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The Second Epic Colorado Ride: 2022, continued:
Day 9: 403m. Can we beat any of the previous days? Maybe, maybe not. We head out of Colorado Springs on that same fun 4 laner, back to Woodland Park where we pick up hwy 67 to Deckers, Awesone. Then 126 to Silver Springs, beautiful, and US 285 to Conifer, busy, then 78 to Evergreen, to many homes and you really need to be slower, then 74 to 103. Hwy 103 is the high point of the day, no traffic absolutely beautiful, both technical, twisty, sweepers and just plain out of this world, like we have at home in Oregon. Trees, mountains, lakes, something new around every bend. We arrive at the entrance to Mt. Evans, highest paved hwy in the US. But decide not to enter because they too want you to have a reservation, instead we jump on I-70 and head home, ending in Vernal UT for the night. We left I-70 at hwy 9 and headed to Kremmling, then US 40 to Steamboat Springs, Craig, Dinosaur and then Naples UT for the ride out of Colorado. It wasn’t all awesome, just the morning ride. I would rid to Colorado to just do 103 again and I have done it 3 time now. The Sure Stay by Best Western in Naples has rooms with small kitchens, nice if you need to warm something up or use a full size refrigerator.
Day 10-11-12: 384m, 434m, 292m. Doug took off early 5:30-6:00 am on day 9 and rode home, reducing the 3 days to 1. He did it in one day, traveling 930 miles. He did this by crossing over UT into WY, back into UT then through ID and OR on I-84. I chose to grab a few GT chkpts at Arco, Ironside, Mitchell and Rhododendron. You can image the route I took which also included Mountain Home, Vale, John Day, Fossil, Maupin, Sandy and Home. Doug weaved his way through freeway traffic and had a good time doing it. Ya for Doug. Now if that were Mick Klinman, he would have ridden around the block until he got 1000 miles. My ride was more exciting, not that I would want you all to this kind of excitement. First Garmin suggested a shortcut in Garden City UT. The traffic was thick and it was hot, and the road was paved, so I bit, only to find the it turned to hard packed gravel. No problem, I continued, then it turned to 2-track. It’s not much further, so I bit. Don’t do this, it is a bad idea. Needless to say I was laughing at that stupid decision after I fell over. Jim Geddes says: “Stand up on the pegs and gas it”, Meylan says, “You need adventure tires like mine and you could have blasted up that!”, Bill says, “A nice off road landing, the bike actually looks that it has been softly laid down on it side intentionally.” Wayne Horner says, “maybe Garmin wants you to be an adventure rider”. And not to be outdone, Mike Law says: “Looks like a road Ron Clarno would Love!” All inside jokes, but you get the picture.
That happened on Day 10 going to Blackfoot ID. A Side by Side came upon be and a strong individual named Kenny, offered to help and then pick the bike up and turned it around so I could ride out. That made my day and I ended up following Google Maps the rest of the day.
Day 11: Blackfoot ID to John Day, OR. Felt good to be back in my area of the country. Mainly US 26 all the way. Picked up Arco and Ironside.
Day 12: John Day to Home. Not to be out done by only having one Crash, I happened upon a fellow animal on Bakeoven Rd. Only this animal was a deer, and she jumped out in front of me allowing me to hit it’s hind quarter as I was finishing a corner. That was number 4 deer for me. This one managed to live and move on, although the motorcycle drew blood. Getting gas in Maupin, the store guy offer wire ties to gather the pieces together so I could go home without them flapping in the wind. Worked great. Got home around 2:30 pm. The deer event added 2 hours to my ride, which started at 5:30am to beat the heat. It was 95 when I got home.
All in all, this ride was exceptional, with great roads, great experiences, great friend to share it with and arriving home in one piece, uninjured. No broken legs. Lesson to be learned here: “It is all good” as Tee Wan would say. The bike can be repaired and you make your adventure what it is, so make it a good one and you will be happy no matter what happens. If anyone is interested, I can send you maps or gpx files. (Note the gpx files may not be exactly as what we did as we changed it up a little, but if you read here what we changed, you can make the changes too). The link noted at the beginning has been updated to show what we actually did. Here are some pictures taken with my phone. I lost my camera in the North Rim of the Black Canyon so these are minus some good ones.
Day 9: 403m. Can we beat any of the previous days? Maybe, maybe not. We head out of Colorado Springs on that same fun 4 laner, back to Woodland Park where we pick up hwy 67 to Deckers, Awesone. Then 126 to Silver Springs, beautiful, and US 285 to Conifer, busy, then 78 to Evergreen, to many homes and you really need to be slower, then 74 to 103. Hwy 103 is the high point of the day, no traffic absolutely beautiful, both technical, twisty, sweepers and just plain out of this world, like we have at home in Oregon. Trees, mountains, lakes, something new around every bend. We arrive at the entrance to Mt. Evans, highest paved hwy in the US. But decide not to enter because they too want you to have a reservation, instead we jump on I-70 and head home, ending in Vernal UT for the night. We left I-70 at hwy 9 and headed to Kremmling, then US 40 to Steamboat Springs, Craig, Dinosaur and then Naples UT for the ride out of Colorado. It wasn’t all awesome, just the morning ride. I would rid to Colorado to just do 103 again and I have done it 3 time now. The Sure Stay by Best Western in Naples has rooms with small kitchens, nice if you need to warm something up or use a full size refrigerator.
Day 10-11-12: 384m, 434m, 292m. Doug took off early 5:30-6:00 am on day 9 and rode home, reducing the 3 days to 1. He did it in one day, traveling 930 miles. He did this by crossing over UT into WY, back into UT then through ID and OR on I-84. I chose to grab a few GT chkpts at Arco, Ironside, Mitchell and Rhododendron. You can image the route I took which also included Mountain Home, Vale, John Day, Fossil, Maupin, Sandy and Home. Doug weaved his way through freeway traffic and had a good time doing it. Ya for Doug. Now if that were Mick Klinman, he would have ridden around the block until he got 1000 miles. My ride was more exciting, not that I would want you all to this kind of excitement. First Garmin suggested a shortcut in Garden City UT. The traffic was thick and it was hot, and the road was paved, so I bit, only to find the it turned to hard packed gravel. No problem, I continued, then it turned to 2-track. It’s not much further, so I bit. Don’t do this, it is a bad idea. Needless to say I was laughing at that stupid decision after I fell over. Jim Geddes says: “Stand up on the pegs and gas it”, Meylan says, “You need adventure tires like mine and you could have blasted up that!”, Bill says, “A nice off road landing, the bike actually looks that it has been softly laid down on it side intentionally.” Wayne Horner says, “maybe Garmin wants you to be an adventure rider”. And not to be outdone, Mike Law says: “Looks like a road Ron Clarno would Love!” All inside jokes, but you get the picture.
That happened on Day 10 going to Blackfoot ID. A Side by Side came upon be and a strong individual named Kenny, offered to help and then pick the bike up and turned it around so I could ride out. That made my day and I ended up following Google Maps the rest of the day.
Day 11: Blackfoot ID to John Day, OR. Felt good to be back in my area of the country. Mainly US 26 all the way. Picked up Arco and Ironside.
Day 12: John Day to Home. Not to be out done by only having one Crash, I happened upon a fellow animal on Bakeoven Rd. Only this animal was a deer, and she jumped out in front of me allowing me to hit it’s hind quarter as I was finishing a corner. That was number 4 deer for me. This one managed to live and move on, although the motorcycle drew blood. Getting gas in Maupin, the store guy offer wire ties to gather the pieces together so I could go home without them flapping in the wind. Worked great. Got home around 2:30 pm. The deer event added 2 hours to my ride, which started at 5:30am to beat the heat. It was 95 when I got home.
All in all, this ride was exceptional, with great roads, great experiences, great friend to share it with and arriving home in one piece, uninjured. No broken legs. Lesson to be learned here: “It is all good” as Tee Wan would say. The bike can be repaired and you make your adventure what it is, so make it a good one and you will be happy no matter what happens. If anyone is interested, I can send you maps or gpx files. (Note the gpx files may not be exactly as what we did as we changed it up a little, but if you read here what we changed, you can make the changes too). The link noted at the beginning has been updated to show what we actually did. Here are some pictures taken with my phone. I lost my camera in the North Rim of the Black Canyon so these are minus some good ones.
