Passes & Canyons Blog

I’ve never been a dual-sport kind of guy, mostly because I haven’t had the opportunity. Well, I had the opportunity over the weekend.

I hooked up on Friday with Sue Slate, the National Program Chair for the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation. Sue is in Keystone from now through the end of the International Women & Motorcycling Conference and I dropped by to talk with her about the Adventure for the Cures ride she has organized.

This ride will take a dozen experienced riders with very little, if any, experience on dirt on a tour of the Colorado mountains. The mix is expected to be about 80 percent dirt/gravel and 20 percent pavement. Each rider had to commit to raise at least $2,000 for breast and ovarian cancer research, as well as pay a sign-up fee of $400. The “Dirty Dozen” begin their ride on Aug. 10 and will end up back in Keystone for the start of the conference.

So I met up with Sue, and we talked about the ride and about her motivation for doing the fund-raising that she does, and mostly about her total passion for motorcycles. Sue got her first bike at age 19, used to ride observed trials, and lives and breathes motorcycles. As a public school teacher she used to ride to work every day, would bring motorcycle engines into class as a way of showing unmotivated students that even a motorcycle mechanic needs to be able to read, write, and do math.

Now retired from teaching, Sue works ceaselessly for the WMF and also finds time to be an on-call employee for Kawasaki, working at various motorcycle events around the country.

We covered it all and then she asked me what I was doing that afternoon. I had nothing planned, and was wondering that question myself, because I was in Keystone with my wife, who was there for a conference. “Do you want to go for a ride?” Sue asked.

Of course I did, but I hadn’t planned on doing so and I didn’t have any gear with me. No problem, Sue had extra gloves and a helmet that would fit me as well as a green-white-black Kawasaki jacket. And she had bikes. Lots of bikes. Sue had rolled in from New York the day before in an RV pulling her “toy hauler” with five dirt/dual-sport bikes of various sizes. She would ride her KLR 650. I rode her Versys.

We geared up and off we went. Sue had suggested riding Boreas Pass, which struck me as terrific because I had never gone far on that road, and only on cross-country skis. And I’ve almost never had the chance to ride dirt.

I was sure the road to Boreas Pass ran off CO 9 from a little north of Breckenridge toward the pass but I followed Sue on up to the top of Hoosier Pass, where we pulled off. “Oh yeah, Hoosier Pass, that’s the name,” she said as we dismounted. So no, I didn’t get to do Boreas Pass. Turns out the Versys I was on didn’t have the right tires for dirt anyway.

So we admired the view, chatted with another biker who pulled off there, and then headed back down the pass, up I-70 to Copper Mountain, and then rode to the top of Fremont Pass. Then we headed back to Keystone.

I didn’t get to ride dirt but I did get a chance to ride the Versys, which was a new one for me. It feels a lot different from the inline fours I’m accustomed to but I definitely liked the upright seating position. I was interested to find that the little half windshield did a very good job of blocking the wind blast at speed. I’ve never enjoyed riding without a fairing or windshield for that reason.

The seat was much too hard for me to even imagine taking off for a weeklong ride as we do each summer. Other than that, it was a nice bike. I’d really like to do more off-pavement riding because there is so much of it here in Colorado and I really feel like I’m missing a lot. I don’t have room for a third bike, though, so maybe it’s something to consider whenever one of my current two dies. But that’s not likely to happen soon. There must be another way to work this out.

Anyway, it was fun getting to ride the bike and Sue is a fun person to hang out with. And I’ll have a chance to get some dual-sport riding instruction before the Adventure for the Cures ride sets off. Of course I’ll be reporting back to you on that.

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Steve Smith had asked my assistance in planning his Colorado ride and he sent me this follow-up now that he’s back home. He rode some passes I’ve never been on. Makes it especially interesting. Here’s Steve’s report.

***************************************************

My trip started in the western North Carolina mountains on Friday, July 3. My dog and I made Oklahoma City that night thru some nice hot weather. Saturday, the 4th, we kept on to New Mexico and up thru Taos to Antonito, Colorado area. I was not sure just exactly where some of the campgrounds were located on your website, so I took the safe route and checked AAA where I found the camp ground at Mogote. The people were nice and had a free cook out that evening. The facilities were nice with a shower and nice shaded camping area for $18.

  Stunner Pass

The next morning I rode past the camp grounds that you mentioned and they looked very nice. My goal was to ride to the pass and find a sign and get a picture, so my first pass that morning was La Manga. It was a nice ride over to Cumbres for my second pass in just 30 minutes or so. I retraced my tracks back across La Manga to the forest road 250 and up to Stunner Pass. This road was very navigable but not recommended for a shiny Harley or Goldwing, due to the rocks and potholes. I was riding a loaded 1150 GS and it was slow going in a few places. As with all the roads in Colorado, they are all very scenic with great vistas. I kept going north up to the highway and made a left turn to Wolf Creek Pass for my 4th pass that day.

The next two passes were easy to achieve on a great road up thru Creede and on to Spring Creek Pass and then Slumgullion Pass for the 5th and 6th passes. Just past Slumgullion towards Lake City I made a right turn towards Los Pinos Pass. This road was even rougher than the road to Stunner but still was very scenic. At this pass the sign had disappeared so I have no picture of that one.

Once thru the pass it was about 29 miles out to Hwy 114 and to North Pass for my 8th pass. A u-turn took me back to Gunnison where I went up thru Crested Butte and on towards Kebler Pass. Before I got to that one there was a road off to the left to Ohio Pass. I found no sign but a nice rocky, pot-holed road for a couple of miles. Kebler was my 10th pass that day and the road on out to Paonia was a very nice gravel road. The aspen surrounding the Lupines and was a sight to behold. That evening I camped at the Redstone campground for $32. Yes I went over McClure Pass but since it was under 10,000 ft, I didn’t count it for that day.

By the end of the day I had ridden over 10 passes above 10,000 feet and was done with the pass counting in 10 hours.

  Los Pinos Road

The next morning, I left Redstone and ventured up thru the slow traffic at Aspen to Independence Pass. Wow, the views were great. My next pass was Tennessee Pass north of Leadville. I retraced my track back to Leadville for lunch and then up to Fremont Pass. I continued north to I-70 over Vail Pass and then on to Shrine Pass, just a short 3 miles from the rest area on a good hard packed road that any bike could handle.

Next in my sights was Loveland Pass and then to Guanella Pass south of Georgetown, but the road was closed for construction so I went to Berthoud Pass instead. That was my last pass, as I told my sister I would be at her house north of Woodland Park at 4 PM. The road down thru Deckers was very nice and I was able to beat or avoid some rain and hail.

My total account was 17 passes over 10,000 ft. I started around 8 AM on July 5th and was drinking a cool one by 4 PM the next afternoon or 32 hours total. In hindsight I could have done more if I wasn’t so packed down and left my dog at home, but we had an excellent ride thru some very beautiful country.

I would not recommend Stunner and Los Pinos Passes for an inexperienced rider. That may be done better in a car or truck. On the other hand, any bike could make it, but it may be missing some parts that get rattled off during the ride.

***************************************************

OK, so thank you Steve for that ride description. Now I’m going to have to find out where Stunner and Los Pinos Passes are.

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Just got in last night from a three-day ride through western Colorado. Never had one heart-pounding moment but I sure had to deal with heat and dehydration. And I paid for trying to walk somewhere in my motorcycle boots.

Keep your bike in good repair: Motorcycle boots are NOT comfortable for walking.

There are so many times I have gone west on I-70 out of Denver and looked longingly at the remnants of the old highway, U.S. 6, that you see in places, wishing I was out of the traffic and over on that nice, twisty piece of two-lane. So I decided to do it. I wanted to see just how much of Colorado’s mountains you could cross on the old highway.

And the answer is, quite a bit. I’ll save the details for another time but it was really nice to cruise along at an easy pace and not have to deal with the interstate traffic. The times when I did have to get on the superslab it was truly unpleasant feeling the need to ride faster and deal with all this even faster traffic whizzing by me. Returning to the two-lane was always a joy.

  A portion of the artwork

Reaching Glenwood Canyon, I knew there were some remnants of the old road accessible from the exits. This canyon is so narrow, however, that they could barely get the interstate in there, much less preserve the old route. There is, however, a good-sized chunk of the old road that you get to off the No Name exit, near the west end of the canyon. There the road curves down alongside the river, but there is a barricade that now blocks motorized vehicles. You can walk or ride your bicycle down there, but no motorcycle.

The road went on around a bend and out of sight, and I wanted to walk down there, but I didn’t want to do that in my heavy boots. So I figured I’d walk just far enough to get a better camera angle. Along the way I met some folks coming back and they told me of an area with picnic tables, a sandy beach, and some clever natural-materials artwork that “some hippie probably smoked a joint and spent the whole day constructing.” Now I was interested.

The fellow told me it was about half a mile down (too far in boots!) but then he also mentioned it in terms of “about 10 minutes.” Ooh, I thought, I can walk 10 minutes in these boots, and 10 back. So off I went.

To make a long story short, I found the art, and it was indeed worth checking out. It’s the sort of thing that a photograph generally does not do justice to, but I’m including two detail shots that give a bit of the idea. Nothing at all like the real thing, unfortunately.

  Another detail

Then it was time to head back. And I hadn’t gone far and I could feel a blister forming on my left heel. Pretty soon I knew it was going to be a very unpleasant walk unless I could do something about the blister. I had a notebook with me so I tore out a sheet, folded it, and stuck it inside my sock where the blister was. It was amazing. I could now walk without any discomfort at all.

About the time I was 40 feet from the bike, however, the sweat-soaked paper was no longer offering protection and another blister was forming on my right heel. I gritted it out and was really happy to get back on the bike. Then I stopped at the first place I could find in Glenwood Springs and bought Band-Aids and switched to my sneakers. The moral, don’t ever try to walk far in motorcycle boots.

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Ray from Texas did the ride I helped him map out and is back home again. He sent me a note to when he got home:

Thanks to some great advice on the routes and sights to stop, I had a
wonderful ride! FANTASTIC! Would go again in a heart-beat!

He also sent along a slide show of the ride, so we can all enjoy some of the great riding he did. A picture is worth a thousand words and there are more than 100 pictures here. Be aware that this is a fairly large file and may take a minute or so to open.

Colorado Trip on a R1200GS Adventure

Thanks Ray.

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I’m frequently asked to help people plan their routes when they’re coming to Colorado to ride, and I’m always happy to oblige.

Last year I posted a series I called “New Zealand Rides The Rockies” where I laid out the day by day rides of a group on New Zealanders planning to come here this year. Unfortunately, the world economic meltdown derailed their plans, at least for now.

However, if you don’t have to fly halfway around the world and you don’t have to rent motorcycles, coming to Colorado to ride is actually one of the less expensive vacations you can take. I can confirm that a good number of people are doing just that.

Among them are Ray and some of his friends from Texas, who are cruising around Colorado right this moment, presuming they didn’t have any last minute glitches. I’m not going to lay this out in the detail I did for the Kiwis but I figured you might have some interest in their plans.

Days One and Two

Ray and friends are coming from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area (I believe) and were riding to Las Vegas, NM, the first night. From there, on Day Two, they were planning to head north to Taos and on up to where they would reach U.S. 160 at Fort Garland. They planned on taking U.S. 160 west to South Fork, then CO 149 over Slumgullion Pass to Lake City, and then the gravel roads over to just south of Ouray. Ridgway was their destination for the night.

These plans were revised considerably when I pointed out to Ray that it would be a much nicer ride to take U.S. 64 west from just north of Taos, via Chama, and then U.S. 84 up to Pagosa Springs. From Pagosa, a run over Wolf Creek Pass would put them at South Fork. I also mentioned that they must be riding dual sport bikes if they were planning on taking that road west out of Lake City.

Apparently they aren’t, so that road was nixed. Instead, they adopted my suggestion of the Chama route and then just continued on through Lake City to Gunnison for the night.

Day Three

Day Three was to be a fairly easy one after a long Day Two. Heading west out of Gunnison they planned to stop at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and ride the South Rim Drive and the East Portal Road. Then they would make the easy cruise to Ouray and make that their headquarters for two nights.

Day Four

Day Four is planned as a circle route through Ridgway, Placerville, Telluride, Cortez, Durango, Silverton, and back to Ouray. This will take them over Lizard Head Pass and Red Mountain Pass. Red Mountain Pass, of course, is one of the best in the state.

Day Five

On Day Five, Ray and friends are heading north through Montrose and Delta and will then head northeast on CO 92 to Hotchkiss and up and over McClure Pass on CO 133. At Carbondale they will turn southeast on CO 82 through Aspen and over Independence Pass, another of Colorado’s very best.

A run through Leadville and then down Fremont Pass to Copper Mountain will put them at I-70, where they will head east to Silverthorne. They’ll take U.S. 6 up over Loveland Pass and end up for the night in Idaho Springs.

Day Six

From Idaho Springs our travelers will head south on CO 103 up Squaw Pass with a sidetrip to the top of Mount Evans. From the Bergen Park area they’ll head south to Evergreen and on to Conifer where they’ll pick up U.S. 285 for just a short jaunt. At Pine Junction they’ll head south on CO 126 through Deckers and on to Woodland Park and Colorado Springs.

Days Seven and Eight

In the morning of Day Seven, Ray and the rest will make a run up to the top of Pikes Peak, then head back down and blast homeward as far as Amarillo. Day Eight will see them home again in the Dallas area.

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Dom Chang, also known as Redleg, is off and running hard as the newest motorcycle Examiner in Colorado. Some of you may already know Dom/Redleg as the blogger of Redleg’s Rides, which is where I met him.

As you may know, for one year I was the Denver Motorcycle Examiner, and have now become Examiner.com‘s National Motorcycle Examiner. That created a vacancy at the local level so I contacted Dom to ask if he would be interested in the spot. “Heck yes I would,” was his reply.

The folks at Examiner have their own approach to these things, however, which are not always clear to me, so Dom actually ended up as the Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner.

Whatever. Doesn’t matter to me, and I presume it doesn’t matter to Dom. The point is, he’s burst out of the starting gate like a rocket and is putting up a lot of great information about places to ride in Colorado. And Dom is no weekend biker; he rides all the time. Here’s his Examiner bio:

A late blooming motorcycle rider, Dom explores motorcycle-accessible Colorado year round. Averaging 20 thousand plus miles a year on his beemers, he’s a ride-reporting, farkle reviewing, basic motorcycle servicing, solo touring rider and blogger.

He also had this to say in his first Examiner post:

I’ve been motorcycling since the Spring of 2006 and have accumulated over 50,000 motorcycling miles since then. I commute to work on my motorcycles unless there’s ice or snow on the road. I’ve traveled the length and breath of Colorado in search of motorcycling destinations and byways, this information and experience I hope to relate to you in future articles.

Did I mention that Dom is a terrific photographer? Dom shoots pictures wherever he goes and frequently stitches multiple images together to give you great panoramic views. Unfortunately, Examiner does not accommodate his photography the way his blog does, but when he presents one of these panoramas on Examiner he links to the shot on his blog so you can really appreciate it.

So check him out. Blog and/or Examiner, Dom’s sites are good adds to your Favorites list.

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Biker Quote for Today

Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat………..

Note to the world: Colorado is open for the season.

That’s right, with today’s opening of Independence Pass and CO 5 to the top of Mount Evans opening tomorrow, all the seasonal roads are open. Even Trail Ridge Road is open, although the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) reports that it is icy in spots.

One note of interest, however, is that US 6 over Loveland Pass is closed at this time. This is not a seasonal road, but CDOT says it is “closed for emergency road repair until further notice.” Apparently they just closed it yesterday. That’s a good thing for me to know because I was planning to head up over that pass in just a couple days.

Here’s a bit more info from CDOT:

U.S. 6 over Loveland Pass is closed due to a culvert failure, about 1 ½ miles east of the summit. Excess water has washed out the bottom of the culvert. Safety considerations will not allow the road to be open to traffic due to a loss of roadway support over the culvert. All traffic will be detoured though the Eisenhower Tunnel on Interstate 70. Loveland Pass will remain closed until further notice. The Colorado Department of Transportation will send out more information when it becomes available.

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Biker Quote for Today

If you don’t make it the first time, back up and try again, only faster!!

The Run For The Wall came through Colorado Saturday and I rode out to Limon to see the spectacle. It turned out I wasn’t the only one.

I’ve been following the Run For The Wall on Examiner.com via Glenn and Cathy Buchholz, a local couple who are on the ride. I figured I’d meet up with them when the group stopped for gas in Limon.

I reached Limon well in advance of the run because I wanted to scope things out and pick some good spots to shoot photos. I knew I had the advantage that Glenn and Cathy are on the fuel crew so they would be arriving ahead of the main group. I picked one of the largest gas stations in town and asked if that was where the group would be stopping. No, the lady told me, they would be using the Phillips 66 across the street. So I went over there.

Those folks knew the group was coming so I chatted with them awhile. Then, getting restless, I cruised through town a couple times just to be sure I wasn’t missing something. At one point, passing a motel, I saw a bunch of folks and bikes sitting out in the parking lot so I stopped. They weren’t with the run, but they had ridden out from Denver to watch them pass. They were a bunch of nice folks so I stood and chatted with them a bit, too.

It got to be time when the fuel crew should be showing up so I went back to the gas station, but after waiting there for too long a time I knew something was amiss. I rode back to the west side of town, where the police and parade marshalls were set up to guide the group, and I learned that the fueling stop was in a big truck stop on the other side of I-70. I scooted on over there and sure enough, this was the spot I needed.

They had marshalls to guide the riders in order to do it efficiently and quickly. Not wanting to interfere with their operation I started to turn in at the first entrance to the station, not the second one where they were directing their people to go. Suddenly a marshall with a flag on his baton lept directly in front of me and started screaming at me that I WOULD go in the other entrance, that I was endangering everyone on this run, and I had now done so TWICE!

Twice?

I explained to him that I was not part of their group but he didn’t want to hear it, continuing to scream at me and point and wave his baton at me in an extremely threatening manner. I thought, OK buddy, I’m not in the army and you aren’t either, not any more, but you obviously take your duty here very seriously, so I won’t argue. My wife, generous-hearted soul that she is, speculated that perhaps he was a vet who was making the run trying to deal with his unresolved demons from his Vietnam experience and was just a bit overwrought.

I went down to the other entrance, pulled in, looked around for a place to park that didn’t seem to be in anybody’s way, and parked. Then another marshall came over, greeted me cheerfully, asked who I was, and then asked me if I would please move “over that way” a bit because “I’m going to be parking a whole lot of motorcycles right here in just a few minutes.”

“Sure, you bet, not a problem,” I replied. The contrast was blazingly clear.

So I found Glenn and Cathy, had a few minutes to talk with them before the main group arrived, shot some pictures, and then headed back into town to take up position to get some photos as they rode down the main street.

Limon was turned out for the scene but it was not the kind of scene you might have expected. Probably the biggest crowd was on the grounds of the city office building, and by that I mean about 15 people. There were other clusters of up to five people scattered here and there along the parade route. I’m certain there were more U.S. flags lining the parade route than there were spectators. Hey, this is small town America.

The parade passed and I talked a bit with a Limon teen who was eyeing my Concours, telling me he had just gotten a Ninja 250 but didn’t have his license yet so he couldn’t ride it. And then it was time to head back to Denver.

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