Passes & Canyons Blog

The Twenty-Mile Road. If you’ve never ridden it you should.

Before all this mess with the crash came up I was in the middle of telling about our overnight ride to Meeker. Let’s rejoin this story.

As you may recall, four guys only went as far as Craig while the other four of us went on to Meeker. Bob, who stayed in Craig, had said the run to Meeker was uninteresting and not worth it. As I said in the previous post, he is wrong. I knew from doing it in 2023 with Nick that the road from Meeker to Craig, especially in the early morning, is enchanting.

This year was no disappointment. Bob is just wrong. We got to Craig then, I got gas, and the other guys were about ready to roll. We headed east on US 40 to Hayden and then took the Twenty-Mile Road from right by the power station down to Oak Creek. What a beautiful ride, and still so green at this point. Some of the guys had never been on it and they were blown away.

Riding CO 131 we cruised south through Toponas and State Bridge to the interstate is Wolcott. We made a short hop on I-70 to Edwards for gas and then another short hop to the Minturn exit. From there we headed up Tennessee Pass to Leadville. Lunch in Leadville.

As we were parking it looked like rain, and indeed it did rain while we were in the restaurant. Just a very light dripping when we came out but we all suited up. The sky still looked threatening. On south to Buena Vista we avoided rain, then turned east on US 285.

We stopped again in Fairplay for gas for some, and after that it became pretty much every man for himself, the rush to the stable. We didn’t hit rain but did have wet pavement, with splashing. Then at Bailey we turned up Crow Hill and it had all been roto-milled, with only a little pavement. Kind of nasty. Then pavement again but now some rain.

I was constantly wiping my visor but after awhile I could not get it clear and I thought I was getting mud kicked up onto it. Then I realized it was fogging on the inside so I cracked it and the fog was gone. But now I was getting spray up under the visor. I alternated opening and closing it.

We were all separated at this point and I was only with Alan and Gene as we came into Conifer and it was raining harder. I bailed there and sat at the King Soopers until it cleared, then headed on again. Just a very short time later I came to dry pavement, suggesting we had been at the front of the storm and if I had kept going I would have been out of it in just another mile or two. No matter, I enjoyed the break and then rode all the way home—after that couple miles—on dry pavement with no rain.

Rush hour traffic was really bad so getting across Hampden took a long time. Then I was home. The next day the RMMRC had its monthly meeting and those of us who had been on the ride who attended agreed all around that it was an exceptionally good trip. We need more of those.

Biker Quote for Today

Melancholy is incompatible with motorcycling.

That 2000 Concours to the left is what I rode, and that Honda Interceptor is Jungle's. Willie was on the Yamaha FJ1100.

We were in the mountains over the weekend and on Friday I had the chance to ride with Jungle and Willie, friends who live in Eagle. They have a spare Concours they invited me to ride so this was the ultimate in no-brainers.

What was not such a no-brainer was where to go. Of course they live up there, so they’ve been on all the roads in their area, but so have I. You can do the Minturn to Leadville to Aspen to Glenwood and home loop, or you can go Wolcott to Toponas to Kremmling to Steamboat and back. Or, a third option Willie suggested, was Wolcott to Toponas to Kremmling and then to Grand Lake and back via Winter Park and I-70 to Eagle again.

That third route is adding up to some real miles and I guess there are some other long-mile routes you could do but essentially, from Eagle your options are rather limited.

Here’s where Jungle got creative. We would to the to Steamboat and back ride that we’ve done before with some alternative roads mixed in. We headed up CO 131 from Wolcott, where we had met up with some other riders, and headed north. Just a little shy of Oak Creek we turned off onto the road that goes by Stagecoach State Park, Hudspeth Lane, and made it on to Steamboat via that route. I’ve been on that road a few times but it was a nice alternative to just taking 131 all the way.

In Steamboat we had lunch and I just have to comment on the lunch I had. Donna, one of the other riders, commented that it was silly how all of a sudden pork belly is the thing. Isn’t bacon just pork belly? Isn’t it just being snooty to refer to a bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwich as pork belly when it’s just bacon? Sort of like calling green beans haricots vert?

So that was what I ordered but you know what? That was not bacon on my sandwich. It may have been the exact same cut of meat but it was not cured like bacon and these thick, fatty slices of meat were definitely not bacon. And they were quite fatty so frankly, I didn’t really care for it all that much. I will say, though, that the heirloom tomatos on the sandwich were pretty darn good. Oh, the fancy foods they serve in tourist towns.

Following lunch in Steamboat, the ride really got interesting. Out at the west end of Steamboat Jungle turned south off US 40 onto Elk River Road, which connected with Shield Drive, which crossed the river and picked up Routt County Road 33 going west. I’m convinced I have been on this road once before but that was going the other direction. The country this road goes through is gorgeous. It’s ranching land and even in mid July it was still just as green as could be and the road twists and climbs and drops and is wonderful. At this point in the afternoon we were wary of rain, with much of the sky looking pretty purple, but we only got a few drops on our visors at a couple points. We were keeping our fingers crossed.

After about 17 miles of sweet riding we intersected the Twenty Mile Road. I’ve been on this road plenty of times as it runs from Hayden down to Oak Creek. There is a point as this road comes down southeasterly from Hayden that it reaches a coal mine and the road either continues straight or you have to take a sharp turn to the right. That right turn keeps you on Twenty Mile Road and on to Oak Creek. If you go straight it puts you on the road to Steamboat that we were coming down on. We were definitely not headed to Hayden so we took the (for us) left turn.

This is really the pretty part of the Twenty Mile Road anyway. North of there it’s OK, with nice country, but it’s nothing like the southern portion. The southern portion sweeps up canyons, over canyon rims, and back down into other canyons. This is a great road.

We came over one canyon rim and found the pavement still wet from a rainstorm that preceded us but again we did not get wet. We reconnected with CO 131 and headed south on the road we had come up and the weather was holding for us. Approaching State Bridge the sky ahead was getting black so we hurried on. Descending into Wolcott there were drops on our visors again, but as soon as we turned west on old U.S. 6 the sky got blue, the temperature rose about five degrees and we were totally in the clear. Back to Eagle then and the ride was over.

What a great thing to be out riding like this on a Friday instead of sitting at some desk in some office. I then drove back to Vail, where my wife was attending a conference, and she and a bunch of these other real estate lawyers could only wish they had been out all day doing what I had been doing rather than sitting in meetings all day.

I’m fully aware–and fully appreciative–of my good fortune.

Biker Quote for Today

We hang around people who think these activities are normal.