Got the bike loaded up and I am ready to hit the sack. First thing tomorrow morning I am heading to Colorado for a week of fishing and riding. The plan is to camp in the Gunnison NF area. The wife and kids along with my parents and my cousins family are all driving out. So I don't have to bring any camping gear on the bike. I was going to trailer across Kansas but last minute we invited my 7 year old nephew who was in a car wreck earlier this week where his other uncle was killed. Poor kid watched him die right in front of him alone. I figured this would be a good distraction. But now there is not enough seat belts in my truck for 7 so I am driving the bike out. Oh well I don't mind. First stop Colorado Springs. I hope to get a lot of good pics of Colorado. When I do I will post them here. Jim
Left my house at 7:00am. The plan was I-70 all the way to Limon, Co. I saw some big rigs on the way. The pictures really don't them justice. They were huge!! This one was even bigger. After stopping for a room in Limon I waited for my family who were 4-5 hours behind me. My mom, dad, wife, kids and nephew were following me out in a truck hauling a bike for my dad and our camping gear. Spent a most of the next day letting my son and nephew play around at the Garden of the Gods.
After spending the night in Canon City we headed west to the Taylor Lake area. My dad was driving a 79 Suzuki. This bike had only 800 miles on it last year and I decided to finally try and get it running. The guy that had it before me said it had not ran good in years and he never rode it. The tank was rusted and the carb was clogged with rust pieces but a little cleaning and tank liner it runs like new. I had no idea how it would run in Colorado since I never touched the carb for the higher elevation but it ran great. My dad took it to 11,600 feet. Not sure if I should be scared or not but I am sure those are the original tires. He even took it most of the way up Tincup pass. After heading about 3 miles past Mirror Lake my dad had enough. That Suzuki has no travel in the suspension and he was getting tired. I told him we were getting close and that I thought we were past the worst of it but he wanted to head back down.
One morning my dad and I took the bikes to a campground I first stayed at during the bi-centenial fourth of July. We always called it Emerald Lake. It is on past Mt Crested Butte.
We didn't go up to Scofield Pass. I have driven it in a 4x4 and I think it would be tough on a big and a old bike. So we turned around and headed back south. The distance down to the snow if farther than it looks. Got a pic of a fox.
It was a very scenic run back into town through the Aspen groves. Then back to looking over this valley.
After a couple of days camping in the Almont area we decided to head SW to the Ridgway area. Driving along the lake on the way to Montrose. We stopped as my dad's kickstand was starting to drop after a few miles of riding. We tried to tighten it but it was already tight so we just zipped tied it and headed into Montrose.
The riding around Ridgway and Ouray was fantastic. Right about here it started to rain. I figured we could get back to camp before getting wet but I was wrong. Big rain drops soaked us within a mile.
Ouray was cool. We got a pic of a bear right out side of town. He rumaged around for 20 minutes or so before we just left.
Of course since we were in the area we had to check out the million dollar highway. Very cool. Silverton Another shot of Ouray coming back from Silverton.
Kept seeing this sign for Owl Creek Pass so we decided to check it out. Nice easy ride with plenty of scenary. The pass was kinf of anti climatic. All of the sudden we just started going down hill. So I stopped and took a few pics. Then my dad comes tooling up in the Suzuki. Looked like rain so we headed back the way we came.
The next morning we left for home. My dad threw his bike in the truck and I took off on mine. The plan was to drive from Ridgway to Burlington and stop for the night. That all sounded fine until I hit a BAD storm. I pulled over at the last exit before the storm in a rest area in Arriba, Co. Everyone coming from the east was saying the hail was terrible. Several even had busted up windsheilds. I decided to hang here for the family coming up behind me. We all waited until it appeared the storm was surrounding us and then I decided to chain the bike to a sign in the rest area and hop in the truck for the last hour to Burlington. It was bad on the road. Cars were in the ditch and we saw several accidents but we made it safely to our hotel. The next day my dad and I had to head an hour back to the west to grab the bike and then another hour east again to pickup the rest of the family. The rest of the ride home was non eventful except for the brutal heat. It was over 100 degrees actual tempature all of the way accross Kansas with a high of 110 in Hays. It was miserable but sure nice to be home. All told about 2,500 miles. Jim
