Passes & Canyons Blog

I started building this motorcyclecolorado.com website in 2004 and at the time I figured it would be helpful to include a page on biker-friendly hotels and motels. So I did and I have added to it over the years.

Things change, though, and more recently I have had people ask me what the idea is. Which is to say, what with doctors, lawyers, and people from every walk of life taking up motorcycling, a lot of people have no understanding that there was a time not so long ago when bikers might find themselves turned away from lodging purely because they were on motorcycles.

Now, that’s great. It means we’ve come a long way. The image of the evil, dangerous outlaw biker has largely faded from the public consciousness.

That raises a question then. What today constitutes a biker-friendly hotel or motel? Are there criteria I should use when adding places to the page?

One criterion I’ve always used is that if the establishment contacts me asking to be added, I consider that biker-friendly and I add them. Also, if they buy ads on the website that’s a pretty clear indication they are actively seeking business from bikers, so obviously they are biker-friendly. That’s pretty simple.

Most of the others I have added are places we have stayed where they have been very nice to us. And seeking to be helpful beyond pointing riders to one place or another, I have even listed a place or two that I would not recommend and explained why. The example that comes immediately to my mind is one place where the bed was absolutely horrid. But I’ve grown concerned about that. We stayed in that place a long time ago now. I have to believe they have gotten rid of that terrible bed by now; is it fair that I have not changed that listing in all these years? We haven’t been back so I can’t revise the rating upward; should I just delete it now?

What about the design/layout of the place? Planning this year’s OFMC trip the guys told me they really like the places where you can park your bike right outside the door. That makes it an easy schlep of your gear and the bike is right there in case someone tries to mess with it. Does that make a place biker-friendly? I know I prefer that because I hate carrying all my gear through a hallway, up a stairway, and down another hallway. Still, if they have carts that you can load it all onto, and an elevator, and you can easily roll it all then it’s really not that bad. Do carts and an elevator make a place biker-friendly?

What else? Some places make a point to offer rags for cleaning your bike. Now, certainly many of them do this for their own interests because too many bikers have been jerks and used good towels and washcloths for that purpose, and those towels and washcloths are then ruined. Still, it’s always nice when at check-in the clerk tells you where to find rags to clean your bike. That definitely seems biker-friendly.

But what else? I’d really like to hear your thoughts because if it makes sense I want to revise this page. But in what way? Should I include a checklist: rags–check; actively seeking biker business–check; preferred motorcycle parking–check. You get the picture. Or what? Let me know what you think.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: We have grease under our fingernails.

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.

Judy and I had been married for three years when I bought the Concours. She had ridden with me numerous times on the CB750 but those had been mostly just short day rides of about 100 miles, plus one over-nighter we did just down to Manitou Springs.

After I bought the Concours it seemed the natural thing to do was join the Concours Owners Group (COG). And if you’re going to join a group you pretty much ought to figure on going on some of their rides. So when a day ride was announced we decided to go along.

What we did not know about this group was that the general approach for a day ride was to really take a ride, as in a long day. We got up early and jumped on I-25 down to Colorado Springs where the group was meeting up at a cafe. We didn’t know the route, we just figured we’d follow the leader.

From Colorado Springs we headed southwest to Penrose and then took CO 67 down to CO 165, down to I-25 again down by Colorado City. Along the way we stopped at Bishop Castle, which was our first visit there. This is why you join a riding group because they take you places you don’t even know are places.

Somewhere along this route–I don’t remember where–we stopped for lunch at the home of someone the ride organizer knew. This was pretty nice of them considering that there were probably about two dozen of us.

On I-25 we headed south to Walsenburg and then turned off onto CO 69, which heads up through Westcliffe. It was at this point, on a break, that Judy heard one of the other women riding behind that for the last hour all she had been able to think about was putting her knees together. Judy hadn’t been thinking about it but from this point on it was very much in her mind, too. At this point we had gone about 200 miles, which was the longest ride she had ever been on. And we were nowhere close to home.

We continued on CO 69 up to Cotopaxi and U.S. 50. We took 50 east to Penrose again, where we stopped for gas. Most everyone filled up but I figured we were fine so I didn’t get gas. We backtracked northeast to Colorado Springs and at this point people started peeling off, each going their own way. We got on CO 83 rather than take the interstate back to Denver. By this time we were on our own.

I knew we were low on gas but I figured on getting some at Franktown. But we didn’t reach Franktown. About five miles south the engine sputtered and we coasted to a stop in front of a farm house. Oh crap.

Fortunately someone was home, and they had gas to sell us, so with a gallon poured in we made it on to Franktown and a station. Then home. Altogether we did about 400 miles that day. I mean, to put that into perspective, in 30 years of doing the OFMC rides I’m not sure we have ever done a 400 mile day, and if we have we’ve only done it once or twice at most. Judy never did another COG ride with me, and I never did another COG ride of that length. I’m sorry, some people really enjoy that but not us.

Not that we don’t do long rides, we just break them up more. Two years ago we did 3,000 miles in about two weeks, up to British Columbia and back. But that comes out to just a little more than 200 miles a day, on average. Certainly we had longer and shorter days on that trip but only one of those was over 300.

Oh, but it’s all about the stories, right? If we hadn’t done this I wouldn’t have this story to tell.

Biker Quote for Today

She hugged me tight, burying her face into my back and the longer I drove the tighter she held and though her eyes were closed I knew she was smiling. I could just tell. — Atticus

Many people enjoy riding motorcycles as something that is part of your day. Then there are those for whom riding all day long is what it’s all about. Trust me, I’m not one of the latter.

When you take off on a week-long motorcycle trip you inevitably meet other bikers out on the road. You talk about where you’re coming from, where you’re headed, and all that. Sometimes the people you meet are really hard core.

We spent two nights in Gunnison on last month’s trip and there were a couple guys on bikes who were at the same motel. I flat cannot remember where they were from, maybe Ohio or Missouri, but they were a good ways from home.

One of these guys wasn’t really into really, really serious riding but his buddy was, and the first guy just did it because it’s what his friend wanted to do. “He’s just glued to the saddle.”

So what kind of day rides were they doing while in Gunnison? Oh, how about a day ride over to Arches National Park? That’s about 150 miles one way as the crow flies, and nearly double that on the ground. And then they figured to tour the park while they were there. Really?

Or how about something a little tamer: Gunnison to Lake City, to Creede, to South Fork, to Pagosa Springs, to Durango, to Montrose, and back to Gunnison. Heck, that’s child’s play, barely 350 miles. Of course they made the detour to do the rim ride and the East Portal Road down into Black Canyon of the Gunnison, so add another 50 miles.

By the way, the first guy told me that on the Million Dollar Highway he told his friend to just go on and not worry about him. That road freaked him out so much he wanted to take it very, very slowly.

In Gunnison we also met a couple who were riding their KLR 650. They were from Delaware. That’s a heck of a distance but they were not planning to ride the bike home. Instead, after they were done with their tour the were just planning to sell the bike and fly home.

Of course, the one group who really stand out in my memory was on a different trip, where Judy and I met three young guys on Sportsters who were making an eight day trip from Green Bay to the west coast and back. Now that is extreme.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you think God invented winter just as a good time to get your bike painted.

With departure for this year’s OFMC trip drawing near, we were through into confusion when Dennis got word that New Mexico has issued an order that anyone coming into the state must quarantine for either two weeks or the length of their stay, whichever is shorter.

So, right. We were going to be in New Mexico for three days and they’re saying we should quarantine for that entire time. Plus, the Indian casino hotel we had booked in Espanola told Bill when he called that all their restaurants are closed, with only their snack bar open. Short notice but revisions were clearly in order.

There are two things that are givens on any OFMC trip: golf and gambling. Frequently we combine the two. That didn’t look possible now, so we figured out a new plan. Our first night will be in Alamosa and we agreed to head from to Gunnison for two nights, including a day of golf, and then go for one night to the Sky Ute Casino Resort to get in the gambling segment. Everyone had their assignment as to who to call.

Text messages started flying quickly. Bill found out the Sky Ute was closed. And I found out that the motel we like to stay at in Gunnison, which is directly adjacent to the golf course, had changed hands and names and their prices had about doubled. Yikes. Let’s go to Plan C.

Dennis called Cripple Creek and made us reservations at the Double Eagle Hotel & Casino. We’ll go there from Alamosa. Bill was able to get us a tee time in Gunnison so I had to look around a bit, finally finding a different motel with rates that are not sky high. We just won’t be able to walk out the back door directly onto the golf course.

After that the trip will get back on track as planned so long ago.

I have to admit, I was starting to have reservations about the whole trip. Infections rates across the country are now reaching record levels, although not where we’re headed. Plus, what better social distancing can you do than riding a motorcycle? The one issue will be eating. Restaurants are open, and we’ll have our masks with us, and at worst we can go to grocery stores for food. At motels it will just be us in our rooms and obviously we all accept that we’ll be exposed to each other, but none of us has had any exposure we know of.

Some people might argue that we should cancel the trip, but some people made the same argument when Judy and I went to New Orleans in early March (after Mardi Gras, not during). We decided to go and we don’t regret it. We had a good trip, we didn’t get sick, and it proved to be the only trip we’ll probably get to do this year. We did cut it short by one day, however, when we found the world closing down around us.

If this turns out to be a bad idea I guarantee I’ll be telling you about it. But I’m optimistic.

Biker Quote for Today

I can see Elvis
Throned like a king astride a golden Harley
Smoking a reefer he just rolled
Full of Acapulco gold
With Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley — The Waterboys

We were in Natchez, Mississippi, a couple weeks ago, headed north to Vicksburg. Judy suggested we take the Natchez Trace part of the way, until the direction of the road diverged too much with our objective. Sure, why not. I had never been on the southern end of this road and I was curious.

I had been on the northern end of the road, quite a few years ago now when I was sent by my job to do some work in Nashville. When I bought my airplane tickets I made sure to schedule my return for Sunday so that after I worked all week I would have the weekend there to be a tourist and also to ride some new roads.

Back in those days it was not so easy to find motorcycle rentals but I did find one Harley dealer in Franklin that had rentals. I reserved a bike. They said they had helmets and rainsuits to lend so I needn’t bring mine. Here was a lesson in the making.

I got to the dealership and picked up the bike. My plan was to spend a day riding south on the Natchez Trace, spend the night somewhere, and then take different roads back. There were a couple issues, however. First off, it was raining. And the only helmets they had to loan me were open-face. That might be fine in nice weather but in the rain? I’d just have to make do.

The other issue was that the only rainsuits they had were sized to fit someone over six feet tall weighing 300 pounds. I could have gotten two of me into this thing. Once again, I’d just have to make do. So the lesson is, always take your own helmet and rain gear. But it took me a second lesson to really learn the part about the helmet.

Anyway, I headed out and made straight for the Natchez Trace. I got on the road and started cruising. But after about 50 miles I was bored out of my mind. It was a pretty road, winding its way along hilltops through forest. On and on and on. I’m sorry, but after you’ve seen about a million trees there’s just not a lot of interest in another two million or three million.

I got off the Trace and considered my options. It was still raining. I decided to bag it, and took the regular roads back to Franklin and the dealership. At least the local roads had some interest–I got to see towns and homes and farms and all that. But I turned the bike back in and spent the rest of my time doing other things.

Ever since then I had wondered if perhaps it was only this stretch of the Natchez Trace that was boring. Maybe further south it gets more interesting. So when Judy suggested it I was plenty willing to check it out.

Well, I have to tell you, it’s not just the north end. The south end of the Natchez Trace is just the same: miles and miles of a winding road going past several million trees. Now, it was pretty, and that far south the spring was in full bloom. It was not an unpleasant drive. But I would have no interest at all in taking this road for 200 or 300 miles. Fifty was plenty.

Now I know. My curiosity has been satisfied.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if your Christmas list has no words, just part numbers.