Passes & Canyons Blog

When I set out on the Battle Back to the Bike I made a goal to ride at least 1,000 miles in my first month once I made it back. I met that goal as of Wednesday, July 4. I guess I really am back.

Here’s how it went.

June 7 — My first ride, to Evergreen and down Turkey Creek and then Deer Creek — 71 miles.

June 8 — Up Clear Creek Canyon to the Peak-to-Peak and down Golden Gate Canyon — 97 miles.

June 10 — Up Mount Vernon Canyon, to Idaho Springs, over Squaw Pass, to Evergreen, and home — 126 miles.

June 16 — The RMMRC Pie Ride to Evergreen, Deckers, Woodland Park, Florissant, Jefferson, and back — 267 miles.

June 25 — Up to Eagle — 141 miles.

June 26 — Eagle to Buena Vista to Denver — 218 miles.

July 3 — A run to the wine store and then to CostCo to get gas — 26 miles.

July 4 — Sedalia, Palmer Lake, Castle Rock, Parker, and home –98 miles.

Total: 1,044 miles.

Biker Quote for Today

The lure of the open road never goes out of style.

Living in Denver I am well acquainted with just about any day ride you can make from here. But I was up in Eagle this week visiting my friends Willie and Jungle and they decided to take a day ride. Oh, that puts a very different perspective on that idea.

I had ridden up there the day before and just took I-70 so as to get there. I was disinclined take the slab home, however, so it fit my plans perfectly to accompany them on their ride to the point where I would peel off for home.

Leaving Eagle we stuck to old U.S. 6, paralleling I-70. Who wants to ride on the interstate when you don’t have to? U.S. 6 does get very urban, however, when you get to Edwards (we were headed east) so we did jump on the big road there, just for two exits, to the Minturn exit.

Then it was U.S. 24 over Tennessee Pass to Leadville, and down over to Buena Vista. Certainly I’ve been on that road more than once before but it is not a common route for me so it was very nice to be out there.

As we reached Buena Vista and turned east on U.S. 285 it occurred to me that for Willie and Jungle, this stretch must be a piece they don’t get to often. I mean, they never go to Denver and that’s where this road heads. For me on the other hand, this is an extremely common stretch of road that I traverse probably at least a dozen times every year.

So we headed east and stopped in Fairplay for lunch. They could have gone north there over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge but these people are serious riders and that would not have been a long enough ride. So we continued east from Fairplay over Kenosha Pass and down to Grant. This was where we parted. I continued east to Denver and they turned north over Guanella Pass to Georgetown and then headed west to Eagle on I-70, with a side-trip planned to go over Loveland Pass, rather than through the tunnel.

Of course, living in Eagle, Willie and Jungle have numerous day trip options. I have ridden with them other times when we went to Leadville, down to Twin Lakes, over Independence Pass to Aspen and Glenwood Springs and then back to Eagle. Also over to Wolcott and up to Toponas and over Gore Pass, then Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat Springs, and back to Eagle.

Whereas, living in Denver, as I do, the first part of nearly every trip is just getting across town to get into the mountains, and then coming home I’m largely restricted to the two major routes, I-70 and U.S. 285. But I suspect wherever you live it gets to be the same old, same old, riding the same routes again and again. Anybody want to swap houses for a year so we can both explore new roads?

Biker Quote for Today

Some important things in life just require a deep breath and a long ride with friends.

I joined with other members of the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC) Saturday on the Pie Ride. For those motorcyclists who live by the slogan, “Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride,” this is the perfect event.

We met at a bakery where the first pie of the day was quiche. I’m not sure very many of us actually got quiche but that was the theme setter. There were eight bikes plus we picked up another rider who just happened to be there having breakfast.

Getting underway, we ran up Bear Creek from Morrison to Evergreen but this was not a good thing. Evergreen was holding its annual rodeo and they had a parade through town and all traffic was shunted to the north around downtown. Then, when we came out on Evergreen Parkway, the road into town there was also blocked so we could not get to the road that runs from Evergreen to Conifer as we had intended.

Thank you Evergreen, I guess it wouldn’t have been possible to have posted a sign coming up the canyon that the road ahead was closed. We ended up taking Evergreen Parkway to I-70 back down to C-470 and finally took U.S. 285 into the hills toward Conifer.

At Pine Junction we turned south and made our first pit stop at Deckers. By this point we had lost three bikes so the group was smaller. The barest sprinkling of rain cooled us down nicely and it started coming down harder just as we pulled into Woodland Park, where we were stopping for lunch. The second pie of the day: pizza.

I’m sure not one of us needed to eat more after lunch but just 25 miles further heading west from Woodland Park we came to Florissant, to a very nicely converted old house that is now a restaurant. We had been pumped up by stories of how good the forest berry pie was, and Sara had called ahead to let them know we were coming so they would not have run out by the time we got there. Sadly, the lady said she had just pulled the latest pie out of the oven and it would need time to cool, so no forest berry pie for us.

I got the peach instead and the peaches were clearly fresh but not quite ripe and the pie had not been baked long enough to soften them up. So I was disappointed.

We continued west to Lake George where we turned up Highway 77 which runs up to Jefferson, in South Park. There we caught U.S. 285 and turned east back to town. I hadn’t expected it to be an all-day ride but it was nearly 6 o’clock by the time I was home. Ah well, a good ride. And more pie than you can shake a stick at.

Biker Quote for Today

The best way for guys to communicate is just don’t talk to each other for nine hours. That’s why I like long motorcycle rides. It’s a great way for guys to socialize and not socialize. — Justin Theroux

For my third ride since I won the Battle Back to the Bike, I headed out to Morrison, up 93 to I-70 and then got on old U.S. 40 going up Mount Vernon Canyon, right alongside I-70, at least for awhile. I had been up this way earlier this year but wanted to explore more.

For starters, once you get up to the buffalo overlook exit from I-70, it appears U.S. 40 merges at least for a few miles with I-70. But where does the road go on either side at that exit? I figured I’d find out.

First I went to the south side. The road to the left seemed to go into a housing development; I turned right. Right away there was a sign announcing Genesee Mountain Park, one of Denver’s mountain parks. Have I ever been here before? And does this road go anywhere beyond the park? Time to find out.

Things started looking familiar very quickly and I concluded I had indeed been here before, but it was either 40 years ago or perhaps only 30 years ago. So it was like a first visit.

The road climbed its way up Genesee Mountain to picnic areas, with signs for a trail, but then came to an end. Second question answered. Gonna have to backtrack. Heading back down I was surprised to look off to my right, to the east, and there was the Sleeper house. In case you’re unacquainted, this is a futuristic-looking house that was featured in an old Woody Allen movie, titled not surprisingly, “Sleeper.” But there it was, down below me, over on the crest of the next ridge. I’ve only ever seen it from I-70.

So back down to I-70 and across. Where does the road go over there? Does it go through to somewhere? I only remembered that I had been that way once before, also around 40 years ago, when my friends Jerry and Diane got married up there.

It didn’t take long. In about a tenth of a mile the road curved around to the left and there was the church they were married in. And beyond that there was a dirt road going to the left, a road into another housing development to the right, and a gate into a private property straight ahead. No choice but the interstate.

I passed the first exit on the slab, the Chief Hosa exit, and got off at the Evergreen Parkway exit. Crossing the interstate, I took the first right and was back on old U.S. 40. Now the highway curved far away from I-70 through some really pretty country. And I encountered a surprising number of bikers who also know of this road. It does come back to I-70 going up the east side of Floyd Hill and then loops down to meet U.S. 6 at the mouth of Clear Creek Canyon. I turned left, with 6 feeding onto I-70 and took that up to Idaho Springs.

At Idaho Springs I turned up Chicago Creek on CO 103 to go over Squaw Pass. It wasn’t long, however, when I smelled smoke and then noticed that the air around me was filled with a blue haze. Clearly there was a forest fire somewhere. Was it ahead of me on my route? I continued, assuming that they would have the road blocked if that were the case. As the road climbed toward Echo Lake I got a more expansive view and could see there was smoke filling the air for miles around. I learned later it was a fire over by Silverthorne.

Now the riding got really nice, and considering the hot weather down on the plains, it was very nice to find myself chilly.

Eventually, of course, I ended up down at Evergreen Parkway, took that to Evergreen and down to Morrison and back home. About 130 miles and a really nice down out on the bike. I love when that happens.

Biker Quote for Today

Do not look back. You’re not going that way.

About 8:30 this morning I got the word from my doctor that it was OK to ride motorcycles again, so at about 1 this afternoon I was headed out on the Honda. Yahoo!! Of course, first off, it was blazing hot in the city, especially with my jacket, gloves, and helmet on, so I did the only thing I could do: I headed for the hills.

Out to Morrison, up that road to Evergreen, took the turn toward Conifer but turned east again on Turkey Creek Road. Then picked up Deer Creek Canyon Road, out onto the plains over by Chatfield State Park, then C-470 to I-25 and home. About 71 miles. Pretty OK for a first ride after more than two months off the bikes because of bypass surgery. And the Battle Back to the Bike has been won! Today is one day shy of 12 weeks since surgery.

Early on during recovery, when I had no stamina and was very weak, I had concerns over my first few rides once I could do so again and I had asked Alan if he would come on my first ride with me so I’d have back-up in case there were problems. I’m feeling so completely back to normal now, however, that I really didn’t feel a need for back-up but I figured I’d still call him about joining me. He wasn’t able to today, however, and I was not able–had no desire whatsoever–to wait another day. He and I will go ride another day soon.

And it was somewhat of a surprise to me that when I got on and took off it all felt absolutely normal. I might have just been riding yesterday. There was no apparent rustiness or needing to re-familiarize myself with the bike. And this was after the longest non-riding period I have gone through in 30 years. Now, that’s only two months off the bike and I know lots of people put their bikes away for the entire winter. But for me, two months is a long time.

The ride was fun and felt really good. Now I have exactly one month to really, really get back into top form because then we are off on a ride to Canada with some friends. And immediately after we get back from that I’m off again with the OFMC on the annual ride. So just to make sure I’m totally back at my peak, I’m setting the objective of riding 1,000 miles this month. I figure if there is rustiness I’m unaware of, that 1,000 miles will clean that up.

Hot diggety! I’m back on the bike!

Biker Quote for Today

I never really questioned why I ride, because for me it is as basic as breathing.

Author’s Note: Unless you are reading this on http://motorcyclecolorado.com/blog/ you are probably reading it on a rip-off site where they steal my work and publish it as their own. If you are not reading it on http://motorcyclecolorado.com/blog/, please exit and do not return to this rip-off site.

My string still holds, but it is destined to break soon. Ever since I bought my first motorcycle about 28 years ago I have ridden each bike I own at least once every calendar month. For the Honda that’s more than 300 consecutive calendar months. For the Kawi it comes to more than 200 consecutive months. For the V-Strom we’re looking at maybe just 45 months or so. But there will be no rides in April 2018. And probably none in May.

Thank you, heart surgery. Three weeks ago I had a quadruple bypass, along with repair of an aortal aneurysm and I’m not even supposed to drive for two months, much less ride a motorcycle. Heck, I’m not supposed to pick up anything weighing more than 10 pounds. How much weight do you suppose it involves just to rock a bike upright from its side stand? More than 10 pounds, I bet.

But I have to get back on the bike as soon as I can. Judy and I have plans to take a ride with our friends Willie and Jungle up to Bampf and Jasper in early July. I don’t intend to miss out on that trip. But that means that when I am able to ride, maybe around the first part of June, I’ll have just a month to get my stamina back and get my confidence up where it needs to be.

That confidence factor is a big one. I’ve never had to dust off rusty riding skills because I have never put the bikes away for the winter. This will be by far the longest I have gone without riding. And then there is the strength issue. I know I’m going to be nervous on my first couple rides so I’ve arranged with Alan to ride with me a few times. I know I’ll feel better knowing there is someone there to provide assistance if I need it.

This is all uncharted territory for me. I’m doing what I can already to build up strength, but so far it can be simply exhausting to walk around the block. Starting perhaps next week I’ll be going in regularly for rehab. No one is going to need to push me to do my rehab exercises; I intend to be pushing them.

So I don’t know how frequently I’ll be updating this blog for the interim. If I feel like I have anything interesting to discuss I’ll be here. Certainly I’ll be highlighting the big steps forward.

And also, just by way of explanation of that Author’s Note at the top, just recently two different websites have started stealing my blog posts and putting them up as their own. I’m trying to work with their web hosts to have them taken down but until that happens I want to try to make it clear to anyone coming to their rip-off sites that they are in fact rip-off sites.

Biker Quote for Today

A Biker’s Prayer: As I lay rubber down the street, I pray for traction I can keep. But if I spin and begin to slide, please dear God protect my sweet ride.

How is it that things come in bunches? I went out on my CB750 a couple weeks ago and three times during that one ride I had drivers in the lane to my right try take my lane, never mind that I was in it.

The first was the most egregious. This lady obviously did not look and she just pulled right over barely six feet in front of me. I blew my horn and shook my fist at her and she hit the gas. Made sure to get well ahead of me.

The next time was better. This guy seemed like he initiated his lane change and looked my way at the same time. He very quickly corrected and got back in his own lane.

The third was the least of the three: she signaled and had barely begun moving my way when she saw me and moved back.

You might ask whether I was at fault here. Was I paying no attention to being in these people’s blind spots? No, I assure you I was not. I pay a lot of attention to that issue, coming up on cars I’m overtaking cautiously and then hitting the throttle to blast past them quickly, getting into and out of their blind spots as rapidly as possible.

But there’s no avoiding being in their blind spot at least momentarily, and if that’s when they decide to change lanes and they don’t do a head-check, watch out!

Call Me The Breeze
That Saturday was an utterly gorgeous day so I did something kind of unusual: I went for a ride up in the hills. Normally I just never venture up to the high country on a bike until about May. This year, however, it has been so very warm of late, and we’ve had so little snow, that I figured I’d do it. Plus, I had just been up on the Peak-to-Peak the week before in a car and it was all clear.

So I was on the Concours and I headed up Mount Vernon Canyon on U.S. 40. It was a really nice run up to Genesee but when I got to that high point the wind was whipping a bit. I went on to Floyd Hill and the wind was howling. Of course, the Concours has complete bodywork so I always describe it as a sail. Not fun in high winds.

My original idea was to hit U.S. 6 in Clear Creek Canyon and then jump on I-70 just up to the exit for the Central City Parkway. I planned to take it over to Central City and then run down to Black Hawk, then go north on the Peak-to-Peak and back down to the flatlands via the Golden Gate Canyon road.

Well, considering the wind at Floyd Hill, going on up to Central City Parkway, which is higher and more exposed, was not at all appealing. So when I hit U.S. 6 I turned right and headed down Clear Creek Canyon. I could have then taken the left that would have taken me to Black Hawk and on to Golden Gate Canyon as planned but my gas gauge was acting weird so I was nervous.

Gas Or No Gas?
Ever since I had left home my gas situation was unclear. I always reset my trip meter to zero when I fill up but when I started off, the trip meter was reading about 80 miles while the gas gauge was showing near empty. Then as I went up and down hills the needle swung back and forth from half a tank to almost empty. I understand this, I’ve ridden this bike for for nearly 20 years, but I’ve never seen this kind of wild swinging. I was starting to wonder if a gas line had rotted through and was leaking. But I checked at a stop and found nothing dripping so I kept going.

I just kept heading down, to Golden, and made my way back home. I stopped and filled up on the way, and it only took 4.2 gallons. The Kawi holds 7.5 gallons. I was nowhere close to empty. But I filled it and set the trip meter to zero so now I know that next time, if things get weird again, there must be something wrong. Otherwise, I have no idea what was going on.

Speaking of gas issues, I had a different one on the previous Friday when I was out on the CB750. Normally I go to Reserve on that bike at about 145 miles. I was hitting 160 and going strong so I was wondering, watching closely for the first sign of the engine coughing so I could switch over.

I was coming up I-25 when it did seem to cough and I quickly flipped the petcock. But it didn’t take long before it started coughing even more. I hadn’t planned to get off at Orchard but in this case I did. On Orchard I got stopped at the first traffic signal and then the engine died altogether. I pulled over onto the sidewalk and considered my options.

The one thought I had been having was that maybe I had left the petcock set to Reserve ever since the last time I had had cause to use it. I put the kickstand down and got off to take a look. Sure enough, it was now set in the “On” position, not the “Reserve” position. I flipped it back to Reserve, pushed the starter button, the bike fired up and I rode on home.

No harm done, of course, but I know from experience what can happen if you have the lever set to Reserve without knowing it: you run out of gas entirely. Yes, I’ve done that.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you’ve never ridden long enough to know that stock seats are never comfortable.

What, did some huge rainstorm carve out a new canyon? How is it possible that I could have gone up into the hills right here in the metro area on a new road?

This one has been hiding in plain sight: Mount Vernon Canyon.

If you’re like most people you just said, “What?”

Mount Vernon Canyon is the canyon everyone has been up and down through but never heard of. You know I-70? That’s Mount Vernon Canyon. But did you know that U.S. 40 also goes up through that same canyon?

All the way up to Genesee U.S. 40 runs pretty much right alongside I-70. Heading up the hill you won’t even see U.S. 40 because it is above you; coming down it is more visible. And while I recently came down part of that road for the first time, I had never gone up it. Until Saturday.

Where do you even get on this road? If you’re coming north on CO 93 out of Morrison you take the left on the north side of I-70; coming south from Golden you’re already on U.S. 40 and you follow the sign going to the right, west. (Don’t get confused; not the on-ramp to I-70.)

It’s a pleasant ride, with not a lot of traffic. Once you get to Genesee U.S. 40 merges with I-70 just for a short distance and you can then get back off the superslab at the exit for Evergreen Parkway. Cross to the south side of the interstate and then take the first right turn. This puts you back on U.S. 40 and you’ll cross back to the north side of the interstate and then for awhile you’ll get completely away from the big road.

The two roads do draw close together again after a bit, especially as you come up to Floyd Hill, and then U.S. 40 winds down Floyd Hill to meet U.S. 6 coming up through Clear Creek Canyon. U.S. 40 continues west from there but it is incorporated into I-70 so that’s the end of this nice alternative stretch of road.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: Motorcycles don’t care if you are late.

Motorcycle Link for Today

When you need motorcycle tires, Toyo Tires are a good option.