Dual Sport Adventure - Big Bend National Park Texaw
Introduction
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Terlingua Ranch property
It was in the heat of an August afternoon on the Dragon when Nancy suddenly informed me that we would be taking our dual sports to Big Bend National Park in Texas this November. I had no idea where Big Bend was, but said go ahead and start planning thinking that this would pass as another wild idea - WRONG AGAIN !! As soon as our season at the Overlook ended in October, suddenly I was beginning to find maps and favorite links to places in Texas suggesting that Nanc had not forgotten about the Big Bend adventure. It had been a great year of riding the twisties, but we were both getting anxious to get away - and the desert of southwestern Texas sounded like quite the adventure. She informed me that we were leaving the week before Thanksgiving and all of a sudden we were outfitting our trailer, making reservations, and getting new tires on the dual sports.

I had never been west of the Mississippi River and would just as soon stay in the mountains. But when Nanc says "lets go." Well then it's time to saddle up. We did a lot of Internet searching on the Big Bend area and we were not quite satisfied with usual "snowbird" RV parks that we were finding. Then we hit the jackpot with the last telephone call on the list. Rod answered from the Terlingua Ranch and had a 30 minute conversation about the 220,000 acre ranch with 1500 miles of unimproved (haha) roads that bordered the northern section of the National Park. Rod said the place would be deserted as the crowds were not expected until Thanksgiving week - and he assured us with a giggle that there were plenty of roads to challenge our dual sports, his "odd" laugh made us wonder. We knew this just what we were looking for - lots of challenging roads and few people.

TRIP PREPARATION
We had three dual sports which needed some attention before heading out into the middle of the desert. Our two KLR 650's and a Yamaha XT600 all needed knobby tires and full service. We knew that the desert would present us some challenging roads and we did not want to wrestle with mechanical problems. Our buddy Ken, who owns Wheelers Performance (on US129 heading towards Robbinsville NC), got them ready for action.

We also had to get our GPS, computer, and camera equipment ready for the trip. We ordered the USGS TOPOGRAPHIC SERIES CD ROM for Big Bend National Park from. We poured over the maps on the computer planning our routes, estimating mileage, and ogling over the desert terrain that would be challenging us.. We also ordered an informational packet National Park which was a real bargain. The packet included books, maps, and even pamphlets on flora and fauna. A real bargain at $30.00. (I purchased this at the nps.gov site which is no longer available - if you want information, you need to check out the http://www.bigbendbookstore.org or give them a call if you want to order maps/books).

We also decided to purchase a Earthmate GPS system from Delorme for the road trip. We took our laptop computer and a power converter to run in the car, and to hook up the Earthmate via USB to use with the Delorme software. We really didn't need this because it was basically go to Chattanooga and take a left to Texas, but we wanted to try the system out for future adventures that might require more detailed driving. We got our Garmin GPS-12 handheld unit and tested it with fresh batteries to make sure it was working. This is what we would use out on the desert to confirm our location.

We planned our food, trying to keep everything simple. Checked and re-checked our camping gear, wondering how we would fit it all in the car and trailer - and if the car would make it with our full load.

Our new 5x8 Lloyd trailer had been customized by a local welder with outriggers to extend the reach of our tie-downs and accommodate our three dual sports (two facing forward and one backward). We installed an aluminum box on the tongue which stored lots of gear. Once the bikes were loaded we began to pack tents, coolers, spare gas cans, lanterns... using every inch available between the bikes. Then we began to pack the car with stuff!! We were planning to set up base camp at Terlingua Ranch and just take the bare minimum on each days ride - returning to camp each night. We have seen many bikers loaded down with tents, packs, etc. and wanted to avoid the extra weight. As it turned out, we used everything we took along, and were glad we had it all.

THE ROAD TRIP WEST
We left Friday morning hoping to make Dallas which would put us within 8 hours from Terlingua on Saturday. We were truly amazed at the way the Earthmate worked, showing our exact position, speed, travel distance, altitude, and all the roads that we would encounter - including city streets and points of interest. And best of all, it kept Nancy occupied as she it not a good car traveler. We had seen smaller GPS dashboard systems but we prefer the laptop's 14 inch screen with higher resolution graphics. We will be buying a floor mount stand for the laptop for the next trip. 1500 miles and 24 hours later we turned in the Terlingua Ranch drive way - only 16 miles to go, but these would be the roughest. Nine miles of shellrock driveway almost caused our beer to burst, so we sipped a few on the drive in and slowed it down to about 10 mph. We arrived just before sunset barely giving us enough time to set up camp and stare in awe at the desert scenery.

We fell asleep early dreaming of the next weeks adventure.

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