Passes & Canyons Blog

Blue sky, sunny day–a great day for a December ride.

Have you ever started out heading to a particular place and found yourself somewhere else, asking, “How the heck did I get here?”

That was me on Sunday.

Sunday was sunny and warm and there was no way I was not going out on the V-Strom. A lot of other people had the same idea. I saw you out there.

I was very uncertain which way to go other than I clearly was not heading into the hills. That’s over for this season.

So I concocted a route, a pretty standard route. I would go out Parker Road to Parker and the go west on Main Street. At Motsenbacher Road I would go south and follow it to Crowfoot Valley Road, to Castle Rock, and then get on US 85 (Santa Fe) going north until I reached Sedalia. Then some route home. Simple.

Except one thing. As many times as I’ve been on the Crowfoot Valley Road I still have trouble finding it on the Parker end. It’s easy on the Castle Rock end but trickier up in Parker. But I figured now I had finally got it clear in my head.

I did what I planned. I got to Parker, turned onto Main Street, and then turned south on Motsenbacher. Nothing to it.

But then Motsenbacher ran out at a T intersection at Todd Drive, a street I was not familiar with. I took the turn to the west and soon ended up on Jordan Road. Fine. I turned south again on Jordan Road.

And then Jordan ended at a T with Hess Road. I turned west again and found myself a bit later at Hess Road and I-25. What?

It’s only now, looking at the map, that I see where I went wrong. I knew I wanted Motsenbacher but that road is one of those that stops and then picks up again later. I needed to pick it up further south than Main Street. If I had it would have simply flowed into and become Crowfoot Valley Road. Or I could have gone east on Hess and gotten back to Motsenbacher that way.

Anyway, no matter. Once I got to I-25 I crossed it and was on Castle Pines Parkway, which I followed to Daniels Park, then I turned north to home. It was a really nice ride.

There’s a quote I’ve seen, I believe it’s from The Lord of the Rings, that says “All who wander are not lost.” Nope. But sometimes they’re sure as heck turned around.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is an art; every twist and turn is a brushstroke.

This is not the bike I was on but this is one of places I went.

If you’re going to ride your motorcycle at this time of year you have to take your opportunities when they arise. Tuesday the forecast was for a high in the 60s will full sun. There may yet be an even better riding day this month but I was not going to let this one go by. Plus, I have two bikes that I ride each and every month and as yet I had not been on either.

I took off on the V-Strom and I very quickly discovered that other motorcyclists also read the weather forecast. There were a lot of us out that day! Cool.

First I had a couple errands to run, so I quickly got those out of the way. Then I needed gas. Can you believe I paid less than $2.50 a gallon? Wow. Now I was ready to really ride. But I wondered how far.

As I said previously, at this time of year I set objectives I try to meet, in particular turning the odometer over to a new 1,000. Starting out on the V-Strom I was only about 70 miles from 48,000 so knocking off those miles would have been a no-brainer. Except that I don’t trust the weather at this time of year and I worried that if I did not ride both bikes this day I might not be able to ride the Honda the next day. And would it be getting cold already if I rode the V the full 70 before getting on the CB750?

Totally undecided, I just rode. I headed south out of town, wandering around, following my nose, as I do when I have no destination. And sometimes on roads I’m not completely familiar with I end up in different places than I expected. Which is OK, which was good, because that did happen. That’s how you learn your way around better.

I started heading back eventually but I could see I would end up short of 48,000 if I went straight home, so I turned again. One more side route and when I got home my odo was sitting at 48,001. Mission accomplished.

And it was still warm so I immediately climbed on the Honda and took off. I didn’t need to put a lot of miles on this bike this day; this was just an insurance ride. Besides, that bike is now 838 miles away from the next 1,000. That’s not going to happen.

But I do like having an objective, a target goal. I didn’t remember how far I was from putting 1,000 miles on the bike this year (373 now) but I thought maybe at the least I can put more miles on it this year than I did last year. But I didn’t know that number either. So I just went for a spin, maybe 20 miles.

Well now I am home and can look at the numbers and I see that if I just ride that Honda another 46 miles this year I’ll pass last year’s mileage. OK, I’ve got a goal. And in fact the weather is looking pretty nice for at least another few days. I’ve got more riding to do.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you cry on the first snowfall.

In Cherry Creek State Park you can wonder, “where’s the city?”

The forecast for Tuesday was for a record high temperature for the date so of course I had to go ride. So did a lot of others; I saw quite a few motorcycles that day.

As so often happens I had no idea where I was going to go. I started heading south on Yosemite and had the idea to cut over to Dayton and take the road through Cherry Creek State Park over to Parker Road and then keep going south on Parker. I paid for a parks pass with my vehicle registration on the V-Strom this year and I figure I need to use it and get my money’s worth.

Of course, the last time I tried to go through the park, coming from the Parker Road side, I couldn’t get through because they appear to be replacing a small bridge. Surely that project was finished by now. Wrong.

The road goes through the park, past a lot of picnic areas and hiking trails, then past the turn-off to the model airfield, where two radio-controlled model planes were in the air. No drones on this day but I suspect this area gets used for drones now more than model airplanes. Then on to the turn-off for the shooting area, where you can take your guns and do target practice.

This was where the road was blocked going through the park. So I went up the short road to the shooting area, expecting to hear gunshots as I drew near, but I didn’t. What I did encounter was the unmistakable odor of weapons being discharged. I hadn’t expected that. And then as I turned around I did hear a few pop-pops of the guns. OK, back out of the park onto Dayton and south.

I went to Orchard and then east, to Peoria and then south to Arapahoe Road. Turned east on Arapahoe and then continued east past Parker Road. I got to wondering where Arapahoe goes as you follow it all the way east. Had I ever done that before? Maybe now is the time.

And go further east it does, on and on and on. I got to thinking that maybe I had been out this way before and that eventually Arapahoe would bend north and cross Smoky Hill Road, and the further out I got the more it looked familiar and I suspected I was right. It crossed under E-470 and eventually came to Powhaton Road, where I recognized that Arapahoe from here just went into the neighborhood across Powhaton and was no longer an arterial. So I turned north on Powhaton.

Powhaton, at least at this moment, is where the city truly ends. I rode north with houses right there on my left and nothing but prairie to my right. At first it was a four-lane road but eventually it narrowed to where it was two lanes without even a shoulder. As I went along I came upon a large, severe-looking building on the east side of the road, all by itself. What is that, I wondered? It looked like a prison. Getting closer I could see the sign out front: Infinity Middle School. OK. I’m sure a lot of the kids at that school would agree with my initial assessment.

Continuing north, Powhaton ends at Quincy. I turned west and was immediately back on familiar turf. I’ve come into town on Quincy many times. So many times, in fact, that this time I decided to do something different. At Chambers I turned north and went up to Hampden and then turned west on that. At least it was a change of scenery. Then I hit Parker, up to I-225, and home. And yes, we did set an all-time high for the day. What a great day to be out riding!

Biker Quote for Today

Twist the throttle and roll on.