UPDATED April 11, 2010 AT BOTTOM Short ride in MS **NEW PIX**

[1moreroad]

This is really just a quick ride report.  I had just an hour or two to get out after my 600 mile service and handguard install.  Today I headed over to Sardis Lake.  



I had intended to check out just a few gravel roads I have seen while riding my sportbike along the paved roads.  At the end of the gravel road, there was a 4 wheeler trail on to Army Corps land with an open gate.

It got a little hairy for track tires at one point, but I made it through okay.

The whole light weight, thing?  I get it.  This bike weighs about 300 pounds and it was scary (and fun!) sliding off the crown of the road into muddy wheel tracks.  The 4 wheeler trail led to some open space near the lake.  

I followed it up to the change in color that looked like mud.  Good thing, because when I stepped out in it to take some photos, my boot sank about 2”.  Can’t imagine how deep the bike would have sunk.

A quick return up the same trail…

…then about 10 miles back home.  Total mileage was about 30 miles.

The bike did fantastic.  Traction was low (of course), but a little throttle modulation was all it took to ease the bike through the mud.  It was pretty easy to handle the bike in the slippery stuff.

After the MX boots didn’t fit, I had thought I would postpone a new boot purchase, but if this is what I’m going to wade through, those Sidi Typhoons are worth considering.

[VIVID1]

Sardis Lake is great. It doesn't look like they drained it for winter yet. When we were there in April of 2007, the lake was just a puddle. We were told they drain the water each winter, or something like that  





This was a fun place to ride, although some areas were not dry  

[1moreroad]

Sardis Lake is great. It doesn't look like they drained it for winter yet. When we were there in April of 2007, the lake was just a puddle. We were told they drain the water each winter, or something like that  

I've read your Wall Doxey ride report.  Where on Sardis were you for those pix?  Hurricane Landing?

[R Doug]

Greg, you did remember you purchased the X and not the R, right?  

Great report!  Now, go get some knobbies!

[VIVID1]

I've read your Wall Doxey ride report.  Where on Sardis were you for those pix?  Hurricane Landing?

I don't remember the "where"   since I didn't lead the ride, we rode around the lake before heading back to the campsite, so we might have been on the east side of the lake.

[DogBoy]

I see a set of dirt wheels and knobbies in your future...

[1moreroad]

I'll just shovel these photos on here.  Got out for 50 miles, about half of them gravel road.  It alternated nicely -- paved sweepers, gravel, paved, hard pack dirt, and back home paved.  The GPS is great for showing me which gravel roads actually get me back home without dead ends.  I managed to get < 5 minutes late.  I will definitely have to correct for average speed: just 33 mph moving average.

I had one pucker moment on some deep gravel.  In the gravel were wheel tracks from the heavier pick up trucks using it to get to hunt clubs.  If you don't hit the wheel tracks perfectly aligned, the front wheel ping pongs between the edges of pushed up gravel while the rear wheel slides around.  I was doing okay, but got a little too confident when the front end washed a bit.  Managed to save it with a little foot out action stomping the ground with my heel -- and my whole leg is hurting this afternoon from it.

Fall colors were out today in the Holly Springs National Forest.


A little earlier I was following a signed, marked, designated county road.  The Forest Services lists it as an unimproved dirt road.   It was a little more interesting shortly before this pic, but I couldn't find anywhere to put the kickstand down.
A little late for Halloween, but I found this cemetary with... guests who checked in around the turn of the century and just a few decades ago.  Many tombstones had flowers and too may have been very recent.

In between some of the gravel, I found a little bandit dirt track!  The sign is right in front of a motorcycle club hangout.  I've got to come back here when someone is working.  I rode down to the track, which felt a bit weird.  There was a car resting on its side.  Only high clearance and possibly 4x4 cars could make it down (or more specifically, back up) the dirt "road" to get to the track.  I've seen ATV tracks that are less technical than the driveway.  I didn't go on the track itself, but it had a tight 180 degree turn and looked like it ran into the woods somewhere.  Someone had spray painted "RIDE AT YOUR OWN RISK" on a piece of plywood just in front of the "$5" sign, and I believe it.

[VIVID1]

Wholy crapolla, that's a lot of mud  

[phoenix]

looks like a lot of fun.

you suck.

[Mac]

Hope you didn't freeze. Looks like fun, I may have to try that someday.

[R.Markus]

This is Mississippi mud.  It is heavy and thick and it compacts down to near-cement.  Right now I've got from front sprocket cover and fork protectors off just to try to get to the mud to be cleaned.

Yep, been there (not to the lake, but in Mississippi mud). If you donb't get that stuff off before it dries it's a huge pain to get off later.


Did you say you had your handguards installed?  

[mxvet57]

I followed it up to the change in color that looked like mud.  Good thing, because when I stepped out in it to take some photos, my boot sank about 2”.  Can’t imagine how deep the bike would have sunk.

and you think you had problems.

[1moreroad]

SARDIS LAKE – March 8, 2008 – 1moreroad is proud to announce a new riding technique developed at Sardis Lake.  Combining the worst techniques of sportbike riding with a complete ignorance of dirt riding outside Long Way Round (and let’s face it – there’s that not much dirt riding there) and the occasional televised MX race, the Sportbike Hybrid: Innovations for Trails (SHIT) style of riding has been born.  Look for a slightly modified version (Sportbike Hybrid: Innovations for Trails and Enduro – SHITE) in England this summer.  In the future, a N00b Only version (NO SHIT) will be introduced.  Eventually the Enduro Advanced Training (EAT SHIT) will be ready.  The primary requirements for the SHIT style of riding are stupidity and inappropriate tires.



Sardis Lake covers almost 100,000 acres.  Some of it is underwater all of the time and all of it is underwater some of the time.  Sardis is partially drained throughout the winter exposing tens of thousands of acres of sand, dirt, and detritus in the spring.



Choosing a day with imminent thunderstorms and threats of tornadoes gave us the perfect opportunity to pretend he was traversing the Sahara in the Dakar.



My extremely patient traveling companion and I reached an old graveyard with tombstones dating to the early 1800s.  The graveyard can only be accessed from public land when the lake is drained.





We were kind of like Ewan and Charley only with less charisma (than Charley) and less off-road riding experience (than Ewan).

On the way back we shared greetings with 4-wheelers carrying beer and shotguns out to shoot.  This family chose to carry a tiny infant in the arms of driver dad instead of shotguns.


Then my friend – having replaced a KLR650 with a KL250 last year – took off across the sands with his butt hanging as far back as he could and his worn rear D606 dug in at least 4 inches all the way across.  Meanwhile, I slip-slided in slightly wetter sand closer to the water.



Not too close to the water, though.  Here is an F150 being pulled out from the water’s edge by a Jeep using the elegant snatch-grab-floor it method.  I think they broke the first tow rope, but the second grab was successful.  Did I mention there was a lot of beer out today?


We didn’t need beer.  An essential part of the SHIT method of riding is to complete the ride then suggest just one more trail.  Confidence is up.  Local knowledge – because it has rained maybe 100 times since the last time you rode this particular trail – is down.  The inevitable will happen.  (This is the same trail as shown in the first post on this topic.  Notice my extremely patient friend found a dry path to take)



I managed to high center a motorcycle with almost 11 inches of ground clearance.

And it’s aftermath (those are A* SM-X road boots after standing in 6" deep mud and water over the tops of the boots)


Ride – 15 miles of twisties to get to the Lake, 10 miles on the Lake, 10 miles of straight roads home

[kurtw]

Ugh you've got a screw loose to go there for repeat visits with street tires    


I hate mud, mostly because I suck at washing it off afterwards  

[phoenix]

Ugh you've got a screw loose to go there for repeat visits with street tires    

  no doubt. I guess firefighting hasn't provided enough excitement?

Maybe it was asked before, but why is the lake drained each year?

[R Doug]

You are having way too much fun with that bike.  Keep the reports coming!

[1moreroad]

  no doubt. I guess firefighting hasn't provided enough excitement?

Maybe it was asked before, but why is the lake drained each year?

According to a fishing forum, the lake is there primarily for flood control, so during the rainy season they let it drain.  It can still flood in late winter if it rain too much.  It seems like it has 2 or 3 times in the last 40 years.  In the summer, there is enough evaporation so that the Army Corps of Engineers who run the lake don't need to let it drain.

[DogBoy]

Three trips to Sadis Lake in the mud? You realize you are just encouraging atypical and miles to come out for a visit.



Now, find a kart track and get your head straight.

[1moreroad]

Thought I'd add a few more photos and a short, short ride report.  Last week I did a 140 mile loop around Lake Enid in Mississippi. 



I tried traveling down some ATV tracks I had done with a friend about a year ago, but with all the rain we had over the winter, they were underwater.



That bridge has been washed out for a long time, but usually the water is low enough to cross in the early spring.

Today I rode about 120 miles and visited Water Valley and Coffeeville (where there are no coffee places  ) and roads south of Lake Enid.  WV and CV are old rail towns and just a shadow of their former selves.  Both have some nice buildings and public art left, though.





There is at least one good plate lunch restaurant in Water Valley, and it looks like a new coffee/tanning place opened up there.  I'll have to go back and check it out.

From WV, I just explored roads north and south before lunch back at home.  They were a mix of dirt, gravel, tar, and goaty pavement.  We do have curves in Mississippi -- you just have to look for them.







This trip has pretty much finished off a pair of Distanzias (or at least the rear one).  I'll use them this week around town, but I have a pair of Shinko 17" DOT knobbies on order to see if I like them.  I should be able to spoon them on later this week.

[DogBoy]

Looks like a fun ride.