BackRoads: The Road Less Traveled

It was 6:00 a.m. somewhere along about the time I heard the 15 th freight train of the night wailing it’s way through the outskirts of Marathon, Texas so I thought I’d just go ahead and get out of bed. Outside it was a cool 45 degrees in the mile high air. We had been informed the evening before that a good breakfast could be found in the morning at the soda fountain/restaurant nearby, so I walked down. I ordered myself a coke float. Yeah, I know, a coke float for breakfast? But since I was on vacation, and my children weren’t around, I figured it was okay, or at least would go unnoticed and un-chastised. Not only that, but someone else ordered one just after I did, so it must’ve been a good idea. And I guess it hadn’t gone unnoticed after all.

It was still in the low 50’s when we took leave of the excellent amenities at the Gage Hotel and headed toward the Panther Junction Visitor’s Center in the Big Bend National Park. It would be the first meeting point of the day for the “Twist a Grip” group. This was the annual Big Bend ride for “Twist a Grip” – a loosely organized group of riders annual traipse across west Texas. Rolling into the park this year, the sand flats along the north entrance were nothing short of fabulous. Due to recent rains they were brilliant, chrome yellow expanses in the morning sunlight.

My goal of this days’ ride was to visit Santa Elena Canyon, and once there decide whether to take my BMW dual sport, north, up the unpaved stretch of Old Maverick road to Study Butte or, ride with the rest of the group on the more sedate paved road. Old Maverick Road is a 13 miles improved road and is usually accessible to all vehicles, so as a dual sport trip, the bragging rights are pretty small. Nevertheless, I was somewhat nervous about making the ride, since I was the only one in the group on a dual sport, and would be making the trip alone.

It’s my opinion that the road to Santa Elena canyon is the second best road in the entire area. Lots of nice turns, several overlooks offering signature Big Bend panoramas, and four digit elevation changes. Riding a motorcycle over the pass at Sotol Vista is more fun than a rollercoaster ride – and faster too! For the curious, my vote for best road in the area is Texas 170 from Terlingua to Presidio, which offers all the above many times over.

Standing at the Santa Elena canyon overlook with two other “Twisters”, it was apparent the brisk 50 degrees welcoming us that morning in Marathon now gave way to a temperature more befitting our latitude. It was downright warm as we three bikers huddled in the shade offered by the small overlook shelter.

We were trying to figure out where the trail to the Rio Grande River was when a car careened into the parking lot banging into the curb, out of which burst a laughing woman and a young boy. Miss Kitty (not her real name) had sparkly blue toenails and a stiff British accent. Coincidentally, one of the riders with me was also from that part of the world. Considering our location, it was pretty cool to stand there listening to their dialect. Mad dogs and Englishmen indeed.

As we saddled up to leave, I decided that after coming this far, I had to ride Old Maverick Road, and told the gang I’d see them at the Teepees south of Terlingua. I had been feeling uneasy about making this ride having read the park literature which...

We hope that you enjoyed reading this excerpt from "The Road Less Traveled". If you would like to read the entire article and more, you can order a back issue of Sep / Oct 2004 where this article was originally published.

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