Passes & Canyons Blog

Ice racing is a family sport–and a lot of fun.

When I’m updating my Rides and Rallies page I often check in on various clubs to see what events they have planned.

One such club is Harry’s Roamers. While it is not the only thing they do, Harry’s Roamers is well known for putting on ice racing up at Rainbow Falls, down toward Woodland Park. Judy and I have been to the ice races a couple times and it’s a lot of fun.

But this year I was not finding anything about ice racing being scheduled. That was odd. Normally this would be about when the racing season was winding up. What I did find was an exchange on one site between someone asking if there was ice racing this year and a reply. What caught my eye was that one of the people exchanging notes was Joel Brown. Joel is my mechanic. Hah! I’ll just call Joel and ask him what the deal is.

So I did and Joel told me a whole lot. First off, I didn’t know it but Joel is the president of the club. OK, I guess I’ve really come to the right source. Another thing Joel told me was that Harry’s Roamers is the oldest chartered motorcycle club in Colorado, having been chartered by the American Motorcyclist Association in 1929 in operation continuously ever since. Joel said they’re really intent on making sure they hit the 100-year mark, whether ice racing is in the mix or not.

Oh yeah, ice racing. So what’s the deal?

Well, it seems the owner of the Rainbow Falls property decided he wasn’t being paid enough for hosting this series of events and so he asked for more this season. A lot more. Joel said they had been paying close to $2,000 per week between lease and percentage of the gate but this year he wanted $3,000 and 10 percent of the gate. And just as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs does not work to your advantage, this increase has been met with zero income. It just doesn’t work to operate at a loss, Joel noted, also pointing out that everyone doing all the work this thing requires are volunteers.

So they’re looking for another venue but so far have not found anything. They need either a lake or some large enough area that could be prepped and then flooded. But that latter would require a lot of water and where do you get that and for what price? As for lakes, anything that is part of the Denver water system is off limits.

There is a lake down at Lake George and that town seems interested in having the races move there but nothing much has happened so far on that possibility. At Georgetown Lake they already host four-wheeled ice racing but that means those folks already have dibs on the better part of the season and it is hard to know way back in October what condition the ice will be in come March. And you can’t just decide to hold races next week, you have to arrange for things like insurance, having an ambulance on the premises, providing porta-potties, and all that other stuff that you and I, just showing up for a day of fun, assume will be there.

Meanwhile, Harry’s Roamers is continuing to hold its meetings and plan a bunch of rides, and if someone has a lake they’d like to rent out for a few weekends in the middle of winter–something up in the hills where you can count of cold and the ice being solid–Joel or anybody in the club would love to hear from you.

Biker Quote for Today

“Riding a race bike is an art – a thing that you do because you feel something inside.” – Valentino Rossi

With the RMMRC on top of Independence Pass.

I’ve discussed the camaraderie of riding motorcycles a number of times recently and then events prompt additional thoughts.

As I’ve said, I was struck on this recent RMMRC Great River Road ride by how little social interaction there was among the group once we got to out stop for the night. That surprised me and initially I thought it was just the contrast with the OFMC, where we spend all the time doing stuff together till it’s time to turn in.

But then the morning we took the ride up Coal Creek and then over Douglas Mountain Drive we got together beforehand for breakfast. And at breakfast it occurred to me that this is where there is always a lot of camaraderie–before the ride. Then, a week later when we did the ride up Golden Gate Canyon and then over Squaw Pass Roy called me to tell me several guys were meeting at his house to ride out to Golden. The plan was kickstands up at 9:45 but they were leaving Roy’s at 8:30. Why so early?

It dawned on me that getting there early and hanging out is . . . drumroll . . . camaraderie.

So there’s plenty of camaraderie in the RMMRC–at least on the day rides. Either before the ride or in the middle if we stop for lunch. But it’s a whole different dynamic on long runs, or at least on the one long run I’ve done with the group.

The key came to me at lunch on this day when talk turned to a long ride some of the guys are thinking about for August. They want to do a trip to Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge. There and all the way home in eight days. Eight days. Oh my gosh, that’s a lot of hard riding. And that’s the key.

If you get up early each morning so you can burn up hundreds and hundreds of miles, you get to your day’s destination, have dinner, and people are ready to go to bed. With the OFMC we don’t do these long days, we often reach our destination as early as 2 or 3 p.m. and we’re not exhausted. This gives us time and energy to swim in the motel pool, stroll around and find an ice cream shop, have a beer or two, then have dinner, and kick back with another beer.

Now, Judy and I are planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest in the next few weeks so I definitely won’t be going along on a ride right back to Oregon soon after we get home. But I can just see how this whole thing will play out. They’ll get up early, ride hard and long, and hang it up early. On the whole trip. All the camaraderie will come at the meals–not in the evening.

Now I’m totally convinced that if I want to do any RMMRC rides on the terms I prefer I’m going to have to be the one to organize them, and I’m going to have to make the point to anyone interested that this is a different kind of ride. And in the meantime I’ll just stick to doing day rides. We have a really good time on the day rides.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you complained about the “smell and fumes” near the back of your last group ride.

A rider on Squaw Pass.

When the temperatures are consistently in the high 90s there is one thing you can do to escape: take a motorcycle ride in the mountains. We did.

The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC) tries to have rides going on nearly every week. The week before we did the Peak-to-Peak and the canyons running down from it. This time we overlapped that route but tended more to the south.

Six of us met in Golden and headed up Golden Gate Canyon. The temps heading up weren’t cool but it sure wasn’t 95 either. One note, there is a stretch with quite a bit of sand on the road. Be careful.

We reached the Peak-to-Peak and headed south to Black Hawk, then turned up toward Central City. We passed through Central City and took Central City Parkway over to I-70. Now it was pretty darn comfortable.

At I-70 we hopped over to Idaho Springs where we stopped for lunch. The place we were heading for was no longer in business so we went downtown. The place we had in mind there had no indoor seating but had one big table with a big umbrella outside. The heat outside would have been intolerable but the umbrella made all the difference. A couple thousand feet of elevation helped a lot, too.

From Idaho Springs we headed up and over Squaw Pass. Now we got some real elevation and some cloud cover, too. Nice.

The Squaw Pass road is one of those that separates the aggressive riders from the not-so-much guys. It has a lot of twists and turns and a lot of very tight turns, often posted at 15 or 20 mph. I was perfectly having them blast ahead just as fast as they liked. I’m in no hurry.

Back down to Evergreen Parkway and a right toward Evergreen, and then we skirted around the town via Meadow Drive. If you aren’t familiar with avoiding downtown by using Meadow Drive you ought to look it up. I can’t believe I went so many years and never knew about it.

Then we headed down to Kittredge but turned up Myers Gulch Road, which becomes Parmalee Gulch Road, bringing us out onto US 285. That just allowed us to stay in the hills a little bit longer.

And then we came down out of the hills expecting to get hit by a blast of heat but instead, as soon as we rolled out onto the flatlands we hit a rain shower. Not enough to get soaked, just enough to cool things off. I was on the Concours, which has a great fairing, so I hardly got wet at all. And the rain kept up until we got nearly to Federal. From there it was just a short cruise the rest of the way home and what little wet I had picked up just had time to evaporate–read: cool me off–by the time I was home.

I love it when everything goes in your favor.

Biker Quote for Today

The joy of riding a motorcycle is out of this world. The thrill of riding in the hills and mountains is an opiatic addiction.

The sidecar boys show up to do the Elephant Ride in 2010.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled telling of the tale of the RMMRC Great River Road ride to alert you to an event that there was no other way to fit in: Rigs in the Rockies 2 2022 USCA National Rally.

In case you’re wondering, USCA stands for United Sidecar Association. And that’s what it is, a gathering of folks who ride sidecar rigs.

This event will be happening Thursday, July 7 to Sunday, July 10, at the Delta County Fairgrounds in Hotchkiss. I’ve looked on their website and Facebook page but can’t find any info about activities but I guess if you ride a sidecar rig the only thing that really matters is that these are your people and you want to go be with them.

And if that’s not your ride, but you’ll be in the vicinity, I would definitely stop by, just to see them all.

Have a good Fourth!

Biker Quote for Today

There are too many ways to lose your life besides dying.

The Pass Bagger patches.

The BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado is a good place to go to meet folks to ride with, but their website is also a good resource even if you don’t want to join the club.

In particular, I’m looking at their Pass Bagger page. The Pass Bagger “quest,” as they call it, encourages members to earn patches for riding greater and greater numbers of passes in Colorado. First off, who knew there were so many?

There are three categories: paved passes, unpaved passes, and gaps and summits. If you click on the links to the lists you’ll see about 80 paved passes. OK, some of these have got to be just high spots that technically are passes but you would never realize it. And in some cases it’s a little confusing considering that, for instance, they list three Ute Passes. I’m not sure if this is all one pass or three separate ones. Each is listed in a different county. Doing a little digging it seems there really are three.

As for unpaved passes, there are probably something like 130 of them.

Where it really gets interesting is the gaps and summits. A sampling of these include Cat Creek Gap in Archuleta County, Limestone Gap in Moffat County, and Battle Mountain Summit in Eagle County. I have no idea what any of these are. That’s a pretty good reason to go find out, wouldn’t you say?

All of these also include the longitude and latitude so you can plug it into your GPS, as well as the elevation and the level of difficulty. A few are designated as favorites.

So I’d say that’s a pretty good resource. Of course the club has a whole lot of other rides and events to participate in. Yeah, I know I mentioned these guys in my post just a couple weeks ago about riding clubs in Colorado but I felt they have so much going on it was worth it to bring the club up again. And despite the BMW in the name they welcome all makes.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: You only need to get a new chain or belt for your Motorcycle when the old one is worn.

Meet-Up is a good place to find groups of motorcyclists to ride with.

Some people just simply have friends with motorcycles and they get together and ride. But not everyone. I know when I got my first bike, my CB750, John had already bought his Virago. A little while later Bill bought his Shadow. And we went out riding together. The OFMC was born and more friends and relatives joined and soon we had a big group. Easy.

As time has gone by, however, the OFMC has gotten a lot smaller and those few who are left really don’t care to go riding as much as I want to. So I looked around. I was an ABATE of Colorado member but I never got to where I would have called any of them “friends,” rather, simply acquaintances. And the majority of ABATE rides are poker runs and such, which I’m not much into.

Eventually I found the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC) and that has filled the bill. This is a good-sized group that does a lot of rides and I’ve gotten on much more actually friend-like terms with a bunch of these folks than I ever have at ABATE.

But there are a number of other groups, too, and often it could be the physical location that leads you to join one group or another. The RMMRC usually has its meetings here in southeast Denver where I live so it’s convenient. I know the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado is very active and they are open to all bikes, regardless of the name. They meet way out west, if that’s more convenient for you.

The British Motorcycle Association of Colorado is out of Colorado Springs, although it appears they do have affiliated chapters in Denver and the Fort Collins/Loveland area. They also are welcoming to other bikes but do ask that you have an affinity for the older British bikes.

There are also a number of groups that have formed through Meet-Up, including the Highlands Ranch Motorcycle Riders. As the name implies, they are centered out of Highlands Ranch.

Also the Front Range Dual Sport Riders, of which I am technically a member but have never attended one of their events. I don’t think they have meetings so it’s just a matter of getting together at a starting point to do a ride.

And now the latest one that Meet-Up informed me of, Colorado Inclusive Meetup 20s-40s. OK, this one is interesting. First off, as the name implies, they state up front that they are looking for people in their 20s through 40s. As in, I’m too old, sorry. And I get the impression that it may be pitched to gays, which is what the “inclusive” part of the name is about. OK, I’m not gay but that wouldn’t stop me from riding with you guys if I wasn’t too old.

And lastly, they have this sentence at the end of their Who We Are page: Who the group isn’t for: honestly, trump supporters.

I found that especially amusing, especially since the first time I looked at their page that statement was a bit more blunt and off-color. I like a little honesty like that. This group definitely does not seem to lean toward Harley-Davidson and as we all know, the guys and gals on the Harleys tend to skew heavily toward Trump. So if you’re getting a group together why not be clear up front what sort of crowd you’re looking for?

Obviously there are other groups, too–you just need to look for them. I know that since I hooked up with the RMMRC I’ve had a really good time doing a whole lot of rides and meeting and getting acquainted with a whole new bunch of people. If you’re looking for someone to ride with, they’re out there.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you fainted when you met Willie G.

Val hams it up for the camera at Daniels Park.

I did a short ride with a small RMMRC group Saturday and we had an interesting encounter.

Val and Chris had invited everyone over to their house for breakfast before a ride down to Daniels Park. It was kind of nice because it offered a comfortable situation for a few of us who weren’t well acquainted to get to know each other better. Val is a relatively new rider who has a nice little KTM but thanks to Covid has not been able even to schedule a riding test to get her license. So she has to ride with someone who does have a license, such as all of us. From Daniels Park the group could decide to keep going, and they did, but I opted to head home–too much needing my attention at home.

So anyway, we headed out and were winding our way through Littleton and the south suburban area headed to the park when we came to a spot where we needed to turn right. There were seven bikes. I was riding sixth, behind Gene, who was behind I don’t know who.

Approaching this intersection the leaders passed a bicyclist in the bike lane. Not a problem, they were well ahead of him and they turned. One by one these motorcycles made the turn, but with each one the bicyclist drew closer. I was observing this with interest. It occurred to me that I wasn’t really sure who ought to yield the right of way when the cyclist got to the intersection, assuming he planned to go straight. But my thinking was that whatever was the “right” thing, he really ought to slow down and let these string of motorcycles make their turn as a group. I mean, how big a deal would that be?

But he didn’t. As he came to the intersection the rider in front of Gene turned in front of him, he hit his brakes and wobbled pretty fiercely, and as he then crossed ahead of Gene he angrily yelled at Gene. OK.

When we stopped I asked Gene what he had said but Gene had been listening to music so he didn’t catch the words but nobody could miss the anger. And I asked and everyone agreed that the right of way is supposed to be ceded to the bicyclist. But the guy in front of Gene, the offender, said he figured he had plenty of room to make the turn without interfering with the bicyclist. And apparently he thought he had done so and was surprised that there had been an incident.

Which just gets back to my original thinking. OK, the guy had a right to believe the right of way should have been yielded to him. (Nobody has the right of way, it’s a matter of who is supposed to yield the right of way. That’s a technicality but it’s good to keep that clear in your mind.) But in this case, wouldn’t it have been smart for the cyclist to have decided for his own safety to just defer to this string of motorcycles?

We motorcyclists know all too well that if someone violates our space that no matter how in the right we are, we’re still the ones who are going to get hurt. Clearly that applies even more to bicyclists.

And even if someone understands and accepts that the cyclist had the right of way, sometimes people make bad judgments. In this case that apparently happened. We follow the maxim of riding as if we’re invisible. Again, bicyclists should follow that concept even more since they’re even more vulnerable. I don’t think it’s any secret though that at least some bicyclists are overly self-righteous in asserting their right to their share of the road. And I think this guy was one of those. Fine, be that way, but I personally think my own safety and well-being take precedence over my rights on the road. I’d rather rant about some idiot later than wake up in the ER.

It all comes down to one over-riding principle: don’t be stupid. I think this guy was stupid.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you’ve never ridden long enough to know that stock seats are never comfortable.

Lunch at Green Mountain Reservoir.

If anyone pays attention to the time of day when these posts generally go up you’ll be aware that this is much later in the day than usual. That’s because I only just got back from an all-day ride with the RMMRC. Roy called last night and told me to be at his place just before 8, so I was. So were Charley and Tim. We headed on out to Morrison to meet up with the rest, and there were a bunch today, about 12 of us.

Essentially this was a fall color ride. This is the time of year when the mountainsides are covered in yellow and gold and it’s always the sort of thing you want to take pictures of. Happily for us, it was also one of these incredibly beautiful October days that Colorado is know for. Let’s ride!

We headed up past Red Rocks to US 40 where it runs alongside I-70 going up Mount Vernon Canyon. Right away we lost Roy, who rides sweep. No one had any idea what happened to him and we hoped he didn’t break down but the plan from the start was that if we got separated just regather at the Subway in Granby.

We took US 40 and then US 6 as much as possible, just getting onto I-70 briefly when we had to, and then followed 40 up over Berthoud Pass. Bob, who I consider one of the fast guys, suggested that the guys like Mike, who Bob considers a fast guy, might want to blast on ahead. Mike said he would stay with the group until we hit the pass but then look out, he’d be gone.

So we were totally splintered by the time we got to Granby, and who should I see first but Roy. Seems as sweep, he saw two bikes behind him so he waved them ahead and then followed them. They were not part of our group. Oops. So he went up Lookout Mountain and caught US 40 that way and ended up ahead of us.

The Subway in Granby was not going to open for another 15 minutes so some elected to stay and wait while the others went on to the Subway in Kremmling, with the others to catch up with us there. The idea was to get lunch to go and then go have a picnic down by Green Mountain Reservoir south of Kremmling.

I took off with the group heading to the Kremmling Subway and what happened then was like much of the day. Everyone else was on newer, powerful bikes. I was on my very old, decidedly less powerful Honda CB750 and I just can’t keep up with these guys. No matter, we all knew where we were headed.

Food in hand, we turned south. CO 9 runs along the east edge of the reservoir but we turned onto the road that runs along the west shore and finally found the only campground still open. Time for lunch.

I wrote last week about differences in the OFMC and the RMMRC and here’s another one. The road down into the campground was gravel and none of us were on dual-sport bikes, but we all went down it anyway. The OFMC–other than me–flat out refuses to do any gravel. They would not have done this.

After lunch we continued south on CO 9 with the plan to get gas at Silverthorne. Some people were more antsy to ride so even while a few were not ready to roll yet, a bunch took off. I was the tail end of that group. We were going to go over Loveland Pass rather than through the tunnel. Once again, they left me in the dust.

I was not unhappy with that. I like to ride at my own pace and blasting over a high mountain pass at excessive speed is not my thing. I figured at this point we were all totally scattered and that was really the end of the group ride but to my surprise, as I got down to I-70 they were waiting. And not just for me. Did I know where the others were? No, I hadn’t seen them since the gas station but in less than a minute there they were and they passed us and we pulled in behind them.

Bob, in the lead, was still following the practice of avoiding the slab so we got off at Bakerville and onto US 6 again, down to Silver Plume. This old road running alongside but away from the interstate is such a nicer ride than the slab. We had to get back on I-70 at Silver Plume, just to get down to Georgetown, and then we were off again, although we lost one rider who didn’t realize we would do this and was stuck in the left lane going past the exit.

So it was US 6 on down to Idaho Springs and two people, I’m not sure who, headed up Squaw Pass. For the rest of us, once we were back on the interstate this time it was all over. I quickly found myself riding just with Roy. But I didn’t figure I wanted to do the slab all the way home so I got off at El Rancho and turned down Kerr Gulch Road, angling down to CO 74 at Kittredge. Much nicer ride.

And there I was, heading east on US 285/Hampden when who pulls up alongside me but Tim. He had been way out in front of me. How the heck did I get ahead of him? Was my shortcut that much faster? Or was Tim one of the ones who took Squaw Pass, and he did it so fast that he barely ended up behind me? I have no idea.

Whatever. Bottom line was, this was a terrific day of riding. The weather was great, the colors were good, most especially down CO 9 from Kremmling to Silverthorne. Of course it totally disrupted everything else I had had in mind to do today but that’s the price you pay when you’re (deep, rumbling voice) a biker.

Extra: In my earlier post comparing the OFMC and the RMMRC I forgot one really big thing, which I have since added into that post. But rather than make you go look for it I’ll paste it in here.
In the OFMC, if we get cold, we’ll stop and put on more gear. If our legs are getting stiff, we’ll stop and take a break. With the RMMRC it seems that once we get rolling we are going to continue rolling. These guys like to ride, not stop. Of course, with a group of any size, stopping requires time. One or two people can stop quickly and get going again, but with eight people it takes about four times as long. And you don’t cover lots of miles in a day if you’re stopping all the time.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if taking your wife on a cruise means a putt down the interstate.