Passes & Canyons Blog

Rider's logo for Favorite Rides & Destinations

If you subscribe to Rider magazine as I do, you probably already know this. If not, then here you go.

An email told me this morning that Rider has created a new online offshoot they have named “Favorite Rides & Destinations,” which is essentially a re-purposing of articles they have published in the magazine. A conveniently collected grouping of stories by a variety of riders about some of the best rides they have done. Just in case you’re looking for ideas as to where to ride.

Looking through the pieces in this first issue I was particularly interested to see one titled “Wild Texas: A Winter Ride To Big Bend.” This was apparently in the May 2013 issue, though I don’t remember it. But I’m interested now because Judy and I are planning a trip to Big Bend in the next few weeks. How very opportune.

So maybe you’re planning a trip to one of these places. Always good to do a little research before you go. Here’s what this first issue includes:

• Arkansas
• Salt Lake City to Las Vegas
• Vermont
• Texas
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Catskills area
• South Dakota

This online publication appears to be intended as a quarterly edition. The first one is labeled “Spring 2016.” And of course I’m going to be very interested to see what they include in future editions. I’ve had a couple ride pieces published by Rider and I’d certainly be tickled to see them use one or the other of those. Not that they would be paying me anything more for doing so; when you sell them a piece it’s right there in the contract that they have the right to use it again elsewhere as they see fit. I’d just like to have them see fit to use my stuff.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle is a bicycle with a pandemonium attachment, and is designed for the special use of mechanical geniuses, daredevils, and lunatics.

Nothing untoward on this road in Dinosaur National Monument, but when it rains it becomes impassable--don't even try.

I haven’t done this for a while so it must be due. More weird stuff encountered on the road, from a thread on Adventure Riders.

• I had to dodge a claw hammer that bounced off a pickup truck’s rear bumper after he hit a bump.
• A wheel w/ tire rolling across the road from an oncoming truck.
• Couple weeks ago, my wife was heading to work on her PC800…crested a hill, and right in the middle of her lane was a damn Fisher-Price playhouse!
• Boulders. Large boulders for landscaping / construction. An 18 wheel dump truck was turning in front of me, across my path of travel, about 100 yards away. The truck, being overloaded, flipped on its side. 6 or 7 large boulders rolled out, and tumbled straight toward me. They were round enough so they actually rolled a good distance. It was such an unexpected event that I had a strange feeling of calm, and actually steered around one as it rolled past.
• Took a bat in the chest at 70 MPH crossing a bridge one night. That was weird, and painful. Thankfully it was the flying kind, not the baseball kind.
• After moving from Alaska in 1990 I met up with local riders in Oregon where I moved to. They managed to make me paranoid of deer (we didn’t have them, just moose), one early morning I was riding toward Bridgeport Washington on a sunny morning a few months later. The light through the trees was incredible. But for some reason my mind had gotten back to the deer. . every shadow started worried, then I came around a beauty of a right hand sweeping corner doing about 70 mph and there it was. . the biggest Pig I have ever seen in my life smack dab in the middle of my line. Missed it by a foot at best, afterwards the first thing that came to mind was the epitaph for my head stone “They never warned me of the pigs”
• My friend was hit by a fish in the chest. He startled an osprey who dropped his catch.
• Hit a boat once, in the middle of the desert. Long story…
  (Other ADV member) Was it the Calypso?
  Nope a small fishing boat. Came up over a hill on my Buell s1w. Paved road winding thru the dez. Came up over a hill and a truck turned left in front of me. No problem I thought, get on front brake and get around him to his right though I knew not much room for error. All looked good then I saw he was towing a fishing boat. Broadside the boat, I went up and over, the bike stopped still. Bike totalled, me just a few broken bones, bruised kidneys and liver, ATGATT saved my ass. He was nice enough to offer me a cold beer and some whiskey, at 8 am. Yes he was cited including for dui but hey he was going fishin’ after all..
• Narrowly missed a pile of elephant poop in the road — massive turds — while up on some twisties in the mountains. That would have ended badly….
• Narrow miss. Giant 10 or 12 point buck in full velvet in August. Hard on the brakes and missed his tail by one foot. It was the full velvet up close that was freaky.

OK, enough fun. Now it’s time to get out there and ride so you can have your own thrilling encounters and add them to this thread.

Biker Quote for Today

Squids: tee-shirt, temporary tag, sneakers, shorts, and no idea what the yellow line is for.

I strongly recommend Patty Ann's Cafe in Kiowa.

We’ve had such great weather that I suspect even people who normally put their bikes away for the winter have been out riding. I suspect riding is even possible in the mountains, whereas I normally don’t ever go up there at this time of year. Maybe I’ll give it a shot soon but so far I’ve stuck to the flatlands.

That means going out on the prairie if you’re going to go more than just around the neighborhood, so I headed out east on Jewell, which has become my go-to route out of town. It turns to gravel just east of Gun Club Road but it’s good, hard-packed gravel, and besides, I was on the Honda, which does OK on gravel.

I reached the T intersection at Watkins Road and turned south to Quincy, another T intersection. I had been at that point numerous times, going both directions, but had never gone further east on Quincy. It was time.

I didn’t know what to expect–I was just exploring. But I figured if I found a place to turn south I could work my way to Kiowa or Elizabeth. I just didn’t know how far I’d have to go before I would find that road south.

I came to Tom Bay Road (ever heard of that?) and it looked possible but after I made the turn I saw it went to dirt right away and the dirt didn’t look all that great. So I continued east on Quincy. Next came Brick-Center Road and I didn’t even try that one. Someday I suspect these will be as familiar–and paved–as Gun Club Road, Tower Road, and all those. But not yet.

Then I hit Kiowa-Bennett Road and I knew that was my baby. South I went. Not too much out here but a few clusters of mini-mansions and a lot of farming and grazing land. But pretty, in a prairie kind of way.

I got to Kiowa and was glad I was going the direction I was on this route. If I had come out on CO 86 looking to turn north I might have missed it. There’s no big intersection or anything; it just looks like any other street in this small town. But it does seem to be a somewhat common route for motorcycles. I passed a fair number going the other direction. I’m guessing they gather at the Stagecoach in Franktown and head east, then north, before turning back west to town. The opposite of what I was doing.

At this point I was ready for lunch and Kiowa had a selection of places to eat. Patty Ann’s Cafe had a sign saying “Bikers Welcome” so I went in there. What a good choice! It appears that all their food is prepared from scratch and it has real flavor. I just got a bowl of soup but it was no little bowl. It had to have been at least twice as much as most restaurants serve as a bowl. Plus, it came with fresh-baked biscuits. Yum!

From there it was back west through Elizabeth to Franktown. Then north on CO 83 through Parker and back to Denver. What a great day to be out on the bike.

Biker Quote for Today

She said “the bike or me.” Decision made.