Archive for the ‘motorcycle touring’ Category

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On To The Black Hills

Thursday, August 12th, 2021

One view from atop Scotts Bluff National Monument. You can see part of the trail leading down to the visitor’s center.

This year’s OFMC ride was not covering so many miles so in order to fill things out I scheduled in several excursions. The first was the morning of our second day, when we loaded up and then rode up onto Scotts Bluff National Monument before heading out of town. I had been up there but neither Bill or Dennis ever had.

Dennis and I were prepared but Bill had forgotten to bring his national parks pass, but the ranger at the entrance told me there were no fees this summer so we rode right in. If you’ve never been to the monument you should go. The road up the bluff circles around the bluff and goes through a tunnel to bring you out on top. It’s probably the best view in Nebraska because it’s probably about the highest point in Nebraska that you can get to normally. And if you have the time, there is a shuttle that will carry you to the top and you can walk down on the trail they have built–a really nice, all-downhill stroll.

We didn’t do the trail so after about an hour on top we were rolling, with Custer, South Dakota, our destination for the day.

NE 71 carried us north and then east until we picked up NE 2, again going north, toward US 20 at Crawford. More prairie riding; at least the hills add some interest. The heat at this point was intense, as it was much of this trip. At Crawford I pulled into a gas station just as a place to take a break with some shade but then noticed the empty-looking ice cream parlor/cafe next door was in fact open. So we pulled in there instead.

The Dairy Sweet in Crawford was a great stop. The sandwiches were good and the milk shakes were great. And the air conditioning was a life saver. Outside it was over 100 degrees.

It had been my intention to follow US 20 north and east to US 385 at Chadron but as we headed out of town I noticed a sign for NE 2 heading toward Hot Springs, South Dakota. What the heck? I had no idea this road was here, and it must certainly save us miles and would help us avoid the busy 385. I made the turn.

So I really don’t get it about this road. How did I not know it was there? It certainly was paved all the way so it’s not like I would have seen it and thought it was not paved. Whatever the deal was, it was a road we had never been on before and it was a nice one. Crossing into South Dakota NE 2 becomes SD 71 and runs up to where it hits US 18 at Edgemont, coming in from Wyoming. We followed 18 east to Hot Springs.

Gassing up in Hot Springs I mentioned that we had just come by The Mammoth Site and Bill asked what that was. I explained that it had been a sink hole where many creatures many thousands of years ago had been caught and drowned and whose bones now lay one on top of the other and that they were being unearthed and could be viewed by tourists, still tangled in the muck. Bill was very interested so we took another excursion.

From there we backtracked a bit on 18 to where we caught SD 89 north to where it merges with US 385 and on a few miles to Custer. This would be our base for the next several days.

Biker Quote for Today

I may not be that good looking, or athletic, or funny, or talented, or smart . . . I forgot where I was going with this but I do know that I love motorcycles.

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OFMC Takes To The Road

Monday, August 9th, 2021

Morning up on top of Scotts Bluff National Monument.

I was half an hour late arriving at our meeting place, although I thought I had left home 10 minutes earlier than I needed to. Bill and Dennis didn’t seem to care but I was perplexed at how I could have so badly judged things.

Regardless, the OFMC headed out on I-76 with out first day’s destination Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Bill took the lead at the start and promptly led us miles in the wrong direction. When he finally pulled over and asked how to get on the highway I just said “Follow me” and led the way.

Dennis took the lead as we approached the exit for a rest area at Wiggins and I noted that the signs said this exit would put you on CO 52. We wanted 52 north so when we were ready to ride again I told them this was our exit and took the lead going north. However, crossing over I-76 I saw signs that I now realized meant 52 went south here but not north. 52 had jogged west at Fort Morgan. But I figured we could get where we were going via this route so I kept going.

What we ended up doing was zigging and zagging on the section roads in a way that followed the Platte River and eventually came into Fort Morgan–by a considerably longer route than if we had just gotten back on the interstate. Hey, at least it was pretty riding along the river. And we avoided 15 miles of interstate.

We rode 52 up to CO 14 near Raymer and New Raymer, turned east to CO 71 near Stoneham, and then north again. This was all pretty much straight with just some hills to add a little interest. Crossing into Nebraska, we stopped for gas at Kimball and there was more straight road going north. Finally we came through the very scenic cleft of Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area and descended into Scottsbluff.

Dennis had the motel on his GPS so he led us in. I was in the rear but I saw the motel and headed straight for it. Bill and Dennis did not; they rode past and were surprised to see me pulling in next to what they took to be an abandoned warehouse. Then they realized this was the motel.

Whatever this place used to look like, at this time their confusion is easy to understand. And this was not the only “abandoned warehouse” motel we stayed at on this trip. But the interiors were surprisingly nice.

So we were launched. The OFMC was on the road. And with my Kawi giving me problems with its carburetors I was looking forward to a week of getting familiar with how the throttle was responding now vs. how it used to respond. At least it was running well enough to make the trip.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Your Motorcycle doesn’t care what you’re wearing when you take it out.

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Crooked And Steep

Monday, June 14th, 2021

Bikers in Eureka Springs.

Boy howdy, do they have curves in Arkansas. The Ozarks may not be the Rockies but neither are they the prairie.

Judy and I just spent some time in Eureka Springs and I can’t believe I had no idea this place existed.

I mean, I did know it existed, but only now for about three years. We set out on an RMMRC trip to the Barber motorsports museum in Birmingham, AL, and that was to have been one of our stops. The two of us never got there because we got snowbound for three days in western Kansas, but at least that put Eureka Springs on my radar.

We saw quite a few signs like this one.

Well, we finally got there a couple weeks ago, and oh my gosh! What a terrific place!

Now, we weren’t on the motorcycle, and thank goodness for that. We drove most of the day to Eureka Springs from Kansas City in absolutely torrential rain. And as we drew near, on an already curvy mountain road, we came on a sign that read “Crooked and very steep next 6 miles.” Now? Like not before now?

And then we saw similar signs again and again, with some variation in the wording. They weren’t lying.

This is definitely a motorcyclist’s paradise. Now I just need to get back there on a bike. Hopefully with the sun shining.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles are for life, not just sunny days.

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New BDR Film Should Be Worth Your Time

Monday, May 17th, 2021

The folks who put together the Backcountry Discovery Routes have had a lot of fun, I’m sure, putting together backcountry routes through 10 states in the last 10 years. Butler Maps offers maps of these routes and they have sent me several of them. I’ve never ridden any of these routes but that’s not from lack of desire to do so.

Backcountry Discovery Routes

Every year they put together a film of the development of that year’s route and now, at 10 years, they have put together a 10-year retrospective film. While that film will not be available for viewing until June 1, there is a trailer available now. Yeah, it looks like fun.

So, I don’t have a link right now but they say the full film will be available for free viewing as of June 1 on YouTube, Vimeo, and Amazon Prime. I’m sure a simple search will get you to it. Particularly if you search for “Ride BDR: A 10-Year Retrospective Film.”

I had hopes when they were mapping out the Colorado BDR that I might get to be part of the group but that didn’t happen. I have a somewhat distant connection to these folks and that connection seems to get weaker each year, but back then I had hopes. Didn’t happen. I’m sure they had plenty of people who wanted to go but they had to be selective.

So come June 1 we can all go see what we’ve been missing.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: You can ride a motorcycle any time of the month.

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‘Roads To Cripple Creek’ Added To Website

Thursday, April 22nd, 2021

A portion of the new Roads to Cripple Creek page on the Passes and Canyons website.

For the first time in quite a while I have added a new page to the Passes and Canyons: Motorcycle Touring in Colorado website. The new page focuses on the numerous good motorcycle roads that lead to Cripple Creek, and I have named it “Roads to Cripple Creek.”

I don’t add many pages to the site these days because I’ve basically got it built out. It’s not like the roads in Colorado change all that often. I did add a new page for Guanella Pass when they finally paved that road all the way. But that’s not a common occurrence.

I first started thinking about Cripple Creek when I read somewhere that the high point of the road coming into town from the north, from Divide, is considered Tenderfoot Pass. If it’s a pass, I figured, I ought to have it on the site. But it’s kind of iffy as a pass. There is some more or less official registry of geographic place names in the U.S. and Tenderfoot Pass is not included on this list. And as many times as I have been over that road I never thought of it as a pass.

But then I got to thinking. While the road out of the north does have some good twists and turns, and goes up and down, and has some terrific views in places, it’s really probably not the nicest motorcycle road to get to Cripple Creek. There are others I would rate higher. So how about a page focusing on all of them. That’s what I did.

The other paved road into town is generally considered the back way, coming up in a roundabout manner from U.S. 50 a bit to the west of the Royal Gorge. If you’ve never been on this road you really need to do it. It has some terrific twists and lots of changes in elevation. Definitely better than the main road.

Then there are two gravel roads, both along old railroad beds. One comes directly into Cripple Creek, and that’s the Shelf Road, which comes north out of Canon City. Then the Phantom Canyon Road comes north from U.S. 50 a little to the east of Canon City and runs up to Victor, which is just a few miles east of Cripple Creek. Both of these are really nice, scenic road and are ride-able on street bikes as long as your bike is OK on decent gravel. For instance, I would not hesitate to take my Honda CB750 on them, but I would never consider riding them on my Kawasaki Concours. And of course, my Suzuki V-Strom loves that kind of stuff.

The page is not yet complete; I still need to add photos of these four roads. I have some already and just need to add them. For the others I’m going to have to go ride these roads again and get some shots. Oh the horrible burdens I bear!

Biker Quote for Today

The ride keeps me sane. I would like to call it my church.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, motorcycle touring, Routes to Add to Website, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

OFMC 2021 Route Is Set

Monday, February 1st, 2021

Coronavirus or not, the OFMC took its annual trip in 2020, and we’re all still alive and healthy. So you can bet we’re planning a trip for 2021.

It will be a pretty short trip this year.

As the designated trip planner I have asked the guys what they want to do and then worked out a route and itinerary. They guys are good with what I came up with and here it is.

Our destination for the first day is Scottsbluff, NE. The guys mainly wanted to go to the Black Hills this year and this is a good midway point. You can ride all the way in one day–I have–but it’s more leisurely to take it in two. Plus, if you’ve never been to Scottsbluff and gone to the top of the bluffs you should. The actual park is Scotts Bluff National Monument. So this short ride will give us plenty of time to do that.

The next day we’ll ride on up to Custer, SD, which will be our home base for three nights. The OFMC always likes to spend two days in one place in order to have a day for golf. It turns out there are very few places in the Black Hills where there are public courses, and Custer is one. On the other day we’ll just ride around in the Black Hills.

Then leaving Custer we’ll have a short day’s ride up to Spearfish, SD. That’s a really short ride but the OFMC also always wants to do some gambling, so we’ll take a very short ride to Deadwood, give the casinos some of our money, and then complete the leisurely run to Spearfish.

The next day’s run is also very short, so I had to figure a good way to extend it. We’ll run up from Spearfish to Belle Fourche, then west through Hulett and on to Devil’s Tower National Monument. We’ve been to Devil’s Tower before but never gone in and up to the monument, this time we will. And then we’ll ride on to Newcastle, WY, for the night.

Following that we’ll cruise on down the eastern side of Wyoming to Torrington. That’s another short day but when you look at the map there’s not a lot of places to go without going a long way. And in recent years we have made a deliberate effort to stay in towns we’ve never stayed in before. We’ve never stayed in Torrington. Who knows, maybe we never will again.

The day after that will be the most scenic of the whole trip, as well as one of the longest. We’ll head south to Cheyenne and then take the state roads between Cheyenne and Laramie. Most people take the interstate but the state road is much nicer. Then we’ll head southwest out of Laramie down through the Snowy Range and back into Colorado for a night at Walden. That’s our last night out and the next day we’ll head home. So that’s the trip this year. Only about 1,000 miles.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s your road and yours alone. Others may ride it with you but no one can ride it for you.

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