2 Passes

We left Gunnison this morning at about 8:30 to perfect blue skies and a temp of about 60 degrees. This was to be our mid-point easy day as we have been on the road for a full week now. We covered 160 miles, but they were beautiful miles.

We started by precisely following the route on one of the stages in both last year's and this year's upcoming US Pro Cycling Challenge. Moving north out of Gunnison about 10 miles, we turned at the town of Almont for the first climb toward Cottonwood Pass, on the north side of Mt. Princeton. The pass tops out at 12,126 feet - well above timberline. On the way up, the road goes by the incredible Taylor reservoir.

Just beyond this lake, the road becomes a dirt county road that continues the climb to the top. Here are a few shots on the way up.

That one is my buddy on the way up.

Well, I am having bandwidth issues in this hotel with uploading photos. At the top on the pass, the road is paved into Buena Vista. We stopped in there for a coffee break, then headed north to Twin Lakes. From there, it was this massive climb, up and over Independence Pass, a pass that is closed all winter. This pass tops out at 12,095'. We had rain on the way up, so no photos of that pass - just incredible memories. We are now camped in our comfy hotel in Carbondale after a big steak lunch. It was 60 at the top of the pass, 92 degrees at the bottom, going through Aspen. That place was hopping!

We are off in a real round about way to Steamboat Springs, tomorrow, we think.

Friday, June 29

The dirt cross section we really wanted to do yesterday, Los Pinos pass, we decided to work into a loop for today. The storms yesterday dumped a lot of rain and the road would have been a slimy, muddy mess which is very slick and dangerous on a bike. So we rode it backwards out of Gunnison this morning, starting off at 51 degrees. Applying warm clothing and turning on our grip heaters, we took off under beautiful Colorado blue sky.

We were not disappointed! 50 miles of offroad fun, learning new skills, testing our big machines in a small machine world and they performed perfectly.

This took us back to the down hill side of Slumgullion, back into Lake City, with a destination of Gunnison for the 2nd time today. But there is a dirt road bypass, for those folks wanting a short cut to Montrose. It was heavy washboard, gravel road - in the middle of nowhere. John, in the lead, finds a hitchhiker that needs a ride to the pavement, still 8 miles away. This was a character, indeed! (as you will see when I ever get around to attaching pictures - was actually a dude that has done Marlboro commercials.) Got him to his destination, made it back to Gunnison for lunch, then headed out again for our second loop of the day.

We headed north from town to run the Ohio valley up to Ohio pass - most of this offroad. We connected to the Kebler Pass road that dropped us into Crested Butte. No cheap place to stay there, so we came back to Gunnison (3rd time today), checked back into the same hotel and ordered Chinese delivery. Imagine Chinese food in Gunnison, CO - yep, that was about how it tasted. You win some, you loose some.

Tomorrow will take us on a full repeat of a stage of the US Pro Cycling Challenge to Aspen via Columbine Pass (all dirt). We will continue on to Carbondale for an easy day in prep for a more serious day Sunday that involves several road and offroad passes as we make our way North. With an easy day tomorrow, I may find the time to process photos and update the earlier entries.

Thanks for reading - post comments, if you like.

Thursday, June 28

We departed Durango around 8AM headed toward Slumgullion Pass, just before Lake City Colorado for our first real offroad portion of this adventure. But things would change...

Riding out of Durango toward Pagosa Springs started out cool and blue sky. But the closer we got to Pagosa, the worse the smoke got from the fire that has been burning in the area for 3+ weeks. It got really thick in a couple of the canyons but cleared by the time we actually got to town. From there, it was up and over Wold Creek Pass and the riding was incredible with blue sky and cool temps. But we could see dark clouds forming quickly, especially for so early in the day - not a good sign.

Made the turn in South Fork toward Creede and Lake City and the skies were getting darker by the minute. I took my buddy on a famous Creede bypass road to finally get our new dirt / road combo tires "dirty". As we readied to get back on the highway to Lake City, we stopped and suited up for rain - we could see it was coming and we barely made it. Rode through rain and stopped at the world famous Freeman's Ranch for lunch and a chance to let the weather pass. Had a great lunch, watched the weather, and decided to make a run for Slumgullion between waves of the nasty weather.

Great idea, poor execution! We took off and made it about 5 miles (we had our rain gear on, just in case), rounded a bend in the road, and the light rain turned into hail and the road was covered. We had just passed a forest service parking lot about a half mile back, so we pulled a u-turn and headed back to the safety of not being parked on the side of the road. We stood in the rain (no hail there) for half an hour and watched as the dark clouds moved across - and noting NOBODY was coming down the mountain in our intended direction of travel. When finally we saw a motorcycle come down, we decided to head up. The hail was over an inch thick that we had to navigate through and the light rain continued. Some serious motorcycling skills came into play and a whole lot of praying. We arrived at the turn-off spot for a 50 mile dirt cross section and decided to do that another day - hindsight, see next entry, says that was a life saving move.

We went on in to Lake City then on to Gunnison, in and out of rain. The locals in Gunnison reported a wash out rain had occurred an hour before we arrived and we could see the debris in the streets. We settled in to the hotel and the guy talk began and continued for hours. A great day, another epic in or individual ride experiences.

Four States, 1 twice, in a day

If you read the map, the distance from Farmington, NM to Durango, CO (where we are tonight) is 56 miles. Our odometers, at the end of the day, registered 255 miles to cover a route between the same two places. We can indeed make a big, adventurous circle while tooling around on the bikes.

We left Farmington and headed to Shiprock NM then into Arizona to get us to Four Corners, the only spot in the USA where 4 states touch together. From there, a brief run into Colorado before heading into Utah up to Monticello. Turn right onto 491, back into Colorado to Cortez to Durango. We witnessed 3 new fires: one in Cortez, Mancos, and a new one in Durango just over the ridge from where we are now staying. Every hotel room in town is full due to massive evacuations and we were blessed to get a room. And we just happen to be next door to the Durango Brewery, a home town craft beer joint. We enjoyed a couple of their wares, then headed down the street to a very local taco-ria and enjoyed most excellent food.

Tomorrow carries us into more central Colorado to some fine dirt roads. We ride dual-sport bikes, so now we put them to the test. More later - and pictures will eventually make it.

Tuesday - 26th

We will try for photo uploads tomorrow. Today we headed south out of Taos to Espanola NM, then north up to Chama NM for lunch. Beautiful mountains, small by Colorado standards, but a nice ride and perfect temperatures.

Then headed west on US 64 toward Farmington NM, but diverted north about 40 miles out to the Nahavo Lake state park. Plenty of water in that lake. Then it was tiny county roads into traffic choked Farmington and triple digit temperatures. Thunder storms brewing out the hotel window as I write this!

Tomorrow will see us headed toward Four Corners, up into Utah briefly, then into Colorado. We were on a high ridge today and could see the Mesa Verde fire, which had been our original destination for tomorrow. I got news this afternoon upon my arrival of 2 fires started today in Boulder and some evacuations on the south edge of town. Hope the homestead is still there when I get back.

Thanks for reading... and check the Spot tracker to see where we are.

Monday - 25th

This was a pretty easy day for both. Due to my re-route to Buena Vista, I missed a lot of the planned backroads, so just took the easy way to Alamosa. My ride buddy got his bike unloaded in Taos Sunday evening.

We met for lunch in Alamosa at Calvelle's Mexican Buffet and it was awesome. We spent a while catching up, then hit the road back to Taos.

That route back took us east on US 160 to Ft. Garland, then a straight shot south to Taos. This was a beautiful ride, right along the foot hills, rather that the desert blue sage along US 285. Got a place to stay, had a great dinner, then watched some Navaho Indian dancing and called it a day.

On the road - finally!

Got the bike loaded yesterday and I was out the door about 8AM this morning. The state of Colorado is experiencing the driest Spring on record and the heat wave showed up this weekend. My home thermometer hit triple digits yesterday and had done it as well last Monday - first time in 6 years. There are fires popping up everywhere. I was stunned this morning as I was drinking coffee, reading the paper, getting pumped to go. A new fire was in my path of travel to Colorado Springs. Now this was no ordinary route to the Springs that I had mapped out. I had time on my hands to ride and I discovered a new book last year that showed a lot of places I wanted to ride. If one takes the interstate to CS from Boulder, it is about 100 miles. I had mapped out 190 miles to get there. I saw some incredible scenery. Out of here on CO 93 to Clear Creek canyon, then up from Idaho Springs to Echo Lake.

 
Next over Squaw Pass to Evergreen, then snake around to Pine, CO, Deckers and Woodland Park. It was amazing. But I as I was driving from Deckers to Woodland Park, I noticed a solid line of vehicles coming toward me for that entire journey and nobody going my way. Hmmm...

Go to Woodland Park, made my left turn on CO24 for the final 16 miles to my buddy's house, destination for the day, and came to this:

Yup, the road to the Springs was closed due to the Waldo fire and they were sending traffic back the way I had just come (no wonder the constant line of vehicles coming at me) all the way back to Castle Rock, then onto the interstate to CS. Nope, that is too far out of the way and the folks driving it are pissed and driving accordingly. So I made the decision in Woodland Park to head to Buena Vista, since that will allow me to connect to the original plan much easier.

I just read the news and another area we are headed to just exploded into yet another fire. This adventure is going to be an adventure in fire exclusion. See ya tomorrow, after I hook up with my trusty traveling companion who is, as I write, trucking his bike to Taos.