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KP & Rhodynes Colorado and New Mexico adventure 2016

Joined
Nov 25, 2012
Messages
18,504
Reaction score
678
Location
Lampasas
First Name
Drew
Last Name
Wright
This is a motorcycle adventure Carl and I have been trying to do for 5 years. Finally the stars aligned and off we went. I have been friends with Carl since high school. High school was the best seven and a half years of my life.:rofl:

Like many we hauled our rides thru the heat of Texas in the back of my wives truck:sun:. She helped so much on this trip,picking up on her dime many of the extras we needed to make it there and back.

Stopped real quick at Mickey Dees for drinks and noticed a oil leak that I thought I had fixed back in Texas. Crawling between the bikes to remove the skid plate was fun,not. Looked odd and thought it might be leaking around the filter. Headed to unload mine at Summerlan RV park for closer inspection. Carl figured out what it was pretty quick after a trial run over to 25. Several loose 8mm bolts. Most likely caused while mounting the skid plate. A wipe down followed by another test ride problem solved. Unload his Wee then off we go.

Headed north west from Raton towards 50. Our first stop for the night would be Gunnison. A cool spot Carl had researched where we hung our helmets for three nights. The KOA on the edge of town. Pics in next posting.:photo:

There is still construction going on in Dalhart but it only delayed us on the way home. Left late late Saturday night for cooler temps. I drove from about 9:30 till 3AM. Carl did the last leg of the trip to Raton,New Mexico.
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First stop for a ice cream sandwich and some Gatoraids.
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Took CO12 out of Trinidad. Carl located a short cut that shaved off a few minutes and got us some dirt time. Some dirt and pavement to our first resting point in Gunnison.
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CO50 from Texas Creek to Salida and beyond was amazing. Will have to go back for pictures next trip. Nice twisty and scenic better than the other side of 50 towards Montrose. Cannot wait to ride it again.:deal:

Going to post in increments due to three hours of posting this thread earlier and getting booted off.:angryfire

More pictures and notes to follow. KP
 
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"Going to post in increments due to three hours of posting this thread earlier and getting booted off.:angryfire

More pictures and notes to follow. KP[/quote]"



Do your report on Microsoft Word and then copy and paste. Save your work periodically and no more work lost.
 
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Was pretty hot on 69 we pulled over drank some more Gatoraid then headed towards Salida. There were some fire up on our left in the mountains but it did not effect our riding. 50 is amazing between our turn off at Texas Creek and Gunnison.

Stopped for some tea and a snack of french fries to tide us over till Gunnison. 50 Burger in Salida was where we came to rest for 30 minutes or so. Note to TEA drinkers Colorado does not know what sweet tea is. Nearly every place serves it unsweetened. Made me turn to coffee and water several times.
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Then back in the saddle for our final leg to Gunnison KOA just on the edge of town near the airport.

These are two of the asses we ran across on our vacation.:rofl:
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Gunnison KOA office. Nice friendly folks.
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Went into town and dined at The Ole Miner steak house. Stick to the steaks and avoid the CFS it was a generic frozen food truck patty. Very disappointing for $14.99.

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The tent cabin we hung our helmets in for three days.
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Nicely padded single twin bunk style beds. Does get chilly at night so sleeping bags are a must.
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Next morning a wonderfully tasty breakfast at The "W" cafe. My favorite b-fast place in the territory. Only open till 2PM so make a note when planning to head there. French toast was amazing.
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Then off with Bob and the Saint for some dirty business.
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Sights along the dirty back road.
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The rain followed us just about everywhere we went. Even Bob and the Saint could not keep it away.
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A snowmobile broke down at the end of the trail.
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Continued..........ride to Crested Butte........Bob,Saint.Carl and Me. Stopped to get a bite to eat and hide hopefully from the rain.
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Bob and crew shared a burger.
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Some quick snaps of CB downtown area.
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From there we took the fast way home down 135 towards Almont to skirt around the rain. Did stop in at the local diner for coffee and pie.
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The back deck.
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Next a little visit to Zephyr who was just setting up camp at the Tall Texan.
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We attempted to ride CO114 towards Saguache but the heavy rain made it too dangerous. Odd that this road was full of semis? Also nine wacky sheep and some Dodge truck parked in the middle of the road around a corner. Thanks Liteitup for the info.:clap:
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Do not stop here on 114 skitters tried to carry us away.
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Fancy flashlight dinner of ham sandwiches and chips from the nearby Safeway.
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Any time is a fine time for 149. Twistier than I remember it. We rode it twice. Dry the way up and you guessed it raining on the painful way back.
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Sweet looking place to camp out on CO149.
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Some falls pics.
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A stranger who gave us some advice!
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More later including the incident.
 
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Do your report on Microsoft Word and then copy and paste. Save your work periodically and no more work lost.[/QUOTE]




Thank you,will do as soon as I learn how. Not too computer savvy. Man that was a lot of work for nothing.:doh: Three hours down the tube.:suicide:
 
Stopping for a burger at a mexican food place was not a good idea. It was burnt to a crisp. Creede was a quick in and out.
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Now for the fun part. It was getting sorta warm so I thought hey how about a ride into the creek.:eek2: This was what Carl called "a hold my beer and watch this moment." Carl was heading us toward a abandoned mine to take pics. The terrain was very rocky and with my too tall seat crossing it was extremely difficult. My front wheel caught a half buried rock and shot me over into Rat Creek. Did my best to save it and just slid into the fast rushing creek. Luck for me my ankle saved the bike from serious damage.:trust: Sadly it was badly bruised or more from there. Carl jumped off his bike to help lift it off of me. Retrieving the BMW from the creek was breath taking. My ankle was barking and every pull on the bike was painful. We walked it back down across the makeshift bridge and rested in the shade. Had to see the mine so I wobbled up to the point at a extremely slow pace for a few pictures. The ride back down 149 was different with the injury and the rain. Was using my heal to move the shift lever.
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The air seemed to be 40-50 degrees coming out of the mine.
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Near the end of CO149 there was snow on each side of the road. No pic we were trying to stay ahead of a group of riders behind us.

Dinner at Bobs that night. He was kind enough to pic us up in the truck and loan me a cane for the rest of my journey.
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Double rainbow.
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Rest Monday. More pictures and more adventure.
 
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Looks like a great trip Drew. Looks like beautiful country and great camping. Bet you hated to come back to the heat.
 
Great ride report and pics. Sorry about the "get off"

I was at the Tall Texan in June, great campground and clean showers.

Heading back to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Sturgis August 4


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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Great ride report and pics. Sorry about the "get off"

I was at the Tall Texan in June, great campground and clean showers.

Heading back to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Sturgis August 4


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Tall Texan owner, Yonie, will appreciate a good review on Trip Advisor. I'm going to give him a five star rating.
 
Guess I'll throw in here. Didn't take as many pics as Drew but I snapped a few for posteriors.

As noted this was a long time in the planning. Life blocked it happening before. And life stepped in a couple times before we headed out this time but we ignored her - to Drew's demise. :doh:

The trip to Raton was boring and done at night. We started after we were loaded up - about 9pm - and we got there about 8am the next morning. Minor mechanical problems were resolved after unloading and we were gone. After a full nights truck ride we hopped on for a full days bike ride. Made for some interesting moments but still fun.

Note the difference in load. His bike clean with hard luggage and mine with everything but the kitchen sink. Well maybe just a small sink. :loco:
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I didn't take any pictures Sunday or for most of Monday.
So here was one in Crested Butte. The wife would love this.
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Next day the plan was 149 out to Creede and back with several stops.

Campground halfway to Lake City. This wooden bridge looked and smelled new.
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Well hidden campground in the curve of the river.
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Pushed through some roadside growth to snap a pic of this waterfall. Turned out to not be much.
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The overlook near the top of Slumgullion Pass. Lake City is down there around the curve of one of those mountains.
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North Clear Creek Falls. Been between Creede and Lake City several times and haven't seen this before. It's below road level and facing away so a drive-by doesn't get it.
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Here we are at a Taco place in Creede. Worst hamburgers ... not a specialty.
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Something of relevance to the next pic and Drew's downfall here. I've been up in this area multiple times with the wife and sometimes my brother - a big 4x4 guy. Creede is ground zero for our trips up this way. We even did a vacation rental on the road out to an abandoned mine shaft that's at road level. You can drive right up to it. Or could.

So when we got out to the back end of the road, I didn't pay much attention to the washed out section. I just goosed it and duck-walked thru. Nearly dumped a few times but got just above the washout and stopped to make sure Drew got through ok. He didn't. :brainsnap
Watched him in the mirror. He was coming up ok, hit a piece of gravel that didn't move so it pointed his front straight out from the mountain across the creek. His reflexes brought it along side the bank but he was already below grade at that point. His quick reactions also meant he played meat-bashplate and protected the side of his crank and even the shift lever.

What reflexes. What selflessness. What the ****!

So here is the narrow section. Hard to tell but the level part is only a couple feet wide with fist-sized gravel in loose dirt. If you look close you can see some of the gravel that we used to make a ramp to drag the Beemer out of the creek.
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No more pics from this day. Followed him back to camp and propped up his foot for a bit. PM'd Bob and told him Drew bent a flipper going for the Mountain Frogman award. Didn't even know it was up for grabs!
Bob picked us up in his truck and we had dinner with Bob, Theresa, Robert and Ron.

We had several options on the table but in the morning Drew felt he could ride for a bit. He said it only hurt to put pressure on it. He was shifting with his heel too. But it worked. Only really hard parts were getting on or off the bike. Didn't help that his good foot would catch the cane every now and then. Or that he sometimes couldn't put enough pressure on the kickstand to raise it. I helped where I could.

Over to Montrose and down to Durango were scenic to say the least. Got rained on between Ouray and Silverton. Here we are in Silverton after a snack.
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Some pass outside of Silverton on the way to Durango.
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And here's Drew at the Serious Texas Bar-B-Q in Durango.
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Good sweet tea - can't find it anywhere else in the state. Good pulled pork. And the cobblers looked good just couldn't eat any more.
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Next day we were headed to Raton to wrap up the trip.
Went around 160 between Durango and Pagosa Springs. Got a good pic of the bikes with Chimney Rock from a distance. But the road went right by it eventually.
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Somewhere in New Mexico I believe.
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And here we are at an overlook in New Mexico. Different type of view from the least few days.
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Stopped at Calamity Jane's Restaurant in Eagles Nest. Good pie. And the chicken fried steak smelled good but we weren't that hungry.
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After some required chain maintenance we were on the last leg to Raton. Stopped here because I though I saw part of my load flapping in the breeze. Turned out not to be.
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But in this desolate stretch we did find a local.
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That baby rattler kept wanting to go under the bikes. Had to use the cane to move him and boy, did he fight that. Definitely made him mad.
But no ankle bites and no dead snake. :clap:

On our way out of Raton the next morning we grabbed breakfast here.
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Doesn't look like much but really good food. And about half of the place was a gift shop. Kind of like Stuckey's used to be only better.

Then there was this that I have no explanation for.
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Thanks for the ride reports Drew and Carl. I guess I'm not up to the pain tolerance Drew has. He really deserves his Mountain Frogman trophy. Yawl did good. Great pictures. I'm glad the trip continued. The memory will get better as the years pass. I really felt sad as I left Colorado knowing my visit was over. I'll bet you two make another trip as soon as possible.
 
Looks like a great trip, Drew. The VStrom looks like one of Mr2Mch's old hand-me-downs; great bikes, one and all.

Where was the tent-cabin? Looks interesting.

Glad you managed to get away this year. This year was a total washout for me, but hoping for better times in 2017.
 
Drew, how's the healing going? You're not a whiner but I was there Tuesday night.

Thank you for asking. Slow,still painful to move it but did go to work but it has been dead so far. So not much walking thank God. Seemed to get worse last night so iced it down again. Seems to be bruised on both sides now. About twice the size as the right one. Using Bob cane to make it easier on me. Shifting with my heal and climbing on the bike was a learning curve. Trying to dismount my right foot kept getting caught on the cane or the kickstand side saddle bag. Oh and Carl had to help put the stand up half the time to be able to get underway.
 
Looks like a great trip, Drew. The VStrom looks like one of Mr2Mch's old hand-me-downs; great bikes, one and all.

Where was the tent-cabin? Looks interesting.

Glad you managed to get away this year. This year was a total washout for me, but hoping for better times in 2017.

Tim the tent cabin was really neat. Was at the Gunnison KOA. Not many have them,maybe only Gunnison. Great idea for those semi-ruffing it. No AC just a fan but it got cold enough to shut the little windows you see in the pics. Carl was the one who found them they are around $38 a night. Way nicer than a tent with showers and restrooms only a hobble away.:lol2: The pads on the bed where better than a air up tent pad.

These would work for those needing a spot to lock up gear and those on a budget who do not like to tent camp. We had planned on primative camping but the injury put that on the back burner. All you need is a sleeping bag to stay warm. Seemed like it got down to the high 40s or low 50s at night.

Gunnison would be a good hub for any ride in CO. So many roads so little time. Missed several but those can be done down the road.
 
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Near the end of CO149 there was snow on each side of the road. No pic we were trying to stay ahead of a group of riders behind us.

Is this from another tip over...? :ponder:

Glad you liked the BBQ place in Durango. We all enjoyed it on our trip.

If you have not had the ankle X-rayed, you probably should, just to be safe. Mine did not hurt too bad and wasn't too swollen, but it turned out to be a pretty bad break requiring surgery and 10 weeks in a cast. Snoopster's ankle didn't swell too bad when she broke hers after a mild drop in some sand. Her's did not require surgery, just a cast for a 4-5 weeks if I remember right. As my ortho doc told me, "You don't really HAVE to have surgery, but at your age, there is a real risk of arthritis getting in there and causing trouble if you don't..." My age!? I was only 42 at the time!! :twitch:
 
^
Sounds like a good advise, hope it is not too serious and that it will heal soon.
Very nice report / pictures.
 
...... & I bet ol Goldie absolutely loved the trip

Ya'll can't imagine what it's like seein a part of yourself (albeit mechanical) fulfillin someone else's funtime getaway. Thanx for the great pix...& a storied tale!!

I cant wait till I can get away for a bit...... treading a tenuous trail till then
 
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Really brings back memories of my trips to the area. Thanks for sharing. Lake City always a fond memory due to having to buy a car ( 98 Buick Century to be able to get my Mom into ) then having to put a 1" towing bar on it to haul my little utility trailer with my DR350 to spend a week camping and roaming that area. Fond memories.
 
...

If you have not had the ankle X-rayed, you probably should, just to be safe. Mine did not hurt too bad and wasn't too swollen, but it turned out to be a pretty bad break requiring surgery and 10 weeks in a cast. Snoopster's ankle didn't swell too bad when she broke hers after a mild drop in some sand. Her's did not require surgery, just a cast for a 4-5 weeks if I remember right. As my ortho doc told me, "You don't really HAVE to have surgery, but at your age, there is a real risk of arthritis getting in there and causing trouble if you don't..." My age!? I was only 42 at the time!! :twitch:

Oooo, you jinxed it. :wary:

Drew went to the doc to have it checked - broken fibula and a bone chip. Could be off that foot for the next +8 weeks. Assuming he actually listens to his doctors.

His home internet link is down because of work being done in his area. He'll be offline until either his link is fixed or he hobbles into work.
 
Great ride report and beautiful pictures, KP and Carl. Thanks for the write-up, especially after losing the first three-hour effort.

Sorry to hear about the incident but glad you could tolerate and avoid a premature end to the trip. Mend soon, Drew.
 
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