Passes & Canyons Blog

It's definitely looking like autumn out by Cherry Creek State Park.

Can you believe it’s November? This is the point where it often gets hard to squeeze in a ride. It seemed for a long time as though it snowed every year on Halloween, but not this year and not the last couple years. And once you got that cold blast in late October, winter would really set in in November.

Knowing how this has worked so often in the past, and also that the forecast for Monday said snow was possible, I figured Saturday was my golden opportunity. Although a bit overcast, it was warm and very pleasant–a good day to ride. And as anyone who knows me is aware, I make it a point to ride each of my bikes every single month, and if I didn’t take advantage of such a nice day in November, and things then turned ugly, I would be kicking myself.

First I climbed on the V-Strom. Another thing that happens every month is that it is time to pick up wine. For a wedding gift all these years ago someone gave us a membership in the Wine of the Month Club at the Vineyard, a nice little wine store in Cherry Creek. We have kept renewing ever since and it makes the Vineyard a natural destination. I’m sure I show up there on one of the bikes at least six months out of every year. I did it again on Saturday.

That trip took me to the north and a bit west. Getting on the Concours next I turned southeast. I like to ride across the top of Cherry Creek Dam because the view up there is so nice. I cruised on out on Parker Road as far as Arapahoe Road and then went west, then north on Peoria because I wanted to come up alongside Cherry Creek State Park on the south. I was hoping to get a good photo of fall coloration and the result–not as good as I hoped–can be seen above.

Home again, and then it was time for the CB750. I headed south this time, thinking southwest but not sure where.

Going south on DTC Boulevard I came to Orchard. Unlike Belleview and Arapahoe, the major streets to the north and south, Orchard does not go through from I-25 to points west, even though it is a major street east of I-25. I’ve known this for a long time and so I’ve avoided that stretch of Orchard for many, many years. So many, in fact, that I had forgotten where exactly Orchard does go, and why it is impassable. What better time than when you’re just out cruising and exploring to find out. I went west on Orchard.

At first it fooled me because it was at least a straight, through street, although it did narrow down to two lanes west of Holly. But it was a pleasant ride through Greenwood Village, one of the ritzier enclaves for the folks with more money than the rest of us. It was the kind of place that made me think, “Gosh, this could be a nice place to live if I had about eight times as much money as I do have.”

Then it started twisting. I don’t mean that in terms of “the twisties” that motorcyclists love. I mean that in terms of Orchard coming to an end and forcing a turn north on South Jackson and then west again on Long Road, followed by a T-intersection where going right said “No exit” so it had to be a left. Now I was totally on residential streets and shortly I was back on Orchard again, where it again looked like a major street. I know, though, that if I had turned east there on Orchard it would have very quickly dissolved into residential streets again. So now I remember why you don’t ever take Orchard when you want to get through that area. They don’t want you to, so they made it as impractical as they possibly could. You get to do that when you’re designing residential neighborhoods for the upper crust.

So I headed west on Orchard the short distance to University and then north on University to Belleview, east on Belleview, and on home. Not a particularly long ride but an interesting, enjoyable one nonetheless, and all three bikes had been ridden in November. OK, bring it on Mom Nature–I plan to ride more in November but even if you make it impossible for me I’ve already got you beat this month. December will be a whole other issue. (But you just wait; I’ll beat you then, too. I always do.)

Biker Quote for Today

Ever get lost? You know, that good kind of lost — come to a dirt road intersection and you have no idea where you are or which way to turn? I like when that happens!