A Wet Start To A Dry Trip
Stopping at the Blue Mesa dam.
My start to the RMMRC New Mexico ride was not entirely auspicious. It was raining lightly when I was leaving so I started out fully geared up with rain jacket and my waterproof riding pants. I also had all the other gear on, too, because it was darn chilly.
Barely a mile from home I had my first encounter with a careless driver. I was heading west on Hampden, in the left lane, pulling past a car on my right. At a point when I’m certain I was in their blind spot they decided to change lanes–about three feet in front of me. The guy probably checked his mirror but did not do a head check. I hit my brakes, blew my horn, and shook my fist at the guy but who knows if he noticed me at all.
Out in Morrison, where we were gathering, there were nine of us: eight bikes and Dave in his Ford F-250 pick-up with a trailer on behind. Turns out Dave had just had surgery the week before and could not ride but he woke up that morning and decided he was going, even if he had to take the truck. And he hooked the trailer on behind just in case we needed a sag wagon. A very generous move on his part.
Very, very frequently on these trips either Dave or Bob lead but in this case Dave couldn’t and Bob was not coming. Roy normally rides sweep but he was not coming. So Charley took sweep and John, a fairly new member of the group, agreed to lead. Dave would bring up the rear with the truck.
We headed through Morrison intending to go south on the road at the west end of town that runs down to US 285 only to find it totally blocked off for a run and other festivities. So we did a U-turn right there in the intersection and headed back to C-470 to get down to 285. OK, now we can roll.
The further we went the clearer the sky got but it stayed very cool. At a stop in Fairplay I even put on my heated gloves. We rode on down to Buena Vista and Poncha Springs, where we stopped for lunch. Some folks got gas and others, including me, didn’t, figuring we had plenty to get to our day’s destination, Montrose. Then it was west over Monarch Pass, through Gunnison, past the Blue Mesa Reservoir, and made a stop at the Blue Mesa dam.
Here John asked if we would be interested in riding the north rim of the Black Canyon rather than continuing on US 50. Running up through Crawford, Hotchkiss, and Delta would only add about 5 miles to the ride, he said. I replied that that was absurd, that doing that route would add at least 40 miles. We were all fine with that route because the road on the north rim is great, but that threw off my calculation that I had plenty of gas. I would need to stop in Hotchkiss.
Headed toward Crawford John pulled in at a viewpoint, where you could see US 50 off to the south and a valley I took to be the route up to Silver Jack Reservoir over Owl Creek Pass and down to just north of Ridgway. The stop for a viewpoint was unusual in my experience of RMMRC rides but very welcome in my mind. One of my biggest complaints about RMMRC rides has been that we don’t do enough of that. John, being new, did not have that mind-set and that’s fine with me. I like at least semi-frequent stops.
I got gas in Hotchkiss and as everyone else took off I pushed my starter button and got nothing. Oh crap. Tried again and again nothing. Charley was there, as he was riding sweep, and we conferred. Then I checked my kill switch and that was it. How I hit that switch I don’t know but soon we were rolling. We never caught up with the others, though.
We made it to Delta and turned south to Montrose. Wondered at one point why everyone was going so slow in the right-hand lane while the left-hand lane was wide open, started pulling around, and saw the state patrol car leading the pack. OK. Got it. After he made a U-turn and flipped on his lights and took off in the other direction everyone on our side increased their speed about 15 mph.
We got to Montrose but really didn’t know where the motel was so Charley and I ran a bit of a wild goose chase around town but finally found the place. All in all a much more enjoyable ride than what it looked like it could be in the morning. Tomorrow: Gallup.
Biker Quote for Today
We only regret the rides we didn’t take.
Tags: RMMRC
