St. Joe State Park June 2-3

We rode over to Farmington last Thursday for the CMA Fastlane rally, it was a long haul across Missouri, but Highway 32 was a nice ride!

Friday morning we went out looking for some gravel roads to ride, but there's not much in the area apparently. In the afternoon kingrider and I split off from the DS group and went to join the folks riding at the ORV area in St. Joe State Park (where most of the dual sport bikes had actually gone). It was thoroughly AWESOME!!

I took my new vivitar 'action cam' (gopro knockoff), but had battery trouble and didn't get any video footage. It's too bad, too, as Saturday morning attempting a hill climb, I literally flipped my bike over my head and back down the hill. Fortunately I was able to just step off the back as she flipped, and guide it to a landing in the soft trailside; but still took some radiator/fan damage - which by the way, are QUITE expensive! nerf bars might cost around $300, but radiators are $400+ and the fan is around $400 as well!

Photos and videos on the way!

Riding through the sand flats/river bottom:


Panorama of the sand flats:


Panorama of some of the hillside trails, which were not sandy. Rocky and hard pack dirt, with a WIDE variety of difficulty levels.


The hill I flipped my bike on, but a not-quite-as-steep path.

About half the group - there were 7 bikes total in our riding group, and a few others from the rally that rode their own group of more spry bikes like a KTM 500 EXC that probably didn't want to be stuck with KLRs!
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Who are these crazy guys?! 
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Trail View
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This ledge was a little challenging, because the trail wanted to spill you out on the far left, but you really needed to go straight down on the right!
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Sand flats in the river bottom. My first time in sand like this, and it was quite deep... once I figured it out, almost too much fun!
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The trail just before we dropped into a more challenging area. Only four of us went down there.
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The hill where I flipped my bike. It's a lot steeper than it looks here!
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Thanks for sharing!!  Man, that looked FUN!  Thats the kind of riding I love the most- i wish we had some parks that were close-ish to that here! Thanks for sharing all the pics, too!

Great report and pictures and videos!! Looks like an incredible place to ride! I'm with Derek, wish we had places like that here to ride but after all, we do live in Kansas! Thankfully we're central to a lot of good options....  Thanks for sharing Nick!

Thanks for sharing!!  Man, that looked FUN!  Thats the kind of riding I love the most- i wish we had some parks that were close-ish to that here! Thanks for sharing all the pics, too!

You're welcome to come with us to Missouri and Arkansas rallys next year! The more the merrier

Hope you are OK, Nick.  I had a similar experience many years ago only on a very muddy slope.  I slid a long way down the slope but my bike landed upside down still running WOT.  The handlebars were buried in the mud so I had to reach in and pull the plug wire to kill it  .  It was enough to destroy the bottom end of the motor and I sold the bike for salvage.
Even with the crash, it looks like you found some great adventure.

Hope you are OK, Nick.  I had a similar experience many years ago only on a very muddy slope.  I slid a long way down the slope but my bike landed upside down still running WOT.  The handlebars were buried in the mud so I had to reach in and pull the plug wire to kill it  .  It was enough to destroy the bottom end of the motor and I sold the bike for salvage.
Even with the crash, it looks like you found some great adventure.

Sounds like it was a rough one. I just stepped off the back of the bike, and it stalled on the way over, so there was no problem with the engine.