Geek's Guide to Colorado.

Also rode Stony Pass from the east and it fools you in that the difficult stuff is well before the summit. There is a small scree field, two shelfs to clear and then the trail mellows out.



Wildlife on the way up. Rio Grande reservoir.



The first shelf. I got this picture because I stalled twice picking the wrong line. This is just beyond Pole creek and the elevation here is above 10,000 feet. It was quite an effort to just pick the bike up.



After you clear the last shelf this is the view. The actual pass is in the distance.

I didnt mean your backyard was small, Just that Your right in the MIDDLE of all the Perfect riding that I wanna ride so so bad

Come on out!

I got my 950 from Georgia... that was a heck of a ride across the country in February

"I put over 15,000 miles on the 950 this summer"
Nothing like living the dream Geek.

"The moral? Feel free to explore and have some fun as long as you have some strong friends along
No matter how gnarly things get, assuming you've some good mates along (and don't do something really stupid) you can likely get yourself back out.

That said: If you have to drop into something steep & deep (that you can't get back up) - get off your bike and walk it first to make sure you have a way out.
You don't want to leave your bike behind right? :eek1"

Great advice anytime you're heading off road, especially if you're 1000 miles from home (and didn't bring any friends along). I remember the script I saw on a sprint car dashboard, 'Human, know thy limits'.
Thanks again for taking the time to post all this 'stuff', it really steepened my learning curve this summer for a Colorado ride.
Jim

This is my Favorite RR on ADV !!!!!!!!!!!!!

You go Geek

COLO is AWESOME.

I wanna go there & Washington State B4 I get to

Just aint got the Fundage right now

nice photos geek. Just got back from my first CO dualsport trip, followed alot of your advice. thanks

Great photos Geek. I grew up around Boulder and am stuck in TX until I retire. Then, guess where I'm moving. I get back during each summer to ride. Looking forward to the stories from your summer adventures.

Bummer I did not get to go on any of the camping trips this summer. I spent some time trying to learn to ride dirt on a klx250. While I sure my skills have improved I am still bad at it, and it scares me if things get even slightly hairy. I may plan to do more dirt on the F800 next summer, but it is still going to be forest access roads at most.

I was there in July and the traffic was crazy. I went over the pass I think 6 times in the week I was there and found Old Fall River Rd was faster (even with all the switchbacks) going westbound.

Hey Geek, -Great notes! Do you happen to have any tracks for the above map? That looks great! We're considering trailoring in to the area around the end of September, 2011... So, if you're not doing anything, we could use a guide...

Thanks!

Geek you are going to lose credibility if you keep labeling all the roads and the highest paved road in North America.

SPAM: If you are coming to Colorado and you wanna rent a bike - Ron (OldWin1) in the post above has a fleet of v-stroms available; click the wdsma link in his signature. Support a fellow ADV'er; Ron's a good guy..

...even if he recently tried to erase his face in a bicycle crash :eek1... I never said he's good looking

...and if you do rent a bike from Ron be sure and let me know so he'll have to buy me a beer

The snow is moving in up high

This sucks! I'm taking next week off and doing a 7 day ride around Colorado to Moab and back. This will severely limit options

Esteban took this photo off his porch this morning -that's Grays & Torreys Peak and the Indian Peaks are getting snow right now.

I wanna go back in time two weeks

Another "Crossing Colorado" Tip: Webcams

Late season like this, mother nature is up to stuff. As I've mentioned before , she literally can be dumping a blizzard on one side of a mountain while it is sunny on the other side.

It is currently 70+ degrees down here at 5500 feet but I can see the snow falling on the divide out my window.

With the advent of the internet, webcams, yada yada... when I have to go from A to B this time of year I take a look at the forecast and then I look at dickgilbert.com - yeah I know it is a weird name but dick gilbert (some real estate dude) has put together a collection of colorado webcams.

Here's the Colorado Cams Page:
http://dickgilbert.com/coloradocams.htm


So looking at this exact moment; if I had to cross Colorado on a motorcycle this afternoon:
Loveland is getting rain & snow so I'd avoid I-70.
It looks like snow above Estes in RMNP too so I'd avoid trail ridge.
Conifer looks clear and sunny so I'd take 285 .. Monarch has snow on the sides of the road but the pavement looks dry... I'd be good.

It won't be long (Calendar wise) until there is no good way across on a bike; at some point you have to make it over a high pass and they'll all be snowed in; but even in the middle of winter you can luck into dry pavement up high if the weather is right.

Last year coming back from our Old Bike Tour out to Yosemite..
California has some awesome riding too eh? Someone needs to do a thread like this for California


I got as far as Glenwood Springs on my R90/6 and there was a blizzard on Vail Pass. Vail Pass (which is I70) in bad weather is not worth the risk on a bike. Sure I've ridden in crazy ice storms 35 degrees below freezing and the like; but going over Vail pass there are car pile-ups pretty much every time there is a blizzard. You could be the best rider in the world but when you get sandwiched between two subarus (because they think they can go 75mph on ice with their "AWD" ) it isn't going to help. /soapbox

Sometimes you can detour south; but this is what Monarch Pass looked like that day (cam shot captured by Hayduke trying to help us find a route):


I ended up having to hunker down and wait for the (very generous) DudeAbides to come and rescue my arse with his trailer. Thanks again Ben!

Shearboy waited a few days (and detoured a few hundred miles south) and eventually got over the mountains back to the front range



You've gotta stay flexible.

Wow, don't know how I missed this.
Great pics and info!

I just got back from a 4 day trip around your beautiful state and I still can't shake the dream! I flew out from Jax. FL on 9/28 and we rode Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Sunday. The weather on those days was, as you know, phenomenal! My friend has a house in Denver and picked me up at the airport and we did day trips for 4 days, 1189 miles total. He's keeping a WeeStrom for another friend and that was my ride. It was great! That was the first time I had ever ridden a Strom of any kind and I must say I was impressed. My friend has a GS1150 that is a great bike for doing what we did. We hit some light gravel connecting roads up around Walden and some more down around Deckers but no serious off road stuff. I'm glad I decided to make the trip when I did as I can see time is running out. Our riding season here in N. FL is just beginning as it's been too hot thus far. Not that we've got anything to get too excited about but flat, straight, pines and sand is better than nothing, I suppose. I cannot wait to get back out there and see some more of CO. You guys have a real treasure there.

Dave

Some random pics:

Understatement of the day.... ^^

Cool pics Dave

Sigh... if anyone knows of job openings for an experienced Mechanical Design Engineer in Colorado let me know

Take any pictures of the trails?Some of the best trails i have ridden are in colorado.Wouldt think you would go out there without ridding trails.

Holy Crap!
Back in late july/early august, I spent some time combing this thread for ride ideas...I was wondering why you weren't posting as much. Now I know!

Thanks, grub! This post put Red Mountain and Black Bear on my radar.