Passes & Canyons Blog

We’ve had some really nice weather the last couple days so I had to go ride. Normally, with Wednesday forecast for a high around 72 there is no question there would have been an RMMRC ride. However, with the coronavirus flaring up in a big way, the RMMRC sent out a note earlier this week that for the time being all rides and events are suspended. I guess I’ll have to do this on my own.

It’s times like this when I get antsy to move somewhere else. I’ve been out on the plains way too much lately but going to the hills means riding half an hour across town both ways. It makes me jealous of Bill, who lives right alongside CO 93 running up from Golden to Boulder. He gets on his bike and he’s in the hills in five minutes.

But I did head west. I took Hampden/US 285 to C-470 and got off at Morrison. I was going to run up that road to Kittredge on CO 74 but just like the last time I tried that the road was closed. I figured the work they had been doing several weeks ago would be finished, but no. Wonder what they’re doing?

So I took the Hogback Road that runs up past Red Rocks, under I-70, and turned left onto old US 6 up through Mount Vernon Canyon. I wasn’t sure yet where I was headed but about this time I decided I’d take the turn-off over to Lookout Mountain and the Buffalo Bill grave site. That’s a nice road and you get several stunning views of the plains laid out below.

I stopped at Buffalo Bill’s to get that photo above and then headed on down. What I was already surprised at was how many other people on motorcycles had the same idea. Also, not a surprise, there were at least as many people on bicycles.

I started heading down and came up on a guy on a bicycle. I could have passed him but I’ve seen these folks on hills like this. I figured he’d actually want to go faster than I did. I was right. We neared the first sharp curve and he started scorching. Within seconds he was gone. I was in no hurry.

So I cruised on down, waving to any number of other bikers coming up, and then suddenly two bicyclists went blasting past me. Holy crap! I hadn’t been looking in my mirrors because what was there to look for? And I got passed one more time before I got to the bottom.

A note: the lower end of the Lookout Mountain road has been newly paved and they have added four speed bumps in the area where there are houses around.

I got down to CO 93 and one of the first things I saw was a motorcycle cop, and this guy was wearing just a short-sleeve shirt. I had a tee shirt, a flannel shirt, a vest, and my leather jacket. That’s how warm it was. Beautiful day in November.

Then from there I just headed home.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you don’t go a day without wearing something that says “Harley Davidson.”

A regular ride for the RMMRC is out to Kiowa to Patty Ann’s Cafe, where the folks are friendly and the food is very good. Such a regular ride that we really have to work to find different ways to get there and come back.

Sure, we could always ride down Parker Road to Franktown and take CO 86 east to Kiowa but what fun would that be? Fortunately there are a lot of different routes.

The one we took out there on Wednesday was another really basic one: out east on Quincy to the Bennett-Kiowa Road and then south. If you just took those two routes you would soon be bored out of your mind. But there are numerous north-south roads, intersecting numerous east-west roads and you can pretty much zig-zag your way and vary the route any number of ways. You end up in the same place.

This, of course, is the curse of living in one place too long. There’s not a road anywhere near you that you haven’t ridden several hundred times.

Years ago I used to be pretty footloose. I moved around. And even when I stayed in the same place I would go away frequently, for extended excursions. I was known for this. When some friends moved to Buffalo, New York, the wife told me she wasn’t saying good-bye to me because she knew I’d be showing up at their door at some point. That was 40 years ago and I have never seen those folks again.

As it turned out, I settled down. I bought a house. That meant staying in one place and having mortgage payments that had to be made or else. That meant jobs where they expect you to show up every day. Dang, footloose was fun.

So I started going on all these week-long summer trips with the OFMC, which we’ve been doing for 31 years now. But even that started getting repetitive. In 31 years you cover a lot of roads anywhere you can get to and back in a week and a day or two.

For a while I pushed the guys to try something like shipping the bikes a long way away and flying out and then riding home. Or renting a truck to haul the bikes one way and having a marathon drive out somewhere distant and then riding home. I never could get anyone to go along on that with me. I’ve given up on that, plus the OFMC is down to just three again and in 2019, as I was mapping out a route, they told me they were game for some big miles in order to reach some places we don’t generally go. Afterward, planning the 2020 trip, they told me “let’s not do such long rides this time.” OK guys, whatever you wish.

And you end up riding the same roads over and over again. Sometimes I want to move to another city just so I can ride different roads. That’s not going to happen. I’ll keep riding these same roads, and ultimately they all lead to Patty Ann’s. Heck, it’s not a bad destination.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if people have nearly died of starvation looking at all of your bike/run pictures.

I headed over on Wednesday to meet up with the other RMMRC members who were going riding but when I got there I only saw one bike in the parking lot. I pulled over by a woman on a Harley who I did not recognize and she said she hadn’t seen any other bikes. I took a slow turn around the lot and only spotted one more.

Back over by her, she said she was going inside to use the restroom. I parked and walked over and saw the regular cast of characters at an outdoor table. I joined them. There was Robert but he is moving to Panama in less than a week and has sold his bike. Roy was there but not on his bike. Bob was there but not on his bike.

When the Harley woman joined us there were four of us who were on our bikes: her and me plus another woman and a guy on a Concours who I had seen before but whose name I did not recall at that moment. Paula, Valerie, and Gene, respectively, as I know now.

What this meant was that none of the usual leaders were riding and none of us had a plan. Think fast.

I was the one who came up with a plan. I have previously discussed a recent ride the RMMRC took where we rode Kerr Gulch, Witter Gulch, and Shadow Mountain Drive. I had never been on two of those roads and had only been on the third one time. I had mapped out a plan for a ride to take Judy on, essentially doing much of that original ride in reverse. Let’s do this, I proposed.

No one else had any ideas so it was no surprise they agreed to follow me. We headed out toward Morrison, figuring to go up to Kittredge and catch Kerr Gulch Road there.

Now, first off, being in the lead is a responsibility. When you’re just following along you don’t have to do much other than pay attention to the guy in front of you and the guy behind. Leading, especially in the city, means constantly keeping an eye out that you don’t lose anyone off the back end. With traffic and stoplights that can be challenging. This is part of why most people don’t like to lead. But I volunteered for it today.

We passed through Morrison and just on the outskirts of town we hit a roadblock. The whole highway was closed. Dang! What the heck are they doing up there? I still don’t know but, as the GPS says, recalculating.

It occurred to me that we could go back toward Morrison and take the road that runs over to U.S. 285, take 285 to the Parmalee Gulch road, and then take the turn that carries you over to Kittredge. We headed that way with me leading and Paula behind me. We got separated from the other two by cars. At 285 we couldn’t see either of them so we pulled over. After a minute or two Gene came along and said Valerie decided to go home. OK, now there were just the three of us. A pretty small ride by RMMRC standards.

So we followed that route, ignored the sign in Kittredge that said local traffic only, and turned onto Kerr Gulch Road. Up to Evergreen Parkway, a short jog south to get on the road over Squaw Pass, and then a turn down Witter Gulch.

Nearing Evergreen from the back side I pulled into the lot at the Evergreen Golf Course. Everyone was glad to take a break and get off the bikes, and Gene was enthused at what we had just ridden. He said he has ridden his bicycle on Squaw Pass many times and never even noticed that turn-off down Witter Gulch. I wasn’t sure Paula was as enthused because I know from experience that all those really tight turns are work on a big, heavy bike.

I told them my ride had one more leg but if they were ready to head home we were just outside Evergreen. They were game for one more so we rode into town, took the right toward Conifer, and then I had to find the turn-off. Coming the other way you see the sign for Shadow Mountain Drive. Over here, however, the road has become something else and I couldn’t remember exactly what. I warned them I might make a wrong turn.

We got to Brook Forest Road and I turned but very quickly considered turning back, thinking I had goofed. But I reconsidered and kept on and after awhile the road became Black Mountain Road and finally Shadow Mountain Road. That brought us back to CO 73 just outside of Conifer and U.S. 285. Now we turn for home.

It was a heck of a nice ride. There was still a lot more fall color than I expected and it was a beautiful day. A beautiful day up in the hills, that is. Coming down into town the smoke from the forest fires was so bad you couldn’t even see downtown. I don’t even want to think about what this crap is doing to our lungs.

So Robert is leaving the country, and new leadership is going to need to step up for the RMMRC. I guess I’m going to have to do my share. I did pretty well this time.

/Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than men: Motorcycles don’t need Viagra.

Wednesday seemed like it would be a great day to ride, so Roy planned a fall color RMMRC ride up the Peak-to-Peak. As I headed out, though, going west on Hampden, I couldn’t even see the foothills. Either I was heading into a serious rainstorm or a ginormous cloud of smoke.

I assumed it was smoke from the forest fires, and counted on that because I did not have my rain gear with me. As I got further west I started smelling the smoke, so that question was answered.

As I approached C-470 I could see that the smoke was much much thicker to the north, where I still couldn’t see the foothills, versus the south where I could see the hills. Not good, considering that we were heading north.

When I got to the meeting place I immediately asked Roy if he had a Plan B. He said of course he did, but he apparently didn’t hear the “B” portion because he proceeded to detail the route originally set. That is, he definitely had a plan. Not a Plan B. I asked about the smoke but he didn’t think it was of any concern.

We headed up the Golden Gate Canyon road and I wondered if, as we got higher, the smoke would either clear or perhaps the wind would be blowing up there and chasing it away. In the meantime, it was killing my sinuses and I coughed constantly.

Up on the Peak-to-Peak it was better than down below but not good. But it wasn’t terrible. We headed north and whenever we came to places where we went down, such as coming into Rollinsville and Nederland, you could see the denser smoke in the lower areas and you could sure smell it as we came down.

Just past the turn-off to Ward we turned left to go up into Brainard Lake Recreation Area, our destination. I was a little surprised but the fact is I had never been there. It’s a really nice ride up to the lake and very pretty once you get up there. More importantly, we really seemed to finally shed the smoke as we climbed this little bit higher.

So we got up there and had the lunches we had brought and the sky was blue and sunny and it was beautiful. How nice. You couldn’t have asked for better. And the place was busy. Don’t all these people have jobs to go to? Apparently not. We didn’t.

Heading down it was startling how quickly we hit smoke again. We hadn’t even made it back to the ranger building where you pay your entry fee when it started looking and smelling smoky. And then by the time we were back down to the Peak-to-Peak we were right back in it.

From there we scattered. There are so many ways to get down from there. Some of us went down through Ward through Left Hand Canyon. Others headed for Coal Creek Canyon. Others, who knows?

Riding down Left Hand Canyon I realized I had only been this way a few times, not like the dozens or hundreds of times I’ve ridden the other canyons coming up to the Peak-to-Peak. It’s a nice ride and I realized I ought to be adding this canyon to my “The Peak-to-Peak Highway and Adjoining Canyons” page. Something else to add to my to-do list.

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 02. — The keyboard is mounted at the level of the user’s chin and his seat tilts backward — ape-hanger keyboard!

Kudos to Bob for planning and leading an RMMRC ride that went well off the beaten track and introduced me to roads close to town that I had never known existed. One over-riding aspect of this route was the demonstration of just how fully built out the hills west of Denver are. I had heard before that if you flew in a small airplane above the foothills you would see that there are people everywhere. This ride really proved that out.

We started out from Morrison, jumping on C-470 briefly to get over to U.S. 285 heading southwest. Very shortly we turned off at the Tiny Town exit onto Turkey Creek Road. Just past where Deer Creek Canyon Road runs off to the left we made a right turn that took us up into the heavily developed (relatively speaking) area between Turkey Creek Road and 285. Following a variety of local roads we looped through the area and ended up back on Turkey Creek Road probably only a mile or so from where we got off. But in the interim we would around through a very nice area on some nice roads. With houses all along the way.

Continuing south and west on Turkey Creek Road we then turned off to the south on Hilldale Drive and into another area of houses. Here, though, the road climbed and we ended up on what is aptly named City View Drive. The city and the plains are clearly visible from up here, as is U.S. 285 off to the north.

This is where things got a bit out of kilter. Looking at the map today I see what I think must have been Bob’s planned route. If you make the right turns–GPS probably your best bet–you can work your way over to Pleasant Park Road and back onto 285 at Conifer. Bob’s GPS was not serving him well. We made several wrong turns, ended up on dirt roads and generally groped our way until we found our way back to where we had turned off Turkey Creek Road.

But we were still seeing some roads and some views we had never seen before. I had no complaint. I was on my Concours, which generally hates gravel, but in fact it really hates loose gravel. Because this was hard-packed dirt I had no problem.

Besides the demonstration of just how full the hills are of homes I was also struck by how very many people we saw out walking, either on their own or walking their dogs, along these roads. They were everywhere and for the most part they were very friendly and waved–and in one case even cheered– as we went by. I suspect they don’t get many motorcycle groups cruising through their neighborhoods.

We then followed Turkey Creek Road to where it terminates back at U.S. 285 over by Meyer Ranch Open Space Park. That ended the first segment of this ride and the other segments warrant their own space so I’ll save them for later blog posts following this one. There is one other thing I want to mention here, though.

This was a fairly lengthy ride altogether. Bob had promised “111 miles, 1 million curves” and that really gives you an idea of what this ride was like. With that kind of promo I knew I would be most comfortable on the V-Strom but I had not yet ridden the Concours in September so despite knowing the V would be the better bike for the ride, I rode the Connie.

That was OK because I’m a pretty skillful rider and I had no problem maneuvering that big bike through the many switchbacks and tight curves we traversed. To my surprise, though, by the time I got home I was exhausted. Riding a motorcycle is not a passive activity the way that driving a car can be, and hours of steering a big bike through serious twisties adds up to significant effort. I got home just in time to go to my appointment at the gym and by the time I was walking home from the gym I found myself stopping every place I found shade to rest. I was tired!

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 03. — Expansion slots have Genuine Harley-Davidson bike parts installed in them.

I did. I joined the club.

Specifically, I joined the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC). My hope and expectation is that it will help me meet some new people and make some new friends to go riding with. Sure I go out for a week each year with the guys in the OFMC but beyond that we maybe get out for breakfast three times a year. Most of the rest of the time when I ride I’m riding alone.

And riding alone is not bad. In fact, I like it a lot. But I especially would like to meet some folks who want to ride off the pavement. I don’t want to be off on some trail up in the hills and need assistance in a place where no one might come along for a week or two. Yes, I’ve thought about getting a SPOT tracker, and that remains an option, but it would be nice to simply have other people to ride with so you can help each other out if need be.

So on Thursday night last week I went over to Piccolo’s restaurant–conveniently, very close to home–to see what the RMMRC was all about.

Turns out they’re about a lot. It’s a highly organized group. Every year they plan out a number of group rides far enough in advance that they print up a ride book, and we’re not talking just four or five rides. Here’s part of the list for this year:
April 2 — Season Warm-up and Orientation Ride
April 16 — Kick Up Some Prairie Dust!
May 10 – May 24 — Southern West Coast Tour
June 4 — Dual Sport Day Ride
June 6 – June 13 –Grand Canyon Tour
July 12 – July 20 — BMW MOA Rally, Hamburg, NY
August 4 – August 12 — Flaming Glacier Run

OK, you get it. And there’s a lot more. The point is, these are not just day rides. There are some big ones in there. I like that kind of stuff.

In addition, Roy, the safety director, told me that for those (mostly retired) who have the availability, they will often take short-notice week-day rides out for breakfast or lunch somewhere. And then of course, once you make some friends, you can always just call up a couple guys and round up some folks to do your own, non-club-sponsored rides.

Really, that’s probably more what I’m interested in. I believe in riding safely, and riding with the OFMC that is something that’s pretty hit or miss, but neither am I fond of severe regimentation. I believe in riding in staggered formation but the rules of some riding groups is more than I am comfortable with. I want some happy medium. So I’ll go on some club-sponsored rides, and if I don’t find the regimentation to be beyond my tolerance I’ll do more. But I may not do more; that’s where meeting new riding companions and doing your own rides comes in. I’ll just play it by ear.

So stay tuned. I suspect you’re going to be reading a lot more about this group in the months ahead.

More website-related stuff
One of the first things after the RMMRC meeting began was an introduction by first-time attendees. That meant me, plus another couple who were also there for the first time. After giving my name and listing the bikes I own I added that I run this website and that frankly, I was going to be a little disappointed if there was no one there who was familiar with my site.

I wasn’t disappointed. In particular, there was one couple who each told me individually that when they first got into riding, they looked for information on places to go and discovered my site. And they used it a lot. “You’re something of a celebrity for us,” Sarah told me. That is so totally gratifying. That’s the whole reason I built the site, because I wanted to share all this with others.

Which takes me back to that website in the UK that I mentioned previously. With these guys, if I want to sell my bike, they’ll buy it. Except, of course, you have to be in the UK. But I was curious so I tried going to their site. I wanted to at least see what they’re all about.

Well, turns out you can’t get far on the site unless you’re in the UK. I don’t know how the technology works but if you’re not there, all you get past the home page is a notice saying, “Could not Connect to Valuations Service.” Oh well. But if you’re in the UK and have a bike you want to sell . . .

Biker Quote for Today

Old bikers never die, our leathers just get tighter.

Alan was interested in my post about “Shariah law” and when he gets curious he knows some knowledgeable people who he asks to comment. He sent me a couple responses.

From Samantha there was this:

This is quite a subject of hot debate.And actually, the very reason Ron and I disbanded the Deadhorse MC. Well, me anyway. Ron was just tired of leading rides all of the time and worrying about riders getting lost, keeping up, doing the newsletters, writing about every ride, calling everyone, etc. I, on the other hand, knew the day was coming that we would get into conflict with other MC’s. Not so much for having our rockers (as we never had rockers in the first place) but once more MC members were gathered in the surrounding areas, the main artery of drug trafficking known as Highway 191 going straight through Moab would become a territory issue. Knowing me, I wouldn’t take it as seriously as these guys were and would mouth off, getting all of us hurt.

Sure enough, less than a year of us disbanding, a new group was formed here and they decided they were going to call themselves an MC and got patches with rockers and all. They were contacted and ‘encouraged’ to take the rockers off. They did. It was a bit silly, as these guys had no idea where the rocker idea had even come from, and for that reason, I grant respect to the MC’s that claim territory. Rockers were their thing to start with, and if you let them have it now, they seem to be fine with whatever little ‘club’ you want to have..just don’t claim a state.

It’s all very high school, until you get ‘encouraged’ by an MC. Then, it gets real!

Then there was this from Greg:

Randy Decastro indicated that one of the club local chapters would not allow the American Legion that he belongs to form a club or be patched.

That’s one thing that Bruce told us at Sunday’s ABATE meeting, that we were not being singled out, but that they were going after everyone. Fine. A bunch of suburban, middle-class guys like the OFMC really has no interest in pretending to be a bunch of 1%ers anyway. But there’s no one who can tell us we can’t have a small, private club of guys who like to ride.

Biker Quote for Today

If she changes her oil more often than she changes her mind, follow her.

Let’s see if you understand what I’m referring to here.

You have a group of people who tell everyone else that regardless of whether or not they believe the same as they do, the others must follow the laws of this group’s beliefs or else they’ll do them bodily injury, perhaps even kill them.

Does that make you think of Muslim extremists and Shariah law? I’m betting that if you’re like most non-Muslim Americans the answer is yes. Maybe even if you are a Muslim American. I’m not saying that is an accurate description of what ISIS and Al-Qaeda are all about but I think that’s a fair statement of how most of us see it.

So what if I told you what I’m really here to talk about is a motorcycle “club”?

On the OFMC trip this past summer Ray was complaining that the Sons of Silence had made his VFW group of riders take the “Colorado” rockers off their patches. “Made” them do it. How can they make you do that, I asked him. Why don’t you just tell them to go take a flying leap? Ray never really answered that question but I think we all know the answer.

Now I was just at my ABATE of Colorado District 10 meeting on Sunday and it turns out the Sons had approached ABATE saying that ABATE cannot use the word “Colorado” on any patches it produces. Never mind it’s part of the group’s name. It seems in their minds that they own Colorado and no one else can lay claim to it.

Telling us about his meeting with two “club” representatives, ABATE of Colorado State Coordinator Bruce Downs said, and I paraphrase: Whether you agree with them or not, it’s their belief system. You put a territory name on a rocker and you’re saying you own that territory. There have been people who have died over this. That’s not what we’re about. I’m not going there. We came to a mutual understanding.

Did somebody say Shariah law? Oh, yeah, I did. Now, no one said anything about physical retaliation but Bruce’s remark about people having died over this issue makes it clear that such things can and have happened and that fact is always in the back of your mind. It leads to self-censorship. It leads to groups like ABATE and Ray’s VFW group giving in no matter how vehemently they despise doing so. And I agree totally with Bruce. This is not what we’re about. There are more important issues ABATE needs to address. It’s not worth anyone getting hurt.

Now here’s a funny thing. Bruce said this applies only to patches, and only to three-part patches, with a top rocker, middle, and bottom rocker. If you’re silk-screening onto a T-shirt it’s OK for ABATE of Colorado to call itself ABATE of Colorado.

I thought Judy summed it up well. When I told her about all this she remarked that it’s like a bunch of dogs going around marking their territory. Some people need to grow up. And I guess if the University of Colorado decides to produce patches they had better just call themselves the University. Because the Sons own Colorado.

Biker Quote for Today

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but dirt bikes break them better.