You're pretty much confirming what I've found Tony....The road East from Casa Piedra appears public at first but then starts to look very private....Quite a few gates and ranch front yards to go through....We turned back at the runway....The exit on 118 is a locked gate...I do not recommend this route for anyone to ride.

We're very familiar with the roads/trails around the Terlingua / Study Butte area but most of them can be found on some maps.
Many are Terlingua Ranch roads and there are about 1100 miles of them.

Get that 400 D/S'd ASAP....You need at least a 100 mile gas range...Don't worry about the crush drive...I haven't had a bike with one since 1968 and never had a problem yet.

Let me know when you're in the Austin area...We'll get together and share info on riding places.

Steve Smith

If you look at the USGS maps around that area north and west of Terlingua there are alot of roads and "jeep trails". That is the information that I am looking for. Although if they are all private it really doesn't matter.

Steve:

Thanks for the push ... I'll check with John at DFW KTM about the lighting kit and see if he can handle the inspections. I have thought about converting it for about a year after it pinned me and broke my foot in a creekbed. It is a great bike, but I now have a 200 that is lowered 1 inch and revalved for my weight to ride on gnarly trails.

I will drop you a line the next time I am in the area. I am wrapping up a Chevrolet Dealership in Bandera so I am through the area every two or three weeks. I am there next week, but the entire week is run and gun.

Dallas, Breckenridge, Austin, Bandera, Sonora, Pecos and finally Fort Stockton ... whew! And I am in Dallas all day on Monday!

Are y'all familiar with USAPhotoMaps? It can be found at http://www.jdmcox.com/. Great program for downloading aerial photos and quad information. All you need to know is the Lat/Lon of a point to get it to start downloading info. It stitches together all the Terra Server images to make an overall composite.

I have an number of them I am working on now with Moab being the largest. It is almost 20 miles long top to bottom and 10+ miles wide. I can zoom in and make hardcopy files of portions of it to carry with me if needed and supposedly add GPS tracks to the photo, although I have not tried that yet.

I think we've tapped into most photo and map sites we can find that are useful....I'm currently just using the National Geographic Back Roads Explorer CD-ROMs....17 CDs for the whole country....It's really pretty good.

Keep working on that Moab info.....We've ridden there a couple of times in the last two years and it is great.....We ran the Kokopelli Trail last year....About 149 miles from Moab to Grand Junction CO.

I'll check out the jdmcox.

I also ride a KTM 200 everywhere except in the desert.


Steve Smith

XR650Rocketman: KTM 200s are great bikes. I took my 400 to Moonrocks last year (near Reno) and really enjoyed the trek, but rode my 200 at Moab last May thereby allowing my son to ride the 400. A number of folks we passed were surprised that I had a bike that small, but I never missed the poundage. If I get the 400 plated before going this year, my son may be on his own. Yea right, what are dads for?

We (a bunch from DRN) are going to Moab in May. May 19th through 23rd with a travel day on each end, if you are interested. I was planning on putting a post up once the dates are confirmed. I am awaiting the final tabulation on the votes (everybody is supposed to email their pick to me), but there doesn't appear to be anymore forthcoming, so I bet the dates are going to stick. At this point, I am guessing there will be 8~10 at least, a bunch from Missouri and another from SoCal are the wildcards. We got snowed out at Moonrocks last weekend and we ended up cancelling that weekend trip, so I am betting there will be some folks itching for a road trip.

fastmonstr: Regarding your comments about being out of date ... major ditto. Many of them are approaching 10 years old according to Terra Server, but for me they help keep north up in my mind. Besides they are fun to look at a dream, if nothing else.

With as many of us surfing today, I assume the weather is rainy where you are as well. It is here, so dream is all I can currently do.

Yea, the weather is driving me nuts. It's rained every weekend here for ages.

If you want to do some dreaming, check out Keyhole

They have a free trial, but I think the price is worth it.

Moab in May should be OK.....We tried it one year at March break and kept running into trails still snow closed.

What kind of riding will it be...Where are you going...My XR250 and 650 are street legal but the 200 isn't....Yet....Where are you planning to stay...etc....etc

Matthew....You want in too??

Steve

Steve:

At this point I don't know who is bringing what, but I doubt many of the bikes will be plated. I know my 200 and my daughters bike will not be, and at the rate I move the 400 likely will not be either (nevermind cost) by then.

We are looking to get a group of cabins at one of the campgrounds. I have about all the cooking gear one could ever need for up to about 30 folks, so we can cook there in the area between the parking and the cabins. Last year we checked into cabins but they were all booked, so we used the 7x14 trailer I had as a base camp and stayed at the KOA in a pull through space. It was a pain to have to pack up every morning but we managed. The cabins will allow us to lock everything up and not worry about stuff.

The cost of the cabins is $40 per night and each cabin will hold 4 people. Obviously, if someone brings an RV they can get a space in the campground near the cabins. Showers are a short walk, as are toilets, but for the price it is hard to beat.

Last year we only rode three days so we only scratched the surface. There are some folks from Colorado coming this year that go to Moab all the time and we will likely follow their lead as far as choosing trails. At least two folks with us are relative newbies (my daughter and another girl on the site) so we will either have to help them over the rough stuff or split up and some of us do some easy trails with them. If there are enough plated bikes the DS group can head out and take advantage of some of the flattop to connect trails.

We are targeting to get together and wrap up the plans by mid next month including reservations.

PM or email me your email and I will add you (an anyone else interested) to the eblast list I have created.

This trip could prove epic. We even have a group of folks from the Toronto area considering driving down, and one fellow from Long Island that is going to stop, if it works out, on his way west to take a new job in SLC.

Tony