Day 5 Colorado Springs to Montrose, CO
It was a beautiful sun shining morning.
A little cool but the temps were rising nicely. Our target for the day was Durango. But noooooo.
Previously I had noticed that Gary's tires were BALD. That's right, no tread and we were heading into the mountains. He had called several shops in Pueblo and Co Spngs but being locked solid in moto shop tradition they were all closed on Monday. So Tuesday morning found us looking for tires. We ended up here...
Rocky Mountain Cycle Plaza. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Victory and Polaris. Oh yeah, don't forget SeaDoo. "That guy" was doing it again.
Gary was a good sport about it. He did apologize for not taking care of it before the trip. While they had the rear tire off they found the inner brake pad was almost to the metal. 40 bucks for rear pads installed. A good price on a set of Dunlops. His bike was the first one in. The Service Department did the best they could to get us on the road fast but it still took a long time. We ate breakfast just next door while waiting.
Good food. A notch up from Denny's; not quite IHOP. The place was full of octogenarians who all gave us the twice over. We aren't exactly bikers but the riding gear makes you stand out from that crowd for sure. The attitude popped up during breakfast. It was a little embarrassing since I'm sure all the old folks heard the conversation. But I put it past and when the bike was ready we all were ready to get on the road. New rubber is nice.
No way we would make Durango so we set our sights on Montrose. We rode the front range toward Canon City with intentions of stopping at Royal Gorge. The ride was pretty good to a point. Riding along 50 toward Canon City a Sherpa flew over and disgorged about 8 paratroopers. Cool. I was in the left lane with David next to me in the right lane. I was watching the paras while keeping my line steady. My peripheral vision saw David start to drift back and I glance in my mirror to see Chuck blowing past in between the two of us. He pulled immediately over to the shoulder and stopped. I just threw my hands in the air and kept going. Attitude was one thing but I had no use for unsafe riding. We rode into town and made a fuel stop. We ended up going to different stations since the one I stopped at was out of premium. I was first to catch back up to Perry and David. I told them that this was the last straw for me; something was going to have to change. So, on the side of the road in a parking lot we had another rider meeting. This took at least a half hour, I lost track of time. I won't go into everything that was said but we ended up agreeing to stay together. We would skip the gorge and try to make Ridgeway State Park south of Montrose for the night. I need to de-stress myself and since we would stay on the same highway all day I let Gary lead, he had the route in his Zumo also. The road got nice and the views got better with every mile. We were riding as a group again; except for Chuck. He dropped way back by himself. I could only see him on long straight sections.
The first glimpse of aspens coming into Salida.
East of Poncha Spngs heading toward Monarch Pass.
This is one of those circumstances where the photos really do not do justice to the real thing. The aspens were beautiful. It had been 30 years since I had seen them in person since growing up in Colorado and the memories were flooding back. You really have to see them to understand the beauty. I had visited Colorado in the summer but never in the fall. We kept the momentum up and blasted up the pass to the summit. This is me.
We posed in front of the sign for a photo, Chuck stopped about 30 yards away and sat on his bike.
After the photo we went into the gift shop for necessary stops and of course the purchase of some Colorado fudge.
As we stood around the bikes chatting, Chuck moved over to where we were parked but parked behind the sign.
Whatever, I was in a good mood after getting into the mountains and listening to my Dwight Yoakum collection.
We continued west with a fuel stop in Gunnison. On west past the Blue Mesa reservoir.
And finally to our main attraction for the day; the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We arrived about 1715. That's 5:15 PM for you that work on 12 hour clocks.
Not bad since the entrance station was closed for the day. If we were lucky, and we were, there would be no admission fee.
The scenic drive consists of about a dozen stops at overlook points on the south rim of the canyon. The first stop...
Perry and Gary...
Chuck parked out of site from the overlook once he caught up to us. David went over to talk to him in his best mediator/conflict resolution manners. We could hear Chuck since he was talking very loud. He would have none of it. He was through with us.
Perry and I went on to the next overlook at the visitor center, which was closed, and hiked out to the point. You just walk up to the edge and all that comes to mind is, "Wow!"
Two thousand feet down to the Gunnison River.
Walking back up we met Gary and David. Chuck had left to go on to Montrose. We would not see him again. He and David would be leaving early the next morning to ride directly home on the shortest route. David came on the trip specifically to ride HWY550 to Durango and he would get to do that. Then blast home on Interstate with Chuck in tow so Chuck would not be riding alone. In the meantime the four of us would see the rest of the canyon. It's all good, the views that is.
The sun was getting low so we stayed for the sunset. It was worth the wait.
We all rode into Montrose in the dark, found a Mexican food restaurant that was open and enjoyed a very nice meal. After dinner we thanked David for trying to keep things together and wished him a safe ride home. David went to the hotel Chuck had booked and the three that were left found another. Gary, Perry and I would finish the planned ride starting tomorrow.
P.S. I haven't gone into details of the disagreements between all of us because I did not want this to turn into a debate on the merits of any viewpoints. I only mentioned it to show that sometimes group dynamics don't work out as planned. It could happen with any group. I feel like we made every attempt to make it work but in the end we split up. We would talk about it from time to time for the remainder of the ride but the stress was gone.
Tomorrow is another day.