Saying Goodbye 09 "The High Lonesome"

[enduro-ince]

Well it is that time of year again. I had the bittersweet privilege of riding the San Juans one last time before old man winter arrives. I did a report last year and decided I'd make it an annual thing.
www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=392310&highlight=Goodbye


This year I'm going to start with the last photo first cuz it happens to be one of my favorites.



I know, your thinking "Man the suns still pretty high in the sky why is he in his truck having a cold one already?"

Well I guess its because of the crack of dawn start and the 170 miles of passes and trails I rode, some of the roads were clearly not intended for a one wheel drive vehicle.

I started out hauling the ktm up to Telluride and out east of town to my standard parking spot.


Started off with Black Bear, the fun way!!!




Now I grew up riding these roads but even I can still get lost occasionally
Somewhere I took a wrong turn and ended up on an old mining road. oops.




Found my way back to reality eventually.




Finally made it to the sunny side, it was a tad chilly in the shade.


Finished BB, jumped across the highway and went up Brown Mtn road.
Looking back across the valley towards Black Bear.


Views galore


Who is that handsome man? You can't tell but I'm winking at myself


Dropped down to the highway and slabbed it about 5 miles into Silverton where I decided to thaw out over BACON and eggs at the Brown Bear Cafe.
Sorry no bacon pics but theres plenty more non food pics coming up......And I promise by the end of this report I'll have figured out a way to make the pics small enough to fit on the screen

[Trl Rdr]

I have a W I D E Screen, no problem, make um BIGGER

[PrairieRider]

Yep, wide here too (some would say in more ways than one )

[gee]

Sorry to have missed you, I was up there on Saturday, did the black bear/imogene/yankee boy ride, just too nice of a day not to ride. I went solo, took no pics but thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's almost Utahtime.

[GnarlyKarle]

[flyrodder]

Great stuff!

[dougrender]

Yes, that striking fellow cuts quite the pose...

[Milhaus]

[Juicifer]

How tough is BB pass in that direction? I just went down it a few weeks ago on a similar bike and it looked pretty tough to reverse. Now that I think about it, trying to motor through Telluride and not stand out was tough too.

[HellSickle]

Originally Posted by Juicifer

How tough is BB pass in that direction? I just went down it a few weeks ago on a similar bike and it looked pretty tough to reverse. Now that I think about it, trying to motor through Telluride and not stand out was tough too.

That would be illegal to run Black Bear up from Telluride. I'm sure Enduro-ince started in Telluride, took the highway to Ophir, then took the highway over to BB. It's what I would have done.

[enduro-ince]

Originally Posted by Juicifer

How tough is BB pass in that direction? I just went down it a few weeks ago on a similar bike and it looked pretty tough to reverse. Now that I think about it, trying to motor through Telluride and not stand out was tough too.

I've been working one block west of Oak Street which is the street you use to get to Imogene. It never fails, at least once a day, I see a group riding around looking for the road. I get a good chuckle out of that. The LEo's are not really that hardcore when it comes to hassling bikers. The guy across the street from where I'm working has one of those new fangled electric bikes and I saw a town cop come up to him and just say "you can't ride it on the street" ( he just saw it as an unplated bike) He wasn't about to jump out of his vehicle and write him a ticket, he was just giving him a warning. When the guy told him it was electric, he looked at it for a minute then said "oh, my bad, have a great day"

Also one thing to remember about Telluride and its perceived tude as you ride through town on a beautiful summer day is that 95% of those folks you see on the streets are tourists just like you

And riding Black Bear in reverse is easy but getting out of the ticket if you get caught.....not so much


Anyhoo, loading more pics for the next installment..

[enduro-ince]

Originally Posted by HellSickle

That would be illegal to run Black Bear up from Telluride. I'm sure Enduro-ince started in Telluride, took the highway to Ophir, then took the highway over to BB. It's what I would have done.

Exactly!!!! There is only one person in the whole world who cares about riding a motorcycle the proper direction and I'd sure hate to upset him....

I suppose I could of rode any direction I'd like cuz at that hour of the day he was still dreaming about radar guns and ticket booklets

[enduro-ince]

So there I was........it was so epic. No wonder I felt sick to my stomach.

The pile of hash browns alone were enough to send a normal man running to his mommy. The coffee did have a slight brown tint to it so that was.......well, expected I guess. The eggs fluffy and hot. And of course the BACON. Which kinda blew actually.

For some reason after breakfast I had an urge to go shake it all up on some scree. Not sure why, but I had scree on the brain.........just for awhile. I had mental snapshots of all these old roads and trails I had seen over the years, usually high up on a huge talus field of the San Juans finest. I decided to explore a couple.


There is a road in there somewhere.


That one kinda just dead ended but I saw what appeared to be a fairly cruiser road to a mine across the valley


It ended up being kinda rocky.




Looking back across at the other road that peetered out to scree oblivion.


I decided I'd had enough of that gulch so I went down valley towards animas forks and cinnamon pass


Found a cool little trail along the way, more scree.




Had to turn around eventually and the downhill was pretty exciting.




more coming,

[xdbx]

rocky mountains you say?

[Genghis Swan]

Tom, awesome report so far.
Como siempre!