Colorado Cruiser: Fall Colors Ride Day 3

After yesterday's fantastic ride, both John and I were a bit quiet as we packed up to head home. I was downright depressed and sad to have to split up and head our separate ways home. We loaded up the bikes, said our goodbye's and headed out. The first 30 minutes was very melancholy and quiet, then I began again to notice the foliage and the clear blue sky.

I decided to skip breakfast because I wasn't really hungry. Instead, I grabbed a banana nut muffin at my first gas stop and kept going.

After I passed Pagosa Springs and started climbing towards Wolf Creek pass I stopped for a few more pictures. Crossing Wolf Creek was just as pretty as coming down was, but you notice different things. The thing I really noticed was how cold it was. It was pretty early in the morning this time, where it had been late in the day on the way down. I stopped a couple of times in the sun to warm up a bit. It really wasn't that cold, but I was enjoying the day, and any excuse to prolong the trip, I took.

I decided to try a different route home, so when I got to South Fork, I turned North up Colorado 149. It was quite a bit longer return, but again, I was grabbing at anything to extend the trip.

Highway 149 is not heavily traveled and I saw few cars the whole way. In fact I stopped once to take pictures and for over 15 minutes I didn't see anyone pass. Much of the road is flat and boring riding through fields and dry gulches. But it does climb very high in the middle. Probably the highest point of any of my 3 day ride. It starts by crossing Spring Creek Pass at 10,898 feet, then a few miles later up to Slumgullion Summit at 11,530 feet. I loved the name Slumgullion summit.

After the summit I descended the road down into Lake City where I stopped for lunch. I pulled up to the Tic Toc diner. It was mostly full, but I got a small table and ordered a burger. Within 15 minutes the place was packed with about 20 people standing outside waiting for room. I noticed a group of 3 and one of them on crutches and offered to share my table with them. They were from Cortez and doing their own annual fall colors tour. They told me of a bunch of great roads which I wish I could remember.

I rode on North from Lake City to where it joined highway 50 East toward Gunnison. Once I was in Gunnison, I decided to extend my ride even farther and turned North toward a town called Crested Butte. I've never been there before, but someone told me that one of the largest aspen forests in the world was on the slopes of the mountains near Crested Butte.

As I got near Crested Butte there was allot of road construction. I waited through 2 sections of 1 lane road which took 15 minutes each, and when I got to the 3rd, my patience ran out, so I found an old barn by the road and pulled off to take some pictures. The mountain was very colorful and there were some huge clouds moving rapidly casting equally fast moving shadows on the mountain. The effect was spectacular and I wish I could have done it justice, but the pictures weren't bad in the end.

Once I started back South from Crested Butte I found myself in "get home" mode again. I took a few photos while riding but I made no more stops.

This was a very very very good trip.

Nearing the climb up to Wolf Creek pass