Bois D'Arc Trails 05.24.09 part 2 - the ride home

Upon departing the park for the day, Rachel headed home with the kids and Gary and I decided to take the long way home. The rain earlier in the day had cleared the skies and the evening was crisp and clean. Exemplary riding weather, so we decided to make the most of it by venturing east towards Honey Grove instead of west towards McKinney. We tend to do this when we ride, head off in a general direction that happens to be somewhere in the vicinity of the general direction we need to be going, and like a dog trekking his way across the country to find his home by scent alone, we feel our way back to our origin. This was a perfect evening for such meaningless meanderings. As a T-Shirt I have most eloquently states, “those who wander are not always lost”

Do what you like, like what you do. Life is Good.

Bois D'Arc Trails 05.24.09

if you want to see more images of the day, click here

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. You may be surprised by what you had really received as a gift…, several months later. While these were not the exact words they were the meaning behind the intent as spoken by Gray Donihoo at the ripe old age of 8. He said to his mom, “I now know why you got me my blue bike (speaking of his electric Razor motorcycle), it was to get me ready for this bike” as he sat perched atop his yellow 50cc Suzuki, wearing a Christmas morning grin that was evident despite his oversized green & white motocross helmet. At the same time, it may be the anticipation of great things that may yet be. Case in point; Remy Nguyen. Remy had never ridden a motorcycle in the 12 years of his active life, but he took to it like a newborn dolphin takes to the water. Like it wasn’t a matter of choice, it was just the natural order of things. His father, Huy, told me more than once that day “he going to be telling his mom he wants one of these”. So who knows, next year MotoLizzie and Remy may be the next champions in their class.

The Sunday before Memorial Day was spent at the Bois D’Arc Tails just east of Bonham Texas. It’s top-secret location down a gravel road off of highway 82. Gary and I took off on our big BMW GS’s, while Rachel led the caravan of Carolyn and Huy. The park is about an hours ride from McKinney and that is part of the fun, the ride out to the park. The great thing about a GS is that you can enjoy the ride to the destination and then enjoy riding at the destination once you get there. The park was a little more crowded than the last time we had been, but as they work on a reservation system it was not overrun. We started to set up in the same spot we did on our first visit, but once we arrived Dave came by and invited us to set up next to them. We found the shade of an ancient Bois D’Arch tree, a tree ripped from the pages of a Harry Potter novel. So much character had grown into the trunk and branches of this shade casting behemoth that if you were to stop and listen, I am certain it would tell you the tales of its years overseeing the countryside of north-east Texas.

Item one on the agenda – get the bikes and gear unloaded from the truck, and get set up for the day. Item two was to get the kids geared up for riding. While Gary and Rachel were getting Lizzy and Gray ready, Lily and Remy immediately got started on the little blue electric bike. The cliché “a kid in a candy store” no longer need apply. Item three, get the camera out and get some shots of the kids doing what kids do. All of the agenda items checked of the list, it was time for the adults to join in on the fun. Dave has just bought his wife a brand new Honda TRX250 four-wheeler. I was making my way around the mini moto-cross track when she stopped and asked me if I wanted to ride it, but at the time, despite having met her the week before, I had no idea who this red and black donned 4-Wheel Moto-Chick was who was asking it I wanted to try out her new wheels. I figured it out when Gary came riding by on the 4-wheeler. It was pretty fun to ride, different in the corners than a bike; you had to lean almost more MotoGP style than MX style.

After taking Gary’s Kawasaki for a couple of spins, I decided it was time to get the big GS out on the motocross track again. It is amazing how well a 1200cc, 105 HP, 500 lb motorcycle can handle a MX course. You just can’t be afraid to give it some gas in the corners and let the back wheel slide into place. Until our first outing at Bois D’Arc a couple of weeks ago, I had never ridden a dirt bike, and the more I ride the lighter, more agile dirt bikes, the better I handle the GS off-road. I’m not going to taking home any trophies, but it is quite a feeling to navigate a 500 lb monster around a course designed for 300 lb quarter horses. As Gary once put it, it’s the Hummer of motorcycles. All in all, I made three runs on the course throughout the day on the big GS, the rest of the days runs were on Gary’s 250 Kawasaki.

In the mean time, the Donihoo and Nguyen kids traded off riding the smaller bikes. While the kids got rest, the bikes saw continuous non-stop combat. That is until Mother Nature stepped in and blessed the day with an hour-long rain shower. It was almost perfect, about the time the rain started moving in, just about everyone started packing up and heading out. We hunkered under the protection of our guardian Bois D’Arc, and rode it out. After the line of storms made their way through and headed off to ruin someone’s Sunday afternoon soccer game, we had perfect weather and the park almost to ourselves. It was time for more dirt to be devoured by the tires of the relentless machines. The track was great after the rain, a little slick at first, but after about an hour of being warmed by the afternoon sun, it had just enough tack to keep the wheels from sliding and dust from kicking. The kids hit the smaller motocross track and Gary and I headed out to the big course for a make shift contest. We each took a turn riding the course and timed each other. I had no idea if we would be minutes apart or seconds apart. Gary ran the course in 3:47 and I ran it in 3:58.

Elizabeth wanted to ride the woods course around the park so Gary took off with her. Remy and Lily were on the smaller bikes while Gray was taking a rest, snacking on some fresh cherries. I have to hand it to Rachel and her mom Carolyn, the food was great. Several years ago, I had a Honda Odyssey, kind of a dune buggy/motorcycle type vehicle. When I would venture out to ride it, I dined on beef jerky and cheetos…. Never anything like the feast we had on Sunday. Moments later Gary returned from the woods course with MotoLizzy arriving shortly thereafter. Apparently Lizzy had taken a spill while attempting to cross a giant mud puddle. But did it stop her? Did the North American continent stop the glaciers from rolling across it and prevent the last ice age? The glaciers were like that soft crunchy ice you get at Dairy Queen when compared to Lizzy’s will to ride. No sooner did she return and she was ready to go again. Gary had to get Gray’s bike situated for him, so it was my turn to lead MotoLizzy over the river and through the woods. What great fun. I do not have any kids, but riding with Elizabeth through the woods made me understand what everyone had always said about this being a family sport. The entire day was that way, the kids enjoyed it, the adults enjoyed it, and even the mom’s and grand mom’s who did not even ride enjoyed the day. All of you Santa’s out there should take heed. If you want something that is fun for the whole family take the advice of a wise 8 year old.

click here for more images of the day

Big Bend September 2006 - Day 3

Day 3

It seem that every time Gary and I go to Big Bend we do something on the “extreme” side. The most extreme was climbing Elephant Tusk, I will post that story some day, but on this trip we did a rather unique hike. The most popular hike in all of Big Bend National Park is the Lost Mine Trail. I had done this hike several times when I was a kid, but ironically as many times as Gary had been to Big Bend, he had never hiked the Lost Mine Trail, or at least not all of if. You do have to hike a portion of it to climb Casa Grande, which we have done a few times. The Lost Mine Trail is 5 mile round trip day hike that starts off Green Gulch road about a mile or so from the Basin. After a great day of riding the day before, we looked over our maps and decided that we were going to try something different. We knew that the end of the Pine Canyon trail supposedly ended at the end of the Lost Mine Trail – from opposite directions, the difference being about 2,000 ft of elevation, and a waterfall. We figured we could hike to the end of the Lost Mine Trail, then scale down the precipice to the creek bed that led to the Pine Canyon pour off, climb down the waterfall, and perhaps have lunch at the waterfall. We would then reverse our course and hike back up the waterfall back to the Lost Mine trail and back to where we had parked our bikes at the trailhead. A rather simple plan, just maybe a 5 –10 mile hike – or so we thought.

Everything started out great. A good breakfast at the lodge, grabbed some lunch items and water at the Basin store, mounted our bikes and headed off to the trailhead.

bikes parked in front of Casa Grande at the lost mine trail trailhead

We got started on the trail around 10:00, the weather was great, sunny and not to hot for September 12th. There were a few low clouds trapped in the basin that morning, waiting for the heat of the day to come along and melt them away. It made for some really scenic vistas. That is one thing about Big Bend, there is such an array of varying landscape; there are those who love it while others just don’t get it. Gary and I are among those who cannot get enough of it.

The hike up the trail started off great, for the most part the Lost Mine Trail is covered by the shade of numerous ponderosa pines, juniper and other tress prevalent in the Chisos. This is perhaps why it is one of the most popular trails in the park. It is a very well developed trail, not our usual fare, but we did take advantage of the resting points along the way.



One of the best view of the southern part of the park is from the promontory at the top of the lost mine trail. From here you can see Pine Canyon, Juniper Canyon, Elephant Tusk, and parts of the south rim.



We had made it to this point with relative ease. Now the real fun would begin. We paid our respects to our nemesis, Elephant Tusk and found a good spot to start our decent from the promontory. Climbing in Big Bend is not exactly recommended due to all of the loose rock, but climbing down from the lost mine trail was an easy task. While we did not know exactly where the creek bed would be, we figured it had to be at the lowest point between the two peaks and sure enough as soon as we got there, we found the creek. While we had never done this hike before, Gary had climbed up the pine canyon pour off once before and up the dry creek bed a little way. We figured it would be a really easy hike to climb down the creek bed to the pour off – however…. August and September is the rainy season in Big Bend, and while it was not a raging rapid, this was definitely not a dry creek bed. It was a very full flowing stream. There simply was no way to hike down the middle of it. And as this was not an established hiking trail where paths had been cut, bushwhacking was in order. And major bushwhacking it was as the vegetation was quite thick. We do a lot of plowing our way through heavy thick vegetation in Big Bend; cross-country hiking is one of those things that Gary and I are both on the same wavelength on. We both like to head out to nowhere, off trail and just see what we can find. And we find some of the coolest stuff, things that we are pretty sure only a very select few park visitors ever see, or maybe even care to see – but it is part of what we enjoy about this very unique National Park. However plowing through heavy vegetation while negotiating a stream, is not exactly something you get accustom to doing in a desert and it was a bit of a bitch. It was during this stream traversing, machete wielding, cross-country bushwhacking that I met up with my old friend, the Death Cactus…. What I lovingly refer to as the death cactus is some hybrid form of the agave havardiana on steroids. This thing is about shin high, has 2” long spikes on stalks that are the size of overgrown daggers jutting up out of the ground. This is an evil plant, seeded to earth by satan himself for the sole purpose of inflicting pain upon the lower extremities of backcountry hikers named Eddie. If you were to fall upon one of these hydra-headed daggers of the devil, it would be an instant pain ridden ticket to the beyond. Luckily for me, it just happened to embed its two-inch long, 1/8” wide spike into the meat of my shin. Of course, being satanic in nature it does not simply stab, but rather stabs and then conveniently breaks off below the skin so that no matter how much effort of digging and prodding are attempted, there is no removing the scorpion of Hades’ stinger and it just writhes is way deeper and deeper into the flesh in which it has made its new home. Of all the things I love about Big Bend, I HATE the death cactus. Of course this happened about 3 miles or so into the hike, and little did I know at the time, today’s venture would be close to 20 miles. After years of hiking, climbing, camping, driving, riding, miles from any other human contact, you learn that you are pretty much on you own and have to put mind over matter and just move on. The same goes for pain or discomfort. Not only is it a matter of survival, it is a matter of enjoyment. While the toothpick buried in my leg was increasingly painful with each step, I did not want it to ruin the enjoyment of the hike, so on we went.

something unusual in Big Bend - a flowing stream

I don’t remember how many miles it was from where we had climbed down from the bluff at the end of the lost mine trail and the pine canyon pour off, but we got to the pour off around 3:00. The climb down was relatively easy, we had climbed up it a few times before, we knew the route, and while the decent was not without its risk, it was quite fun. When we got to the bottom we were treated to a rare sight. A waterfall in a desert oasis. There are only a few times a year when there is enough water in the park for the waterfall to be flowing on a bright sunny day and it was quite an experience. The only thing that detracted from it were the mosquitoes… They were not stupid, but they made their presence known.



We devoured the lunch we had purchased at the Basin store and decided that since the creek bed was a full flowing stream, reversing our course was not a very good option. Our revised itinerary would be to hike the two miles out the pine canyon trail to the pine canyon road and then try to find someone along the road with whom we could hitch a ride back to our bikes. The hiking from this point on was very easy. Pine Canyon is a very well developed trail, and once we hit the road it was even easier. The problem was that after the 2-mile hike out of pine canyon, we hiked the entire 8 miles of backcountry road and probably 2 or 3 miles of paved park road before we saw our first car. Luckily the car we saw stopped. The folks that stopped to give us a ride were the only other human beings we had seen the entire day. It was an older couple we had met hiking down the Lost Mine Trail within the first 30 minutes we were hiking up it. They recognized us and stopped. Some 10 hours and probably 20 miles later we ran across each other again. They were a little confused as to how we got to where we were from where they had seen us the last time they saw us. We explained to them “that’s what we do”, I think they thought we just went through some sort of wormhole, went in one end of the Chisos, and then came out the other. We had a nice air-conditioned ride back in their Lexus, they dropped us off at the lost mine trail trailhead and went on their way. Our lone BMW motorcycles departed the trailhead parking lot and we rode off into the sunset just in time to make dinner at the Basin restaurant. Another fantastic Big Bend adventure under our belts, and another great Big Bend story to tell.

Day 4 was our day of departure. We got up early and headed out of the park. It was rather chilly that morning, and I remember wearing the liner in my jacket and running the heated grips. We rode to Marathon and had breakfast at the Gage. After the Gage, the liners came out and it warmed up a bit. We made pretty good time on the way home, taking the same route home as we did on the way to the park. My leg was hurting, but again, I did not let it ruin my trip. When I got home I went to the doctor and she found that the spike was 2” deep into my leg. It took her almost a half hour to dig it out, but man did it feel better. She gave it to me in a sealed bottle of alcohol as a souvenir of my adventure.

This was a great trip, riding and hiking what more could you ask for.

A few more images of the kids jumping at Rocky Ridge Ranch

Dave acting like a big kid...


Show-um how its done!



Elizabeth about to launch!


Gray's first jump..




Elizabeth learning how to use the throttle on approach...

My first day of Dirtbiking

It was a fantastic day and and i really enjoyed that. i had only 2 crashes with some minor damages to the bike and no injury to me.
Thank you Gary for the ride, drinks, food, steak and teaching riding classes.

I won the contest:!!!

I would love to thank every one of you from bottom of my heart for voting for me. (please vote just once) ...Yes, i did bust my a.. on Thursday night at 3am while practicing in the neighbor hood. i made my bike flip 180 degree and land upside down right in front of me. i bend the clutch lever and

broke the tail light.

I was not injured- this time.
your confident in me means a lot to me. Please vote for me. I wont disapoint you:)

Rocky Ridge May 17,2009

We went to Rocky Ridge north of Decater Texas this past Sunday. It was a perfect day. Gary, Rachel, Elizabeth, and Gray Donihoo, Rego, Marcus, Dave and Eddie were all there. Here are some pics