November 2022
Last week, I had lunch with some old work friends. Since it was sunny and nice, I took the DR650 to the restaurant. My rear tire is basically gone (knobbies are very low) and I figured why not scrub the rest of the rubber off? After lunch, I decided to continue out of town to an area that has sone public non-paved gravel roads. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was a bit under dressed for the temperature. Unlike my FJR1300, the DR has ZERO wind protection, and I was feeling the chill. None to worry, I just slowed down a bit to reduce the wind chill effect.
It took me about 45 minutes to get there, and upon arrival, I was welcomed by a crowd of …. no one.
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I get concerned about the lack of assistance available, should I have a mechanical breakdown or …. Worse. But on the other hand, I really like the solitude of being off the beaten path. I rode 40-ish miles throughout this area and only saw one vehicle the entire time.
I stopped at the edge of a large crawfish farm, with at least 20 HUGE ponds separated by small levees. The farmer was sitting in his truck eating a late lunch. I shut it down and we exchanged pleasantries. He was a nice man that equally enjoyed being alone for his work day. As crawfish harvesting is still many weeks away, he was just at the farm checking his levees to make sure they are holding water in the ponds. They call that “Riding the Levees” and it’s obviously an important part of the process. Sometimes an animal or erosion can break the levee and it’s important to repair that promptly.
So, seeing an opportunity for both of us, I offered to help.
I asked the farmer if he wouldn’t mind if I rode the levees. I assured him that I would be only Putt Putting around – and would not tear up the ground. I checked my phone and was pleased to see I had a strong data signal. So I told him that I would check the levees I rode for leaks and drop a pin to him if I found any. He actually thanked me for the gesture and we exchanged phone numbers.
This is pretty cool.
That’s a crawfish pond to the right of the levee. As you can see, the levee is not very high (18 inches, maybe). The local marsh and swamp grasses grow there and provide good food and habitat for the crawfish. Standing in the “tunnel”, I was pretty well protected from the cold wind.
I was treading pretty lightly as my rear tire is not at grippy. It’s been dry here lately and it was great fun practicing low speed skills.
I zig zagged all around the farm and checked each of the ponds. No breaks were found.
At one point, I had to check my GPS track to get back to the road, as I got a little turned around. Now getting later in the afternoon, I turned toward home. I came upon the farmer heading back toward his farm and stopped to tell him all levees are in good shape. I’m not sure which one of us was more grateful: he for me taking a little load off, or me for getting permission to ride some cool land.
To get home, I wandered a bit so that I could use some gravel roads. I thought this place was pretty neat. Those white specs in the distance to the right of the road are White Ibis’s. They and their black cousins are down here for the winter.
I stumbled upon this well site that was flaring off some gas. Believe it or not, I could feel small tidbits of heat from the flare, even this far away. I wanted to get closer to warm up, but these peeps take the “no trespassing” thing very seriously.
By the time I got back to the city, it was late afternoon, clouds had rolled in, and I was getting downright chilly. I was actually relieved to be stuck in the afternoon traffic, as it gave me plenty of chance to stop and shake off that north wind.
It was about 95 miles all together. Certainly nothing to special about this ride. You never know unless you go, and so I go – every chance I get. I enjoyed riding the levees that day.
Stay thirsty, my friends……
