- Joined
- Feb 26, 2010
- Messages
- 2,126
Myself and 3 of my riding buddies took a trip this weekend from the Philly area up to the northern part of PA to hang out at my hunting cabin and check out the demolition derby at the annual Troy, PA Fair.
The route was one we'd done before, basically take 61 up to 42, over to 154 and then on to the cabin from there. While on 61, we were experiencing heavy traffic, so I set the GPS to a stop on our way (World's End State Park), with a "shortest distance" navigation preference. It calculated and came up with a route, so we got of 61 and hit some really nice roads that turned out to be a nice shortcut overall. Eventually we stopped at World's End for a quick break, and feeling emboldened by the previous GPS success I decided to see what the GPS would come up with for as a route to my cabin from there. It came up with a route that I'd never traveled before, and we decided to see where it would take us. I want to mention that I had the "unpaved roads" avoidance enabled, so I didn't think much at the time about the mass of unpaved roads in that area.
We started off from World's End and sure enough the first leg of the route was paved. After going a few miles, the GPS directed me to turn...onto a dirt road. The entire crew were on road-only bikes, my Tiger maybe being the exception with it's pseudo-enduro heritage, though the 1050 is pretty much a road-only bike. I avoided the first dirt road, and the GPS recalculated and we kept going. In a bit, the next turn was...more dirt. Did I mention it had been randomly thunderstorming that day?
I skipped that turn as well and kept going. After a few more bends and curves again the GPS told me to turn...onto another dirt road. I stopped for a moment and tried to check the route, it was impossible at that point to get a good fix on what was paved or not. Knowing a decent amount of that area (or so I thought), I figured that the dirt roads were probably short connections to the pavement, so I decided to venture down the turn the GPS was telling me. It indicated about 1.2 miles until the next turn.
So we turned off and started on the dirt, which isn't that bad. The whole crew are a pretty seasoned bunch, we've been on dirt before and as long as we took it easy things are usually ok. After the 1.2 mile segment we came to a fork, both roads more dirt. I chose to follow the GPS and kept going. 3.4 miles later another turn...more dirt. "Oh shit" is what I'm thinking at this point since the quality of the dirt seems to keep degrading and getting worse. I follow the GPS's direction and continue on to what it indicates is a 2 mile segment. This road SUCKS. The rock is loose, and now there's mud, it's slick. Stupidly I keep on, in my fully loaded Tiger, with 3 cases and a cooler strapped to the pillion seat. Somewhere after that point two things happened:
1. My rear end slipped out, and somehow I goosed the throttle and sent the bike into a tank slapper. I have no clue how I did it, but somehow I got control back and after pitching back and forth about 4 times I got it back under control. I think it was that point that i realized we should NOT be on that road...EVER.
2. We passed a sign that said, "No winter maintenance" followed by a "Welcome to the State Gamelands" sign. ???
After seeing the sign I called a stop, spun around and rode back an 1/8 mile or so to where we had passed a cabin with a guy in the front yard. I told him "Buddy, I need to get to a paved road." He followed up with, "Well you're not going to find it that way." He told me to turn back and stay to the left and we would hit a paved road in about 3 miles. I thanked him for the info (nice fellow) and rejoined the group, who had shut down their bikes and were taking a breather. We mounted back up and restarted...well, 3 of us did. One of the guy's bike wouldn't start. It's air cooled, and my immediate thought was that it was overheated. We shut everything back down and started waiting. All the while I'm thinking about the rolling thunderstorms, and how if it decides to open up this road we're on is going to trap us, literally. After about a half an hour the final bike decided to start and we started on our way out. As we went back the roads got better again, and following the directions we ended up on a paved road. At that moment two distinct thoughts came to mind:
1. I knew how Ewan and Charlie felt when they finally hit the tarmac.
2. I want a bike that can handle dirt roads better. One guess at what came to mind...
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I told the boys I wouldn't charge them extra for the dirt portion of the tour since they didn't seem to enjoy it. >
The moral here is twofold:
1. Don't trust the GPS, know your route
2. Don't screw with dirt roads when you don't have the right equipment.
With all this said, my urge to hit the dirt is greater than ever. Maybe I'm too adventurous, maybe a bit stupid, but something makes me want to show that gameland road who's boss.
The route was one we'd done before, basically take 61 up to 42, over to 154 and then on to the cabin from there. While on 61, we were experiencing heavy traffic, so I set the GPS to a stop on our way (World's End State Park), with a "shortest distance" navigation preference. It calculated and came up with a route, so we got of 61 and hit some really nice roads that turned out to be a nice shortcut overall. Eventually we stopped at World's End for a quick break, and feeling emboldened by the previous GPS success I decided to see what the GPS would come up with for as a route to my cabin from there. It came up with a route that I'd never traveled before, and we decided to see where it would take us. I want to mention that I had the "unpaved roads" avoidance enabled, so I didn't think much at the time about the mass of unpaved roads in that area.
We started off from World's End and sure enough the first leg of the route was paved. After going a few miles, the GPS directed me to turn...onto a dirt road. The entire crew were on road-only bikes, my Tiger maybe being the exception with it's pseudo-enduro heritage, though the 1050 is pretty much a road-only bike. I avoided the first dirt road, and the GPS recalculated and we kept going. In a bit, the next turn was...more dirt. Did I mention it had been randomly thunderstorming that day?
I skipped that turn as well and kept going. After a few more bends and curves again the GPS told me to turn...onto another dirt road. I stopped for a moment and tried to check the route, it was impossible at that point to get a good fix on what was paved or not. Knowing a decent amount of that area (or so I thought), I figured that the dirt roads were probably short connections to the pavement, so I decided to venture down the turn the GPS was telling me. It indicated about 1.2 miles until the next turn. So we turned off and started on the dirt, which isn't that bad. The whole crew are a pretty seasoned bunch, we've been on dirt before and as long as we took it easy things are usually ok. After the 1.2 mile segment we came to a fork, both roads more dirt. I chose to follow the GPS and kept going. 3.4 miles later another turn...more dirt. "Oh shit" is what I'm thinking at this point since the quality of the dirt seems to keep degrading and getting worse. I follow the GPS's direction and continue on to what it indicates is a 2 mile segment. This road SUCKS. The rock is loose, and now there's mud, it's slick. Stupidly I keep on, in my fully loaded Tiger, with 3 cases and a cooler strapped to the pillion seat. Somewhere after that point two things happened:
1. My rear end slipped out, and somehow I goosed the throttle and sent the bike into a tank slapper. I have no clue how I did it, but somehow I got control back and after pitching back and forth about 4 times I got it back under control. I think it was that point that i realized we should NOT be on that road...EVER.
2. We passed a sign that said, "No winter maintenance" followed by a "Welcome to the State Gamelands" sign. ???
After seeing the sign I called a stop, spun around and rode back an 1/8 mile or so to where we had passed a cabin with a guy in the front yard. I told him "Buddy, I need to get to a paved road." He followed up with, "Well you're not going to find it that way."
He told me to turn back and stay to the left and we would hit a paved road in about 3 miles. I thanked him for the info (nice fellow) and rejoined the group, who had shut down their bikes and were taking a breather. We mounted back up and restarted...well, 3 of us did. One of the guy's bike wouldn't start. It's air cooled, and my immediate thought was that it was overheated. We shut everything back down and started waiting. All the while I'm thinking about the rolling thunderstorms, and how if it decides to open up this road we're on is going to trap us, literally. After about a half an hour the final bike decided to start and we started on our way out. As we went back the roads got better again, and following the directions we ended up on a paved road. At that moment two distinct thoughts came to mind:1. I knew how Ewan and Charlie felt when they finally hit the tarmac.
2. I want a bike that can handle dirt roads better. One guess at what came to mind...
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. I told the boys I wouldn't charge them extra for the dirt portion of the tour since they didn't seem to enjoy it. >
The moral here is twofold:
1. Don't trust the GPS, know your route
2. Don't screw with dirt roads when you don't have the right equipment.
With all this said, my urge to hit the dirt is greater than ever. Maybe I'm too adventurous, maybe a bit stupid, but something makes me want to show that gameland road who's boss.
