riding with no destination

[wild hair 39]

how meny of you,go for a ride,and just follow the north,south,east,west signs,as long as the road are paved,man there is a lot of roads out there,and not on the mapps,little towns,or just wide places,in the roads,the miles can realy add up

[pegscraper]

I've done that sometimes. I'll take a county road map with me so I can always find my way back when I decide it's time to come home. Usually I can figure it out though, or stumble into another road that I know. It's rare that I lose where north is. It's happened, but the last time was about 10 years ago. The problem is that there are a lot of gravel roads in northern IN. I frequently have to turn around and go another direction.

[sarges46]

We applaud and envy you and all those who can do that!

 

That is a dream that is slowly coming to fruit as Marilyn and I get closer to retirement.

[Eugene]

Well I occasionally ride with somewhere to go - but 99.9%

of my rides are like that - nowhere to go and no set time to get back!!!

 

I do get lost lots so I have my GPS to find the way home. On my previous Harley, I put 25,000k in one year and on the RSTD, I've put over 18,000k - just touring and discovering coffee shops and neat ma and pa diners!!

 

Cheers

 

Eugene

[Sailor]

It is a great way to ride.

[Eck]

Most all my rides are that way LA.

I really enjoy them too

I get up early and head off going by my gut feeling as to heading west, east, north or south.. dont care where the roads takes me..

The road your GPS led us to that morning we went south of Ft. Collins where the GPS said there was a road there, (and there was), but it was dirt/ gravel, and we took it anyway.

That road ended up being one of the best roads I have ever been on in my life...

Found out later that day when we returned to Ft. Collins that the name off that road is "OH MY GOD ROAD"..

[Guest muskrat]

IMHO - that is best way to travel. Just a general, vague desination in mind - and just go where the road takes you. Nothing against GPS - I have a buddy who has one on his bike - but IMHO I think it takes a little of the adventure out of it. We are always where we need to be - and don' t have opportunities to take those wrong turns or those unplanned roads and find little gems along the way.

 

I prefer just heading out and letting the wind take us where it wants us to go.

[SilvrT]

Many of the places I've lived, there aren't too many choices. In some cases, there's one road in and one road out and one road to follow. The destination never changes.

 

Down in this part of the Province (lower mainland of BC), there are several different routes one can take to eventually get to the same place which, in many cases, is inevitable coz it's the only route you can go to get beyond there. For example, if you want to get to the interior towns, you either have to go through Hope, BC or Whistler, BC. There's only one route to Whistler. You can take a number of different routes and back country roads on your way to Hope but eventually, there are only 2 ways into Hope, and 2 ways out. One bypasses it and you can head north (Fraser Canyon) or you can go into Hope and head East. The other is a freeway that bypasses Hope. From there you can head North or East. Hope is a small town that is very busy with summer traffic...people stopping for gas, food, etc... almost all bikers stop there on their way into the interior or vice versa.

[Guest Swifty]

"WILDHAIR"?? I'm reading posts not knowing who this is, stumble on Eck's post and realize "I" was there too...then I discover that LAPryor is now "wildhair"...where have I been...probably out following a compass direction somewhere like we did in Ft. Collins that day. Did 622 miles on Sunday in temps around 10 degrees C. following a guy with a GPS who knew how to get home. I'm somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 kms this season.

[WilCruise]

I do that a lot. After getting pretty lost a few times I now tend to do it one way until I reach about half of my available time. I then flip on my GPS and find a route back that avoids the original route and also keeps me off slabs etc. I know it's kinda cheating, but it's worked well and allowed me to find some pretty good roads.

 

Don't have too many opportunities to do it for days at a time, but I plan to make time for that sometime in the not so distant future!

[Thom]

"WILDHAIR"?? I'm reading posts not knowing who this is, stumble on Eck's post and realize "I" was there too...then I discover that LAPryor is now "wildhair"...where have I been...probably out following a compass direction somewhere like we did in Ft. Collins that day. Did 622 miles on Sunday in temps around 10 degrees C. following a guy with a GPS who knew how to get home. I'm somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 kms this season.

 

do you know what is scary , why is that no parking sign that high up , what is real , real scary , i know why ?

i live in Fl.

go west water

go east water

go south water

go north a big sign thats says Georgia

i can't get lost :rotfl:

[Snarley Bill]

la ,i envy you .someday i want to grow up and be just like you.wish i could take off and ride till i got tired of it.maybe someday.bill

[wild hair 39]

"WILDHAIR"?? I'm reading posts not knowing who this is, stumble on Eck's post and realize "I" was there too...then I discover that LAPryor is now "wildhair"...where have I been...probably out following a compass direction somewhere like we did in Ft. Collins that day. Did 622 miles on Sunday in temps around 10 degrees C. following a guy with a GPS who knew how to get home. I'm somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 kms this season.

 

hi,there swifty:great to hear from you,maybe we can hook up again sume time,eck,likes sume of the off gps roads also

[Marcarl]

Often times when Marca and I go out we get to the end of the drive and I go left (or right) and then it's her turn next, after that it's north, south, east or west and the next time it's right or left etc. Trouble comes when she says north and we're at a dead end heading north.

When riding one never really gets lost, just taking the scenic route.

[hlange]

My youngest daughter has come up with a couple of what I figure are absolute truisms or perfect answers over the years.

 

Two winters ago, when she was 12, I was doing that old winter biker thing of dreaming of what we were going to do when summer rolled around. I asked her where she would want to ride to, you know, "Do you want to go see this?" or "Do you want to go see that?" type of thing. She could not come up with any particular place she wanted to see, and trying to narrow it down, I finally asked "Well, which direction do you want to go, east, west, north, south?" She answered "well, all of them." I think that it was a perfect answer.

 

The other time she set me straight was when I took my 79 Triple down to the gas station in the spring to put some gas in it in March of 2005. It was 34F degrees out and the gas staion was only about 4 blocks away. I didn't ask if she wanted to go with as it was such a short ride and it was COLD out. I got back and my wife told me that the daughter was ticked at me for not asking. I told my daughter that it was too cold for her to ride and she gave me "the look", put her hands on her hips and stated, "It's not too cold if you dress right." I had to admit she was right and told her I would never again assume that she didn't want to ride and I would aways have to ask first.

[GunnyButch]

We do that quite a bit especially if we are out for the day or overnight. Depends on the weather which direction too, raining to the north it's south or west etc. Here along the coast you can't get very far east though. The POI feature on the GPS comes in handy too when riding like that, push a button and see what is nearby.

[Guest Popeye]

I've been doin' that since the late '60s. Usually a 'general' destination, then see a cloud way ahead & its waaaayyy in another direction.

 

I lived in Detroit then, so Canada was a grand place to explore & did a few 100k miles through the provinces.

No such thing as a comfortable scoot in those days, but we didn't know better.

 

2000 mile trip on a 'new' 71 Norton 750 once, 2 up with a sissybar & a duffel bag tied on. We thought we were rollin'-in-style.

Later, got a '73 Harley Super Glide....that Shovelhead put our buns to sleep after 30 miles, so stretch & keep goin'.....'where' didn't matter much, but time was always a problem...having to be back at work & such.

 

Nowdays, it takes 40-50 miles just to settle-in & get comfortable for the ride.

[halfwitt]

My wife and I have always enjoyed "getting lost". In four wheels or on two, we enjoy taking a road because we have never been on it. We're always disappointed when we realize at some point that we know where we are. Then we gotta try to get lost again. Several weeks ago we were on the RSV with a general route in mind. Most of the route would be in brand new areas to us. We keep a PA map with us just in case but rarely need to use it. Well, we got to a point where we didn't know town names or route numbers. We hadn't seen a gas station in many miles and we were getting low. We stopped at a little diner. There was a man in the parking lot when we parked. He says, "great day for a ride!". I said, "Sure is. Where are we?" He says, "You're right here!" I asked where the nearest gas station was and he says, "I think there's one down that way about five miles." We had a good lunch. Had some discussion with other people about where we might find some fuel (no one was real sure - odd). That was a great ride. We look forward to doing it again in the spring. Maybe we'll pick "South" next time.

[GeorgeS]

Where ever you are, follow the Sun, till you come to the Pacific Ocean,

Then Turn Right. You can't miss it !!!

[FROG MAN]

Lowell some day (after retirement) I hope to ride maybe half as much as you. What a wonderful way to see the USA and Canada. Right now I can not imagine what plenty of time and money to travel is like. For now only in my dreams but someday soon I hope the freedom of the open road with my lady will happen.