Colorado Fun Ride August 2020 - Day 1
My friend John invited me to go on multi day ride around Colorado with a bunch of people.
I recently traded in my 2001 Goldwing for a 2019 Can-Am Spyder. The Goldwing was beginning to get cumbersome for me, plus Nan didn't like riding with me. So I traded in the behemoth 2 wheel motorcycle for a 3 wheel bike.
YES IT'S A BIKE!!!
I picked it up at the beginning of May and have over 4,000 miles on it already. I really do enjoy how much easier it is to manuever at low speeds. I was never great at slow speed on motorcycles for many many silly excuses. Mostly they just made me nervous that I was going to dump that 1200 pound bike in front of everyone. I never did dump the bike, but the fear was always there.
Now, Nan still doesn't love riding the Spyder, but she does ride with me sometimes, especially if I take her to the casinos in Cripple Creed.
I asked Nan if she wanted to go on the ride, either with me on the Spyder, or in a car following all of the motorcycles. My wonderful wife knows this is the first big trip on the Spyder, and she didn't want to ride that far, so she told me to go enjoy my ride solo. She stayed home watching a grand child
After John invited me, I mentioned the ride to another friend, Sean. After he had a similar conversation with his wife, he decided to come along.
It was a long 2 months while we watched Covid fluctuate and prepared for the ride. Sean and I both live in Colorado and the other 10 riders would be coming up from Phoenix/Mesa.
Sean called a couple days before the ride to discuss details with me. We agreed to meet at a nearby gas station at 5:30 to begin our ride.
The night before, my brain scrambled and I thought we were meeting at 6:30, so I set the alarm for 5:00. I actually woke up at 4:30 and took a shower, then casually packed the last few things. I was just cracking some eggs in the skillet when the phone rang and Sean asked "Where are you??" After he kindly reminded me of what we'd agreed, I rushed to finish my breakfast burrito, crammed everything on the bike and headed off to meet Sean.
I should have taken a few minutes because I left without my wallet and had to turn around and go back home to get it. By the time I fixed all my goof ups, it was 6:15 before we got on the road.
This first day Sean and I had to get ourselves down to Durango to meet up with everyone else. There are several ways to get to Durango and we chose a more scenic route cutting diagonally across the state. We took the freeway South to Highway 24 and turned East up a beautiful canyon to Woodland Park.
I was poking along at my normal speed when I heard Sean's Harley rev and he changed to the other lane and passed me. He just wanted a fun ride up the twisty canyon road. Once we left the twisties, he slowed down and I caught up with him.
The temperature started in the high 50s, but by the time we got to Woodland Park it had dropped a few degrees and continued dropping as we climbed to Divide and Flourissant. The temperature dropped all the way to 40 degrees by Lake George. But the sun finally overcame the elevation and it started warming up despite climbing higher and higher. At Wilkerson pass it was back into the 50s.
The traffic was very light despite our expectations. There's a big fire by Glenwood Springs that has closed I-70. I expected some traffic to find its way to highway 24 or even 285, but there didn't seem to be much more than normal.
We stopped in Buena Vista to stretch and get snacks, then turned onto 306 toward Cottonwood Pass.
Cottonwood used to be paved to the top of the pass, then was rough gravel down into Taylor park. But a few years ago they paved the road the whole way and spent allot of time fixing the sharp turns. Other than being steep, you could drive almost anything over the pass now, and many people do. Not long ago someone was taking a massive RV over the pass. The pushed the engine too hard, it caught fire and butned to the ground.
We stopped at a scenic overlook to get pictures near the top. We chatted with a group of dual sport riders.and gave them some advice on their route. They're spending a few days riding passes in Colorado, then moving over to Utah. I've always wished I could ride dirt bikes, but I freak out if my rear tire spins even a tiny bit, and dirt bike riders spend much of their time with the tires spinning on purpose.
The ride down off of Cottonwood was just as nice as the ride up except that we kept coming up on RVs and trailers going really slow. For some reason they were much slower going downhill than they were coming uphill. But there were enough passing sections that we were able to get around them.
We stopped in Gunnison for gas and snacks. We could have had lunch, but every place seemed to be packed. The lady in the gas station told Sean that they've been slammed since I-70 closed. Coming down to highway 50 is the recommended bypass. There did seem to be more traffic than normal, but it was bad.
As we left town we were in a pack of 4 or 5 other vehicles all the way till we turned South toward Lake City. I had though that Sean must have been on this road before because he's been everywhere in Colorado. Either for hunting, camping, or 4 wheeling. But it turned out he'd only been here when he was a little boy and had very little memory of it.
The closer we got to Lake City, the more trees and mountains we saw, until we were riding beside a beautiful stream (or river as we in the West call them).
We stopped for lunch in Lake City. I've been here many times so we just went to the restaurant I usually go to. As usual, there were allot of UTVs, ATVs, and 4 wheelers around, but they got us right in and served us pretty quick.
Back out on the road we began the climb up the mountains that surround Lake City. Near the top I turned off to the Windy Point overlook. This was the first time I'd been here when there wasn't a massive wind blowing up from Lake City, but instead of wind, it began spitting rain at us. I was disappointed because I really wanted to fly my drone and get some video of the area, but with the rain, that couldn't happen.
There were some motorcycles that had come from the South and they'd not come through any rain, but the longer we sat there, the more the rain came down. We really couldn't see any threatening rain clouds but eventually we decided to put on our rain gear. Often we gear up, ride 5 miles and the sun comes out and makes us sweat with all that gear on. But not this time.
It kept spitting every now and then, then suddenly it just unleashed a torrent of rain. It only lasted a few minutes, then seemed to clear. Then later it poured again, then cleared again. It did that about 4 times then stopped completely.
Even though it wasn't much or long lasting, I'm glad we didn't get soaked. It's really easy to get the shivvers in a storm like that and make the rest of the ride miserable. Instead we were warm and dry. We did get very warm any time the sun came out, but soon we'd arrived at the next scenic stop and could air out a bit.
I had ridden the road to Lake City many many times before I discovered the North Clear Creek Falls. It right beside the road, but unless you know to look for it, you blow right past without a second though. It's a very scenic little water fall that's only about 30 yards from the parking lot. We walked down to the falls to get a picture. I brought my drone thinking I'd get some video, but just as we got there, the wind picked up enough that I decided not to launch the drone. I have more trouble trying to fly the drone. Either it's raining, windy, or I just plain forget that I have it. Usually if I can fly it a couple times on a trip I'm lucky.
There were allot of thunder cells around us as we left the falls so we decided to keep the rain gear on. But despite some more spitting, it never really rained on us.
Shortly after leaving the falls we passed the head waters of the Rio Grande. Yes, that Rio Grande. It starts here in the middle of Colorado before finally becoming the border between the US and Mexico.
We rode through Creede and out the back side to see their fire station. Creede has a volunteer fire department with a very unique station. It's in an old mine. They enlarged the mine and dug seperate bays for each of their trucks. They let people come in to wander through the station and even have a guest book with a few souvenir's to purchase on the honor system.
I took a short marco polo video for my family but completely forgot to take any pictures or video for this blog. Oh well, you can google it.
We rode back through Creede and followed the highway to South Fork. We didn't see JR.
We turned West on the highway towards Wolf Creek Pass and hadn't gone more then 10 miles when we hit road construction. We sat for over 20 minutes waiting for our turn to drive through. Despite the elevation it was hot. The sun was beating down on us as we stood around waiting.
When they finally let us go, we were in a big mass of cars that stayed clumped up all the way over the pass and into Pagosa. It was very frustrating riding with that big clump when someone would decide for no apparent reason, to hit their brakes and bring the entire clump to a stop There was little chance to pass and not much point in passing anyway.
We stopped for another break in Pagosa just because we were both tired and beginning to get monkey butt from the long ride.
The final push into Durango was the worst part of the day. Again, there was allot of traffic and the temperature was steadily climbing through the 80s and topped out at 91. The Arizonan's all laughed at us for being such wimps, but I'm just not used to the heat any more, and especially with the sun beating on me, I melt very easily. At least I'd remembered sun screen and don't think I got any sunburn.
In Durango we rode straight to Serious Texas BBQ to meet up with the rest of the group. They arrived an hour earlier and had already checked into the hotel. As usual, the food was very good and I ate way too much.
The hotel was just across the street. I started organizing pictures and writing this blog as soon as I got in. I'm never sure if anyone but my wife and kids actually read this thing, but I figure I'm leaving some piece of my personality for my grand kids and great grand kids to know who I am.
The plan for tomorrow is to be kick stands up at 8:30. But little does John know, my 3 wheel motorcycle doesn't have a kick stand!!!
Divide Colorado with the sun coming up behind us
beautiful pictures, be careful, have fun.... Love you
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