Passes & Canyons Blog

Snow is on its way. By the time it stops, sometime tomorrow, we could have as much as a foot. Is it any surprise I was out riding yesterday?

Never mind my commitment to riding both of my bikes at least once every single month, though that was a factor as well. When I have a great day on the first day of a winter month I’d better ride, because how wretched would I feel if I didn’t and it snowed the next day . . . and I never got a chance the rest of the month.

But the bigger factor was just that it was a gorgeous February day, and who wouldn’t want to go riding on a day that? I’ve been keeping the Honda on the battery tender, so it fired right up. The Kawi took a bit to get going, so I went for an extra long ride with it to get a bit more juice into that battery.

A good bit of that was on the highway, too, where I could get up some speed. At a motorcycle mechanics 101 session Alan and Dan and I went to last fall the guy said you really only start charging your battery once revs get up over a certain level, so just cruising around on city streets probably doesn’t do a lot for it. I wonder, though, if that means that if you deliberately stayed in a lower gear so you’d get higher revs you would get more charging. I tried at one point last year to get some definitive information on this whole matter but found that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of definitive info out there. Which means that I have to wonder where this guy was getting his information and how reliable it was.

But hey, charging the battery was a secondary concern. Riding was number one. And I had one of those odd experiences I have from time to time. I took off and was out for awhile and then at one point it hit me, “Wow, it’s really good to be on a bike!” This is a winter thing, when we don’t get to ride so much. You get away from it for a few weeks and you start forgetting how great it feels. Then you get on and go and it’s a surprise: Oh yeah, I forgot how much I enjoy doing this.

I have a friend who tells me his wife is like that in regard to sex. Whenever they do it she loves it but in between times she seems to forget how much she enjoys it. He figures if she remembered she’d want to do it more often, but she doesn’t. Then she’s surprised every time.

So I felt that surprise again yesterday. It makes me wonder how people get by living in places where you have to put your bike away for the entire winter. ‘Tis a privilege to live in Colorado.

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Warning: If you value your life as much as I value this motorcycle, don’t fuck with it!

PsychoSteve has come through again. The Elephant Ride is on for the second weekend in February, but the gathering point has moved a short distance.

There was initially some concern because PsychoSteve no longer lives in the house in Grant that has been the starting point of this winter ride up Guanella Pass. Veterans of the ride offered assurances that if nothing else the plan would be to camp up the Guanella Pass road a bit as has been done before, but that won’t be necessary.

PsychoSteve announced on Jan. 15 on Adventure Rider that he had arranged with the new owner of the Grant Motel to use that property for camp-out, bonfire, launch point–everything. At this point all of the five rooms in the motel are rented but Elephant Riders traditionally pitch tents or sleep in their vehicles, as I done the last two years.

To really take part in the adventure you need to show up on Saturday night (Feb. 11) for the bonfire, the eating, the drinking . . . the fun. Then on Sunday morning at around 10 a.m. or so the assault on the pass will begin. While there hasn’t been a huge amount of snow this year, PsychoSteve and a buddy went up there a couple weeks ago and report that there are indeed spots with serious ice and deeply drifted snow.

In other words, it’s a normal Elephant Ride. So drill those screws into your tires and get out your warmest winter riding gear. The fun is about to begin.

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I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that Accelerate, Kawasaki’s publication for owners of Kawasaki motorcycles, has published one of my articles in its latest issue, which came out yesterday.

With the title, “To the Sky and Back: Colorado,” it’s a piece about a day ride up Clear Creek Canyon to Idaho Springs, out of Idaho Springs up Chicago Creek, and to the Mount Evans turn-off at Echo Lake on the Squaw Pass road. Then to the top of Mount Evans, back down to the the Squaw Pass road to Evergreen Parkway, to Evergreen, and down Bear Creek Canyon to Morrison. With photos, of course.

Now, what surprises me a bit about this is that Accelerate did not also publish a piece I did for them on the Morrison Inn. They like to do pieces on good places to stop and eat while you’re out riding and I did a piece on the Morrison Inn as a companion piece to the Mount Evans story. But it’s not there. I’ll have to ask Teri Conrad, the editor, about that.

I have hopes of doing a lot more writing for Accelerate. Of course, being the official Kawasaki publication it is essential that any bikes in the stories be Kawis. Fortunately, that’s exactly what I have, my 1999 Concours. I also have hopes of perhaps getting a dual-sport bike this year, and if I can count of selling a bunch more to Accelerate that will push me to get a KLR 650. The KLRs I’ve been on strike me as a bit tall, so I might go for something else without the Accelerate connection. But then, my Connie seemed extremely tall when I bought it and now, 12 years later, I’m as comfortable on it as you could possibly be.

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One man’s adventure might be another man’s daily ride.

For the second year in a row I put more than twice as many miles on my motorcycles as I did on my car. And on this gorgeous January day I was out doing what I can to make that happen again in 2012. What a fabulous day to be out on a motorcycle! And I saw a lot of guys out there, too. At one point there were four of us going three ways at an intersection. You’ve got to love Colorado.

On the Kawi in 2011 I rode a total of 6,875 miles. That’s actually down from 2010, when I put 10,004 miles on the bike. I also rode the Honda 506 miles, which gives a total of 7,381 on the bikes. The total on my car was just 3,556. Working at home has a way of reducing the miles you put on any and all of your vehicles. Have I ever remarked on how much I love not having to commute to work?

Of course, these figures don’t include things like the miles I put on the rented Harley up in British Columbia, but they also don’t include the miles we put on the rental car we had either. Nor does it include the miles I cover in my wife’s car when she and I go somewhere together in it. I just keep it simple by considering only my own vehicles. Doing anything else would be too much brain damage.

If my plans work the way I hope, I do expect to get a lot more miles on the Kawi this year. I mentioned previously that I’m hoping to make it out to Ohio for the AMA’s Vintage Motorcycle Days, and if I do, that trip should put as many as 3,000 miles on the bike, depending on which side trips I take along the way.

So here’s to a great year of riding in 2012. Just ride the thing!

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The life of a vagabond isn’t always riding, sometimes you have to stop & pose for pictures with the natives. It’s not much fun, but how could I disappoint these poor Kazakh girls? — rtwdoug

Where are you going on your summer motorcycle trip in 2012? Are you already making plans?

A lot of people are, and many of them are coming to Colorado.

I know this because of the traffic patterns on this website. With last year being the one exception, traffic on the site reaches its lowest point in November and takes a sharp upturn in December. Then it climbs all the way through July or August before starting to decline again. Last year it actually dropped a hair in December from November, and then screamed higher in January. Who knows why.

I know the bulk of this increase in traffic is from people interested in coming here to ride because of the pages they visit and the exit links they click on. Right at this point, one of the most popular pages on the site is the Colorado Motorcycle Rentals and Tours page, and visitors click the links of numerous of the rental outfits listed there. Another popular page is Biker-Friendly Motels and Hotels. A third is Good for You to Know . . ., which discusses things like the type of clothing you should bring and other Colorado-specific riding information.

Of course, those of us who live here know how great a place Colorado is to ride. The group I ride with, the OFMC, takes a summer trip every year and some years we stay right here. It’s great to go to Montana or Idaho or Utah or any number of other states, but when you’ve got some of the very best right in your backyard, why not take advantage of it? Next year we are leaving the state, heading down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, but hey, we’ll have to ride through the Colorado mountains to get there. Oh, it’s a dirty job.

It’s not too early to start planning. And when winter has you cooped up and unable to ride, it’s nice to have something wonderful to look forward to. Come on summer!

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It’s not an adventure until someone says, “WTF are we doing here??”

Hooray, hooray! It took a long time but Rider magazine has published my feature article about crossing western Colorado on old U.S. 6, in the shadow of the superslab.

I had heard from Donya Carlson that it would be in the January 2012 issue, and I knew it should be arriving in my mail any day now. But over the last several days I’ve been in communication with three people who had already received their issues of Rider and seen my piece, while my issue had yet to arrive! Well, the mailman was here about 10 minutes ago and I finally got mine. Yes!

Now I’m hard at work on my next piece for Rider. Judy and I went on vacation to Seattle and British Columbia this summer and rented a Harley out of Vancouver to go riding for a few days. It was part of the plan all along to pitch the story to Rider, so I made sure to shoot a lot of pictures and take a lot of notes.

Once we got back I sent a letter pitching the idea, and they liked it. Now I need to get it written and select the photos to go with it and send it along. If they like it and want to publish it they will tell me that, and then, if things go like they did before, the note will say I can expect to see the piece in print in 12 to 18 months.

So I’m in the middle of the first draft right now, and I’ve got the photos narrowed down to about 40 or so. The article will go through three or four revisions and I’ll winnow the photos down to about 15. Then I’ll be eagerly awaiting a note that I hope will say they like it. If they do you will probably see it in print in 2013. Meanwhile, I want to be pitching them another story idea a whole lot sooner this next time.

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Time spent on a motorcycle is not deducted from your lifespan.

It’s almost December but that doesn’t mean the organized motorcycle rides are over for the year. There are at least three that I know of and I’m definitely not all-knowing.

Two of these are toy runs, to collect gifts for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have much of a Christmas. The other is ABATE’s Last Brass Monkey Run.

This Sunday coming right up is when Rocky Mountain Harley-Davidson will be sponsoring its 26th Annual Toy Run, which collects gifts for kids at Children’s Hospital. The ride starts out in Aurora, at Aurora Sports Park, 18601 Sports Park Drive. Registration is one new, unwrapped toy.

Then, two Sundays later, the Sleigh Riders Motorcycle Toy Run will be held to benefit the Santa Cops program of Weld County. Again, registration is one new, unwrapped toy. The gathering place is in Greeley, at Maui Wowi of Greeley, 2939 65th Ave.

ABATE of Colorado’s Last Brass Monkey Run is scheduled each year to be the last ride of the year. Thanks to the calendar, this year’s run will actually be on Dec. 31, a Saturday. There are two starting points, on the west side and the east side of the metro area, with the destination being the Grizzly Rose, at 58th and I-25. West siders will be gathering at Wrigley’s, in Golden, at 18200 W. Colfax. On the east side, the Pioneer Club is the spot, 18881 E. Colfax. The event offers food, games, a chili cook-off, door prizes, and live music. Riders will start leaving at 10 a.m. and the party gears up at the Grizzly Rose at noon.

So don’t even think about putting that bike away for the winter. There’s plenty of good riding to be done in the next few months.

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My goal is to see how many gallons of dead dinosaurs I can send through my bike.

Judy told me on Sunday that she would enjoy going for a motorcycle ride, if that was in my mind, so of course we went. The mountains are not such a desirable destination at this time of year so I thought about where we might go on the plains. Hudson was what I came up with.

Not Hudson itself, really, but a fairly new attraction just outside of town that I had only heard of recently. It’s called the Wild Animal Sanctuary and they provide a home for rescued animals such as lions, bears, bobcats, emus, camels, and a variety of others. Yes, right out there on the prairie, in a climate where you have to wonder how the African lions and camels and such make out.

We checked the website and found that they’re open seven days a week and admission is $10. We geared up, climbed on the Kawi, and took off.

Now, it’s significant how I came to learn that this place existed. I had been following a thread on the Adventure Riders forum that is all about Colorado Front Range Tag-O-Rama. This is a game where you post a picture of your bike in a particular location and it is up to other players to identify the location and ride out, shoot a picture of their bike there, and post that shot. Then they select a new spot, get a shot, post it, and the game continues.

Well, very early in this game someone posted a tag at the Wild Animal Sanctuary. That’s where I learned about it. And because that is where I had learned about it, I kind of had the idea that the road to it would be paved. Wrong.

We got out there on Sunday and needed to turn south off of CO 52 onto Country Road 53 and 53 was not paved. I turned off onto it anyway but hadn’t gone more than 100 feet when it became clear to me that this just would not do. If we had been on the Honda I might have been game, but the Kawi is so squirrely on gravel that there was just no way this was going to be a good idea. The road was hard-packed underneath but on top there was an inch or two of loose dirt and gravel and I had no confidence at all that I’d be able to keep the rubber down over three miles to get to the sanctuary and then three miles back again. And with Judy on the bike with me there was no way I was going to risk it.

So we turned around, got back on the pavement, and followed a satisfactorily roundabout route back home. We’ll go back sometime in the car. In the meantime, it was still a good ride, and that was really the point all along.

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I would rather almost die riding in Mexico than almost live working in this stupid office.