Passes & Canyons Blog

There’s nothing more quintessential than an ice cream stop on a motorcycle ride.

Ain’t it grand to be able to do some of the old stuff, like riding out some place for lunch or ice cream. The RMMRC did both yesterday.

There were just five of us who showed at the meeting spot–mostly the hard core regulars, plus a guy, Rick, who I was not familiar with, although everyone else knew him well. The destination was Kiowa, for lunch at Patty Ann’s.

Patty Ann’s is a good place. I first encountered it when I was riding by myself out that way one day and figured I’d stop for lunch. There were a couple folks on motorcycles there so that is always encouraging. I was blown away, though, by how good the food was. I marked this place mentally as one to come back to.

Fast forward just a couple years and I have joined the RMMRC. Surprise: one of the club’s favorite rides in weather when you can’t go into the mountains was Kiowa, to Patty Ann’s.

So we all donned masks and walked in, and we pulled over a second table so we were sitting at least not elbow to elbow with each other. Then about the time we finished the meal Norvin came in. Norvin lives nearby so there was no point in him riding all the way into town just to ride back out.

We headed south to Elbert and past and then Robert led us on some roads I hadn’t been on, on a winding path over to Monument and we stopped again. For ice cream, at a place called the Rock House. Now that was a nice idea. And this was a nice place, with good ice cream they make themselves. Way too many places any more just serve up commercial ice cream, like Dreyer’s, which is good but you end up paying as much for a single scoop as a whole carton costs at the supermarket. I want ice cream that is made right there and that’s what the Rock House serves.

From Monument we continued north on 105 up to Sedalia and then U.S. 285 to the Daniels Park Road. Turning east onto Castle Pines Parkway the group splintered and everyone headed their own directions. Eat to ride, ride to eat is back.

Biker Quote for Today

Owning two bikes is useful because at least one can be raided for parts at any given time.

Taking a break at Tarryall Reservoir.

It was almost hot in Denver Wednesday morning so I selected a mesh jacket, although I left the liner in. I was taking the CB750 and didn’t want to carry the bags so I didn’t have anywhere to put a sweatshirt or anything. It’s a very warm day, right?

Meeting up with the RMMRC there were 10 of us, five Hondas, two Beemers, a Triumph, a Harley, and a Can-Am Spyder. I was sweating standing around waiting to roll. Let’s go to the hills.

Several of the folks reported large numbers of cops out with radar and sure enough we saw a few. A good day to take it easy but that’s not the nature of Bob or Robert, who took turns leading this day. Fortunately no tickets but my 1980 CB has a governor on it and its top speed is 85, and I’ve only hit that speed once in all these years. I had that thing cranked full throttle much of the day.

We went out US 285 to Pine Junction and turned south. Stopped for a break and a snack at Deckers. That was interesting. There were quite a few people around and almost nobody was wearing a mask. The woman clerking the store was, though.

While we were there three guys came in on two big Harleys and a big Beemer. They swung around into their desired position as easy as can be and I said to myself they have got to be motorcycle cops. Almost no one but motorcycle cops handle big bikes that well. I started walking over but before I got there I saw the Colorado State Patrol insignias on their bikes and my question was answered.

We continued on down to Woodland Park and turned west on US 24. At Lake George we turned north to Tarryall Reservoir. We stopped at a parking lot with an outhouse and many of us made use of that facility. When it was my turn I went in and could not believe my eyes. This has got to be, hands down, the nastiest outhouse I have seen in my life. Plus, the door doesn’t close.

I cannot begin to describe the filth but think about this: one of the women in our group used it. She told us she just straddled it and stood above it. But what, did she take her pants completely off? Ponder that one for awhile.

Continuing north we were also gaining altitude and it was getting cool. And I knew we still had to go up Kenosha Pass. I was hoping I wasn’t going to be cursing myself for foolishness. It did get darn chilly but once we got over the top of Kenosha and headed down it warmed up quickly.

We stopped in Bailey for gas and with eight of us now, and six pumps, some of us had to wait. Me. Just before one of us could claim it this young guy on a dirt bike rolled up to one of the pumps. I figured he would fill up quicker than the person on the opposite pump so I waited for him. Well, this guy finished filling his tank and whipped out his cell phone and started fiddling with it. Dude, are you totally clueless? Pull away from the dang pump and let someone else use it! Idiot.

From there it was just a straight shot back down the hill and home. A good day to ride, and the first long ride for me in a while.

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider:
10. — The monitor & CPU have been repainted orange and black.

Maintaining social distancing at a stop in Nederland.

I’m torn over how to begin this post. I had been figuring on “We saw a lot of motorcycles up on the Peak to Peak Wednesday.” But then it started shifting toward “Holy smokes there were motorcycles everywhere on Wednesday.” Either way, as you can guess, I finally went on another ride with the RMMRC.

I had been persuaded not to ride for a while by the argument that it was selfish and inappropriate to risk injury at a time when emergency resources were overtaxed. But with things opening up a bit now, and no flooding of the emergency rooms, I figured that argument was no longer valid.

Apparently a lot of other people think the same way.

There were 10 of us in Wednesday’s group: five Hondas, two Beemers, a Concours, a V-Strom, and a Spyder. (Surprisingly, we must have seen about 10 other Spyders this day. That’s a lot.)

We headed out US 287 to C-470 to the Golden Gate Park road, up to the Peak to Peak, to CO 7 running down to Lyons. From Lyons the group scattered as each took their preferred way home.

It was a beautiful day to ride. Still a little cool up on the Peak to Peak, especially at higher altitudes, but never cold. The roads were clean with no ice and no sand. All in all: great.

As you can see in the photo above, at a stop in Nederland, we do take the distancing recommendation seriously.

One thing that has emerged as a real issue on these rides is that in so many places the restrooms are closed. We made a stop right where we hit the Peak to Peak and some of us guys used the woods but there were two women on this ride as well and they were kind of SOL. Maybe that will change now. I know the parking lots for the mountain parks we passed were all full of cars so you would think those restrooms ought to be open. Maybe they were; we didn’t try any of those.

So nothing of any note on the ride but on my way home there were two interesting encounters. I came down CO 93 to head east on US 287 and as I headed east I saw a guy on a bike going the other way who tapped the top of his helmet. Oh really, cops up ahead? Sure enough, there was the guy with the radar gun and two squad cars further down, one in wait and the other issuing a ticket. I hadn’t been going all that fast anyway but I was glad to have slowed down a couple mph so as to pass at a legal speed.

Then as I got into the section where 287 is more urban and has traffic signals I was pulling away as the light went green and heard this roar and some guy on a sport bike blasted past me going really fast. I watched him weave in and out of traffic, splitting lanes when he chose to, and he was gone. But then I caught up with him at the next red light. When that light went green he wheelied out and went blasting out of sight and I caught up with him again at the next red light. Maybe he was just having fun but if he thought he was going to get to his destination quicker I’ve got some news for him.

So yeah, riding is back. Maybe I’ll finally use enough gas that I need to fill up, and can take advantage of some of these incredibly low prices. The lowest I saw Wednesday was $1.39.9. Who would have believed that?!

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: Speeding tickets.

You recognize this little bugger by now, don’t you?

While I acceded to the logic offered by Brook Reams and my wife, other motorcyclists are sticking with the argument that coronavirus-conscious riding is not a bad thing. For one, even though I have quit going on them, the RMMRC continues to hold regular rides.

Motorcyclists in other places seem to have adopted the same thinking. Here’s a story about a bunch of riders who were ticketed for doing so, and the remarks of one who protested that they were doing nothing wrong.

The guy made the argument that they were observing proper distancing restrictions and were treated unfairly, as in getting profiled. There seems to be some argument on both sides.

First off, they went for a group ride and then stopped for snacks and beverages at a convenience store. When they stepped outside to consume their purchases the store manager told them they had to leave the property, so the went across the street.

Now, there’s no way from available information to know whether they truly kept their distance from each other, unlike with the RMMRC for which I can attest that we/they do keep a distance. But then the police showed up and started issuing tickets. Here’s where the profiling came into play.

Apparently there were not just people on bikes, there were others in the group who were in cars. And some of the riders had passengers. Well, the cops issued tickets only to the riders. None to the passengers, none to those in cars. So what’s up with that? If you’re supposed to stay home except on necessary travel they were all in violation.

The guy quoted in the story cited the fact that you are allowed to go out for recreation and he argued that riding was his kind of recreation. I have said the same thing. But as others have countered, the kind of recreation you get riding a bicycle is physical, while motorcycling recreation is only psychic. You can say it was for your mental health and that may well be true but I don’t think the police are going to buy that.

And what was not cited was the double-barreled argument I got that if you should crash and go to the emergency room you are using medical resources that could be used on coronavirus and you are also much more at risk of contracting the virus in an ER than you are at home.

So I continue not to go for pleasure rides but I’m thinking that at some point, when the trend of infection is dropping and medical resources are not over-strained, I may go riding again and take my chances on the possibility of a crash.

Biker Quote for Today

When you truly don’t care what anyone thinks of you, you’ve reached a dangerously awesome level of freedom!!!

Dang, add motorcycle riding as another casualty of the dang virus.

OK, this is starting to demand more seriousness. I wrote about how the RMMRC has been doing some rides that were “coronavirus conscious” but I’ve gotten shot down.

First my wife, Judy, pointed me to the state’s website where it details the particulars of the overall order to stay home. It specifically says that pleasure driving or motorcycle riding is prohibited. Oh rats. I mean, it seems like riding a motorcycle is a great thing to do because you don’t come in contact with other people and you’re wearing a helmet and gloves.

Judy replied that yes, but suppose you got into a crash. You would then go to an already overloaded emergency room and use resources that could otherwise be used combating the virus. OK, that has never happened to me in all my years of riding but it could happen today–no one ever knows when that crash will happen.

Then I sat down at the computer to put something together for the blog and I had a comment on my post about that RMMRC ride, from Brook Reams. He basically said the same thing Judy said:

So, if anyone has an accident and goes to the emergency room, they are not only absorbing scarce ER people/time/space/equipment that is needed to treat Coronavirus patients, the person is going to be in a place with a high opportunity for exposure to the virus.

From that perspective, these rides are not “Coronavirus conscious,” they are selfish.

OK, I get it. As I said in my reply to Brook, oh well, it seemed like a good idea.

I had also been getting emails from ABATE members about riding being a no-no. So the word is spreading. There was another RMMRC ride set for Sunday and I was torn about going on it but decided not to. I kept checking back to see if it was canceled but apparently not.

It’s not like we haven’t been taking this isolation thing seriously. Judy has only left the house in the last couple weeks to go bicycle riding. I have only left the house to go to the grocery store and to ride my motorcycles and the bicycle. We haven’t seen our grandson in three weeks and that’s really killing us–we’re used to keeping him two days a week while Mom is at work.

So OK, just hunker down and get through this. One thing though: we are low or out of a number of things we typically get at Costco. I have stayed away from there so far but was thinking about heading over sometime soon. I have huge bags on my V-Strom, and we don’t need anything bulky like toilet paper. When I finally go to Costco I’m going on the V-Strom.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you spend more time polishing your bike than caressing your woman.

An early ride into the hills.

Per my last post, about how riding motorcycles is the perfect socially distanced pursuit, the RMMRC has taken this concept to heart. Last week alone there were two group rides that were structured and promoted as being coronavirus conscious. Another is planned for this week.

I went on the first ride last week it was really nice. First off, it was a beautiful day, great for a ride. Second, it was my first time on a bike in about two weeks, so I was due. And third, it was a small group, five people, and we just had a good time on some good roads.

Sort of good roads, that is. Actually, sand and gravel were the order of the day. We went into the hills and this was probably the earliest I have gone into the hills after the winter has abated. The main highways were clear and clean. We didn’t stay just on the main highways.

Meeting up at the Phillips 66 station out by Morrison we headed up to Kittredge on Bear Creek Road and then turned south on Myers Gulch Road, which has turned into Parmalee Gulch Road by the time it reaches US 285. And oh man, was there ever a lot of sand and gravel. Mostly on the curves. Bob and Robert, who I call the Go-Fast Boys, were in the lead an even they slowed down. Just too much loose stuff in too many curves.

Hitting 285 we headed west to just past Conifer where we turned off toward the Platte River on Foxton Road. This had me a little puzzled because we were supposedly heading to a park a bit north of Pine. I knew we could get there this way but the last time I was on it the road along the Platte was unpaved. Were these guys on Gold Wings (three of them) really OK on a stretch of gravel? I was on my Concours, which hates gravel, but I figured I could manage.

So we got to what the map tells me is SW Platte River Road and turned west and what do you know, it was paved. In fact, it was paved so long ago that the asphalt was terrible, with a lot of gravel from disintegrated asphalt scattered everywhere. Obviously it has been a very long time since I’ve been on this particular stretch.

But it was paved and as long as there was a solid surface under the loose gravel the Connie did fine. We reached the intersection at Buffalo Creek and turned north toward Pine, cruised through Pine, and then turned off onto Crystal Lake Road, which took us back down to the Platte at a Jefferson County open space park I never knew existed. Nice place.

We parked–a separate space for each bike, no grouping into parking spaces–and each grabbed the food we had brought with us and then we sat spread around two picnic tables, well separated from each other, and ate and chatted in the balmy spring warmth. When we left we took the road on up to Pine Junction and turned east on 285.

Back at Conifer we turned onto Pleasant Park Road, which eventually feeds into Deer Creek Road and then into Deer Creek Canyon Road. This was where we really hit the sand. It wasn’t just in the corners, it was all over the road, all along the road. Then out to Wadsworth at Chatfield Reservoir, and on home from there. By the way, coming east on C-470 it finally looks like that long-term expansion project is finally nearing an end. That will be a relief–that has been such a huge mess for about three years.

And that was my beautiful ride on Tuesday. What did you do?

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: You can share your motorcycle with your friends.

Outside the Fort Morgan library and museum.

With a predicted high of 70 on Saturday it was inevitable that the RMMRC was going to get a ride together. I probably would have been inclined to go but when Judy said she wanted to go that totally decided it.

This was going to be a different type of ride than we typically do. In the summer of course we tend to head for the hills. In winter, however, you pretty much have to stay on the plains, but you can still get hills going southeast toward the Palmer Divide. On Saturday we headed northeast, to Fort Morgan.

When I first thought about it I figured it could be nice, we might do some riding along the Platte River. Then, thinking more about it, I realized that was not likely. If you look at a map you’ll see that although the south fork of the South Platte comes right through Denver, from here it heads north all the way to Greeley, where it joins the north fork of the South Platte and then flows east. And after awhile it turns north toward Nebraska where it meets the North Platte.

All of this means you would have to ride pretty far to do much riding along the Platte. So what did we have to look forward to riding to Fort Morgan? A lot of straight roads across the prairie. Section line roads requiring a lot of zig-zagging in order to go northeast. Of course I-76 goes that way as a diagonal but nobody wants to ride the interstate.

So that’s what we did. There were eight of us on seven bikes and we saw a lot of prairie we had mostly never seen before. And which, frankly, I don’t have a lot of interest in seeing again any time soon. I mean, it was nice once, but once was enough.

We got into Fort Morgan, made a stop at the local museum–which was actually a pretty nice one–and then headed over for lunch at a local Mexican place.

And then it was back to Denver and we just got on the superslab. A couple of us got off at Barr Lake in order to skip the slab through town but at that point, as Judy said, we were just covering miles because we were getting tired of being in the saddle.

Yeah, there’s a reason we don’t generally ride to the northeast.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you refer to your bike as if it had a legal first name.

We might have parked a little tighter if we had realized this lot was going to soon be jammed with bikes.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Pikes Peak more beautiful than it was on Saturday. Between the fresh coat of snow and the perfect light and clouds I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Which made it kind of nice that we were riding in that direction and it came into view repeatedly.

There were 11 of us on this RMMRC ride and while Saturday was not as warm as forecast it was an OK day to ride if you were geared for it. I wore my electric vest and was mighty glad I did, but I left my heated gloves at home, which was a mistake. Some day I’ll learn to put them in my bag so I’ll have them if I decide I want them. But I’m a slow learner.

I want to make the point to all of you who are involved with motorcycle groups that are struggling for membership: The RMMRC has recently gone from its own website to using Meet-Up for its site and its communications. This has been a huge success. We get more riders on the rides and while I don’t know how many, if any, have joined so far I have to believe that some of them will. Especially those who keep showing up on the rides.

Our destination was Monument, to a restaurant (La Casa Fiesta) I was not familiar with, but that grossly understates the situation. You know what I learned? Monument is a real town. All I had ever seen of it was the road down from Palmer Lake to the I-25 interchange. Guess what? If you go a few blocks west from the interstate there is a real town there, with downtown, shops, restaurants–the whole shebang. Who knew?

Getting there without riding all the same roads you’ve been on countless times could be an issue. However, leading the group was Tim, who I have to say is the one person I know who knows the roads south and east of Denver better than me. I’m sure for much of the group this was their first time on nearly all these roads. For me, I had been on most of them but there were at least a few that I have never been on. What fun!

We had quite a mixed contingent of bikes. There were three Hondas, two or three Beemers, a couple Kawasakis, one Spyder, and I’m not sure what else. On the way down I got behind a woman on a sportbike that had an obnoxious exhaust going “Bra-a-a-a-a-t, bra-a-a-a-a-t” the whole way. I made sure to put several people between us on the ride home.

When we got to the restaurant we wondered if it was open because the large parking lot was completely empty. It was open, and starting about 15 minutes later they started arriving. First there was a group of 30 bikes that pulled in. And more kept coming. By the time we were leaving the lot was completely full, with only a couple cars and probably 50 bikes.

We had a good meal (I do recommend La Casa Fiesta) and Roy did his thing, pitching the Meet-Up folks on the club and telling everyone about our upcoming rides. Then we headed north on CO 105 and everyone split off at their appropriate turns and we all went home. Heck, by the time I got home it was actually kind of warm.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if over half the pictures you take have your bike in it.