June 24 & 25: Dualsport Glade Top Trail, Ava, MO

[troy]

Too bad you can't make it, Jason! Tell me the truth--it's that 400 mile day that scared you off, isn't it?!

[JasonK94Z]

Too bad you can't make it, Jason! Tell me the truth--it's that 400 mile day that scared you off, isn't it?!

I'd love to go ride, but really, Saturday morning is a no go for me. Its a rare occasion that something gets in the way of riding for me, but I can't put off the kids again or they'll write me off as their daddy.

While on the subject, think we could do this July 29??

[troy]

Well, there is a BMW rally Eddie told me about over in Crane, MO this weekend. I could do that instead and save Glade Top for another weekend. However, we've got some momentum behind this ride now...so me thinks we stick to plan.

Btw, I looked into that BMW rally and there are a lot of Hondas and Suzukis that show up. They are doing a dualsport on Saturday from Crane, MO to Bentonville, AR where they get lunch at a BMW dealership. That has to be a scenic ride considering the lakes and forest most of the way.

[ajayhawkfan]

Too bad you can't make it, Jason! Tell me the truth--it's that 400 mile day that scared you off, isn't it?!

That 400 miles scared me off!!

I hope to be heading to SE Iowa this weekend and along the Mississippi River. There are a number of sites that interest me, including a different brew pub for Friday and Saturday night.

[troy]

I hope to be heading to SE Iowa this weekend and along the Mississippi River. There are a number of sites that interest me, including a different brew pub for Friday and Saturday night.

Is that an invitation, Eddie?

Folks, lots of riding opportunities this weekend. Get out there and Ride! Good suggestion from Harv -- do a dualsport ride out to Paxico, KS and enjoy the vintage bike show.
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1277

[JasonK94Z]

We can always go back to Glade Top again right? Or even someplace else with some good riding like there. To tell you the truth, I'm kinda ready to try camping off the bike sometime soon. I just need a smaller tent, and I think I'm set if somebody else has cooking gear. I guess a cafe to eat at would work too. Would have to have a place to find cold beer too.

[fbj913]

SOUNDS KILLER!!! PISSED I CANT MAKE IT!!!

[troy]

We can always go back to Glade Top again right? Or even someplace else with some good riding like there. To tell you the truth, I'm kinda ready to try camping off the bike sometime soon. I just need a smaller tent, and I think I'm set if somebody else has cooking gear. I guess a cafe to eat at would work too. Would have to have a place to find cold beer too.

Sure...this is a scouting trip to the Glade Top area for me. I'll report back here.

I have bike camping gear, but for me, the bike "camping" means "a place to sleep". I don't "set up camp". I just try to pull in before dark, pop the tent up, unroll the bag, and sleep. For food, cafes work just fine. We'll do a bike camping ride soon. I did 2 of those last year down into Arkansas. I camped Fri & Sat nights. I had a great time.

[troy]

SOUNDS KILLER!!! PISSED I CANT MAKE IT!!!

Me, too! I want to see your Tiger 800 XC!

[JasonK94Z]

We can always go back to Glade Top again right? Or even someplace else with some good riding like there. To tell you the truth, I'm kinda ready to try camping off the bike sometime soon. I just need a smaller tent, and I think I'm set if somebody else has cooking gear. I guess a cafe to eat at would work too. Would have to have a place to find cold beer too.

Sure...this is a scouting trip to the Glade Top area for me. I'll report back here.

I have bike camping gear, but for me, the bike "camping" means "a place to sleep". I don't "set up camp". I just try to pull in before dark, pop the tent up, unroll the bag, and sleep. For food, cafes work just fine. We'll do a bike camping ride soon. I did 2 of those last year down into Arkansas. I camped Fri & Sat nights. I had a great time.

Sounds like a plan.

[ajayhawkfan]

I hope to be heading to SE Iowa this weekend and along the Mississippi River. There are a number of sites that interest me, including a different brew pub for Friday and Saturday night.

Is that an invitation, Eddie?

NO! I have been leading groups the last three weekend. This is a "lone wolf" ride. That way I have no one to care about but myself.

[jasoomian]

We can always go back to Glade Top again right? Or even someplace else with some good riding like there. To tell you the truth, I'm kinda ready to try camping off the bike sometime soon. I just need a smaller tent, and I think I'm set if somebody else has cooking gear. I guess a cafe to eat at would work too. Would have to have a place to find cold beer too.

I've been itching to camp off the bike for awhile now, and I am within a hairs breadth of pulling the trigger on a Hennesy Hammock vs a tent.

http://hennessyhammock.com/

Plenty of videos to show you its general awesomeness and ease of set up.

I saw this video earlier today from a link over at adv:
Hennesey Hammock Review

I included the link to the video because there are a ton of related videos to look through as well.

[fbj913]

SOUNDS KILLER!!! PISSED I CANT MAKE IT!!!

Me, too! I want to see your Tiger 800 XC!

here ya go

[troy]

SOUNDS KILLER!!! PISSED I CANT MAKE IT!!!

Me, too! I want to see your Tiger 800 XC!

here ya go

Sweet! Wow, that's a huge box on the tail.

[ajayhawkfan]

It a wheelie box.

Have a fun and safe trip.

[ajayhawkfan]

Too bad you can't make it, Jason! Tell me the truth--it's that 400 mile day that scared you off, isn't it?!

That 400 miles scared me off!!

I hope to be heading to SE Iowa this weekend and along the Mississippi River. There are a number of sites that interest me, including a different brew pub for Friday and Saturday night.

Weather in SE Iowa scared me off so i went south to Arkansas. Watching a band that has a washtub player as bass and I like 'em.

[troy]

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!

[reddof]

I finally have everything settled, unpacked, cleaned, and put away. As Troy described, it was a great ride overall. I really enjoyed it even with the small issue, but the bike made it home so I won't complain too much.

This was my first real ride on my F800 and I learned a few things. I learned the F800 isn't to be treated like an oversized dirtbike. That's not a skidplate. It's protection from debris kicked up by the front wheel. I was having a bit too much fun rather than picking easy lines. There isn't really sufficient protection from bashing off a rock ledge like the KTM. It is a great bike and it handled everything else with ease. In most areas the bike exceeds my ability/comfort.

Dave, it was great meeting you. I hope you had a great time on the rest of your ride and I look forward to riding with you again in the future.

Jasoomian, nice seeing you again. Can't possibly thank you enough for making that trek to find the epoxy and the oil. It was much better being able to finish the ride instead of having the wife bring the truck down and haul the bike home.

Troy, thanks for putting together a great ride. Glad we were able to get your bike broken-in. There were some great roads. The Glade Top wasn't worth it by itself, but there were plenty of other roads that made up for it tenfold.

[Hank Moody]

If I had look at your route I would have suggested stopping at the Iconium/Ico general store for a legendary peach nehi float. The Boy Scout camp is right next door and that is a highligt to head to Ico for a float and air conditioning. Apparently, Ico was called Toad Suck and they decided to change it to Iconium...

Glad you all made it home safe!

[troy]

If I had look at your route I would have suggested stopping at the Iconium/Ico general store for a legendary peach nehi float. The Boy Scout camp is right next door and that is a highligt to head to Ico for a float and air conditioning. Apparently, Ico was called Toad Suck and they decided to change it to Iconium...

Glad you all made it home safe!

Yeah, we saw the general store and some locals told us they make the best ice cream floats. ToadSuck Grill also makes ice cream floats, but even the sweet hostess told us the general store makes better floats. We were stuffed from the BBQ, so no floats for us this time.

I found this Wikipedia article about ToadSuck, Arkansas. Apparently named because of the boat men hanging around the tavern "sucking the bottle until they swell up like toads". I assume ToadSuck, MO just stole the name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toad_Suck,_Arkansas

The hostess also told us to avoid the grill on Sundays because it is "overrun with boyscouts".