Big Bend Stuff

It's been awhile....

2012-01-26T01:04:00.000-06:00

It will soon be time to head southwest. I haven't been to Big Bend in almost a year. We got in a few other destinations....Yellowstone, WY and Sanibel Island, FL were the "big" trips for the year. Those places were pretty good places to be in their own way, and I wouldn't want to pass through this world without seeing either of them, but when all is said and done, I miss the old stompin' grounds of the Big Bend. It's just funny how a place like the Big Bend country can just keep pulling a person back. Either that or it puts them off so bad that they only go once and can't wait to leave the place. Takes all kinds....

2011-06-11T07:50:00.001-05:00

Paisano Pete - Ft Stockton

2011-06-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

Fort Davis fire....:(

2011-04-17T19:54:00.000-05:00

It gets windy out there sometimes....

2011-04-04T02:55:00.000-05:00

This was between Alpine and Marathon

2011-03-13T20:19:00.000-05:00

I didn't take many photos this trip. We hiked to Maple Canyon, walked into Santa Elena, went over to Boquillas Canyon and the Hot Springs, and never went any further west on 170 than Long Draw Pizza.

Marty did a bit more hiking then we did, but then Marty is a real cross country hiker type. We stayed near civilization so we could call out search and rescue if Marty didn't turn up when he was supposed to, but turn up he did, so we didn't have to declare an emergency or anything.

It was a short trip and instead of seeing the wildflowers that I always hear people talking about but have never managed to see, we just saw a very brown and dry looking desert. With no rain in months I guess that's to be expected. Didn't see much in the way of wildlife either. Well, there was some wildlife sighted on the porch in the Ghosttown but that's different.
Maybe next time.

The Obligatory Road Pic....Hwy 118

2011-03-13T20:14:00.000-05:00

My favorite thing about Hwy 118 is that I can stand smack dab in the middle of it for long periods of time without having to worry about traffic running me down.

If you've ever seen this skyline you'll never forget it...

2011-03-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

Yard Art gone wild

2011-03-13T20:11:00.001-05:00

How they used to do travel trailers.....

2011-03-13T20:06:00.000-05:00

A babe in the wilderness....

2011-03-13T20:04:00.000-05:00

The Terrible Trio

2011-03-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

Me, Sally, and Marty in Santa Elena Canyon.

I'm the goofy-looking one. Oh wait, Marty's kinda goofy-looking too. I'm the goofy-looking one on the left. He's the goofy-looking one on the right. Sally is the good looking one in the middle, obviously.

The Rio grande just east of the Hot Springs. Sierra del Carmen in the distance.

2011-03-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

A few posts back I showed Desert Art. This is River Art.

2011-03-13T19:54:00.000-05:00

Window View

2011-03-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

Since we were staying in Study Butte and Marty was camped in the Basin, we decided to see if we could contact one another by walkie talkie. I had a cheap department store set, so I gave Marty one and we agreed on a time to give it a try, with him on the window view trail and us sitting in the parking lot of Bee Mountain hardware, which is at the base of Bee Mountain, which is the dark mountain on the upper left when looking thru the window as on the photo above. It worked as long as we had line-of-sight.

I call this one "Might as well be walking on the moon."

2011-03-13T19:42:00.000-05:00

Art in the desert....

2011-03-13T19:38:00.000-05:00

Came across this was on the way to Indian Head Springs

: I think it's thataway...

2011-03-13T19:35:00.001-05:00

You'd think we'd never been here before....

Boquillas Canyon

2011-03-13T18:56:00.000-05:00

We walked in to entrance of Boquillas Canyon and carried in all of our picnic goodies - a few bottles of cooking fuel, half a dozen reading glasses various strengths, several pair of new boots, a backpack full of candy, another full of jeans and shirts - you know, the usual picnic load. I misjudged the weight of it all and had to leave it all on the riverbank when I realized I couldn't carry it all back out...getting old is hell. Anyway, I would have been worried about a littering fine except that all of it was gone when we made it back up on the hill over the river and looked back, and I'd swear I saw Jesus waving and yelling gracias from the other side of the river. I think he had young Eduardo with him. Apparently Victor had the day off. At least I think that's what I understood him to say. Or maybe it was all a hallucination.

Oh well, easy come easy go...I'll just have to get more picnic gear next time.

Far Flung's Casitas

2011-03-12T06:54:00.000-06:00

Far Flung Adventures on Hwy 170 in Study Butte about 1/2 mile west of the 118 intersection have built what they are calling Casitas. At first glance they look like storage buildings with a porch, but they are actually quite nice inside, and it looks like they are going to be pretty nice outside once the landscaping is done. That was a work in progress when we were there, but they were coming right along with it. Each one has a nice porch with a pair of rocking chairs. They need to toss the current rocking chairs and buy some proper rocking chairs - they clearly didn't test drive the rocking chairs before they bought them - they don't rock worth a damn - but they do look nice. You just wouldn't want to sit in one. Everything inside the Casita was just fine and dandy bordering on excellent - the nicest room I have stayed in in the Study Butte/Terlingua area so far, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them...but if you think you'd like to enjoy sitting and rocking away the evening, better bring your own rocker.

Dinner in the basin

2011-03-12T06:42:00.000-06:00

Marty was camped out in the basin - we were staying in Study Butte in one of Far Flung's new casitas, so we drove up to the basin to have dinner with Marty at the lodge. This restaurant has a great view. I've not been impressed with the food in past visits - seemed like the salad bar or a hamburger were the only reliably decent evening meals here - and now they have the price of a hamburger up to $14, so I went for the salad bar. It's also overpriced for what you have to choose from, but I guess you are paying for the view as well. Either that or you're paying on the ski lodge theory - you're a long way from any other place to buy a meal so they got ya! I should mention that I have unfailingly enjoyed their coffee and desserts, and the staff are usually both friendly and interesting. Credit where credit is due and all like that. I'm going to go back to my former routine of eating elsewhere and going to the Lodge restaurant for an after dinner coffee and dessert and maybe a sunset view .

We arrived in a cloud of dust - literally.

2011-03-12T06:20:00.001-06:00

Marty left early in his car and arrived at BBNP before the winds got bad. We left a few hours later and bucked headwinds from about Midland on...as we turned the corner in Monahans and headed south the resulting crosswind was kicking up waves of dust and dirt and we were dodging tumbleweeds for the rest of the trip. This time I was ready for it though. I covered my headlights with clear packing tape. Made this trip in similar conditions a few years back and the blowing sand etched my headlights. I figured one more episode like that would mean replacing expensive plastic lenses, so I came prepared. Stopped in Alpine to visit Skip and Cherie for a few minutes and see if Skip got his trail 140 wired up properly - we met him last trip when he saw our bikes on the trailer outside the grocery and decided we were the guys who could help him with his engine swap rewire since we'd already done the same to our bikes. So he waited for us to come out and then made us come by his house and show him how to do it. We've stayed in touch since.

Boquillas Crossing Update

2011-03-03T17:35:00.000-06:00

I asked a ranger at Rio Grande Village. Here's what I got: The plans are for an April 2012 opening. It will take a passport to get across. The NPS plans to purchase a boat and motor and related lifevests and safety gear to be operated by a Mexican national to handle the river transportation.
People wishing to cross will be screened remotely and approved or disapproved for crossing.
There is a public comment period in effect and the related US Govt documents are in a PDF file. look for them at:

Boquillas Crossing PDF Docs

There is a box at the above URL location that allows you to comment on the proposal. I urge all of you who read this to do so.

Public Comments close at midnight on March 16, 2011.

10 days left.

You can also comment by snail mail at:
Big Bend National Park
ATTN: Boquillas Crossing Visitor Contact Station EA
PO Box 129
Big Bend National Park, Texas 79834

Hope Floats!

2011-01-04T22:03:00.000-06:00

Reopening the Boquillas Crossing? - Could Happen!

Marty wants to know what happened to Day 8. There was a day 8. I just never posted Day 8. I guess I'd better work on that.

PS: For anyone that knows Marty - he's RETIRING THIS MONTH!

Day 7

2010-11-13T12:33:00.000-06:00

We started the day by driving over to the West entrance of the National Park and taking a short hike through the rough country over there.

The dirt that makes up these hills is pretty amazing stuff...it dries out and cracks and it looks like it would just wash away the first time rain hits it, but apparently water swells it back into a solid mass that clings together. I'm just guessing here, but I don't see how else it can not instantly erode when the rain comes.

BELOW: Marty has named this formation, which is easily visible from the road. He calls it the Screaming Turtle, and I can see that. It's more obvious from the side away from the road.

BELOW: We found this object in the desert. Neither of us knew what it was, exactly. We left it where we found it. A quick internet search informed us that it is the tip for a gas welder. I couldn't begin to guess why it was where we found it..

Later in the morning we went out to the Grub Shack at the intersection of Hwy 118 and the Entrance road to big Bend ranch Lodge. then we rode in to the lodge to see what that was like. It's paved most of the way nowdays - only the last few miles are dirt. Not a lot going on out there, so we rode back.

We took a short detour down the Rosillos Ranch road, which eventually comes out over on Hwy 385, just to have a look. that's a long ride out and back and it will have to wait for another trip, but at least we got a peek at the road.

BELOW: When we got to the Grub Shack we ran into a guy who was riding a bike similar to ours, only older. He needs a new seat if anyone has a spare. You can leave it for him at the Grub Shack.

Below: Back in Study Butte, we got in the car and left the bikes behind and headed out to Closed Canyon. Along the way we saw this car, which we thought might tip over due to their interesting method of packing.

BELOW: Wild burros along the river road.

BELOW: The walls of Closed Canyon are sorta close together...I bet the original name was Close Canyon. There's a lot of small pouroffs, and a walking stick and a bit of rope can be handy to get up and down, especially of your joints aren't what they once were. You probably don't want to be in here if a flash flood comes, so watching the weather and understanding that rainwater from far away can wind up pouring through here is good. The final pouroff at the Rio Grande is considered not survivable, so you don't want to get flushed.

BELOW: On the way back I decided this small peak in the center of this photo needed a name and now it has one. Joe's Peak. it's just northeast of the Contrabando movie set.

I'd heard for years that there was rock art somewhere over this way, but nobody seemed to know for sure where it was. I guess I should have asked Marty, because he knew all along, and he led me right to it.

If you are brave enough to crawl under that big rock you will find some rock art. Take a flashlight and watch out for the creatures that live back in there. Feels like crawling into a snake den to me.

BELOW: Marty in front of Cobb Peak.

BELOW: I call this Dinner Rock because we ate there and watched the sun go down. Then we realized that when the sun goes down it generally gets dark not long after, and decided maybe we'd better head back.

Casting long shadows in the desert.

Nice view of the Chisos from the Indianhead Springs area.

A peek at the Chisos from inside the snake den. Okay, maybe it's not a snake den, but I didn't look around well enough to be sure one way or another.

Day 6 - Monday

2010-11-04T20:21:00.000-05:00

Got up early and hooked up the trailer and was at the gas station when it opened at 7. then we headed back across to park to Boquillas Canyon to see if Victor was around this morning and leave some goodies for the children of Boquillas. Hope they somehow got over there. Victor got the message we left yesterday and was waiting for us with a song. We got the village SAT phone number from him and made some notes of things they could use if anyone were to want to send them down there....but I don't think UPS delivers in that part of Mexico.

doesn't look like you're 150-200 ft above the river here but you are.

The entrance to Boquillas canyon is hard to photograph. For a good view you'd have to be on the mexico side which you can't do anymore if you're from the USA, and the light is never right for my so-so digital camera. It's apretty sepctacular view. I wish I could figure out how to do it justice in my photos.

We said our goodbyes to Victor and Jesse until next trip and headed back to the truck and on to Panther Junction, where we parked the rig and unloaded our bikes.

We rode back the way we came for 7 miles and then cut down the Glen Springs Road. We followed that to the Pine Canyon turnoff and turned off. the road wasn'[t terrible, and in a few miles we were rewarded with beautiful views of Pine Canyon and the chisos at the end of the line.

Leaving Pine Canyon, we backtracked to the Glen Springs road and took it south to the Black Area, Passing up Juniper Canyon on the way. we planned to check that out on the way back.

By the time we got to Black Gap the heat was building and it was time for a break, so we took one.

we explored a bit and marty did a bit more riding around looking for some old rusted out car hulk he'd heard was out here somewhere. I don't remember seeing it when I was out here before, but then I am to the age where I don't remember lots of stuff. he never found it, so after some exploring of the Glen springs area we headed back to the Juniper Canyon turnoff and turned off. Almost immediately we hit deep sand. we plowed onward for a bit, but after about a half mile of nothing but deep sand we decided we just didn't want to see Juniper canyon all that bad, so we left. it was starting to get late by the time we hit the main road and headed for Panther junction again. we did take time to finally turn in at K-Bar and follow that road to the end a mile or two out. it's probably the most accessable and yet least traveled dirt road in the park. I have no idea why. I always thought there wouldn't be all that much to see out there, but turns out you get great views of the moiuntains in all directions. I'll be making that a regular stop in the future.

when we got back to Panther Junction we checked on the truck and trailer and shed a bit of gear, and then rode on up through green gulch and into the basin for a dessert and coffee at the Lodge. as the sun was setting we rode out of the basin and back to the truck and loeaded up and headed back to Study Butte.

A long day.

Day 5 - Sunday

2010-11-04T14:05:00.000-05:00

I woke up aching from yesterday's ride. A visit to the Hot Springs seemed like just the ticket. So we went.

This bush near the Rio Grande was the only place in the area that we saw any monarch butterflies. All the rest apparently have moved on in their migration

Oasis in the desert built by JO Langford in the early 1900's. It was supposed to be a cure for what ails ya and a tourist draw, but I think it must have been just a wee bit far off the beaten path for most folks, and the occasional troubles with people like Pancho Villa might have been bad for business.

Langford's Hot Springs Bathhouse is gone except for the foundation. I think it's probably better this way than it would have been all closed in. Now you can sit on the wall with one leg in the cold river and one leg in the hot springs.

Langford's house on the hill almost disappears into the hillside.

the road in and out of the Hot springs isn't bad, but you need to pay attention lest you wind up on your roof in the gulch.

After a leisurely soak and some exploring of the area we left for Boquillas Canyon to see if Victor the singing Mexican was there. He wasn't , but his cousin Jesse was there so we visited a bit...it's still not illegal to yell your words back and forth across the international border - we told him we'd be back in the morning and to tell Victor to come down if he could. Then we left and went to Rio Grande village and looked around the campgrounds and check out the new nature walk.

A real wetback. Probably coming to check the money jars they put out on the US side where they sell trinkets on the honor system. Closing the border with the village to Boquillas shut off all the tourist business the village has long depended on. They are over 100 miles of dirt roads from any larger town in Mexico. So they have taken to making trinkets and putting them out for sale on the US side along with a price list and a money jar. The NPS takes the official position that tourists cannot buy these items and will seize them as smuggled contraband, and puts up signs warning people to not buy the stuff, but they don't confescate the stuff as far as I can tell. the NPS sells the same stuff in their stores, but presumably the doubling of the price takes care of all the import duties and such. The Border Patrol apparently takes a tougher view of the situation. Understandable, since they have a job to do. Still, it looks to me like some dumb policy coming out of Washington that means people who for hundreds of years have been intermarrying across the river suddenly cannot visit their own family who happen to live on the other side is sorta silly if you ask me. Yeah, we should control our borders, but there should be some common sense provisions that take into account centuries of existing culture.

Boquillas Canyon

If you hike much in the desert you gotta get one of these sun umbrellas. they look kinda dorky but the temp difference compared to a floppy hat is impressive to the point that I'd never go out far into the desert without one. These things could make the difference between living and dying in the desert in a crunch.

And then it was on back to Panther Junction and up to the Basin.

On the little Window View Trail, the NPS, in their occasionally misguided wisdom, erected a sign right in front of the bench where more people come to see the view thru the Window (see photo 2 above) than come to any other viewpoint in the park. I truly don't think any of them come there to look at a sign. and the sign could be lots of other places nearby and would be just as informative. Marty was livid. We went to the ranger station to make a formal complaint and do so, but we were also informed that we had to get in line behind all the other people complaining. In fact, the Park Superintendent apparently went to see for himself and decreed the sign must go. But it's still there. probably won't be for long, because only 4 bolts hold it in place and I noticed someone had already removed 2 of them, probably under cover of darkness. If the NPS doesn't remove it I suspect it will soon disappear anyway due to eco-vandalism. The spirit of Edward Abbey lives yaknow.

I think this sub surfaced a bit off course. the place is called "Passing Wind" and is at the Ghosttown turnoff in Terlingua. I dunno who lives here but it's someone I think I'd like to meet.

We finished the day with a pizza at Long Draw Pizza, which was most excellent. I'd never been in there before and now I have and I'll be back.
tomorrow is the road to Glen Springs....

Day 4

2010-11-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

Day 4 was pretty much all spent on the Old Ore Road. we unloaded at rio Grande Village, and rode to Panther Junction and then north to Dagger Flat. Rode out Dagger Flat to the end of the line, then back to the Ore Road turnoff. then it was 28 miles of hard going according to the map....33 according to Marty's GPS. I guess we took the long way.

Met these guys going the other way. Seems word was out about the two crazy guys on the ancient Honda Trail 90's that were roaming the desert. They had to get their picture taken with us.

We walked up to Mckinney Spring for lunch. if we had known how hard the going was about to get and how hot it was sonn going to be, we might have just stayed there.

By the time we made Ernst Tejada we were hot, tired, and really sick of deep sand washes.

I'd been here before, so I found a shady spot up against the creekbank and tooka nap. Marty hiked in for photos. I don't think he really wanted to at that point, but hey, we're here so what ya gonna do?

Mr. De Leon was murdered out here in 1932. His grave is right alongside the Ore Road. It seems like a lonely place to be laid to rest, but a man could do lots worse.

Just over that hill is the paved road to Rio Grande village. I knew this, having been here before. Marty didn't know this. I didn't tell him. Figured he would appreciate the feeling of relief when he topped the hill as much as I did first time I arrived up there. I've never done this in a car but I know it's lots easier than it is on two wheels.

Day 3

2010-11-02T06:42:00.000-05:00

Another day starting with coffee on the back porch.

then it was time for more fiddling with the bike and hunting the elusive miss it developed on the trailer ride down here. Still no success.

We hauled the bikes out to Paint Gap Road. When we unloaded, mine would barely run. Wasted the better part of the riding time available puzzling over the problem. Removed the carburetor again and again nothing improved upon reassembly. finally stumbled on the cause of the problem. An air leak between the carb and intake manifold. I'd been removing the carb and manifold from the head as a unit because it's easier...but I never thought to check the other connection because I hadn't disturbed it...apparenly the 600 mile trailer ride shook it loose just enough to leak at higher RPM's only. Anyway, the morning riding time was pretty much shot because we had to meet people for lunch. we rode up Paint Gap for the 15 minutes we had available and then headed back for the barn.

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Lunch was at the Grub Shack (on 118 north of Study butte at the turnoff for Big Bend ranch Lodge), with Me, Marty, TJ, and John Wells. TJ is a visiting photographer our of Houston who was down here for a photo seminar. John Wells lives down here at the Field Lab. http://www.thefieldlab.org/ , which we are going to go see after lunch. That's Marty on the left, John in the center, and TJ on the right. I took the photo.

This is John's pet longhorn, Bonita, who is the most famous longhorn on the planet. Bonita has her own facebook page and probably has more friends than you do. I know she has more friends than I do.

John's living quarters in the background. Small but efficient, with a homemade solar-powered swamp cooler.

John's washing machine.

The Field Lab solar oven.

The Field Lab greenhouse

Leaving The Field Lab

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We had some time after the Field Lab tour and before we were to meet others for dinner, so we drove out 170 (the River road) to the Big Hill to take some sunset photos. Marty is the photographer, but I tried to document the proceedings with my digital equivalent of the Instamatic.

============================================

We met up at the ghosttown Cafe with a bunch of the people who sort of know one another from BBC online, and who all seem to be serious photographers. Took them 20 minutes to organize a group photo because...well...becasue they are all photographers...but it was a good group photo. I'd post a copy but I don't have one. Then someone had the idea to go to the Ghosttown Cemetery and get a group photo there, so we did. That took awhile too. someone has a U/V flashlight that you could shine around and find scorpions because it makes them glow in the dark, like a blacklight poster. I didn't realize how many scorpions there were out there.

Day 2

2010-11-01T19:24:00.000-05:00

We started Day 2 with coffee on our back porch. The view was nice.

We set out for the National Park and old Maverick Road. I threw a chain about two miles in, and then had to track down my missing spark. Once all that was sorted out and we proceeded another mile or so, we stopped and hiked up a rise to get some photos of Alamo Creek and the badlands it's created. On the way back down, my gimpy leg decided to take a break without notifying me and I went down. Stuck my hand out to fend off the ground and jammed it right into a healthy cactus. then as I yelled over the sudden cactus discovery I instinctively rolled away from the cactus and right onto another cactus. this was followed by some cussing and complaining and once I arrived back at the bikes I was using pliers to pull out cactus splines. then I had to strip down and pull them out of the butt of my jeans. fortunately only a few managed to get thru and into my own personal butt and I was able to reach back and yank those out.

Not what you call an auspicious start. we rode back to the room to get some proper tweezers and dig out the rest of the splines in my hand...then we set out again. It got better. we set out again and rode back into the park and out to Ross maxwell scenic Drive, and headed for Castolon. My bike still had a pretty bad miss but so far I hadn't been able to figure out what was causing it.

We stopped at Sotol Vista to take in the vista, and then took off on the long downhill back to the desert floor. the gearing changes we made really made a difference here...the bikes would probably do 60 if their riders were willing.
Prior to getting to Castolon, we turned up the River Road and proceeded east for about a mile. it was almost entirely deep sand. after we both had a crash and several near-crashes, we decided to heck with that and turned around and went to Castolon for something cold to drink.

From Castolon, we went on around to Santa Elena Canyon and then started up the old Maverick Road from the southern end.

We rode north on the old Maverick Road, stopping for photos along the way. Didn't have any further problems. It turned out to be a nice ride. then it was back to Study Butte, where I spent the evening trying to figure out why my bike wasn't running properly. Trying was the operative word. I didn't fix it.

Day 1

2010-11-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

When the sun set we rode back to La Kiva for supper. They were cracking jokes about the two mopeds in the parking lot. Those youngun's just didn't know what they were looking at, but then I guess they wouldn't since the bikes are pushing 40 and the people doing the talking were barely out of diapers. Lest any viewers jump to the conclusion that the coolers on the back were full of beer...they were full of spare fuel, spare parts, and tools, lunch, and all the extra water we could fit in there. We also wore hydro paks to help with the possibility of breaking down miles out in the desert and having to walk home. and we had the nifty sun umbrellas that reflect sunlight and heat and keep you waaaay cooler while hiking around in the desert than any hat will do. I highly recommend those for anyone who spends much time in desert sun.

We went on south to study Butte where we checked in to our room at Chisos Mining Company - the easter egg motel..and found out we got this great room up on the cliff. Getting up there with a trailer was sorta interesting - I only did it once - but the digs were the best I ever had in the Study Butte/Terlingua area.

We even had a bit of cell phone signal and internet signal. Well I did. Marty couldn't buy a phone connection, and the internet was really iffy.... Anyway we unloaded the bikes and rode out to Indian Head Mountain to take in the sunset. My bike wasn't running right...more on that later.

The plan is to drive west to Monahans, and then south thru Alpine to Study Butte.

we stopped in Alpine for groceries, and when we came out of the store there was a guy waiting who saw our little Honda trail bikes with the replacement engines and who insisted that we follow him to his house and show him how to wire his little Honda trail bike with a replacement engine becasue ours worked and his didn't. You can see his jeep in the driveway in the background. turned out he had a titled frame for sale and we wanted another one, so we arranged to pick it up on the way home.

We were up at 2 am and on the road shortly after 3.

Test ride - getting ready for BB

2010-10-02T19:44:00.001-05:00

Ride For Trails time is almost here.

2010-09-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

http://www.ridefortrails.com/

CT-90 Update

2010-09-13T08:58:00.000-05:00

went ahead and converted mine to 12 volts. Decided it would be better if both bikes used the same electronics....only need one set of spares that way. the fork seals have been replaced...two of the fork tubes have some significant pitting so I'm a little concerned about them leaking but new ones are pricy so I'm gonna see how they work and then decide if I need new ones.

We went to Danno's in Acton and bought a couple of used dirtbike tanks, which we are mounting on the bikes to supplement the stock underseat tanks. with these installed I expect to have 250 Mi.+ range, which will get the job done and is further than my butt can stand on one of those little bikes in a given day anyway. that's more than enough for Big Bend where we're always going to be within 70-80 miles of a gas station, but if we ever get to take them to Canyonlands in Utah we might want the range and then some.

Fork tubes will be installed on both bikes next work session....all the carb intake mods are done. New chains installed. We have to load them up and haul them to the welding shop for our custom exhaust work, and after that it's just a matter of taking care of a long list of little odds and ends and doing some sea trials before we go.

Visit Big Bend Writing Contest Winner!

2010-09-08T10:20:00.000-05:00

My ol' blogger pal Liz from Texas Trifles won the Visit Big Bend writing contest. You can read her winning entry here! Pretty cool! If you're a fan of Texas and the Big Bend area, you might also want to check out Liz's new blog, Travel Texas.

CT90 Update

2010-08-26T23:13:00.000-05:00

Well, the wiring and plumbing bits have turned out to be the hard parts. Not all that hard, actually, but time consuming. So far nothing has been plug and play simple....everything takes a bit of figuring out and fitting and trial and error type work. Nothing came with instructions. We found quite a bit of info on the Internet but rarely have we found the exact solution to our particular problem. And since we are using different engines, what works on one bike does nto necessarily work on the other bike.
My electrical system is the stock 6 volts system...we've converted Marty's bike to 12 volts. Still, we're having fun getting the things built and with any luck we will be done a month before we take off so as to have some sorting out time and time to work out any bugs.

Glenn Springs Rd #1

2010-08-26T17:34:00.001-05:00

Paint Gap Rd

2010-08-25T20:45:00.000-05:00

CT90 Conversion to CT110 4 speed auto-clutch

2010-08-09T20:42:00.001-05:00

CT90 to CT125 Manual Clutch - conversion in progress....

2010-08-09T20:40:00.001-05:00

2010-07-05T09:46:00.000-05:00

My bro-in-law Marty and I are going to Big Bend this fall with the intention of riding every back road in both the National Park and the state Park. to do this, we needed a couple of reliable trail bikes, but they have to be street legal due to national park rules. So we;re taking a couple of old Honda CT-90's....known as trail 90's when I was a kid. But first they need some freshening up. This is the first one, sans seat, gastank, and engine. As I write this, the engine is reinstalled, and there's just some wiring and plumbing to wrap up, and a front fork overhaul yet to go.

2010-03-30T23:55:00.001-05:00

I-10

2010-03-29T13:20:00.003-05:00

Going Home

2010-03-29T09:23:00.000-05:00

2010-03-29T09:20:00.001-05:00

2010-03-13T08:56:00.001-06:00

Mouth of Santa Elena canyon from Sotol Vista (telephoto lens)

2010-03-11T20:01:00.001-06:00

oops

2010-03-11T19:57:00.001-06:00

I took this in Fort Stockton.

2010-03-10T00:24:00.000-06:00

Driving west from Panther Junction towards Ross Maxwell Drive turnoff.

2010-03-09T13:57:00.000-06:00

River Road

2010-03-07T08:49:00.000-06:00

2010-01-31T21:48:00.001-06:00

Glenn Springs Rd at Juniper Canyon Cutoff

2010-01-16T21:22:00.001-06:00

Indian Head from a distance

2010-01-15T17:25:00.001-06:00

The Rio Grande S.E of Lajitas

2010-01-14T19:11:00.001-06:00

Jaywalkers

2010-01-13T14:34:00.001-06:00

Optical Illusion

2010-01-12T07:33:00.001-06:00

The walk into Santa Elena Canyon

2010-01-08T21:29:00.001-06:00

Tired of paying for the big banks self-serving behavior?

2010-01-07T20:04:00.000-06:00

(I know this has nothing to do with Big Bend, but I wanted to pass it along. I'll try to not make this a habit, okay?)

If you're tired of all the big banks getting taxpayer bailouts and yet not making loans to small business or individuals and ripping us off with 30% credit card rates and otherwise trying to enrichen themselves by bleeding us dry, try this:

Put your money in a safe secure local bank and let the big banks turn into not-so-big banks.

Go to this website and put in your zip code for a list of safe local banks where you can do business.

http://www.moveyourmoney.info/

As long as we all keep letting them take advantage of us, they are gonna continue to take advantage of us. Maybe we should stop. Just a thought.

J

Chisos

2010-01-06T20:09:00.001-06:00

One more Window Photo

2009-12-28T21:24:00.000-06:00

South of Glen Springs

2009-12-24T18:03:00.000-06:00

I thought this was a pretty interesting geologic formation. I'm not an expert, but it looks to me like a lava dyke that was subsequently cut by water running off through this desert arroyo. The dyke was probably buried until the water runoff cut down to it's level. I bet there was a small lake behind the dyke once upon a time, with the dyke serving as the dam. Best as I can tell, the dam eventually was cut and failed, which explains why we build them with spillways, I guess. If any experts stumble across this, let me know if I'm at all on track with my theory here.

Victor the Singing Mexican National of Boquillas Canyon

2009-12-22T20:00:00.000-06:00

We just got back from Big Bend. We heard from some folks from South Dakota that come down every year bearing Christmas gifts for friends in Boquillas that Victor, who lives in Boquillas and sings in the mouth of Boqullas Canyon,was not there this year bacause he had knee surgery. His cousin Jesse was standing in and sounded great. All of us noticed that Jesse was busy trying to patch holes in their canoe between songs. The canoe has seen better days (I bet none of you reading this would set sail in it) and they really could use a canoe that floats and isn't all bent and bashed up.

As most of you know who may read this, it is no longer legal to cross the river to Boquillas, Mexico, which pretty much killed the tourist-based economy of this tiny, isolated Mexican community. These people are having a tough time as a result of the Homeland Security Act. It was compounded by the Rio Grande Flooding of 2008, which left some of them homeless.

I decided that next time I go to Big Bend I want to take a new canoe to Victor and Jesse. I may not be able to take it across the river, but I figure I can wade in with it to midstream and shove it on over to them on the other side without getting any of us in trouble, as far as I know.

So I'm gonna take contributions if anyone wants to help me make this happen. These folks have so little compared to most of us....all we gotta do is get a few of us to skip a night out and pool the money we saved and it will happen. If I don't get any help, I'll just skip more nights out myself this year, but I want to do my good deed for 2010 this way.

If you want to help, email me at:: jcisalwaysATgmailDOTcom (Substitute the appropriate at and dots so I don't get a ton of spam please)
Thanks,
Joe

PS: Please pass the word to anyone else you know who may be interested in helping.

Our Backroads Transportation System

2009-12-22T19:37:00.000-06:00

Ernst Tinaja - Dec 2009

2009-12-22T19:27:00.000-06:00

Fall colors in the Chisos

2009-12-21T14:46:00.001-06:00

Back Side of the Chisos Mtns. (South Rim) From Glen Springs area

2009-12-21T14:44:00.001-06:00

Chapel at Contrabando movie set after 2008 flood damage

2009-12-20T08:08:00.000-06:00

Rio Grande Village Dec 09

2009-12-13T17:34:00.001-06:00

Rio Grande near the Hot Springs

2009-11-29T17:27:00.000-06:00

Terlingua Ghost Town

2009-11-24T22:10:00.000-06:00

Chisos Basin Webcam

2009-11-23T19:09:00.000-06:00

Over there on the left...it never changes - even at night. I'll ask about it when I get down there (soon).

South from near Persimmon Gap (I think)

2009-11-23T19:06:00.001-06:00

Contrabando Set - River Road

2009-11-22T12:39:00.001-06:00

West of Terlingua

2009-11-21T19:01:00.001-06:00

Sierra Del Carmen from Hot Springs Area

2009-11-20T20:45:00.001-06:00

Floating Santa Elena Canyon

2009-11-18T01:00:00.000-06:00

Road into Green Gulch

2009-11-15T17:12:00.001-06:00

My Personal Photos

2009-11-06T19:55:00.001-06:00

My Personal Photos

2009-11-06T19:54:00.000-06:00