Mini COBDR 11-14 Sep 2017
Day 3 - Alpine Loop: Got a bit of a late start as it took me a while to pack everything up into the Mosko Moto R80 bags. I did enjoy some fresh coffee while packing. Made Lake City and filled up Sparky. Section 3 was the longest stretch without fuel & glad to find some there. 136 miles took 1.6 gallons; so I was under 1/2 tank (3 gal) with a 85 mpg! Will have to double check those figures.
I went the North side of the Alpine Loop from Lake City towards Engineer pass & Ouray. RG was spot on about the Aspen's changing! I took some nice GoPro shots on the easy graded roads leading up to the final climb of Engineer pass. Unfortunately my GoPro & I are not getting along. Somehow it got into photo burst mode instead of video, & my view angle is way too low. Will have to see If I can salvage some frame shots when I have time to edit. I did not have much traffic and made that section in less than an hour. Below green path is the steeper climb section up, and the red path is the descent.
I did not have much traffic the entire route. Maybe 6-10 jeeps & 5-10 bikes. The bikes were all Of the plated dirt-bike variety. NO large ADV bikes. That should of been a clue of what was to come...
The (green) climb up was a bit steep at times, with a few switchbacks, that were mostly visible. That is, you could see far enough to pick a line around & through the corners. Again, I had light traffic and did not have to adjust or change most of my assent lines.
Sparky was gasping for air. You really noticed it when starting the motor. Seemed like the battery was weak and she idled low, just barely coming to life. The weather at top was cold, and light rain/snow, so I didn't stay long. Good thing because the tough part was yet to come.
The first 2-3 miles of descent were very much like the climb; predictable & switchbacks not too difficult, with light traffic. Then it settled down a bit & I saw this fresh roadkill. A quick reminder of how things could go terribly wrong in an instant on the road I had just travelled.
The road soon changed to single lane width, rocky, steps, blind corners, jagged embedded rock & loose shale. Often the smoother line was on the edge side, & rocky, stepped line was in the mountian side. Great for jeep rock crawling. I was hoping this would subside soon & I would find more of those nicely graded forest service roads again. That was NOT to be the case!
I soon sucked through my hydration pack, as I spent 95% of my time on the pegs, weighed over the rear of the seat, covering both breaks, as I battled the terrain. I mean "battle" It was time to be serious and focus with attack attitude. Not be timid and unsure - that leads to uncertainty and mistakes. This was by far the toughest stuff I had ridden. I only stopped to catch my breath, and relax my grip on the bars. It took me over 2 hours to cover the red section. I had several dabbs, and one very close slow-skid fall.
Ironically the close call was only .7 away from the end of the trail. I was hugging the inside, line and came down a step, when the front tire deflected to alter my path towards the cliff edge; I was on it and braked, but the section was steep, the rear wheel skidded and the front tire butted up against a bolder. I managed to keep balanced on the bike, favoring the uphill side with my weight. I ended up with the rear tire downhill, & the bike pointed uphill at about a 35° angle, lodged sideways in the middle of the road! So not quite a 180° skid, but close.
I placed my uphill foot down, caught my breath and looked at the cliff edge for a moment assessing how to get out of this predicament. I kept my weight uphill (left foot on ground) backed down about a foot to release the front tire off the bolder. Then tried turning the front wheel side to side to get the front tire to gently slip down hill of the rear tire. This worked to a degree, but it was not enough of a downhill angle as I was still pointed towards the edge and not to a good line. Again I caught my breath and decided I needed to get off the bike. Could't put the kickstand down because the downhill angle was too great, and the kickstand needed to be about 6 inches shorter.
With all the gear, I was normally getting on the bike by use of the foot pegs, with kickstand deployed. Well that wasn't going to work. I carefully stood on the left foot, balanced the bike and dragged the right foot across the seat. After making this successful dismount, I was able to continue turning the front tire back & forth to get it pointed more downhill. Walked the bike down to the next bolder on my left side (wasn't far) then carefully mounted and resumed the descent, knowing it was not much further to the road.
When I came to pavement, I took about a half hour break. Since it was about 3, and this descent took a tole on me, I bailed on the the rest of my intended Alpine Loop, and headed up to Ouray, then Montrose for a cozy motel and early night.
This is a view of the last 100 yards before the road, I tried to keep the camera level to show some steepness. This was the only easy section in the last 2+ hours!