It's What Men Do

The exposure you experience in the west from the back of a motorcycle is something to pay attention to. One of my favorite things to do.

Great report!

Great Ride! I'm late as usual joining in. Ya went right thru my backyard.. sorta, lol Your favorite camping spot, post #82, was Takhlakh Lake. I'm about 30 mins south of there! The skeeters there have been known to carry tents away!!

Just found your RR , very good ! Over the years I have ridden many of the areas that you have covered so far . My 650 VeeStrom sometimes finds itself on trails it really shouldn't be on , but slow and careful gets me by OK . I also have a Montana , I am still learning it . What Maps do you have loaded on it ? My rain gear (frog togs) take up a bit of room , but the older I get the more I like staying dry . I will be following along as you finish this report . It is damn hard for life to get much better than a ride like this . Thanks for writing it up !

Oh man, I really need to finish this thing! I will get back to you about your questions too.

I'm really enjoying your RR - can't wait for MORE !

Great RR pics & story! just whats needed for our endless MN winter
Thanks for taking time to report.

Sorry I haven't worked on this - lots of changes right now for me. Turns out I'm moving to Seattle next week and I've been in the process of lining things up for the move and a new job. Hopefully once I get settled I can finish up the story!

Please do. You've got interested readers.

Sometimes life "gets in the way" of things. Totally understood. Will stay subscribed until you hit 'The End' ...or I hit the end.

Thanks for the hard work and sharing. I don't think we're going away anytime soon, sooooo whenever you're ready !
Good luck with the move and new job !

Finally getting settled in Seattle, once I get internet hooked up and get a computer the story will continue :)

Boy, what a busy time. New job, move to Seattle, wedding coming up in about a week. Time to get in the way-back machine and start up where I left off!

Rocky Mountain National Park was beautiful! Despite the traffic on the climb, I really enjoyed the ride.



The way back down was a little better - we were able to pass a few slowpokes and open it up here and there. Back down at the bottom of the park we spotted a few Moose before the rain started. I don't have too many pictures for a while as it sprinkled on and off for the next few hours.

We rode through Granby thinking we might beat the storm system heading in.... until we got to Fraser. Then the lightning started. A group of motorcyclists had stopped to wait out the lightning storm and we joined them - none too eager to be struck by lightning. Within an hour the storm had passed and we saddled up and headed for Winter Park. I was pretty excited about riding Berthoud Pass - the last time I was in Colorado I cycled up and down the pass and it's quite a climb for an East coaster. It was easier on the BMW :)


40 degrees and drizzle

It seemed the weather would hold for a bit but it was getting damn cold and wet. I was happy to be leaving the storms behind us.



The ride down 70 wasn't terrible as every few miles it warmed up a few degrees - a very welcome change at this point. We looked for a place to stay around Central City but with nothing looking terribly appealing and the rain and temperature starting to come down we just decided to head for RT 6.



That was definitely the right decision! The temperature rose every few minutes and before long it was sunny and warm again! What a great piece of road, too. Rt 6 winds through Clear Canyon paralleling Rt 70 and provides a much nicer alternative to the highway. Evidence of old mining operations abounds and there is some great scenery, great corners, and cool tunnels.

We hit Golden refreshed and started hunting for a campsite. Finding everything booked up we rode to the edge of town and found a cheap motel and got cleaned up. After a couple cheap beers at some crappy chain, we took a taxi downtown for a little drinking and some mischief...


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Golden got pretty rowdy for a Monday night. We found a pretty nice wine bar downtown with a pretty Polish bartender that Bernie tried his two Polish words out on. The rest of the night, well... went something like this: Three New Englanders walk into a bar and ask for a drink. The bartender's Polish, there's a drunk Canadian on one side of the bar - on the other side a drunk with two escorts that are getting pretty handsy with eachother. What could possibly go wrong?

We start drinking with the Canuck who is a pretty funny guy and the five of us (bartender too) are watching the show on the other side of the bar. The three of them would leave and come back every 15 minutes or so and it became apparent Mr. Softie was having a little trouble in the hotel room with his two friends. About the third time they came back, they were smoking outside when our drunk Canadian friend (whose wedding ring had mysteriously disappeared) said

"Buy you guys a round if one of you moons them through the window!"

I don't think he had even finished his sentence before Shawn was over by the window mooning them. One of the girls mooned back - no underwear...

I could go on, but perhaps a highlights reel would be better.

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• Canuck bought us said round of Martinis
• Closed the wine bar and went with the Canuck to the dive bar across the street
• Shawn feeds the jukebox money to play neverending string of cheeseball rock
• Closed dive bar, was offered ride back to hotel from some guy who had a pretty funny Seth Roegan Knocked up thing going
• Seth moves his baby seat to fit us in, then informed us we had to stop off at his dealer's house real quick
• Dealer starts swinging large sword, we consider running away
• Seth gets it together and drives us the rest of the way to the hotel
• Pass out and do not wake up very early
• Three of us do not learn any lessons about stranger danger

Day 19: Good ol' Golden

Bernie was up and out early to get that leaky fork seal replaced while Shawn and I... well, didn't get up very early. When we did, we coasted into town and grabbed some breakfast before taking a short ride up wonderful Rt 6.



Up, up, up climbing back into the mountains. We jumped off the beaten path and tried to get lost.



I was glad we did!



We even found some dirt to blast around on, our efforts rewarded with spectacular views and zero other cars.



We rode through Golden Gate Canyon State Park, stopping to take in the view.



Noticing the storm quickly moving in, we made haste for Rt 6 and the warmth of Golden.



Before meeting up with Bernie we took a little detour up Lookout Mountain Rd and really enjoyed the hell out of that stretch of road. Some great peg scrapers there!



Looking East, I wasn't terribly excited about our day tomorrow. There wasn't much but flatland and heat ahead of us....

But we would make a night of it in Golden!​

Just when I find some time - it goes away again. Offline for about a month!