Camp Xplor I May 7,8,9 2021

[norton73]

A while back I posted this in events;

http://www.motorcyclealabama.com/rides/index.php?topic=4151.0

Little River Adventure Co is a Destination Yamaha location, they have Yamaha Teneres, XT250s and electric mtn bikes to rent. There is also a scenic, but primitive campground there. It's just down the road from Little River Falls and close to DeSoto State Park.  Just a couple miles down the road is the Little River WMA, with some good fun fire roads.

https://www.littleriver.us/

They had their Grand opening May 7th -9th. Lynn and I decided to check it out.

We loaded up the toy hauler with Lynn's XT225, food, beer, and some camping gear on Friday. She drove up while i rode my Tenere up.

I had a couple errands to do, so she left first going straight up 59 to Fort Payne. Once i got rolling, I just rode up 59 to Gadsden, then 411 to Centre, with a dog leg past Canyon Mouth Park and up to 35 where I turned East and got to the campground just a few minutes after Lynn pulled in.

We set up camp and met Giorgio, the owner, and one of our old paddling buddies, Chuck.



Lynn hadn't been to De Soto Falls before, so we rode up there.





Got back from our ride and Giorgio, his brother John, girlfriend Tiffany, and a few others had a campfire going and cooking chicken for dinner. There were also a couple guys there from Yamaha in Atlanta, they had brought door (campfire) prizes to be given away. I won a fog light set and Lynn won a sweatshirt.

Drank a few beers, met some folks, talked and BSed into the night...

[norton73]

Saturday morning I got my DeLorme's out and started to plot a plan. Not too far from Desoto SP was "The Old Union Crossing Covered Bridge". I knew Chuck knew the area well, so I walked over to his camper to ask about it.

He was familar with it, so we decided he would lead us there on his TW200. Before we left, we got a few more takers, Paul on another Tenere, Dave on a KLR, and Rusty on a Husky.

Turned out it was behind the Cloudmont Ski and Golf Resort, we rode past the ski area, a girl scout camp, and into a dude ranch. There were No Trespassing signs, but Chuck insisted the road was public, not the land on either side.

Found the Bridge;



Looking upstream;



Just after the bridge was a t intersection, right was closed to traffic according to the sign, left was towards the dude ranch.



The road was rough, did some climbing, and then we passed through the stable area and into some fields. Chuck lead us down a narrow road that turned into single track. There were a couple tight spots, downhill, around a tree, then up again, all in about 2 tenere bike lengths. Had me sweating some, and wondering about getting this thing out of there.

We came to where the trail met a fire road and we stopped and parked the bikes. Chuck lead us down a trail that brought us out on the other side of Desoto Falls.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any decent pictures there, all my shots were into the sun. We then rode around on some goat paths, Chuck leading the way. He showed me where the put in for the West Fork of the little River is, and a few other places of interest. We returned to the campground for lunch, Giorgio had some chicken left over from the night before, so we made sandwhiches.

[norton73]

After lunch, we headed north up into the WMA, crossed a few streams, rode some fun fire roads. We stopped at an area with a bunch of big rocks and walked around some.










Headed back to camp for another fine meal around the campfire, listened to a couple people playing music, drank beer and BSed some more.

[norton73]

Sunday, as I was walking around, I stopped to talk to Juan, a rider on a Triumph 1200 Tiger from Palm Beach. He wanted to ride some of the fire roads, so we went and saw Giorgio for some advice. He agreed to lead us on a ride instead, so mid morning we headed out, first going towards Desoto SP on some more goat trails.



We stopped at a place called Citadel Rocks and walked around some;







Can you see the snail;



Giorgio on the rocks with his brother John snapping a pic;

[norton73]

After Citadel Rocks, we continued on some more fun roads, until we found a parking area that overlooked Fort Payne;







Giorgio then lead us over towards DeSoto SP and around some more fun roads until we entered the WMA from the north this time.

[norton73]

This time we found a few puddles;







A few creek crossings;





And a nice overlook;

[norton73]

Juan on the 1200 Tiger;



He was concerned about the creek crossings, he had 90/10 tires on. We all agreed we'd turn around if he got uncomfortable, but he did great. Unfortunately, he was always ahead of me and through stuff before I could get my camera out.

We got back to camp, then we all decided to ride down the road to the Adamsburger Grill for lunch. Great little mom & pop place, nice deck, great burgers, located in the crossroads town of Adamsburg.

We resisted the urge for a nap, instead Lynn and I returned to camp, packed up, and she drove home.

I rode the Tenere, found a few fun roads, including the "scenic highway". Fun dirt road, winds around the western edge of Lookout Mtn, some nice views, some fast gravel sweepers where I tried to play flat tracker. Came out just north of Gadsden. From there i jumped on the Interstate and headed home to help unpack, and drink a few beers on the deck as the sun set on a nice weekend.

[Nice Goat]

So much awesome... my jealousy is peaking!

Great ride report!