Passes & Canyons Blog

For our second day of day rides, Nick and I met up with Bill and Dennis and Bruce at the King Soopers in Conifer to head south toward Cripple Creek. But there was a good bit going on before we got there.

Nick had taken my suggestion that he get Gatorade seriously so he had that and water in his bag this day. But before we could head out to meet the guys I needed to get my Concours over to Rowdy Rocket Garage for work dealing with the overheating incident I had on the last day of the OFMC trip. Nick offered to load the Kawi on his trailer and run it over there but I had not yet ridden the bike in August and in order to keep my string going of riding all my bikes every month I wanted to ride it over there. No telling how soon I’d be getting it back. Plus, I was curious to see if it would trend toward overheating again, suggesting an issue with the thermostat or heat sensor. And sure enough, before we got there the heat gauge was climbing into the danger zone. Definitely need to get this addressed.

Back at home we geared up and headed out, me on the V-Strom. It was cool and I was glad to stop in Conifer as that gave me the chance to add another layer. After the day before I was wondering how Nick would deal with Bill’s idea of going to Cripple Creek for lunch, plus I wondered what there really was in Cripple Creek for lunch. Not much as far as I know. He and Dennis also had apparently been reconsidering so they suggested we just go down to Shining Mountain Golf Course a bit north of Woodland Park and have lunch there. Nick had said he wanted to stop more frequently for hydration so we made a quick stop in Pine Junction and then another in Deckers.

At the golf course we found that their restaurant is not open because they can’t find a chef. Everybody has staffing problems these days. So we rode on into Woodland Park. Even there it took some searching to find a place open but we did. The significant thing we learned, however, was that along the main drag, US 24, if you go north behind that row of shops there is a whole lot of free municipal parking. I can’t tell you how much trouble I’ve had trying to find parking previously so I’m really pleased to discover that this is there and happy to pass that info along to you.

Heading back we just backtracked for the most part. Stopping again at Deckers Nick said he was wiped out. I figured this just had to do with dehydration because this was not all that long a ride. Keep drinking that Gatorade.

Bruce peeled off from us there, heading home via the South Platte River Road route down to Sedalia. We continued backtracking until we got to Buffalo Creek where I led the group down the other end of South Platte River Road to Foxton Road, which comes up to Conifer on the west side of town. Dennis doesn’t live too far from there but I had a suspicion he had never been on that road. I’m certain Bill had never been on it. So it was a nice alternate route.

We came down 285 and each went our separate ways and then Nick and I once again roasted going east across Hampden. This is getting old.

The next day it was just Nick and me again and for a change I took us south, winding around a bit and finally reaching Daniels Park. We then went down Daniels Park Road to US 85, to Sedalia and south for lunch at O’Malley’s in Palmer Lake. Then home. Nick had expressed an interest in a shorter day and that fit the bill. A nice easy ride. Then the next day he was off to Grand Junction to hang out with my brother Rick.

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t know what the definition of freedom is, but it has two wheels.

While off on this year’s OFMC trip I got a text pretty much out of the blue from Nick, someone I’ve known since I was 16 but who I had only seen twice in the past 50 years. He is, however, a closer friend of my brother, who lives in Grand Junction, and Nick was considering coming out to see Rick. Rick, however, does not ride motorcycles and I do, so Nick thought it would be nice to bring his bike out (from Chicago) and go riding with me. Nick rides a BMW R1250 RS.

So he did. The plan was for him to come first to Denver, from where we would do a few day rides, then go to Junction to hang with Rick for a few days. Then he would come back here and he and I would do a three-day ride.

Nick got in on Sunday and we headed out on Monday. I didn’t want to do anything really long but I didn’t want to short-change him either so I figured it would be a good day’s ride to go up to the Peak-to-Peak and ride to Estes Park, then home down one of the canyons and back south on CO 93.

We headed out of town on Hampden/US 285 and up to Golden and then turned up Clear Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful day up on the Peak-to-Peak and we had a nice cruise. Stopping for lunch in Nederland Nick informed me for the first time that he was really feeling the dryness and that he would like to stop frequently to drink some water. I suggested he drink Gatorade rather than water. This would be a constant issue the whole time we spent riding together.

We got to Estes Park and turned down the road running down the North St. Vrain (US 36), stopping for about the third time this day for road construction. There was a lot of road construction going on. Down in Lyons we pulled over in the town park for a break. By now Nick was telling me he was getting pretty worn out. OK. I had had the impression he was used to going a lot of miles in a day; maybe not. And again, he was dying for water. Why wasn’t I drinking lots of water, was I just used to this climate? That would be a “Yep.”

And then of course we ran into more road construction on US 36 heading south from Lyons to Boulder. At this stop we were right by another guy on a bike and this guy was something to see. Wearing a shirt all open all the way down both sides, he was sun-burned in a major way. You can see the strip down his side in the photo. I wouldn’t have wanted to be him later when that started really hurting!

We went straight through Boulder on Broadway and that was an experience. The north end of Boulder has gone through incredible changes since the last time I was there. It used to be all light industrial and now it’s all condos and apartments. Huge change.

On south on 93 across Rocky Flats and back to Golden. Then back east on Hampden and oh man, it was a blazing hot day and we were going slow in late afternoon traffic and we just roasted–a recurring theme over the next few days. Back at our house Nick said he was just wiped out. OK, I really think you need to be drinking Gatorade. And we’ll see how tomorrow’s ride goes.

Biker Quote for Today

Put the love between your legs and enjoy the ride.

The RMMRC was doing a lunch ride last week and I figured I’d go. The bike to take this day was the Honda CB750. It seemed a little hesitant starting but I didn’t think a lot about that. But I did take note.

We were gathering as we so often do at the Phillips 66 station in Morrison so I headed out that way. Oh my god, what traffic! Bandimere Speedway is immediately north of this station and it turns out they were having some blow-out farewell event. Which is to say, after all these years, Bandimere is shutting down and presumably is moving somewhere else. There was a long line of cars coming off the highway from southbound and that line snaked around and made the right turn onto Rooney Road, which runs up to Bandimere. Normally I would turn onto Rooney and then do a quick left into the station. This time, fortunately, I could go past Rooney and turn into the station’s other exit.

I needed gas so I pulled up to the pump. After filling I wanted to pull over where the other guys were gathered but this time the bike very nearly did not start. Not the hesitation of at home; this time it was extremely iffy. But it did start and I pulled over.

I needed to hit the restroom so I parked and ran and did that and when I got back they were all firing up and getting ready to ride. I turned the key, pushed the starter, and nothing happened. Not for a second or two anyway, but then it fired and caught immediately. I leaned over to Roy and told him I was not sure about my bike, it seemed there was a battery problem. He said he thought I’d be fine, and if need be he had cables to jump-start me. So reluctantly I decided to cruise on.

We rode into Morrison just enough to get on Mount Vernon Avenue, which runs around the east end of town and heads up past Red Rocks. We went on up to and then under I-70 and made a left turn onto old U.S. 40, which runs alongside I-70 heading up Mount Vernon Canyon. For some odd reason there was a ton of traffic here and we had to wait a couple times before we could get through the light and make our turn. And some idiot woman coming the other way thought that she ought to go ahead and make her right turn onto U.S. 40 even though we were clearly using the space but I made it entirely plain to her that I was not yielding.

These were all red flags and I didn’t like how this day was shaping up. Plus, now that we were above the interstate on the side of the hill we could see that it was a parking lot. Good thing we’re not on that road.

Mixed in with us up ahead was a guy in a 1968 Impala and we hadn’t gone very far when he did a quick u-turn and held his finger up waving it in a circle as he went past going the other direction. I didn’t have to wonder why for more than a second or two because I then saw that our road was also a parking lot just ahead. OK, that’s it. I’m taking the hint and going home. I waved to Roy and Charley, behind me, and turned back.

I figured stop-and-go like that is never fun, it’s murder on your clutch wrist, and with a bike that probably won’t start again if I make a small error in hand and foot coordination one of the many times I would need to move forward–going uphill–this just was not something I was going to do. I hoped I would have no problem getting home but as long as I kept the bike running I should be fine. And I was.

At home I flipped open my Samsung tablet and immediately saw an item about a crash on I-70 up by Floyd Hill backing up west-bound traffic. Yep.

So I saw Roy two days later and he told me I made the right choice. They soon turned around and just headed over to a place in Golden to have a somewhat early lunch. Then they all went home. This was a ride that was just not going to happen.

Of course, then I was still going to need to figure out what’s wrong with my bike.

Biker Quote for Today

When writing the story of your life, never let anyone else hold the pen.

I’ll interrupt the telling of this New Mexico trip story because life goes on and doesn’t wait for all the old stories to be told before new ones occur. In other words, we (the RMMRC) did another day ride on Saturday and rode what was for me, and I suspect for most of the folks, a new road. Have you ever heard of Grapevine Road? I hadn’t.

We started out from the Phillips 66 station in Morrison to head up to Wondervu for breakfast. I figured we’d go up CO 93 to CO 72 and head up Coal Creek Canyon. Nope.

Gray took the lead and I thought as he headed into Morrison that we would take the back way over past Red Rocks but no, he kept going. We got up to Idledale and very much to my surprise he braked and signaled a right turn. A very, very sharp right turn, about 45 degrees sharp, up onto a gravel road. Oh my gosh. Two things: first, I was really glad if we were getting on gravel that I was on my Honda CB750 rather than my Kawasaki Concours, and second, I had no idea this road was even there. This was Grapevine Road.

The road was not really gravel per se; it really seemed like a road that had been paved 20 years ago and not touched since. It wasn’t loose gravel, although there was plenty of loose gravel on the surface, but it had a firm base and was not rutted. And it was twisty as hell.

The road wound up through an area that was full of houses where you would have no idea there were houses at all. I’ve heard that you never really comprehend how full the hills are of homes until you fly in a small aircraft low over them. Then it blows you away. The hills are alive with people!

Make no mistake, this is a slow road. There are plenty of turns marked for 10 and 15 mph, and with the loose gravel you really don’t want to go much faster than that. And it’s really, really pretty. As in, what a nice place to have a home. As long as you don’t need to get somewhere in a hurry.

So we wandered up and down and around hills, saw a bunch of deer bounding down the slope, and I wondered just where in the heck we were going to come out. Eventually we reached pavement and before long that question was answered as we came out to I-70 and US 40 at the Lookout Mountain exit. OK.

We turned left to follow US 40 up to the top of Floyd Hill and then down into Clear Creek Canyon and US 6 but at the bottom, rather than turning right down the canyon we went left and jumped on I-70 just long enough to get to the next exit, for Central City Parkway. Now I see how we’re going.

Central City Parkway was more interesting than usual in that there is some roadwork apparently intended to address the recurring issue they have up there of the downhill side of the road wanting to slough off. In one place they had cut away an entire hillside on the uphill side and seemed to be pushing it over to fill in the downhill side. I mean, the cut in the hill was enormous, about the size of what they’ve done in Central City and Black Hawk when they’ve wanted to build a huge casino hotel where there was previously a hill. Kind of amazing.

We reached Central City, rode down to Black Hawk, got on the Peak-to-Peak and headed north to where it hit the road down Coal Creek Canyon. All this while it was intermittently dripping rain, enough to put droplets on my visor but never enough to make you want to stop and put on a rainsuit. I was keeping my fingers crossed we could get to Wondervu without having to do that. Meanwhile, I was darn cold and wishing I had worn at least my riding pants because they’re warmer than my jeans and they’re waterproof. Thank goodness I had my electric vest.

We did get to Wondervu without a downpour and went in the Wondervu Cafe for breakfast–at this point a late breakfast. And then breakfast got much later. As is true of so many places these days, they were understaffed. Not only that, at least some of the staff they have were not very good at their jobs. Rather than go on at length with the details, let me simply say that we finally ate breakfast well into lunch time and for many of us, when our food was served it was stone cold. And several of us were done eating long before others even got their food. I won’t be eating at the Wondervu Cafe again any time soon.

Suiting up to leave, the sun had come out. And it was warmer. Yay. And we were all on our bikes and ready to go but Roy had not even come out of the restaurant. Gray may have known something about Roy’s delay and seemed to be waving us to go on and take off but no one did and we just sat there. For quite a while. Finally, I had had it with waiting and I just took off. I like riding alone anyway, so I was perfectly fine with leaving the rest behind. All the way home I dodged the rain clouds never did get wet. In other words, a good day for a ride.

Biker Quote for Today

No matter how bad your day is your bike will make you feel better.

Where is that rain when you need it? Last week I was complaining about the rain going on and on and now I was getting really tired of all the smoke filling the air from those forest fires in Canada. At least if we had the rain it would wash that smoke out of the air. Then it occurred to me that that may have been exactly what was happening last week. Without that rain we may have been living in and breathing that smoke as we are now.

Anyway, I decided it was time to take my first ride of the year up in the hills. Certainly all the ice and snow are gone, though there could certainly be sand and gravel to contend with. Also, maybe if I got up higher I could get above the smoke. Let’s give it a shot.

I headed up Bear Creek from Morrison and took Kerr Gulch from Kittredge over to pick up Evergreen Parkway near I-70. Then I picked up US 40 running alongside the slab, up Floyd Hill and down to US 6 coming up out of Clear Creek Canyon. Just FYI, there’s a good bit of construction going on on US 40 along here.

Up on Floyd Hill I was definitely not above the smoke.

I took US 6 down to where it branches off from the Peak-to-Peak Highway and made the turn toward Black Hawk. Now I was climbing and somewhat to my surprise it started getting darn chilly. I had not put on all the layers I had with me because it was so warm but now when I got to Black Hawk I stopped and did put on my vest. I’m guessing the smoke is blocking the warmth of the sun from getting down to the ground.

Up and further up till I reached my highest point, where CO46 meets the Peak-to-Peak coming out of Golden Gate Canyon. At this point I could see through the smoke enough to see that above it all it was a clear, sunny day but you might need to be up on top of Mount Evans to really experience it. And then I plunged back down into the haze.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when the wind in your hair and face makes you happier than a paycheck.

In Colorado we simply don’t have five days in a row of area-wide rain. Sure, it rains in different spots every day in the summer, while just a couple miles away the sun is shining. But never over the whole region for five days in a row.

So I was getting a little antsy to go ride because we had just had . . . here it comes . . . five days of area-wide rain in a row. It was killing me. On Monday the guys got together for breakfast and both Dennis and I mentioned that we had intended to ride there but the rain said no. Dennis is a snowbird, just back from Georgia a few days ago, and it had rained the whole time since he had been back. What’s with this?

Finally, in the late afternoon, I looked at the sky and it didn’t look good. But it didn’t look all that bad right at that moment. Yeah it’s going to rain again, but maybe not for an hour or two. I’m going riding. And to heck with getting wet, I’ll take my rain gear and if it rains I’ll gear up. I’m going riding!!

Well, my timing was perfect. I had only gone about two miles and suddenly there it was, something I hadn’t seen in days–blue skies and the sun! Holy smokes!

I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go so I just headed south. I turned east when I hit Lincoln Avenue and continued east across I-25 toward Parker. I had been on Lincoln Avenue in the area behind me plenty recently but it had been a long time since I had been on this part of the road.

And whoops, they did it again. I was cruising along and all of a sudden there’s this huge housing development on the south side of the road that just wasn’t there the last time I came along here. It looked like at least 300 large homes. And they were all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same.

I headed on but a little shy of downtown Parker I turned north on Jordan Road. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even five years ago that Jordan Road was two lanes but now it’s four and there was a whole lot of new development along it that I had never seen before. This stuff is just crazy.

I worked my way on back home and by the time I got there it was getting seriously cloudy again. As I said, perfect timing.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your tattoos wash off.

It’s a whole lot easier these days to get a good handle on the places you intend to head to and the roads you’ll be on getting there than it was in the early days of the OFMC. Getting onto some dicey roads on a brand new bike is a good way to get your first scratches right away. This is a lesson John learned one year.

When the OFMC first got going, John bought a used Yamaha Virago, I bought a used Honda CB750 Custom, and Bill bought a brand new Honda Shadow. After we’d been riding about five years John decided to upgrade and he bought a new Shadow almost exactly like Bill’s, except newer. These were the bikes we set out on in 1994.

We headed toward Kremmling, where John’s Mom was living, and stopped to pay her a visit. We left town continuing northwest on US 40. Just a little further up the road we turned off US 40 onto CO134 over Gore Pass to Toponas. Nice ride. First time I’d ever been over that road.

From Toponas CO131 heads back up to US 40 but John had looked at the map and was interested in Routt County 8, which goes over Ripple Creek Pass from Yampa to Meeker. He had scoped it out and figured out (or so he thought) that it was paved all except for about 10 miles of gravel. Were we willing to do that bit of gravel? Back in those days these guys were more adventurous and we said yes; later on they concluded they did not wish to do gravel at all. I’m still willing, except on my Concours but I’ve always been more adventurous than them.

John was wrong. This road was 40 miles of gravel, much of it washboard and much of it deep with sand. It was probably the hardest riding any of us has ever done. And John managed to put his brand new bike down for the very first time.

John was leading and I was right behind. At one point he decided to stop and take a break and pulled off to the side of the road. Unfortunately for him, right at this point the side of the road was deep sand. I braked cautiously as I saw him go down. Fortunately there were the two of to help him get that bike up.

Ripple Creek Pass, by the way, is a beautiful road if you want to do it in a car or on a bike that is equipped for that kind of thing. I highly recommend it.

But that business of so much serious washboard had another impact. I noticed later that day that a couple of the welds on the sissy bar on my Honda had vibrated so hard that they broke. My sissy bar, with most of my stuff strapped onto it, was dangling precariously. But we stopped in Vernal, Utah, that night and then went on to Salt Lake City the next day and spent a couple days there. While there I went to a welding shop and got it fixed. So not a big deal. But that’s how bad the washboard was.

Heading from Vernal to Salt Lake the next day Bill was in the lead as we came alongside Strawberry Reservoir, near Duchesne. He saw a dirt road running down to the water and decided he wanted to check it out. John followed and I was right behind John.

It turned out the road was deeply rutted from erosion. Bill had no problem but John got himself in a fix and was about to lose it. He called out to me, “Ken, come help me! Quick!” I wanted to help him but I was in the same rough ground he was in and before I could do anything to help him I had to find a place to stop and park my own bike. By the time I did that he was down, his brand new bike laying on the ground.

As I recall, Bill came back on foot and helped us get John’s bike back upright, and we then rode on down the rest of the way to the water. We hung out for awhile and then managed to get back up to the highway uneventfully.

Now fortunately, neither of these two spills did any real damage to the bike, just a few cosmetic scratches and such. But it was no longer the brand new bike he had started out on just the day before.

We got more cautious about the roads we took after that.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s not the falling off that hurts, it’s the landing.

I headed out Tuesday morning on the V-Strom not knowing where to go–as usual. My inclination was to head down toward Daniels Park so I went west on Belleview and turned south on University. Along the way it occurred to me that I had not tried the V-Strom on gravel since I had new street tires put on it. I had had 80-20 street/dirt Shinko tires on before but they wore out ridiculously because I mostly ride on pavement, so I went to street tires. So great, I had a plan.

The problem came with approaching Daniels Park from this direction. Many years ago, before all that area was developed, you just headed south on University till, out in the middle of nothing, there was one gravel road branching off to the south. That was the road to Daniels Park. Nowadays I don’t think that road bed even exists. I think it got rerouted and moved around to accommodate the new houses and all. And the main thing is, there is not good signage to point you to the park from University (which becomes Lincoln Avenue along the line somewhere).

I had gone this route before and missed my turn, and another time I had spotted the sign–just barely. This time, if it is even still there, I missed it again. When I reached Quebec I knew I’d gone too far, but I also knew I could get to Castle Pines Parkway, run west about a tenth of a mile, and turn north through the park and hit that same patch of gravel from the other direction. And that way I could then follow the road back north and determine exactly where it meets University. And maybe remember this time.

That’s what I did. I have to say right here that it was only a semi-warm day. I had my electric vest on and that makes all the difference but by the time I got to the park I was up high and it was darn cold, and windy. My hands were getting numb. If not for that vest I would have been an ice cube.

I got to the park, got to the gravel, and had no issues whatsoever. This was not that much of a test because they use magnesium chloride on that road, which makes it almost paved, although they clearly had not put any on it recently. But the tires worked fine.

So I got back on the pavement continuing north. When it hits the pavement, Daniels Park Road becomes Grig’s Road. Grig’s Road hit McArthur Ranch Road and I knew I needed to go left, but I wasn’t sure what to do after that.

I hit Wildcat Reserve Parkway and crossed that and my road became Fairview Parkway. I took that a good ways and finally reached Highlands Ranch Parkway, turned right, and was back at University. So I turned right to try it again. At this point I was pretty sure the road I had wanted was Wildcat Reserve Parkway so as I approached it again I looked hard for a sign. I saw no sign at all. But I went ahead and turned south on Wildcat.

By now I had no idea what road I had been on when I crossed Wildcat Reserve a short while ago (McArthur Ranch Road) so I missed it and just followed Wildcat. And followed and followed and followed it. Highlands Ranch is really big. I wasn’t lost–I knew I could easily find my way to some place I knew, but I had no idea where this road was leading me. That’s OK, I like to explore.

After awhile it looked like I would be coming out on US 85, which was fine, but then Wildcat hit Highlands Ranch Parkway. Fine. I knew that road comes out on US 85, so I made that left.

Getting onto US 85, from there it was all familiar ground. I cruised past Sedalia, to the Daniels Park Road turn-off, went north to Castle Pines Parkway where I brought the two sides of this very squiggly figure-8 together, and from there made my way home.

It was a really nice ride, probably the best I’ve had yet this year. Yes it was cool but if you have the right gear you can do just about anything. And maybe next time I try to get to Daniels Park from University Boulevard I’ll be successful. Or not.

Biker Quote for Today

Straight roads never make skillful motorcycle riders.