Passes & Canyons Blog

For nine years now I have operated this blog single-handedly, with the stray guest contributor along the way. Today I’m announcing something new and very different.

Matt Wessels is, among other things, a blogger and like me he is a journalism school graduate. And he rides. Boy, does he ride. We’ll get to that in a moment. The point right now is that Matt can write. That’s important to me and I would hope it is important to you. I do this kind of work professionally so it is important to me that the writing is clear, intelligent, interesting, and not chock full of misspellings, punctuation errors, and all that. I’m expecting Matt to bring that kind of writing that you and I, too, will want to read.

Now, here’s a bit about him. I asked some basic questions: What kind of bike do you ride? What kind of riding do you do? How long have you been riding? Here’s what Matt gave me back.

Me and riding… Let’s see. I started riding at age 20 on a Kawasaki Eliminator 600. I’ve had a slew of road bikes including cruisers, standards, adventure tourers, and sport bikes. I’ve been riding my Ninja 250, which I bought new in 2008 since then, and it currently has over 64,000 miles on it. Personally I’ve clocked over 100,000 in the decade I’ve been riding and crossed 38 states. The 250 has seen both US coasts and every weather condition on earth. I have not spent a lot of time on the dirt as the motorcycle was usually my primary transportation. I’ve always ridden my bikes year round. I’ve ridden down to -15F on ice and snow. I’ve ridden in cross winds that forced me to lean right going around a left-hand turn. I’ve been pelted with 45mph salt flying across the Bonneville Salt Flats and I’ve experienced a lithium fire on a bike. I don’t say these things to impress, most of the time they were due to my lack of planning, experience, or know-how. I’ve messed up a lot and I’ve learned a lot. Through each difficult experience I’ve learned we’re stronger than we think, that we can endure more than we think, that we can go harder, faster, and better than we ever thought possible, if only we dare try.

Riding to me is being in harmony with life. When I’m on my bike going somewhere, anywhere, I’m moving, and that is how I should be. I like to learn, and am curious about everything in life, and you can’t learn when you’re not moving. I live by the mantra that “I’m never lost, I’m exploring” because life too short to be scared, or unhappy, or bored. I hope I can bring some good information to this site and help riders discover something they didn’t know about the glorious state of Colorado.

In case you’d like to see some of what Matt has written previously, you can check him out at https://thedandooligan.wordpress.com/.

Welcome Matt.

Biker Quote for Today

The perfect man? A poet on a motorcycle. ~Lucinda Williams