Passes & Canyons Blog

When I set out on the Battle Back to the Bike I made a goal to ride at least 1,000 miles in my first month once I made it back. I met that goal as of Wednesday, July 4. I guess I really am back.

Here’s how it went.

June 7 — My first ride, to Evergreen and down Turkey Creek and then Deer Creek — 71 miles.

June 8 — Up Clear Creek Canyon to the Peak-to-Peak and down Golden Gate Canyon — 97 miles.

June 10 — Up Mount Vernon Canyon, to Idaho Springs, over Squaw Pass, to Evergreen, and home — 126 miles.

June 16 — The RMMRC Pie Ride to Evergreen, Deckers, Woodland Park, Florissant, Jefferson, and back — 267 miles.

June 25 — Up to Eagle — 141 miles.

June 26 — Eagle to Buena Vista to Denver — 218 miles.

July 3 — A run to the wine store and then to CostCo to get gas — 26 miles.

July 4 — Sedalia, Palmer Lake, Castle Rock, Parker, and home –98 miles.

Total: 1,044 miles.

Biker Quote for Today

The lure of the open road never goes out of style.

About 8:30 this morning I got the word from my doctor that it was OK to ride motorcycles again, so at about 1 this afternoon I was headed out on the Honda. Yahoo!! Of course, first off, it was blazing hot in the city, especially with my jacket, gloves, and helmet on, so I did the only thing I could do: I headed for the hills.

Out to Morrison, up that road to Evergreen, took the turn toward Conifer but turned east again on Turkey Creek Road. Then picked up Deer Creek Canyon Road, out onto the plains over by Chatfield State Park, then C-470 to I-25 and home. About 71 miles. Pretty OK for a first ride after more than two months off the bikes because of bypass surgery. And the Battle Back to the Bike has been won! Today is one day shy of 12 weeks since surgery.

Early on during recovery, when I had no stamina and was very weak, I had concerns over my first few rides once I could do so again and I had asked Alan if he would come on my first ride with me so I’d have back-up in case there were problems. I’m feeling so completely back to normal now, however, that I really didn’t feel a need for back-up but I figured I’d still call him about joining me. He wasn’t able to today, however, and I was not able–had no desire whatsoever–to wait another day. He and I will go ride another day soon.

And it was somewhat of a surprise to me that when I got on and took off it all felt absolutely normal. I might have just been riding yesterday. There was no apparent rustiness or needing to re-familiarize myself with the bike. And this was after the longest non-riding period I have gone through in 30 years. Now, that’s only two months off the bike and I know lots of people put their bikes away for the entire winter. But for me, two months is a long time.

The ride was fun and felt really good. Now I have exactly one month to really, really get back into top form because then we are off on a ride to Canada with some friends. And immediately after we get back from that I’m off again with the OFMC on the annual ride. So just to make sure I’m totally back at my peak, I’m setting the objective of riding 1,000 miles this month. I figure if there is rustiness I’m unaware of, that 1,000 miles will clean that up.

Hot diggety! I’m back on the bike!

Biker Quote for Today

I never really questioned why I ride, because for me it is as basic as breathing.

I was still in the hospital after my heart surgery and Bill came to see me. He figured I had a lot of time to read and brought me a copy of Two Wheels Through Terror. This is a book that tells the 2001-2002 motorcycle journey of the author, Glen Heggstad, down through Central America and South America. The big problem was that in Colombia he was kidnapped by guerillas and held for a month.

Bill was really wrong about me having a lot of time to read in the hospital because for the most part I didn’t have the strength and spent most of my time sleeping. But almost six weeks out of the hospital I have picked it up and started reading it. Oh my god, what a story! And this guy Heggstad is one tough guy.

During his month with the guerillas he was force-marched long distances over steep mountains while being almost starved to death. Then as part of his strategy to get released he took to starving himself deliberately, making the point to the bad guys that if they wanted any benefit from releasing this gringo they had better do so quickly while he was still alive.

He notes that, once safely with the Red Cross, he was brought a clean shirt. Normally he wears size XXL but this was a medium–and it fit perfectly. The guy went through some serious abuse.

Anyway, it really came home to me after he was released. Most people would have given up the trip and immediately flown home but Glen was determined to keep going, even though he needed a new motorcycle and all new gear. But first he had to recover. He had to battle back to the bike. Oh yeah, I can identify with this!

Here are a few of the things he said about his condition:

So physically weakened, it would take nearly a week just to be able to walk a city block without passing out, and several more just to build up the strength to balance a motorcycle.

Oh, yeah, I know. I was two weeks after surgery before I could go out and walk part of the way up the block and back.

Add to that, time with the ELN has left me weakened mentally and physically. After a brief trip to a local gym, I found myself too weak to bench-press an empty bar.

The good thing for me is that all along I have had the total support and never-fading smile of my saintly wife, Judy. Glen had guerillas deliberately trying to break him mentally. But that bit about pressing the empty bar: I started out doing curls with one-pound weights and was tired after a set with those.

The long miserable wait has ended. After pumping up the tires, I blast down the road for a two-hour, get-to-know-my-new-friend ride into the countryside, complete with rain in the darkness on the way back. Yet even the foul weather is a welcome relief as I’m just happy to be back in the wind under any circumstance. It’s as though life flows back into me again, while the excitement of being on the road permeates my being.

OK, this is what I’m still waiting for. It’ll be about another month.

Biker Quote for Today

Forget a knight in shining armor, I’ll take a biker in dirty leathers any day.

Author’s Note: Unless you are reading this on http://motorcyclecolorado.com/blog/ you are probably reading it on a rip-off site where they steal my work and publish it as their own. If you are not reading it on http://motorcyclecolorado.com/blog/, please exit and do not return to this rip-off site.

My string still holds, but it is destined to break soon. Ever since I bought my first motorcycle about 28 years ago I have ridden each bike I own at least once every calendar month. For the Honda that’s more than 300 consecutive calendar months. For the Kawi it comes to more than 200 consecutive months. For the V-Strom we’re looking at maybe just 45 months or so. But there will be no rides in April 2018. And probably none in May.

Thank you, heart surgery. Three weeks ago I had a quadruple bypass, along with repair of an aortal aneurysm and I’m not even supposed to drive for two months, much less ride a motorcycle. Heck, I’m not supposed to pick up anything weighing more than 10 pounds. How much weight do you suppose it involves just to rock a bike upright from its side stand? More than 10 pounds, I bet.

But I have to get back on the bike as soon as I can. Judy and I have plans to take a ride with our friends Willie and Jungle up to Bampf and Jasper in early July. I don’t intend to miss out on that trip. But that means that when I am able to ride, maybe around the first part of June, I’ll have just a month to get my stamina back and get my confidence up where it needs to be.

That confidence factor is a big one. I’ve never had to dust off rusty riding skills because I have never put the bikes away for the winter. This will be by far the longest I have gone without riding. And then there is the strength issue. I know I’m going to be nervous on my first couple rides so I’ve arranged with Alan to ride with me a few times. I know I’ll feel better knowing there is someone there to provide assistance if I need it.

This is all uncharted territory for me. I’m doing what I can already to build up strength, but so far it can be simply exhausting to walk around the block. Starting perhaps next week I’ll be going in regularly for rehab. No one is going to need to push me to do my rehab exercises; I intend to be pushing them.

So I don’t know how frequently I’ll be updating this blog for the interim. If I feel like I have anything interesting to discuss I’ll be here. Certainly I’ll be highlighting the big steps forward.

And also, just by way of explanation of that Author’s Note at the top, just recently two different websites have started stealing my blog posts and putting them up as their own. I’m trying to work with their web hosts to have them taken down but until that happens I want to try to make it clear to anyone coming to their rip-off sites that they are in fact rip-off sites.

Biker Quote for Today

A Biker’s Prayer: As I lay rubber down the street, I pray for traction I can keep. But if I spin and begin to slide, please dear God protect my sweet ride.

If you’re a regular reader here you know that something has gone wrong. Ever since April 2006 I have posted regularly, with the exception of a short hiatus in December last year while my Mom was dying. Now it has been two weeks.

That photo to the right should give you a pretty good idea where I’ve been. It was shot in the cardiac ICU at Porter Adventist Hospital. I had quadruple bypass surgery with complete aorta replacement thrown in.

Needless to say, I’m a bit out of commission. I have three motorcycle-related posts already prepped that I’ll be putting up in the next week and a half. After that I’ll be taking another hiatus, although to the extent that I’m able, perhaps when something presents itself in my email, I will have an occasional post. Also, because the writer in me never shuts down, I may put up a couple posts here now and then that have nothing to do with motorcycles, but rather chronicle a motorcyclist’s battle back to the bike. (I kind of like that. That’s going to be my theme: The Battle Back to the Bike.)

I understand if you are here for motorcycles and are not particularly interested in some guy’s recovery from surgery. You don’t have to read them. Check back later and we’ll definitely be all motorcycles, all the time. For now I’m just going to do what I’m able to do.