Passes & Canyons Blog

The second day of the RMMRC New Mexico ride had us heading south from Montrose to Gallup, New Mexico. This is a ride with two distinct parts.

In Colorado it was a nice ride along the east side of the Uncompahgre Plateau to Ridgway on US 550. Then we turned west toward Placerville on CO 62 and south past Telluride on CO 145. This takes you over Lizard Head Pass.

I’ve ridden this road many times but apparently it has been a long time since I’ve been over it heading south. Particularly after we got past Telluride it turns incredibly scenic. There are some amazing views! And I really did not remember that.

Then, heading down the pass, John, who was leading, pulled over. It was time for a break. Wow, this is not something I’m accustomed to with the RMMRC. But it turned out that with the leader and the sweep communicating by radio, when one guy decided he needed to stop and indicated such to Charley, at sweep, he told John, at lead, and it happened. This may seem absolutely normal but in my experience with this group I assure you it is not. But I like it.

Heading on we eventually came up behind a camper going slowly with about five cars just sitting behind it. Now, the courteous thing to do would be for him to pull off now and then and let all the folks behind him pass. This guy showed no courtesy.

John bided his time, presumably to let the cars pass when the opportunity arose but when it finally did, not a one of them made a move. So when it was almost too late John pulled out to go around the lot of them. That was a little too much. He got past all the cars but passing the camper another camper appeared ahead coming the other way. John goosed it and slipped in but not before the oncoming camper braked and swerved onto the shoulder. Not a good thing, really.

That opened the door. At this point others ahead of me started passing and darting in and out of the row of cars. The people in the cars made no move to spread out to open space for the bikes so the bikes ended up forcing their way in when necessary. I watched all this saying hey guys, don’t be stupid, but in some cases they were. Fortunately nothing bad happened. I made no rush to get around but got past when there was no risk.

We got down to Cortez and it was time for lunch so we stopped at a major intersection where we figured Dave, trailing behind in his pick-up, would easily spot us. You see, Dave got stuck behind this line for a lot longer than we did. It was a whole lot different for him in a Ford F-250 pulling a trailer than for us on bikes. But signals got crossed and Charley, phoning Dave, told him we were stopped in Shiprock, New Mexico, rather than where we actually were, in Cortez. You can look all day in Shiprock for the intersection of CO 145 and US 160 but you’ll never find it. Finally Dave just said see ya in Gallup.

The second of the two parts of this ride was the New Mexico part. This is mainly just a mile-burning trek. US 491 goes south to Shiprock and continues on through mostly flat, dry, brown territory, mile after mile after mile. No more twisty mountain roads; just crank that throttle and ride.

We got to Gallup, got checked in at the El Rancho, and it was time to have dinner and some beers and settle in in the bar to watch the Denver Nuggets in the championship play-off game 2. Nice way to end the day, except the Nuggets lost. Oh well, next time.

Biker Quote for Today

I don’t know the question but a motorcycle ride is definitely the answer.

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.

My start to the RMMRC New Mexico ride was not entirely auspicious. It was raining lightly when I was leaving so I started out fully geared up with rain jacket and my waterproof riding pants. I also had all the other gear on, too, because it was darn chilly.

Barely a mile from home I had my first encounter with a careless driver. I was heading west on Hampden, in the left lane, pulling past a car on my right. At a point when I’m certain I was in their blind spot they decided to change lanes–about three feet in front of me. The guy probably checked his mirror but did not do a head check. I hit my brakes, blew my horn, and shook my fist at the guy but who knows if he noticed me at all.

Out in Morrison, where we were gathering, there were nine of us: eight bikes and Dave in his Ford F-250 pick-up with a trailer on behind. Turns out Dave had just had surgery the week before and could not ride but he woke up that morning and decided he was going, even if he had to take the truck. And he hooked the trailer on behind just in case we needed a sag wagon. A very generous move on his part.

Very, very frequently on these trips either Dave or Bob lead but in this case Dave couldn’t and Bob was not coming. Roy normally rides sweep but he was not coming. So Charley took sweep and John, a fairly new member of the group, agreed to lead. Dave would bring up the rear with the truck.

We headed through Morrison intending to go south on the road at the west end of town that runs down to US 285 only to find it totally blocked off for a run and other festivities. So we did a U-turn right there in the intersection and headed back to C-470 to get down to 285. OK, now we can roll.

The further we went the clearer the sky got but it stayed very cool. At a stop in Fairplay I even put on my heated gloves. We rode on down to Buena Vista and Poncha Springs, where we stopped for lunch. Some folks got gas and others, including me, didn’t, figuring we had plenty to get to our day’s destination, Montrose. Then it was west over Monarch Pass, through Gunnison, past the Blue Mesa Reservoir, and made a stop at the Blue Mesa dam.

Here John asked if we would be interested in riding the north rim of the Black Canyon rather than continuing on US 50. Running up through Crawford, Hotchkiss, and Delta would only add about 5 miles to the ride, he said. I replied that that was absurd, that doing that route would add at least 40 miles. We were all fine with that route because the road on the north rim is great, but that threw off my calculation that I had plenty of gas. I would need to stop in Hotchkiss.

Headed toward Crawford John pulled in at a viewpoint, where you could see US 50 off to the south and a valley I took to be the route up to Silver Jack Reservoir over Owl Creek Pass and down to just north of Ridgway. The stop for a viewpoint was unusual in my experience of RMMRC rides but very welcome in my mind. One of my biggest complaints about RMMRC rides has been that we don’t do enough of that. John, being new, did not have that mind-set and that’s fine with me. I like at least semi-frequent stops.

I got gas in Hotchkiss and as everyone else took off I pushed my starter button and got nothing. Oh crap. Tried again and again nothing. Charley was there, as he was riding sweep, and we conferred. Then I checked my kill switch and that was it. How I hit that switch I don’t know but soon we were rolling. We never caught up with the others, though.

We made it to Delta and turned south to Montrose. Wondered at one point why everyone was going so slow in the right-hand lane while the left-hand lane was wide open, started pulling around, and saw the state patrol car leading the pack. OK. Got it. After he made a U-turn and flipped on his lights and took off in the other direction everyone on our side increased their speed about 15 mph.

We got to Montrose but really didn’t know where the motel was so Charley and I ran a bit of a wild goose chase around town but finally found the place. All in all a much more enjoyable ride than what it looked like it could be in the morning. Tomorrow: Gallup.

Biker Quote for Today

We only regret the rides we didn’t take.

I’m back now from that RMMRC New Mexico ride I mentioned previously and it really was an excellent ride. Here’s a quick synopsis and I’ll follow up with a more detailed narrative.

On Day One we started out with eight riders on bikes and one in a pick-up pulling a trailer. Our very own sag wagon. This was Dave, who had had surgery just the week before and couldn’t ride. But he was the one who organized the ride and on Saturday morning he got up and thought how much he hated to miss it so on the spur of the moment decided to drive the truck. The trailer was a totally generous thought that might easily have entailed pulling this trailer for 1700 miles for no real reason.

Montrose was the destination that day, over Monarch Pass, and we got there uneventfully. It was raining a bit in Denver as we departed but the skies cleared and it was a good day to ride.

On Day Two we turned south. Over Lizard Head Pass, past Telluride, down to Cortez, and then a long slog to Gallup, New Mexico. The first half was a sweet ride and the second half, as I say, was just a slog.

Day Three had us heading further south and we made our way on to Alpine, Arizona, where we stopped for gas. The route Dave had mapped out had us turning off here and heading east on US 180 but some roadside reconsideration led us to continue south on US 191. That turned out to be a great decision as we ended up on one of the twistiest roads you’ll ever find. And if you look at the map you’ll that this road doesn’t really seem to go anywhere so there was almost no traffic at all. But what a fun road to ride. Ultimately we ended up for the night in Silver City.

On Day Four we headed north, taking US 180, which we would have been backtracking on if we had followed the original plan the day before. Because we hadn’t, this was new road. NM12 connected us to NM32 up to Quemado and then other state roads up to I-40 at Grants, this day’s destination.

Day Five was definitely not a typical day on the road. We were headed east but to get there we first went west on I-40. North on NM371 and then east on County Road 9, over to Cuba. Then things got a bit screwy. The plan was to make it over to the south end of Taos and then ride the Angel Fire loop around Wheeler Peak, to Red River. But we ended up on the north end of Taos and the sky to the south was threatening so we turned north to Questa, then east to Red River.

And then we were at Day Six, with the destination being home. Some folks were in a hurry, some were not, and we left in several smaller groups taking various routes. Rain was anticipated but we made it all the way home dry. Nice.

That in a nutshell was the trip. But there’s a whole lot of meat in that nut and I’ll get into that next.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re only as old as you feel when you ride your motorcycle.

If anyone wants to accuse me of promoting the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club that’s OK, because I am. I’ve really enjoyed all the rides I’ve been on with this group. With the OFMC we do one ride a year and then only occasional day rides. The RMMRC does a lot of day rides and several big rides every year. And we’d love to have more people joining in.

So here’s another good ride that was just posted for the RMMRC. This is listed on the site as New Mexico Tour 2023.

Leaving on Saturday, June 3, and returning on Thursday, June 8, the first night’s stop will be Montrose. Day two will be down through Colorado into New Mexico, to Gallup. We’ll be staying in Gallup at the historic old El Rancho hotel. This is a very cool place. It’s where all the Hollywood people used to stay when they were filming movies up in Monument Valley and all the rooms are named for the various stars who stayed there.

Day three will end up in Silver City, another very nice place. I’m not sure what hotel we’ll be at but there are a couple really nice old, refurbished places in town. I have no idea what route Bob plans on taking but getting to Silver City pretty much requires that you ride some of the nicest roads in New Mexico.

The next day will be heading back north, to Grants. There is no obvious route I see looking at the map so this is a question mark. It could be one of the less interesting rides of the trip. Or not. I just don’t know.

Then on to Red River. This is another nice town. Nice enough that they hold a motorcycle rally there every year. What more do you need to know?

On the last day it’s just a run toward home. There are several possible routes so hard to say.

Altogether, by a very rough estimate, it looks like about 1,500 miles in six days. That’s really low mileage for an RMMRC trip but very much of the sort I prefer. I’m pretty sure I’m going on this one. What about you?

Biker Quote for Today

The motorcycle is just as good company as most husbands and, when it gets old and shabby, a woman can dispose of it and get a new one without shocking the entire community.

I got wind of this trip that is being planned just before I went to this month’s meeting of the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club. I was very interested. Until I heard the dates. Count me out, guys.

As currently scheduled, the day after the guys and I leave on the annual OFMC trip, whichever of the RMMRC folks who end up going will board a plane and fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where they will rent motorcycles and do a two-week trip around Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. Does that sound like a killer trip? I sure thought so and I was definitely planning to go.

But we’ve already got the OFMC trip planned, scheduled, and reservations made. Sadly, I will not be going to Canada.

You could, though. You may not be an RMMRC member but you could be easily enough. You just join on Meetup for $12 a year and you’re in.

Make no mistake, this is going to be an expensive trip. The airfare is expected to run around $500–not bad. But plan on the bikes costing around $150 per day. Figure 12 days with the bikes and that comes to $1,800. Figure hotel rooms, double-occupancy, to run maybe half that, or $900. Then there’s food and gas and all the extras–maybe figure another $800. These are just rough figures but that rough figure comes to about $4,000. Still interested? Do it. I sure would. That money’s not going to do me any good when I’m dead. And what a trip.

Or This One
OK, maybe that trip doesn’t work for you. Here’s another one the group is planning, and I do hope to be able to do this one.

With dates not yet set, this trip would head northwest to Idaho and Oregon. Dubbed the Columbia River Gorge Tour, the western-most point of this 10-day ride is to be The Dalles, in Oregon. The stops each night, in order, will be Vernal, Utah; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Missoula, Montana; Enterprise, Idaho; The Dalles, Oregon; John Day, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Ogden, Utah; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; and home.

Now there are a couple days there that would be a lot of riding, though none so long as several we did on last year’s Great River Road trip. But there is one–and only one–400-mile day. So it’s doable.

And presuming I do go on this ride I plan to very much ride my own ride. I learned on the Great River Road trip that many of these guys like to go long distances without stops, and that is not my style of riding. I’ll be starting out with them in the morning but as soon as I want to make a stop–to stretch my legs, get some photographs, visit an interesting spot–I will say “see you later” and be off on my own. Anyone else on the trip who is more into my kind of easy-going riding would be welcome to join me.

To that end, really, I’m thinking I need to set up my own RMMRC ride and offer it on the website to all who are interested, specifying that this is not a bust-your-butt ride, we’re going to be doing shorter days with plenty of stops. I just have to figure out where to go. Any suggestion?

Biker Quote for Today

Life is like a motorcycle ride. Sometimes it is high speed on the highways, and sometimes it is low speed on rural roads full of potholes. You have to complete it bumps and all.

Every year after the first of January I look at my mileage for the year just ended. I did pretty well in 2022; rode the motorcycles more and put exactly 12 more miles on my car than I did in 2021.

First the car, because that’s my primary basis of comparison. I drove my car all of 2,506 miles. I wasn’t far off that with the Concours and well beyond it on the V-Strom. Nowhere close with the Honda, though.

The Honda only got ridden 729 in 2022. That’s down from 1,086 the year before. Which is a bit surprising to me considering that I thought I was trying to make a deliberate point of riding it regularly. Oh well, I’ll do better in 2023. And I’m also going to put some money into some work this good old bike is in need of.

The Concours had a better year than the CB750: 2,354 miles. That is up from 2,002 miles in 2021 and, as I said, almost as much as the car. Just 152 miles shy of the car. The Kawi got to go on the OFMC trip so it got a lot of miles off that one.

The champion this time around was the V-Strom. I rode that bike 3,866 miles in 2022. It got to go on the RMMRC Great River Road Ride and that was a good long jaunt. I hadn’t planned it that way. I was going to ride the Concours but had to make a last minute change when I discovered the valve stem on one of its tires was totally rotted away. It’s good to have more than one motorcycle.

Altogether that adds up 6,949 miles on motorcycles in 2022, versus 2,506 in my car. I may not put really big miles on any of my vehicles the way a lot of people do but by gosh, I do most of my getting around on the bikes. I kind of like it that way.

Biker Quote for Today

I love being on my bike, but I don’t consider that a sport: it’s too pleasant.

If, by the time you read this, it is cold and snowy outside you’ll know why we went riding yesterday. The forecast high was in the 60s and a day later we are supposed to be looking at nasty stuff. Five RMMRC riders answered the call.

Stepping outside in the morning it was warm but quite breezy. I knew this would be an all-the-winter-gear-day. It was definitely brisk riding over to the meeting spot, and nobody took their helmets off while we waited to see who else would arrive.

The route was simple enough: down Parker Road, turn off onto Russellville Road and do that loop, then back to CO83, south to CO105 over to Monument, for lunch at Rosie’s. The ride was uneventful except when Charlie pulled over because his top bag, which he had strapped onto the seat behind him rather than on its mount, started coming loose. OK, that didn’t work. But the dang thing is kind of wobbly on its actual mount so he figured it was worth trying something different.

Rosie’s was busy so we had to wait a bit and then got seated and ordered. The food is always good at Rosie’s, and the staff is always overworked, but the waitresses we have had have all been extremely nice. It probably doesn’t hurt that Roy goes out of his way to be friendly and nice with them, figuring their job is plenty hard, let’s try to make it a little nicer.

As expected, by the time we came out the temperature was up another 10 degrees or so and there were no clouds. A gorgeous day to ride. And we were not the only ones who thought so. As we headed north out of Monument toward Sedalia on CO105 I counted no fewer than 50 other bikes heading south. Not a big pack, just a lot of twos and threes and fours. This was a day to ride.

Now tomorrow can come as nasty as it likes, we got in a really good December ride.

Biker Quote for Today

No road is too long as long as you have good riding companions.