Another Quick Overnight

With the weather finally turning cooler and less humid, we really wanted to get out and get in some more camping time. We still have some gear that we want to try out (like my new tent) and of course, we want to go out and ride our motorcycles as much as possible.

This weekend had the perfect weather but tons of scheduling conflicts. Kirk was house sitting with pets. I have a home football game (season tickets to an ACC team) which is also homecoming (got to keep the wife happy). So with Kirk out, I wanted to leave Thursday and do a two night camp and come home Saturday morning. Well, work got in the way and it turned out to be a one night camping trip but hey, one is better than none.

So Thursday I got my meals ready and packed my bags. This time I am leaving my top box at home and instead using my Wild Heart Waterproof 100 liter bag that will sit behind me on top of the side boxes. This bag is huge and has tons for room. I am hoping that removing the top box will provide a little more stability when heavily weighted down with all the gear.

I headed out and noticed the GPS kept trying to take me a different way. I have been to this area 100's of times and did not understand until I got to my last turn. One section of the road was closed for a underground pipe installation. I following the GPS and turned onto a gravel road (one that I had not done before).

So off I went and was very happy how the bike handled heavily loaded down. I think I will stick to using the duffel and only use the top box when around town. Do not get me wrong, I love the top box. I use it to lock up my helmet, gloves, etc and also it is used for the grocery store. I just think when going on trips, I will opt for the duffel bad instead.

I finally got to the campsite. There were two other folks here. I did get there early (about 10am). I took off my riding gear and started to setup camp. This is the first time using my new Blacktail Hotel tent. I was a little slow setting it up since this is only second time I have done it. Once I got it up, man is it BIG.

There is plenty of storage. The sleeping area is about the same but with so much storage, it just seems bigger. I am quite happy with this tent so far. It was getting close to lunch so I decided to eat at camp then headed out for some new trails.

The trails were about 30 minutes from camp. Once I got there, I turned on the road and at first, could not tell if it was gravel or not. It turns out, the road is all broken up. There are a few patches of smooth asphalt but the majority was kind of chunky. After about 1/2 mile, it turned to gravel for about 9 miles then the last 1/4 mile was nice asphalt. This was a very fun road. At the end of the road, I noticed that there was a Road Closed sign (you would see it if coming from the other direction).

I guess that explains all the busted up asphalt. The road was still easily drivable, just a bit bumpy. Well I continued in the area and found quite a number of nice back roads. It is very nice riding and not having traffic to deal with. I then rounded one corner and the road was lit up like a Christmas tree. 3 police cars, two fire engines,  and 4 passenger cars all over the place. I had to stop and when allowed to proceed, I passed the fire engine and there was a pickup truck that nailed a tree head on and burst into flames. The fire was out but the truck was all black and covered in white foam. That was an interesting find in the middle of nowhere.

After riding around for a few more hours, I headed back to camp as Kirk was going to come over for a visit. We will head to the Bigfoot (local bar/restaurant). Kirk got there later in the afternoon, checked out the site, the new tent, etc then we headed to the Bigfoot. After spending about an hour there, he headed back and I went back to camp. I decided to make dinner, have drink, and relax. Another great trip.