Colorado Cruiser: 2013 Summer Ride - Day 2

Woke up at 6:00 feeling great. I started writing the trip report for Saturday, then showered and went for a ride around Durango just for fun. It was nice and cool riding the back roads.

When I got back, I continued typing the ride report while sitting out in front of the hotel. I got allot done, but by 8:10 it was time to have breakfast and get on the road.

We brought an electric griddle with us, pancake mix, etc. I took the stuff to Kyle's room (because his was clean) and setup to make some pancakes. We really like Hungry Jack pancakes at our house, and that's what I made. About half of us ate pancakes, the rest had more healthy things.

We packed the bikes and the car, then posed for a group photo.

The temperature was in the mid 70s by 9:00 as we rolled out, but it quickly dropped as we climbed north out of Durango. If you've never been on the Million Dollar highway, your really missing out. It has some fantastic scenery all the way to Silverton and Ouray, with gentle sweeping turns for most of the way. We stopped at one scenic overlook to take pictures. I pulled out my tripod to take a picture and several people offered to save me the hassle by taking the picture for us.

The truth is, I don't usually like the pictures that strangers take. There's always a tree growing out of someone's head, or its blurry, or someone's eyes weren't open. When I do the tripod, I can frame it just how I want, and I can take a bunch of them if I need to. And I can adjust color, exposure, etc to get it right. So we took our pictures, group, couples, individuals, etc etc etc.

We continued riding and 20 minutes later we stopped in Silverton to shop a bit. We got Silverton Harley Davidson t-shirts for Kyle and I, and Nan bought a small ring that she liked.

From here to Ouray, Shauna was going to ride in the car with Nannette. She's been on this section of road before and really scared her. She didn't want to be on a bike for it.

As we left Silverton, the communication kind of broke down. Only John and I had been here before, and we both knew that Silverton was on a short dead end of road off the main highway. John took off first to go back to a gas station. Then Nan and Shauna left heading up the road rather than back down. Eric saw them go and followed along. They had to turn around and head back. Kyle saw them go but didn't see them turn around, so he went up as well. I thought they must all have been going to see the top half of town, so I didn't say anything and just headed down to the gas station.

A few minutes later I realized what was going on and went back to apologize to Kyle and bring him down. I'm sure he was wondering whether everyone had gone up the dirt road at the top of town.

While I was getting Kyle, Eric pulled up beside Shauna and Nan. They said they were waiting for John and Angela, but Eric heard "go catch John and Angela" so he took off up the highway (at least in the right direction this time).

All of us except Eric gathered back up and started heading to Ouray. Eric happens to be the only one without a CB radio, so we couldn't get ahold of him. We figured he'd stop and wait for us in Ouray.

From Silverton to Ouray is the real heart of the ride. You climb more and the canyon walls close in until you're riding on a road that's been chiseled out of the sheer rock face. And all the way along are beautiful trees, waterfalls, and rugged mountain peaks. We stopped at a waterfall for pictures of the group (except Eric), then rode down into Ouray.

Eric was waiting at the mexican restaurant for us. We explained all of the mixups and had a good laugh.

After lunch we wandered the around Ouray a bit, looking in the horrendously expensive t-shirt stores and new-antiques shops. I really do love Ouray. I've never stayed a night there because we're usually riding and it's just not the right place to stop. But I really want to.

From Ouray we continued North toward Montrose, the city I was born in. The ride gets flat, straight and the temperatures really climb. By the time we hit Montrose it was 100 degrees and I was sweating like a pig.

We again got split up a bit. John and Nan were following the GPS which took them on side streets. John called over the CB to stay on the highway, so us on the other 3 bikes did. Turns out the GPS cut about 5 miles off and we should have followed them.

Luckily the road starts to climb about 10 miles out of Montrose. The temperatures eased back into the 80s, but never really got comfortable. It was a warm ride up onto the Gunnison and Blue Mesa. I normally enjoy the ride, but I was just ready to be done.

We reached Gunnison city by 5:00 and checked into the hotel. There were several other bikes already in the parking lot, and more kept showing up through the evening. Most were Harley riders and poked a bit of fun at Eric and I for riding Goldwings. At one point, I reversed my bike up onto it's center stand and the Harley guy started laughing about what a pansey thing it was to do.

After checking in and resting a bit we headed out to a steak house for dinner. It was point three miles away.

The food was pretty good, but the service was poor. 20 minutes to take our order, 35 minutes to bring the food, and we kept having to chase someone down to get water refills. At least the food was tasty when it finally came.

Back at the hotel, Nan, Angela, Eric, and I went out to the hot tub to soak away the miles. I wish it had been cooler water after all the heat of riding, but it still felt really good. We sat in the tub for a good 30 minutes talking and laughing. Shauna, John, and Kyle were resting back in the rooms with the A/C on full I'm sure.

Ready to Roll for day 2