My education started on Friday knight, when we met at the American Legion lodge in St. Augustine for lobster. There were about 10 of us at the table, including 2 of the organizers. There were a three guys we socialized with most and I learned that there would be about 60 riders or so in the group. This was going to be quite a ride. We asked Bill (one of the organizers) if he thought the ride could be done on a K1600GT and he said yes. He thought it would be fine. At the end of the night, we asked Rich, who was probably the lead guy in designing this route the same question. He laughed and asked if I was BSing him. I said no. He said no, seriously. What are you riding? Will this continued for a couple minutes until finally, he believed me and Jeff. He said he thought it was impossible. Oh boy!
So, after dinner, I head back to my room, which smells like the inside of a dryer because the heat is up and all my stuff is hung all over the place drying. All my gear was soaked from riding in the rain and my tent was damp from the night before; so, I hung everything to dry. I fell asleep excited about the next day. I knew that I was going to learn and experience something very knew - even if I didn't go far and just routed around the dirt.
On Saturday morning, I missed Jeff and Cliff for breakfast; but, managed to meet them at the lighthouse.
This is a small fraction of the bikes present. Notice the one bike that doesn't belong in the group. Now, I will say that in talking to these riders, there were quite a few that were pretty apprehensive about this ride. I saw a bunch of brand new R1200GS bikes with riders on top that were very concerned about what was ahead. There were also groups of guys there that looked like they were born in the dirt. Clearly, I'd be nowhere near them on this ride.
At this point, I learned that they were going to use a roll chart for routing. This is really old school. No GPS useage here. In fact, the roll tape didn't even have street names on them Directions were like - go .2 of a mile and turn leftish onto the dirt road. Here's a resource for roll charts.
So, the first part of this ride took us through historic St. Augustine. This was really awesome. The roll chart gave locations where you had to get a picture of some land mark or a selfie, etc. There were also bonus points on this ride for getting a picture of your wrecked ride, or wild life, or something else interesting. I didn't grab any of these photos; but, I will reference Jeff's blog as I'm sure he'll have the pics out there - www.wheredoesthatroadgo.com.
So, after about 20 minutes or so after this, we leave town. Before you know it, the road dog legs left and we go straight. It was paved for about a tenth of a mile, then became hard dirt, then, I we were in a freshly plowed farmers field with 2.5 to 3" of soil that I can best describe as powder. My big bike was a bit sloppy in the rear end and I needed to quickly figure out an appropriate speed that would allow me to make forward progress and keep the rear end from breaking loose. We stopped almost right away and everyone wanted to know how I was doing. They were determined to drag me through all of it. I was excited and having a great time - press on!
So, after about half of a mile of this, I check my mirror and notice that Dillan and Mellissa weren't behind me any more. They met us at the rally point and wanted to tag along with me because they thought I'd be doing more street riding. Well, it so happens that Mellissa dumped her bike. Some other rider went passed and told me they were OK and that they would be along shortly. I will write another post about technicalities of the ride in another post. It clearly deserves its own.
After a while, Melissa and Dillan caught up to me and we all caught up to Jeff and Cliff. Onward! So, another 2 tenths of a mile up, I saw a place where I could exit to hard pavement and, not knowing how much of this was ahead, I decided to bail. Melissa and Dillan followed me. I stopped and we talked. They decided they were going to continue on the trail and catch up to Jeff and Cliff, so I bailed. I thought I might try to find the group when they hit pavement again. Along the way, I needed to pull over and adjust my dry bag, the straps were coming loose. So, I came off Rose st., made a right on some county road that paralleled the farmers field they were in and came to an intersection a couple miles up. From that intersection, I could see Cliff's bright red jacket about a mile and a half down. I jumped on it and met them. They asked about Doug and Mellissa and I said they were going to catch up with them. We all waited. They never arrived. We got worried. We knew other GS riders would be along and we even talked to the farmer who said he'd take a trip up there on his 4 wheeler. He said he planned to make some money today helping folks lift their bikes out of the dirt.
So, the next point we needed to make was a church. The group decided to go with me, instead of doing more dirt. Finding the church was a bit of a chore; but, we managed - more pictures - onward we go.
A short time later, we were on another dirt road. This was pretty tricky and after about a mile, it crossed hard pavement. I decided to get off. I could see ahead that the group of bikes was going forward about a half mile, making a hard right and then I lost sight of them. I made a right and thought I'd find a road to turn left on and parallel their track as best I could. I did that, and after a short while, I found a main road that turned left again and should put me right in front of them. About a half mile down this road, I saw a dirt road that came out on to the road I was on and thought they would probably come out there. I turned around, and there was Cliff in his red jacket! Found again. We were all back on pavement till we got to the next dirt road.
That ended soon and we were on a paved road that was washed out with mud at one point and now had tire tracks carved through it. Fortunately, it was dry; but, it was very difficult to navigate and I wasn't able to make any speed. I lost sight of everyone at some point and eventually, I came across Doug, who was off his bike talking to some guy. I pulled up as the guy was telling Doug that the group continued down the road, so off we went. We met up with the group right at the end of the dirt road.
At this point, everyone was hungry, so we decided to bail and go to the restaurant for lunch. We were an hour away. They wanted me to lead the group, so I did. Lunch was great. I had a Cuban sandwich and sweet tea. I think the Cuban was the best I've had yet!
Lunch was in Micanopy. we learned that one rider had an accident and broke a collar bone. We were also disappointed that we hadn't seen Dilan or Mellisa. We were all having a great time though. Cliff told me that everyone kept talking about the guy on the K16 doing this ride.
After a nice lunch, I grabbed some water for the remainder of the ride and off we went. We almost missed the first turn off; but, everyone got on course. Two riders got between me and the rest of the group, which was fine because I knew we'd be off road soon, and I was definitely going to be the slowest. Sure enough, we were off road again. This road got to a stop sign and there were no motorcycles anywhere. I went right and didn't find the group. After a couple miles, I pulled over and grabbed my phone. Jeff texted me at that very moment. I told him what happened and told him to continue. At this point, I must have done about 4 or 5 miles of dirt road riding on my bike. I gained a ton of experience and just didn't want to keep making the group wait. I told them I'd meet them in Steinhatchie, the rallies dinner destination.
I brought out the road atlas...you do carry a road atlas, right? I decided on a course to Jasper Florida and then West to Greenville Florida, south through Perry and into Steinhatchie. I set the GPS to avoid toll roads and highways and ended up doing some very nice street riding I really want to do this route again. Here are some pics I took along the way.
The next two, I took for Jeff and Cliff. They get points for wildlife! I thought it would be funny if Jeff turned these in, since nobody on the route would have seen these.
This one was for Mike Adams.
Here's the map of my route, and here is the map of all rides on my K1600GT to date:
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