We live to tell the tale!
I didn't take very many photos. You can see the best ones I took in my Picasa album:
https://picasaweb.google.com/wolf.troy/GladeTopTrail#
We had 4 riders. Reddof (F800GS), Dave Mac (KLR), Jasoomian (Weestrom), and myself (F800GS). I was breaking in my brand new F800GS. You are supposed to keep it under 5K RPM for 600 miles, then return to dealer for the first service. I now have 650 miles--mission accomplished.
This report is not about the F800GS, but....I LOVE THIS MACHINE! Wow.
Including about an hour dinner stop, we took 5.5 hours to get from KC to Bolivar, MO to our Super 8. The dinner stop was a highlight of the trip! In fact, this place is worth making a ride to. The BBQ was great and it was just quirky enough to be fun and interesting. The folks were nice.
http://www.toadsuckgrill.com/
I misread my route, thought it was a dead-end, and tried this road as a work-around. It didn't work out!
We found a great road (no photos) that deteriorated into a rugged 2 track with a muddy creek crossing at bottom. We figured the road would not go through, but then it opened back up and we came out the other side---a gem!
Jasoomian rode up from Tulsa and beat us to the Bolivar Super 8 and was sitting outside as we rolled in after 9 PM. Off to bed--kickstands up 7:00 AM.
We enjoyed great twisty backroads with a decent amount of gravel winding our way down to Ava. Along the way, we came across Kindalls Store. It's a great place to stop and get a drink or a fresh cinnamon roll. The guy who runs the place is the honorary Mayor.
A sign outside read "Castle Tours 417-241-2321". I asked the Mayor about it, and he told us how to get a glimpse of the castle if the gate was closed. It was impressive looking--more so than the photos on their website. He said they are considering running a bed & breakfast in it. Right now, it is used for events like weddings, proms, etc.
http://www.charmingcastle.com
We came across a bridge under construction and found a nice gravel detour.
We gassed up in Ava, and just S of Ava, we started the Glade Top Trail Scenic Byway.
I think all 4 of us agreed that the Glade Top Trail was kind of not worth it. As a "Scenic Byway", it gets a lot of traffic, and is therefore, "maintained". This means it has been graded wide and they keep lots of fresh gravel on it. It was kind of tedious riding. It is a scenic road, but not any more than a lot of roads in the area. Also, it has come to my attention that the more interesting roads run in the valleys along and through the rivers. In general, the roads along the ridge tops are not as interesting, although they do provide some great vistas.
We did see several side roads that looked really interesting. Some of them were marked as "roads" while others looked like 2 tracks of questionable legality. I led our 4 down one labeled "Short Hollow Road". It was a Jeep road at best. You'd need a good 4x4 with ground clearance to drive it. We only made it about 1 mile down when reddof exclaimed "OH CRAP!". Going over one of the many 6" (or so) rock ledges, he banged his skid plate....which pushed back into his engine and poked a hole draining his oil!
We tried towing it back up, but had to give up. We pushed it 1,000 feet or so, but had to stop for a breather in the 96 degree heat. Reddof checked his dipstick--it showed a little oil. So he rode it out! Once back up the mile to Glade Top Trail road, he rode it about 5 miles down to Hwy 125. We figured that would make a good rescue point. He watched the temperature gauge and the warning lights and listened to the engine--no issues.
At Hwy 125, as planned, Dave split off to go see his wife at Tablerock Lake. There wasn't anything else he could do to help out really, so we said goodbye.
We pulled the skid plate, laid the F800 on the right side so the oil would stop leaking, scratched the area around the hole with a pocket knife to give the epoxy something to hold onto, cleaned it with gas, and filled with epoxy. We let it cure 5 to 10 minutes, and filled it up. Where did we get oil and epoxy? Jasoomian rode some 60 miles round trip to get oil at a convenience store. They did not have any epoxy, but a local was willing to give us some from his house! So jasoomian followed the guy up the gravel road to his house!
The epoxy held all the way home! We rode to Forsyth where we ate at Fat Daddy's BBQ -- we were VERY hungry and thirsty as we'd missed lunch. Checking the bike after dinner--no oil on the ground! Jasoomian turned S to make his own way back to Tulsa. Reddof and I rode Hwy 125 and others back up to Bolivar where we again stayed at the Super 8. Kickstands up at 6 AM got me home by 8:30 Sun morning. There was not any oil leaking from reddof's F800, and it seems no worse for the wear.
Things we've learned:
- It is very easy to poke a hole in your F800GS engine because of the skid plate design.
- The Glade Top Trail itself is not really worth riding down there to see. However, there are some great roads to ride, and the highways are phenominal. 160 and 125 are both twisty monsters!
- Try to eat at ToadSuck Grill & BBQ!
