Passes & Canyons Blog

This came out of the blue. Per the email above, somebody wants to buy this domain name, www.motorcyclecolorado.com. They have made an initial offer of $500. Do I have any interest in this?

Right off the bat I said no.

Thanks, but I’m not interested in selling.

I got a follow-up:

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the response – it’s greatly appreciated.
All domain names are for sale at a certain price, even if it’s at a much higher price than the initial offer.
Can you think about this and let me know a dollar amount that would make sense for you?

Now, the simple fact is that this website is something I care a great deal about. I have worked on it for more than 15 years and writing this blog is my number one creative outlet. OK, along with my piano. But I wondered, and asked for clarification.

You know, this could depend. Is the buyer interested in the site or just the URL? Because if I could just move the site to a new URL and keep it going I might be willing to sell the URL, though the price would have to be enough to compensate me for all the work that moving it and getting it established with the search engines would entail. If, on the other hand, they want the site, first, that’s flattering, second, I really don’t want to let go of it.

And this was the response.

Hi Ken,
Thank you for the response – it’s greatly appreciated.
This would be strictly for the purchase of the MOTORCYCLECOLORADO.COM domain name, you would still have the website content to operate on a different domain name if you’d like.
Can you let me know a counter offer that you would consider?

That latest email came about three and one-half hours ago as I write this. So it becomes something I have to actually think about; if they wanted the whole site it wouldn’t take any thought.

What would it entail? First I’d have to select a new URL. That could be easy–I could just go with www.PassesAndCanyons.com. I checked just now and it is available. But that’s just getting started. You can put up a site but people have to know about it to visit. When I built this site I spent a lot of time and effort building up recognition of its existence. One way that happens is to get links to your site on other sites. All those links out there now would be broken, except for the home page, which would take the visitor to a totally different site.

Then there would be the edits needed on every single page of the site. And all the links internally. It overwhelms me just to think about it.

Really, I think that’s my answer. I have often said that I write in order to understand what I’m thinking. Writing, for me, is an exploration of my thoughts. And just laying this out here for you has persuaded me that I have to say no. I mean, sure, if they offered me $50,000 for the URL I could take it and just pay someone else to do all the drudge work. But I don’t think they’re going to offer $50,000. And I just don’t want to do all that work.

So my decision is made. Thanks for lending me your ear.

Biker Quote for Today

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

As I have remarked previously, I’ve seen yellow leaves before, so going for a fall color ride for me is more about the riding than the color. But if it’s a really nice show of color I certainly appreciate it. Well, apparently the place to go for color this fall was the southern part of Colorado, not the northern part.

Last week the RMMRC did one more fall color ride, this time down to Victor and Cripple Creek. It was a much smaller (seven) and therefore more comfortable group that headed south from Lincoln Avenue down Daniels Park Road, over to Sedalia, and down CO 105 to Monument and then I-25 into Colorado Springs.

We stopped just before turning onto US 24 to shed some layers, though it seemed odd to be taking layers off just as we were about to climb. But I did take off my sweatshirt knowing I could always turn on my electric vest if I needed to. I needed to, and as the temperature dropped as we climbed I soon wished I had left the sweatshirt on. Follow your instincts, not the crowd.

We took US 24 to Divide and turned south on CO 67, but took the fork to the left toward Victor (Teller County Road 821) rather than going into Cripple Creek. The plan was to have lunch in Victor. However, we got to the intended restaurant only to find it closed. This was the second Wednesday in a row that we got somewhere for lunch and found the restaurant closed. Note to all: Any time you plan a lunch ride, call the restaurant first to make sure they’re going to be open.

Meanwhile, backing up, the fall colors along CO 67 were by far the best I’ve seen all year. This is where you needed to go to see fall color. It was definitely beautiful. An unexpected treat.

In the middle of the week there apparently are not very many restaurants open in Victor so we had little choice but to cruise on over to Cripple Creek. But I wondered because I’ve been in Cripple Creek quite a few times and I’ve never identified any particularly good places to eat, unless you want to do some fine dining place in the evening and pay $40 or more for your meal–not what we look for in a lunch stop.

We did see one place, however, that looked like it might be good so that’s where we headed. Funny thing: I can’t remember the name of the place and I stroll down the street on Google Earth and the images are all old, there’s a lot of construction going on, and I can’t find the place. Sorry, I’d like to recommend it because I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. Also, Tom ordered an avocado toast and said it was exceptional. It’s on the north side of the street, at the western part of where the street is elevated on one side. If you’ve been to Cripple Creek you know what I mean.

Gearing up before leaving Cripple Creek I was putting my sweatshirt back on and mentioned to Roy how I had thought it odd to remove layers before going up. He said he had that same thought and he did not take anything off. Yeah. Follow your instincts, not the crowd.

We headed straight up to Divide, then east to Woodland Park and then turned north on CO 67 up toward Deckers. Heading toward Divide the sky to the north was starting to look ugly. But where we were it was blue sky and sunshine. OK, enjoy it while you’ve got it.

Heading north out of Woodland Park rain was threatening and soon it was falling. But we rode through it for about a minute and came out on the other side and once again it was blue sky and sunshine. Nice. Up through Deckers and Buffalo Creek to US 285 at Pine Junction and we turned east. Oh boy. Now off to the east the sky didn’t just look threatening, it was black. But there was one spot of lightness on the horizon right exactly where I knew we were headed and I’ll be danged if our luck didn’t hold.

We got all the way to Denver, and I crossed the city on US 285/Hampden and just as I crossed I-25, now two miles from home, it finally started to rain. But even that stopped before I covered those two miles. What a nice day to be out riding! Maybe one of the last really good days we’re going to have for a while.

Biker Quote for Today

If motorcycle riding were a job, I would be the most hardworking employee.

We had a lot of long stretches on this recent OFMC trip and these are the times when cruise control or a throttle lock come in really handy. Some people just carry it a bit too far, though.

Bill is one of these people. Bill almost always has his cruise control engaged. Sometimes that is not a good thing.

I led most of the trip and I can’t count the times I looked back and Bill was way, way behind. And it’s not like I was going super fast. He just sets his cruise control and lets it go. He really hates to have to touch it. If Dennis was behind him I could tell immediately where they were because of Dennis’s super bright lights. If Dennis was in front of Bill I sometimes had to just assume Dennis was keeping tabs on him because I sure couldn’t see him back there.

What was worse, though, was when we were on multi-lane highways, when the speed Bill had set brought him up behind someone going moderately slower and he would then just creep past them. Never mind that other traffic was piling up behind him also wanting to go around this slower person, Bill wouldn’t touch his cruise control, they would just have to wait for him to finally get past and move over. This happened a lot.

Meanwhile, none of my bikes have cruise control. I have throttle locks on all of them but this is a less than perfect solution. Of course you slow down going up hills and speed up going down hills so I just nudge the throttle to compensate. Not a big deal as long as the thing holds you at speed.

Which they generally don’t. Usually they slip and you gradually go slower so you have to frequently tweak it to get back up to speed. But for some reason, on this trip, the throttle lock didn’t slip very much. There were times when I could go half an hour without touching my throttle lock, just cruising along. How nice. Wish it was like that all the time. That’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it?

So it was with all this in mind that, following having the Kawi overheat coming up to the tunnel on the last day of the OFMC trip, that I started thinking that maybe I could consider trading the Kawi for something newer, lighter, and with more modern equipment–such as cruise control. That is an ongoing issue. I really don’t know what I’ll end up doing. But one thing I know for sure is that you’ll hear about here whenever any decisions get made.

Biker Quote for Today

Dreams and handlebars are two things worth holding onto.

The RMMRC planned a fall color ride last week so of course I went along. Gathering at the Phillips 66 in Morrison the group was huge. There were at least 14 bikes plus two cars. Wow. Big group, I mentioned to Dave. Yeah, he said, too big.

We headed up Bear Creek Canyon to Evergreen, through town and out the west side on Upper Bear Creek Road to the Witter Gulch Road, which is a really steep climb with super-tight switchbacks near the top. A fun motorcycle road, in other words. At the top you come to CO 103, the Squaw Pass road, which we took left, over the pass, past Echo Lake, and down to Idaho Springs.

It was a really nice day to be riding in the hills, a little cool but I had on full cold weather gear and could not have been more comfortable. But there was not much color to be seen on the way up. That was no surprise to me because Judy and I had just been up to Estes Park, over Trail Ridge Road, and down to Grand Lake the week before and we didn’t see much color then either, and now another week had passed. Mostly the green was just turning brown.

From Idaho Springs we took old US 6 up to Georgetown, where we had a lunch stop planned. Arriving, we found the restaurant closed. Someone had checked with the visitor center and they had pointed us to a brewpub on the east edge of town by the lake. Presumably that was where we were going to go.

Roy asked me to help him push back off this gravel parking area we were on and I did, so I was the very last to leave this first restaurant. I knew where this brew pub was, though, because I had seen it coming into town. As I headed back that way I soon started seeing members of our group coming back toward town, apparently having gone not far enough and thinking they had missed the place. I waved at them to go the way I was headed. Then at the roundabout off I-70 I saw others pulling into a restaurant right there. I waved to them as well but nobody seemed to be following me.

I rode on out to the brew pub and pulled out my phone. Meanwhile, a couple from the group did show up but did not stick around. The only phone number I had was Dave so I called him and told him where I was and that the place was open and there were people inside eating. He told me the place by the roundabout didn’t even open for another 15 minutes and he would tell some of the others but meanwhile he was coming out to join me. A few minutes later he did, no one else did, and we went in to eat. It turned out later that Dave is diabetic and he was nearing a blood sugar crisis so he just needed food, NOW!

So it was kind of pleasant just the two of us. It gave us a chance to talk and get a little better acquainted. I’ve known Dave for about five years now but in a group setting you often don’t have a chance to really get to know people. One on one you do.

After lunch Dave asked if I intended to rejoin the group. I had planned to but he noted that what with finding a place to eat and then getting such a big group served they were not likely to be ready to ride for maybe another hour. He was just going to go on over Guanella Pass without them. Besides, Dave is a go-fast guy and he had not enjoyed the sedate pace you have to take with such a large group.

I went with Dave. At first there was a lot of traffic going up Guanella but apparently a lot of people were planning to hike and every time we passed a trailhead the numbers thinned so soon we were cruising along comfortably. And what a beautiful day! But not much color. Oh well, I’ve seen yellow leaves before.

Over the top and then we pulled out at a view area to get a few photos, such as the one above. Just then in pulled John, another RMMRC member, in his car with his wife, out to see the leaves. Fun. Oh, and there was a bit more color over on the south side of the pass.

So we cruised on down to Grant, picked up US 40 back to town and split up when the time came. It really was a much more pleasant ride just the two of us. I hope the rest of those folks found a good place to eat.

Biker Quote for Today

You are not alone when your bike is with you.

Nick and I were getting ready to head out from the Meeker Hotel on the last day of our three-day trip and I couldn’t find my cell phone. Twice in the six days Nick and I spent riding together he couldn’t find his but in both cases he finally found it in a pants pocket. He had new riding pants and kept putting it there rather than his usual spot, in his jacket pocket. But that was not my situation.

I had Nick try calling me but we didn’t hear a ring. We went out to the bikes and tried again and still didn’t hear anything. I had looked absolutely everywhere. Did I leave it at the restaurant in Hotchkiss the day before? Thinking it through, I remembered that I had–as I always do–texted Judy the night before to let her know we had arrived safely. So I definitely didn’t leave it in Hotchkiss. So if I had it here in Meeker I must have . . . left it . . . and I turned around to look at the bench in front of the Meeker Hotel, where Nick and I had sat for a while the night before . . . and there it was, on the bench. Relief!

So we left Meeker headed north to Craig, turned east on US 40 to Hayden to the 20-Mile Road, down to Oak Creek, to Toponas, over Gore Pass, and US 40 the rest of the way to Empire. We stopped for ice cream and I asked Nick what route he wanted to take, Squaw Pass being the longest and I-70 being the shortest. This whole trip to Colorado Nick had been tiring out easily, seemingly connected to dehydration. I urged him to drink Gatorade but mostly he drank water. A lot of water. He did seem to have gotten acclimated a good bit though, because despite this much longer ride than the first few days, he chose Squaw Pass.

So we went that way. I-70 from Empire to Idaho Springs and then south over Squaw pass on CO 103. I pulled over at a view point up on the pass and Nick said he was really glad I had, he had just gotten stung in the face. I also found a dead bee on my seat. We must have gone through a swarm. But he rides with his visor up and I don’t. I was glad in this case that I don’t.

Rather than take CO 103 down to Evergreen Parkway I led us down the Witter Gulch Road to the west side of Evergreen. This is a really steep road with super tight switchbacks that I thought he might enjoy, but when I asked him later what he thought of Witter Gulch he was only concerned with doing something for his sting and never commented on the road. Oh well. I can see how pain can distract you from enjoying a road you would otherwise be thrilled to be riding. Too bad.

And then again, as had been the case on two of our previous rides, the last slog across Hampden during rush hour was the worst, congested and really hot. That’s really the worst thing about living on the east side of town. Bill’s place, on the other hand, backs up onto CO 93 and he looks out his back window on the foothills. I have to ride 20 minutes to get to his starting point. But we bore up to the heat–again. I’m so glad that hot spell is finally gone. And Nick’s gone, too, headed back to Chicago.

Biker Quote for Today

You only have one life to ride.

Nick got back from visiting my brother in Grand Junction on Saturday and on Monday we took off on a three-day Colorado ride. Good thing I have three motorcycles because my Concours was in the shop and my CB750 needed a new clutch cable. Obviously, I rode the V-Strom. Nick was on his BMW R1250RS.

A note about that Beemer. As big as it is, and as much taller than me that Nick is, the seat height on this thing is amazingly low, way lower than my Connie or V. I sure didn’t expect that.

So we took off for Gunnison our first day and for a change of pace I led us up Deer Creek Canyon to pick up US 285 just outside of Conifer. And it was cold! After all this heat we’d been having it was cold! I knew it was cool and I considered wearing my riding pants but didn’t. And then wished I had. We took a break at the King Soopers in Conifer and I put on a flannel shirt but then we only made it to Pine Junction before I pulled over again and put the liner in my jacket. That helped a lot but at Fairplay we stopped again and now I put on my electric vest. Finally I was warm.

Meanwhile, Nick was having tire issues. He had noticed this on the way back from Junction and that morning when he checked his rear only showed 18 pounds. He put air in and brought along a pump and an extension cord. He added air when we stopped in Fairplay and again at the top of Monarch Pass, and called a shop in Gunnison to get the bike in the next morning to address the issue.

Addressing the issue ended up being just putting in some Fix-a-Flat type stuff to seal it from the inside and the guy told him it should be fine for a couple days but don’t push his luck. A couple days was all he needed, though, and that settled the tire issue for the rest of this ride.

So we got away the next morning about 9:30, past the Blue Mesa, and north on CO 92 along the north rim of the Black Canyon. Beautiful weather, beautiful day. I was all layered up and glad to be.

We stopped at Hotchkiss for lunch, finally finding a Thai place that was one of the few places open. We were figuring to go over the Grand Mesa and looking at Google Maps Nick saw an alternative route on some back roads up to Cedar Edge and we took it. We went past apple orchards all swathed in netting to protect the ripe fruit from birds. A very nice alternate route. We did encounter some recent chip-seal with a good bit of loose gravel.

Got to Cedar Edge and headed up the mesa and ran into about 15 more miles of chip-seal. Not pleasant. At one point we passed a sweeper truck collecting the excess loose gravel and had no choice but to go past him. We were showered in the chip-seal pellets. When we stopped up on top we had gravel chips on our seats and I had a bunch on top of my tank bag. That was a new experience.

I had shed most of my layers in Hotchkiss so going over the mesa was chilly but that was OK. Coming down on the north side of the Grand Mesa a bear cub ran across the road in front of me. It came out and paused and looked at me and decided to scurry on across. I was looking everywhere for the mama but didn’t see her and the cub scuttled into the underbrush and was gone. Very cool. First time ever for me to see one of those guys like that.

We got down on the other side and I took out the jacket liner. Now, after all the coolness, it got hot. In my experience, Rifle is about the hottest place in Colorado. First we got on the interstate but got off at Parachute and took old US 6 the rest of the way to Rifle. Heading north to Meeker I was seeing surges of oncoming traffic and knew that road work we had encountered on the OFMC trip in July could not have been completed so I hoped we wouldn’t get stopped too terribly long. But just as it had on the OFMC ride, we came to the end of the northbound traffic just as they started to move and we didn’t even have to stop. My luck holds. There was only one guy behind Nick.

They’ve made a lot of progress on this project—laid a lot of asphalt, though we didn’t get on any of it. If they’re going to get this work finished before the snow flies they’re going to have to bust their butts.

So we got back to the pavement and reached this passing zone area. I got into the right lane and Nick pulled nearly alongside me in the left lane—blocking this guy behind him from passing us which he clearly wanted to do. He would have gained little anyway because of all the people in front of us, but still. Nick, what the heck are you doing? So we got to Meeker and the road widens to two lanes just as we get to the gas station, where I planned to stop. I intended to turn left to get to it but I just knew. And I was right. Right when I would have pulled into the left lane this guy jammed his foot to the floor and blasted past us. I totally read the situation and am I glad I did. I made my turn after he blasted passed us.

That night we stayed at the old Meeker Hotel, which is under renovation and is perhaps perpetually understaffed. Renovation of our room was already completed and it was a nice place–the lobby is what’s really getting the work at this point. And the room rate was really low, so it was a good place.

Biker Quote for Today

A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it.

For our second day of day rides, Nick and I met up with Bill and Dennis and Bruce at the King Soopers in Conifer to head south toward Cripple Creek. But there was a good bit going on before we got there.

Nick had taken my suggestion that he get Gatorade seriously so he had that and water in his bag this day. But before we could head out to meet the guys I needed to get my Concours over to Rowdy Rocket Garage for work dealing with the overheating incident I had on the last day of the OFMC trip. Nick offered to load the Kawi on his trailer and run it over there but I had not yet ridden the bike in August and in order to keep my string going of riding all my bikes every month I wanted to ride it over there. No telling how soon I’d be getting it back. Plus, I was curious to see if it would trend toward overheating again, suggesting an issue with the thermostat or heat sensor. And sure enough, before we got there the heat gauge was climbing into the danger zone. Definitely need to get this addressed.

Back at home we geared up and headed out, me on the V-Strom. It was cool and I was glad to stop in Conifer as that gave me the chance to add another layer. After the day before I was wondering how Nick would deal with Bill’s idea of going to Cripple Creek for lunch, plus I wondered what there really was in Cripple Creek for lunch. Not much as far as I know. He and Dennis also had apparently been reconsidering so they suggested we just go down to Shining Mountain Golf Course a bit north of Woodland Park and have lunch there. Nick had said he wanted to stop more frequently for hydration so we made a quick stop in Pine Junction and then another in Deckers.

At the golf course we found that their restaurant is not open because they can’t find a chef. Everybody has staffing problems these days. So we rode on into Woodland Park. Even there it took some searching to find a place open but we did. The significant thing we learned, however, was that along the main drag, US 24, if you go north behind that row of shops there is a whole lot of free municipal parking. I can’t tell you how much trouble I’ve had trying to find parking previously so I’m really pleased to discover that this is there and happy to pass that info along to you.

Heading back we just backtracked for the most part. Stopping again at Deckers Nick said he was wiped out. I figured this just had to do with dehydration because this was not all that long a ride. Keep drinking that Gatorade.

Bruce peeled off from us there, heading home via the South Platte River Road route down to Sedalia. We continued backtracking until we got to Buffalo Creek where I led the group down the other end of South Platte River Road to Foxton Road, which comes up to Conifer on the west side of town. Dennis doesn’t live too far from there but I had a suspicion he had never been on that road. I’m certain Bill had never been on it. So it was a nice alternate route.

We came down 285 and each went our separate ways and then Nick and I once again roasted going east across Hampden. This is getting old.

The next day it was just Nick and me again and for a change I took us south, winding around a bit and finally reaching Daniels Park. We then went down Daniels Park Road to US 85, to Sedalia and south for lunch at O’Malley’s in Palmer Lake. Then home. Nick had expressed an interest in a shorter day and that fit the bill. A nice easy ride. Then the next day he was off to Grand Junction to hang out with my brother Rick.

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t know what the definition of freedom is, but it has two wheels.

While off on this year’s OFMC trip I got a text pretty much out of the blue from Nick, someone I’ve known since I was 16 but who I had only seen twice in the past 50 years. He is, however, a closer friend of my brother, who lives in Grand Junction, and Nick was considering coming out to see Rick. Rick, however, does not ride motorcycles and I do, so Nick thought it would be nice to bring his bike out (from Chicago) and go riding with me. Nick rides a BMW R1250 RS.

So he did. The plan was for him to come first to Denver, from where we would do a few day rides, then go to Junction to hang with Rick for a few days. Then he would come back here and he and I would do a three-day ride.

Nick got in on Sunday and we headed out on Monday. I didn’t want to do anything really long but I didn’t want to short-change him either so I figured it would be a good day’s ride to go up to the Peak-to-Peak and ride to Estes Park, then home down one of the canyons and back south on CO 93.

We headed out of town on Hampden/US 285 and up to Golden and then turned up Clear Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful day up on the Peak-to-Peak and we had a nice cruise. Stopping for lunch in Nederland Nick informed me for the first time that he was really feeling the dryness and that he would like to stop frequently to drink some water. I suggested he drink Gatorade rather than water. This would be a constant issue the whole time we spent riding together.

We got to Estes Park and turned down the road running down the North St. Vrain (US 36), stopping for about the third time this day for road construction. There was a lot of road construction going on. Down in Lyons we pulled over in the town park for a break. By now Nick was telling me he was getting pretty worn out. OK. I had had the impression he was used to going a lot of miles in a day; maybe not. And again, he was dying for water. Why wasn’t I drinking lots of water, was I just used to this climate? That would be a “Yep.”

And then of course we ran into more road construction on US 36 heading south from Lyons to Boulder. At this stop we were right by another guy on a bike and this guy was something to see. Wearing a shirt all open all the way down both sides, he was sun-burned in a major way. You can see the strip down his side in the photo. I wouldn’t have wanted to be him later when that started really hurting!

We went straight through Boulder on Broadway and that was an experience. The north end of Boulder has gone through incredible changes since the last time I was there. It used to be all light industrial and now it’s all condos and apartments. Huge change.

On south on 93 across Rocky Flats and back to Golden. Then back east on Hampden and oh man, it was a blazing hot day and we were going slow in late afternoon traffic and we just roasted–a recurring theme over the next few days. Back at our house Nick said he was just wiped out. OK, I really think you need to be drinking Gatorade. And we’ll see how tomorrow’s ride goes.

Biker Quote for Today

Put the love between your legs and enjoy the ride.