Passes & Canyons Blog

Cruising down Spearfish Canyon.

For the first time in the 25-year OFMC history we stayed in one place for three days. Hill City, South Dakota, was a very nice base for day rides but now we’re in Wyoming. How were the Black Hills?

Everything is very much in preparation for the rally. All the tighter curves on the roads in the area have been marked with orange flags to alert riders to be cautious, and in some cases they’ve even set up cones. I stopped at a Suzuki shop in Sturgis to get some assistance setting up my new highway pegs but they told me they just don’t have time to deal with small stuff like that now, “We’ve got a rally to prepare for.”

In Sturgis most of the shops are still empty but other vendors are already in business. I know that in a week there won’t be a bit of available space anywhere.

After doing the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road one day, we went up through Deadwood and down to Sturgis, the next, returning via Vanocker Canyon and Nemo Road. Very nice to get off the very busy main highway. Stopped at a junction along the way we had one of the closest calls ever in OFMC history. We were parked faced left on a T and needed to go the opposite way. I pulled out and turned around and then Dennis started to follow. What he didn’t see–but all the rest of us did–was the gravel truck coming right toward us in the lane he was just starting to cross. Johnathon screamed as loud as he could, I yelled, others did whatever they could, but Dennis couldn’t hear any of us over the sound of his motor. Then he looked up and saw the truck as it was smoking its brakes, coming right at him.

The driver had seen him, and was no doubt cursing loudly, but he did manage to stop, as Dennis hurriedly scooted out of his path. “I didn’t see him,” Dennis said. “I looked back but all I could see was a bunch of bikes.” Take note that Dennis is quite short, so it makes sense that he couldn’t see past the throng. But oh man, what a bad thing nearly happened.

We did make it safely back to the motel, however, and then three of the guys decided they wanted more, so they set off to ride the Needles and Iron Mountain again. Mind you, it was late in the afternoon and a rainstorm was threatening. They leathered up, suited up, and took off. They got wet. Really wet, but they did have rainsuits on. Johnathon said it got so dark at one point that he thought the sun had set and he was startled a little later when the sun came back out.

They said there were no other bikes out on the super twisty roads, nor many cars either. It was a bit hellacious but very memorable, too. How many of us have memories of riding those roads in that kind of extreme conditions? Those guys were hard core.

Then this morning those three plus Ray got up early and blasted out to a gig in Cheyenne. The rest of us took our time, headed up through Lead to Spearfish Canyon, down to Spearfish and I-90, and on west all the way over to Buffalo. It was hot and windy and not the most pleasant ride, but tomorrow we’ll go up over the Bighorn Mountains and down to Ten Sleep and I know that’s a really sweet road. Hot diggety!

Biker Quote for Today

The car driver population sustains substantial mental stress from the continuing “lane weaving” antics of typical motorcycle riders.

Narrow tunnels are part of riding the Black Hills.

With 11 bikes–the most ever for the OFMC–we rode the Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road today. Tomorrow will be a ride up to Sturgis and Deadwood.

The initial seven were joined yesterday here in Hill City, South Dakota, by Johnathon–a regular–and Ray, Steve, and Kenny–all newcomers to the group. The first three all rode up from Denver yesterday and Kenny drove up late with his bike and keyboard in a trailer. Steve, Johnathon, and Kenny will be heading out early Wednesday to get to Cheyenne to play during the Frontier Days festivities. These guys are all part of Homeslice, a pretty darn good band.

We came on to Hill City yesterday from Chadron, Nebraska, on a pretty short ride. This trip is full of short rides, which is kind of nice actually. Our rooms weren’t ready so we strolled on down to the main street and went in the Mangy Moose for some liquid refreshment. Turns out that in preparation for the Black Hills rally, which starts very soon, the bar was clearing out its taps so they will sell only bottled beer. It’s just faster than drawing from the tap and changing out kegs constantly. But they managed to draw us a couple pitchers.

This close to the rally there are already a lot of bikes here. They’re intermingled with families, however, so we’ve been seeing plenty of mommies and daddies with the kiddies. This is just a popular tourist place at any time, although in September, once school starts, it’s pretty quiet.

So we took off this morning and boy, what a chore it is getting 11 guys ready at once. We rode the narrow roads that would be broad one-ways but which in fact have traffic going both directions. Speeds are between 15 and 25 so it’s pretty safe but then there are the narrow tunnels that only permit traffic one direction at a time. If you’ve been here you know the score. If you haven’t, you should. Several of the tunnels are aligned so that as you go through them Mount Rushmore is right there ahead of you on the other side. A fabulous image.

Come Wednesday we’ll be heading to Wyoming and we’ll be back down to seven. Right now we have seven Harleys, one Kawasaki, one Suzuki, and two Hondas. Then we’ll be back to five Harleys, one Suzuki, and one Honda. Ranging in size from 650 to 1800. We’re a pretty eclectic group.

It’s just so good to be out away from family and jobs and all responsibilities. And riding motorcycles.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride hard or stay home

The OFMC at Wolf Creek Pass in 2013.

What do you get when you combine a motorcyclist, a map lover, and a government retiree living on a pension?

In our case, you get a route for next year’s week-long summer OFMC trip this far ahead of time. John, our resident map nut, had time on his hands so he has already plotted things out. Now, in years past I used to battle him on this because nobody elected him as the person who decides where we’re going. No one else cared though, and the trips were always good, so I’ve thrown in the towel. What do you have in store for us Johnny?

Next year is going to be a bit different than anything we’ve done before. We’re actually going to stay in one place for three nights and do a lot of riding in the area. We’ve stayed two nights at places frequently but that has almost always been so we could take one day and play golf. This time we’re going to be in the Black Hills and the agenda is riding.

Here’s the itinerary.

We’ll start out on Friday and just go to Brush. That’s a short day’s ride but a lot of us will be working so we’ll either have to get off a little early or show up late. That works fine.

Saturday we’ll press on to Chadron, NE, which is kind of in the middle of a tail end of the Black Hills in Nebraska. Very pretty place. Then on Sunday it’s on to Hill City, SD, for three nights. We’ll be staying in a lodge with cabins with kitchens and restaurants close by, too. On one day we’ll do Needles highway to Mount Rushmore and on the other we’ll cruise up to Deadwood. Got to hit a gambling spot, you know. That’s a must for most of these guys.

When we start moving again it will be to head to Buffalo, WY. And the next day it will be on to Riverton.

From there we’ll be heading back, with our last night in Walden, and then home the next day.

The next step is that everyone will be issued a lodging assignment. We’ll each make our reservations and no one person will be stuck doing it all. And we’ll get that done well in advance so none of the motels will already be full. You’ve got to do these sorts of things when you’re traveling with nine guys.

Now we just have to wait until late July.

Biker Quote for Today

I thought YOU had the map……

The V-Strom on Phantom Canyon Road.

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.

The V-Strom on the road to Pagoda.

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!

The OFMC on the road last year.

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.

The OFMC in 2011, headed to Telluride.

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.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner

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

The OFMC in 2012 in Utah.

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.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Eyes on the road! Crazy stuff ahead.

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