Passes & Canyons Blog

I’m so glad this was NOT what things looked like here on Saturday.

I knew Saturday, January 4, was supposed to be an extremely warm day, the kind that is perfect for motorcycle riding. There was just one problem. Our street was still iced in, especially in several spots where big trees shade the road and protect the ice. Would I be able to get out or would I be totally frustrated watching a terrific riding day slip by?

Thursday and Friday had been moderately warm, in the mid 40s. Saturday was projected to hit 58. By sundown on Friday there was still way too much ice on our street.

I checked it out. If there had been just a spot or two where I would have had to coast over, say, 5 feet of ice, I would have been inclined to do it. But those big trees were leaving areas where it was more like 25 feet of ice, and more than just one. Going out I might have been able to roll on over, with no throttle because it is downhill. But coming back would have meant higher speed or throttle to get back over those spots. I was leery.

So in the early part of the day I went about my normal routine. That includes walking to the gym, around the other side of our block. Coming home I saw that that side of the block was still unpassable. I showered and had lunch and then took a walk down our side of the block to check the ice there.

Holy smokes! The way was totally clear! And it wasn’t just a narrow pathway, a huge wide swath had just opened up. Thank you Mr. Sun! I headed home to gear up.

I chose the V-Strom for my first ride of the year. The ride was nothing of any particular note; I just headed south, and south, and south, until I turned east, and then turned north for home again. But it was a beautiful day. I wore my electric vest but had no need to turn it on. I kept my visor cracked the whole time and my face never came close to getting cold.

And there were a lot of other bikes out. Plenty. Heck, who wouldn’t want to go out on a day like this? I even saw a convertible with the top down.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love living in Colorado? This is why.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than men: If your motorcycle doesn’t look good, you can paint it or get better parts.

Sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the view–this is Skyline Drive.

Saturday: “If it’s gonna be a beautiful day I’m gonna have to ride.”

It was, so I did.

Of course I had no idea where to. As so often, I headed across Cherry Creek Dam to Parker Road and then decided to go east on Hampden. Heading that direction I thought of how I have followed streets like Colorado and Quebec south to see where they go. What about the streets further east? I turned south on Buckley.

Buckley through here is a major thoroughfare–six lanes. What I didn’t know is that it ends at Arapahoe. You come to that intersection and on the south of Arapahoe the six lanes goes down to two, with no sidewalks. There’s a sign that says Foxfield. OK, this is somewhere I’ve never been before.

The street on this side of Arapahoe is Richfield. Foxfield appears to be an area of large, somewhat older homes with large lots. Horse properties. Richfield passes on through the development until it hits a T at Jamison. Now it’s looking familiar. I think I came through here once before, following Broncos Parkway after it crossed Parker Road into the Chenango development.

Sure enough, Jamison bends around until it hits Long and you have to east or west on Long. I went east. If I’m correct about all of this, I’m going to come out at a point where some road crosses C-470. Sure enough, I come over a rise and there’s C-470. The road that crosses it is Ireland Way.

Ireland becomes Travois Trail, winding through an Indian-name-themed older development, also with large lots but looking more middle class than the upscale Foxfield. Streets with names like Warbonnet, Bowstring, and Arrowshaft. Then it hits a T at Inspiration Drive. Now I really know where I am.

I go east on Inspiration and at some point reach an intersection that makes me wonder if this is a road I was on just a few weeks ago. Turn right and let’s see. Nope. About half a mile later the road, that is clearly intended to be extended at some point, dead ends. Head back the other way.

Not really sure where I am now, the road bends around and runs into Aurora Parkway. OK, I’ve been getting more and more acquainted with Aurora Parkway lately. Head north and I should hit Smokey Hill. Correct. On north to what becomes Gun Club Road and I’m following a pick-up with a load of trash that doesn’t look any too securely strapped on. He must be headed for the Waste Management landfill on Gun Club.

Sure enough, he turns east toward the landfill–having not lost anything while I was cautiously behind him–while I turn west, back once again on Hampden. And on home.

Not an eventful ride, but an exploration. Have I ever told you I love to explore?

Biker Quote for Today

That biker guy was passed out on the floor. We took his wallet and the keys to his Harley and now we doesn’t have them anymore. — Bowling for Soup

Bikes coming down from Squaw Pass.

The roads are clear and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were all really nice days. So I rode my motorcycles on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Friday was a little cool but I wore all my winter gear and was perfectly warm. I did run into one problem, and that was with my heated gloves. These are battery powered and while one came on immediately when I hit the button, the other did not. So I got to see how much it mattered on this particular day. Not much. The gloves themselves are very good and warm even when they’re not turned on.

Later I plugged them both in to charge and once I knew both were fully charged I tried again. The one that didn’t work before didn’t work again. Dang! What’s wrong? But I kept pressing the button, holding it, not holding it, and finally it did come on. Not sure what to make of this. I’ll have to see what happens next time.

I didn’t see any other bikes out on Friday and was not surprised. Definitely saw other bikes on Saturday and Sunday. If you weren’t out you should have been.

Saturday was decidedly warmer so while I wore all the rest of the warm gear I did not wear the heated gloves and did not need them. In fact, there were times when I was almost too warm. What a great day in December to ride.

At one point I was on the Concours and I noticed that my front brake was a bit squishy. The bike was stopping OK but it just didn’t feel right. If I pumped it, it would firm up and that’s generally an indication you have a problem. I checked the sight gauge and sure enough, the fluid level was low. Now the question is, is there a leak in the brakeline somewhere? I would just fill it but all I’ve ever heard, and it states it plainly in the shop manual, says do not mix different brake fluids. If you have to add more and don’t know what kind/brand is in there, drain it all and replace it all with one consistent fluid. So I guess I have something to add to my to-do list.

Sunday was a bit cooler but I wore less warm gear and was still perfectly comfortable. I didn’t go for any long rides, just was out running some errands. And just like clockwork, I encountered my Sunday problem. It was no big deal but I noticed one of the zip ties keeping my bag attached to the rear of my sissy bar backrest on the CB750 had broken and the bag was hanging half loose. I have extra zip ties; I fixed it.

So yeah, maintenance. Entropy is a universal law. Everything breaks down eventually. Every fix is a temporary fix but temporary works.

Biker Quote for Today

The older I get the more I understand how important it is to live a life most people don’t understand.

An aerial shot from Google Maps showing Chambers Reservoir.

There was a Wednesday morning RMMRC ride scheduled last week so I climbed on the V-Strom and rode on over to the breakfast place. Although I learned later that there were several folks inside, none of them had come on their bikes. I intended to ride and with no bikes in the parking lot I saw no reason to go inside. I headed out.

It was a cool, crisp morning but I was wearing warm gear so it wasn’t uncomfortable; rather, it was invigorating. But I was darn glad to have my electric vest.

Where to go? It gets harder and harder to go places I haven’t been before. I headed out Parker Road. As I approached E-470 I thought about the road that crosses Parker just south of the highway, Pine Lane. I had been east on Pine but never west. Where does that go?

I turned right to find out. Passing Jordan Road, Pine Lane becomes Aventerra Parkway and starts winding around through a housing development, eventually hitting a T intersection at Chambers. Turning right would have been to head back toward town; I turned left, south.

Right there along the west side of Chambers there is a huge hole in the ground. It looks like a reservoir, maybe, but maybe it’s just a flood control collection pond. It’s long and narrow and really deep, and was completely dry. It also looked like freshly turned earth, as if it’s still being dug, although in a satellite image I see water in it.

(OK, some research shows me it is the Chambers Reservoir, which is undergoing rehabilitation, involving grading, installation of drainage improvements, and construction. Ain’t the internet great!)

Heading south I soon passed Lincoln Avenue. Now I was on totally familiar ground once again. Reaching Hess Road I turned west.

Hess Road runs past the Rueter-Hess Reservoir up into the highlands around the dam that made the reservoir feasible. Cruising through here you have an uncommon–and probably doomed–opportunity to see a section of the Colorado plains that as it was before the city arrived. It’s amazingly pretty. Too bad this whole area will presumably be covered in subdivisions and shopping plazas in about 10 years.

Hess winds around and then terminates at I-25. Continuing on the other side of the interstate the road becomes Castle Pines Parkway. But just before I-25 I turned north on Havana, which parallels the interstate for maybe four miles up to Ridgegate Parkway. I jogged east on Ridgegate and then continued north on Peoria.

This brought me up to County Line Road and the south side of Arapahoe County Airport, which I jogged east to get around. From there it was Potomac north and on back home. Just a one hour or so ride but really nice on this cool, very nice morning.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: The way we look at our bike reminds you of the way we used to look at you.

Parked across the street from Patty Ann’s.

I went for a ride with the RMMRC Friday and leading the group was Tim. Now, I’m terrible with names, and after being a member of the group for about three years I still probably only know about six or seven peoples’ names. But I think I’ll remember Tim because he is really short, so my mnemonic device to remember his is “Tiny Tim.” You don’t have to mention that to him.

It was supposed to be a beautiful November day but starting out it was overcast and cooler than expected. I dressed warmly and was glad I did. Love that electric vest.

The intent was just a simple ride out to Kiowa to have a late breakfast at Patty Ann’s. I’ve eaten at Patty Ann’s several times and they have great food. If you’re out that way–or if you want to head that way just to eat there–Patty Ann’s gets my hearty recommendation. They have terrific green chile and with everything else smothered in green chile it probably really doesn’t matter what that everything else is.

So the discussion was on the route to get there. The easy and direct–and boringly familiar–route would be to go out Parker Road to Franktown and turn east. That was suggested but Tim didn’t like that idea. He took the lead.

We worked our way southeast, zigging and zagging as you have to do with straight roads on a grid, but we came to a spot where I think everyone expected to go east and Tim headed west. That tipped me off. A couple years ago Roy had staged a mystery ride and we ended up out in these parts. Tim had helped Roy plan that ride. I suspected we were about to take a portion of that ride again.

When we made a left turn at a particular spot I knew I was right. From that point on all the way to Elizabeth we followed the mystery ride route. And it was a lot more interesting than just Parker to Franktown and east.

Kiowa, Patty Ann’s, and the food did its job and we were ready to leave. What route? Again, Tim had no intention of retracing our steps. So he led us along some other roads out here.

What this all told me was Tim must be a kindred soul to me because while I would guess most of the guys had little idea exactly where they were, I pretty much knew every bit of it. You see, I go out there and ride around on these roads exploring quite a bit. And I had just been out here in the past week. These were several of the same roads I was on just days before.

I guess I’m not the only one who loves to explore.

Biker Quote for Today

I got my own reasons why I do what I do. I like to ride motorcycles. She likes it too. — Alan Jackson

I was not up for the mud on this day–later!

Once again I took off with no idea where I was going to go. Somehow I figure it out. Today I was on the V-Strom.

Here’s an idea. I know on the way south on the Kiowa-Bennett Road there is a point where the road jogs west and if you wanted to you could continue west on whatever road that is. I know I’ve always expected that some day I would take that road and see where it comes out. Maybe today is the day. I headed out Parker Road and then turned east on Hampden.

Now, here’s how my thinking goes. I got to wondering, how far east does Hampden go? Have I ever taken it out as far as I could? Maybe I had but I couldn’t remember. So let’s do that.

Well that didn’t last long. Hampden ends out on Gun Club Road where it runs into a huge landfill operation, Trash Mountain in my parlance. Back to plan A. I turned south on Gun Club to Quincy and then turned east again.

I knew I’d been out this way before and a couple names I was familiar with came along: Tom Bay Road and Brick Center Road. I had checked them both out before and they both quickly go to gravel. Now I went past them until I reached Kiowa-Bennett and turned south.

The jog came at County Line Road. I didn’t know this at the time because there were no signs to that effect but I continued west. Right away there was a sign saying the pavement was ending. That jogged a memory that perhaps I had tried this once before and–not being on the V-Strom–turned around. Well I was on the V-Strom now so no turning around today.

It was a good gravel road, although the surface varied, with some loose sand, some washboard. I don’t know how far I went–at least five miles–and it was a pretty area.

And then there were the construction zone signs. No problem, I can deal with that. But although I never saw any construction equipment, I came up on the area where they had been working and it was all mud. Oh yuck.

Now, I had the bike and the tires to do mud. What I did not have was the riding skills and experience. But there’s no better way to get the experience . . .

On another day I might have done it, but this day I turned around. It was Tuesday and the forecast was for warm and dry so maybe by Saturday, which was also forecast to be in the 60s, maybe it will be dry and I can ride it then.

As I headed back I saw a sign for Brick Center Road. Really? Does that come all the way through? That would save me having to go all the way east to Kiowa-Bennett. But what kind of condition is it in? I guess I’ll find out on Saturday.

So Saturday came and I headed back. Turning south on Brick Center Road I found it to be about the best gravel surface you could hope for. Smooth, solid, and not a lot of loose gravel. As if perhaps it got graded recently.

Brick Center ended at the road I was headed for and I turned west again. I reached the construction zone and although I was totally psyched up to do the mud today if necessary, everything was completely dry. I cruised on and was surprised to find that in less than a mile I reached pavement. What do you know.

Cruising further and further west the road signs kept reading County Road 194. Finally, when I reached Delbert Road the sign said County Line Road. So that was my answer. Not that it ran into County Line Road over by I-25. Just past Powhaton Road it became Sampson Gulch Way and wound its way through a housing development. It hit a T intersection at Aurora Parkway, I went north, and soon came to Arapahoe. I headed west on Arapahoe and on home.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than men: If your motorcycle is misaligned, you don’t have to discuss politics to correct it.