Passes & Canyons Blog

Per my last post, about how riding motorcycles is the perfect socially distanced pursuit, the RMMRC has taken this concept to heart. Last week alone there were two group rides that were structured and promoted as being coronavirus conscious. Another is planned for this week.

I went on the first ride last week it was really nice. First off, it was a beautiful day, great for a ride. Second, it was my first time on a bike in about two weeks, so I was due. And third, it was a small group, five people, and we just had a good time on some good roads.

Sort of good roads, that is. Actually, sand and gravel were the order of the day. We went into the hills and this was probably the earliest I have gone into the hills after the winter has abated. The main highways were clear and clean. We didn’t stay just on the main highways.

Meeting up at the Phillips 66 station out by Morrison we headed up to Kittredge on Bear Creek Road and then turned south on Myers Gulch Road, which has turned into Parmalee Gulch Road by the time it reaches US 285. And oh man, was there ever a lot of sand and gravel. Mostly on the curves. Bob and Robert, who I call the Go-Fast Boys, were in the lead an even they slowed down. Just too much loose stuff in too many curves.

Hitting 285 we headed west to just past Conifer where we turned off toward the Platte River on Foxton Road. This had me a little puzzled because we were supposedly heading to a park a bit north of Pine. I knew we could get there this way but the last time I was on it the road along the Platte was unpaved. Were these guys on Gold Wings (three of them) really OK on a stretch of gravel? I was on my Concours, which hates gravel, but I figured I could manage.

So we got to what the map tells me is SW Platte River Road and turned west and what do you know, it was paved. In fact, it was paved so long ago that the asphalt was terrible, with a lot of gravel from disintegrated asphalt scattered everywhere. Obviously it has been a very long time since I’ve been on this particular stretch.

But it was paved and as long as there was a solid surface under the loose gravel the Connie did fine. We reached the intersection at Buffalo Creek and turned north toward Pine, cruised through Pine, and then turned off onto Crystal Lake Road, which took us back down to the Platte at a Jefferson County open space park I never knew existed. Nice place.

We parked–a separate space for each bike, no grouping into parking spaces–and each grabbed the food we had brought with us and then we sat spread around two picnic tables, well separated from each other, and ate and chatted in the balmy spring warmth. When we left we took the road on up to Pine Junction and turned east on 285.

Back at Conifer we turned onto Pleasant Park Road, which eventually feeds into Deer Creek Road and then into Deer Creek Canyon Road. This was where we really hit the sand. It wasn’t just in the corners, it was all over the road, all along the road. Then out to Wadsworth at Chatfield Reservoir, and on home from there. By the way, coming east on C-470 it finally looks like that long-term expansion project is finally nearing an end. That will be a relief–that has been such a huge mess for about three years.

And that was my beautiful ride on Tuesday. What did you do?

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: You can share your motorcycle with your friends.

With a predicted high of 70 on Saturday it was inevitable that the RMMRC was going to get a ride together. I probably would have been inclined to go but when Judy said she wanted to go that totally decided it.

This was going to be a different type of ride than we typically do. In the summer of course we tend to head for the hills. In winter, however, you pretty much have to stay on the plains, but you can still get hills going southeast toward the Palmer Divide. On Saturday we headed northeast, to Fort Morgan.

When I first thought about it I figured it could be nice, we might do some riding along the Platte River. Then, thinking more about it, I realized that was not likely. If you look at a map you’ll see that although the south fork of the South Platte comes right through Denver, from here it heads north all the way to Greeley, where it joins the north fork of the South Platte and then flows east. And after awhile it turns north toward Nebraska where it meets the North Platte.

All of this means you would have to ride pretty far to do much riding along the Platte. So what did we have to look forward to riding to Fort Morgan? A lot of straight roads across the prairie. Section line roads requiring a lot of zig-zagging in order to go northeast. Of course I-76 goes that way as a diagonal but nobody wants to ride the interstate.

So that’s what we did. There were eight of us on seven bikes and we saw a lot of prairie we had mostly never seen before. And which, frankly, I don’t have a lot of interest in seeing again any time soon. I mean, it was nice once, but once was enough.

We got into Fort Morgan, made a stop at the local museum–which was actually a pretty nice one–and then headed over for lunch at a local Mexican place.

And then it was back to Denver and we just got on the superslab. A couple of us got off at Barr Lake in order to skip the slab through town but at that point, as Judy said, we were just covering miles because we were getting tired of being in the saddle.

Yeah, there’s a reason we don’t generally ride to the northeast.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you refer to your bike as if it had a legal first name.

I was embarrassed a couple weeks ago when riding with some folks from the RMMRC. I had told Robert, who was leading, that the road north out of Daniels Park was paved all the way now. So he led the way along that road, turned left at the T intersection as I intended, and we soon found ourselves on gravel.

Mind you, it was very good gravel, probably drowned in magnesium chloride, making it practically paved, and we kept going. But I had been certain it was paved and I could not have been more wrong. How the heck did I make that mistake? Who knows.

So I studied an online map to see what the deal is down there and I found that if we had gone right at that T then we would have been able to get all the way back up to the city on paved roads. Yesterday was a gorgeous, warm early March day so I had to ride and it made sense to head down that way to cement this route into my memory.

I headed south on Quebec down, down, and further down to the south. Quebec became Monarch Boulevard and eventually I reached Castle Pines Parkway. I turned west until I reached Daniels Park and then followed the road we took that day that bent north and then I reached the T intersection. This is North Daniels Park Road and Grig’s Road. This time I turned right.

On a side note, while coming north through Daniels Park I passed a herd of bison. I didn’t know they had bison at Daniels Park.

I knew from the map that Grig’s Road was going to do some serious bending, and it did. It turns out that it has to jog around a good-sized arroyo. Homes backing onto that arroyo must have a really nice view and setting.

Heading straight south momentarily, I reached a roundabout, as expected, and turned due east again. This was Daniels Gate Road and it made a couple curves, then bent northeast and intersected . . . Monarch Boulevard. So I had made a loop.

OK. I really, truly have a clear idea of that area now.

Biker Quote for Today

An expert is a person who has made every mistake possible in a very narrow field ~ Neils Bohr

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pikes Peak more beautiful than it was on Saturday. Between the fresh coat of snow and the perfect light and clouds I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Which made it kind of nice that we were riding in that direction and it came into view repeatedly.

There were 11 of us on this RMMRC ride and while Saturday was not as warm as forecast it was an OK day to ride if you were geared for it. I wore my electric vest and was mighty glad I did, but I left my heated gloves at home, which was a mistake. Some day I’ll learn to put them in my bag so I’ll have them if I decide I want them. But I’m a slow learner.

I want to make the point to all of you who are involved with motorcycle groups that are struggling for membership: The RMMRC has recently gone from its own website to using Meet-Up for its site and its communications. This has been a huge success. We get more riders on the rides and while I don’t know how many, if any, have joined so far I have to believe that some of them will. Especially those who keep showing up on the rides.

Our destination was Monument, to a restaurant (La Casa Fiesta) I was not familiar with, but that grossly understates the situation. You know what I learned? Monument is a real town. All I had ever seen of it was the road down from Palmer Lake to the I-25 interchange. Guess what? If you go a few blocks west from the interstate there is a real town there, with downtown, shops, restaurants–the whole shebang. Who knew?

Getting there without riding all the same roads you’ve been on countless times could be an issue. However, leading the group was Tim, who I have to say is the one person I know who knows the roads south and east of Denver better than me. I’m sure for much of the group this was their first time on nearly all these roads. For me, I had been on most of them but there were at least a few that I have never been on. What fun!

We had quite a mixed contingent of bikes. There were three Hondas, two or three Beemers, a couple Kawasakis, one Spyder, and I’m not sure what else. On the way down I got behind a woman on a sportbike that had an obnoxious exhaust going “Bra-a-a-a-a-t, bra-a-a-a-a-t” the whole way. I made sure to put several people between us on the ride home.

When we got to the restaurant we wondered if it was open because the large parking lot was completely empty. It was open, and starting about 15 minutes later they started arriving. First there was a group of 30 bikes that pulled in. And more kept coming. By the time we were leaving the lot was completely full, with only a couple cars and probably 50 bikes.

We had a good meal (I do recommend La Casa Fiesta) and Roy did his thing, pitching the Meet-Up folks on the club and telling everyone about our upcoming rides. Then we headed north on CO 105 and everyone split off at their appropriate turns and we all went home. Heck, by the time I got home it was actually kind of warm.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if over half the pictures you take have your bike in it.

I kissed my wallet the moment I laid hands on it. This was when I got back from a ride on Sunday. More on that as it comes.

The forecast called for a high of 70 or 71 on Sunday so of course the RMMRC had a ride planned. So what if the plans were a little confused.

The last message I had seen said meet at the Circle K at Hess and Parker Road, so that was where I went. When I got there I was the only motorcycle in sight so I pulled out my phone and opened the most recent email. How odd–this said to meet at Performance Cycles.

OK, no big deal, I know the objective is to head to Rosie’s diner in Monument for lunch. I’ll just go there.

Navigationally this was not my best day. I must have made three wrong turns on my way over there. Plus, there was construction work going on along I-25 north of Larkspur. I managed to get there OK but it persuaded me I ought to take a day this summer and just ride all over the area between I-25 and CO 105 from Castle Rock down to Monument, exploring every road. It’s on my list now.

I got there before the others so I was sitting outside waiting when a group of a dozen bikes pulled in. This can’t be them, I thought, I’ve never been on an RMMRC ride with that many bikes. But as helmets came off I recognized faces. Wow, everybody wants to ride today.

It was true. I had already seen several hundred motorcycles out on the road. I would see several hundred more before I got home. I decided to declare Sturgis rules and stop waving.

So we ate and headed out, this time going north on CO 105. But before leaving I experienced that sinking feeling many of you have experienced at least once: my wallet was missing. Back I went into the diner and looked around our table. I asked the cashier and she checked with the manager. No wallet had been turned in. They took my contact info in case it showed up.

I was a bit distressed as we headed out, but I told myself that worrying would accomplish nothing and as long as I was out on my bike on this beautiful February day I ought to enjoy it. That did actually help and I was reasonably successful in focusing my attention on more pleasant things than calling to cancel all my credit cards, getting new Medicare and Social Security and all those other cards.

The last time I was out with an RMMRC group we had gone to Daniels Park and gone a short way north and then turned south again. Robert said at the time that the road ahead to the north was unpaved but I assured him it was paved now. So on this next ride it was his intent to go that way. I cannot overstate my befuddlement when we came to where the road turned to gravel. I’ve been on this road numerous times. How could I think it was paved when clearly it is not? At least it has clearly been heavily treated with magnesium chloride and was almost as good as paved.

And then we got to a place where it was not obvious which way to go and I had no idea. So Robert led us into, and then out of, a neighborhood. I’m sure he was getting a bit disgusted with me at this point. I told you, this was a navigationally distressed day for me.

Anyway, we eventually reached University, which became Lincoln Avenue as we headed east, and we reached I-25, turned north and split up to go home. And when I came in the door I was hoping fervently that I would find my wallet on the kitchen table, but it wasn’t there. With sinking heart I checked the pocket of my regular jacket and it was there!!!

Now I will do what I know you should do periodically, which is to take everything out of my wallet and photograph it all, both sides, and then store those photos in the cloud. If you haven’t already done this I recommend you do it, too. That way you’ll know exactly what cards to cancel and all those other sad details that you are faced with if you do actually lose your wallet.

Meanwhile, I’m so glad I had a good ride and the day ended well.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: If you say bad things to your motorcycle, you don’t have to apologize before you can ride it again.

There were about 10 guys but only 4 motorcycles showing up Wednesday morning for the RMMRC‘s regularly scheduled breakfast and ride. I was on my V-Strom while the other bikes were two Goldwings and one Shadow. It was definitely cool but if you wore the right gear it was a very nice day to ride.

I sure wore the right gear. I had my electric vest and my heated gloves, plus my Rev-It riding pants with long underwear underneath. I’ve got to tell you, the more I wear those pants the more I fall in love with them. This was a really, really good purchase.

One of the four of us riders was Don, who got connected to the group via the Meet-Up site. Don came all the way down from Louisville. It was his birthday and he had taken the day off from work, so he wanted to ride. Welcome Don, I hope we see you again.

Having Don join us was indicative of a shift in RMMRC thinking. The group for years had maintained a standalone website but the member who was supposed to be tending to it managed to let the hosting contract lapse. We had already added the Meet-Up page and that has the advantage of exposing other people to the fact of the club’s existence and, at times at least, bringing them to the rides. After some discussion it was decided not to reestablish the old web site, just use Meet-Up. So if you have any old bookmarks for www.rmmrc.org you might as well delete those.

The ride was no big deal; we didn’t have anything great in the way of ideas–just let’s go ride. We wound our way, avoiding highways, to the underpass under I-25 just north of the Castle Pines exit and then over to Daniels Park, down to US 85, up through Sedalia to pick up C-470 and then went our separate ways where that road intersected US 285. Robert and I headed east and home from there while Don continued north toward home. Bob had split off for home back at Daniels Park.

The thing is, the route was not important. It was just a great January day to be out on the bikes. It was windy, especially along the foothills, so I had chosen the V-Strom. I really wanted to ride the Concours but with all its body work it acts like a sail in high winds. I still got blown around on the V, just not as much.

So, we’ve had a lot of cool but clear days so far this January. You don’t have to have electrics, although I strongly recommend them. Just dress with all the warmth you can and get out there. There’s a lot of good riding to be done.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: When riding, you and your Motorcycle both arrive at the same time.