2009 — An Old School Ride

Nine guys again this year, but starting all together in one place at one time is a thing of the past. Meeker was the meeting spot. Friggs got an early start and rode over to Montrose to meet up with John. The two of them rode over the Grand Mesa and on down.

Dennis and Ken headed out in the morning, heading out US 285 to Buena Vista, over Tennessee Pass down to Minturn, and along old US 6 to Rifle, where they turned north. The rest of the guys, Bill, Jason, Johnathon, Randy, and Brett, started later and blasted out I-70 to Rifle.

Off to an easy start the first day, we just relaxed, caught up on what's new, and looked forward eagerly to the ride ahead.

The next morning, before heading out, we wandered uptown to a cafe and found the old Meeker Hotel on the town square, looking very historic and like a good place to stay next time.

Heading west along CO 64 we went through Rangely, stopping at the reservoir to stretch, and then on through Dinosaur headed toward Vernal on US 40. From Vernal to Duchesne the sky threatened but never delivered, so we kept riding.

West out of Duchesne we reached the first point where we were heading up new road, a stretch that crosses Utah's Wolf Creek Pass. The sky looked nasty so we concluded we needed to suit up, but John opined that if we just waited a bit the storm would pass and we could ride on and stay dry. Time to crack out the beers! Then on to Kamas.

In Kamas we had a motel all to ourselves. It used to be a nursing home and had very nice grounds, as well as a trampoline, which Ken, Randy, and Johnathon tried out. Special delivery pizzas only took, what, two hours to arrive?

From Kamas we headed east and north over Bald Mountain Pass and down into southwestern Wyoming, and to Evanston. Northwest from there, through some small towns, and back into Utah, to Garden City, by Bear Lake. At that point it was time for the local specialty, blackberry milkshakes. Of course, half of Utah was there that day waiting in line for their shakes, so it took awhile.

On north we went, through Montpelier, and then swung westerly toward Soda Springs. Again the sky was threatening but we kept riding, right into the storm, at which point we suited up. Of course, by the time we had our gear on the rain was ebbing, and we rode one mile further into Soda Springs and took them off again. John called to arrange for the managers of our next stop to meet up and we rode on to Lund, where we had rented the old Lund school for two days.

The school was cool. Again, we had the entire place and this place had it all. There were more beds than we needed, a full kitchen, a gymnasium, and barbecue grills. Ken and Dennis ran back into Soda Springs to get food so we could cook some killer burgers and then we all totally humiliated ourselves demonstrating just how bad we all are at basketball. But we had fun.

The next day it was time to run over the hill into Lava Hot Springs, where hot springs and floating the river in inner tubes are the accepted pastimes. Jason, Bill, and Dennis opted to play golf.

Leaving the school, after spelling OFMC in flattened beer cans, we headed north to Victor, ID, and over Teton Pass to Jackson. Age differences starting showing here, as the more mature among us returned to the rooms earlier, while the young bucks painted the town.

We headed north out of Jackson through Grand Teton National Park and on into Yellowstone National Park. Our economic stimulus dollars were hard at work, leading to lengthy delays and miles of gravel where pavement normally exists. But hey, no problem, we in no hurry.

In Yellowstone we stopped to watch Old Faithful do its thing and then Johnathon showed us some side roads and other attractions off the main route.

It was pretty obvious that the road through Yellowstone used to be a lot more interesting but in the interests of accommodating massive crowds of people, new roads have taken more direct, broader routes between the main hot spots.

We ended up for the night in West Yellowstone. Next morning we backtracked into the park a ways and then headed north and east across the park to come out at Cooke City. More stimulus dollar spending delayed us once again but we eventually started our way up the Beartooth. The Beartooth was swarming with motorcycles and we had a great day to ride it.

Cruising on down into Red Lodge we found our motel right on the main street and it became obvious just how popular the Beartooth is with bikers.

There was no rally going on, but there might as well have been because there was a constant stream of bikes in both directions on that street. Is this Mecca?

Next morning we had planned to go back up the Beartooth and then head south on the Chief Joseph Highway.

However, it was cold and rainy in Red Lodge and the locals told us that if it was like that there, you could assume it was snowing on the Beartooth. Change of plans. So we suited up and headed first east and then south to Cody and Meeteetse and Thermopolis. At Shoshoni we turned southwest through Riverton on our way to Lander, our stop for the night.

The big attraction in Lander was the Coyote Ugly Bar, and we found ourselves sitting next to bunch of women teachers who had just come down from a week trekking in the Wind River Mountains with llamas. We thought what they had done was pretty exotic but they thought what we were doing was pretty exotic, so we got along just fine.

Next day was a blast across central Wyoming to reach Saratoga and the Sage and Sand Motel. This was going to be the Sage and Sand's last chance to retain our patronage because it had gotten pretty shabby in recent years but they've fixed it up a bit so we were satisfied, and they'll get our business again.

A bunch of the guys were anxious to get home, however, so they pushed on. For the rest of us it was time to head to the Hobo Hot Springs. Emphasis this year on the word "hot." If you really disciplined yourself and took it slow it was actually possible to get your whole body in, and even stay in for awhile, but it was an effort. But hey, we're tough stud bikers so at least some of us did it.

Next day we headed south, with John peeling off at Encampment. The rest of us headed south to Walden, over Cameron Pass, down the Poudre, and made a stop at the Mishiwaka Inn. Then it was over the Stove Prairie road that bypasses Fort Collins, to Loveland, and then the interstate to blast home.

And time to start asking the question, "Where to next year?"

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