Hey, where you guys goin’?

We’re in the time of year now when you need to jump at your chances to ride because you never know when the weather will turn on you. I told the guys Thursday night that I was hoping to get in a ride on Sunday and they said, oh, it’s supposed to rain. I said yeah, but I’ll be playing it by ear and if I can get out I will.

I did. And what a nice fall day. No rain. Not that we don’t need it. If we had a downpour now I’d be happy.

For once I had a plan as to where I wanted to go. Heading south out of town there is an area west of I-25 and east of CO 105 that is hilly and very pretty. Several roads criss-cross those hills and while I’ve been on all of them at one time or another I still didn’t feel like I really knew the area. Let’s go criss-cross those hills.

The weather looked unpredictable so I geared up. I pulled out the leather jacket, put on the electric vest, and wore my riding pants with a high-tech, extra-warm base layer on underneath. My rain suit was in the top bag. I plugged the vest in but didn’t turn it on, at least not yet.

Across Belleview and then south on Santa Fe, which is US 85, and out of town, down to Sedalia, where I turned west to pick up CO 105. On the way down to Sedalia I noticed, perhaps for the first time, a frontage road of sorts that runs down on the west side of the highway most of the way down. Interesting, I thought. Maybe I should ride that some day and check it out. Get off this busy highway. And just then I saw a biker headed north on that road, which pretty much cemented it in my mind that this is something I will do.

I got to Sedalia, made the turn, crossed the river and then made the turn south. I had Tomah Road in mind because I had a side trip off Tomah also in mind, but I hadn’t thought about Wolfensberger Road. I said I’m not totally familiar with all these roads.

Wolfensberger climbs up and over, coming down into Castle Rock on the other side. I knew this. Fine, I’ll get to Tomah from the east rather than the west.

Coming down into Castle Rock I came to Plum Creek Parkway, which I knew I wanted to take because I didn’t want to actually go into Castle Rock and Plum Creek runs south skirting around the town.

At this time I was in grope mode. That is to say, I had a good idea where I wanted to get to but was not entirely sure how to get there. I would just grope my way along.

As I found myself approaching I-25 I presumed I would need to take the west frontage road down and meet up with Tomah Road along there somewhere. I turned onto the frontage road but very soon saw signs saying there was construction on this road and to get to Tomah I should get on I-25. I rode it all the way to where, sure enough, the road was completely blocked (you never know; it was Sunday, I may have been able to get through the construction zone.) So I turned around and got on I-25 headed south. I was pretty sure there was an exit up ahead for Tomah, and there was. Meanwhile, I poked along in the far right lane going only 80 while all the other traffic blasted past me on my left.

Sure enough, there was the Tomah Road exit and I took it. I immediately took a hard right and was heading right back up where I had just come from, only this time I was on the frontage road. There was actually a traffic signal there at the Tomah Road intersection, although I couldn’t have gone further because of the construction blockage, and there was no oncoming traffic for the same reason. But I stopped for the red anyway. Took the left and now I was finally on Tomah Road.

And this is getting long-winded so I’m going to break it into two and will complete the ride in my next post.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 26. The sound of a bike starting up is your morning alarm clock.