Passes & Canyons Blog

Nick up by Estes Park on his last visit here.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

That’s a line from John Lennon and it’s always been one of my favorites because it’s just so true.

I’ve been a perfect example of that myself this summer. I had all kinds of riding plans that have had to be canceled due to my crash.

But it is by no means just me. I mentioned last week that I planned to do a post on SolidRide, a new motorcycle rental and tours outfit here in Colorado. But I intended to do the post after having met with Eric, the main guy at SolidRide, and having gone for a ride with him. I went ahead and put the post up without doing those things because of my neurologist’s orders not to drive for 12 weeks.

So after I put the post up I emailed Eric to let him know it was up, and I told him why I had skipped ahead on my intention. Well, Eric replied that he, too, was out of commission. He has suffered a herniated disc. Ouch. That has got to put a crimp in your riding. So much for many of Eric’s plans, too, I presume.

And then there’s Nick. I had mentioned that Nick was coming out and we had intended to do a ride that would include the Million Dollar Highway. My crash disrupted that plan but Nick decided to come out anyway and do the ride on his own. Nope.

Nick was supposed to be heading out last week, to arrive here on Saturday. But on Thursday I got a text from him saying that his lady friend had a medical issue and would need an MRI and probably surgery on her neck. He expected this to delay his departure to perhaps Tuesday. Later he confirmed his intention to leave Chicago on Tuesday.

Then on Monday he texted to say she had received the results of her MRI and it was not good. So another delay of unknown length. That was followed by another text saying “This is far more serious than I ever imagined.” Trip canceled.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

True words, John.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is this therapeutic, beautiful mode of transportation where you attach yourself to this machine and it becomes part of you.

How the heck do we get through this herd?

If you’ve been around the West much you may have encountered this sort of thing yourself: There’s a sheep herder moving his flock, or maybe it’s a bunch of cowboys moving a herd of cattle to new pasture. Either way, they’re taking up the entire road and you’re kind of stuck.

It happened to Judy and the kids on a summer camping trip many years ago. They were going along this little-used road when they came upon sheep. Everywhere. The sheep herder was apologetic and said he’d get them moved out of their way as quickly as possible but Judy and the kids were fascinated watching the sheep dogs do their work. Take your time, they told him.

It also happened to the OFMC one year. We were heading northeast out of Chama, New Mexico, toward Antonito, Colorado, over Cumbres and La Manga Passes when we encountered a herd of cattle. The cowboys and their dogs were doing their best to keep the herd moving but they could not have been less concerned about this group of bikers being held up by the cattle.

We didn’t see that we had much option other than to wait, but that might have been a long wait. Not certain what to do, we did nothing for a bit. Then a guy in a large pick-up came up behind us, sized up the situation, and pulled past us and started blowing his horn as he came up on the cows’ rears. They started jostling and pushing the crowd away, opening up a path for the pick-up.

We were thrilled. Let’s go guys, make some noise!!

We did our best to fall in behind the truck, though it got further ahead of us after a while and the herd filled in the space. All of us were blowing our horns, the Harley boys were revving their engines as loudly as they could, and we just counted on the cattle to get out of our way, which they did, sort of.

So we’re shoving our way through the herd and John, who was leading, took to pulling some shenanigans. We didn’t get it at the time but he told us later that he would deliberately ride through a cow pie and then rev his engine to break traction and–hopefully, for him–throw chunks of the cow pie up onto those of us behind him. Nice guy, John. Fortunately for the rest of us, his plan didn’t work.

This was slow going, and a good number of cows left the road and started climbing up the hill on the left or down the slope on the right. The cowboys and dogs kept busy guiding them back to the herd. And we finally got through. That was one unexpected highlight to this trip.

Now every time I go over those passes I wonder if I’m going to run into another herd. And I try to identify the stretch along which it happened but you’re out in the forest, you know, and one stand of trees looks pretty much like any other stand of trees.

But it makes a great story.

Biker Quote for Today

“What happened on the way, who I met, all that was incidental. I had not quite realized that the interruptions were the journey.” — Ted Simon, Jupiter’s Travels

The SolidRide website.

Back in May I got a note from Eric at SolidRide adventure tours making me aware of their existence and asking to be added to the Colorado Motorcycle Rentals And Tours page. I quickly made the addition and then engaged Eric in a conversation about getting together with him and doing a blog post about his outfit. We also talked about doing a ride together.

Then life got in the way and in late June I was in my crash. We haven’t been out on that ride. I figured I might as well go ahead and do this post introducing you to SolidRide.

To get the whole scoop you really ought to visit the SolidRide website. But I’ll give you a quick rundown.

SolidRide breaks their tours into three categories: Adventure Bike, Dual Sport, and Scenic Byways. They can plan and lead the ride or just lay out the route and plans and you can go on your own. Additional offerings include glamping arrangements where all meals are provided and you sleep in luxurious tents.

Much of the riding is centered around the Fairplay/Alma area, with Boreas Pass, Hoosier Pass, and Weston Pass included, although their offering of scenic byways tours currently includes:
Gold Belt Tour
Peak to Peak
Mount Blue Sky
Guanella Pass
Lariat Loop
Top of the Rockies
Collegiate Peaks
West Elk Loop
Silver Thread

Something of particular interest if you think you might like to see what SolidRide is all about is a series of self-guided tours through the Front Range that end the day at Nomad Taqueria and Beer Garden. The two upcoming events are scheduled for September 21 and October 3.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you’ve ever said “Isn’t it too cold/wet/hot/dry/dark to ride?”

The OFMC at the Grand Canyon, all in rain gear. You really do need to dress for the weather.

I could never be a lawyer in court because those guys need to hear something and immediately have the response. I’m the kind of guy who likes to hear an argument and then think about it a bit before responding. Sometimes I need to think a lot before I’m ready.

I think some of that comes into play when I’m getting ready to go on a motorcycle ride. Specifically, in the few days before the RMMRC headed out on this overnight Meeker/Craig ride it had been blazing hot. 100 degrees and more. Shall we say that bringing plenty of warm clothing was not high on my radar?

But it should have been, because the day we left was quite cool and the forecast was for several more cool days. Nope, I’m still focused on the blazing heat.

So I wore my mesh jacket, though I did bring the liner. I did not bring my electric vest, though I did bring a fleece vest. I did not bring my heated gloves. Why would I? It’s hot!

But it wasn’t. I was chilly when I got to the meeting spot, and thought about the fact that we were going to be going up, but I was determined to ignore reality. Apparently. By the time we were up to Idaho Springs I was wishing I had put more layers on back at the start.

Fortunately, one of the guys had some tire pressure issue–these bikes with all their gadgetry–so we stopped in front of the Guanella Ranch, just past Empire. I quickly put on everything else I had. We took off and it was definitely darn chilly going over Berthoud Pass but bearable. And for the rest of the ride to Craig I was cold. Fortunately it warmed up a bit as we dropped down to Meeker.

In the morning I started out with everything I had, and I was darn chilly again. Then we got down to Wolcott and I-70 and made a stop in Edwards for gas. Here I finally did the one thing I had not done, I put on my rain jacket to stop the wind. What a huge difference that made! I was actually fairly comfortable for the first time on this trip.

And I was glad I had it because the temperature dropped as we headed up to Leadville, and it was also looking like rain. We had lunch and left Leadville in a light rain, all of us decked out in full rain gear. At least I was warm.

We finally hit actual rain around Conifer but after that it got warm. I could have stopped to strip the rain gear off but was taking no chances, and fortunately it was not blazing hot crossing town. Sometimes it is and then you want nothing more than to get that dang rain suit off.

Will I ever learn? Probably not. If I could somehow search this blog for every time I mention being ill-prepared for the weather I’m sure it would be a long list. And I never, ever gave any thought to being a litigation attorney.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding any motorcycle is like meditating with your hair on fire.

A different day’s ride with the RMMRC.

I’m sure some folks in cars reached their destinations with stories of crazy motorcyclists they had seen that day. That day being the day the other RMMRC riders and I made the trip home from Meeker/Craig.

As we headed up Tennessee Pass, toward Leadville, there were a lot of curves, but of the eight of us, seven were linked in on our Cardos. So you come up on some slow traffic and one or two guys are able to pass, but then there’s a blind curve . . . and these crazy bikers kept passing! We had eyes around the bend.

“Keep coming; all clear.” That’s all you need to know until you hear “Traffic coming!” Then you wait while a car or two goes by the other direction and then there’s the “All clear.”

If you don’t understand what is happening you’re certain these guys are nuts.

So let’s get back to the start. Gene and I were the last to arrive at the launch point the day before so we did not have time to get our Cardos linked to the group, but we ended up linked to each other. Just a residual effect from a previous trip, I presume. Come the second morning, however, we all had time and we got everyone linked in one group. This was a first for this group, to have so many on at once.

And it was kind of fun. I like the solitude of being just me in my head while riding as much as anyone but this is a bunch of guys I know well and we could just chat. It was nice. Plus it makes it a lot easier if you need a pit stop.

I’m still not especially familiar with the operation of this thing. The first day I could talk to Gene but I was also getting music and a lot of static. We stopped in Granby for a break and gas and then the music was really coming in loud and clear. What the hey? I started fiddling around with my unit and finally figured out the music Gene was playing was not slopping over to me, this was my own music, some radio station. And all the static I had been hearing was from the radio being set on a frequency where there was no signal. Pretty basic, but if you haven’t read the instruction manual . . .

Then on the second day, leaving Craig, I could only hear the other guys faintly and they couldn’t hear me at all. So I started fiddling with things again, which is pretty hit and miss when you’re riding. But I hit on the right combination and suddenly I was part of the conversation. Nice.

We got down to Wolcott, made the run on I-70 to Meeker, and started up Tennessee Pass. And you already know what happened on that stretch.

It was good, too because we could point things out to each other, such as side roads. As we came past State Bridge I pointed out the Trough Road, which is very good gravel and goes up to Kremmling. Things like that.

I have wondered if I would find the chatter intrusive, because I do like spending time just in my head while riding. But I think I’m going to be just fine with these communicators.

Biker Quote for Today

Some people will tell you that slow is good–but I’m here to tell you that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me.

The Twenty-Mile Road. If you’ve never ridden it you should.

Before all this mess with the crash came up I was in the middle of telling about our overnight ride to Meeker. Let’s rejoin this story.

As you may recall, four guys only went as far as Craig while the other four of us went on to Meeker. Bob, who stayed in Craig, had said the run to Meeker was uninteresting and not worth it. As I said in the previous post, he is wrong. I knew from doing it in 2023 with Nick that the road from Meeker to Craig, especially in the early morning, is enchanting.

This year was no disappointment. Bob is just wrong. We got to Craig then, I got gas, and the other guys were about ready to roll. We headed east on US 40 to Hayden and then took the Twenty-Mile Road from right by the power station down to Oak Creek. What a beautiful ride, and still so green at this point. Some of the guys had never been on it and they were blown away.

Riding CO 131 we cruised south through Toponas and State Bridge to the interstate is Wolcott. We made a short hop on I-70 to Edwards for gas and then another short hop to the Minturn exit. From there we headed up Tennessee Pass to Leadville. Lunch in Leadville.

As we were parking it looked like rain, and indeed it did rain while we were in the restaurant. Just a very light dripping when we came out but we all suited up. The sky still looked threatening. On south to Buena Vista we avoided rain, then turned east on US 285.

We stopped again in Fairplay for gas for some, and after that it became pretty much every man for himself, the rush to the stable. We didn’t hit rain but did have wet pavement, with splashing. Then at Bailey we turned up Crow Hill and it had all been roto-milled, with only a little pavement. Kind of nasty. Then pavement again but now some rain.

I was constantly wiping my visor but after awhile I could not get it clear and I thought I was getting mud kicked up onto it. Then I realized it was fogging on the inside so I cracked it and the fog was gone. But now I was getting spray up under the visor. I alternated opening and closing it.

We were all separated at this point and I was only with Alan and Gene as we came into Conifer and it was raining harder. I bailed there and sat at the King Soopers until it cleared, then headed on again. Just a very short time later I came to dry pavement, suggesting we had been at the front of the storm and if I had kept going I would have been out of it in just another mile or two. No matter, I enjoyed the break and then rode all the way home—after that couple miles—on dry pavement with no rain.

Rush hour traffic was really bad so getting across Hampden took a long time. Then I was home. The next day the RMMRC had its monthly meeting and those of us who had been on the ride who attended agreed all around that it was an exceptionally good trip. We need more of those.

Biker Quote for Today

Melancholy is incompatible with motorcycling.