Passes & Canyons Blog

I’ll interrupt the telling of this New Mexico trip story because life goes on and doesn’t wait for all the old stories to be told before new ones occur. In other words, we (the RMMRC) did another day ride on Saturday and rode what was for me, and I suspect for most of the folks, a new road. Have you ever heard of Grapevine Road? I hadn’t.

We started out from the Phillips 66 station in Morrison to head up to Wondervu for breakfast. I figured we’d go up CO 93 to CO 72 and head up Coal Creek Canyon. Nope.

Gray took the lead and I thought as he headed into Morrison that we would take the back way over past Red Rocks but no, he kept going. We got up to Idledale and very much to my surprise he braked and signaled a right turn. A very, very sharp right turn, about 45 degrees sharp, up onto a gravel road. Oh my gosh. Two things: first, I was really glad if we were getting on gravel that I was on my Honda CB750 rather than my Kawasaki Concours, and second, I had no idea this road was even there. This was Grapevine Road.

The road was not really gravel per se; it really seemed like a road that had been paved 20 years ago and not touched since. It wasn’t loose gravel, although there was plenty of loose gravel on the surface, but it had a firm base and was not rutted. And it was twisty as hell.

The road wound up through an area that was full of houses where you would have no idea there were houses at all. I’ve heard that you never really comprehend how full the hills are of homes until you fly in a small aircraft low over them. Then it blows you away. The hills are alive with people!

Make no mistake, this is a slow road. There are plenty of turns marked for 10 and 15 mph, and with the loose gravel you really don’t want to go much faster than that. And it’s really, really pretty. As in, what a nice place to have a home. As long as you don’t need to get somewhere in a hurry.

So we wandered up and down and around hills, saw a bunch of deer bounding down the slope, and I wondered just where in the heck we were going to come out. Eventually we reached pavement and before long that question was answered as we came out to I-70 and US 40 at the Lookout Mountain exit. OK.

We turned left to follow US 40 up to the top of Floyd Hill and then down into Clear Creek Canyon and US 6 but at the bottom, rather than turning right down the canyon we went left and jumped on I-70 just long enough to get to the next exit, for Central City Parkway. Now I see how we’re going.

Central City Parkway was more interesting than usual in that there is some roadwork apparently intended to address the recurring issue they have up there of the downhill side of the road wanting to slough off. In one place they had cut away an entire hillside on the uphill side and seemed to be pushing it over to fill in the downhill side. I mean, the cut in the hill was enormous, about the size of what they’ve done in Central City and Black Hawk when they’ve wanted to build a huge casino hotel where there was previously a hill. Kind of amazing.

We reached Central City, rode down to Black Hawk, got on the Peak-to-Peak and headed north to where it hit the road down Coal Creek Canyon. All this while it was intermittently dripping rain, enough to put droplets on my visor but never enough to make you want to stop and put on a rainsuit. I was keeping my fingers crossed we could get to Wondervu without having to do that. Meanwhile, I was darn cold and wishing I had worn at least my riding pants because they’re warmer than my jeans and they’re waterproof. Thank goodness I had my electric vest.

We did get to Wondervu without a downpour and went in the Wondervu Cafe for breakfast–at this point a late breakfast. And then breakfast got much later. As is true of so many places these days, they were understaffed. Not only that, at least some of the staff they have were not very good at their jobs. Rather than go on at length with the details, let me simply say that we finally ate breakfast well into lunch time and for many of us, when our food was served it was stone cold. And several of us were done eating long before others even got their food. I won’t be eating at the Wondervu Cafe again any time soon.

Suiting up to leave, the sun had come out. And it was warmer. Yay. And we were all on our bikes and ready to go but Roy had not even come out of the restaurant. Gray may have known something about Roy’s delay and seemed to be waving us to go on and take off but no one did and we just sat there. For quite a while. Finally, I had had it with waiting and I just took off. I like riding alone anyway, so I was perfectly fine with leaving the rest behind. All the way home I dodged the rain clouds never did get wet. In other words, a good day for a ride.

Biker Quote for Today

No matter how bad your day is your bike will make you feel better.

Not sure if you can make out the haze but those hills out to be a lot clearer.

Where is that rain when you need it? Last week I was complaining about the rain going on and on and now I was getting really tired of all the smoke filling the air from those forest fires in Canada. At least if we had the rain it would wash that smoke out of the air. Then it occurred to me that that may have been exactly what was happening last week. Without that rain we may have been living in and breathing that smoke as we are now.

Anyway, I decided it was time to take my first ride of the year up in the hills. Certainly all the ice and snow are gone, though there could certainly be sand and gravel to contend with. Also, maybe if I got up higher I could get above the smoke. Let’s give it a shot.

I headed up Bear Creek from Morrison and took Kerr Gulch from Kittredge over to pick up Evergreen Parkway near I-70. Then I picked up US 40 running alongside the slab, up Floyd Hill and down to US 6 coming up out of Clear Creek Canyon. Just FYI, there’s a good bit of construction going on on US 40 along here.

Up on Floyd Hill I was definitely not above the smoke.

I took US 6 down to where it branches off from the Peak-to-Peak Highway and made the turn toward Black Hawk. Now I was climbing and somewhat to my surprise it started getting darn chilly. I had not put on all the layers I had with me because it was so warm but now when I got to Black Hawk I stopped and did put on my vest. I’m guessing the smoke is blocking the warmth of the sun from getting down to the ground.

Up and further up till I reached my highest point, where CO46 meets the Peak-to-Peak coming out of Golden Gate Canyon. At this point I could see through the smoke enough to see that above it all it was a clear, sunny day but you might need to be up on top of Mount Evans to really experience it. And then I plunged back down into the haze.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when the wind in your hair and face makes you happier than a paycheck.

Now there’s something we hadn’t seen in days: blue sky and sunshine.

In Colorado we simply don’t have five days in a row of area-wide rain. Sure, it rains in different spots every day in the summer, while just a couple miles away the sun is shining. But never over the whole region for five days in a row.

So I was getting a little antsy to go ride because we had just had . . . here it comes . . . five days of area-wide rain in a row. It was killing me. On Monday the guys got together for breakfast and both Dennis and I mentioned that we had intended to ride there but the rain said no. Dennis is a snowbird, just back from Georgia a few days ago, and it had rained the whole time since he had been back. What’s with this?

Finally, in the late afternoon, I looked at the sky and it didn’t look good. But it didn’t look all that bad right at that moment. Yeah it’s going to rain again, but maybe not for an hour or two. I’m going riding. And to heck with getting wet, I’ll take my rain gear and if it rains I’ll gear up. I’m going riding!!

Well, my timing was perfect. I had only gone about two miles and suddenly there it was, something I hadn’t seen in days–blue skies and the sun! Holy smokes!

I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go so I just headed south. I turned east when I hit Lincoln Avenue and continued east across I-25 toward Parker. I had been on Lincoln Avenue in the area behind me plenty recently but it had been a long time since I had been on this part of the road.

And whoops, they did it again. I was cruising along and all of a sudden there’s this huge housing development on the south side of the road that just wasn’t there the last time I came along here. It looked like at least 300 large homes. And they were all made out of ticky-tacky and they all looked just the same.

I headed on but a little shy of downtown Parker I turned north on Jordan Road. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t even five years ago that Jordan Road was two lanes but now it’s four and there was a whole lot of new development along it that I had never seen before. This stuff is just crazy.

I worked my way on back home and by the time I got there it was getting seriously cloudy again. As I said, perfect timing.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your tattoos wash off.

John and Bill on their Honda Shadows (years later).

It’s a whole lot easier these days to get a good handle on the places you intend to head to and the roads you’ll be on getting there than it was in the early days of the OFMC. Getting onto some dicey roads on a brand new bike is a good way to get your first scratches right away. This is a lesson John learned one year.

When the OFMC first got going, John bought a used Yamaha Virago, I bought a used Honda CB750 Custom, and Bill bought a brand new Honda Shadow. After we’d been riding about five years John decided to upgrade and he bought a new Shadow almost exactly like Bill’s, except newer. These were the bikes we set out on in 1994.

We headed toward Kremmling, where John’s Mom was living, and stopped to pay her a visit. We left town continuing northwest on US 40. Just a little further up the road we turned off US 40 onto CO134 over Gore Pass to Toponas. Nice ride. First time I’d ever been over that road.

From Toponas CO131 heads back up to US 40 but John had looked at the map and was interested in Routt County 8, which goes over Ripple Creek Pass from Yampa to Meeker. He had scoped it out and figured out (or so he thought) that it was paved all except for about 10 miles of gravel. Were we willing to do that bit of gravel? Back in those days these guys were more adventurous and we said yes; later on they concluded they did not wish to do gravel at all. I’m still willing, except on my Concours but I’ve always been more adventurous than them.

John was wrong. This road was 40 miles of gravel, much of it washboard and much of it deep with sand. It was probably the hardest riding any of us has ever done. And John managed to put his brand new bike down for the very first time.

John was leading and I was right behind. At one point he decided to stop and take a break and pulled off to the side of the road. Unfortunately for him, right at this point the side of the road was deep sand. I braked cautiously as I saw him go down. Fortunately there were the two of to help him get that bike up.

Ripple Creek Pass, by the way, is a beautiful road if you want to do it in a car or on a bike that is equipped for that kind of thing. I highly recommend it.

But that business of so much serious washboard had another impact. I noticed later that day that a couple of the welds on the sissy bar on my Honda had vibrated so hard that they broke. My sissy bar, with most of my stuff strapped onto it, was dangling precariously. But we stopped in Vernal, Utah, that night and then went on to Salt Lake City the next day and spent a couple days there. While there I went to a welding shop and got it fixed. So not a big deal. But that’s how bad the washboard was.

Heading from Vernal to Salt Lake the next day Bill was in the lead as we came alongside Strawberry Reservoir, near Duchesne. He saw a dirt road running down to the water and decided he wanted to check it out. John followed and I was right behind John.

It turned out the road was deeply rutted from erosion. Bill had no problem but John got himself in a fix and was about to lose it. He called out to me, “Ken, come help me! Quick!” I wanted to help him but I was in the same rough ground he was in and before I could do anything to help him I had to find a place to stop and park my own bike. By the time I did that he was down, his brand new bike laying on the ground.

As I recall, Bill came back on foot and helped us get John’s bike back upright, and we then rode on down the rest of the way to the water. We hung out for awhile and then managed to get back up to the highway uneventfully.

Now fortunately, neither of these two spills did any real damage to the bike, just a few cosmetic scratches and such. But it was no longer the brand new bike he had started out on just the day before.

We got more cautious about the roads we took after that.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s not the falling off that hurts, it’s the landing.

Those are bison in the background, here at Daniels Park.

I headed out Tuesday morning on the V-Strom not knowing where to go–as usual. My inclination was to head down toward Daniels Park so I went west on Belleview and turned south on University. Along the way it occurred to me that I had not tried the V-Strom on gravel since I had new street tires put on it. I had had 80-20 street/dirt Shinko tires on before but they wore out ridiculously because I mostly ride on pavement, so I went to street tires. So great, I had a plan.

The problem came with approaching Daniels Park from this direction. Many years ago, before all that area was developed, you just headed south on University till, out in the middle of nothing, there was one gravel road branching off to the south. That was the road to Daniels Park. Nowadays I don’t think that road bed even exists. I think it got rerouted and moved around to accommodate the new houses and all. And the main thing is, there is not good signage to point you to the park from University (which becomes Lincoln Avenue along the line somewhere).

I had gone this route before and missed my turn, and another time I had spotted the sign–just barely. This time, if it is even still there, I missed it again. When I reached Quebec I knew I’d gone too far, but I also knew I could get to Castle Pines Parkway, run west about a tenth of a mile, and turn north through the park and hit that same patch of gravel from the other direction. And that way I could then follow the road back north and determine exactly where it meets University. And maybe remember this time.

That’s what I did. I have to say right here that it was only a semi-warm day. I had my electric vest on and that makes all the difference but by the time I got to the park I was up high and it was darn cold, and windy. My hands were getting numb. If not for that vest I would have been an ice cube.

I got to the park, got to the gravel, and had no issues whatsoever. This was not that much of a test because they use magnesium chloride on that road, which makes it almost paved, although they clearly had not put any on it recently. But the tires worked fine.

So I got back on the pavement continuing north. When it hits the pavement, Daniels Park Road becomes Grig’s Road. Grig’s Road hit McArthur Ranch Road and I knew I needed to go left, but I wasn’t sure what to do after that.

I hit Wildcat Reserve Parkway and crossed that and my road became Fairview Parkway. I took that a good ways and finally reached Highlands Ranch Parkway, turned right, and was back at University. So I turned right to try it again. At this point I was pretty sure the road I had wanted was Wildcat Reserve Parkway so as I approached it again I looked hard for a sign. I saw no sign at all. But I went ahead and turned south on Wildcat.

By now I had no idea what road I had been on when I crossed Wildcat Reserve a short while ago (McArthur Ranch Road) so I missed it and just followed Wildcat. And followed and followed and followed it. Highlands Ranch is really big. I wasn’t lost–I knew I could easily find my way to some place I knew, but I had no idea where this road was leading me. That’s OK, I like to explore.

After awhile it looked like I would be coming out on US 85, which was fine, but then Wildcat hit Highlands Ranch Parkway. Fine. I knew that road comes out on US 85, so I made that left.

Getting onto US 85, from there it was all familiar ground. I cruised past Sedalia, to the Daniels Park Road turn-off, went north to Castle Pines Parkway where I brought the two sides of this very squiggly figure-8 together, and from there made my way home.

It was a really nice ride, probably the best I’ve had yet this year. Yes it was cool but if you have the right gear you can do just about anything. And maybe next time I try to get to Daniels Park from University Boulevard I’ll be successful. Or not.

Biker Quote for Today

Straight roads never make skillful motorcycle riders.

There is a lot of riding going on this summer.

Covid is not gone but the world is moving on and we’ll just live with it. Which is to say, after two years of not a lot of motorcycle rallies or events going on, it’s all back now. I’ve been much busier recently updating and adding events to my Rides and Rallies page and I’m a little blown away by all the many events already announced. And we’re not even into the season yet.

Let’s just look at a few.

All the racing events are back on the calendar. You’ve got a series of vintage motocross races set. And of course the big one, Monster Energy 2023 Supercross. Plus, the Motorcycle Roadracing Association is planning a full series of events, too.

The annual Molly-Dharma Run is set for June 11. This event raises money for animal shelters and is always one of the most popular poker runs in the state.

One I haven’t seen before is the Southwest Quest – Women’s Moto Retreat. This event, in June, is a focus for women riders.

In July the Christian Motorcyclists Association is having its big gathering in Hotchkiss. And shortly after that the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado is having its annual Top O the Rockies Rally just down the road in Paonia.

In August the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally returns, and it’s a good one. Then there are a couple one-off things going on in September. The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum, in Colorado Springs, is having a 30-year anniversary celebration and that coincides with a Colorado stop-over by the Motorcycle Cannonball event, which runs from coast to coast on really old machines every two years.

Those are just some highlights. There will be plenty of poker runs and fundraisers planned by a wide range of organizations. Basically, any time you’re looking for something to do on your bike you’re likely to find something going on. So get out there and ride.

Biker Quote for Today

It does not matter how slow you ride as long as you do not stop.

That’s snow coming, those clouds off in the distance.

The first of the month was two days earlier, so that meant I had three motorcycles to ride. It was an overcast day but not particularly cold and the forecast was for much colder soon. I figured it was a day to ride; I chose the V-Strom.

I wasn’t going to be fooled this time; I wore my riding pants with the lining in plus long underwear. It didn’t take any time at all to find that this was definitely the right choice. I’m stupid sometimes but not all the time.

I had no idea where to go. I just got on DTC Boulevard and headed south. That road turns into Yosemite and I just kept going. At County Line Road I turned west. It occurred to me that it had been years since I’d gone more than a few blocks on County Line Road so what the heck, I’d just take it all the way to Santa Fe Drive.

It was a nice ride, not a lot of traffic at all. And all the way west I could see clouds bunching up over the foothills. That’s weather coming in. Maybe I could find a good spot to do a picture of the bike and the clouds. This is the kind of thing that drives a lot of my rides. I don’t have any clear destination but I decide I want a particular type of photograph and then I go somewhere that I can get that shot.

The temperature was dropping, but I had my electric vest keeping me warm so it was not at all unpleasant. Meanwhile, it was fun being out on the bike. None of us get in enough riding time at this time of year.

I blasted north on Santa Fe, to Belleview, then turned east to home. Ten minutes after I got home I looked out and it was snowing. OK, I guess that worked out pretty darn well. Now I have two more bikes that need to be ridden.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle shop is the only place riders like window shopping.

Don’t let a little slush deter you, the main roads are all clear and ready to be ridden.

February has given us some fine riding weather and I have kicked myself for not taking advantage of more of it. So on Monday I made it a point to get out and ride.

It was pretty cloudy so we didn’t have the benefit of the warmth from the sun but the temperature was in the 50s so how bad could it be? The only cold weather gear I wore was my electric vest. I never go anywhere at this time of year without that.

But I hadn’t gotten far at all when it became really obvious that it would have been really nice to at least have put on long underwear under my jeans. It was darn chilly! I could have turned back and layered up more but I don’t like doing that. Once I leave the house I’m gone. And then as it turned out, the sun came out and the sky was full of blue. Not bad at all.

A lot of times when I go for a ride I don’t have a destination–I just ride, following any impulse. But sometimes I have a destination–heck, sometimes I manufacture a destination, just to have a place to head for. This time I was headed to a couple places down just off South Broadway at about County Line Road. I wanted to go there but couldn’t justify driving all that way just to make these two stops. But I could totally justify it for a bike ride.

One was the Wilmore nursery (Wilmore Outdoor Living Center) where I wanted to buy seeds. It’s late February and that means planting will begin in my garden in the next month or so. I frequently buy seeds from mail-order places but looking in the Gurney’s catalog I was shocked to see that seed packets that used to sell for $3-$4 each are now listed for $8. Nope, I’ll go see what I can find at Wilmore. And that made the whole trip worthwhile because I paid between $2 and $3.50 apiece for seed packets there.

Next I wanted to go to the Goodwill over on the west side of Broadway. I had been in there a week earlier when I was in the area for a doctor’s appointment and had time to kill. At that time I noticed some absolutely beautiful champagne flutes, for $2 apiece. These things were gorgeous and I would bet that new, at some fancy shop, they had cost at least $40 apiece. But I knew we had more glassware than we would ever need already so I was tempted but did not buy them.

Then after I left I thought about it and it occurred to me that I could buy them and we could get rid of some of our less nice glassware. But antique stores and thrift stores are places where if you see something you like you must buy it right then because if you come back for it it will be gone. I knew this, which was another reason I couldn’t justify driving down there, but in this case it worked to stop by again. Of course the flutes were gone. Something that gorgeous and worth so very much more is not going to stick around for long. And they didn’t.

No matter, it was a really nice day to be out riding. Then as I was headed home, I was coming north on University and as I was coming through an intersection a westbound car made the turn north onto University and — Surprise!! — started moving into my lane–with me right there. The lady did see me in time and scooted back into her lane but then she saw the lane she was in made a right turn just ahead, and she didn’t want to turn right. So she started moving back into my lane, and by now I was even closer.

I wasn’t going to get myself hurt but I made up my mind not to just cede the lane to her, and I did not drop back. She finally accepted that she needed to yield to the vehicle already in the lane she wanted–what a concept!–and just let me get past before changing lanes.

So I got on home, and by then it had clouded up and the temperature was dropping again. My timing was perfect. And I had a nice February ride.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if when you buy your bike you start calling everyone “bro.”