Passes & Canyons Blog

Nick up by Estes Park on his last visit here.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

That’s a line from John Lennon and it’s always been one of my favorites because it’s just so true.

I’ve been a perfect example of that myself this summer. I had all kinds of riding plans that have had to be canceled due to my crash.

But it is by no means just me. I mentioned last week that I planned to do a post on SolidRide, a new motorcycle rental and tours outfit here in Colorado. But I intended to do the post after having met with Eric, the main guy at SolidRide, and having gone for a ride with him. I went ahead and put the post up without doing those things because of my neurologist’s orders not to drive for 12 weeks.

So after I put the post up I emailed Eric to let him know it was up, and I told him why I had skipped ahead on my intention. Well, Eric replied that he, too, was out of commission. He has suffered a herniated disc. Ouch. That has got to put a crimp in your riding. So much for many of Eric’s plans, too, I presume.

And then there’s Nick. I had mentioned that Nick was coming out and we had intended to do a ride that would include the Million Dollar Highway. My crash disrupted that plan but Nick decided to come out anyway and do the ride on his own. Nope.

Nick was supposed to be heading out last week, to arrive here on Saturday. But on Thursday I got a text from him saying that his lady friend had a medical issue and would need an MRI and probably surgery on her neck. He expected this to delay his departure to perhaps Tuesday. Later he confirmed his intention to leave Chicago on Tuesday.

Then on Monday he texted to say she had received the results of her MRI and it was not good. So another delay of unknown length. That was followed by another text saying “This is far more serious than I ever imagined.” Trip canceled.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

True words, John.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is this therapeutic, beautiful mode of transportation where you attach yourself to this machine and it becomes part of you.

The OFMC at the Grand Canyon.

People always want to talk to you when you’re out on motorcycles, have you noticed? Of course you have. They look at us wistfully and reminisce about when they had a bike, or how great it must be to just get out on the road and go, or whatever thoughts we stir. Bikers are so daring, so cute and lovable, right? How can you not strike up a conversation with them?

Usually those conversations go pleasantly and everyone parts with good feelings. Usually.

Then there was the time the OFMC was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, in the parking lot by the lodge (burned down in summer 2025!) when a family on vacation struck up a conversation. Cool bikes. Hey, would it be OK if our son climbed on board one? Oh sure, what the heck, no harm.

Well, no. The boy climbed on, wearing shorts, and managed to let his bare leg press up against one of the exhaust pipes. Blazing hot exhaust pipe. Yow!!!

OK, that didn’t go so well.

Then there was the time in Aspen when we struck up a conversation with a couple cougars who seemed to think we were of interest. Things went pleasantly right up to the point where I asked one of them if, way back years ago, Hunter Thompson ever had any chance of winning his run for election as sheriff of Pitkin County.

This was a simple question based on my honest interest in whether the answer was yes or no. You would never know that from the response I got. She replied scornfully that no, he never had a chance, and did we think they were all stupid? Well, I never suggested that, I was asking a simple question.

I did reply that it would be nice to have a sheriff who wouldn’t arrest anyone for simple possession of marijuana. She then got quite nasty, pointing out that marijuana was illegal (back then), whereas her drug of choice was alcohol (which was legal by then but back in the 1920s this was not the case). And by this point she had certainly had plenty of her drug of choice. We didn’t stick around a lot longer.

Fortunately, these less than great encounters are vastly outnumbered by the good ones. But the not so good ones make better stories, don’t they?

Biker Quote for Today

If you are going faster than everything else you only have to worry about what is in front of you.

How the heck do we get through this herd?

If you’ve been around the West much you may have encountered this sort of thing yourself: There’s a sheep herder moving his flock, or maybe it’s a bunch of cowboys moving a herd of cattle to new pasture. Either way, they’re taking up the entire road and you’re kind of stuck.

It happened to Judy and the kids on a summer camping trip many years ago. They were going along this little-used road when they came upon sheep. Everywhere. The sheep herder was apologetic and said he’d get them moved out of their way as quickly as possible but Judy and the kids were fascinated watching the sheep dogs do their work. Take your time, they told him.

It also happened to the OFMC one year. We were heading northeast out of Chama, New Mexico, toward Antonito, Colorado, over Cumbres and La Manga Passes when we encountered a herd of cattle. The cowboys and their dogs were doing their best to keep the herd moving but they could not have been less concerned about this group of bikers being held up by the cattle.

We didn’t see that we had much option other than to wait, but that might have been a long wait. Not certain what to do, we did nothing for a bit. Then a guy in a large pick-up came up behind us, sized up the situation, and pulled past us and started blowing his horn as he came up on the cows’ rears. They started jostling and pushing the crowd away, opening up a path for the pick-up.

We were thrilled. Let’s go guys, make some noise!!

We did our best to fall in behind the truck, though it got further ahead of us after a while and the herd filled in the space. All of us were blowing our horns, the Harley boys were revving their engines as loudly as they could, and we just counted on the cattle to get out of our way, which they did, sort of.

So we’re shoving our way through the herd and John, who was leading, took to pulling some shenanigans. We didn’t get it at the time but he told us later that he would deliberately ride through a cow pie and then rev his engine to break traction and–hopefully, for him–throw chunks of the cow pie up onto those of us behind him. Nice guy, John. Fortunately for the rest of us, his plan didn’t work.

This was slow going, and a good number of cows left the road and started climbing up the hill on the left or down the slope on the right. The cowboys and dogs kept busy guiding them back to the herd. And we finally got through. That was one unexpected highlight to this trip.

Now every time I go over those passes I wonder if I’m going to run into another herd. And I try to identify the stretch along which it happened but you’re out in the forest, you know, and one stand of trees looks pretty much like any other stand of trees.

But it makes a great story.

Biker Quote for Today

“What happened on the way, who I met, all that was incidental. I had not quite realized that the interruptions were the journey.” — Ted Simon, Jupiter’s Travels

The SolidRide website.

Back in May I got a note from Eric at SolidRide adventure tours making me aware of their existence and asking to be added to the Colorado Motorcycle Rentals And Tours page. I quickly made the addition and then engaged Eric in a conversation about getting together with him and doing a blog post about his outfit. We also talked about doing a ride together.

Then life got in the way and in late June I was in my crash. We haven’t been out on that ride. I figured I might as well go ahead and do this post introducing you to SolidRide.

To get the whole scoop you really ought to visit the SolidRide website. But I’ll give you a quick rundown.

SolidRide breaks their tours into three categories: Adventure Bike, Dual Sport, and Scenic Byways. They can plan and lead the ride or just lay out the route and plans and you can go on your own. Additional offerings include glamping arrangements where all meals are provided and you sleep in luxurious tents.

Much of the riding is centered around the Fairplay/Alma area, with Boreas Pass, Hoosier Pass, and Weston Pass included, although their offering of scenic byways tours currently includes:
Gold Belt Tour
Peak to Peak
Mount Blue Sky
Guanella Pass
Lariat Loop
Top of the Rockies
Collegiate Peaks
West Elk Loop
Silver Thread

Something of particular interest if you think you might like to see what SolidRide is all about is a series of self-guided tours through the Front Range that end the day at Nomad Taqueria and Beer Garden. The two upcoming events are scheduled for September 21 and October 3.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you’ve ever said “Isn’t it too cold/wet/hot/dry/dark to ride?”

A section of the RIDE BYND home page.

I didn’t deliberately decide to post twice in a row about motorcycle websites but I take things as they come, so here we are.

In my email this morning I had two messages, one from RIDE BYND and the other from Ride Apart.

I’m familiar with RIDE BYND (pronounced “Ride Beyond”) because of these VANHA magazines I found in the waiting area at Fay Myers when I was having one of my bikes worked on. I wanted to check VANHA out and found that the magazine no longer is printed but they have a site called RIDE BYND. I signed up for their notifications and have by now received about four of these monthly notices. I had never clicked through to actually see what they were doing there so today I decided it was time.

Rather than a print magazine, what RIDE BYND appears to offer is videos, although their home page is divided between “Latest Episodes” and “Latest Videos.” The episodes are often long, more than an hour, and those I checked out focus mainly on individuals doing cool stuff on motorcycles. The videos are generally short, often just showing some cool footage of riding.

Here’s how they describe themselves.

RIDE BYND is more than just a podcast about motorcycles — it’s a celebration of the passion, creativity, and untold stories of the people who ride them. Hosted by the co-founder of VAHNA, Ben Giese dives into deep conversations with athletes, artists, adventurers, industry icons, and trailblazers from all walks of life—exploring the experiences that shape their journeys, both on and off the bike. The motorcycle is our connection. The stories are what take us BYND.

As for Ride Apart, I don’t know how I came to be on their mailing list, but I’ve been getting their emails for a while. It seems to be a general motorcycle-oriented site offering news, reviews, features, makes, models, with photos and videos.

The article that caught my eye this morning was headlined, “If You’re Against Motorcycle Helmet Laws, You’re an Idiot.” Considering my own recent remarks about helmets and helmet laws, I had to check this out.

The article is written by Jonathon Klein and, to extract just a bit, his main argument is, “But here’s the real truth, humans are inherently stupid animals, and we do all manner of dumb things all the freakin’ time. We can’t leave our phones in a cupholder for a second while driving a potentially idiotic 10,000-pound electric Hummer, for Pete’s sake. Why should we then be entrusted with our own safety? And that’s sorta where I’m at in terms of helmet laws, as I’m very much for them. Not because I like a nanny state or big government, I really don’t. But because I’d rather not see my fellow motorcyclists die a horribly painful death because they were too freakin’ stupid to just wear a full face helmet while out on the road. I mean, the data says it all, they increase your chances of survival in an accident.”

OK. Not a lot of new thought or information added to this long-running dispute.

Another example of what they publish is an article titled, “Despite What Amazon Says, You Shouldn’t Follow a Motorcycle So Freakin’ Closely.” This tells about what is purported to be a page from an Amazon.com delivery driver training manual that says to leave a four-foot distance between your delivery van and a motorcycle ahead of you. OK, yeah, I’ll read to see what that’s all about.

So they have kept up a steady progression of articles I have found interesting enough to click through on. Maybe you would do so as well. Check it out if you’re interested.

Biker Quote for Today

If you go fast enough on your bike you can fast forward your life to the very end.

Home page for the Motorcycle Travel Network website.

I got a big surprise Saturday when my phone pinged with a text. It was from the Motorcycle Travel Network (MTN), a couple from near Toronto asking to spend the night here in mid September.

The MTN was something of a precursor to Air BNB and that kind of thing. Motorcyclists join and if you’re traveling you can find other motorcyclists to stay with for a token “expense” fee. Meet people who share your passion and who can direct you to the best roads and places to go in the area. No one knows local like the locals.

Or you open your home to other bikers and the roles are flipped. Judy and I have done both and we have thoroughly enjoyed both. And met some really nice people.

I’ve been a big fan of the MTN for a long time but they had seemed to fizzle out awhile ago. It was run by a couple and then he died. Time passed and there was little if any activity on the site, but then she decided to reinvigorate it and for a year or two it seemed to be back. Then nothing again.

Well now I see that the situation has changed a bit. It used to be to visit or to host you needed to be a paid member. That was about $40 a year the last I checked. Now, however, if you want to visit you need to be a paying member, but if you only want to host there is no membership fee. That’s why even though I haven’t paid in a long time we are still listed as being hosts.

The way this would work for most people would be to be listed and take guests and then only if you’re going on a trip and want to stay with MTN people, at that time you pay to become a member. If you stay one night with some folks you’ll save much more than you would have spent on one night’s lodging and you’re now good for a year.

We have had so much fun with people who have stayed with us and who we have stayed with. And they’re from all over the world. We’ve had a number of Canadians, some Germans, and others I can’t remember where they were from.

Now we have something to look forward to. You can bet I’ll tell you all about their visit afterward.

Biker Quote for Today

Spending a week on bikes in a foreign world is more than a trip; it’s a way to connect with new place, people, and most of all with yourself.