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Sam and friends take on the rain and rocks in Colorado

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Way earlier in this thread you saw a few pics of this old mining structure:

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Here are a few more interior pics. The construction was remarkable. Sam knew quite a bit about it:

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Sorry I have been busy or out of town for the last week. Thanks John for keeping up with the posts/pics.
Day 5 : time to get out of Ouray .
We decided to move camp. It's always hard to leave that beautiful area but the rains made it an easier decision. As we packed up camp, our neighbor on the next camp came by for a chat. We thought of going to Taylor park or the Leadville area ( mosquito pass ) . He raved about the single track areas at Taylor park so the decision was made to head to that area. We only had 2 days of riding left before having to head back. Going away from our tow vehicle made the return on paved roads longer but it sounded like it was worth the effort.

We went north on 550 passed Ridgeway. A couple of miles later we turned right to go over Cimarron pass and Castle Rock. It was a great road. Very easy but supper scenic . Lots of grasslands, ranches and mountain views. We covered ground quickly . Cimarron road connects to Hwy 50. At that point we rode hwy for about 30 mile. Passed gunnison reservoir and made it to Gunnison . While the boys went into a motorcycle shop for supplies I looked into Trip Advisor for a good place for lunch. We agreed that The Power Stop sounded good for burgers.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura...952-Reviews-Power_Stop-Gunnison_Colorado.html

Please do yourself a favor and stop there the next time you visit Gunnison. Great place. Burgers are amazing, full bar, clean, good service. I even had a free beer. They had a promotion; head or tails, if you get it right, beer is free of charge. I won. It's a gas station also. One stop shop. Liked it so much we ate there on the way back too.
 
Instead of taking the usual ( and beautiful ) ride up 135 and 742 to Taylor park, I took the guys a little further east on hwy 50 and turned north on 76. That took us over Cumberland pass and into Silver Plume area. Passed that we made it to Taylor Park. Looking for camp wasn't too hard. Lots of places close and far from civilization. We decided on a place that gave us lots of room and was close to the reservoir store/gas station.

After setting up camp quickly we rode some of the easy trails close to camp . We also took some nice jumps and played with the cattle that roams free.
I bought a book of atv trails to give us a guide of what's available. It was very helpful. You could ride that area for 2 weeks and not get bored. We only had 24 hours. Camp food was good and a couple of Coors lights ( the only beer available at the store ) made the night a nice one.

Guess what? It rained again. We just couldn't get away from being wet. None of us had much issue with the rain, it was just uncomfortable.
 
Day 6: plan is to go over Taylor pass and into Aspen. Sam and John hadn't been there and wanted to see the town.
We changed our plan when we found the roads to the pass in a bad state of erosion or impassable due to a river.
The second plan became Ptarmigan lakes. We soon found that trail to be tough also. It went up a river of rocks and fast moving water. I could see the indecision on the guys so I insisted we do that trail and the guys set their minds on it too. I rode the KLR for a change. That monster has great torque and it will just go where it's pointed. I had fun pushing it around. We had a few tough areas to go over but we all did just fine on them.
There was a nice detour to the left facing mountain to Ptarmigan and we decided to go try it. Lots of very small , loose rock and steep hills with no margin of error on that trail. We came to about 20 feet from the top and the snow stopped our progress. There was talk of just shoveling the snow and making it to the end but it soon changed to just leaving the bikes and hiking the last bit. Fantastic views all around. Colorado is amazing!
 

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It was around noon when we took the same trail back. It went from blue sky to crazy thunder in a couple of minutes. As we went down lighting and hail started. The hail made everything white in quick order. The trail was a river of white and very hard to ride since we couldn't see what was a rock vs fast moving water. Once the lighting was on top of us we had to leave the bikes on the river/trail and go take shelter a hundred yards away. We pulled out a large trash bag and stood there just waiting for the main part of the storm to pass.
 

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Once the big part of the storm passed we continued. The water on the trail was running fast so it took some of the hail away and we could see a little better. It sure was cold ! The trail was just as tough on the way down. I'm glad none of us had a fall. If the trail was tough without the rain you can just imagine what it was like during the storm.
Once out of that trail we went to the Dorchester camp area and took shelter at a forest service cabin. I was able to finally put on my rain attire ( the storm didn't give me a chance before) . Once I warmed up.....of course the rain stopped and blue sky showed up again.
We had our minds to head back to camp and just enjoy the ride back. John actually did do just that ( we later found out he also decided on his second night at a cabin on this trip) Sam and myself thought we would ride a little longer.
The innkeeper of the cabin mentioned Flag Mountain as a good ride. We decided on including Flag mountain on a long loop that also included Italian mountain trail.
The ride to Flag mountain was great and the flag and views where incredible.
Sam noticed we used more gas than we thought so far. The loop we decided on would have to be shortened. A look at the map showed a little trail that would cot our ride by 2/3 . We decided to take it......big mistake.
 

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I'm going to attach a link to ADV rider so you can read what happened next:doh:

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=998337


I'm also going to copy my explanation here for the ones that don't want to go read that one.

Thanks for all the concerns. We extended ourselfs on gasoline. The plan was to go from Taylor Park over the pass and into Aspen. That got derailed when some of the hills proved to tough for the KLR. Once we headed up to another area (Ptarmigan lake) and back we had used 1/2 a tank. It rained and hailed on us coming back to the Ranger office close to a campground. We dried up and the KLR decided to go back to camp. The 2 ktm Riders talked to the Ranger about some rides in the area that might provide a challenge. He recommended a long loop (20 miles) that included American flag mountain and Italian Creek. Once we finished American Flag, we noticed that we had used more gas than we wanted. A quick GPS check showed a single track that would only be 8 miles long and would drop us into road #748. Then we could take #742 back to camp.
Little did we know the toughness of the little trail. It was muddy and steep with large boulder to go up, around and down on. After an hour we only did about 2 miles and used a lot of gas doing it. We decided to turn back to#759 since we knew we didn't have enough gas to make it much farther than that road. At that point my partner with the Spot decided that if he pushed the help button his wife would get in touch with the KLR rider and he would come to the location of the Spot, then we could send him out for gas. We also sent text but signal was non existent.
Little did we know of the consequences of pushing the button. Both our wife's started calling the authority and my brother. They couldn't get in touch with the KLR rider.
From the previous posts you can see what was going on while we rode back to a main road.
The KTM 690 run out of gas at the start of a shortcut to camp. I (KTM 530) didn't know he ran out of gas so I kept going till the end of the shortcut. After 5 minutes I had to go back up. There are a couple of tough spots if going up but it was fun getting over them. I found my friend walking down the trail towards me with gas can in tow.
Now we had to ride 2 up on the 530 thru the shortcut. He had to get off a couple of times. We rode all the way back to the guard station. The very nice gentleman was happy to see us again. We told him we needed gas and he said he always kept 15 gallons around for just that occasion. At that point I asked my friend to send out the OK signal on the Spot device and he did.
We rode 2 up via the long way to his bike. Once filled we rode back to Taylor reservoir in the rain. We just made it to the restaurant with 10 minutes to spare. We started checking our phones and apologized to our wifes.

My friend had to file a report with the sheriff the next day. No one was dispatched so no charges.
Thanks everyone for your quick response.
 
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We made it to the restaurant by camp with 10 minutes to spare. The waitress was very nice to serve these two wet, stinky , hungry and muddy riders.
After that we headed to camp. No John at camp. He was at a warm cabin with shower and snacks. We couldn't think about doing anything other than go lay down and sleep. :giveup:
Taylor Park showed us who is boss.
 
Last day :
I woke up feeling refreshed.

In retrospect the day before was one of my best riding experiences ever. I was with two very capable riders, in Colorado ( my favorite) and I was riding a wonderful motorcycle . I'm in great health and no one or no bike was hurt while riding some of the hardest trails of my life. That's what I wanted when this trip was planned and that's what Colorado gave me. I could of done without the hail but that just adds to the adventure.

John had packed his camp the day before. On this day, Sam and myself packed our things and placed them on the bikes.
We made it to John's cabin and finished up the packing. I was on reserve so I headed to get some gas. No gas ! ! Pumps are down and no suggestions from the owners of when they could be back on. I made a quick call to Sam and told him he might have to get some gas from someone at the cabins.
We had to make it to Gunnison or Buena Vista for gas.
Sam acquired some free gas from a fellow rider. It was only a couple of gallons so we had to be careful with our right hands. The decision was made to go to Gunnison since it's mostly downhill to get there.
We made it ! :rider: and we get to eat at the Power gas station too.
After a nice brunch we went west on hwy 50 and then south on hwy 149.

Hwy 149 was another fantastic surprise ride. In readable views all around and for many miles. It was really overwhelming at times. We passed Lake City and missed some rains by having coffee in Crede. John was also able to visit a rock show ( not music, actual rocks) he had been looking at rocks all week but the ones that interested him where under glass at a mine in Crede; go figure.

Well, 149 to 160; west on 160 to Pagosa Springs.

We rode to the truck and put the bikes on the trailer. All our wet and stinky stuff went on the back of the truck and we headed to a hotel for the night . After a nice shower Sam and me went to where it all started , Pagosa Brewing company. Had another delicious meal and another flight of beers.
Next morning we drove to Texas without incident .
 

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We arrived to Austin with heat in the high 90 range. I threw my things in the garage and said bye to Sam.

Thank you Sam . This ride was your dream, I destroyed your dream but you still had fun.
Hope we get to do it again.

John was still in Colorado for another week . I was happy for him but sad for me. He kept sending pictures and comments of how great it was and how it wasn't raining anymore. Thanks for that John.

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I'll add some more pictures of the last days when I get a chance .
I'm sure John has a few more too.
 
Last day :
I woke up feeling refreshed.

...

Hwy 149 was another fantastic surprise ride. In readable views all around and for many miles. It was really overwhelming at times. We passed Lake City and missed some rains by having coffee in Crede. John was also able to visit a rock show ( not music, actual rocks) he had been looking at rocks all week but the ones that interested him where under glass at a mine in Crede; go figure.
...

you are so right!

149 has so much going for it

it's a great surface running thru a bit of just about everything COLORADO has to offer

MORE PICS PLEASE

sw
 
One of the crew used to say something like "Great adventures don't always seem so great while they're happening."

Glad y'all handled the situation and made it out safely. Very enjoyable report! Thanks for sharing. :thumb:
 
Thanks to all for the positive comments. It was one of the best trips I've ever been on.

The next series of pics, we packed up camp near Ouray and our goal was to end up in Taylor Park. We left Ouray, went North on 550. About 10 miles past Ridgeway, Vinny led us off the highway onto a dirt road (Vinny: was it Owl Creek Pass?). It was a great day of riding.

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Wildlife:
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Lunch in Gunnison at a place Vinny mentioned above:

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Can't have a Ride Rpt w/o one of these pics, right?
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For maybe 10 miles the road stayed close to this aquaduct that was moving a lot of water down from the mountains to the farmers in the valley:
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We go to Hwy 50, headed east along the Blue Mesa Reservoir, thru the Curencanti Nat'l Rec Area. Stopped for lunch in Gunnison. Headed east on 50 about 10 miles and then north on 76 toward Taylor Park Reservoir and "Disney World" for riding.

Passed thru the small town of Pitkin:
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stopped to put on rain gear in Pitkin:
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