The Hills Are Full Of People
Monday, September 14th, 2020
The Phillips 66 in Morrison is a big meeting place and this morning it was packed with two different bike groups as well as a group driving their Model T Fords.
Kudos to Bob for planning and leading an RMMRC ride that went well off the beaten track and introduced me to roads close to town that I had never known existed. One over-riding aspect of this route was the demonstration of just how fully built out the hills west of Denver are. I had heard before that if you flew in a small airplane above the foothills you would see that there are people everywhere. This ride really proved that out.
We started out from Morrison, jumping on C-470 briefly to get over to U.S. 285 heading southwest. Very shortly we turned off at the Tiny Town exit onto Turkey Creek Road. Just past where Deer Creek Canyon Road runs off to the left we made a right turn that took us up into the heavily developed (relatively speaking) area between Turkey Creek Road and 285. Following a variety of local roads we looped through the area and ended up back on Turkey Creek Road probably only a mile or so from where we got off. But in the interim we would around through a very nice area on some nice roads. With houses all along the way.
Continuing south and west on Turkey Creek Road we then turned off to the south on Hilldale Drive and into another area of houses. Here, though, the road climbed and we ended up on what is aptly named City View Drive. The city and the plains are clearly visible from up here, as is U.S. 285 off to the north.
This aerial view doesn’t really show you what City View Drive is like but it goes high and you can see a long way.
This is where things got a bit out of kilter. Looking at the map today I see what I think must have been Bob’s planned route. If you make the right turns–GPS probably your best bet–you can work your way over to Pleasant Park Road and back onto 285 at Conifer. Bob’s GPS was not serving him well. We made several wrong turns, ended up on dirt roads and generally groped our way until we found our way back to where we had turned off Turkey Creek Road.
But we were still seeing some roads and some views we had never seen before. I had no complaint. I was on my Concours, which generally hates gravel, but in fact it really hates loose gravel. Because this was hard-packed dirt I had no problem.
Besides the demonstration of just how full the hills are of homes I was also struck by how very many people we saw out walking, either on their own or walking their dogs, along these roads. They were everywhere and for the most part they were very friendly and waved–and in one case even cheered– as we went by. I suspect they don’t get many motorcycle groups cruising through their neighborhoods.
We then followed Turkey Creek Road to where it terminates back at U.S. 285 over by Meyer Ranch Open Space Park. That ended the first segment of this ride and the other segments warrant their own space so I’ll save them for later blog posts following this one. There is one other thing I want to mention here, though.
This was a fairly lengthy ride altogether. Bob had promised “111 miles, 1 million curves” and that really gives you an idea of what this ride was like. With that kind of promo I knew I would be most comfortable on the V-Strom but I had not yet ridden the Concours in September so despite knowing the V would be the better bike for the ride, I rode the Connie.
That was OK because I’m a pretty skillful rider and I had no problem maneuvering that big bike through the many switchbacks and tight curves we traversed. To my surprise, though, by the time I got home I was exhausted. Riding a motorcycle is not a passive activity the way that driving a car can be, and hours of steering a big bike through serious twisties adds up to significant effort. I got home just in time to go to my appointment at the gym and by the time I was walking home from the gym I found myself stopping every place I found shade to rest. I was tired!
Biker Quote for Today
Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 03. — Expansion slots have Genuine Harley-Davidson bike parts installed in them.
