Passes & Canyons Blog

The Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders website.

I don’t list motorcycle events outside of Colorado on my Colorado Motorcycle Rides, Runs, and Rallies page but I do go outside the state here on the blog. So I’m taking this moment to alert any adventure riders out there to something going on in Utah that you might find interesting.

The Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders group is exactly what the name implies, a group of folks who like to get off the smooth stuff onto where riding is more of a challenge. And on April 16-19 of next year they are planning a Moab Rendezvous. Organized in partnership with the Moab-based organization Ride With Respect, the event seeks to raise money for that group in order to help in their struggle to keep trails open to off-road riders.

This is from the Ride With Respect website:

Ride with Respect aims to protect natural resources while accommodating diverse recreation on public land. We reach this goal through trail/restoration projects and educational programs. In combination, these initiatives work to concentrate vehicle travel to established roads and trails.

Off-trail travel most often results from confusion. Ride with Respect delineates appropriate routes through positive and negative trail marking. We improve trail conditions to minimize their deterioration and consequent widening. By documenting the effects of our trail work, we further general knowledge of techniques that ensure recreation is a renewable resource.

Off-trail travel is also caused by ignorance. We foster conscientious use by educating through interpretive signs and personal contacts. By offering certified rider-training classes, we instill environmental ethic and safety consciousness in children.

The founders of Ride with Respect are based in Moab, Utah. They have diverse backgrounds, with motorcycling as a common thread. They represent the interests of all recreationists.

Here’s what the RMA Riders site has to say about the event:

If extreme riding is your flavor, then the Moab Rendezvous will appeal to you. This ride will test your skills and your mental toughness out in the lonely landscape of the Moab, UT area. Yes, riding friends, we are putting on the first Rendezvous to be held in the most logical and friendly to OHV environments known to our community.

No matter the skill level there will be rides lead for all on various size Dual Sport and Adventure bikes.

Their will be lead rides of local trails. In fact we will be encouraging you to participate in the rides. We also encourage you to bring out your small bike and your large bike to enjoy both the single track trails like Slick Rock or the bigger big friendly trails like the White Rim Trail. We are proud to announce that we will be working with ‘Ride With Respect’ to raise them much needed money to keep these trails open to all.

And here’s more from RMA Riders:

Our sport is at risk!!!

Did you know that most of the treasured riding areas in Colorado are under constant attack? On an annual basis, we face losing access to ride on our public lands, both Forest Service and BLM. We need your support and partnership to continue the fight and defend our rights!!!

Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders is a Colorado-based non-profit American Motorcycle Association Group with a mission to positively impact and influence the lives of those that ride with us, respecting each other and supporting one another. Additionally, RMAR supports fund-raisers for state and/or local trail riding clubs or Associations/Coalitions/Alliances that champion our sport and/or fight legislatively/politically for public land access for motorcycling.

Sounds to me like a good event and a heck of a lot of fun to boot. I may just have to consider going on this myself. Of course, getting over to Utah on the V-Strom in April could be the real challenge. We’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

Scientists call it C9 H13 NO3. You call it adrenalin. I call it my dirt bike.

It's definitely looking like autumn out by Cherry Creek State Park.

Can you believe it’s November? This is the point where it often gets hard to squeeze in a ride. It seemed for a long time as though it snowed every year on Halloween, but not this year and not the last couple years. And once you got that cold blast in late October, winter would really set in in November.

Knowing how this has worked so often in the past, and also that the forecast for Monday said snow was possible, I figured Saturday was my golden opportunity. Although a bit overcast, it was warm and very pleasant–a good day to ride. And as anyone who knows me is aware, I make it a point to ride each of my bikes every single month, and if I didn’t take advantage of such a nice day in November, and things then turned ugly, I would be kicking myself.

First I climbed on the V-Strom. Another thing that happens every month is that it is time to pick up wine. For a wedding gift all these years ago someone gave us a membership in the Wine of the Month Club at the Vineyard, a nice little wine store in Cherry Creek. We have kept renewing ever since and it makes the Vineyard a natural destination. I’m sure I show up there on one of the bikes at least six months out of every year. I did it again on Saturday.

That trip took me to the north and a bit west. Getting on the Concours next I turned southeast. I like to ride across the top of Cherry Creek Dam because the view up there is so nice. I cruised on out on Parker Road as far as Arapahoe Road and then went west, then north on Peoria because I wanted to come up alongside Cherry Creek State Park on the south. I was hoping to get a good photo of fall coloration and the result–not as good as I hoped–can be seen above.

Home again, and then it was time for the CB750. I headed south this time, thinking southwest but not sure where.

Going south on DTC Boulevard I came to Orchard. Unlike Belleview and Arapahoe, the major streets to the north and south, Orchard does not go through from I-25 to points west, even though it is a major street east of I-25. I’ve known this for a long time and so I’ve avoided that stretch of Orchard for many, many years. So many, in fact, that I had forgotten where exactly Orchard does go, and why it is impassable. What better time than when you’re just out cruising and exploring to find out. I went west on Orchard.

At first it fooled me because it was at least a straight, through street, although it did narrow down to two lanes west of Holly. But it was a pleasant ride through Greenwood Village, one of the ritzier enclaves for the folks with more money than the rest of us. It was the kind of place that made me think, “Gosh, this could be a nice place to live if I had about eight times as much money as I do have.”

Then it started twisting. I don’t mean that in terms of “the twisties” that motorcyclists love. I mean that in terms of Orchard coming to an end and forcing a turn north on South Jackson and then west again on Long Road, followed by a T-intersection where going right said “No exit” so it had to be a left. Now I was totally on residential streets and shortly I was back on Orchard again, where it again looked like a major street. I know, though, that if I had turned east there on Orchard it would have very quickly dissolved into residential streets again. So now I remember why you don’t ever take Orchard when you want to get through that area. They don’t want you to, so they made it as impractical as they possibly could. You get to do that when you’re designing residential neighborhoods for the upper crust.

So I headed west on Orchard the short distance to University and then north on University to Belleview, east on Belleview, and on home. Not a particularly long ride but an interesting, enjoyable one nonetheless, and all three bikes had been ridden in November. OK, bring it on Mom Nature–I plan to ride more in November but even if you make it impossible for me I’ve already got you beat this month. December will be a whole other issue. (But you just wait; I’ll beat you then, too. I always do.)

Biker Quote for Today

Ever get lost? You know, that good kind of lost — come to a dirt road intersection and you have no idea where you are or which way to turn? I like when that happens!