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9 days out west

Something weird is going on with my attachments....probably my fault!!!
I tried to edit the pictures I attached in post #11. They never changed with my editing on the laptop. Looking at this thread on my phone shows all 18 of them gone, but they're still there on the laptop...so I'll repost some of them here and hopefully it won't be a double posting of the pics.

Pinto Canyon.

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Day 4:

Today we were leaving Texas and heading north to New Mexico. We took Hwy 17 out of Ft Davis to Pecos. The section of this road south of I-10 was fabulous with sweepers through mountains...a great way to start the day! North of I-10 it became less scenic. In fact it became ugly. In Pecos we picked up Hwy 285 and were heading to Carlsbad, NM. There was a strong headwind, it was flat, smelled of sulphur from the wells and the big trucks were aggressive. I found a little road (720) that went west and connected us to Hwy 62. Hwy 62 is the road we wanted to leave Carlsbad on the next day. Anyway, just before turning on 720 I went down to the last bar on the fuel gauge. I knew it would be close on fuel to make it to Carlsbad and could have topped off in Pecos, but I was carrying 2 fuel bottles and wasn't concerned. Well about 10 miles down 720 my bike hiccupped...then hiccupped again. I knew what was happening and told Lynn via our intercom that I was running outta gas. About the time he asked if I was serious, I was pulling off the road and the bike died. In over 40 years of riding this was the first time I had run out of gas. It took about 5 minutes to put both bottles in the tank. The bike started right up! Ten miles further up the road and we were in the outskirts of Carlsbad. We snagged a room, unloaded the bikes, gassed up and ate dinner. Tomorrow was highly anticipated...we would ride New Mexico's backroads!!!!
 
Day 5:

After breakfast we were heading for Dog Canyon and the start of our offroad adventure in NM. We took Hildago Road to 408 and then to Hwy 137 (Queen's Hwy). This was very scenic skirting around and through the north and west sides of the Guadalupe Mountains. The weather cool and cloudy but felt great! After about an hour we reached Dog Canyon Campground. Originally we wanted to camp here last night, but I wussed out and asked Lynn if we could motel it...I didn't hafta twist his arm very hard!

The campground is about a mile back across the state line in Texas. Here's a pic

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Nice fall colors and the clouds cleared for us. It woulda been a great place to camp. Very isolated and no one was there except the park ranger. We talked to him about the unpaved roads we were about to ride. He didn't know much about them except that it was kinda rough and he's had 3 flat tires in his F350...WTF!!!
 
I'm gonna backtrack just a bit here. While searching for the Dog Canyon pic I came across these from the Observatory in the Davis Mountains. Sorry I'm jumping around like this!
At the end of this report I will post a youtube link to a slideshow for the whole trip. For those of you that can't wait, and I understand the anticipation is hard to subdue, you can go to my channel anytime to view the slideshow and other vids not yet posted here! My channel is crsssss

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Day 5 continued:

When we were deciding where to go instead of the TAT, I checked out the NMBDR (New Mexico Backroad Discovery Route). The route for this is still in the making. In fact, I think a team was riding this route and documenting at as we rode it too. I found a little info with some pics on the facebook page for the NMBDR. We had the Butler Map for New Mexico and this was instrumental in routing this ride. The NMBDR officially starts in Dell City, Texas. Well, that is an armpit of a town with literally nothing around there...so we started the backroads a couple of miles north of Dog Canyon. The road we turned on off Hwy137 was Dell City Road!!!
It started off kinda rough...much like Pinto Canyon with larger rocks filling in the washed out sections. But there was little washboard and some pretty smooth sections. I forgot to mention that I think it was on Old Maverick Rd in Big Bend we termed a new word...crawford sand. Crawford is the last name of one of our riding buddies. Crawford sand is shallow sand with a few small pebbles in it. It's pretty smooth and not deep enough to give our 17" front tires any trouble whatsoever. We love crawford sand and celebrated every time we rode it!!! Dell City Rd, in between the rough sections, had some smooth areas and some crawford sand! The road changed names and numbers quite a few times and at one point we took a road off our route just because it looked smoother. This turned out to be the best decision EVER!!! This road was hard packed sand with no rocks and even a little two track. We were following an unusual fence line. Lynn started getting a high pitched interference through his intercom...mine didn't experience it, but he said it was very annoying. We figured we were in Area 51 or something!!! Whatever area it was, it was the best riding of the entire trip! There were ruts from truck traffic, but they were ez to ride in and the sand was firm.
Here's some pics and a link to a video:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNuNgp2RwFs
 
Eventually we connected with 506 and rode it to a paved road (Hwy 24). Hwy 24 was magnificent! Sweepers through the mountains and Lincoln Forest to Mayhill...our destination outside the Cloudcroft area. What a way to end a great day of riding. We snagged a cabin for the night and had a fantastic green chile burger for dinner. Life is good!

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The place doesn't look like much from the outside, but the interior is pretty neat. The table we sat at was a wagon wheel that still spun. He also had a table made from two mission doors and the decor on the walls was pictures, clothing and artifacts from the owner's life. The clothing was mostly outfits his wife wore when she rode horses in competition (mostly barrel racing). He, we think his name was Vernon, was also involved with rodeos and rode bulls and broncos. He was also a much decorated rodeo photographer. I think Vernon was about 80 years old and quite interesting to talk to. It's a slow time for tourists around Cloudcroft right now and I think he really enjoyed our company. It was just him running the place, so before and after cooking for us he'd hang around our table and chat. He uses only the finest beef and freshest ingredients and the flavor is most excellent.
 
This might be a good time to talk about gear. I wore a Honda textile jacket and Olympia textile pants along with my lightweight hiking boots. I had a heated jacket liner and gloves, that I never used, and also lightweight goatskin gloves and medium weight deerskin gauntlet gloves. We both wear the Schuberth modular helmet with Schuberth intercom system. We got the intercoms about a year or so ago and absolutely love them and the hemet. Being able to communicate with other than hand signals is awesome and most days we talk all day long about the scenery, road hazards, wives...you get the picture!!! They really come in handy to negotiate cars passing us or vice versa. We each had wickwear for upper and lower underwear and lightweight socks. We could wash these items in a sink and they would dry overnight...really saves room in the saddlebags. We also both had small waterproof rolltop bags that were strapped to the top of the panniers. For me, one held lightweight top and bottom Olympia liners for when it was chilly and the other had my slicker. These items were easily accessible and didn't take up space in the panniers. BTW the slicker was never used...we hit a little rain on day 1, but were blessed with awesome weather. I'm running with Wolfman Expedition Dry Saddlebags mounted to SW Motech quick release racks. These bags are a little small, but worked well and didn't shift a single time. In the left bag was all my clothing, toiletries and cords for charging gadgets. In the right bag were my tools, air compressor and heated gear with controller. Strapped to the outside of the panniers were 4 holsters. I carried 2 fuel bottles and two 1 litre water bottles. On top of HONDABIKEPRO's rear seat plate was a medium sized Wolfman wp gear bag. It contained all the camping gear. On top of this bag was a net that was for securing items like a longsleeve shirt when removing layers. In the frunk was my pistola, another water bottle, snack food, whatever gloves I wasn't wearing, cases for gps and cameras, a first aid kit, sunscreen, chapstick, and most important...toilet paper!!! I also carried in there a buff and fleece neck turtle. I never used the fleece, but the buff always gets heavy usage. It's a light layer for warmth or when needing extra sun or wind protection. My bike has the Shinko 705's, Hepco Becker crashbars, R&G radiator guard, SW Motech footpegs, stock windshield, Puig rear hugger and a SW Motech skidplate. I've also got the OEM heated grips....which got used a lot! On the bars I have the Ram X mount for phone and a hardwired Garmin 600 GPS. I create custom routes and tracks for each days ride. The bikes and gear performed flawlessly!!!

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Day 6:

It got pretty chilly that night. We woke up to frost on the bikes. We'd been following the weather forecast and it showed windy and very cold conditions for the next two days. We had planned on riding the Cloudcroft area another day and then the following day riding more offroad north to the Corona area. The Butler Map showed plenty of highly rated roads...both paved and unpaved. Well, the weather changed our plans. We decided to ride some of the roads around Cloudcroft and then turn tail and head south!
We had a fantastic breakfast cooked by our buddy Vernon at the Red Barn. Then we backtracked on Hwy 24 to Pinon where we got back on unpaved roads. Hwy 24 was once again awesome and with cool air and sunny skies we were pretty much in heaven.
The unpaved road out of Pinon was nice...a little rough here and there, but very scenic and interesting. It was at this memorable rest stop

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that nature called. I don't know if it was the green chile burger or the breakfast, but something went wrong. I had to grab some tp and head for the bushes. This was the second time in my life that I have done this in the wild...I'm very surprised that I didn't get some on me! Fact is, that poor little plant that I coated is by now either dead or 10' tall and thriving!!! Ok, let's continue without any more toilet humor! lol

The unpaved road followed a river and eventuall turned paved. I believe it was called Sunspot Hwy at this point. What a fantastic road! We hit a 9500' elevation along this road and stopped at this overlook. It looks like clouds near the bottom on the left, but this is actually whites sands to the SW of Cloudcroft.

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One pic is from Lynn's phone and one is from mine...I'm pretty sure mine is the prettier of the two!!! hehehe

Onward we go. The Sunspot Hwy connects with Hwy 82 and runs through the town of Cloudcroft. Nothing amazing in town, but 82 is a great hwy and we passed right by the ski area and chairlifts. We made it to Mayhill and had pie with coffee at the Mayhill Cafe. nom nom nom
We then continued on 82 to Artesia where we turned south on Hwy 285. Both 82 and this part of 285 are very nice roads. We pull in to Carlsbad just before dusk and grab a room at the same place we had stayed a few nights before. It was another epic day!

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Day 7:

We finally got to eat at the Pecos River Cafe in Carlsbad. They were closed when we were here a few days before, but it was worth the wait. The place was packed and with good reason. Probably our best breakfast of the trip!!!
We weren't really looking forward to taking 285 south to Pecos again, so we found a less traveled and much to our surprise a pretty scenic alternative. We hit some pretty thick fog about halfway to Ft Stockton. it was pretty eerie and beautiful at the same time. As we got closer to Ft Stockton we started seeing all the wind generators on the surrounding plateaus. Very cool!
We hopped on I-10 here and our next stop was our favorite cafe in Ozona. After pie and coffee we hit the interstate again and took it all the way to just west of Junction. It was here that we jumped off the super slab and took a little river road into town and secured a room.
Normally we don't eat Mexican food or Barbecue outside of Texas, so we were overdue for both. Junction has a good place for each and we decided on the BBQ. it was delish and Lynn met a lady there that shared his birthday...which was the next day. I think she was gonna be 76 and she was a hoot...full of life. Here's Ida with Lynn

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Another very nice day in the books. Even the interstate was ok. That part of I-10 has a high speed limit with nice hills and vistas.
 
Searsboy, thanks for posting this. I sure enjoyed this trip so I thought I would add a few comments "from they guy on the 500x". Those of you that ride to Big Bend from Houston or San Antonio,taking 349 and 2400 south from Sheffield is a great way to break up the long stretches on I-10 or Hwy 90. I think this was our first 600 mile day on the "small" bikes. I will give the 500x a solid A as a mount for a long day.
 
I see that I posted my comments on Day 1 on Page 4, oops. This was my third trip down Pinto Canyon Road. Broke my leg on the first trip, but that's another long story. The northern sections were much rougher this time than when Searsboy and I rode it about two years ago. I was VERY impressed how the 500xwith stock suspension and 41 psi in the stock street tires handled the rough stuff fully loaded. It was the rider that was subpar.
 
Is the CB500 able to hold highway speeds. I really like that bike.

Yes, it is extremely capable at hwy speeds with plenty of power left for passing, even in 6th gear. I was very pleased that I felt as good after our 600 mile Day 1 as I normally feel on the numerous larger and heavier bikes that I have owned. I am downsizing from a R1200 GS and that one is for sale. Keeping the 500x.
 
The 500 did great. Lynn said it was very good on the highway, in the twisties and in the dirt! Kinda sounds like the NC!!!! We did a roll-on once from about 40 to 90mph. The bikes were pretty evenly matched with the NC getting the win! Lynn also has a BMW R1200GS. He was thinking about selling it, but wasn't sure about the 500X. After this 2500 mile adventure he's a believer and will definitely sell the GS! He's leading in some of the videos and you can see how smooth the little Honda is.

Your memory is TERRIBLE I won the roll on, and I get better gas mileage.
 
Day 5,was absolutely AWSOME I was nervous because we had no idea what we were getting into. We may get 50 miles down a dirt road and run into very difficult stuff that this old man has no business attempting, but it turned out just the opposite. It kept getting better and better and better. I gave the 500x an A++ on Day 5. That's the dat I knew for sure I am keeping it.
 
My gear (500x guy) that's the pretty white bike.

I was wearing mesh jacket and pants the entire time. On cooler mornings I wore the pants liners outside the pants to cut the wind. Works great. Searsboy taught me that, and many other things, some actually good. Unlike Rambo, I did use my heated liner and gloves several times but only plugged in for a few hours. I do not have heated grips. When wearing the heated liner under the mesh I wear an insulated Olympia liner over the heated liner. Yes, I can still bend my elbows, thank you. After breaking my let on a fall a few years back, I like to wear my heavy BMW off-road boots when we do gravel and they are fully waterproof. I took one pair of jeans and two cotton Ts to be able to shed the riding clothes for evening dinners. Base layers were the wash overnight stuff that fits tight and keeps things in place while bouncing over the rocks.

Everything, except the camping gear that Searsboy wouldn't let me use, fit in my Ortlieb Moto Speed bags. I also give them an A+. The exhaust on thr 500x comes up pretty high and these were the only waterproof ones I could find that fit well.

https://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/p/1033/36410/Ortlieb-Moto-Saddle-Bags

As I mentioned above the bike suspension and tires are stock and I never aired down. I have added engine guards, they work great but don't ask how I know, handguards, radiator guard, rear tire hugger, center stand and skid plate. If any 500x folks want more detail on model #s etc I will provide.
 
Day 6 rocked, except waiting for Searsboy to take a dump in the woods. The entire day we had beautiful scenery and the roads, both paved and unpaved, were more A+++. I wana go back, soon.
 
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