Passes & Canyons Blog

Everybody’s familiar with what some people call the Minnesota Good-Bye, right? That’s where you spend half an hour talking as your guests get up to leave, then maybe you see them to the door and talk some more, and then you go out with them to their car and talk some more before they finally drive away.

Yeah, that’s fine if you’re the chatty type but if you really just want to get going and someone in your group won’t shut up it can be pretty annoying.

On a motorcycle ride there can be something similar. Let’s say you and your buddies have been out on a week-long ride, like the OFMC does each year, and it’s the last day and you’re headed home. You’re sticking together but it’s starting to take on a horses-headed-for-the-stable feel to it. But then you stop one last time to get gas, stretch your legs, or whatever, and say your good-byes.

Then you get back on the bikes and head out but you’re still riding together. And even as you get closer to town and get into heavier traffic, which can make sticking together harder, you still more or less try to stick together. Until finally someone peels off in their home direction but still everyone else tries to stick together. Until either you totally break up in different directions or traffic just makes it impossible. The long good-bye.

I was really kind of relieved a few weeks ago when the OFMC was coming back to town. We left Walden, got gas in Kremmling, and made one last stop for ice cream–and good-byes–in Empire. Great ride guys, good to see you all . . . all that.

And then we got on the bikes and Dennis took off like a bat out of hell. In just a minute or two he was totally out of sight. Not really feeling a need to stick with Bill, I stuck with him anyway but before we made it to Idaho Springs we were in heavy traffic and definitely separated. So I didn’t even try. We’ve been together a week, we said our good-byes. What point would there be?

And that was nice. It was quick. It was clean. And it just totally uncomplicated things. I’m heading for the stable, I’m not concerned with the other horses. Every horse for himself. I approve of the short good-bye.

Biker Quote for Today

Sons of Arthritis: Ibuprofen Chapter

There’s probably no one in the RMMRC who knows these roads better than Tim, so when Tim planned a ride to Guffey for lunch you knew it was going to be a good one.

A good-sized group assembled at the Phillips 66 out in Morrison and we headed out US 285 through Conifer, over Kenosha Pass, and down into Jefferson. We turned south on Park County Road 77 (Tarryall Road) past Tarryall Reservoir–thus the name–and picked up US 24 at Lake George. I hadn’t been along that road recently and I was surprised anew at how pretty it was, first of all, and also at how green South Park still is this late in the season.

From Lake George we headed east just to Florissant and then turned south on Teller County Road 1. If you stay on it all the way, this road will take you into Cripple Creek via the back way, and it’s a terrific motorcycle road. But we turned right off at Teller County Road 11 and then turned right off that onto Teller County Road 112. Crossing into Park County the road becomes Park County Road 102 and after some twisting and turning you come to Guffey. Just a few miles past Guffey the road ends at CO 9, coming down from Hartsel and up from Parkdale, near the Royal Gorge.

It had been years since I had been through Guffey, and I’ve never stopped there. This is quite the little town. Coming in from the east the main road is lined with really, really old cars, tractors and a lot of other stuff. Talk about character! And then the road does a quick right-left and in that bend is the Freshwater Saloon, home of The Corona’s at Freshwater.

On a pre-ride scouting visit a week earlier this place had not been busy so we weren’t expecting it to be this day, but that didn’t anticipate the big biker crowd the restaurant had been alerted was coming. We barely got seated before this thundering horde of Harleys roared in and took up the entire area set aside for them. We were glad we got our lunch orders in first.

After lunch we headed back the way we came in, out 102/112, 11, and 1, up a point where, instead of going all the way to Florissant, we turned east on Teller County Road 42, a road I had never been on before. This turned out to be a cut-off that takes you much more directly to US 24 just outside of Divide. Nice to know this road is there.

We took US 24 to Woodland Park and then turned north on CO 67, up to Deckers, and then CO 126 to Buffalo Creek. I had been thinking at this point about Sunday afternoon traffic coming down out of the mountains on US 285, and not looking forward to it, but apparently so had Tim. So at Buffalo Creek we turned off onto the West Platte River Road, which runs along the South Platte River. Just past Foxton we turned onto Foxton Road, again headed north to US 285.

But again, Tim was not planning on riding 285. We turned right onto Running Deer Road, which connects to Broken Arrow Drive, which then connects to Pleasant Park Road, which becomes High Grade Road winds around and takes you down into the Little Bear Creek, now being called Deer Creek Road. This finally runs into Deer Creek Canyon and the Deer Creek Canyon Road, which comes out of the hills at Wadsworth, just south of C-470. So there we were–all the way down without any Sunday afternoon traffic. Good job Tim!

At this point the group scattered and I made my way home. It had not only been a really nice ride, it was a great day for riding. Glad I got to take advantage of it.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when someone says you have an “iron butt” and it’s a compliment.

I had never heard of Exit Tours until Mike Brown contacted me. When he told me he was in the motorcycle tour business I was eager to talk, and before that I hurried to look at his sites. Far from enlightening me, the sites left me puzzled. There are several references to “the club.” Now I really wanted to talk.

In brief, Exit Tours is a club for people who want to ride off-road with others of a similar inclination. To go on a club ride the fee is $199. Membership is $399 per year, with your first club ride at no charge, so really, $200 per year assuming you go on at least one ride.

The ride fee gets you GPS tracks, meals, a t-shirt, camping fees covered, and the camaraderie. Plus, sometimes, portaging your gear from one night’s stop to the next one, although most rides are loops that end back at the same spot. None of that stuff comes free, except the camaraderie, so thus you have the fee. And I assume the club pays Mike for his efforts in arranging all this. Thus you have the club as a business model. Or, as Mike said, “It makes it so I don’t have to pay to ride.”

I have known other tour operators whose main purpose is really to get their own travel either free or at a discount. This appears to be a functional business model. It also keeps down the red tape. If a business is going to operate on public land there are required permits. For a club to just ride through there is no such requirement.

And it does seem to actually function like a club. Mike said that since 2012 he has had about 800 people on these rides but there are a core of about 30 who come repeatedly and who pitch in on the work.

This is not a company offering training or that sort of thing. You are expected to bring your own bike and know how to use it. The rides are either dual-sport, adventure rides, or trail rides. Different loops are mapped out so you can choose whichever is right for your skill level.

Rides are primarily within Colorado but some dip into New Mexico and some are in California.

Summing it up, Mike described the club as being “for guys who know how to ride, but not where to ride, and want to ride with others and make new friends.” That sounds like something I could be very interested in but Mike tells me my V-Strom would not usually cut it on their routes–not enough ground clearance. He did say, however, that there is one ride they do where the V-Strom would work. I’m interested.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you stare longer at the pictures of the bikes in Easyriders than the naked women.