San Miguel

I did the Deloris River loop ride today, and I did a jaunt to Telluride. Now I don't know why it is called the Deloris River route because the river is the San Miguel River. The ride was 360 miles long, but could have been a little shorter. When I came to the turn for Telluride I was real low on fuel so I checked the GPS and it said fuel 9 miles ahead. So I skipped the turn to get fuel, not knowing what fuel options were in Telluride. Well 9 miles was actually 22 miles, so I got fuel, rode 22 miles back and 15 miles into Telluride. Turns out they have a bunch of fuel stations all over.

This video shows the ride through the canyon.

The ride was nice, but didn't seem to live up to all the hype I was getting on it. Still better then anything around my area. The closing ceremonies were quick, and I suspect all the thunder and lightening was a motivating factor. After the ceremonies were over, I got on the bike and headed out of dodge. I made it to Fruita, CO. for the night. Another 70 or so miles for the day. I had only light sprinkles, but could see the storms around me. The wind was up a little, but managed easily.

This video shows, other then the SUV slowing me up, but how the road is cut into the side of the mountain as it descends deeper into the valley.

RT 141 was the route that took you through the canyon along the San Miguel River. There were some fun twisties and some mountain type road along the route. The rocks are red and yellow in this area. Some of the route had huge boulders that would squish like a bug if they let loose. I often wonder what would happen if an earth quake would hit that area. I'm sure it would be a big mess.

Rt 145 into Telluride was much the same until you get into Telluride. Then you see the mountains surrounding the town like something from the Swiss Alps. Colorado is a pretty state with a lot of fantastic motorcycling roads. You could spend a year here and not touch them all, but we'll try.

This RT 145 leaving Telluride.

The rally was nice. I had met a lot of nice people and the set up was nice. My tent was in the park as most were. I was under a large tree so it was shaded nearly all day. After my ride yesterday I packed up my tent and bike. About 45 minutes later the skies opened up. I had shelter and we all waited out the storm for about 40 minutes. The meal which is part of the rally deal was chicken, that was ice cold! I had a lady in the kitchen reheat the chicken to at least half warm, half cold. The strawberry cake was very good. The riding from this rally is awesome, and this rally would be worth more visits.

I still have a minimum of 615 miles if I slab (highway) it to Ken's, so I might take it in two days and get there Monday. I am thinking of shooting south to hit Moab, and the Canyon lands. Areas I haven't been to yet. But this would make the trip to Ken's about 900 miles, and require a bit of slab through Salt Lake City to get up to Boise. The other option is to go up to Dinosaur and a few other small towns before having to hit the slab. This option is about 715 miles. I'll look things over in the morning and decide.

Spirited ride through Black Canyon

I was going to try and do a ride called the Deloris River loop, but I had to adjust one of my panniers as it was starting to hit the swing arm. That took a little time so I decided on a shorter ride. This ride involved a little dirt, 22 miles worth, but on well packed road. Loose gravel in the turns required respect, specially from a novice dirt guy like me. On one part I was a little cocky (no comments please) until I crested a knoll and oops the road now turns sharply to the left and is going down hill. I grabbed a bunch of seat vinyl with my cheeks (not face) and a little rear brake and was able to negotiate this surprise. This route took me to Crested Butte, a nice little old town. From there I headed to Rt 92, Black Canyon. The picture above is from the rest area on RT 92 Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Rene and I had done this route two years ago, following a bunch of guys who were tearing it up. I ended up following three guys, two on GS's and the one in front of me, an older RT. This was a spirited ride and was lots of fun. The roadway was great, and the weather is equally nice. I have included some video of the ride for your pleasure. The first video is me following the group, then the second is me alone after the two GS's had pulled over, and the RT after we stopped at the rest area, had left before me.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get an early start and do at least part of the Deloris River, which is supposed to be spectacular in scenery.

Top of the Rockies Rally

I visited the Garden of the Gods again this morning and took a few more shots. I came across a buck and took a few shots of him.

I made it to Paonia for the Top of the Rockies rally. I did the Independence Pass to get here. A road worth doing. I had video of some of the drivers, but apparently my card was full, and I did not get this one in particular. This guy was all over the place and often almost all the way into the oncoming lane on these narrow winding mountain roads. A motorcyclist worst nightmare when coming head on to guys like that. I did get some other video of the ride, one I am posting is on RT 24 from Colorado Springs to Aspen. The other two are on the Independence Pass.

The Independence Pass is a great motorcycling road. Car traffic does slow you down a bit, but it wasn't too bad until the end. There is paving going on, and that also slows things up. Colorado is such a beautiful state. Funny thing is you run from plains to mountains to plains to mountains, and valleys to rolling hills. I love how the roads twist along side rivers. The rivers look real nice and are of the picturesque mountain stream or rivers.

You will notice they don't use a lot of guard rails there, and once over it is over.

I have Internet service here at the rally, but I have no phone service. I plan to do some of the rides tomorrow and Saturday.

OOPS I doubled up on one video, and it appears I can't remove it.

Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak

I am still having trouble getting video and photos to upload. I believe it is the internet connection at the motel, and the town. Anyway I did insert one photo into an earlier post, and when I get some place I can get a good fast internet connection I will load more stuff into those posts.

I got up mat 0500 to go to the Garden of the Gods park. The weather was a little cloudy, but it cleared up a little in the morning. I met up with a guy who goes to the park daily to shoot photos, so he showed me some of his spots, and pointed out others. This was helpful. He had some real nice shots on his camera. It is a matter of being there at the right time. I took a lot of shots for HDR type photographs. Unfortunately I did not load the HDR program into this laptop so I can not process them. I can still tweak them with another program. I spent much of the morning at the Garden of the Gods park and enjoyed myself. There are lots of red rock formations.

After the park I went back, got into my riding gear and headed for Pikes Peak. The ride was fun except for the torturous slow motorist. Some apparently were terrified to be driving on that road. On the hairpin curves they litterly almost came to a stop, and then they still could not keep in their own lane. I did get a few breaks from the turtles and took an easy run. The road up is long, I think over 16 miles and with the traffic took about an hour. Upon getting to the top half the peak was in a cloud. The temp was 42 and it was a little chilly. What I really noticed was the lack of O2. I didn't think it would bother me as much as it seemed to do. I just started taking deeper breaths as I tend to be a belly breather, and with my gut, it shouldn't have been a problem. I met one guy in a neck brace. He broke it racing up the peak at the races earlier this year. The old fellow says he'll be back next year. He races in the vintage class, same as Eddie Mulder, one of the racers I met four years ago on my first cross country ride with Big Jim, and my brother-in-law Rod.

I stopped at the cliff dwelling ruins on the way back. They were interesting, but after a half hour, I headed back to the motel. I did my laundry. After about two weeks on the road I have exhausted both sides of my socks and underwear! Just kidding, I actually had a pair or two with a good side left.

Tomorrow I leave for the rally in Paonia. I will take the Independence pass as I cross Colorado. I do not know what kind of internet connection I may find there. If I have to use the 3g on the Xoom, then I will just continue with the written post and wait until I get somewhere I can upload all the photos and video.

Slow connection

I have made it to Colorado Springs. The ride was a bit on the windy side, but not as bad as I have seen in the past. My fuel mileage is down and I had the bike checked again. It passed all the test with flying colors. The mileage issue may be a combination of weight, the off road style tires, the quarter head wind, heat, going basically up hill, my speed. When I get to Ken's the bike will be un-burdened and I'll see how she does.

The motel I have checked into has very slow internet so I still can not get any video into the blog. Tomorrow I will go do The Garden of the Gods. Hopefully the rain will hold off. An impressive thunderstorm came through right after I checked in. The sky at sundown with the storm just passed through was really cool. Unfortunately I wasn't in a position to get any good photos. Sure wish I was out in a scenic area for that sky. The forecast is for rain tomorrow afternoon, and Thursday. A theme I was quite familiar with last year. I may try to do Pikes Peak if the weather will allow the two to three hour round trip. I would hate to get caught in another storm on a motorcycle up on that mountain!

I tried using the long sleeve shirt trick, and it seemed to work well. I started with cold water which was real refreshing, but as the day went on with my water bottles exposed to the sun they got quite warm. Regardless it still worked well enough. I could only get the cooling effect for about 40 minutes, but even then, I didn't get to hot for about another hour. Did about 643 miles today, and have less then 350 to go for Colorado Springs.

There was some type of big incident on I 70 that they closed it all down. That meant a detour for everybody. A couple and I tried to find other routes to re-enter, but it was closed for about 25 miles. The detour was taking 100s of cars to the north then west and south to re-enter. We go information from one of the DOT guys about a nice road that was south and not part of the detour, perfect. We took it and it was a nice ride, with little traffic. I have some video to add to the posts, and one of them shows this ride. It dispels the myth that Kansas is all table top flat. There are no mountains, but it is quite hilly, and the road had some nice curves. More tomorrow as my battery is almost dead.

Rally over

The rally in Bloomsburg is over. I have met new friends and have said my good byes to both the new and old ones. The ride from the rally starting my trek west was really nice. It was dark, but my HID, and LED lights really light up the road. It was cool, and the traffic light. I rode a little over 150 miles I think. The hard part was finding lodging, everything appeared booked. I have learned to use the smart phone more for these things. With my GPS and the phone I can locate, and call the different motels. I use an app called Kayak which even searches out prices in many cases. Something I learned last night was that some hotels will show as booked, but will hold a few rooms for walk-ins, so I will call them regardless just to be sure. I found a room for me about 10 miles further down the road.

Today I did about 650 miles. I am 46 miles east of St. Louis, and will go through there first thing tomorrow. I had some rain today, but it was not bad, and helped keep me cool. I was getting that drowsy feeling, you know when you blink it starts to become a 1 second then 2 second blink. I had to stop much more frequently to shake it off. This is a new problem as of late. I guess the heat is wearing on me more then it used too. The bike seems to be running good except I am getting a bit less mileage. I will make inquiries to see if something else might be causing it.

There are "excessive heat advisories" for this area but hopefully I will be out of it before to long. I am going to try using the LD Comfort long sleeve shirt and soak it every once and a while. They don't recommend it with a mess jacket, but the same principle seemed to work with a UnderArmor tee shirt. We'll see. Several stops and lots of fluids are in order for today.

Don't forget that you can track me live by scrolling down to below the last post and click on the track me link. This will take you to the Spot page and you can track me. You will notice a space between PA and IN, I did not press the track button long enough to activate the track.

Steam'n II

Not again. I was having some problems with the bike. It was running poorly, and every time I filled it up, it hesitated and bucked. This started a few weeks ago, but I was hardly riding it, and was thinking I was getting some bad gas, after all who uses 89 octane. On the recommendation of Jerry, a fella from Canada, I sought out a BMW dealership, and spent 6 hours there. Another day of missed riding lead by Chaz. The shop diagnosed the problem. Apparently when the fuel strip was replaced, the tech may have damaged an O ring for the quick disconnect. When I took the bike back for a fuel leak, that tech in searching for the leak had removed the tank and evap canister. He reinstalled the canister backwards causing in effect a vacuum leak. The mechanic at Two Jacks was able to figure this out and with a re syncing of the throttle bodies get the bike running to form again. I have contacted my dealer regarding this, we'll see how they resolve my unexpected $214.67 bill. Afterward spending the day at the dealer I rode to Chaz and Sandra's for a real nice steak dinner prepared by Cliff, who cooked for about 14 people. I spent a bit of time, twice in the neighbor's pool. It was very refreshing. But 10 minutes out of the pool and you felt like you were never in it. Tomorrow we plan to hit the vendors and attend the closing ceremonies, and the awarding of he grand prizes. I will leave after that to start out west. Next destination Colorado Springs. I plan to be there by Tuesday afternoon.

Steam'n

This is the horse jail we set our tents up in.

I came down to Bloomsburg on Thursday afternoon. The ride was very hot, near triple digits if not triple digits. I made several stops to cool off and try to hydrate. I usually just ride tank to tank, but the heat forced me to stop more frequently. I met up with some friends from the Johnson City rally. Chaz, his wife Sandra, and her pop Ron. Other friends there are Bob, John, and new acquaintances like Cliff (the chef), Jerry, Sharon, another John, Tom, and others.

The first day was spent just trying to cool off. I set my tent up right next to Bob's tent in one of the larger horse stalls in a horse barn at the entrance. the place resembles a jail with the bars. The good is there is a roof overhead, the bad, no air flow. The first night was unpleasant, the heat was tough to break to fall asleep, yet I fell asleep sitting in a chair prior to trying to sleep in my tent. I guess that I am becoming an old man.

Fri

Getting ready

I have been busy getting things ready to go. I picked up a Xoom tablet that I hope to use instead of the laptop. I don't know if it will do what I need it to do yet. I am writing this post on it, but can I process the video and photos. I will try to do some testing tonight.

I am waiting for the bike's 18k service. I took it for a test run with all the gear, and Rene' to see how it handles. She (the bike) dips a little on tight turns, but it isn't bad. I have to change out the tires and I will start that tonight. Tomorrow I will finish the tires and adjust my packing. I also need to ship some of Rene's stuff out to Idaho. Thursday morning the trip begins.

New year, new trip

It has been a while since I posted. I have been preparing for a new cross country trip for a while now. There was a plan to go back to Alaska, but the logistics just didn't fall into place. That may be next years (2012) trip.

This year I am going to the BMW rally in Bloomsburg, PA, then off to the Top of the Rockies rally in Paonia, CO. After that to Ken and CJ's place in Boise, ID. Rene' will meet me there and we go to Yellowstone for two days camping, and one day motel. She is a little leery since there was a fatal grizzly attack in Yellowstone two days ago. We will both have bear spray, and will be smart around the bears. After Yellowstone we run up to Glacier for two days motel, and one day camping.

I then take her back to Boise where she will fly home. I may ride with Ken a few more days before heading to the Badlands in SD. After that I shoot home. Not a big trip like last year but it should be real nice. I am hoping to get a lot of photography done on this trip.

I am taking the R1200GS again, as the riding in ID does involve a bit of dirt. I will have new tires for the dirt on the bike, so we will see how it handles. I am planning on not pushing so hard and will limit myself (if I can) to 500 mile or less days. I will try to stop more often, and enjoy the ride out and back.