Day 7, book days 37&38: We woke up early to a large group of bicyclists in our campground, getting ready to hit the road for a long day riding. They even had a chase bus that brought all their gear with them. We were staying in the area a few days to meet up with our other guys and go by Copper Mountain and check out Suzuki Fest, so we didn't have to break camp and rush out. Mark's bike didn't want to start this morning and we had to push it to start it! This will be a continuing problem with an interesting solution later!
After looking at some maps, I decided to try a dirt road over the mountains to get to Breckenridge, where John Weldon had made oil change and service arrangements for us. While gassing up in Leadville, I asked a local, driving a pickup truck, about the pass out of Leadville over the mountains. He scared me away by saying the last time he went up it in a jeep, it was so narrow and rocky his wheels were on the edge and he was scraping the mountain! He eventually turned around. He told me to head south and try Stamper Pass (I think that's the name), which brings us over the mountain just south of Fairplay, so we head out for a real adventure.
After a few miles of pavement it turns to gravel and is a pretty well maintained road for a few more miles with some nice views along the streams and hills. Eventually it starts to climb and the road gets much narrower, then rocky and washouts. It was starting to get pretty challenging and I was considering turning around because the rocks were getting big!
Ken's Pics 452, 451
Rough and steep!
We finally reach the top and there was a high alpine cowboy camp up there. Magnificent views and I think we crossed the CD again. The ride down was on a maintained road and easy compared to coming up.
We make it up to High Altitude Motosports in Breckenridge by 11:00 AM and ask if they can do our oil changes today, since we're a day early. At first the mechanic didn't want to accommodate us but then saw we were going to leave and took care of us while we went across the street for lunch. He didn't even mind us going to NAPA for Amsoil instead of what they had! Cool!
It was early and we didn't know where or when the rest of our group would show up, so we decided to do a couple of more segments of the ride. We left Breckenridge on a gravel road that goes over Boreas Pass at 11,482 ft. It was a nice ride, except for meeting cars, with lots of big views of the town and the awesome ski slopes.
Ken's pics 453, 454
Breckenridge Ski Resort.
At the top is an old water tower for the old railroad that came over the pass. As you can see from the photo, it's in pretty good shape because at this altitude and temperature, nothing rots.
Ken's pic 456
The ride down the mountain was fun with a good view heading south. The road widened and was well maintained though all the ranch and farmland all the way to Hartsell, where we chose to end the CD ride today. We headed back to the campground to await our friends.
Day 8, Friday August 27, 2004 book days 39 - 42: The
consensus today is to break camp and decide where we stay later because the
weather forecast was for rain later in the day. We wanted to check out Suzuki
Fest anyway, so we went to Frisco to meet John Weldon, James Klotz, and
Goldwing Mark Cambron for breakfast and catch up on their pavement ride
experiences. They told us about how Roger had left them to
head back to visit his daughter and Kendall had crashed in Estes Park. We were
glad to hear that Kendall was stabile and should recover fine and his bike can
be fixed.
Bill's pic 079
Left to right, Mark, James and
John.
We headed over to Suzuki Fest at Copper Mountain and met
with Chuck Welch, who is on the Vstrom team at Suzuki. He asked us all kinds of questions about the
bikes and what we would like to see upgraded or changed about the bikes. He took pictures of our muddy bikes and our
motley crew. Maybe we'll be used as
advertising for the off road capabilities of the bike? It was a pleasure meeting Chuck Welch and
speaking to Brent Ross, also with Suzuki, on the phone. Brent has done some of the CD ride on a DRZ
400 and was pleased to hear we were on Vstroms.
Bill's pic 097
Mark, Ken, Chuck Welch from Suzuki, and
Bill.
John & James decide to stay for the weekend and then they will head out for the Grand Canyon. Mark Cambron wants to ride with us until we go back to dirt roads, then he will head home to Birmingham. Mark, Bill, & I decide to not stay for the races because the weather was looking poorly and much cooler, so the 4 of us head south to Salida, CO, on pavement. We bypass the trail (book day 39) because of the flat boring terrain and to get further that day. We have a nice lunch in Salida and part company with Goldwing Mark and get back on the trail.
We were getting a splattering of rain as we come into Mears junction where we take a gravel road to go over the divide at Marshall Pass, 10,842 ft. We actually rode out of the rain as we went higher and it was dry on the way down. We pick up a short stretch of pavement from Sargents to Doyleville, and then back on the trail again. The trail stays very high, over 8,000 ft and we cross the divide again at Cochetopa Pass, 10,032 ft.
Mark's Pic1665, Ken's 457, Bill's pic 036
We missed the rain pretty much.
Since we got on the trail after Salida, it has been much slower going. The road is now twisty and narrow, up and down, following streams and canyons and requiring all your attention. It is beautiful but very arid. After Cochetopa Pass, we ride through Red Rock Canyon and it looks just like the old John Wayne movie sites, cool! We come out onto Hwy 114 and have to decide if we want to continue the 50 miles to Del Norte or find a place to stay nearby. It's already 6:00pm and we've been averaging only 30 miles an hour, which would put us in Del Norte around 8:00. Should we try it? No way, were tired, so we head to the booming metropolis of Saguache, CO, where we find the hotel closed, and the only motel in town doesn't look fit for a cockroach! We head south a few miles and find this old time motel and pull in. We check in for $85 for the three of us with a separate bedroom where we put Bill (he snores). This place was not much plus I think the furniture was circa 1900. It was a real cowboy hangout though because it had a bar/restaurant in the back and was crowded on certain nights they told us. They wouldn't let horses inside though!