3 days, 1070 miles motocamping in the ozarks

[tejkowskit]

update videos added; see post in page 2

Thursday morning I got off a boring 24 hour shift at work and decided I wanted to go for a ride. Originally it was going to be to West Virginia, but the forecast for the area changed my mind quick. I decided on riding to Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri's northeastern Ozarks.

Packed everything up and headed out by 0900 Thursday morning. I decided to just take super slab the way down since IL offers no scenery even on back roads-get me the hell outta this state!
day 1 (5\15\14) home to Mark Twain NF; 370 miles

Left home in a cold rain

SELFIE! Yikes that a lot o high viz!

It wasn't long until I was southeast enough to get past the rain. Starting to clear up. Soak in that beautiful scenery! *barf*

Springfield was a good half way point and came just in time for me to need fuel. Besides I've never been!

Crossing the mighty mississip. Missouri is a new state for the fz.

Once past St. Louis I kept seeing dark clouds ahead. It was really spotty rain. I would dodge one, but another would come out of nowhere and soak me!


Onward. Finally some topography once past STL!

 

[tejkowskit]

Decided to get off state hwy 21 for a short while. Followed some signs to this state scenic site or whatever.. Covered bridge


Rode on the rest of the way and made it to camp with plenty of time to set up with sunlight.

All the necesseties one needs to camp! :iconbeer: (cheap red wine is my moto camping beverage of choice since I don't have space to keep beer cold)


Day 2 (5\16\14) winding through the Ozarks 284 miles



The roads in the area are great! Road surface is very smooth with few imperfections and the curves are very predictable. Mostly fast sweeping curves with an abundance of rolling hills; some sections with tighter curves and quick switchbacks. The roads bring you through dense forest and then open right up offering nice views of the hills. Also, I didn't see one LEO all day :thumbup: ! I planned on uploading some videos, but used a different resolution and frame rate on the gopro and now when I try to edit my tablet says 'unsupported media type'. Sorry, videos to come later!

Used this shot for the riding game challenge!


I had to ride some gravel! (Yeah I like panoramas, get over it)


Here's some screen shots of some video since I can't figure out editing atm.




Hazmat spill. Placard read 3077; Environmentally hazardous substance, solid, n.o.s. (not including waste)

 

[tejkowskit]

All the roads flowed extremely well. One could easily double the advisory speed limits. I never felt like the road was going to surprise me. Was very predictable.

My dinner for the night garlic shells, peas & carrots, wine.


even had time to sit around a camp fire tonight

 

[oaks]

:thumbup: Cool. I love reading ride reports. Thanks for taking the time to share.

You were smart not to head East on Thursday/Friday. It was like a mini hurricane with strong winds, 4 inches rain, flash flooding.

 

[tejkowskit]

Day 3 (5\17\14) Mark Twain NF to home. 416 miles

I rode some of the roads from the previous day before hitting the express way. Didn't take many pictures or videos today. Pretty much the same as day 1 except I rode through down town STL.


End mileage 1070

The trip was a great get away. It's nice to go solo once on a while where I can do everything at my pace. It's the perfect distance for a 3 day weekend. I'm sure I'll be back. Maybe I'll make it 4 days and ride down into Arkansas to add another state onto the bike!

Thanks for reading

 

[tejkowskit]

:thumbup: Cool. I love reading ride reports. Thanks for taking the time to share.

You were smart not to head East on Thursday/Friday. It was like a mini hurricane with strong winds, 4 inches rain, flash flooding.

Yeah I would have been miserable! We got hit with a lot of rain in Chicago, too, but it all moved toward you guys on the east coast. Then on top of that, the east coast got hit with rain from the tropical storm! I'll save for next time though.

 

[tejkowskit]

Does anyone else utilize this prime real estate between the dash and windscreen? I usually only do on longer rides to keep snacks for munching when I'm doing lots of miles on express ways. This time my snacks were in a plastic bag to keep them dry-non accessible as I didn't wanna fiddle with a bag while riding.

On my way home I kept a bag of turkey jerky in there to have a piece when I got hungry.

 

[Water Bear]

Awesome write up!

One question: Does that laminar lip work well? I've been doing bookoo freeway riding and the bike is pretty comfortable now with the exception of the wind in my face. My neck tends to wear out before everything else.

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Good god, you nearly blinded me with your high vis gear! I think I saw you from Idaho. LOL on the prime real estate. Never thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing. Warm up ride for the trip out west huh?

 

[tejkowskit]

Awesome write up!

One question: Does that laminar lip work well? I've been doing bookoo freeway riding and the bike is pretty comfortable now with the exception of the wind in my face. My neck tends to wear out before everything else.

Let me get back to you. I put it on at the end of last riding season so I never got a good feel of the difference vs stock. Now that I have a few thousand miles on it I'll put the stock screen back on and pm you with my findings tomorrow.

Good god, you nearly blinded me with your high vis gear! I think I saw you from Idaho. LOL on the prime real estate. Never thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing. Warm up ride for the trip out west huh?

Hahaha ya I like the high viz! I've always worn PPE, but my attitude toward gear changed once I witnessed some sights associated with being a paramedic. I love motorcycling too much to give it up, but I take every precaution to lessen my chance of being like the patients I've had (while still having fun on the bike, of course).

Ya I'm getting warmed up for the long trip. Making sure all my gear is worked out, I have my methods tested, and kinks sorted. A lot of what I'm trying to accomplish is shedding weight and really dropping things I don't need. Setting up camp and tearing down quick is also something I've been practicing. Last month was a 3 day tour in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. I'll be doing that again in 2 weeks but for 4 days. Who knows what June will bring, but by mid July I'll be ready to go! The 370 miles Thursday and 416 miles I did today were a breeze with only 1 stop, and my longest days for the trip out west aren't much more than that.

 

[FinalImpact]

^^^^^ AWESOME!!!! ^^^^ and thanks for sharing! Through you and others we get to see the world! I appreciate that very much!

Great job and I'll admit, its more than I care to do on mine. It'd beat me to death!

I'm Impressed! looking forward to your next adventure! :thumbup:
Be safe!

 

[motojoe122]

Thanks for sharing!
That hi viz really pops on over cast days.

 

[nthdegreeburns]

Awesome read. Thanks for posting and taking great pics.

Curious about the pics -- all from the go pro WHILE riding or did you capture stills from the video later? Wasn't sure if go pro had a still shot button you could reach with your glove or not.

 

[tejkowskit]

Awesome read. Thanks for posting and taking great pics.

Curious about the pics -- all from the go pro WHILE riding or did you capture stills from the video later? Wasn't sure if go pro had a still shot button you could reach with your glove or not.

Thanks!

Some pictures were taken by my phone. Some are screen shots from gopro video with camera mounted on my helmet. Some are screen shots of gopro video of me holding the camera. lol

For the ones where it isn't helmet mounted -- I kept the gopro easily accessible, and the setting on where once the camera is turned on it automatically begins recording - If I saw something I wanted to get a picture of I would get a short video clip of it, and take a screen shot from the video clip later on. I find this easier/safer than trying to focus on a digital camera screen to get my shot.

 

[mxgolf]

Awesome ride report. Thanks for the great photos and report. :thumbup:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

If you really want to minimize carrying gear, you can always stay in hotels and eat out versus camping. But your cost will go up. Some places will offer pretty decent breakfast. I usually don't eat breakfast but force myself to do so considering I know I will need the energy to continue riding since I usually have spaced my rides so far apart. Nothing better than getting in a nice hot Jacuzzi after being on the saddle for 12-15 hours. By chance if you make it to Idaho or if we ever hook up out on your trip out west, you're more than welcome to camp inside my place or in my hotel room.

 

[tejkowskit]

If you really want to minimize carrying gear, you can always stay in hotels and eat out versus camping. But your cost will go up. Some places will offer pretty decent breakfast. I usually don't eat breakfast but force myself to do so considering I know I will need the energy to continue riding since I usually have spaced my rides so far apart. Nothing better than getting in a nice hot Jacuzzi after being on the saddle for 12-15 hours. By chance if you make it to Idaho or if we ever hook up out on your trip out west, you're more than welcome to camp inside my place or in my hotel room.

I am planning on eating out quite a bit. No way I can eat camp food for 2 weeks!

And I might get a hotel one or two nights during the trip somewhere in the middle or if I run into inclement weather. Trying to spend a majority of it camping. Keep cost down and I simply enjoy camping.

Thanks for the offer! If I decide to head far enough west into Idaho to make it to Boise I'll send you a message.

 

[tejkowskit]

HEres's the videos! Technical difficulties were the cause for delay & poor image quality. Sorry :don'tknow:

First up, my short ride on the gravel road!
[youtubevid]Of5opqZovPI[/youtubevid]

Secondly a mix of the roads. Fast sweepers! Nothing exciting. I'll admit I was riding that double yellow fairly close and even crossed it twice. :spank: Usually I'll correct myself and not ride so close, but I was able to see far around the curves, and wasn't going so fast that I wouldnt have easily been able to move over well in advance if need be
[youtubevid]F0dHjCIgaq4[/youtubevid]

 

[long101]

Looks like a great ride. Did you have an actual tent, or was that canopy all you used?

 

[tejkowskit]

Looks like a great ride. Did you have an actual tent, or was that canopy all you used?

Thanks!

Its a silnylon tarp over a hammock. The sleeping bag is around the hammock like a cacoon. Once mosquito's become an issue I'll put a bug net around the setup, and eventually ditch the sleeping bag once it warms up. Everything but the sleeping bag I made. My knife seen on the picnic table in one of the photos I even made Blah

Here's more close ups.