Gravel and Power lines on a GS

well this is my first ride report so take it easy on me.

I decided yesterday that i was going to go for a ride and camp out. I wanted all gravel roads, i new right where to go. i grew up in the mountains of central pa, one mile from my old house the road turns to stone and there are miles and miles of state game lands out there (alone I80, west of rt 15.) there where some roads i hadn't gone on, so i thought i would give them a shot. headed out around 6:00pm sunday night. filled up the gas tank and i was off. i had to go about 10 miles out of town, then the road turned to stone. we had gotten a rain shower the other day so things weren't too dusty. very nice gravel, i could easy go 40-50mph. oh i have Tourances on my 05 R1200 GS.

First pic. where pavement ends:

i forgot to take pics for awhile. i didn't want to stop riding, but finaly i made my self stop just long enough to take pic. i went up and over the mountain (i think its Nittany Mountain) i should of taken pics because that was some of the rockier sections to this point in the trip. saw a doe and her fawn. they simply walked across the road in front of me.
nother pic

i saw i few side roads, none really were appealing to me. found some nice wide roads that i was able to hit 80mph on. just for a bit then i had to back down to 55mph because the stone got lose and squirrelly. then i saw i sign that said "dead end 5 miles" that was what i wanted. so i turned down it. very nice ride. i went past 1-2 cabins and some power lines. i stopped to look at them but there where two jeeps that had just started up them so i figured i would go to the end of the road and let the jeeps get a head start. well not much to tell about the end of the road, it just ended at a cabin. so i turned around and snapped this shot.

so i got back to the powerlines and i see these jeeps comeing back down them. still a bit off. so i turned the other way (looked easier and more level). heres a pic

i crested a small hill and this is what i saw:

i heard the jeeps coming closer so i couldn't turn back. i wallked down a small portion and new it was going to be tough. but hey this is what these bikes are made for. so i disabled the ABS and down i went. and i mean down!

PS take the chap stick out of your pocket before riding! hurts like hang when you land on it!

after i got my act together and got to the bottom i snaped this shot looking back up the offending hill.

i sure didn't want to go up what i had just come down, so i look to see what was ahead of me. oh and i let some air out of my tires because i was still running road psi! dumb.

while i got a run at the hill, for the first half i thought to my self "hmmm Kevin you are done, your pour back tire is spinning, large rocks are mashing the bottom of you nice bike, man you are dumb" the whole time i'm leaning this way and that trying to avoid large rocks (think the size of a small desk top computer) all the while riding in loose shale the size of a good 12oz stake. well thankfully the top half started to get nicer, not as steep and less big ass rocks. got to the top turned around and snapped a pic. the arrow is the place a dumped my bike.

took some nice pics of my bike and the nice view. i didn't get a nice pic of the sunset and it was getting dark so it was hard to get some good shots.

i think if i had my TKC's some good dinner, and some more daylight i could of gone on for hours!

well i went down the next part and what da ya know i hit another road! kind of a good thing as it was getting dark and i was really hungry. so i road for a while, saw another deer. headed up a small road that was the least fun of the day. it had a bunch of ripples in it that where spaced horribly, as my front tire would drop in on my back tire would be coming out and vicversa so it had a major bucking effect. i didn't go long till i found a small fire ring, so i decided this was as good as any and i didn't want to keep going up this road/trail. so i built a fire and roasted the four hot dogs i had brought along.

well after turning my bike off i realized that I80 must be just over the hill. it was SOOO loud. truck hitting the rumble strip and such, i figured i wasn't going to get much sleep here so i put out my fire and packed up my trash and away i went. ended up getting home at about 9pm and set my hammock up and went to sleep. end of a fun adventure.

put some good miles on my bike. had a blast. now if i had someone to ride off road with! all my friends have much more street oriented bikes. oh well at least they have bikes!

only thing i didn't like about the bike was everytime i stopped/fell i had to remember to turn the abs off before i turned the bike on! oh well not a big deal.

let me know what you think! maybe i'll do another sometime. or if it was a waste of time to post i'll just spend the time riding!

here is a pic of the damage. some how i got a handful of stones up in my windshield.

Awesome ride, I grew up down by Gettysburg, Lots of cool riding in that area

haha thanks GB! its the closest thing i have to a dirt bike. i had a four wheeler for awhile, i only rode a dirt bike for maybe an hour tops in my life! some day i would like to get a little dirt bike to throw around. but in till then i have my GS!

now about some new LED blinkers.....

You have a set of big brass ones to take that huge bike into the rough stuff of Pennsylvania. Those powerline trails can get gnarly quick.