Colorado Cruiser: Colorado Fall Colors Ride - Day 2 - Lake City

We had a lazy start to the day. The first thing we were going to do was to ride back over Wolf Creek Pass, and since it was 30 degrees here in Pagosa, I'm sure Wolf Creek was in the teens. I wanted to let it warm up a bit before we rode up.

After a quick breakfast at the hotel and stop at the gas station we were on our way. We stopped again at the overlook on the pass. It was a very cold ride to here, so we took our time taking pictures and looking around letting the sun warm up the air. The sun was very harsh making photo taking hard, but we found a few good shots that we didn't get last night.

As we left the overlook, Kyle took the lead so I could get a few shots of him riding with fall colors around him. The sun was to our right, so it was casting a shadow across the whole right side of the pass, which also happen to be the side of the pass with all of the pretty colors. I found a few places to get pictures and we stopped to pose for a couple, but it was slim pickings.

On the good side, the temperature had come up so we weren't frozen. We stopped in South Fork for gas.

Kyle told me his bike had stalled once on the way down the pass. He started it back up on the fly, but he wondered if there was a problem. He restarted it a few times and all seemed fine so we headed North towards Lake city. This is a very desolate road. A car comes by every 5 minutes or so.

As we rode on I noticed Kyle slow down a couple times. Finally we pulled over at small rest stop. Kyle said his bike was getting worse and cutting out every few minutes. We fiddles with the relays and the fuses. I noticed that every so often we could hear the fuel pump reset and Kyle pointed out that the headlight and speedometer would sometimes go completely out.

So here we sat, 40 miles from anywhere with a motorcycle that was cutting out, no cell service, and few tools. I had a cheapo leatherman knockoff and a philips head screwdriver.

We did manage to get the bike going so I told Kyle to, then got on my bike and suited up and followed. We blew past some of my favorite viewing spots because we didn't want to have to re-start the bike. Once it was running it seemed to go pretty well, but getting the starter motor to kick in took some work.

As we neared the top of the pass the aspens lost all of their leaves. We were probably 2 weeks too late to see color up this high, but it was still pretty. We had to stop once because the bike cut out and Kyle couldn't get it going. A quick bit of fiddling and it lit up again so we went on. We went over my favorite named pass - Slumgullion Summut. Isn't that a cool name? But we didn't stop for pics, we just kept going. Once past Slumgullion, the road begins some major switchbacks as it decends towards Lake City. Half way down, the aspends began to have leaves again so I chanced a few pictures in between hairpins.

We got into town and rode to Mama's Cafe to get some lunch. I thought about just going on, but the idea of breaking down in the middle of nowhere without having eaten since breakfast seemed like too much risk. Breaking down on a full stomach is much less risky.

The last time I ate in Lake City, this restaurant was called the Tic Toc Cafe and had a for sale sign on it. I've seen another Tic Toc cafe in Colorado but can't recall where it was. Mama's had 8 motorcycles and a few cars outside so I figured it was probably still an OK place to eat.

Kyle ordered a breakfast scramble with eggs, hash browns, and green chili sauce. He said it was excellent. I got a green chili bacon cheese burger and it was in fact excellent. A good kick from the fresh green chili and big thick bacon that all combined to a truly great taste. I'd have one again and even drive the 100 miles out of my way again for it.

After lunch we fiddled again with the bike trying to spot an obvious cause to the problem. Nothing felt quite right. We got the bike going and Kyle led the way.

North of Lake City, the road follows a creek and the canyon it dug. The whole road is lined with aspens. It was pretty cold along the the water, but the sun was shining and helping warm us up a bit. Oh, I forgot to mention that the first stop after South Fork, Kyle pulled out my leather chaps. He'd brough them in his bag, but they were rather... large for him. Using my trust leatherman knock off, he'd punched a hole in the chaps so he could buckle them on and wear them. He said it helped allot to keep the wind off his legs. I'm sure it was helping in this moist air by the creek too.

After a bit I couldn't stand it and started taking pictures again. We didn't stop, but I sure would have loved to get some posed shots among all these trees and color.

We finally emerged from the canyons to the top of Blue Mesa and the Blue Mesa Reservoir. We stopped for a few minutes to warm up cold bones but Kyle kept the bike running. From here we rejoin highway 50 back through Gunnison and over Monarch Pass.

We got back on the highway with Kyle leading. I had learned to pay attention to his rear taillight. Like the headlight on motorcycles, the tail light is always on, but in Kyle's case, it was flickering and sometimes going out completely. It was hard to tell sometimes with all the shadows from clouds we were going in and out of, but his tail light was really flickering allot.

We made it into Gunnison ok and gassed up. I gave Kyle the choice that if he was nervous, we could just get a hotel room and work on the bike, then try again in the morning. He throught for a bit and said he was good to keep going. We've always been able to get the bike started, so why not go as far as we could.

The bike stalled a few times East of Gunnison but Kyle always got it going again. We took a short break at the top of Monarch Pass but kept the bike running.

Once we reached Salida I again asked if we should stop. Again, Kyle agreed to keep going.

About 25 miles East of Salida the bike stalled out again. Kyle pulled over into someone's driveway and we tried again to fiddle with things. I scraped the gunk off the pins on the relays in the hopes it was just a bad connection but it didn't change much.

We decided that we'd call Nannette and have her meet us in Canon city with my bike trailer. We figured we could nurse it at least that far. After a bit more fiddling we found out that if you pushed in on the realys, the bike would start, so we started the bike and I told Kyle to go while I called Nan. Nan said she'd meet us. I put my stuff on and headed after Kyle.

In hind sight, telling Kyle to go without me was a really bad idea. There are allot of twists, turns, and there was allot traffic. I had to navigate all of that while trying to catch up with Kyle and watch every little side driveway or parking lot in case Kyle had had to pull over. It was nerve wracking trying to do that and be sure I hadn't ridden right past him.

After another 15 miles I spotted Kyle pulled over. After a bit more fiddling we figured out that pushing the battery back and forth would also cause the starter to work. We couldn't remove the battery to check the negative terminal to see if it was loose but Kyle could reach the negative cable and did a bit of tugging on it. The bike started again and I followed Kyle the rest of the way into Canon city. His tail light was no longer flickering either.

In Canon city I asked if he wanted to keep going and meet Nan in Penrose so off we went. Still no flickering tail light and the bike running well.

We got to Penrose about 10 minutes before my wife. We put the trailer together and loaded the bike, then convoyed back to Colorado springs.

The next morning Kyle took the battery out and sure enough, the negative terminal was loose. Once it was tightened the bike would start just fine every time. I guess we'll have to learn to carry a few more tools with us in the future.

Even with the bike trouble, I loved the ride. Some areas weren't turning colors yet, some were way past turning colors and had lost leaves, but many many areas were just spectacular. Combine all that with an evening playing hop scotch between soaking pools and a great burger in Lake City made for a very fun trip.

Again, the most fun was hanging out with my son through it all.

Of course, now I'm going to have to do something with my daughters.

Getting the bikes ready in front of the Quality inn