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Riding in Colorado - can't think of a catchy title, so there.

Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
1,087
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Location
Sugar Land, TX
First Name
Bryan
First off, this report will be posted in installments, the first few being a little disjointed and out of order. This because we are still in Colorado and internet connection where we are staying sucks, so we have to drive 20 miles to the nearest town and "borrow" internet access while sitting in the car.

This will be a short post to give you a taste of what BMWbabe (Mollie) and I are experiencing in Colorado, with full details to come later.

First off, I want to thank Hayduke and Bonnie Abzug (Duke and Tami) from the ADVrider board. Mollie and I each got to spend a day riding dirt with them. They live up here and know the area real well, and were happy to show us around - you guys ROCK! :clap:

Duke and Tami...

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OK, time for a few pics to whet your appetites....

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And for you sport-touring types...

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Oh, and lest you think the trip is without incident, I offer you this little pic courtesy of Duke...

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I guess I can't make fun of Squeaky anymore. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

More to come later....
 
I WANT TO GO HOME!!!!! :tears: Great pictures. It's a great time of year to be up there!!! Be Safe!
 
Beautiful pics!!!
I was wondering about you guys, looks like you're having a lot of fun!! looking forward to more pics and reports.
 
Well, now that you've all had a little preview of our Colorado trip, I'll start the story from the beginning. First off, motorcycling is only a small part of this trip. This is our annual family vacation that we take with my parents and our kids every summer. We always come to the same place, and last year, Mollie and I saw motorcycles everywhere. They were probably there all along, it's just that we noticed them for the first time. That trip last year is what inspired us to take the plunge and start motorcycling. Fast forward one year: we are back in Colorado this time with our own bikes - dream come true!

Now a lot of you may shun me for this, but we trailered bikes from Houston to Colorado. Reminder - family vacation, riding being a small part, children, grandparents, flights, luggage, etc - it was necessary. I borrowed a trailer from a friend who rides Harleys...

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So, I had our two BMWs cleverly hidden in the Harley trailer. :lol2:

I left at 5:00AM on Thursday, and drove all the way to Trinidad, CO that day, leaving only a short two-hour drive to the Colorado Springs airport to pick up the rest of the family. I really enjoyed driving by myself - it gave me a day on the road to unwind before really starting my vacation, and it was a much needed day to myself. Plus, by taking everyone's heavy luggage in the truck/trailor, I saved a lot of hassle for everyone else at the airport.

I also got to see some great scenery from the plains of northwest Texas, to Mount Capulin Volcano in northeastern New Mexico.

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So, we arrived at the ranch in Colorado on Saturday, and settled into our cabin. I went for a short ride down the Taylor River Canyon to the outfitter in Almont to pick up a fishing license, and we all went to town to get some supplies. Sunday, Mollie and I took the kids for a short ride from the ranch to Gunnison and back. They enjoyed it, but had other things they wanted to do, so it was short.

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Later that afternoon, Mollie and I had a couple of hours to kill while the kids were doing stuff with Grandpa, so we headed out for dual-sport ride into the back country. The ranch we stayed at is situated at the confluence of Spring Creek and the Taylor River. We rode up Spring Creek canyon to the Spring Creek reservoir, then looped around to the Taylor Park reservoir, and back down Taylor Canyon to the ranch. It was a beautiful, easy ride on well maintained gravel roads, and scenery is fantastic! Proved to be a good warm-up for rides later in the week.

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The end of a great day of riding...

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Stayed tuned for the next installment...
 
You don't need a catchy title ....... the pics speak for themselves. :thumb: Looks like the start of a memorable vacation. You make me want to go back to CO. :drool: Wish I had access to a bike trailer like that .... even if it has HD on it. ;-)
 
You don't need a catchy title ....... the pics speak for themselves. :thumb: Looks like the start of a memorable vacation. You make me want to go back to CO. :drool: Wish I had access to a bike trailer like that .... even if it has HD on it. ;-)

You know, hauling that trailer was the first time that I ever got biker waves while in the truck - all from other Harley riders of course! :rofl: Happened at least three times.
 
Great photography thanks for sharing.
 
Monday morning was clear and bright, and the kids were off wrangling horses for the morning. Mollie and I decided to ride down to Lake City and back for a fun little road ride. We fiddled around and were late getting started. By the time we got fueled up, there was no way were going to make it all the way there and back before we had to pick up the kids at lunch. So, we went as far as Powderhorn then turned around and headed back. We did have time to stop for photos at the world's smallest self-serve gas station in Almont.

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Oh, and here is a photo of the cabin we stayed in...

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Stay tuned...
 
Tuesday dawned bright and clear, the mountain air was a crisp 50º as I started down the Taylor Canyon on my 75 mile journey to Salida. Originally, Mollie and I had made arrangements for the kids to spend the day in activities at the ranch, but one of the crumb-crunchers wasn't feeling well the night before, and Mollie made the decision that I should go ride with Duke and Tami while she stayed with the kids. I protested that she should go instead, but she insisted. I felt a little guilty about going alone and leaving her on kid duty, but she said I could make up for it later in the week by letting her have a day to ride. Deal! :deal: Is Mollie a cool wife or what! :clap: :clap:

I had some great tunes dialed up on the iPod and it was a simply perfect Rocky Mountain morning as I made my way east on U.S. 50 over Monarch Pass and into Salida. At the top of the pass, a road crew had traffic stopped for about 5 - 10 minutes while they moved some heavy equipment about down the road a ways. When they finally let us through, the flagman was kind enough to signal to me that there was gravel on the roadway as I went past. I'm thinking of one of those beer commercials: we salute you, Colorado road crew flagman guy! :chug:

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I rolled up at Duke and Tami's house at 9:15 after an exilherating ride to Salida. Tami ran out of the house, looked at me, then looked down the road for Mollie, and was crestfallen when I told her we had a sick child and that she elected to stay at the ranch. We exchange introductions and pleasantries, then mounted up and headed over to West End Cafe in Salida for breakfast. Very cool old auto garage converted to a restaurant, and great food.

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Well fed and burping delightedly, we headed out of town, Tami leading with Duke riding sweep.

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The plan was to head east a ways, and hit the dirt roads and jeep trails and make our way up to Buena Vista where we would grab some lunch and then see what to do next. A few miles out of town, we turned off on a dirt road that wound it's way along the north bank of the Arkansas river. As we turned off, Duke and Tami paused to discuss whether we would be able to get through or not, due to the high water in the river. I soon saw whey they were concerned...

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Duke thought that the water was about 2 - 3 feet over the road and it was swift, although flowing along our path and not across it. Tami was a little hesitant as was I, so we decided to go back to the highway and ride further east where we could hit another dirt road. That proved to be a great decision and we were soon heading up into the high country.

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photo by Hayduke

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We were all impressed that these cowboys were using horses instead of ATVs to drive the herd...
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The rest is mostly just a blur of incredible scenery and fun dirt riding. As a fairly novice dirt rider, I asked Duke for some pointers and his instruction was very helpful. I was also amazed at how much my old mountain biking skills played into riding the GS on dirt, especially on the steep, rocky climbs. It required a lot of concentration and a lot of letting the bike do its thing, but I tried to keep my head still and stay smooth and everything seemed to work well. I was actually a little surprised at how well things went with such a big bike...

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The photo doesn't quite convey how steep this was. :eek2:
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photos by Hayduke

So we were riding along and I was leading at this point. Things were going good and I was feeling confident cruising along at 15 - 20 MPH when I came upon a little run-off ditch cutting across the jeep trail. No problem, roll on the throttle and lighten the front wheel and across you go - simple, right? That is, it's simple if you give it enough gas, which I did not. I slammed the front wheel into the ditch at about 20 MPH and the bike completely bottomed out. It was a hard hit, a very hard hit, but I stayed on and rode through it. Suddenly I felt something strange in the vicinity of the rear wheel. "Oh, now you've done it Sparky, you stupid ****, you've got a flat." I said to myself as I slowed to a stop. Much to my relief, I looked down to see my topbox lying on the ground next to the bike. Oh, that was what I felt, not so bad I thought.

I got off the bike and looked back to see Duke and Tami slowing to a stop beside me. I could see through their helmets a stunned look on both their faces. "What?" I asked.

Excitedly, they told me that when I bottomed out, the topbox launched straight up and forward a little, catching at least 10 feet of air before starting it's descent.:brainsnap Tami said she was yelling "Don't stop!" inside her helmet because it looked like the topbox was going to land on my head! I was stunned. "You're joking, right?" I asked. They both shook their heads and we all started laughing at how ludicrous this was. I inspected the topbox and it seemed OK, so I remounted it and off we went.

Later in the ride I'm humming along a jeep trail following Tami, Duke had ridden ahead to take photos of us coming down the hill. At the bottom of the hill there was a little dip, and I rode through it fairly smoothly I thought, but I felt something weird and looked back to see the topbox lying on the ground again. This time the event was captured on film thanks to Duke...

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Photo by Hayduke

I remounted the box and bungied it down this time so it wouldn't come off again. After I got back to the ranch that afternoon, I had a chance to do a more careful inspection and found that one of the mounts had cracked, probably on the first launch. I'm guessing that's why it came off so easily the second time. Since it's less than a year old, I'm going to see BMW about a warranty replacement. I'll let you know what I find out.

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The rest of the ride was uneventful. The scenery was simply amazing, and I was in awe of the views from up in the high country. This is why I bought a dual-sport bike.

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Photo by Hayduke

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Photo by Hayduke

We hit a little rain on the descent into Buena Vista, and saw some amazing lightning strikes as we descended into town. The rain didn't last long, and had stopped by the time we sat down to burgers at K's.

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It was getting late, and I only had a short hour-and-a-half ride across Cottonwood Pass to get back to the ranch. Tami and Duke decided to go to the top with me. The east side of the pass is paved, with lots of switch-backs - some peg-draggin' good fun.

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We stopped at the top, and discussed the possibility of them following me down to the ranch to meet Mollie. Tami was already tired, so they decided against it since it would put them very late getting home. They did say that they were planning to come over this way the next day, and would Mollie be interested in joining them. "Heck yeah!" I said, and we agreed that they would come over the next day and go out for a ride with Mollie. I'll let her tell that story.

Tami, Duke, you guys ROCK! Thank you so much for helping make this one of my most memorable vacations ever! Oh, and thanks Duke for letting me share your photos! Feel free to post up any additions you have along with any other photos of yours I didn't use here. Thanks again guys!!!:thumb:

Stay tuned, more to come...
 
Mmmm... Cottonwood Pass :drool:

There is a certain goat trail in that area that another TWT rider showed us when we were out there a few years ago. The first mile or two are pretty challenging and then it turns into a spectacular ride!! He splits his time between Houston and Crested Butte. He just happened to be up there when we were there. He also took us around the West side of Taylor Reservoir after we came down off Cottonwood. It to was an awesome ride :ride:
 
Mmmm... Cottonwood Pass :drool:

There is a certain goat trail in that area that another TWT rider showed us when we were out there a few years ago. The first mile or two are pretty challenging and then it turns into a spectacular ride!! He splits his time between Houston and Crested Butte. He just happened to be up there when we were there. He also took us around the West side of Taylor Reservoir after we came down off Cottonwood. It to was an awesome ride :ride:

There are about a million little jeep trails and such all over this area. I wish I had at least another week to explore more of them. Our first ride together on this trip between Spring Creek and Taylor reservoirs was in the area west of Taylor that you were talking about. Incredibly beautiful country up there. :rider:
 
Is Tincup Pass on your agenda? That' a nice one too. You are in my favorite area in Colorado. :drool: I've climbed several of the 14'ers around Buena Vista and Twin Lakes and have really loved backpacking up there. I'm heading there in a couple of weeks on vacation. The wife doesn't ride so I'll be in the cage but it's wonderful just the same. :thumb: Can't wait for your next report.
 
Is Tincup Pass on your agenda? That' a nice one too. You are in my favorite area in Colorado. :drool: I've climbed several of the 14'ers around Buena Vista and Twin Lakes and have really loved backpacking up there. I'm heading there in a couple of weeks on vacation. The wife doesn't ride so I'll be in the cage but it's wonderful just the same. :thumb: Can't wait for your next report.

Actually, Tincup-Cumberlin Pass-Pitkin will be in Mollie's report. She rode that with Duke and Tami. Hope you have a great time up there! :thumb:
 
Sparky, how are you getting to the Internet while on your trip? What camera are you using? Awesome photos.
Thanks
:sun:
 
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