Passes & Canyons Blog

If I had waited a day this is what I would have been faced with.

Tuesday was sunny and nice. Snow was forecast for Wednesday. It’s a new month: December. With the stage set like that how could I not go for a ride. The only gear I didn’t wear was my heated gloves. I figured my fingers might get chilly but they’d be OK.

I had no idea where I was going. I headed south to start with and got to where I thought I might go east but didn’t. On further south and I got to Arapahoe Road. Here I turned east. Going west is out of the question now till next spring, except if I just want to stay in town.

I knew I had been out as far east on Arapahoe as you can go but I didn’t remember where it ends up. Guess I’ll find out again and decide where to go after that when I get there. So. Cross Parker Road, on past E-470, and then I remembered this was going to bring me up onto Smoky Hill Road. OK.

When I left home the thermometer out front, in the sun, had read 60. The one in back, in the shade, had read 50. That’s a fair representation of how much effect sunshine offers. And it was sunny when I left. By the time I reached Smoky Hill Road the sky had totally changed. It was fully clouded over and not a bit of blue sky to be seen. And the temperature had dropped. OK, I had never expected to take a long ride and this seemed like good spot to turn toward home.

As I’ve been out riding lately I have noticed again and again road work aimed at installing medians on major streets. I had just gone past some on Arapahoe Road but now, heading west on Smoky Hill Road I saw some of the strangest medians I’ve ever seen. Usually they put in planters and vegetation or else just some smooth concrete or concrete stamped to look like brick. Not on Smoky Hill.

In these new medians they’re putting in it is all rough, sharp, loose rock. Sharp, jagged rock about the size of a football and just spread out thickly on the dirt. This is the kind of thing that would eat your tires almost instantly. Nobody is going to willingly drive onto these medians. But I bet this is a heck of a lot cheaper than even the simplest concrete. Is that all it is, a cost-saving matter? It’s definitely not aesthetically pleasing.

Anyway, I got home and was not too chilled and I had gotten my December ride in, in case the bad weather persists. Not a day too soon.

Biker Quote for Today

Make noise with your Harley Davidson bike and work in silence to achieve it.

This trail is nothing compared to what some of these folks in this ADV thread have done.

I’m down to only one motorcycle these days, and that one is my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom. I keep telling myself I will buy a second bike, presumably some time in the next year, but I don’t actually feel very motivated because I really like the V and it can do just about anything.

Of course, there are a lot of things it could do that I won’t try to make it do, primarily at this point because I don’t have the right tires for that kind of thing. I’ve quit running those 80/20 Shinkos because they don’t hold up to highway travel all that well and I do a heck of a lot more highway riding than off-road riding.

However, may people who own V-Stroms do have knobbies and they do take their bikes all kinds of places. And there is a thread on Adventure Rider where the theme/title is “Let’s see your Vstrom OFFROAD.” I was looking at this recently and oh man, some of these folks are up for a lot more than I am. Or maybe they weren’t really up for what they encountered but they did encounter it.

Just to give you some idea, I started on page 80 of this thread (there are 91 pages at this point, with 20 posts per page) and I’ll describe a bit of what there is to see.

Right away, in the fourth post on the page, we encounter a couple standing amongst some bikes, giving a thumbs-up, with the caption “High spirits before.” If that is not foreboding nothing is. You scroll down and they’ve come down a steep, gravel hill that comes to a large pool of water at the bottom, with one bike coming through the pool. The next several shots are a bike on its side, having come through a smaller pool, and then a different bike up to the saddle in a deep pool and the rider trying to walk it through.

But they made it and I’m sure they were proud of themselves. I’m not sorry I missed that one.

Next come a bunch of shots of bikes in great-looking spots, people really pleased with where they have gotten to. Some real feel-good shots.

Page 81 opens with a shot of a guy splashing through a stream. Yeah, I’ve done that. Then more shots of cool places people have gotten to. And then it starts going a bit off. First a shot of a dirt road, followed by a path that is mainly marked by other people’s tires having passed this way, followed by a long stretch of muddy road. Then a V-Strom high-centered on a pile of rotting timbers that the guy thought he could get over but was wrong.

A little later (caption “Oops!) we see a V half-way on its side with the front on dirt and the rear in a mud puddle.

Next some more “look at the great place I got to” shots. Envy is what I’m feeling now.

Then there’s another high-centered bike, followed by another bike up to its axles in mud. And a bike on the ground, with a shot showing that they have come through a so-called trail that is nothing but water hole after water hole. Then more mud, more water holes.

It goes on and on. And this was just starting on page 80 of 91 pages. Worth a look for the entertainment value and to see some great shots of some of the great places a motorcycle will take you. If you have the right tires.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not a thrill-seeker; I’m a thrill-giver to my soul.