Salida ColoRADo...

Yep, if it helps the beetles go bye bye then that is perfect. I wish I had more than a week to ride and could have waited out the rain for a better day.

Until next time. And for the OP - thanks for the pictures.

Awww Hannda, you know how Duke is! He'd kvetch if ya hung 'em with a new rope.

"We slabbed out of town up Poncha Pass to a little road that Bonnie had never been on; thought I'd show her someplace new. "

I was in Salida in June and may be back in Sept and might like to find this place. Where's this gate loacted or is it a big secret?

Well hell yea, them new ropes are all scratchy and shit..give me a old worn smooth rope any day of the week.

No secret. I just don't know the road name or #. If you are heading south on 285, go over Poncha Pass, and it's about 6 miles further south, on the right side. It's just a tiny gate, with a "Please close gate" sign.

I'll type "please close gate sign" into my GPS. Thanks!

That should work.

w00t! Took another quick ride today, so hell, I'll start a blog.

Started out with a quick trip to my friend Chris's house- he's almost finished putting a brand new Ford Focus engine in his sweeet '84 VW Westfalia Vanagon. He'll be going from about 85 hp to 135 hp. I challenged him to a van race.



Then I stopped by a local landmark. The Smeltertown smelter stack was built in 1917, and at 365 ft tall, was either the tallest structure west of the Mississipi or the tallest brick structure west of the Mississippi (or something like that)




I'm just wandering around aimlessly today, so I was thinking of places to go for a couple of hours. We've had a TON of rain lately, and I remembered a couple of washes that are a blast right after a flash flood event. I got there, and sure enough, it had flashed in the last day or two and no one had been up them. FRESH TRACKS, BABY!!!









After stopping for all of these pics, I had to come back and blast it a couple of more times for fun. Sorry for tracking it out.

-more-

Further up the same road (yes the wash is a county road), I was impressed that we still have lot's of wildflowers;



Excuse me a minute while I post some pics of my







She's pretty damn close now, but with a few more things, like an oil cooler, cush rear hub, and a seat like Wing's has on her RFS, this 525 EXC could possibly be the GREATEST DUAL SPORT BIKE EVER!!!

-more-

A little further up the road I stopped to get some flower pics for Niel (Bluebull), who is currently off to do the Rally Dos Sertoes race in Brazil. I know how Neil loves flower pics in his race report.
















-more-

nice!

I remembered that I was making tracks. Here you go:

...continued...

Then I found a couple of roads I'd never been on before! I love it when I find new roads to ride within 10 miles of the beer fridge.





But one of them ended at this:



And the other road, which once made a nice loop, ended at a gate for someone's trophy home on an inholding; now someone has essentially a private access road to Forest Service land.

As the storms started moving in (and I started hearing thunder ) I headed back home, with one more pic.



....and the Modelo in the fridge is cold.

Hayduke, I was hoping to meet you when I passed through Salida on Friday, 7/16, but the store was all closed up by 4 PM.
Bummer.
I was riding part of the TAT with some friends, and I've been hoping to score one of your "Safety Third" stickers, and talk about some of the riding around there. On my way back a few days later, I had some issues with the DR650 on the wet clay of "Highway" 90 going over the Uncompahgre, so I decided to slab it back to my truck in Canon City. But not before heading over Hayden Pass, which was rocky enough to remain very rideable. I also tried out a little piece of the Rainbow Trail-



Not really the best bike for such awesome singletrack, but it was fun anyway.
What part of the Rainbow Trail do you like best on the 525? I'm hoping to bring the KTM out there next time, so I'd appreciate your input.

Oh man- that was the day I had a shirt "emergency"- printing Fest Shirts and realized I was shorted 12 shirts- had to close up and run to get more blanks because we were headed out on Sunday. Sorry about that.

I don't know- the 525 is great on ALL of the Rainbow Trail. Which section did you do?

Always make tracks.


ALWAYS.

No problemo- I'll be back! It sure was sweet hanging out down by the river in town there. Lots of girls in bikinis...........girls................bikinis................water.............general goodness.
I rode the DR south from Hayden Pass Rd, where the trail climbs up for quite a while. The problem I had was all the extra gear made it pretty tough to thread through the trees in 1st gear. At such slow speeds, the weight at the rear pushed back when I turned the bars, as if there was about 20 gallons of fuel sloshing from side-to-side. I bailed and came back down to the road, but it sure was tempting to continue. I had no idea how far the next trailhead was, hell, I had never HEARD of the Rainbow Trail before.
I was just wondering which part was your favorite-sounds like it ALL is.
I'll look you up next time.

Ron

Ahhh... summer in Salida. Welcome.

You did good to turn around on that section: It get's gnarlier. It's one of my favorite sections though.

I almost never make tracks on my local rides. I'm going to try to remember from now on.