Cold In Them Thar Hills
Stopped at a more open space coming down Coal Creek Canyon.
I took another potentially “last ride in the hills for 2017” yesterday. The weather was so nice, and I knew the roads were clear, so what else could I do?
While it was very warm in the city, as soon as I turned up Clear Creek Canyon, with the deep shade cast by the steep canyon walls, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. That’s OK, I had my electric vest on and had finally found my misplaced winter gloves, the ones with a Thinsulate lining. I was cool but not uncomfortable.
Cruising up the canyon, however, it soon also got quite windy. When the wind comes howling down a canyon it can really turn into a blow but this was moderate, though gusty. At one point I passed a guy on a Harley heading down the canyon and I was convinced it was Bill. Bill lives right off CO 93 and runs up to Black Hawk to gamble frequently and this guy was dressed like Bill dresses, had the same open-face helmet, and even looked for all the world like Bill. We waved.
Reaching Black Hawk I stopped for a belated lunch and texted Bill. No, he and his wife were busy planting tulip bulbs they had just brought back with them from a trip to Holland.
With a free lunch in my belly and a little extra pocket money, courtesy of the Lodge Casino–thank you very much–I got back on the bike. And I noticed immediately that the temperature had dropped while I was inside. Plus, I was going to be climbing for a while. Thank goodness for the electric vest.
Getting further up on the Peak-to-Peak I was as last in the sunshine, though the wind was whipping. Initially I had considered going all the way to Nederland and the Boulder Canyon road but had long ago ruled that out. And at the higher elevation it was colder and I was now reconsidering my plan to cruise over to the Coal Creek Canyon road to head down. But I’ve been up and down the Golden Gate Canyon road so often lately that I really, really wanted to do a different route. So I blew on past the Golden Gate turn-off when I got to it.
It seems I wasn’t the only motorcyclist who had the idea that this was a day for the hills. This was mid-day on Wednesday but there were still a good many bikers up there.
And it got colder. By the time I reached the turn-off for Coal Creek Canyon my fingertips were getting numb. Thank goodness for the electric vest! And now I could start losing elevation, although I still had to climb up to Wondervu. Would that road be icy? There was melted snow running across the road in numerous places along the Peak-to-Peak and sooner or later that snowmelt would definitely be turning to ice.
But the road was OK and I got over the hump at Wondervu and headed down. And it was really nice to be going down Coal Creek for a change. And despite the cold it was, still, a great day to be out riding.
So I came down to CO 93 and turned south. Of course, this road between Boulder and Golden is notorious for high winds and on this day it lived up to its reputation. I rode close to the right side of the road to give myself all the room possible whenever the gusts would try to push me into the northbound lane. I came through the west side of Golden and past the Taj Mahal then turned south to get on C-470.
It was when I had just crossed over I-70 and the southbound lanes were converging that the most powerful gust of the day blasted me relentlessly across my lane and into the lane on my left. Fight it though I might, resistance was futile and I had only a split second to check my mirror to see that while the car behind me to my left was close, there was room for me in front of him. If he’d been 10 feet closer it would have been hairy.
And oh yeah, it was right after this that it occurred to me that my fingers were no longer cold.
The rest of the ride home was uneventful. Chalk up one more ride in the hills for 2017. Will this one be the last? We’ll see. I’ve got all winter to ride the prairie.
Biker Quote for Today
If you don’t like motorcycles then you probably won’t like me, and I’m OK with that.
Tags: Coal Creek Canyon
