MA BDR 2025

To mark the end of the summer, I decided to turn a trip back to Maryland with Tori for my father-in-laws birthday / Labor Day into a chance to squeeze in one more motocamping trip in 2025. After celebrating with the family, I packed up and headed west to spend a few easy days riding on the MD and PA sections of the Mid-Atlantic BDR. At least that was the plan.

I wanted to use this trip to practice minimizing my setup even further, so I removed the luggage racks and strapped on a Kreiga OS-base and two 18-liter dry bags instead of my usual soft panniers. I’d also picked up a top box for commuting, so I thought I’d see how I felt about a hybrid setup of rackless bags and lockable top case for my camera as I get more practice with still photography.

This was also the first trip for the DMD 860X, my new navigation system after getting fed up with the consistent power issues with my Garmin Montana. I’d also had a set of Dunlop Trailmax Raids spooned on just before the trip and was stoked to see how they handled after hearing such good things about them.

The first day was a pretty easy 230 mile street ride from Gaithersburg, MD to Douthat State Park in Millboro, VA to get to the start of my planned route. Since I had my camera, I tried to make a point to stop at interesting scenic areas to practice my photography. The Germany Valley Overlook was one of my favorite views from my Mid-Atlantic trip back in 2022 on the Tiger, so it was cool to get to relive some of that moment.

The goal for the day was the pick up MA BDR Section 3 and camp at Seneca Shadows National Park. The morning started off nicely with a fair bit of pavement, but the views and weather were great. I ran across a group of older adventure riders as we got into the George Washington National Forest, where the gravel road got a bit deeper and the switchbacks more technical than I was expecting for the mild reputation of the MA BDR. I ended up chatting with the leader and most experienced rider from the group as he was waiting for his buddies, but I split off from them to hit the only “Optional Hard” section on this leg of route.

The hard section wound its way up some tight mountain switchbacks with great views — while it wasn’t the most technical riding in the word, it was definitely pretty rocky and fairly steep and I can see why it isn’t in the main route. As I neared the crest of the ridge, I felt the rear end of the bike get super loose and had increasingly angry warnings of “Low Pressure” and “No Pressure” flash on the display. I found a good, level stopping place and starting pulling out my tire kit to fix the puncture only the realize the full extent of my predicament: while I could plug the half-inch gash in the tread, the tire had come completely off the bead and there was no way I could get it reseated with the tools I had.

I lucked out a bit and some signal at the top of the crest, which I was able to use to arrange a tow and a tire swap in the closest shop I could find. The track I was on was about the width of the flatbed and it took the driver about an hour to climb the mile of switchbacks to get to me, but we managed to get to the shop and I got the tire installed just before they closed the doors for the evening. Sadly, Trailmax Missions were the most aggressive tire they had, but at least I was able to carry on and booked myself a hotel room close enough to the route to continue the next day.

I had a bit of a haul to get back on the route, but by sheer happenstance I ended up on Rt. 33 and one of my favorite stretches of pavement on this side of the Mississippi, the mountain pass between Brandywine, WV and Franklin, VA. There was a bit of traffic and a construction flagger so I ended up making at least one cheeky pass to enjoy the road — I thought I’d be grateful for the more street-oriented rubber but I’ll admit that the TC and ABS kicked on a few when aggressively trail braking. I guess I can blame that on the front still being a 50/50 tire, but I’ll admit I was a bit surprised given the reputation of the Dunlops.

After hooking up with the route near Seneca Rocks, most of the day was pavement or very tame gravel, but after the adventures from the day before I was pretty happy with just staying on the route and enjoying the Appalachian scenery. The forecast that evening looked pretty grim, so between the weather and the extra miles that day I decided to bail on the camp site and headed to a cheap hotel to get a shower and let myself relax a bit.

The last day of the ride was all on the BDR and I was starting to feel a bit more comfortable with how the Missions felt on the dirt, so I let myself enjoy a bit more pace and even took a few optional rocky side roads to explore and hit some more view points during the day. Luckily the day was pretty free from drama and I got to decompress and enjoy a bit more.

After the night of camping, I got up before sunlight to beat some weather home and give myself time to get unpacked and have a full day decompress before heading back to work on Monday. All in all the trip was a success, but I might just have to accept that the MA BDR is a cursed route for me.

I’m not sure if I’ll try Dunlop tires again after I wear this set out. While the dirt traction was OK, I don’t think I can recall ever triggering the ABS or TC in the 12k miles and three sets of tires I’d gone through on the Norden before this, certainly not on dry pavement. The topbox also wasn’t my favorite for adventure riding; while I did like being able to lock my camera at stops, it was a lot of weight high and far back on the bike for anything off pavement. I’ll probably stick with it for commuting and strictly road-based trips and go back to soft dry duffels for adventure rides. The DMD navigation setup definitely lived up to expectations.