More Day Rides With Nick
Thursday, September 28th, 2023
Stopped at a viewpoint north of Deckers.
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.
