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2012 Winter Bald Eagle Ride
Dates are tentative depending on the weather

Martin Luther King Weekend
January 13-16, 2012

Eddie (ajayhawkfan) is our ride leader on this rather stupid ride idea. I mean, WHO wants to ride multiple days in freezing weather?! I joined Eddie for the 2010 and 2011 rides, and ended both with good memories! So man up and ride!

ajayhawkfan wrote:If possible I would like to leave on Friday around noon. We would blacktop it to the river on Friday. Ride along the river Sat and Sun and then take the scenic way back on Monday.

This ride is more suited for larger dualsport/adventure bikes. There will be many miles and gravel in our travel. Heated gear is very highly recommended. Cost will be whatever you spend on gas, food, and your motel rooms.

Read about the 2011 Bald Eagle Ride

Tentative plans:
Leave around 1:00 on Friday. Black top to the Mississippi River.
Ride alphabet highways and gravel around the river Saturday and Sunday.
Monday head back to KC on alphabet highways and gravel.

Why tentative plans only? Because the last two years I made plans and routes and weather changed them all.

How many riders so far are going then?
Any space for a couple more?
KLR650 and KL250sherpa

perhaps a K1200GT too ...

Rider-Lio wrote:How many riders so far are going then?
Any space for a couple more?
KLR650 and KL250sherpa

perhaps a K1200GT too ...

Because of weather no one has committed 100% so I think we have between 2 and 5.

There is space for more.

Keep in mind, there will be highway miles getting to the Mississippi River on Friday. How will the Sherpa handle 250 miles of highway blacktop? Also once we get to the river there will be a lot of gravel and dirt roads. I don't think anyone wants to do those types of roads on a K Bike.

You may want to consider reading about past Eagle Rides here: http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=986

For those thinking about joining this ride here are a few things to consider. All of this has been mentioned before on the earlier thread but I think if needs to be condensed here.

The ride is to view bald eagles and ride along the Mississippi River north of St. Louis. However, because of weather, the previous two "Eagle Rides" did not go as planned. The first ride we made it to the Mississippi River but because of fog we could not see so we headed towards Hermann, MO. Last years attempt did not even get to the river. There was snow and ice all over northern MO so we headed south. In other words, the goal is to go to the the Mississippi River however be prepared to go anywhere.

This ride is for dual sport bikes. We will take blacktop across the state on Friday. (I'm tentatively thinking of either Hannibal, Louisiana or Grafton, IL.) On Sat, Sun and Monday we will be on a mix of gravel and alphabet highways.

We will leave at 1:00 on Friday. Please be gassed up and ready to go at that time. Where we meet will determined based upon where the riders are coming.

Home sometime Monday afternoon to late afternoon.

At night, I will be getting my own room. If you want to share a room with someone you will need to work that out.

I hope the above does not scare anyone off however I do want people to know kind of what was in store on the ride.

As I mentioned, the last two rides did not go off exactingly as planned however, the rides were very enjoyable adventures.

If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Eddie

Thanks for the overview, Eddie. To echo Eddie, this is part of what "adventure" riding is about. Whether the ride goes according to plan or not, it will be an adventure, so be ready to go with the flow. However, IF we don't get frozen out of going, there are some things we know with some certainty. For example, there most likely will be a lot of miles involved--like 1,000+ miles between Fri afternoon and Mon afternoon. There almost certainly will be a lot of highway miles at highway speeds getting across Missouri. We generally avoid Interstates, but there may be a few miles on Interstate even--no guarantees. There will be many miles of gravel roads.



Unlike Eddie, my favorite part of these rides is sharing motel rooms with strange men I met on the Internet. Who's ready to bunk?

troy wrote: Unlike Eddie, my favorite part of these rides is sharing motel rooms with strange men I met on the Internet. Who's ready to bunk?

Anyone wondering now why I like to room alone?

I'm bringing my leather "riding" chaps.

troy wrote:I'm bringing my leather "riding" chaps.

You forgot to mention the color: pink.
Not that I have any personal recollection of that.

Headed out this last Thur for a 60 mile jaunt after work. One Baldy graced me with his presents. He made a loop around a wheat field right next to the road. At one time he was right above me about 40 ft high. So beautiful. I watched till he was out of site, said thankyou to whom every and road on. It was very cool.

Hayden.

This past friday on hiway 15 at the Ks., Ok. state line I saw a really large Bald Eagle in a pasture among a herd of cattle. Just setting on the ground but magnificent never the less. I immeditatly thought of the planned Bald Eagle ride coming up. I also saw 9 deer and 3 coyote that morning.

I would really like to be in on this ride. However, if I had any thought that I could keep up with either Troy or Eddie I would be fooling myself. Best of luck and have a safe ride. (Looking forward to some great photos and ride reports.)

Aside, there are alot of great opportunities to view the bald eagle migration in our area. In my work with the railroad I run north (west) along the west side of the Mo. river to Atchison and return east through Topeka to K.C. on the north side of the Kaw river. River road between Leavenworth and Atchison is open and in good condition and offers some good viewing points. On the Kaw river, best spots seem to be around the Deleware river at Perry or in the area of Linwood and Desoto.

Phil, I know you can keep up with me so you can't use that as an excuse. I think what you are saying is your cat might cough up a fur ball and you would need to be there.

Buddy, I would kill to ride with you guys but I am old and beat-up (20 plus years of racing) and I know my capabilities. Would encourage all who have the will and desire to join in. You could not ask for a better ride leader...

phil denk wrote:I would really like to be in on this ride. However, if I had any thought that I could keep up with either Troy or Eddie I would be fooling myself

Phil, it aint a race! Just road riding.

phil denk wrote:Buddy, I would kill to ride with you guys...

Noted. All, if you hear about any murders in the near future, we have a prime suspect.

Phil,

I've got 30+ years of racing, 40+ of trail riding and am riding tracks every weekend I can to get ready for the upcoming hare scrambles season. And I am seriously beat-up but I just don't know any better. Just ask "pink chaps" Troy. If I had a DS bike that was street focused (not my 565 KTM) I would go. The weather looks like it is going to hold out.

Unbelievable January.

Stu

Please don't everyone reply at once because I don't want to be responsible for crashing the forum however, I would like for those interested to speak up.














(I have a feeling I'll be pretty lonely on this trip.)

Sorry for the forum outage, folks. The servers became overwhelmed when thousands of you tried to reply to this very popular thread. I had to add 10 more servers and quadruple the bandwidth to handle the load.

Seriously, though, I will be unable to join you for this ride, but I have a really good excuse! My brother has been away in the war in Afghanistan for a long time and came home for a break this week. The family is going to go visit him this weekend.

I hope the weather allows the ride and that some of you tag along.

Troy, thank your brother for his service to our country.

You are excused.

What about the rest of you? Friday looks cold but the rest of the weekend looks great!

(Like last year there is snow north of the MO river. If it does not melt by Friday I'll be heading south or southeast.)

If it helps someone to go on the ride, I have a size L insulated riding suit and/or my heated jacket and gloves to loan for the weekend. I'm heading to Tulsa about noon tomorrow (Fri), so you'd want to contact me today. 913.669.0958