Passes & Canyons Blog

I’ve known about the Phantom Canyon road for years but had never been on it until Saturday. Chalk up one more first on the V-Strom.

There are two roads leading up from Canon City to the Cripple Creek/Victor area. One is the Shelf Road, which I have been on before, and the other is the Phantom Canyon road.

On the last night out of this year’s OFMC ride we stayed in Canon City. Brett and Randy got going early wanting to get home to Denver as quickly as possible. John was heading back to Montrose, and Dennis, Friggs, Bill, and I weren’t in such a hurry to get home and decided to get there via Cripple Creek. As John headed west, Dennis, Bill, and Friggs headed north, following the pavement. I headed east and then north on the gravel.

The Phantom Canyon road is an old narrow-gauge rail bed so it is narrow and twisty and goes through some gorgeous country. At first it was very smooth, the sort of thing a street bike could handle easily, but up close to Victor it got rougher, particularly where the water runs across the road and eats trenches. It was nothing the V-Strom couldn’t handle with ease but again, a street bike could have done it. In fact, as I went up the canyon I encountered several bikes going down. The first were two dirt bikes, so of course they were fine. Then there was Can-Am Spyder and two trikes. With three wheels they were fine. And then there was a couple on a Harley. I’m sure as long as they took it easy and picked their path along they did just fine, too.

The canyon is very tight with steep walls at first, opening out later into something a bit more spacious. While the road does not show any “improvements” over the basic rail bed there are a few bridges that are clearly much more recent. And there are a couple railroad tunnels that give you an idea just how small those old trains must have been, because they would have been tight for two bigger motorcycles passing in opposite directions. In fact, much of the road is one lane and while a car and a bike could pass, two cars could not have. My biggest concern was not the road surface so much as the thought that a car might come fast around a blind curve and we might have an encounter. But that didn’t happen. A few cars going the other way were moving a bit fast on the more open stretches but on the tight curves it seemed everyone recognized that taking it slow was mandatory.

So this was the third time on this trip that I took the gravel while the other guys stayed on the asphalt. That totally works for me. I’m not keen on riding in such a big group to start with, and the reason I bought this dual-sport bike was to go places I would never go on a bike before. My wishes are now coming true.

Biker Quote for Today

Where a motorcycle takes you is more important than where you take it.

There is no better way of getting truly familiar with a new motorcycle than living on one for a week. Today is Monday of our OFMC weeklong trip, having left on Friday, and I’m really getting to know this V-Strom that I bought two months ago.

The first thing that hit me was that I have got to get some highway pegs on this bike. After a few hours on the road I’m looking for a place to move my feet to in a different position, and where the heck are those highway pegs? I’ll probably need to put on a case guard–which won’t be a bad thing–and then attach some pegs to that. That’s what I did with my CB750 all those many years ago and that’s still how the bike is equipped today.

The second thing to hit me was that I need a throttle lock. Again, after a few hours, your hand is starting to protest against hanging onto this grip all this time. That one will be easy and cheap to address.

We headed out on Friday, meeting up in the Poudre and that gave me an opportunity to try out the bike’s capabilities a bit, too. I rode up the Buckhorn road, over through Stove Prairie to the Poudre, and was heading up the Poudre when I saw for an instant, a couple curves ahead of me, two bikes. Not just any two bikes, but two Harleys with suitcases mounted on top of the top bags at the rear. Nearly all these bloated OFMC biker types have those on their luxocruisers these days.

So I figured I needed to catch up and see if it was really who I thought it was. Now there were a couple cars between me and them but these are motorcycles, so even if the center line is yellow a quick flip of the wrist and two seconds later you’re ahead of the guy you used to be behind. And I was. So it was a pleasure to see that the V-Strom had that pep. And it had it in spades.

I caught up and it was indeed Brett and Jason and they recognized my jacket, even though the bike was unfamiliar, and pulled off. When we took off again I was in the lead and they said it was about 15 seconds before I was gone out of sight. This bike is so light and agile that I just blasted up the canyon and it was fun.

Nothing particular to report about Saturday, just a few passes and then a night in Dillon where one of our group is the sax player in the featured band at some summer festival they do in Dillon. We left there Sunday morning, headed up CO 9 along the Blue River to Kremmling, west over Gore Pass, up to U.S. 40, and then for them, to Craig and down to Meeker.

Not for me. I saw that a road heading south out of Hayden looped around through some little nothing town called Pagoda and met highway 13 coming down from Craig somewhere north of Meeker. And there were about–by my judgment–8 miles of gravel. I went that way. As it turned out, there were closer to 11 miles of gravel but no problem. I was riding a dual-sport bike and it likes gravel.

So I got to see more of Colorado that I’ve never seen before. In this case, high cliffs on both sides with a lush green valley down the middle with a few ranch houses, some hay fields, some cattle, some horses, and a stream meandering down the middle. Nothing special, just the typically beautiful thing that ranch valleys normally feature. Has anyone ever noticed that ranchers live in some of the most beautiful places imaginable?

My route was probably half the miles that everyone else rode but I got to Meeker about 10 minutes later than they did because I was going slow on the gravel and they were blasting on the asphalt. That suits me just fine. It was a really nice ride. I love how I have so many more options now.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you find yourself gravitating to the center of the lane, only to remember that you are not sitting in the center of the vehicle!

OK, I know I intended to tell about the road to Silt here but that’s going to have to wait. It’s time for the annual OFMC trip.

We leave on Friday. That’s tomorrow as this is published. There will be nine this year, at least at times. Everyone is leaving at different times, and in some cases different days.

Most of us are heading up on Friday to Poudre Canyon, where we’ll be staying at a lodge in the canyon. The next day we’ll ride several passes to get to Dillon, where Johnathon will be joining us after his band plays a gig there.

We’ll head up through Kremmling and over Gore Pass and ultimately to Meeker. Next day our destination will be Powder Horn ski area. I don’t even know where Powder Horn is.

From there we head to Crested Butte, then to Pagosa Springs, and then into New Mexico to Eagle Nest. This will be our only night out of Colorado.

After that it’s back into Colorado, to Canon City, and on Saturday some will head home while others stay out one last night at Cripple Creek.

What we’re doing here is trying to vary things a bit. We’ve been riding all around Colorado for so many years that it’s hard to go some place new. If you leave Denver and ride a reasonable time that puts you in a fairly consistent arc of possible destinations. So let’s try this: Make the first day a really short one. Then your next day’s arc hits some very different places. Then pick out some place we’ve never stayed before and that’s that day’s destination.

For instance, we’ve never stayed at Hot Sulphur Springs. We’re not staying there this time either, but some day we will. We’ll just make a point to. And as I said previously, I’m adding Vega State Park to the list of future destinations. As for this year, we’ve never stayed in Pagosa before. We’ve never stayed in Canon City, we’ve never stayed in Dillon, and we’ve sure never stayed at Powder Horn.

So it should be fun. I’ll tell you all about it.

Biker Quote for Today

People tell me I have a motorcycle problem. I tell them, I may have problems, but motorcycles are the solution.

Where is the OFMC going on its 2013 ride? I mentioned before that it’s an all-Colorado ride so there will be some short days. Day one will be the very shortest, at least for everyone except John, who is coming from Montrose. We’re headed to the Poudre Canyon. Those of us leaving from Denver will head up to Loveland, west out of town on U.S. 36, and then to Masonville and up the Buckhorn Canyon road, over the Stove Prairie Road to the Poudre, and then to the Sportsman’s Lodge.

Day two we’ll go on up the canyon over Cameron Pass into North Park, then take U.S. 40 over Berthoud Pass and then over to Dillon. Johnathon has a gig there that night so this is when he’ll be joining us.

We’ll take CO 9 out of Dillon the next morning, up to Kremmling, and then Gore Pass to Toponas. How we’re going to get to Meeker–our stop for the night–from there I’m not sure. We once took Ripple Creek Pass, which is the most direct way, but that road is unpaved and most of the OFMC guys don’t like riding gravel. It’s a beautiful ride, though.

Next stop after Meeker will be Mesa, via Douglas Pass, with a sidetrip over Rimrock Drive through Colorado National Monument. Mesa, in case you’re uncertain (I was) is on the north side of Grand Mesa on CO 65, which you reach via the Debeque Cutoff.

The following day we’ll cross Grand Mesa and head down to Crested Butte. Our route will take us through Crawford on CO 92, to the north rim of the Black Canyon, on through Gunnison, and then back north out of Gunnison.

From there we’ll head back south to Gunnison, over North Cochetopa Pass down to Saguache, down to South Fork, over Wolf Creek Pass to stop for the night in Pagosa Springs.

Breaking out of the all-Colorado theme for one night, our next stop will be in Angle Fire, New Mexico. We’ll head south out of Pagosa on U.S. 84 and pick up U.S. 64 through Taos and on to Angel Fire. Not sure why John picked that spot, considering we stopped there for lunch a couple years ago and I know I was not impressed. Oh well, John plans the route.

Then it’s back into Colorado, along a route I’m not totally certain of, other than that we definitely go over La Veta Pass, then up through Westcliffe, and end up for the night in Canon City.

And then the next day we head home. And we start thinking about next year.

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Biker Quote for Today

Maybe Old’s Cool is a bunch of dirty old men who swear because , let’s face it, old bikes run on blasphemy as much as they do gasoline and oil. — Jinx

I still miss the simpler, early days when the OFMC was three of us and we would just pick a direction and go. Now, with 8-10 guys every year, we have to plan ahead. The days of three guys in one room with two beds, taking turns being the one to sleep on the floor, are over.

So now we plan, and make reservations to ensure we all have beds. Plus, we don’t ever camp any more.

We’re all set for 2013. There will be nine of us this year and it will be an all-Colorado trip again. We’re doing this more and more because some of the guys have trouble taking off for the whole trip and by staying in the state we create a situation where anyone who needs to can ride out to join us or back home in one day. That’s hard to do when the group is up in Montana or Idaho. And, of course, our chief planner, John, likes to do it this way because his son, Johnathon, is one of those who have trouble getting away.

In fact, John changed the plans for two days when it turned out Johnathon–who plays sax in a band–had a gig in Dillon during the trip week. We’ll be staying in Dillon that night.

There was a time when John was not the sole arbiter of where we would go and when the way he is now. Originally we made decisions together. As John started taking more and more control for himself I pushed back a lot. It’s not just your trip, dude. But I eventually got tired of the persistent struggle and decided the heck with it, let’s just go ride and have a good time.

When I want to do something else I go do it on my own. I actually prefer to ride alone much of the time anyway. I can be fairly antisocial, definitely a loner. And I like to camp, too. Heck, there are times I just throw the sleeping bag out on the ground next to the bike.

So now we just have to wait for late July. I’ll give you our itinerary on Thursday.

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Biker Quote for Today

Give big space to the festive dog that makes sport in roadway. Avoid entanglement of dog with wheel spokes. — Old Honda Manual

You’d hardly know it from reading this blog but the OFMC took its 24th annual summer trip a couple weeks ago. As always, it was a good one. We’ve never had a bad one.

I’ve already told the story of how it started out with all of the group gathering in Grand Junction, except me, because I had a flat tire and ended up spending the night in Eagle. The following day they all rode on to Marysvale, UT, and after my bike was rideable again I headed there, too. I rolled in around 9 p.m. to finally join the gang.

Up to the point of turning off I-70 to get to Marysvale, the ride was nothing special. I mean, it was interstate. But then heading up that canyon on U.S. 89 was another thing entirely. I’ve never been on that stretch of road before but I’m sure I will be again. Very, very nice. Utah is just gorgeous, you know?

The place we stayed was pretty interesting, too. It’s called the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort. It’s named for the hills around there. That gives you an idea.

We followed U.S. 89 south through Panguitch and took UT 143 over to Cedar Breaks National Monument, the first in a series of national parks and monuments we visited on this trip. UT 148 took us down to UT 14, which carried us down Cedar Canyon to Cedar City. Then we hopped onto I-15 and blasted down to Mesquite, NV.

After two days of gambling, golf, and sitting in the pool, we backtracked as far as St. George and caught UT 9, which took us to Zion National Park. We hadn’t come to see the park this time so we just passed through on the highway, but that’s a pretty spectacular ride on its own. East of the park we picked up U.S. 89 again and cruised down to Kanab.

Just beyond Kanab, U.S. 89 splits off an Alternate 89, which we followed to Jacob Lake, AZ, which sits at the intersection to the road that runs down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. That was our stop for two nights as rode down into the park on the intervening day. Our first night there it was chilly and rainy so we sat around on the deck of one of our cabins wearing our rain gear. The rooms were too small to get all of us into one and there was no roof over the deck. So it was rain gear.

The ride into the park was especially satisfying for me considering the troubles I had experienced the last time the OFMC came here about 20 years ago. I got to see the sights I didn’t see then and I got to drink that beer on the patio of the Grand Canyon Lodge, overlooking the canyon, that I missed out of back then.

We backtracked from Jacob Lake to Kanab and almost to Panguitch on 89. Just a tip: if you go this way some time, the view headed north, coming down off the plateau that forms the North Rim, is kick ass. We didn’t realize it coming the other way but heading down it was an “Oh my goodness!” moment.

Just south of Panguitch we turned east on UT 12 to Bryce Canyon National Park. Having been there pretty recently, and having been without WiFi for four days, I didn’t go into the park, choosing instead to sit in the Best Western and use their internet connection. The rest of the guys went in. One thing we saw again and again on this trip was the amazing number of foreign–mostly Asian–tourists. They thought we were pretty interesting and in several instances asked to have photos taken with us. That happened again in Bryce, but one of the kids didn’t realize Randy’s exhaust pipes were hot and as everyone crowded together he got a pretty bad burn on his leg. Yeah, he’ll remember that part of his trip for a long time.

From Bryce we continued on 12 to Escalante, Boulder, and up to Torrey. From Torrey, U.S. 24 carried us through Capitol Reef National Park, to Hanksville and up to where we got back on I-70 heading east. A little east of Green River we turned south on U.S. 191, which cruises right along the boundary to Arches National Park on its way to Moab. We took a sidetrip that would have taken us into Canyonlands National Park if we had gone one way, but took us instead to Dead Horse Point State Park. The view there is of the confluence of the Green River and the Colorado River.

After a night in Moab we rode UT 128 along the Colorado River as it continues to form the boundary of Arches, along the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, and back up to I-70. Then it was a blast on I-70 to home. Another OFMC trip in the books.

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Biker Quote for Today

I enjoyed being lost in such a nice place minus the gravel.

Something over 20 years ago the OFMC started out with three guys on two Hondas and a Yamaha. My, how times have changed.

A much larger group now, we got an email from John a couple days ago with pictures of his new Harley. As John noted, on our upcoming summer trip there will now be six Harleys, two Hondas, and one Kawasaki.

John was the one on the Yamaha–a Virago–in the beginning. It was just a few years later that he bought a Honda Shadow and he rode that for 19 years. The Virago went to his son, Johnathon, who only rode it a few years before buying his own Honda VTX.

Bill started out on a Honda Shadow but it has been a number of years now since he gave that to his son, Jason, and bought a Harley. That one got stolen so he bought another, and after a couple years Bill decided he was ready for a change. So he sold that Harley to his brother, Friggs, and got a new Harley.

Friggs had been on a newer Virago that was his first bike, but when Bill made him an offer he couldn’t refuse he became a Harley owner.

Dennis was riding a Gold Wing when he joined the OFMC, but after a few years he traded it on a Harley. Does anyone see a trend developing here?

Johnathon’s friend, Randy, joined the group, and like Johnathon he rides a VTX. And Jason’s friend Brett joined, mounted on a Harley.

Which leaves only me. I was the second of the original members on a Honda, my CB750 Custom, which I still have and still take on the trip occasionally. But in 1999 I bought a new Kawasaki Concours and that is still my preferred ride. No, I will not be getting a Harley any time soon. I probably won’t ever be getting one. That’s just not my kind of bike. But hey, if those guys want one, good for them. There comes a time when it’s time to stop putting things off. As John said recently, “The rainy days we’ve been saving for are here. It’s time to spend some of that money.”

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Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are better than women because you don’t have to pay child support/alimony to an ex-motorcycle.

There’s snow and ice on our street, and no getting out on either bike until there’s a clear part down to the corner and the cross street. Luckily, the forecast looks good so I’m hoping to be able to ride on the Last Brass Monkey Run this year.

Stuck inside then, it’s only natural to be planning next summer’s group motorcycle trip. John is the OFMC’s maps freak and he loves nothing more than poring over maps for hours and plotting routes. There are times when I challenge his pronouncements that “this is what we’re going to do this year,” mainly because it’s not his to simply decide unilaterally, but sometimes he comes up with such good ideas that the only thing I can do is say “OK.” This is one of those years.

John has actually given us two options this time and I’m just going to paste them in here. The main deal with both is to head down to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The rest is just the routes there and back.

Option 1:
Friday: Denver to Grand Junction – 244 miles via I-70.
Saturday: Grand Junction to Marysvale, UT – 253 miles via I-70 & US-89.
Sunday: Marysvale to Mesquite, NV – 184 miles via US-89, UT-143, UT-14, & I-15. *thru Cedar Breaks Natl Monument.
*Monday: Stay in Mesquite. *Golf, bowling, gambling.
Tuesday: Mesquite to Jacob Lake – 141 miles via I-15, UT-9, & US-89. *thru Zion Natl. Park
*Wednesday: Stay in Jacob Lake. *Round Trip ride thru Grand Canyon Natl. Park-North Rim is 130 miles.
Thursday: Jacob Lake to Torrey, UT – 221 miles via US-89 & UT-12. *thru Bryce Canyon Natl. Park.
Friday: Torrey, UT to Moab, UT – 248 miles via UT-24, UT-95, & US-191. *thru Capital Reef Natl. Park & Glenn Canyon Natl. Rec.
Saturday: Moab to Denver, CO – 322 miles via UT-128 & I-70. *Arches Natl. Park & Colo. River canyon.

Option 2:
Friday: Denver to Meeker – 225 miles via I-70 & CO-13. *stay at the old downtown Meeker Hotel this time.
Saturday: Meeker to Moab – 224 miles via CO-64, CO-136, I-70, & UT-128. *over Douglas Pass & thru Colo. River Canyon.
Sunday: Moab to Hanksville, UT – 200 miles via US-191 south & UT-96. *thru Glenn Canyon Natl. Rec., Halls Crossing.
Monday: Hanksville to Bryce Canon, UT – 161 miles via UT-24 & UT-12 *thru Capital Reef Natl. Park.
Tuesday: Bryce Canyon to Jacob Lake, AZ – 150 miles via UT-12 & US-89. *includes a 30 mile scenic ride thru Bryce Canyon Natl. Park.
Wednesday: Stay in Jacob Lake. *scenic 130 mile RT ride into Grand Canyon Natl. Park North Rim and back to Jacob Lake.
Thursday: Jacob Lake to Panguitch, UT – 195 miles via US-89, UT-9, UT-17, I-15, UT-14, & UT-143.
*very scenic ride thru Zion Natl. Park & Cedar Breaks Natl. Mon. near Brian Head ski area.
Friday: Panguitch to Green River, UT – 212 miles via US-89, UT-62, UT-24, & I-70. *scenic ride back to the Interstate.
Saturday: Green River to Denver – 320 miles via I-70. *go home

So oh boy, we’re gonna go ride motorcycles! Is life wonderful or what?!

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Biker Quote for Today

Ride hard, you can rest when you die.