Before I get started with today's update, I wanted to tell everyone about two sights I saw yesterday that I forgot about...unfortunately, no pictures. The first was a ranch on Hwy 16 near the ranch where I saw a herd of buffalo numbering about 3 dozen. Then, on the same road just a few miles down the road, I saw several pieces of old rusty farm equipment, very neatly arranged in rows, and a sign above it all that read "Rust in Peace"...get it?
Day 2 started fairly early...meeting at the lodge at 8:00...however, since I was wide awake at 6am, it was easy to be on time. By 7:45, the whole group was formed up and after a short briefing, we were off.
Out the gate of Koyote Ranch and on to Hwy 16, we headed south towards Utopia...yes, the same Utopia that was the subject of a recent Robert Duval movie titled 7 Days in Utopia. It was a about 35 miles to town so after about 40 minutes we parked our bikes across the street from the Lost Maples Cafe and walked in. We were expected so they put us in a room off to the side and even made up a special menu for us.
The service was good and the food was better. I had a huge ham and cheese omelet, along with "real" potatoes, bacon and toast. I was full for quite a while and really didn't need lunch, but that was not to be today.
Following breakfast, we rolled out to the bikes and loaded up. Our next destination was two of the three Ranch Roads called the Twisted Sisters...Ranch Road 335 and 336, 336 first. Leakey is a popular jumping off for motorcyclists riding these roads so we were by far not the only ones in town. Since there were so many motorcycles, we decided to split into two groups...a "fast" one and a "slow" one...the fast group leaving first. We would all meet up again back in Leakey for lunch.
I opted to go with the slower group since this was my first ride of the Twisted Sisters and I wanted to look around a little and not have to give 100% of my attention to the road...the theory really didn't pan out as the day played out. You really don't have time to look around very much as the road...much less the riders in front of you...demand almost all of your attention.
Out of Leakey, we headed out on RR337 to Camp Wood where we took a quick bathroom break before going out to RR335, the first leg of the morning which turned out to be pretty nice for riding. There were ups and downs and curves that were tight and seemingly never ending. The scenery was very nice with panoramic views of mountains and valleys.
We turned right on Hwy 41 where RR335 dead ended and headed to RR336. A few miles down the highway, we turned right onto RR336 and the first thing that got my attention was a sign that warned of "roaming livestock ahead". I wasn't even sure what that meant but soon after I noticed two or three cows grazing about 20 feet off the road...no fences! I found out later that the entire area is open range...I didn't even know there was such a thing anymore.
I had been warned about all the cattle guards on this particular road so when the first one appeared, I was giving it my full attention when I noticed a couple of riders coming towards us from the opposite direction. Almost simultaneously, I saw 4-5 deer streak across the road. They weren't just trotting but rather they were running full out like something was chasing them. Then came another smaller one chasing the first group...he tripped over the edge of the road and fell flat on the road bed, jumped up while still moving and ran off into the underbrush.
At first I thought that last deer might have hit one of the oncoming motorcycles but when I checked they were still coming towards us. It looked like the deer had run right through the middle of our line of motorcycles. Later I found out that the first 3-4 had run between the leaders of both groups but the last deer did, in fact, run/slide through our group. Fortunately, there was a large gap between the first two motorcycles and the third one...very fortunate.
With that bit of excitement early on the second leg of the morning, the rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, save for the beautiful scenery. We made one stop at one of the scenic pullouts and took some pictures...and talked about the close call we had earlier.
After taking some pictures and relaxing a bit, we finished the ride and ended up back in Leakey where we drove to the Frio Canyon Motorcycle Shop/Bent Rim Grill to eat lunch. There were a lot of bikers there with the same idea as it took a while to get our orders and eat. We had a good lunch with good conversation but all good things come to an end so we loaded up and headed back to the Koyote Ranch.
I was told our leader liked to eat and did so every 3 hours or so, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when we stopped in Medina at a nice little tourist trap that made wonderful apple turnovers and other tasty items. I got a turnover and wasn't disappointed.
Finally, we were on the last leg back to the ranch. We arrived around 4:30 and found the Aggie game on in the lodge so I had a coke and finished the game. After watching the AggiesShafer and I walked back to the lodge for dinner...although neither of us was really hungry. We ate light, talked a bit and then retired for the evening. We were pretty tired and hoped we could sleep better to be ready for Day 3.
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