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Who Needs a GS? A Little Adventure I'm on.......

Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 10:11 pm
by Lost Rider
I'm currently on a trip, and have been out for a week now.
I started in Chicago and headed towards Arksansas, looking to fish, camp and ride on this open ended trip. Little did I know....





Leaving Chicago

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On a stop on the way down. What a nice new clean bike....

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I made it to Lake Charles, Arkansas and at about 1 AM it started to rain.
Hard.

It didn't stop raining for 2 days..... I mostly stayed dry.

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My first fresh fish dinner. I caught a few Crappie's, fishing at night in the rain with jig's.

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A nice warm, wet morning. I decided to stay another day and fish in the rain, instead of packing and moving.

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Here's were I moved to the next day, I foget the name, more info to follow once I get home.

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Success!
There was a BassMaster Pro fishing tournament going on right where I was camping and fishing.
I was in the right place at the right time!

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'

This is where the fun starts. I had a hair up my ass to explore some backroads, scouting for a backcountry camp/fish spot. The hell with my "roadster", I mean my R is a cousin to the GS right? Basically the same right?
I wasn't going to let a little dirt scare me, yet.. I wasn't loaded..

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The more miles I rode on the dirt/gravel the more I wanted, so I let Mr. Garmin take over... isn't this a beauty of a road?

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The first of many water crossings.

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I found a great camp-spot here, marking for later use.


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The water crossing's are starting to get serious. At this one, the water went up to my knee's, filling my boots. I can relate to Ewan....

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Hard to believe that this is actually on a map as a road. After a hour of this I was really condiplating the current route.

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After a day of this, I started to head back to camp.

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Lucky for me I had nice roads to ride back on, after the dirt I was able to open open and put the 1200R to proper use.


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Another tasty fish dinner. Hmmmmm fish...


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Loaded and ready to go the next morning.

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The next day I let Mr. Garmin take over. Um, yes I prefer minor roads thank you. Oh yes, please aviod those pesky major roads too..

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OK OK. It was bound to happen. Conti Attacks Z's and mud don't mix.
Here's the first time I've gone down, since my teen years though I haven't ridden much mus since then..... hmmmmm

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Here's the second place I' went down at. OK I get it, it's not a dirt bike. But I'm just having too much fun, though picking it up sure sucks. At least there's no real damage.

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Another tasty dinner.

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I was ready to put some mile down, and figuered I'd ghet myself in more trouble if I kept riding the Arkansas fire roads, so I packed up and headed East. I went through Memphis, looking to have some BBQ.
Beale Street.

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My laptop battery is going to die so I will continue when possible.....











:D

Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 10:56 pm
by MIXR
You're crazier than I am! Great report and photos. Guess a set of crash bars are on the shopping list next. Hope the scratches polish out ok.

My bike's a lot older than yours, so I tend not to worry about taking it places it shouldn't really go. Trouble is, the rough roads are so much fun and take you to some very nice places.

Maybe we both need a GS type of bike. (KTM 990 is next for me).

Thanks. That's a fun read and I look forward to Part 2! Mick.

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 3:18 am
by DJ Downunder
Buy a GS... :shock: .....just kidding..great pictures.. :smt023 ..really great.. =D> ..thanks for going to all the effort to post them for us.

DJ

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 5:23 am
by sjbmw
Your motorcycle takes naps?

You are a MADMAN!

survivorman lives...

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:00 am
by wncbmw
ChiTown - amazing report! Looks like a trip report from the Advrider.com site!

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:58 am
by R4R&R
Great pics, and great balls taking such a new bike on such roads. I have to give you a lot of respect, for motorcycle camping, fishing, and cooking. I'm impressed! Maybe you should try to make the hungry mother campout this year!

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 7:11 pm
by iowabeakster
Whoo boy!

That lovely new bike of yours is no spoiled princess.

Good for you and the bike! Great reort! (you make me so jealous)

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 9:59 pm
by OU812
The life I dream of! (if it wasn't for that wife and those kids) :smt117

Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 10:42 pm
by MIXR
You get your life back after the kids have grown up.

I can now do all that stuff I used to do. Hard part's finding the strength to pick the bike up!

Still not sure I'de take my 'new' bike on those roads. Crazy bugger!

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 12:08 am
by Lost Rider
Today I went to change my oil, and met a group of fellow BMW riders from Canada. What a great group of guys! The Manypause beer and motorcycle club, they say. They didn't pause much riding today though, and not much beer tonight, just whiskey...
Whatever they say, they're way cool, are on the return trip startng from Ottawa to Presidio, to St. Carlos Mexico, through TN on their way home. We rode Deal's Gap today a few times and are in Pigon Forge TN. I opted to hang with this guys and extend my trip a little longer, tomorrow we are riding the fabulous Tennessee roads, without bags, then I'll head home. These guys are a trip! I'll ride with them anytime. Tons of fun today, Deal's Gap is crazy!
Passing many squids, and seeing 2 accidents I believe that if you ride the gap enough, you'll go down. Maybe not even your fault, blind corners are scary, stay to the inside!
Fun, oh yes. No more chicken strips for me, and some ground foot-pegs too!
I'll jump to the current time of my trip with these pics, and come back to the rest once I get home.


After hearing about my fishing trip and seeing my fishing gear they gave me one of these, how cool!
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Great dealer, took good care of me, setting me up to do my oil change. Be sure to stop by when around Knoxville.
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We stopped and had a great BBQ pork samich to start the day.

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A hand pounded copper fairing none the less... sweet.
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Deals Gap resort
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The beloved tree of shame.
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Me in front of General Lee, on a run to a neaby town for booze.

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A pic of theirs.
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More to follow soon.

:D

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 11:51 am
by motorcyclepanzer
I also saw your pics on the MOA board. That's a great bike. I've wanted to take my sone fishing by motorcycle for a couple of years now and you may have just pushed me over the edge to do it.

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 1:58 pm
by DJ Downunder
Great pictures.. :D

DJ

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 3:00 pm
by wncbmw
Great pics and trip report again! And you are back in my neck of the woods again! One of your trips down here we need to ride together! But I won't be doing the back woods riding! I am too old and fragile to be falling off! :lol:

Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 11:35 pm
by Lost Rider
We had a great 450 mile day, Looping around The Smokey Mountain NP, riding the Blue Ridge Parkway and Deal's Gap again. This time with no luggage. :D Needless to say, both my foot pegs and the foot brake lever are ground down pretty good. Such beautiful roads here. Endless curves.
It was a perfect day of riding to finish up this trip, too bad it has to end.
I have a gig that just came up on Friday, so I'm slabbing it back to Chicago tomorrow, 620 miles. Back to reality. poo. :(




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The internet connection here is crap, I'm hijacking off of some hotel down the street, so I'll try to pick up where I left off when I get home. :D

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 7:28 am
by chris
Fantastic!! Have to say you're a loony tho... :wink:

Posted: Thu May 10, 2007 5:39 pm
by GypsyRR
Joe:

You do enjoy life, don't you! What a report. I'm glad you're having fun on your new bike and representing it so well. Be careful, but not so much that you can't write more reports like this for us to enjoy!

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 12:36 am
by Lost Rider
I made it home, slabbing it for 600 miles in 8.5 hours.

This trip has been great, a whole new world has been opened up for me. All I can think about now is where to go next. I have a feeling I'll be back to Arkansas soon, since I have some great backwoods camp spots marked, and the fishing is great. I just need to get a bike friendly fly-fishing setup going to I can fish these streams for trout. I'll need to consult Gypsy on that...
I also made some good new Canadian friends that I'm sure I'll ride with again, hopefully soon. It's really is cool how a ADV sticker can bring people together...


Here's a link to a slideshow and more pics. Be warned, the slideshow is a rather large file. Don't even try it on dial up.
I'll add in some comments after I get some rest...

http://web.mac.com/joefinn/iWeb/R1200R% ... 0Show.html

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 6:26 am
by R4R&R
ChiTown wrote:Needless to say, both my foot pegs and the foot brake lever are ground down pretty good.
Wow!
ChiTown wrote:Back to reality. -----. :(
Reality sucks.......

It looks like you had a great ride, and have a knack of writing good trip reports. NICE PICTURES!

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 7:19 am
by sjbmw
Chi, the pics and info get better and better.

Streams? Rivers? Sure you didn't think you bought a GS?

I got a Popeil pocket fisherman. Not exactly hardcore fishing gear though, but it works.
http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/po ... herman.htm

The rods on this site got my attention. They have a fly model.

http://www.gofastandlight.com/cart.php? ... gory_id=60

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 10:19 am
by taosports
ChiTown,

Nice to see you're having great fun on your new bike. Been enjoying your ride reports and photos. Thanks for posting them!