Passes & Canyons Blog

You may never find yourself anywhere close, but in case you do I want to tell you about a really sweet little off-the-beaten-path town and biker bar up at the far north end of the San Francisco Bay Area.

It’s Port Costa and we heard about it from a park ranger at John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez, California, just a short distance away.

The national historic site was the home of John Muir, good buddy of Teddy Roosevelt and acclaimed the father of the National Park Service. Seeing as how I work for the park service, this stop was one on our California vacation agenda. We had been in the city (San Francisco, that is) for a few days and then headed out to go to the wine country.

When we were ready to leave the park we were interested in finding some place nice but not overly expensive as knew any place around Napa would be. We were particularly interested in the area on the south shore of the strait and Suisun Bay, which separate the northern part of the Bay Area from Napa County.

“Take California 4 west to the very next exit and get off on McEwen Road to Port Costa,” one of the rangers told us. “It’s a really cool little town and they have a great biker bar there.”

Who could resist that?

So we did and you have never seen a narrower, twistier little road than this one. It led into this funky little town that was just a trip. At the end of the road was the strait. This place had once been a busy shipping area for locally grown wheat.

The downtown consists of six building. The Burlington Hotel, where we stayed, is one of those grand old hotels of days gone by, only this one is still not exactly restored to its old grandeur. But it was cool and funky and we liked it.

Across the street was . . . I don’t know what. That is, I don’t know what it was built as. A warehouse? Hard to say. But it now houses one of the most interesting bars and restaurants you’ll ever find. You’ve surely seen some of these chain restaurants that fill the place with all this collection of antiques and kitsch and whatever. They’re trying to be this place. This is the real thing.

And it’s a favorite of bikers. The parking lot was loaded with bikes the whole time we were there, and what a collection of bikes. There were old Nortons, modern Harleys, ancient stripped down cruisers, not to mention some old Hondas and old Triumphs and you name it. In fact, it was surprising how many of these bikes were old.

And then there was the rest of the town. We walked down the main street and it seems everyone in town has done what they could to make their house and yard as original, as totally different, as imaginable. And there are chickens walking around, numerous motorcycles in various stages of repair, orange trees full of fruit–an incredible mish-mash.

So I’m telling you, if you ever find yourself out in the area, go there. This is a hidden gem. Heck, the park ranger who told us about it said he had lived in the area his whole life and he only found out about this place a couple months ago.

But I will warn you: nothing is cheap there. Beer is beer but the restaurant serves lobster, steak, prime rib–the whole shebang, and you’ll pay. Likewise, the hotel may still be shabby but it ain’t cheap, either. But it’s such a cool place.

Biker Quote for Today

We are here to show those guys that are inching their way on the freeways in their metal coffins that the human spirit is still alive.

I don’t list motorcycle events outside of Colorado on my Colorado Motorcycle Rides, Runs, and Rallies page but I do go outside the state here on the blog. So I’m taking this moment to alert any adventure riders out there to something going on in Utah that you might find interesting.

The Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders group is exactly what the name implies, a group of folks who like to get off the smooth stuff onto where riding is more of a challenge. And on April 16-19 of next year they are planning a Moab Rendezvous. Organized in partnership with the Moab-based organization Ride With Respect, the event seeks to raise money for that group in order to help in their struggle to keep trails open to off-road riders.

This is from the Ride With Respect website:

Ride with Respect aims to protect natural resources while accommodating diverse recreation on public land. We reach this goal through trail/restoration projects and educational programs. In combination, these initiatives work to concentrate vehicle travel to established roads and trails.

Off-trail travel most often results from confusion. Ride with Respect delineates appropriate routes through positive and negative trail marking. We improve trail conditions to minimize their deterioration and consequent widening. By documenting the effects of our trail work, we further general knowledge of techniques that ensure recreation is a renewable resource.

Off-trail travel is also caused by ignorance. We foster conscientious use by educating through interpretive signs and personal contacts. By offering certified rider-training classes, we instill environmental ethic and safety consciousness in children.

The founders of Ride with Respect are based in Moab, Utah. They have diverse backgrounds, with motorcycling as a common thread. They represent the interests of all recreationists.

Here’s what the RMA Riders site has to say about the event:

If extreme riding is your flavor, then the Moab Rendezvous will appeal to you. This ride will test your skills and your mental toughness out in the lonely landscape of the Moab, UT area. Yes, riding friends, we are putting on the first Rendezvous to be held in the most logical and friendly to OHV environments known to our community.

No matter the skill level there will be rides lead for all on various size Dual Sport and Adventure bikes.

Their will be lead rides of local trails. In fact we will be encouraging you to participate in the rides. We also encourage you to bring out your small bike and your large bike to enjoy both the single track trails like Slick Rock or the bigger big friendly trails like the White Rim Trail. We are proud to announce that we will be working with ‘Ride With Respect’ to raise them much needed money to keep these trails open to all.

And here’s more from RMA Riders:

Our sport is at risk!!!

Did you know that most of the treasured riding areas in Colorado are under constant attack? On an annual basis, we face losing access to ride on our public lands, both Forest Service and BLM. We need your support and partnership to continue the fight and defend our rights!!!

Rocky Mountain Adventure Riders is a Colorado-based non-profit American Motorcycle Association Group with a mission to positively impact and influence the lives of those that ride with us, respecting each other and supporting one another. Additionally, RMAR supports fund-raisers for state and/or local trail riding clubs or Associations/Coalitions/Alliances that champion our sport and/or fight legislatively/politically for public land access for motorcycling.

Sounds to me like a good event and a heck of a lot of fun to boot. I may just have to consider going on this myself. Of course, getting over to Utah on the V-Strom in April could be the real challenge. We’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

Scientists call it C9 H13 NO3. You call it adrenalin. I call it my dirt bike.

Can you believe it’s November? This is the point where it often gets hard to squeeze in a ride. It seemed for a long time as though it snowed every year on Halloween, but not this year and not the last couple years. And once you got that cold blast in late October, winter would really set in in November.

Knowing how this has worked so often in the past, and also that the forecast for Monday said snow was possible, I figured Saturday was my golden opportunity. Although a bit overcast, it was warm and very pleasant–a good day to ride. And as anyone who knows me is aware, I make it a point to ride each of my bikes every single month, and if I didn’t take advantage of such a nice day in November, and things then turned ugly, I would be kicking myself.

First I climbed on the V-Strom. Another thing that happens every month is that it is time to pick up wine. For a wedding gift all these years ago someone gave us a membership in the Wine of the Month Club at the Vineyard, a nice little wine store in Cherry Creek. We have kept renewing ever since and it makes the Vineyard a natural destination. I’m sure I show up there on one of the bikes at least six months out of every year. I did it again on Saturday.

That trip took me to the north and a bit west. Getting on the Concours next I turned southeast. I like to ride across the top of Cherry Creek Dam because the view up there is so nice. I cruised on out on Parker Road as far as Arapahoe Road and then went west, then north on Peoria because I wanted to come up alongside Cherry Creek State Park on the south. I was hoping to get a good photo of fall coloration and the result–not as good as I hoped–can be seen above.

Home again, and then it was time for the CB750. I headed south this time, thinking southwest but not sure where.

Going south on DTC Boulevard I came to Orchard. Unlike Belleview and Arapahoe, the major streets to the north and south, Orchard does not go through from I-25 to points west, even though it is a major street east of I-25. I’ve known this for a long time and so I’ve avoided that stretch of Orchard for many, many years. So many, in fact, that I had forgotten where exactly Orchard does go, and why it is impassable. What better time than when you’re just out cruising and exploring to find out. I went west on Orchard.

At first it fooled me because it was at least a straight, through street, although it did narrow down to two lanes west of Holly. But it was a pleasant ride through Greenwood Village, one of the ritzier enclaves for the folks with more money than the rest of us. It was the kind of place that made me think, “Gosh, this could be a nice place to live if I had about eight times as much money as I do have.”

Then it started twisting. I don’t mean that in terms of “the twisties” that motorcyclists love. I mean that in terms of Orchard coming to an end and forcing a turn north on South Jackson and then west again on Long Road, followed by a T-intersection where going right said “No exit” so it had to be a left. Now I was totally on residential streets and shortly I was back on Orchard again, where it again looked like a major street. I know, though, that if I had turned east there on Orchard it would have very quickly dissolved into residential streets again. So now I remember why you don’t ever take Orchard when you want to get through that area. They don’t want you to, so they made it as impractical as they possibly could. You get to do that when you’re designing residential neighborhoods for the upper crust.

So I headed west on Orchard the short distance to University and then north on University to Belleview, east on Belleview, and on home. Not a particularly long ride but an interesting, enjoyable one nonetheless, and all three bikes had been ridden in November. OK, bring it on Mom Nature–I plan to ride more in November but even if you make it impossible for me I’ve already got you beat this month. December will be a whole other issue. (But you just wait; I’ll beat you then, too. I always do.)

Biker Quote for Today

Ever get lost? You know, that good kind of lost — come to a dirt road intersection and you have no idea where you are or which way to turn? I like when that happens!

Is there anything sweeter as a motorcyclist than getting turned on to a really nice new road? Friggs did me that favor this past weekend.

Friggs has a brand new Harley Road King and he understandably has an urge to get out and ride it. He called and asked if I was interested in a ride and of course I said yes.

I thought the plan was to head up Deer Creek Canyon, on over to Conifer and to Evergreen and somewhere from there. However, we headed up Deer Creek Canyon and about half way up we made a left turn. This was–apparently–Deer Creek Road, although it curves around and later becomes Pleasant Park Road. So call it what you will.

We cruised along up this canyon–or gulch, or whatever you want to call it, a drainage–and it showed once again what someone who flies a plane told me once: There are people living all over up in the hills. It doesn’t matter where you go, there are a lot of houses up there.

As you might expect, at one point we left the canyon floor and started climbing the wall. Switchbacks, of course, steep slopes, and no, nobody living along this stretch of the road. And then we were getting up high and the view was getting pretty nice. What a sweet road.

We finally did get up on top, though I’m not sure what we were on top of. A ridge? A hill? A plateau? All I knew was that now the road straightened out and leveled off.

Not for long, though. We soon started down and the road got curvy again. At this point I was assuming we were going to hit U.S. 285 at some point, but where? I didn’t care, I was just enjoying the ride, but I had to be curious.

On and on we went and then there we were. We came out at the old former Safeway store up in the Conifer area. This was that road you see when you’re going toward Bailey on U.S. 285 that goes left from that little shopping center, and that maybe you’ve thought at times about following. Now I know.

So the rest of the ride was pretty nice, too. I mean, it’s Indian summer in Colorado so the weather was gorgeous. How could it not be a good ride? We headed over to Evergreen, on to Bergen Park, took County Road 65 to hit I-70 just east of Floyd Hill, and then east on the interstate. Not for long, though. We got off at Genesee and ran over to the top of Lookout Mountain.

This is where things sometimes got dicey. Everybody on two wheels was out this day and that means there were a lot of bicyclists. That had been true on Pleasant Park Road, too, but there wasn’t much other traffic. Here there was a lot of everything. On more than one occasion I moved to the center to pass someone on a bicycle only to find that a car coming the other way was straddling the center line to pass a bicyclist going the other way. Time to get a little close to the bicycle.

You just had to pay attention, though, and all was fine. The view coming down Lookout Mountain was typically spectacular and then we were in Golden. Friggs headed north, I headed south, and that was it for a sweet late season ride in the hills.

Biker Quote for Today

Go that way really fast and if something gets in your way, turn.

I wouldn’t have missed my ABATE District 10 meeting Sunday for anything. Theoretically Rocky, our newly drafted district rep, was to inform the membership of the issue that led to the firing of Terry Howard as state coordinator and read a prepared statement from the board.

Before the meeting got started there was no discussion of the issue, which led me to wonder if a lot of these folks had no idea or if perhaps everyone knew a lot more than I knew and for them there was nothing to discuss. Then I heard a little veiled, discrete mention so I suspected it was the latter.

We got to this topic in the agenda and again there was almost nothing said and no one asked any questions. This was too much for me. I said that if I hadn’t received a tip that something was going on and if I hadn’t pursued that to where I received a copy of the board’s statement, I would have been sitting there asking “What the hell are you people talking about??!!” And I got some questions answered. Here’s what I’ve learned.

As we already knew, Terry was removed because the board concluded that she had not fulfilled her fiduciary responsibility to the organization. Apparently there were some expenses that were paid for more than once. I have no idea if there was anything more than that. And something of that sort could easily happen by accident–heck, I’ve paid the same bill twice myself once or twice. So the board is wise to phrase it the way they did. You can be bad at managing money without being a criminal.

I asked if there was a criminal investigation underway. The internal investigation is continuing, we were told, and in compliance with the law regarding a 401(c)3 organization, a report has been made to the state and to the City and County of Denver. What happens next may depend a lot on the response from them. That response is not expected for a couple weeks.

So that’s not a lot but it’s something. It’s more than I knew before. And I really did feel like everyone else in that room knew way more than I did, but most of them are officers or state staff members or whatever–insiders–and I’m just a member, nothing else.

Oh, and as for Rocky reading the board statement, up to that point he still had not seen it himself. More than one person suggested strongly that this whole business be made known to all ABATE of Colorado members immediately. This sort of delay is unconscionable.

Biker Quote for Today

The good news is that heaven has a motocross track. The bad news is you’re racing next Tuesday.

John is our trip planner and I’m hoping he’s in full gear at this point. I know that each year soon after the OFMC trip he’s already busy thinking about next year’s trip.

This next year could be quite a year. Many of the guys I ride with are already retired so there’s really no reason not to go on more than one trip each summer. And by next summer I’m going to be done with this National Park Service job and will go back to being just a freelance writer. That means I’m going to have a lot more time again.

So I was interested to get an email from John saying this: “I am putting together several options for next years ride including 3 day, 8 day, and 12 day rides…maybe we should do all of these…to places like Oak Creek, Encampment, and Grand Lake; Red River, LaJunta, and Cuchara; Ely, Jackpot, and Pocatella: Kalispell, Banff, and Jasper. Also thinking about going for a ride with Dennis and Friggs down South. It’s my way of dreaming (my bucket list overfloweth)…”

What was my reply? “Let’s do them all!”

So John’s mentioning bucket lists. What would be on mine? (Presuming I had one, which I don’t.)

Let’s see what I can come up with.

Take an overseas tour. Yeah, OK, so this one is a bit pricey. I know companies such as Edelweiss Bike Travel offer some fabulous trips just about anywhere you want to go, and a lot of other companies do as well. Some European trip would suit me just fine. The basic price would be at least $2,500 per person (Judy would not be happy if I went alone) and that would not include airfare and other expenses. Oh well, you can’t take it with you so let’s spend the kids’ inheritance.

And that’s about as far as I get. I consulted an article listing biker bucket list items but here’s what they were:

1. Take a motorcycle trip of more than 2,000 miles. I’ve done that plenty of times.
2. Attend a major motorcycle rally. Done that plenty of times.
3. Ride these amazing roads. There were five listed and I’ve done three, leaving the Tail of the Dragon and the Blue Ridge Parkway. I’m not that interested in the Dragon but I do intend to ride the Blue Ridge. But I’m not sure that’s on my bucket list.
4. Take a trip abroad. Right, I talked about that.
5. Do a track day. I did that several years ago. Wouldn’t hurt to do it again.
6. Ride a dirt bike. Yeah, that’s why I bought the V-Strom.
7. Put more miles on your bike in a year than on your car. In 2011 I put 10,000 miles on my Concours and less than 6,000 miles on my car. In 2012 it was 7,000 and 3,500. Check.
8. Put at least 200,000 miles on your bike. OK, this one I like. But with three bikes it makes it harder. So far on the three bikes I own I’ve got a total around 140,000. I’m sure that figure will exceed 200,000 in the next few years. But that is a worthy goal.
9. First and foremost, get a motorcycle and learn to ride it. Well, check, obviously. But for so many people this ought to be first and foremost on their bucket lists. None of the rest of this happens without it.

Now I see why I don’t have a bucket list. I love living life rather than dreaming about it.

Biker Quote for Today

Motocross is like football — but without a bunch of guys showering together when it’s done.

Sad. That’s the word that, for me at least, sums up this bit of business.

I got a tip the other day that something was going on at ABATE of Colorado, that Terry Howard, the state coordinator, had been removed under very unpleasant circumstances. I immediately started trying to find out what the situation was.

Not surprisingly, the state organization is being pretty close-mouthed but they did prepare an official statement. Here is that statement.

In September, 2014, the ABATE of Colorado Board of Directors was made aware of discrepancies in one of ABATE’s bank accounts. At the September BOD meeting, in keeping with the fiduciary duties of the Board of Directors to the membership and the organization as a whole, a committee was formed to investigate these issues.

Although the investigation is far from being completed, by the end of two weeks, the committee had found enough evidence to support the allegations of Breach of Fiduciary Duties the State Coordinator. An emergency meeting of the Board of Directors was called for Saturday, October 4, 2014, at which time the decision was made to terminate the employment of [then] State Coordinator, Terry Howard.

The future of ABATE, and where we go from here, will be formally discussed further at the November (and future) board meeting(s). Don Enninga, assistant State Coordinator, will be acting as State Coordinator while we transition.

One plan at this time is that ABATE will be going back to a volunteer State Coordinator position. Interested parties should submit a Letter of Intent to the Board of Directors.

Please be assured, the Board of Directors and the ABATE office staff are working diligently to prevent future issues and will be keeping you, the membership, updated.

At this point that is all I know. Obviously, I’ll try to learn more and will report on what I find.

But again, the whole thing, to me, is very sad. I’ve known Terry for a number of years now and I like her and I’ve always thought she was doing a heck of a job as state coordinator. Regardless of what the facts of this matter are, ABATE will no longer have her there doing this job.

Let me give you an example of her efforts.

A number of years ago I unknowingly set some wheels in motion. I was doing a lot of work at that time as the National Motorcycle Examiner for Examiner.com. I was (and am) an ABATE member and I got to wondering why it was that the sportbiking crowd and the various state ABATEs were generally unfriendly with each other. So I posted on some sportbike forums asking opinions of ABATE and the reasons.

Boy did I get a response.

It turned out that the sportbikers, who for the most part are ATGATT folks, dislike ABATE because they saw these groups as being anti-helmet. Perhaps some state groups are but in my experience they are more anti-helmet law, which is to say, they prefer to have government stay out of it and let the rider decide. I know ABATE of Colorado strongly encourages wearing helmets, but is against having a law requiring them. That’s my own personal opinion as well.

But in the course of all the discussion there was a comment from someone in the Colorado Sportbike Club who said his group was not down on ABATE the way so many groups in other states are.

Terry Howard was reading these articles and the discussion they were generating and when she saw that statement she immediately contacted that person and when the dust had all settled ABATE of Colorado and the CSC had formed an alliance and the two groups have been working together on issues of concern to all bikers ever since. I may have set the stage but Terry was the one who made that happen. Colorado may be the only state in the country where these two groups are united. And I hope this relationship weathers this storm. I don’t see why it shouldn’t but you never know.

So yes, I think it’s incredibly sad. I don’t know what Terry has or has not done and I don’t even know what she is accused of having done. But I do know that ABATE is a loser in all this. There are no winners. It’s just sad.

Biker Quote for Today

If people focused on the important things in life, there’d be a shortage of dirt bikes.

I ran out of gas on my way to work the other morning. I don’t know about you but that just seems to happen to me periodically. With no gas gauge on the CB750, just reserve, you never really know how low you are.

It wasn’t the first time.

This time around I had been riding in the hills the day before with the guys and switched over to reserve. I have a fair idea how far I can go once I switch to reserve and I calculated that I could get home and then get over to where I like to gas up on my way to work the next morning. I was heading west on Hampden just west of University when I learned that that estimate was wrong. I came sputtering to a stop at Gilpin. Don’t you just hate when that happens?

I was fortunate in this case. I rolled the bike a long block or so to where Old Hampden diverges from the main road and from there I just coasted down to the station I knew was nearby. I probably only lost 10, maybe 15 minutes in the whole thing and wasn’t even late to work.

But how many other times have I done something like this? I make fun of some of my friends because they freak out about gas when they’re just getting close to going to reserve. They never actually go to reserve if they can help it. I figure that’s what reserve is for; you hit the point where you need to flip that lever and then you start looking around for a station.

Sometimes I misjudge.

I think the first time I ran out of gas on a bike–it was the CB; that’s the first bike I ever owned and which I still own–I was out running around with a young lady I had designs on and apparently I had forgotten to flip back off reserve when I had filled up last. So I was expecting to need to go to reserve but then when the bike finally started sputtering I found the lever in the wrong position and the tank completely dry. We had a good walk that day. Nothing ever developed in that relationship.

There was another time when I was on the Concours with my wife and we had been out riding with a bunch of folks. Everyone parted ways down in Colorado Springs and we headed back to Denver on CO 83. Everyone else had gotten gas back in Florence but I didn’t fill up because the Kawi holds 7.5 gallons and I knew (I just knew!) I had enough to get home. Oops.

We were just a couple miles south of Franktown when we coasted to a stop in front of a farm house. It took some knocking but someone finally answered the door and they said yes, they did have some gas. We would need to push the bike all the way around the back of the house, up a bit of a hill, to where they had a tank. Shucks, I figured if we could just put a pint in an old coffee can that would be fine to get on to Franktown, but I didn’t want to argue–they didn’t seem exuberantly happy to be bothered by us. So we did, and paid them for a gallon and were on our way.

Another time Judy and I were on the Honda and I don’t remember how it was that we ran out but we did. We were somewhere up in Westminster or Commerce City and just came to a stop by the side of the road. Very quickly a guy in a car stopped and offered to help. He said he would take me to get gas. I got in and off we went and he explained that he was sort of a freelance roadway assistance program and he would sure appreciate anything I could give him for his help. Considering the situation I was glad to give him $20. He was glad to receive it.

Are those the only times? I don’t know; those are the only ones I can remember. Maybe my buddies aren’t so silly freaking out over getting near reserve. Maybe I should be a little more like them. Not a lot, mind you, but a little. I’ll bet it’s a long time before I run out again, though. It takes a while for memory to fade.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. — Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance