OBR 2019: Third Time Is The Charm
Coming down Squaw Pass toward Idaho Springs.
I got a different perspective on the concept of “ride your own ride” on the Old Bike Ride Sunday. Normally that idea is that you should ride in the manner you are comfortable and not try to keep up with someone going faster, especially if you are not comfortable with that speed.
Here’s a different take: Start off on the ride whenever you feel like it; you don’t need to start with the group. Then, do whatever section or sections of the ride you wish and blow off the others. This went on a lot on this ride.
It was a smaller group than I expected at the starting point in Golden. I’d guess there were about 35 people hanging around. Getting started, one person would take off, then maybe a group of three, then a few minutes later another single, another single, a group of two . . . OK, everyone knows where we’re going–just get there at your own pace. The first leg was up Lookout Mountain. Slow going with a lot of bicycles intermixed with the motorcycles and the cars.
Then we got to the first stop, up at Buffalo Bill’s grave site, and there were only about 20 people. Apparently a fair number of people just come to say hello and look at the bikes, but have no intention of actually doing the ride.
We took off from there but soon there was no group at all, just a bunch of bikes moving at different speeds and few in view either behind or in front of you. This leg was over to I-70, a short hop to Evergreen Parkway, and then a right onto CO 103 over Squaw Pass, past Echo Lake. We pulled in at the next stop, Echo Lake Lodge, with people straggling in over 10 or 15 minutes, even though we had all left the last stop at roughly the same time.
Then, just a few minutes after I got there, about half the group headed out again. The remainder had no intention of going anywhere for at least another 15 minutes.
We continued on CO 103 down to Idaho Springs, hopped on I-70 a few miles to U.S. 6 going down Clear Creek Canyon. The group was heading on up to Nederland for lunch but I had no inclination to go to Nederland so I went down the canyon, back to Golden and on home. So I joined in the ethic of riding my own ride.
But it was a really nice day to be out riding. This was my first ride into the hills of 2019 and boy, was I glad I wore my electric vest and my winter gloves. Going over Squaw Pass was cold! And the ground was still almost completely covered with snow, although the road itself was clear and dry, with not even the expected sand you usually see at the end of winter.
And finally, on my third try, I took part in the Old Bike Ride 17.
Biker Quote for Today
An old motorcycle is like an onion, the more layers you peel back the more your eyes water.
