.

2006-04-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

On our way back from the coast, we began to see flood damage. As night began to creep in, we ran into this dead end, the result of massive and permanent flooding.

2006-04-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

We couldn't leave Louisiana without a visit to the coast.

2006-04-23T10:51:00.000-07:00

April 3

I had a great time in Baton Rouge. Pat and I spent two days in a nice hotel with plenty of downtime. Originally I had planned to turn around and head back to Lancaster after the wedding. Pat on the other hand was heading out west to explore a state he had never been to, Texas. It was the morning of April 3 and time for me to make a decision. How could I resist the chance to tour Texas and better yet go without any real plans as to were we might end up? A true adventure no doubt! Well, I couldn't, so I called home, made some additional arrangements and was off to Texas!!

2006-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

The beautiful bride Amy

2006-04-23T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ryan's sister Jill

2006-04-21T21:23:00.000-07:00

Ryan and I hanging out at the reception.

2006-04-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Three old buddies from high school reunite

Joe and Sandi Smith, Ryan's mother and step father.

I had a great time with my friend Joe (who also made the trip from Lancaster) , the groom's half brother and sister from the other side of the family, Mellissa and Sean.

Ron and Wanda Schenk, Ryan's father and step mother.

2006-04-21T20:33:00.000-07:00

April, 1

Part of the reason, or excuse, to go on this trip was to see my friend Ryan Schenk, and attend his wedding in Baton Rouge, La.

2006-04-20T23:46:00.000-07:00

Natchez, Mississippi

2006-04-20T23:44:00.000-07:00

2006-04-20T23:41:00.000-07:00

2006-04-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

2006-04-20T23:33:00.000-07:00

This is my friend and fellow adventure traveler Pat. We had a deal that if I would start the fire he would split the wood......No argument there.

2006-04-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

For a reasonable $10 per night this nice space was provided along with virtualy unlimited firewood.

2006-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

The worst thing about the Natchez Trace is shown on the speedometer. Although the speed was slow, there was no traffic to speak of and no intersections.

2006-04-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

The Tennessee countryside

2006-04-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

2006-04-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

March 30

The 444 mile Natchez Trace begins in Tennessee and ends in Natchez, Mississippi. The trace was used as a route to connect portions of the Mississippi River to salt licks in central Tennessee from the mid 1700's to the mid 1800's by the Kaintuck boatmen and various American Indian tribes.

2006-04-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

March 28

All ready to go. The weather was adventurous today in Lancaster Ohio, about 40 degrees and rainy. I used trash bags to weather proof my inadequate luggage.