Passes & Canyons Blog

I’ll interrupt the telling of this New Mexico trip story because life goes on and doesn’t wait for all the old stories to be told before new ones occur. In other words, we (the RMMRC) did another day ride on Saturday and rode what was for me, and I suspect for most of the folks, a new road. Have you ever heard of Grapevine Road? I hadn’t.

We started out from the Phillips 66 station in Morrison to head up to Wondervu for breakfast. I figured we’d go up CO 93 to CO 72 and head up Coal Creek Canyon. Nope.

Gray took the lead and I thought as he headed into Morrison that we would take the back way over past Red Rocks but no, he kept going. We got up to Idledale and very much to my surprise he braked and signaled a right turn. A very, very sharp right turn, about 45 degrees sharp, up onto a gravel road. Oh my gosh. Two things: first, I was really glad if we were getting on gravel that I was on my Honda CB750 rather than my Kawasaki Concours, and second, I had no idea this road was even there. This was Grapevine Road.

The road was not really gravel per se; it really seemed like a road that had been paved 20 years ago and not touched since. It wasn’t loose gravel, although there was plenty of loose gravel on the surface, but it had a firm base and was not rutted. And it was twisty as hell.

The road wound up through an area that was full of houses where you would have no idea there were houses at all. I’ve heard that you never really comprehend how full the hills are of homes until you fly in a small aircraft low over them. Then it blows you away. The hills are alive with people!

Make no mistake, this is a slow road. There are plenty of turns marked for 10 and 15 mph, and with the loose gravel you really don’t want to go much faster than that. And it’s really, really pretty. As in, what a nice place to have a home. As long as you don’t need to get somewhere in a hurry.

So we wandered up and down and around hills, saw a bunch of deer bounding down the slope, and I wondered just where in the heck we were going to come out. Eventually we reached pavement and before long that question was answered as we came out to I-70 and US 40 at the Lookout Mountain exit. OK.

We turned left to follow US 40 up to the top of Floyd Hill and then down into Clear Creek Canyon and US 6 but at the bottom, rather than turning right down the canyon we went left and jumped on I-70 just long enough to get to the next exit, for Central City Parkway. Now I see how we’re going.

Central City Parkway was more interesting than usual in that there is some roadwork apparently intended to address the recurring issue they have up there of the downhill side of the road wanting to slough off. In one place they had cut away an entire hillside on the uphill side and seemed to be pushing it over to fill in the downhill side. I mean, the cut in the hill was enormous, about the size of what they’ve done in Central City and Black Hawk when they’ve wanted to build a huge casino hotel where there was previously a hill. Kind of amazing.

We reached Central City, rode down to Black Hawk, got on the Peak-to-Peak and headed north to where it hit the road down Coal Creek Canyon. All this while it was intermittently dripping rain, enough to put droplets on my visor but never enough to make you want to stop and put on a rainsuit. I was keeping my fingers crossed we could get to Wondervu without having to do that. Meanwhile, I was darn cold and wishing I had worn at least my riding pants because they’re warmer than my jeans and they’re waterproof. Thank goodness I had my electric vest.

We did get to Wondervu without a downpour and went in the Wondervu Cafe for breakfast–at this point a late breakfast. And then breakfast got much later. As is true of so many places these days, they were understaffed. Not only that, at least some of the staff they have were not very good at their jobs. Rather than go on at length with the details, let me simply say that we finally ate breakfast well into lunch time and for many of us, when our food was served it was stone cold. And several of us were done eating long before others even got their food. I won’t be eating at the Wondervu Cafe again any time soon.

Suiting up to leave, the sun had come out. And it was warmer. Yay. And we were all on our bikes and ready to go but Roy had not even come out of the restaurant. Gray may have known something about Roy’s delay and seemed to be waving us to go on and take off but no one did and we just sat there. For quite a while. Finally, I had had it with waiting and I just took off. I like riding alone anyway, so I was perfectly fine with leaving the rest behind. All the way home I dodged the rain clouds never did get wet. In other words, a good day for a ride.

Biker Quote for Today

No matter how bad your day is your bike will make you feel better.

My start to the RMMRC New Mexico ride was not entirely auspicious. It was raining lightly when I was leaving so I started out fully geared up with rain jacket and my waterproof riding pants. I also had all the other gear on, too, because it was darn chilly.

Barely a mile from home I had my first encounter with a careless driver. I was heading west on Hampden, in the left lane, pulling past a car on my right. At a point when I’m certain I was in their blind spot they decided to change lanes–about three feet in front of me. The guy probably checked his mirror but did not do a head check. I hit my brakes, blew my horn, and shook my fist at the guy but who knows if he noticed me at all.

Out in Morrison, where we were gathering, there were nine of us: eight bikes and Dave in his Ford F-250 pick-up with a trailer on behind. Turns out Dave had just had surgery the week before and could not ride but he woke up that morning and decided he was going, even if he had to take the truck. And he hooked the trailer on behind just in case we needed a sag wagon. A very generous move on his part.

Very, very frequently on these trips either Dave or Bob lead but in this case Dave couldn’t and Bob was not coming. Roy normally rides sweep but he was not coming. So Charley took sweep and John, a fairly new member of the group, agreed to lead. Dave would bring up the rear with the truck.

We headed through Morrison intending to go south on the road at the west end of town that runs down to US 285 only to find it totally blocked off for a run and other festivities. So we did a U-turn right there in the intersection and headed back to C-470 to get down to 285. OK, now we can roll.

The further we went the clearer the sky got but it stayed very cool. At a stop in Fairplay I even put on my heated gloves. We rode on down to Buena Vista and Poncha Springs, where we stopped for lunch. Some folks got gas and others, including me, didn’t, figuring we had plenty to get to our day’s destination, Montrose. Then it was west over Monarch Pass, through Gunnison, past the Blue Mesa Reservoir, and made a stop at the Blue Mesa dam.

Here John asked if we would be interested in riding the north rim of the Black Canyon rather than continuing on US 50. Running up through Crawford, Hotchkiss, and Delta would only add about 5 miles to the ride, he said. I replied that that was absurd, that doing that route would add at least 40 miles. We were all fine with that route because the road on the north rim is great, but that threw off my calculation that I had plenty of gas. I would need to stop in Hotchkiss.

Headed toward Crawford John pulled in at a viewpoint, where you could see US 50 off to the south and a valley I took to be the route up to Silver Jack Reservoir over Owl Creek Pass and down to just north of Ridgway. The stop for a viewpoint was unusual in my experience of RMMRC rides but very welcome in my mind. One of my biggest complaints about RMMRC rides has been that we don’t do enough of that. John, being new, did not have that mind-set and that’s fine with me. I like at least semi-frequent stops.

I got gas in Hotchkiss and as everyone else took off I pushed my starter button and got nothing. Oh crap. Tried again and again nothing. Charley was there, as he was riding sweep, and we conferred. Then I checked my kill switch and that was it. How I hit that switch I don’t know but soon we were rolling. We never caught up with the others, though.

We made it to Delta and turned south to Montrose. Wondered at one point why everyone was going so slow in the right-hand lane while the left-hand lane was wide open, started pulling around, and saw the state patrol car leading the pack. OK. Got it. After he made a U-turn and flipped on his lights and took off in the other direction everyone on our side increased their speed about 15 mph.

We got to Montrose but really didn’t know where the motel was so Charley and I ran a bit of a wild goose chase around town but finally found the place. All in all a much more enjoyable ride than what it looked like it could be in the morning. Tomorrow: Gallup.

Biker Quote for Today

We only regret the rides we didn’t take.

I’m back now from that RMMRC New Mexico ride I mentioned previously and it really was an excellent ride. Here’s a quick synopsis and I’ll follow up with a more detailed narrative.

On Day One we started out with eight riders on bikes and one in a pick-up pulling a trailer. Our very own sag wagon. This was Dave, who had had surgery just the week before and couldn’t ride. But he was the one who organized the ride and on Saturday morning he got up and thought how much he hated to miss it so on the spur of the moment decided to drive the truck. The trailer was a totally generous thought that might easily have entailed pulling this trailer for 1700 miles for no real reason.

Montrose was the destination that day, over Monarch Pass, and we got there uneventfully. It was raining a bit in Denver as we departed but the skies cleared and it was a good day to ride.

On Day Two we turned south. Over Lizard Head Pass, past Telluride, down to Cortez, and then a long slog to Gallup, New Mexico. The first half was a sweet ride and the second half, as I say, was just a slog.

Day Three had us heading further south and we made our way on to Alpine, Arizona, where we stopped for gas. The route Dave had mapped out had us turning off here and heading east on US 180 but some roadside reconsideration led us to continue south on US 191. That turned out to be a great decision as we ended up on one of the twistiest roads you’ll ever find. And if you look at the map you’ll that this road doesn’t really seem to go anywhere so there was almost no traffic at all. But what a fun road to ride. Ultimately we ended up for the night in Silver City.

On Day Four we headed north, taking US 180, which we would have been backtracking on if we had followed the original plan the day before. Because we hadn’t, this was new road. NM12 connected us to NM32 up to Quemado and then other state roads up to I-40 at Grants, this day’s destination.

Day Five was definitely not a typical day on the road. We were headed east but to get there we first went west on I-40. North on NM371 and then east on County Road 9, over to Cuba. Then things got a bit screwy. The plan was to make it over to the south end of Taos and then ride the Angel Fire loop around Wheeler Peak, to Red River. But we ended up on the north end of Taos and the sky to the south was threatening so we turned north to Questa, then east to Red River.

And then we were at Day Six, with the destination being home. Some folks were in a hurry, some were not, and we left in several smaller groups taking various routes. Rain was anticipated but we made it all the way home dry. Nice.

That in a nutshell was the trip. But there’s a whole lot of meat in that nut and I’ll get into that next.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re only as old as you feel when you ride your motorcycle.

Mark Buckner, a long-time motorcycling advocate in Colorado, recently emailed around a synopsis of his efforts to connect with members of Congress from Colorado in regard to their support of motorcycling connected legislation. I’m not going to just copy the whole thing here, but I will do the Reader’s Digest version. If the people representing you don’t support your positions you might want to contact them. Sometimes they just need to be educated as to why they ought to take a specific position.

Starting with the Senate:

Senator Michael Bennet: Stump (ABATE of Colorado legislative liaison) tried unsuccessfully to schedule a meeting. He left materials addressing issues and also a business card.

Senator John Hickenlooper: Ditto

Congresswoman Diana DeGette, 1st Congressional District: General Notes: Has not been supportive in the past. We had a meeting scheduled with Congresswoman DeGette’s aide Nicholas Anozis but were unable to attend due to travel complications in getting to the House Office buildings.

Congressman Joe Neguse, 2nd Congressional District: General Notes: Has been friendly and supportive in the past. Has signed on to prior Right-to-Repair legislation. Interested but non-committal on a number of other issues.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, 3rd Congressional District: General Notes: Friendly; supportive of motorcyclists’ issues. Congresswoman Boebert rides; so does her (ex-) husband. Generally supportive of most motorcycle-related issues.

Congressman Ken Buck, 4th Congressional District: General Notes: Friendly; As always, supportive of motorcyclists’ issues.

Congressman Doug Lamborn, 5th Congressional District: General Notes: Friendly; As always, supportive of motorcyclists’ issues. Congressman Lamborn rides, and some of his aides ride as well.

Congressman Jason Crow, 6th Congressional District: General Notes: Not particularly supportive of motorcyclists’ issues; mainly interested in veteran issues.

Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, 7th Congressional District: General Notes: Possibly 60% favorable toward motorcyclists’ issues? On the fence on many of our issues but is approachable.

Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo, 8th Congressional District: General Notes: Newly elected; first term in Congress; not supportive of our issues when she served in the Colorado state legislature.

That’s the run-down. I wonder what it would take to get some of these Democrats to take an interest in motorcycling issues the way that the Republicans do. These people are missing a bet.

Biker Quote for Today

The road less traveled can cause inner peace.

For many years after I built this website I solicited paid advertising and was also open to having specific blog posts “sponsored” by some business wishing to drive traffic their way. In later years I have done away with all that so now when I get emails asking to sponsor posts–easy money to be sure–I just delete them.

A different thing I tried several times was to accept guest posts. I figured that if someone could write a good piece that I felt my readers would find interesting and relevant, sure, I’m open.

That really did not work out. I would receive a contact, I would reply specifying what I was looking for, I would receive assurances that yes, the piece I would be sent would be highly professional and very much of interest to my readers. And then I would receive dreck. Absolute garbage.

If you read this blog you know the kinds of things I write. I write very specifically about rides I’ve done, issues I’ve encountered, gear I’ve tried out, trips planned, and a lot more. What do these so-called professional writers send me? The kind of stuff that would be common knowledge even amongst the newest beginning riders. I wish I could think of a specific example–I’m drawing a blank right now.

But the point is, I write for people who have themselves ridden for a long time. They (you) are not interested in how to pick a helmet that fits, why you should always carry rain gear, how to check out your bike before a long trip. You already know those things. And if you don’t, there are a thousand sites across the internet where they have articles that go into those things in great detail. I don’t get into that stuff.

And those are only somewhat relevant topics. If I could remember some of the things I’ve been sent I could give you examples of some truly irrelevant topics these people pitch me.

OK, great! I love it! After I wrote this I checked my email and found this request for a guest post. Here’s part of it:

I’ve been writing about Fashion, Style for 5 years and I’m confident that I can write a high-quality, informative, and engaging guest post that would be of interest to your readers. As you can see I have a few ideas for guest posts that I think would be a good fit for your blog.

Yeah, right, that’s exactly what this blog is about.

Of course, these pieces come larded up with links to various products or websites where the writer would get a payment for any traffic that followed the link.

Now I do have to say, over the years I actually have published, I think, three guest posts. But isolating those three good pieces from the mountain of dreck is just not worth the effort.

So I just started marking everything that comes in asking to do a guest post as Spam. I don’t even open them. I know I get some follow-up emails saying “hey, at least do me the courtesy of replying and saying no thanks,” but while that would be courteous, if you knew how many such requests I get you would understand why I’m just not going to give of my time for that. Am I discourteous? Fine, I’m discourteous.

And that’s the point of this post. I want it up there so maybe some of these people who are planning to approach me will see it and reconsider. Let me make things absolutely clear:

I DO NOT ACCEPT GUEST POSTS.

Can I make that any clearer?

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 15. We are depressed from November to March.

The RMMRC is leaving in a few days on this New Mexico ride and at last week’s meeting someone asked me which bike I’ll be riding. Gosh, I hadn’t even thought about that. I guess I ought to.

The Honda CB750 was out right away because its tires are too thin and would not be enough for a 1,500-mile trip. That left the Concours and the V-Strom.

I figured what I really ought to do is take both of them out for runs and see which seems to be most ready, or else figure out what each of them might need.

I checked the tires on the V-Strom and the air was good. Check. Tires are good. Check. My top bag has suffered some damage in a couple times dropping the bike but I pulled out a strap that secures it well so no worries there. Check.

How is the oil? I just got the oil changed in my car the day before because I realized I had pretty much forgotten about paying it any attention. And I couldn’t remember the last time I changed the oil in the V.

I checked, which first meant figuring out how. That’s how bad an owner I am. So there’s a sight glass and you’re supposed to hold it level and check the level in the sight glass. Well, I didn’t see anything in the sight glass. I figured it would be good to take it for a ride over to Vickery to get some oil. That way I would also get a chance to see how it’s running.

It ran great. One thing I like about this bike is that it always runs great. I’ve had my troubles periodically with the Concours and the CB but the V-Strom, as they say, is bullet-proof.

I got home, put in some oil, checked the sight glass, put in some more, and it looked fine. So this bike is ready to go. I guess I’ll be riding the V-Strom. But now I really ought to check the air and oil in the Concours, just because they need to be checked. And if I do that before I leave, and I take it for a ride, maybe I’ll change my mind about which bike to ride. After all, the Concours is a really fine highway bike . . .

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you hate the fact that you were in front of your computer long enough to read this and not on your scoot.

I’ve seen a number of online articles lately about a subject I strongly identify with. Here’s one headline that sums it up: Teenager fined by airline after attempting luggage ‘hack’ of wearing six layers of clothes.

What’s the deal and why do I care? I did the same thing back in 2010. But I didn’t get fined. That’s kind of extreme, in my opinion.

As the story explains, this Australian teenager put on 13 pounds of clothing in order to avoid paying extra for overweight baggage. They made her pay 62 Australian dollars ($40.54 US), which I presume is about what the charge would have been for another bag. OK, fine. If you follow that link and look at the photo it does appear she pushed the whole concept a bit too far.

In my case it had nothing to do with weight; it was totally a matter of lack of room in my bag.

As the National Motorcycle Examiner for Examiner.com, a now extinct crowd-sourced website, I had been among a group of international motojournalists invited by Eagle Rider to do a one-week tour in California. I tend to travel light so I only took a nylon bag with the stuff I needed for the week, as a carry-on.

What I had not planned on was that as we toured around southern California for a week, we made a lot of visits to cool places. And every place wanted to promote itself with this group of writers from all over the world, so they loaded us up with swag. In addition to probably more than a dozen T-shirts, I was bringing home about 10 jump drives (very small, no problem), a leather motorcycle jacket, 8 large bags of beef jerky, several hats, and I can’t remember what else.

As I packed to go to the airport I found that I could not get it all into my one medium-sized bag. It seemed to me the only option was to take as much clothing out of the bag as necessary in order to get everything else in, and then put that clothing on my body. Kind of like the Australian teen. Sure, I’d be a little warm for a while but I could tolerate that.

Well, airport security did not ignore the obvious. But I thought the way they handled it was a bit ridiculous.

They never once asked me why I had so many clothes on. If they had I would have explained and then told them if they want to search me go ahead and do so to your heart’s content, but at least now you have heard my explanation.

No, they didn’t say a word, but they patted me down, X-rayed me, pulled everything out of my bag–just went to great lengths to see if I had something dangerous on me. At one point I tried to offer an explanation but the security agent very harshly told me to keep my mouth shut or things could get much worse. OK, I was just trying to be helpful.

Ultimately they didn’t find anything and I was allowed to board the plane. And I’m sure they were all pleased that by the time their shifts were over my plane had completed its flight uneventfully and all was well. But if it had been me, I would have been very interested to hear the explanation for this passenger’s peculiar behavior. Maybe, just maybe, one of them still remembers it and still wonders what the heck was going on with me that day. Sorry sucker, you’ll wonder till your dying day.

Biker Quote for Today

“If you brake, you don’t win.” – Mario Cipollini

Where is that rain when you need it? Last week I was complaining about the rain going on and on and now I was getting really tired of all the smoke filling the air from those forest fires in Canada. At least if we had the rain it would wash that smoke out of the air. Then it occurred to me that that may have been exactly what was happening last week. Without that rain we may have been living in and breathing that smoke as we are now.

Anyway, I decided it was time to take my first ride of the year up in the hills. Certainly all the ice and snow are gone, though there could certainly be sand and gravel to contend with. Also, maybe if I got up higher I could get above the smoke. Let’s give it a shot.

I headed up Bear Creek from Morrison and took Kerr Gulch from Kittredge over to pick up Evergreen Parkway near I-70. Then I picked up US 40 running alongside the slab, up Floyd Hill and down to US 6 coming up out of Clear Creek Canyon. Just FYI, there’s a good bit of construction going on on US 40 along here.

Up on Floyd Hill I was definitely not above the smoke.

I took US 6 down to where it branches off from the Peak-to-Peak Highway and made the turn toward Black Hawk. Now I was climbing and somewhat to my surprise it started getting darn chilly. I had not put on all the layers I had with me because it was so warm but now when I got to Black Hawk I stopped and did put on my vest. I’m guessing the smoke is blocking the warmth of the sun from getting down to the ground.

Up and further up till I reached my highest point, where CO46 meets the Peak-to-Peak coming out of Golden Gate Canyon. At this point I could see through the smoke enough to see that above it all it was a clear, sunny day but you might need to be up on top of Mount Evans to really experience it. And then I plunged back down into the haze.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when the wind in your hair and face makes you happier than a paycheck.