I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that Accelerate, Kawasaki’s publication for owners of Kawasaki motorcycles, has published one of my articles in its latest issue, which came out yesterday.

With the title, “To the Sky and Back: Colorado,” it’s a piece about a day ride up Clear Creek Canyon to Idaho Springs, out of Idaho Springs up Chicago Creek, and to the Mount Evans turn-off at Echo Lake on the Squaw Pass road. Then to the top of Mount Evans, back down to the the Squaw Pass road to Evergreen Parkway, to Evergreen, and down Bear Creek Canyon to Morrison. With photos, of course.

Now, what surprises me a bit about this is that Accelerate did not also publish a piece I did for them on the Morrison Inn. They like to do pieces on good places to stop and eat while you’re out riding and I did a piece on the Morrison Inn as a companion piece to the Mount Evans story. But it’s not there. I’ll have to ask Teri Conrad, the editor, about that.

I have hopes of doing a lot more writing for Accelerate. Of course, being the official Kawasaki publication it is essential that any bikes in the stories be Kawis. Fortunately, that’s exactly what I have, my 1999 Concours. I also have hopes of perhaps getting a dual-sport bike this year, and if I can count of selling a bunch more to Accelerate that will push me to get a KLR 650. The KLRs I’ve been on strike me as a bit tall, so I might go for something else without the Accelerate connection. But then, my Connie seemed extremely tall when I bought it and now, 12 years later, I’m as comfortable on it as you could possibly be.

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Biker Quote for Today

One man’s adventure might be another man’s daily ride.

It’s getting to be that time of year. The road to the top of Mount Evans has closed, so that means other roads can’t be far behind.

Others that close for the winter include:

• Trail Ridge Road
• Kebler Pass
• Independence Pass
• the Pike’s Peak Road
• Cottonwood Pass

You can keep tabs on which of these are still open, as well as get real-time info on road conditions around the state at the Colorado Department of Transportation site.

The other roads are maintained all year round but you never know when they’ll be getting snow. The truth of the matter is, although I ride down here on the flatland all year round, I almost never ride in the mountains after October. There are more hardy riders than me, though. Redlegs comes to mind. He seems to ride anywhere he wants any time he wants. You’re a better man than me, buddy.

Biker Quote for Today

Winter is nature’s way of telling you to polish your bike.

I ran across this question on the Delphi motorcycle forum:

Ok, who is a good ride planner? We plan on being at the KOA in Estes Park in a couple of weeks. We have 3 day that we will be riding day trips out of there. Any recommendations? Not looking for a ton of miles, maybe 200-300 per day or less.

Thanks,

J.R.

I posted this reply:

JR–

From Estes Park you will definitely want to take the ride up over Trail Ridge Road. For a 200-mile ride you could go over Trail Ridge, then from Granby to Walden, then take Coloado 14 over Cameron Pass and down through Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins, and then south to Loveland and back up Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park.

Beyond that you’re a bit limited. Unless you go over Trail Ridge again to go in other directions from Granby you’re faced with going back down to the plains or coming back at night over the same roads you left on.

You can go south out of Estes Park along the Peak to Peak Highway, to where you meet US 6, to Idaho Springs, up Squaw Pass, and to the top of Mount Evans. Then backtrack, more or less, or return over Trail Ridge.

Then for your third day you might consider going over Trail Ridge again, from Granby head to Kremmling and Steamboat Springs, over Rabbit Ears Pass. Then south on Colorado 131 either to Toponas and back over Gore Pass to Kremmling and backtrack. Or, continue south from Toponas to Wolcott and pick up I-70 and take it back over Vail Pass and get off at Silverthorne and take Loveland Pass to regain the interstate on the east side of the tunnel. Then back just east of Idaho Springs to get back on the Peak to Peak. But that runs close to 300 miles and a very long day. It’s tough from Estes Park because you’re really limited on where you can go from there.

Anyway, I hope that helps. You can find out a lot more about these roads on my website, www.motorcyclecolorado.com. Have fun.

I’m always happy to help. Anyone else looking for motorcycling information in Colorado, just write. I need to make note here, however, that because of the spam bastards I had to turn comments off on this blog. So to write, send your email to ken at motorcyclecolorado dot com.

That’s the question I got from M Rockey. With all the motorcycle roads I have posted info about on the website, where is the road up Mount Evans. Actually, I’ll let him speak for himself:

Nice site, very enjoyable…but where is MT Evans? :) It’s the best ride of them all in my opinion….I couldn’t find it if it is there..:)

But thanks..this gets me all worked up for this summer’s CO trip!

He’s right, you know, and I had realized that last fall. I’ve spent so much time putting up info on routes that get you from A to B that I forgot about rides where you just go and come back. So I’ve had it on my list of things to do soon to add Mount Evans. The thing is, I can’t do it now because that road is closed for the winter, and is probably under six feet of snow at the moment. But check back in June or so and you’ll see Mount Evans. Thanks for the prodding.