This isn’t just an ordinary pile of wood planks…. no, they were part of history for well over 100 years…

One day back in August (8.13.11) of this year, I went for a ride on my Versys and my destination was to an old wooden pony truss bridge I had ridden over previously while heading south. That particular day I was riding on my WR250R and was in bit of a hurry to get south.  I routed along a road that I came upon this great little pony truss bridge but didn’t have time to stop and take photos. So like all of us adventurers, I saved a waypoint on my GPS so I could come back later and really spend some time looking at this bridge.

Well, it was time to go back and see that bridge. This is the ride I took that day, heading back to that old little bridge.

To The Bridge

I remember it was along a great road just north of the Missouri river south of Hwy 94. After looking through my gps tracks I created a route that would take me along a scenic route down Dry Fork Rd and end at this bridge. My Versys hadn’t been ridden all that much so I decided to take her out this time.. and put her to the test on these gravel roads…

Running up a few back roads out to Warrenton, I started the real ride on Dry Fork Road, at first Dry Fork doesn’t look like its going to be as good as you think…

But in no time at all.. you see evidence of another great creek road… here’s Dry Fork Creek that this road runs along side of, its another signature beautiful clear water Missouri creek.

Then, rounding a corner I meet up with this…

Everytime I come down this road, I stop at this amazing rock and just think about how its structure puts me in awe. Just how may thousands of years its been there and it seems to take me out of my current circumstances and reminds me of why riding is so incredible… or maybe I’m just amused by the little things of nature.

The road continues along the creek.. just looky there… getting better and better.

Soon, it gets a bit more remote.. boy I hope my Versys with these street tires don’t end up bitting me for this one!

If you’re a local and haven’t ridden Dry Fork Rd, its definitely a good one, put it on your list when you come ride Charrette, Lost Creek & Massas. It’s big bike friendly with a few low water crossings. Be careful of the hidden slime if theirs water on them. Slick as snot!

Still heading south, I took a right on Howard Branch Rd. Here’s Knobby Path.. and I would NOT take the Versys on this gem of a road! Just beyond this photo, I wouldn’t call it a road any more.. its a path.

As you can see.. it’s a great place for the WR!

Continuing on.. I took a few more great roads.. man I love this stuff..

It was time for a break.. so I shut’er down and ate a snack on this bridge. It’s always so peaceful out here on the trail..

So far the Versys is doing just fine on this gravel. One thing I absolutely love about the Versys is it feels like you’re riding a dirt bike. You sit upright, can easily stand and ride, its set up allows for easy handling on or off road. I’m not planning to ever take it on the rough stuff I do my WR, but that’s exactly why I bought it..

I end up on Hwy 94 at Smith Creek Rd., head west for a short bit and then turn onto Bernheimer Rd… this will take me to that bridge I can’t wait to see….I double check my GPS for my waypoint.. yep there it is. BR-BernRd

Another great road that runs down along Clear Branch Creek… I’m getting so close and feelin’ good…just can’t wait to see this old bridge and do a little investigating around it.

I begin to slow down as I round the corner where the bridge is.. and then.. my heart drops………..

There, off in the distance… in the field.. surrounded by grass.. I see the skeletal remains..

I stop and just stare. Shut the engine off. Slowly remove my helmet and head over to the grave site.  I just can’t believe it….

It’s.. gone… just sitting in a field with a bunch of junk…

I take my time and look at the structural details of this old 1902 bridge… thats right, 1902!

Almost 110 years old…

Then.. I turn and look to my left.. across the field.. I see more of its remains.. and to the left, I get a glimpse of its replacement…

Wow.. the history this wood could speak.. serving the community for over 100 years, and serving it well I might add. I got back on my bike and rode closer.. then walk down to get a closer look.

This one-lane, pin-connected, 3-panel, half-hip Pratt pony truss bridge was built in 1902 by Stupp Brothers Bridge and Iron Co.  It’s spanned 40 foot with a deck width of 13.5 feet. As of 2008 its average daily traffic was a mere 35! Bridgehunter reports its structural status was in very poor condition. But as I remember it, it was a beauty! Here’s a photo via Bridgehunter:

These new bridges… just don’t do anything for me.. maybe I should find a little more appreciation for the technology these days.. but I don’t know, it’s gonna take a while…

Click here to view the embedded video.

 Riding Heals Sadness

I’m a bit disappointed at this point and surprised this bridge is lost forever… I figure the only way to make things better is to ride! So that’s what I did..

I saw another waypoint I marked a while back for a little road that just looked interesting to me on maps.. so I headed that way. This dead end road ran across the Cullum Branch.. I was hoping for something special..

On my way running west on Hwy 94.. I saw this cemetery I’ve past a thousand times.. I rode up the grass drive to the sign and…. wow.. 1870!

Pinckney 1870.. that’s a loong time ago.  Missouri History Lesson: In that same year, M. Lemma Barkeloo was the first woman lawyer in Missouri (St. Louis). She was the first woman trial lawyer in the United States, and the first woman lawyer to try a case in federal court. Crazy…

I continued down 94…the Versys eats this stuff up…

and here we go.. Gore Rd.

Then.. I come around a corner and see some old structures on the left..

This old barn sat here with so much character.. and some nice handy work to boot.

Then this old house on the same property.. its up for sale too.

It was so peacful back here.. I had to think that someone’s elder parents lived here and after a long fruitful life.. their journey ends and the house goes up for sale.  The yard had been cut and pretty well taken care of.. probably in memory of..

Road ends here.. which is actually on the Katy Trail..

So I turn around and head back.. there’s one other road I wanted to ride and that’s Tower Rd out west in the Daniel Boone Conservation area.. I always planned on riding that road on the WR but never did.. so I headed out on 94 again.. I took Case Rd first.. it too was a neat ride.

Turned on Tower Rd, heading through the conservation area.. its a nice ride through the forest area. I decided I’d take break before ending my ride and heading home…

It was a sad but good day of riding…

And a lesson I’ve learned from this ride….. stop and take photos of any neat stuff I see while on my adventures. Because I’ll never know if they’ll be there the next time.. it could very well be the last time and the end of a piece of history!

.. another beautiful Missouri ride.

This ride report is also on ADVrider.com.

After a great day celebrating Thanksgiving with family, what better to do on Black Friday than get up super early, say around 4:30am in the morning, stand in line for hours and save a couple bucks on gifts!! Shooot.. I know a million other things I’d rather do!

Luckily, this year Black Friday was a beautiful sunny 65 degree day, a perfect day to get one more ride in before the season ends. And thats exactly what I did. This report is filled with an overload of photos, goofy self video, and some riding footage to boot! Read every word, skim the photos or just watch the videos.. heck I don’t care cuz I had a blast putting it all together…enjoy!

My Plan

I didn’t have one. Ahhh… what I did know is I was going the head south!  I rolled out of the house around 8am and pointed my WR south, towards Mark Twain National Forest area. There were a few roads I had marked earlier that I wanted to check out, possibly add them to future routes. So.. off I went, headed down a few country highways, the fog was still hovering over the fields…

I would ride solo on this ride.. but for some reason I never felt alone…

I passed through the little old town of Dutzow… most people don’t know or care that Dutzow was a settlement village for German emigrants dating back to early 1800′s before the Civil War.. the little town was referred to as Lake Creek. The creek to the east of the town still flows today and has the name Lake Creek.

There are several very old historic towns in Missouri, and a few very close to me. There’s one in particular that I’m going to ride to and poke around, every time I ride through it I’m fascinated by the history.. stay tuned for that one.

Before I know it.. I’m crossing the Missouri River into Washington.. getting ever so close to some good forest roads..

Get Me Off This Pavement!

For some reason today, pavement really depressed me, I couldn’t wait to get off this tarmac and ride gravel…then forest roads. Riding those kinda roads makes the experience so much better.. its like the well-produced soundtrack to a great movie, the movie wouldn’t be the same without it.

I turn southeast and run along Indian Creek for a few miles…

Looking out over Indian Creek…

I was a little surprise to see how swollen the creeks were today.. its a beautiful sound though. I took a break here and just listened to the water.

Have a listen…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now I’m entering the national forest area and you can immediately tell by the roads.. nice dirt roads.. not gravel.. but dirt!

This area here is just entering the Huzzah Conservation Area…

Heading down this great road where the Hinch Branch met, the view opened up and catching my eye, were several glaring white trees..wow..

I got closer to get a better look.. I’m not any kinda tree expert but I think these are white birch trees?! Whatever kind they are they sure did look amazing among the dab colors of their surroundings.

A few other neat things caught my eye running down the forest roads… here’s a glimpse…you can see my helmet cam footage in the video recap below.

It was nearing 11am, the temps were warming up and the riding was getting better and better… but I had no clue how good it would actually get.

Ridin’ The Pine

During the fall & winter months.. the pine trees in the national forests are beautiful.. you start to smell them as you near, the sound deadens like there’s snow on the ground.. I stopped for a few minutes just to smell the ros.. I mean pines!

As nice as these were here in the Huzzah area.. oh how they would get even better a bit later in my ride!

So I continued a few more miles exploring the area on roads I’ve never traveled.. finding neat and interesting things around every corner..

My WR doing what she does best.. taking me to things I’ve never seen or experienced before..

a neat little old church, I’d love to hear a sermon preached in this old church!

Stopping at this crossing I looked at my GPS and saw I was turning onto a familiar road, just never road from the very beginning of it. I knew I’d run through some more amazing pines.. typically I like to run these forest roads at a good clip because they are so smooth, but today, I’d take it slow and sink it all in.

Just like ole’ Betsy here.. sinking it all in, watching some kook ride by on a weird looking horse..

I’m getting closer to the pines of Mark Twain National Forest.. you can just start to feel it..

then a row of them on one side of you..

Then on both sides..

and the next thing you know.. you are engulfed by them.. feeling so small, just you and your motorcycle. I hoped off the bike and took a little walk around..

see my WR in there?

just a pretty surreal time for me that day, walking along among the pines.. the smell was that of Christmas. And the meaning of Christmas is quite special to my family and I. I was reminded of how blessed of a guy I am, walking back to my bike…

I saddled up and carried on… seeing old little cottages like this makes me wonder who built it? Who lived in it? Was this their pride and joy, their dream home? If it was, I’m sure it was quite nice living out here.

Oh, What’s This Waypoint?!

Still pointing my WR south, I decided to run Gobblers Knob Rd  instead of the usual Pigeon Rooster Rd which runs down Machell Hollow.  Gobblers Knob sends you over the Courtois Creek.. along this long low water crossing..

Courtois Creek is a larger creek in this area, it branches off the Huzzah Creek up north and continues for miles down to Iron county. The creek systems in Missouri are vast and absolutely beautiful south of Hwy 70. I’ve found the majority of the creeks north of Hwy 70 are muddy! like this one..

No mud around these parts down here.. my next turn would be onto Big Shoal Creek Rd.. which is just beautiful, runs along the Shoal Creek with some amazing bluffs…

I decided to take another break here…listen to the water sing while I drank some water..

While taking my break I began to zoom out on my GPS to see where I should head.. I first saw the waypoint “DillardsMill”, well.. haven’t been there so lets head that way… wait.. then I saw another waypoint.. “Oh, what’s this waypoint, “TunnelBNSF”??  Then I remembered… and knew I’d head there and save “DillardsMill” for later! I don’t think I ever got back on my WR any faster.. and was off like a shot!

This tunnel is part of the Burlington Northern railroad system.. and for some reason I just LOVE trains! They fascinate me, guess they bring some sort of simplicity to things nowadays. Those massive engines are kings of power. When I got home I began to research Missouri railways and Burlington Northern. I found this very interesting video about how the snow and then floods of 2011 affected BNSF (Burlington Northern & Sante Fe), specifically along the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. I had no idea BNSF did so much work to try to protect their railways… wow!

 Rising Above: The Floods of 2011

Click here to view the embedded video.

Amazing video huh?! I respect all they’ve had to go through while trying to stay loyal to their customers. So back to riding, and staying on the subject of trains…I kept my eyes out for railroad tracks! Then.. around a corner.. looky here…

I’m getting closer.. then off to the side of the road I see this chair next to a fire ring. I think BigDog & HighFive forgot this chair when they were down here on their big pigs.. haha!

Nah.. both those guys are WR owners and I respect them a lot. Riding down this road headed to the tunnel, I could see several cut-throughs into the woods where logging has been done. Not sure if this was legal logging or just Paul & Jed’s self-service lumber-jacking operation.. ha! Either way.. I took a ride into the woods to get a closer look.

Maybe this is the forest department clearing out trees.. but it sure did look awful crooked to me, the way trees were cut and branches piled up leaned against other trees.. who knows?! A few hundred yards later.. I round the corner and… there it was… a very cool tunnel going under the railroad… I rode through it and back, then got the camera out for a little photo shoot!

BNSF Tunnel

I had a lot of fun hanging out here.. a lady drove by in a truck and just smiled and waved at me.  Saw some kinda birds at the nearby house walking in the road trying to figure out what the heck I was doing. Oh how I’d love to stand under this tunnel when a train drove over.. too bad this part of the RR is not in service anymore…

After putting away all my gear, I headed north and turned left on John Coleman Rd to see the old RR bridge still standing over Huzzah Creek, and boy, to my delight another awesome piece of history right next to each other…. photos tell a thousand words.. enjoy.

You can’t have too many photos with your own bike in them.. can you?! This area was real neat… I did a little “Blue Eye Bill” on-location video here for your enjoyment and laughter.. haha!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well it was time to mosey on.. get back on the trail, it was around 1:30pm and I had no clue which way to go.. I decided it was too late to head more south to Dillard Mill.. so I needed a route.. then I talked to myself.. I said, “self.. why not follow this here railway as far back home as you can”.. then I answered myself, “thats a grande idea!” and thats exactly what I did.. I weaved and winded through some great roads.. had to hop out on some pavement then ended at another historic bridge in Steelville. I know its another month to Christmas but seems I was getting presents early!

These old bridges are becoming extinct it seems around here.  Just a month or so ago we lost an early 1900 swinging bridge to some new fancy smancy bridge.. bah.. I vote for a new swinging bridge if its gotta be new… anyway, not sure how much longer this bridge will stand, this photo will last longer thats for sure.

Road ends here.. I thought about riding across it.. but, well, I chickened out.. ha!

We just don’t make them like we use to. There’s a lot of things that pertains to.. but one things for sure. I’m glad my WR isn’t like the old bikes.. thats one thing I’ve welcomed the technology on this bike.. its just as reliable as they come. Just like a good old dirt road with a fresh set of 606′s!

Going on 2:30pm now and I’m a good 2 and a half hours from home.. so.. I started heading back home on country highways.. just hoping soon…

me and WR will cross paths…

with another amazing riding day like this one sometime soon!

I tell you, I just had a great season-ending ride and I’m thankful for great friends I’ve met on ADVrider,  for my loving wife that supports my adventures, two amazing little boys, a loving family, a courageous Mom.. a Dad who I greatly admire.. and a God that has created such a beautiful land for me to see his amazing handy work!

Soli Deo Gloria.

Video Recap

Click here to view the embedded video.

This ride report is also on ADVrider.com.

After our awesome Swinging Bridges ride back in July, we decided we needed to get out again. Where too? South to Arkansas, Freddy and Morgan were ready to ride the Boston Mountains area again, and for some of us it would be our first.  After a conference call with all the participants, we decided I’d reach out to my fellow ADV buddy “DRZCharlie” for a recommended route, after all it was his backyard!  So that’s what I did.. I talked to Charlie and described what we were looking for and the amount of time we’d have to ride… he sure did come through on this one!

Let’s see.. there ended up being nine of us on the trip… Freddy, Morgan, Travis, Paxton, Yousef, Ken, Jonathan, Russ, and myself. What a great group of guys to ride with, we had all different kinda bikes and riding experience, but we all shared the same love for adventure. That always makes for a fabulous trip. I know each one of these guys would give me the shirt off their back if I needed it.. and that’s the kinda buddies I want to spend time with.

The Trip Begins

We would all meet up at Kimberling City Inn in Kimberling City, MO on Thursday night. Some trailered down and a few rode down from Columbia, Springfield and I think Travis even rode from West Plains… I would load up the Tacoma and drive down listening to the World Series on the radio.

The guys landed a condo so we all got to find out who snored and who didn’t. I ended up sharing a quite small pull-out bed with Freddy, luckily only once did I find my hand where it shouldn’t have been.. haha! The next morning we headed to the restaurant for some breakfast.. boy this took a lot longer than we wanted, then we’d head to Blue Eye.. right.. wrong! The first bike repair occurred before we could leave the parking lot.. ha!

This first video shows our meetup, repair work, flat tire and oh..yeah!!.. the beginning of some good riding!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Riding with a large group takes a little time to fore everyone to sync up and get into that smooth groove. After a few miles our group started to gel… especially when we came to these next roads in the following video. Man it was a good riding, very fun and even the guys on the big bikes were smiling from ear to ear! The only one complaining was Freddy’s KLR.. seems the fan fuse blew out which isn’t the best when you are riding slow technical stuff..

Click here to view the embedded video.

Camping @ Sam’s Throne

It’s been a great day of riding and beginning to get late in the day. We didn’t get as far along on the route as we had hoped but that’s ok, we’re just along for the ride.  We reached Mt. Judea for gas and supplies when Ken had mentioned a beautiful primitive camping spot out on Sam’s Throne. So we headed towards it and a beauty of a ride it was. I did a little research on Sam’s Throne and found it to be quite interesting. It’s most popular these days among rock climbers but here’s where it got its name:

Sometime in the 1820′s buffalo hunter Sam Davis, in search of his sister who he claimed had been kidnapped by Indians, climbed on top on a sandstone outcrop and preached fiery sermons to the hardscrabble settlers who lived below. Besides spewing damnation, Davis claimed to have a hoard of gold stashed on the summit of his rock, and built a log blockade across the formation’s walk up to keep out would-be thieves. He also said he’d live for 1,000 years. His rock pulpit became known as Sam’s Throne. It is also said that he used a cane to ambulate and that the cane was hollow and filled with gold dust. Before Sam died, he allegedly climbed up to the Throne and buried the cane, where its treasure resides to this day.

The peak in this photo below is what’s named Sam’s Throne, this rock sits right in the middle of this beautiful valley…

This video you’ll get to see some of the fun switchbacks we rode heading to camp, then this amazing view along with our awesome campsite. I slept so good, you could hear the wind russel the tree tops as it moved from one side to the other.. so peaceful lying in a tent listening to it move.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Glorious Day Two

As we descended from Sam’s Throne, we all noticed the temperature was dropping.. I didn’t think it would have been warmer up there but it sure was!  Once again before we got too far, we had to stop in Jasper at the Junction Stop to fix that DRZ again and flat number two for the trip!! Pax & Ken seem to always jump in to help out so they are our designated pit crew…the first flat on Pax’s 950SE was repaired and ready to go in under 20 mins, it was amazing!

Back on the route, today would be the best day of riding, as our journey took us towards Oark, which means we would ride some of the TransAm Trail. After a brief chat with DRZCharlie the night before, he mentioned that a few roads near White Mountain had been closed and stay away because they were keeping a close eye out for intruders. No worries for us.. there’s good riding all over the place down here.

As we neared the road closures, we continued around Turner’s Bend.. and came across several Harleys on the side of the road. A lady was waving her arms, there had to be trouble around the corner and sure enough there was. Seems one of the big Harley bikes was run off the road by a white Jeep, the rider had to put it in the ditch. His face hit the top of the windshield and put a gnarly long welt on his face. He only had one of those little skull cap helmets, so no face protection and boy did he need it! He was up walking around and said he was alright.. but he sure didn’t look alright!

Ok.. back to our adventure.. man the weather was fabulous and the riding even better.. see for yourself!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We had a blast running those roads, me and Freddy let Morgan lead out on the last section.. it was fun chasing him down.. I was holding back the WR so I didn’t make them feel so slow on their big bikes .. haha! She eats up the rough stuff, even that rock Freddy kicked up right in front of me at 9:40 on the video! They do out run me on the slab.. but hey.. I’m definitely OK with that.  No.. honestly, I was amazed at how fast Morgan can ride that GS.. he’s got it all tricked out, YZ front-end and he kept saying how great it handles with the Wolfman bags instead of his hard cases. They are both very good riders, and man I’m still smiling when I think of us tearing down that road.. as you saw at the end of the previous video.. everyone was giggling like a bunch of girls!!

Morgan on his GS

We stopped for a little break after running down that beautiful road and by this time we were getting hungry! If you don’t know yet, the place to eat down in this area is the Oark Cafe.. World famous burgers and pie… or maybe its just the best thing around after a long hard day of riding… I want to think its world famous! Don’t forget to write your name in the little book down there.. a lot of ADV’rs in that book.

But.. before we get to eat.. its another great road.. one of the favorites of the whole trip for sure!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now .. its time to enjoy a great meal at Oark Cafe before we ride the great Warloop Rd…

Enjoy the atmosphere of Oark Cafe.. it’s a hoot! Then journey down Warloop road, a different kinda hoot.. haha!

Click here to view the embedded video.

After Warloop we headed down to Mountainburg for gas and camp supplies. Our plan was to camp up at Devil’s Den.. well, its an adventure right!? When we got to Devil’s Den the campground was 100% FULL!  We even asked locals for a remote campsite and couldn’t find anything. By this time it was pitch dark, which enabled us to see coming from the west a nice size storm.. the lightning reminded me of 4th of July.  Travis pulled up the radar on his phone and sure enough a large storm was heading our way. The camping there at Devil’s Den can be a bit muddy, I know I didn’t want to pack up in that muck. So we headed north and ended up in Fayetteville at hotel for the night.  We ordered some pizza, watched Albert Puljos knock 3 homeruns out of the park and shared a lot of stories.. it was a great day!

The next morning, Sunday, we needed to head out. A few guys had a looong ride back home and others needed to get back to the trucks in Kimberling City. We stopped for breakfast before we’d say our good-byes..

A last group photo before we would all head for the hills… thanks Travis for taking the photo.. ha!

I think I can speak for everyone here, we had a great time… we thoroughly enjoyed hanging out, camping and riding during this trip. So……. where we going next boys?!

The Route

Our trip took place Oct. 21-23, 2011. Just look at these elevation changes…

Download GPX file

ADVrider Ride Report

Last Monday I had the chance to get out on the trail… my WR250R has a brand new pair of shoes too!  I just had to put on the trusty Dunlop D606s front and back. My last set gave me over 5,000 miles so they were worth every penny.

Since I only had a few hours to ride, I decided to head down one of the great creek roads close to my house.. Charrette Creek Road.  Yea.. I’ve put up a video from this road before, which you can watch here.  But this time I took a new trail that led me to a beautiful little swimming hole. I got off the bike and did some filming with my Canon Vixia HF100. This camera continues to amaze me with its HD quality..I think it’s the perfect video camera to bring along to capture off-bike action. Helmet cam footage is from my GoPro Hero HD mounted on the center of my visor. I wanted to see if I like this angle better than the side chin mounted angle.

Last week I had the chance to get out on a little afternoon ride. I headed to some dirt & gravel creek roads I’ve never ridden before. The great thing about exploring is you never know what you will find, if anything!

Fortunately for me, today I would find!

The first thing I came upon was this “underground” house. Now I’ve seen underground houses but I’ve never seen a house above ground, under ground! How do you cut that grass, and stuff growing out of it??

Here’s a side view…

A few miles later I came up to this single lane rugged dirt road… these are usually the ones that remind me of why I love to ride them. This one was exactly that, a cool little creek crossing emerged at the bottom of the road.

Click here to view the embedded video.

These flowers just lit up the sides of the road, it was very beautiful, there were hundreds of them!

I winded further down some really good roads, enjoying the country side. Then, there up in the distance I saw a glare in the middle of the road. Getting closer I could see it was another creek crossing.

This ones was another muddy one too, but the water was really moving. I rode thru it, testing my traction to see if this muddy stuff is also as slippery as clear water crossings. It didn’t seem slippery at all… As I made my crossing, the sound of water got louder which seemed odd. Then I saw to my left where it was coming from, a sweet little waterfall.

I guess you’d call this a waterfall?! Either way it was another great find…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Getting closer to Graham State Park, I came upon this nice lookout. I stopped for some photos and could hear the sound of water all around me. I knew it was the Massey Branch leading into the Loutre River, which runs along the west boundary of the state park.

I headed to the park for a quick snack. One thing I noticed is the park rangers were on me like cicadas on trees. They never said a word to me but kept a close eye. Guess my WR250R was just that cool!!

Ate some beef jerky, Kit-Kat and downed a gatorade before hitting the super slabway home. For me it was another great ride out in God’s country here in Missouri! Just can’t wait to get out and do some more exploring…

As I checked my email this morning, I saw a post from fellow WR owner Jäger that mentioned how this guy takes the crown for “King of Adventure” on our favorite motorcycle, the Yamaha WR250R, traveling 30,000 miles in one trip. This sure peaked my curiosity, at first I thought, “yeah, right.. in one trip??” So I clicked the link and began reading the ride report from this fella, nicknamed “TheAgavePrince” and… wow, what an adventure indeed!

If you like the bike(WR250R), but are wondering whether she can pull off longer distance adventure travel, well, that’s why I wrote this…she can. You should buy it and begin your adventure immediately. – TheAgravePrince

I really appreciated his honest review of the WR250R as a long distance adventure bike, he shares the pros and cons he dealt with during the trip. These are not just pros/cons he read somewhere on a forum or blog, but from his real-life experience.

His journey took him from Kansas all the way to very southern tip of South America, then turned around and came back… seems he’s also very new to riding his WR, this statement just made me giggle with excitement for him,

In the parking lot of a cheap motel at 5 in the morning we reassembled it, packed all my luggage on and, for the first time (discounting the two times I tried to ride down an icy street for 50ft) I rode my WRR. I headed south to my friend in Texas, where we made some racks and sorted the whole of it out. On Jan 17, 2010 I crossed the border to Mexico, and kept going until I made it to Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, on the southern tip of South America. I then turned around and went back up, crossing every country in South America.

He also included in his report the mods he did to his WR as well as what he packed along for the trip. He states he’s not much of a blogger or forum contributor, but I sure wish he’d give us a lot more of this trip… seems like it was amazing!

Thumbs up to you my friend, and thank you for sharing your story. It makes us that much more confident in the WR250R and that much more anxious for our next adventure on it!

See more photos and read his entire ride report here.

A little history…

My family moved from St. Louis to a small town just north of Blue Eye, MO called Lampe. We lived pretty much right on Table Rock Lake and I have to say this has to be the best place to live as a young boy growing up.. man, what memories I have.. this is also where I met my life-long best buddy.. Aaron. We met when I was in the 3rd grade and he was in 4th. Around town all the kids had dirtbikes or 4-wheelers.. but not this city boy… I had a bicycle.  For some reason, Aaron decided to spend more time riding his bicycle with me instead of riding one of his motorcycles, 3-wheelers, or dune-cart.. haha!  We grew to love riding our bikes and learning freestyle tricks.  I mastered the “boomarang” and his trick was the “decade”. Each of us could do both these tricks but it was quite obvious who was better at each.

The last year I was at Blue Eye elementary was in the 8th grade, which was in 1988. My family moved back to St. Louis at the end of the school year.. boy, I didn’t want to leave our little town of Lampe. But anyways, we had gotten pretty darn good at freestylin’.. so our school asked us to do a freestyle show up at school on our favorite and pretty much only concrete slab around town.  So did a show for our school and it was fun..here’s a few photos from the show and from a photo shoot for the year book.

Here we are in front of Ha Bob’s gas station busting a couple cherry pickers. Remember this little gas station for later!

Fast forward a few years, 1992 to be exact, Aaron had the opportunity to move to St. Louis too and go to work for my Dad.  I was grateful he excepted and the move was on! So being that I spent several years down in southern Missouri, I thought why not put a route together through Missouri that ends in Blue Eye, MO and hands off to the TART. We’ll call it the Trans-Missouri Trail or “TMOT” (works for me). Then I thought, why not make this trip with my best pal Aaron, and go back to our hometown and let the memories flood in. Of course Aaron said “let’s do it!” and we began planning and preparing…his DRZ got a little special treatments..

Bike Prep’n

Click here to view the embedded video.

Day 1

May 20th would be the day we head out.  Luckily, I had some comp time to spend and was able to leave work early to meet Aaron at his house after he got off work. That’s what I did. Only had to turn around once, I forgot my Camelbak!! Arriving at his house just after 3pm we left promptly, filled the tanks up and headed due south to St. Clair.  Here Aaron is filling up in St. Clair fill up before the fuel stops would get more sparse. Aaron’s DRZ is running the stock gas tank so we planned for 85 miles between stops to be safe. We found out, we can go much more before we would even need his emergency MSR bottle. My WR has a 3.5 gal Safari tank on it so I plan for around 220 miles per tank.  I know when the fuel light goes on, I got another 100 miles to go!

Now.. if you’ve seen the news lately, the weather in Missouri has just been crazy. Pretty much tornados every other day in our state.  A few days before our ride, we looked at the forecast and both committed to ride.. rain or shine. But we both knew we’d get wet and packed our rain gear! The forecast was rain every day we were going to be out.. but as you’ll see, forecasts are often wrong.. After leaving St. Clair it sure didn’t take long before that rain gear would come in handy.. just 30 miles later the rain would move in.  We stopped to get the rain gear on..

Aaron transforming into what we started calling him, “Mr. Sunshine”!

What a beautiful area we stopped at. Within minutes it was a full out down pour!

Video Recap #1 – Day 1

Click here to view the embedded video.

With our rain gear on we continued on the route.. entering the Mark Twain National forest, these are the best roads to ride but not when wet! The forest dirt roads turn into slippery snot when it rains so it slowed us down a bit. We were still enjoying the ride but knew we had to push along and… we still needed to setup camp?!?

A few miles later the skies were getting darker and the rain continued to fall at a steady pace. It was time to decide where to camp or head for shelter. We pulled into Hazel Creek campground which is a primitive campground, riding around the grounds we could see this area could flood very quickly. So we found a tree for shelter and pulled out the maps.  The closest city that had, one .. GAS and two possibly a dry place to stay was Viburnum. Off we went… Pulling into the Casey’s there in town we gased up and noticed a motel across the street. As we pulled up we saw a group of fellas outside just talking, then saw a trailer with some dualsport bikes on it. They were riding the ShowMe 200 in the morning and I think for a little while they thought we were too. One fella said, “she closes at 7..”. I recall it being a bit after 7 so I ran inside, the lady came out and said all she has left was one king bed suite. I really like my buddy Aaron, but… my own bed would be nice!  So I replied, “you don’t have anything with two beds?” She just looked at me funny until Aaron walks in .. a light went off in her head I guess. She was nice enough to go ask one of the fellas organizing the group outside if we could have one of their reserved rooms for the night. The group that had the room reserved wouldn’t be there until the morning anyways.. so it all worked out. And I got my own bed!

Aaron pointing to our location

With the bikes unloaded it was time for food!  The manager at the motel said there’s a place next to Casey’s that is still open, in fact, she called down there for us to make sure. So that’s where we headed.  It was good food, and the young gal who served us was right, the fries were good!

We stopped at the Casey’s on the way back to the room for some snicky snacks.. then time for some trip planning for the morning ride to put us back on track.

Snacks and maps….. and ice cream on my face with cool Klim socks on, yeah that’s right! These socks rock, I think I’ll get another 5 pair.

After a short evening ride we made it pretty far south, our bedtime prayers included a plea for the rain to hold off tomorrow as it was our big day of riding.

My good buddy Mark Sampson aka “BigDogAdventures” along with Scott “Dingweeds” Stevenson begun their Alaska/British Columbia trip just a few days ago.  Both, of course, on their Yamaha WR250Rs. Mark posted updated photos of his WR setup for this trip, see all his WR250R Mods. And I see a few new additions to his bike, can’t wait to hear how they worked out.

Last year Mark & Scott rode 5,300 miles from Mexico to Canada, and what an adventure it turned out to be. This is a ride report you don’t want to miss. I’ve also seen Part 1 of BigDog’s video from this trip, it’s a good one! These two guys have a great passion for adventure riding and having a great time doing it.

Mark & Scott at the Canadian Border : “We made it!”

Good luck and be safe fellas!!

Check out the Mexico to Canada ride report:

Mexico to Canada “AnotherWayUp” – BigDogAdventures.com
Mexico to Canada – ADVriders.com Report

This afternoon we set off to on a route that can be used as the southern leg of the Trans Missouri Trail or TMOT. Looks like it’s going to rain every day we are out but we have decided to just go for it. Sometimes you just can’t get the perfect trip out of the weather, let alone get personal & work schedules to work out…. so we ride!

We’re not sure how the flooding south is going to affect our route but hopefully we won’t have to do much re-routing.

This route includes a section of the Swinging Bridges Ride created by ThumperDRZ & pjensen641, BigDog’s TMOT contribution, and a section from DRZCharlie. Any other section was routed by myself.

If you are looking for a good route through Missouri, there’s probably one that will connect to your route easily. Since I posted the TMOT efforts there’s been several guys who have rode through beautiful Missouri up one side and down the other. So, I think we’ll have this state covered well.

We will ride the northern part of the TMOT later in the season, probably ending near Athens, MO.. Athens to Blue Eye.. has a nice ring to it.

Please be sure to visit the ADVrider TMOT thread for any questions or discussions.  I’ll have GPS files uploaded as well.

My wife and I were celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary so we decided to do something we’ve never done… take a trip on the motorcycle together! Our largest obstacle this time of year, of course, …the weather.  Here in the midwest it’s been raining every other day with a tornado thrown in here and there.  So the plan was to do a two night, camp-off-the-bike trip down south around the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. The weather did break enough for us to get a trip in, so we were thankful and ready to go!

Story of 2 Texans…

Before I get to our trip, I have to share the story of how my wife got her riding pants. A few weeks prior to our trip I begun reading a ride report on ADVrider of a husband(Jordan) and wife(Nikki) riding from Texas to Alaska, they called it “2 Texans to Alaska (and back)“. It was perfect timing as I planned our ride, reading about how this couple experienced and shared their ride together. Meanwhile, my wife and I were looking for riding gear for her and were having a heck of a time finding gear for petite women.  So, I replied to this ride report asking the wife, Nikki, what gear she had for their ride and if she had any recommendations… she replied and Nikki’s advice helped us decide on gear for Joyce and we really appreciated hearing what worked and what didn’t!

Anyway… a few days later I get a message from Jordan, he says he has a pair of pants that were too short for Nikki and they’d like to send them to us for free… We promptly took them up on their offer and sure enough a box at our front door just a few days later.  Best of all, they fit Joyce! Woohooo! Another example of how great the ADV community is.  We thank you 2 Texans, maybe we’ll ride together some day!

Heading South

After getting our two boys to some friends, we were finally able to gear up and start riding south. With our Sena headsets paired up, Joyce climbed on back and we were ready to ride!! Off we went… I was so excited to finally take my wife down along some creek roads that I’ve enjoyed so many times..either riding the WR or Versys. One creek being Femme Osage Creek, running along this creek reminds me of being out west along mountain valley creeks, it’s a beauty.

This being our first 2-up ride, I was very aware of how the bike was handling and braking. The twisty creek road made it obvious I needed a tad bit more air in the rear tire. Our first stop was down in Washington, MO for some lunch. We pulled in to the Taco Bell there and as I cut the engine on the Versys, I heard another bike and from the sound I knew it was an aftermarket exhaust of a dualsport bike.. well at least I was hoping. When I looked up, sure enough, a WR250R (I can spot them from miles) was pulling in, as the bike got a bit closer, I knew who it was for sure!  A fellow Missouri ADV’r, Jon, whose WR is very easy to pick out, with an aftermarket Baja headlight and the fact that he’s one heck of a rider. We chatted for a few about WRs and about the annual Swinging Bridges Ride that he was going to ride that next day. My plan was to ride the SBR as well, but our schedule got change so we were celebrating our anniversary the same weekend. No worries, I rode with better company anyways! Here we are after lunch getting ready to head out.

Oh yeah.. need to stop and get a some air.  Joyce just hangs out looking amazing!

We were ready to get some miles in now that we had some food in our bellies. And that we did.. I pretty much stuck to country letter highways or paved roads that I thought would be scenic and smooth.  This was not the ride I wanted to take Joyce on the more adventurous routes.. I’ll save that for next time!  Continuing southwest along the Bourbeuse River on Fox Creek Road, then a little stop in Beaufort for gear adjustment and a photo.

You could just sense that the ride was about to get better. The roads were getting better, the weather and we were getting more comfortable on the bike together. As we continued our way down and around the river we saw some beautiful homes and ranches. This one we stolled upon I had to stop and get some photos… this area reminded us of back in Mayberry..

Diggin the checkerboard silo…

As we were riding south on Shawnee Ford Road, we came upon this one-lane bridge crossing the river, then dumping us into a tunnel of large trees.. it was a bit surreal… I sounded like a little kid in the headset as I couldn’t wait to stop and snap a photo.  For me these are the surprises that make a route a keeper!

By now our destination was upon us, we were going to camp at Onondaga Cave State Park Campground. I knew that the south was flooding quite a bit so I checked the website before we left to see if there were any warnings… none were found.  But, here begins the adventure part of the ride, as we pull into the park we see a sign in the middle of the road, ROAD CLOSED.  So, of course, I go around it to see if it was for real. Sometimes signs lie.  About 100 yards later, sure enough, the entire road heading to the campground was under water.  We headed back up to Leasburg to figure out what we would do…

Eating on some Jack’s Link beef jerky and a few swigs from the Camelbak, we had some decisions to make.  It’s getting late, around 6pm, we could head south and try to make it to Berryman campground, head back north to Meremac State Park in hopes its not flooded either OR a jaunt west to Cuba for a room with a jacuzzi, maybe?? Funny thing is, my wife had mentioned that if our trip got rained out she’d love to get a nice room with a hot tub, so I gave in and we headed to Cuba in search for a room.

As we got closer to Cuba, we began to see more than the average Can-am Spyders zipping around, I told my wife, they must rent these things around here.  As we pulled into town on old Route 66 we saw signs saying, “Welcome Spyders” & “Have you seen a Spyder” & “Spyders Welcome Here”, then a hotel parking lot completely filled with Spyders.. ah oh.. probably no room in the Inn for us!?

We pull in to the first hotel, my wife walks in with all her gear on and asks if they have any rooms available, since she had her headset on I heard the receptionist say, “no, but you should check across the highway”. So across the highway we go.  Next hotel, they have one double bed room, we decide to check one more before committing.  Score… the last place has one room available and its a jacuzzi room, Joyce and I just start giggling as we remember her comment about getting a jacuzzi room. The nice lady gives it to us at a discount so we settle in amongst the Spyders…

After unloading the bike we head out to scope the town for some food, neither one of us were craving anything particular.. so we took a ride and a few photos.

Heading back we couldn’t decide so we just went to the restaurant next to the hotel.. had some shrimp & fish, a few competitive I.Q, games as we waited..

Seriously.. are these things even possible to just leave a single pin?!

Before hitting the hot tub we needed a late night snack.. ice cream & a grape soda!  So we ran over to the gas station and got some goodies.. can you spot them?

Our first day on a motorcycle together was amazing! We rode just over 100 miles and had a ball every bit of the way. The weather would determine if we head south or back north towards home.

Day 2

Of couse.. we slept in a bit.. but who cares we were child-free and making our decisions at the last second.. ahhh!  After showering I began loading the Versys back up and as I opened the door a nice little surprise and boy did they taste goood! For breakfast we would also have Clif bars and beef jerky.. saving our appetite for lunch.

Before we ride off I would spend some time looking at the weather and decide which way we would ride while Joyce hangs out and watches a little Super Nanny.. haha!

A decisions is made, we’d had north.  Rain is in the forecast and winds are already gusting at 30 mph and in our favor North, nothing like a little push from behind. I would finish packing and get the bike inspected ready to roll. Engine started.. and.. well.. where’s Joyce???? Oh.. found her, guess Super Nanny isn’t over yet.. come on girl! You can see me in the mirror capturing this shot.. priceless.

Heading north, I decided to just cruise up Hwy 19 to Hermann where we’d grab some lunch. The little historic 1830s town of Herman is always a fun stop.

We decided to hop off the bike for a walk around the town and see why so many people are out.

One thing I love about my wife is she always likes to look nice, not overly conscience about her looks or anything like that, but just enough that makes me really appreciate that about her. I have no problems giving her a few minutes to freshen up!

(this photo is for brownie points)

It didn’t take us long to find out today is the Shelby Fest?! Shelby Mustangs were everywhere…new and old.

One cool thing that happened here was they all started their engines at the same time and rev’d them up for charity, it was pretty neat, I’m glad that happened while we were walking through the streets. They sure were passionate about these cars.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We had a good sandwich for lunch then headed back to the bike to gear up and journey on home.. but something caught our eye.. or should I say, sweet tooth..

We just had to go see what all the attraction to this shop was about, I mean it’s just chocolate right..

It was very difficult to choose what to get, we finally did and sat down to enjoy. Mmmm!

This little bird kept flying over head from side to side as we had our treat. I think he was accustom to these little white bags and just waited his chance to snag something from us.. thankfully he never did!

Well.. look what awaited us across the street..

It was time to head on home, even though our trip was much shorter than we had hoped we sure had a blast.  Doing something new like this with my wife just brings a smile to my face each time I think about her climbing on back, tapping my shoulder to let me know she’s ready to go, or when she skootches far back on the seat, so far I can’t feel she’s there and for a split second thinking she’s gone. But, after this weekend, that feeling will always be with me and I’m so thankful for it, even if this was the last and only ride we ever took.

Thank you, beautiful, for riding along with me for the last 15 years of marriage and even more, the last 21 years since we met in high school….we are a rare breed and I’m proud of it.