' 14 Ride

 

 Day Rides in Colorado

June 7th -15th

 

This is a summarization of the 2014 Ride.  These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone.  I do this in part so I can re-live the ride after it is all over, document it so I can remember it later on and so anyone else interested in the ride will know what I thought. The sequence of events may be off a bit, but they all happened at some point in time.  Old age makes your memory play tricks on you.

Day 1 was pretty uneventful as all I had to do was ride the freeway from Layton to Cheyenne and meet up with the guys from SD.  I left out around 8:45 ish and headed to highway 89 to I-84 and then to I-80 all the way to Cheyenne.  I think we had determined that we would probably meet up somewhere around 4pm that day.  A couple brief conversations beforehand, I said I would probably be there first and would kill some time at the HD Dealership.  We figured we would meet there rather than me waiting on the base as the room reservation was in Todd’s name.  I seemed to be making good time and stopped just shy of Rawlins and decided to just snack on some chips as I didn’t want to spoil my appetite before dinner.  I didn’t know if we would eat right away or not though.  I headed back out and the closer I got to Cheyenne the worse the sky looked.  I was just hoping I would not get rained on. Just as planned, I arrived at the dealership first, but by less than 30 minutes.  We exchanged greetings and headed toward the base after a few more minutes at the dealership.  We had to go to the billeting office to check in and find out where the room was located.  We went and offloaded most of our gear and Todd decided he had to take off the tuner he and his son put on his bike shortly before this trip.  He said his first gas stop that he had put almost 2 more gallons of gas in his tank than Gator did and they had traveled the same distance on their tank of gas.  It didn’t take that long to perform the necessary surgery on his bike in the billeting parking lot and after it was completed we went to check out the base exchange to find it closed.  We saw there was a Burger King right next to the BX and decided we would check it out.  It was closed, too!!  We decided to go back to the room and regroup as it was trying to rain on us since arriving in Cheyenne.  After arriving back at the room, we starting catching up on matters and was trying to decide what to do for dinner.  The weather was not cooperating, so we decided to call for a pizza and have it delivered to our room.  While out and about earlier, we hit the shoppette to fuel up for tomorrow and while there we had to get some refreshments as well (to go with our dinner of course).  After the pizza arrived, we devoured it with some refreshments as I got educated on hockey.  I am not a big fan of hockey and did not quite understand all the rules of it either.  As I found out, there are some rules that the announcers are a little fuzzy on as well.  After the pizza and refreshments were gone, we chatted a bit more and then all turned in for the night.

Day 2 was going to be a short day.  We packed up and waited for the bowling alley to open up so we could have breakfast there as we didn’t know where else to go on a Sunday morning on FE Warren AFB.  We knew that we only had a little over 200 miles to go to arrive at our new destination of Grand Lake, CO.  The goal of the rides is to stay off interstates as much as possible, but sometimes you just have no choice.  We headed down I-25 for a while and got off as soon as we could.  We eventually found our way to CO 14 or Poudre Canyon Road which we had been on before but it carves its way through some nice canyons and has a nice stream by it for most of the way.  I made comments that our good buddy Leroy had paid more attention to the stream dreaming of kayaking than he did the road the last time we were on this road.  We made our way into a town called Waldon before it started to rain consistently enough to worry about getting soaked.  We found a place in town to grab a bite to eat.  Todd quickly found out there were no substitutes or changes to their daily special, so he had to order something different as Gator and I tried the special.  After eating, we could see the rain was not going to stop anytime soon so we decided to get our rain gear out and dress up on the restaurant’s front porch.  Rain gear donned we headed out.  It rained pretty much the rest of the way to our day’s destination of Grand Lake.   After finding our hotel and exchanging some “pleasantries” with the staff, we got our room and off loaded our gear into our room.  We explored the “town” of Grand Lake and found a place to purchase some refreshments and returned to our room.  After some refreshments we set out to find some dinner.  We heard about the bowling alley and found it but determined pretty much the only thing on the menu was pizza.  We decided to check out another place in town which just turned out to be the Sagebrush BBQ and Grill.  You will find out later on why I mentioned the name of this place.  This place was full and the waitress was telling us we needed to wait a bit for a table to open up but, as it turned out, Gator found us a spot at the bar.  I have to mention here that this place was advertising that you should throw the peanut shells on the floor!  We ate some good food, had good service and watched the basketball game and then went back to our room.  Did I leave out the fact that we were currently traveling on foot?

Day 3 began different than the rides of years past.  This was the first year were trying what we have named “day rides”.  This is where we head out and do a day’s worth of riding and return to the same location as the starting point.  So we got up knowing that we would not have to pack all of our gear for the day as we would be returning to the same hotel. We did not have to check out or any of the usual things we had to do before.  Also, it was different as we looked out the door of our hotel and could see our bikes were covered with ice.  Yeah, you know in the early morning days when you windshield is iced over.  Well, that is what our bikes looked like!!  We decided to walk and find a place to eat breakfast.  As it turned out, we ended up at the Sagebrush BBQ and Grill.  Yep, they serve breakfast, too.  And the service was fairly quick and good.  The food was pretty good, too.  On our walk back to the hotel we were hoping that our bikes would be thawed out and ready to go.  We weren’t too disappointed when we saw our bikes.  We were in no big hurry as we knew it would be a fairly short day consisting of only about 200 miles.  Shortly after leaving the hotel we quickly found ourselves at the Rocky Mountain National Park entrance, but just as quickly we noticed a sign indicating that the road was closed ahead.  Oh no I thought.  We pulled over to the side and Todd walked up to the person at the entrance and was told that they were currently working on the road and it “should” be opened “shortly”.  We decided to enter and press on.  We came up on a spot only a few miles in and saw a moose.  We pulled in to a spot and tried to see if we could see the moose from there.  We could not, so we pressed on and within a short distance found another spot to pull into and this time there were at least 3 moose there.  After some picture taking we remounted and were on the road again.  Those were the only moose we saw that day, but did see some elk and antelope as well.  We made our way southward and went through Nederland.  I had a lunch stop identified on my gps, just for directional purposes, but as we went right by the address listed I did not see the place.  We pressed onward all the way down toward I-70 and found a place to eat lunch (a wee bit late though).  After traveling on I-70 for a short distance, we found our way on the highway northward back towards our beginning point.  We found a place that sold some refreshments and decided to check it out.  It was kind of comical as it was a grocery store on one side with a bathroom which I needed to visit, and a refreshment store on the other side with the cashier in the middle.  An aisle from one side to the other had a rope dangling across it with a sign hanging from it saying to go outside to gain access to the other side.  I looked at the cashier, and had to ask if that was for real?  She said it was! Outside I went and back inside.  Now we were stocked up for the night and headed out and found our way back to the hotel.  We relaxed a bit, chatted about our adventures and filled ourselves with some refreshments.  As we saw how late it was getting, we wandered on down to our eating spot.  Yeah, you got it, the Sagebrush BBQ and Grill.  We found our “reserved spot” at the bar in front of the tv and ate dinner and watched the hockey game.  Afterwards, we returned to our room and relaxed a bit and then turned in for the night.

Day 4 started out much like day 3 except there wasn’t quite as much ice on our bikes. We walked down to our favorite place (the only place), the Sagebrush BBQ and Grill and seated ourselves ready to order our breakfast.  We had to order something different so we could convince ourselves we were actually in a different restaurant if we so desired.  After breakfast (quite good all around again) we headed back to the hotel knowing we did not have to pack everything up as we would be returning to Grand Lake for another night.  It was to be a little longer of a day in the saddle though as we had over 100 more miles to cover today than yesterday.  As a side note here, I plan out our routes trying to keep us off the interstate as much as possible.  I print out every detail down to each turn.  As I stated before, something about old age and my memory, I can’t memorize the entire route down to each turn.  As a result, find points along the route to load into my gps.  My gps wants to find the most direct route to that point which may differ from my “planned” route.  This very thing came into play today as we headed south and out of the town Breckenridge.  We all had a gps, and they all were telling us to do a u-turn.  We knew better and continued on our way.  At some point in time before our next gas stop it became apparent that we really should have done that u-turn.  Oh well.  At the gas stop we figured out where we were, how far off course we were and how to get back on course from where we were.  We weren’t very far off course, but we were off a little bit. No big deal though as we knew where to go from here and knew we had a room to go back to, eventually.  It wasn’t like we had to be back at any specific time either.  We made our way back on course and made our way over some nice mountain passes and through towns like Aspen.  We passed a few little towns after that and finally found a place to grab some lunch.  Sometimes the mountain towns have all of their buildings made out of the same wood like material.  They all look very similar and if you are not familiar with what is in each of the buildings, it makes it hard to find what you are looking for.  It decided to rain for a bit while we were inside eating our lunch.  By the time we finished eating, it had finished raining as well.  We went outside and dried off our bikes a little and headed out again.  As we were making our way back toward our hotel a storm came up on us again very quickly.  At first it just started to sprinkle a little bit so we pressed on.  The clouds were getting darker and the wind was starting to pick up, but we kept pressing onward.  Did I mention that I really don’t like getting soaked?  There came a spot that we were going to stop and put our rain gear on because we knew the sky was getting ready to open up at any second.  As it turned out it was not an abandoned gas station as we thought, but it was a house.  The wind was blowing so hard now I didn’t know if I could stand up and put rain gear on without falling over.  I was not sure that my bike would stay up either, so we pressed onward with no rain gear.  It started raining a little harder and it was stinging my face.  I tried to hide down behind my windshield, but it wasn’t working.  So I leaned as far forward as I could and my face was right behind my windshield.  My face wasn’t stinging near as much but I couldn’t see very well either.  I could see white things flying by me every now and then out of the corner of my eye.  I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me until one splat on my windshield right in front of my face.  Wow, I thought, Slush?  Just as I was thinking it might quit, I would raise up to take a peak over my windshield and I would find out that it had not quit.  On one of those such occasions, I took an ice ball to the lower lip.  Damn, that hurt as I could feel it starting to swell up already.  I started feeling down on myself as was wondering if I had chosen the right windshield for my bike?  Did I have the right helmet?  Why didn’t I have a drop down face shield?  Why didn’t we stop and put our rain gear on earlier?  I could have at least put on my face mask on, why didn’t I do that? How much further to the next town anyway?  We finally made it to Kremmling and found a place to stop.  As I was looking for a little sympathy and telling the others about my lip, Todd told me he took a direct hit on the tip of his nose that brought water to his eyes.  I laughed at that and felt so much better about taking one to the lip that mine didn’t hurt near as much anymore.  We gassed up our bikes and were trying to determine which way to clouds were moving and when would be the best time to head out again as we didn’t want to ride right back into that storm.  We waited a little while and then braved it and headed out. We were lucky as the worst of it had passed and we made our way back to the hotel safe and sound. We of course went to our favorite spot for dinner.  Did I mention it was pretty much the only place in town to eat?  We went in and to our surprise, someone was in our spot!  We found another spot and placed our orders.  We struck up conversations with some people right next to us.  There was a guy by himself and a couple right next to him.  The couple was from not too far away and was familiar with the area.  The guy thought he was familiar with the area but was getting corrected some from the other guy.  That was kinda humorous as they were trying to tell us about places we should check out.  They couldn’t agree on where exactly we needed to go, but that we really needed to check it out.  One of the spots they were telling us about was Mt. Evans.  They said we had to go there as it was the highest paved road in North America. Another place they were telling us about was Rudy’s BBQ place in Colorado Springs.  We only had one chance to check out Mt. Evans, but would have 3 nights in Colorado Springs to check out the BBQ place. 

Day 5 was a little bit similar to the previous few days. We got up and walked down to our favorite spot for breakfast.  But on the way back we knew we had to pack all of our gear this time as we were heading to a new location.  We are headed to Colorado Springs and would be going a little bit different route than originally planned as we were going to take the advice we were given the night before and would be checking out Mt. Evans.  We just have to check it out as we are this close.  Once we were all packed up we headed out and stopped to take a last look at the lake and take a couple pictures.  We found our way to the interstate and then found the exit to Mt Evans.  There was no turning back now! Actually there was as we had not reached the entrance yet.  Now once past the entrance, there was no turning back.  We started making our way up until we found a place to pull over as Gator wanted to set up his GoPro.  The road was starting to deteriorate in its quality as we made our way up farther.  We found a spot where there was a sign indicating there was a “bump ahead”.  Bullcrap.  It was right there! There was a hole in the road and it was filled with water so you couldn’t see it.  There was a small strip of pavement still intact just a little bit wider than our tires.  It was not straight, but Todd and were lucky enough to follow it and not drop down in the hole.  Gator on the other hand, was not as lucky and didn’t see the small strip of pavement in time and hit the hole.  It bottomed out his suspension so hard that it knocked his GoPro off of his bike all the way to the ground.  He stopped and walked back to get it as we stopped up ahead and was trying to figure out what had happened.  GoPro went back in the luggage and onward and upward we went.  We made it to the top and it was cold and windy.  It was advertised as 14,260 feet above sea level.  The road was not the best by no means, but it was paved alright.  We wondered around a little bit and took some pictures and were ready to load up and get to warmer grounds.  We made our way back down and stopped at the entrance to take some more pictures and then was on our way again.  We started making our way towards Colorado Springs while trying to stay away from the interstate, but were kinda just winging it here.  The clouds started rolling in and we were trying to find a place to hide, I mean gas up, eat and gear up.  We thought we found a gas station but as we pulled in we found out it was an auto parts store.  We could see a gas station just down the road and found our way to it.  We fueled up and went inside while it started to rain on us.  We wondered back outside to try and figure out what we were going to do.  We decided we were going to try and find a place to eat.  Hey, there is a place right next door to the gas station.  We walked over to it and found out it was a little BBQ place.  We were the only ones there and got great service and found it to be great food as well.  I would rank it in the top 3 of the trip. There was a break in the rain when we finished eating so we headed out and made our way toward Colorado Springs.  We arrived and checked into the hotel and was told we could leave our bikes under the overhang right out front.  Cool! After unloading all of our gear into the room, we decide we have some time to kill so we decided to go to the HD dealership.  We had not even made it more than a block or so and it decided to start raining on us pretty good.  Gator’s rain gear was in the hotel room.  We jumped out on the interstate and were heading away from the rain, so we hurried up and tried to stay just ahead of the rain.  We did a pretty good job of staying out of the rain and made it to the dealership.  We shopped and looked and then was about ready to leave when someone told us there was kinda like a museum upstairs and we should check it out.  So we did and spent some more time there.  When we went back outside, the storm had passed and we made our way back to the hotel without getting wet.  We grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant right by the hotel so we didn’t have to ride anywhere.  We went back to the hotel to watch the hockey game only to find out it was not on a channel we got in the room.  We couldn’t watch the hockey game so we started talking about the proposed routes for the next two days.  The lower (southern) loop was planned out to go counterclockwise, but we determined that we would be going right past the entrance to Pikes Peak and that we should do that earlier in the day rather than later because of storms rolling in later in the afternoon as a rule.  The lower loop was also the longer of the two loops.

Day 6 started out with continental breakfast in the hotel. No walking this morning, well not as far anyways.  The weather was not cooperating and had us wondering how we could change our plans to make everything work. We decided that we could do the northern loop today as it was the shorter of the two and we could also wait it out a little bit to see if the weather would clear up before heading out. We got lucky and our plan was coming together as it started clearing up after a long breakfast and such.  We headed out and found our way to some great scenic riding.  They say wind is great therapy, it doesn’t hurt when you have this type of scenery to boot.  As we pulled into this little town of Pine Junction, we were looking for a place to eat.  I remember spotting two places, but could only remember one of their names.  I didn’t see it but we spotted a place worth checking out.  As it turned out it was the other place I had listed down as a possible stopping point.  It was a great little joint that had great food too.  I would rank it in the top 3 of the trip. Once we were full we headed back out and was making our way back to our hotel.  As we were getting close to the hotel we were going right past the entrance to Pikes Peak, so we stopped and had a little pow wow.  The weather was clear and it was still early in the day, so we decided that today was the day to ride up Pikes Peak.  We pulled up to the window where we had to pay and was talking to the lady behind the window.  She was informative and friendly too.  She even asked if we had a camera and came out of her booth to get the camera and snap a couple pictures of us before we headed up.  She had told us that it would take us about an hour to reach the top.  At one point we passed a sign that said we were one mile below the summit.  We only have 5280 more feet to climb!  It is a little hard to describe the feeling I got as we got nearer the top, but I will try.  There were a couple different spots were the road was pretty narrow and it dropped off on both sides and we were climbing upward.  I could see the road up in front of me for a short distance while Todd was ahead of me.  All I could see was a little bit of road, Todd and then nothing else but sky.  It was almost mind altering as it almost appeared as we were floating and the road was not there.  I knew in my mind that was not the case though.  It was pretty cool though.  We made it to the top and did our tourist impressions.  We wandered around, took in the sites while snapping a few pictures and doing a little videoing at the same time.  We went in the gift shop and boy was it hot in there.  Well, compared to the outside temperature, it was warm.  Todd and I made our way outside while Gator waited in line to pay for his stuff.  Once he came out we fixed our GoPros on our bikes and headed down.  Let me jump ahead here a bit and tell you Gators video did not turn out as his lens was fogged up from being in the warm gift shop for too long.  As we are heading down, some critter came out on the road from the right.   I stuck out my foot like I was going to kick it and almost hit it.  It turned and ran back to the edge of the road and then decided after I went by that it was now clear to cross.  Gator was behind me and swears the critter went right between his front and rear tire crossing the road.  I reviewed the video and was able to capture a still photo of it.  Don’t know what it is, so I just call it critter. Fast little critter at that. I told Jim about this "critter" and he told me to look up Marmot. 

So I guess it was a marmot. I had my GoPro going most of the way down and it filmed for 34 plus minutes.  It stopped a little short of the bottom, but that is a little less than the hour the lady told us it would take.  I was able to capture some nice still photos from the video.  We made it down all the way safely (and dry) and proceeded to make our way back to the hotel. We attempted to go eat at Buffalo Wild Wings but when we got there, we found every spot in the parking lot was taken and could see a line waiting to get seated.  Nah! We headed back and on the way saw an Arby’s and decided to hit that before heading back to the hotel.  After we got back to the hotel, we were trying to load the next day’s route in Todd’s and Gator’s gps’s and watch the basketball game. 

Day 7 started out a little bit like the day before as we had continental breakfast in the hotel again.  Today’s route was the longer of the two loops and the weather was cooperating as it was nice out.  We headed out and were making our way along while taking in the scenery.  It started out a little cool, but nice.  We found a Pizza Hut along the way around lunch time and decided to stop and grab a bite.  After getting our fill we were back on the road again and decided to make some changes to the route and lengthen it up a bit.  We headed toward Breckenridge where we made a wrong turn a few days ago.  Went through some of it as they had some of the roads blocked off and was having a little town fiesta or fair or something.  We made our way through  or around town and out the interstate 70 and headed east. We rode a little ways on the interstate and then got off to make our way back to the hotel.  I really didn’t pay attention to the exact route we took as I was not in the front or being counted on to find our way.  I was just a follower at this point.  We found our way just find and ended up back at the hotel.  We went and found Rudy’s BBQ later on that evening and thought back to the people in the Sagebrush giving us advice about checking out Mt. Evans and Rudy’s BBQ.  We all came to the conclusion they were 1 for 2.  Mt. Evans was rated a don’t miss out on and Rudy’s BBQ was okay, but not a place to rate a don’t miss out on.  Oh well.  One out of two ain’t half bad.  Went back to the hotel and gathered up some of my stuff and got ready to turn in for the night.

Day 8 started out with another continental breakfast in the hotel.  We are starting to get the hang of the waffle maker now.  The one on the left isn’t as good as the one on the right.  Left one the waffle sticks to the top a bit.  Right one it pops right out. Now we had to pack up all our stuff and get ready to relocate to Cheyenne, WY.  It will be somewhat of a short and boring day as we only have a little over 200 miles to go and not much in the scenery for today.  It started out just going up the interstate and then okay as we made our way up and over Lookout Mountain Park.  There were a bunch of people riding bicycles there too.  Once we were off of that we were on the outskirts of Denver already.  It was a bit too early for our lunch stop so we decided to find a HD dealership and kill some time.  After a bit we headed out and made our way to a place advertised by a few different names, but was on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives as The Atomic Cowboy.  We went in and got seated to notice that there was a pizza window off to one side and it was Fat Sully’s Pizza and the menus on the table said Denver Biscuit Company.  We all ordered a sandwich but while we were waiting for our food to come out the table next to us got their pizza brought to their table. It was huge, almost as big as the table! We had to check out their menu to find out how big this thing was, and it was 26 inches.  It seemed bigger than that.  Our sandwiches came to our table and I swear mine was at least 6 inches high.  How the heck to attack? I chose the easy way (less messy) out with utensils.  Not even going to attempt to pick it up.  It was good as well.  Well, now I can say I have eaten at a place that was on DDD!  There is a burger joint here in Utah not far from me that was on it, but it had a bad reputation and I have not had a desire to check it out.  After eating we headed out and watched the storm clouds get closer to us the closer we got to Cheyenne.  We got some light rain here and there, but nothing too bad.  We made our way to the base, checked in and made our way to the room.  We found a little covered area in the parking lot and fit our bikes in it for protection.  After unpacking all of our stuff from our bikes, there was a little break in the weather.  We were looking for places to eat and found a Buffalo Wild Wings not too far away.  We went there and ate dinner while the weather was trying to cooperate.  It was just barely cooperating, no rain at the moment but getting really windy.  As soon as we were done eating, we headed out to get back to the base before it let loose.  Gator and I hit the shoppette for some additional refreshments for the night.  At this point, my aloe has run out.  The tv was on, but I couldn’t tell you what was on as we just sat there and talked about our trip.  And it was coming to an end, bummer. 

Day 9 started out bright and early.  Right outside the gate of the base, we split off and were heading in different directions. Did I mention that it was 39 degrees?  My ride was pretty straight forward as all I had to do was follow the interstate.  A gas stop here and a bathroom stop there and before long I found my way back to home turf.  I went to the store first off and finished out the day there.  After closing the store I made my way home and unloaded my bike.  Some vacations tire you out a bit.   I figured there is always tomorrow to do laundry and finish unpacking.  As I checked my odometer, it said that I rode 2900 miles from doorstep to doorstep.  Not bad.?!

I am starting to run out of areas to plan out our rides.  I tried to plan out a ride heading east, but there just doesn’t seem to be nice roads to ride unless we go a long way away.  Not a lot between here and there though.  So how about heading NORTH?  Can you say Canada? Montana is between here and there, and Montana has some decent roads, right?  We might have to go a little later in the year, in order to let some of the snow melt. Should we go before or after the rally?  Hope your passports are current.  If not, you have a few months to renew them, eh, hoser!!

Additional pictures and movie to come later.