Passes & Canyons Blog

Stopping on top of Wolf Creek Pass. Guess what? It was cold.

If there was one thing that became abundantly clear to me on this recent RMMRC Colorado Cruise was that if you are riding in the high country, summer is over.

I very foolishly wore my mesh jacket and I intended to find the liner but forgot it, and that was quite a mistake. Every time we got up high–which was frequently–I was cold because that cold air just cut through that mesh. That’s what they’re for, to give you nice ventilation on hot days. But these were not hot days. So why was I wearing mesh? Idiot.

I did finally think to use my rain jacket as a wind breaker and should have done so a lot sooner. Sometimes your brain works better than other times.

At the same time, it’s not cold yet down here on the prairie. Shortly after getting home I took the Honda out for a ride and, having gotten plenty chilled again and again on the last trip, I pulled on leather AND a sweatshirt, and for good measure, my winter gloves. Out I went and gosh, who coulda thunk it, I was way too hot. I mean, heck, it was all of 80 degrees or more. But my brain was still back on top of Cottonwood Pass and Red Mountain Pass and you know, you can never be too cautious.

Yes you can.

So here’s a little simple, very obvious advice. At this time of year, if you’re going up high, dress for cold. If you’re staying down low, and the temperature is above 75, expect warmth. How difficult is that? I don’t know, apparently for some of us (me) it’s not as simple as you might think. Maybe some day I’ll figure it out.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: The rashes you get from motorcycles go away without those painful penicillin shots.

Cruising past Yellowstone Lake.

This year’s OFMC trip was a surprising one in terms of the temperature. The whole week before leaving Denver we had had temps near 100 and so it was on the day we departed. We really wanted to get moving so we could at least have some breeze.

This is Colorado, however, and when you get up high the temperature drops. So as we had taken off dressed for heat, crossing Berthoud Pass was, shall we say, chilly. This set the stage for a week of see-saw temperatures.

By the time we got down to Winter Park it was hot again and that heat stayed with us up to Walden and then to Saratoga, Wyoming. In fact it was so hot in Saratoga that we parked next to a small office building where there was shade on the east side. There was nowhere to sit or anything but we wanted to get off the bikes and we absolutely wanted shade, so we took what we could get. Then we cruised on into Rawlins for the night.

The next day we were going to be crossing the heart of Wyoming, which we know from experience tends to be a long, hot, dusty ride. Again, we dressed for the heat. We had gone about 40 miles when I pulled over. I was cold! The day had started out cool and it was not getting a bit warmer. Bill and Dennis were happy to layer up, too.

We took off again but then reached a rest area and while we were stopped there we added another layer. It was still darn chilly! This was totally unexpected.

Our destination that day was Cody and when we reached Riverton we made another stop. Now it was definitely heating up and layers came off. Then, as we neared Cody, the heat really set in. Where was this heat this morning?

Come morning and this time we were warned. Dennis noticed some riders coming in from the west, from Yellowstone, where we were headed, and they were warmly dressed. So we dressed warmly and were glad we did. It was sure nice to be getting away from that 100 degree heat in Denver, which we could see was still going on.

We got through Yellowstone, spent the night at Chico, Montana, and headed up to Livingston to catch I-90 toward Missoula. Then we got rerouted toward Idaho Springs by Dennis’s by now legendary mistake of putting red diesel into his bike’s tank. We ended up heading south on I-15 and it was a pleasant day. Getting used to the cooler temps I had even put on my electric vest before he headed south with the Indian in the U-Haul, though I certainly did not have it turned on.

That changed when we reached the state line between Montana and Idaho. Just like going through a door into another climate, suddenly it got really cold and I flipped the “On” switch on my power cord. Boy, did that heat feel good!

And then about five miles outside of Idaho Falls it suddenly got blazing hot! Of course I turned the vest off but I couldn’t wait to get stopped to tear off my extra layers. How was it so cold just 50 miles ago? It’s not like we came down out of the mountains or anything.

For the rest of the trip the temperature fluctuations calmed down a bit. As expected it was hot in Vernal, Utah. As expected, it was comfortable through most of Colorado, only getting hot again as we neared Denver.

But the thing that really got me was how we headed out initially expecting hot weather and how little of that we encountered, yet all the while Denver was baking. Meanwhile, those folks in cars are pretty much oblivious to all this. I’ll take the bike any day.

Biker Quote for Today

The cheapest part of a project bike build is the initial purchase.