2011 — Mostly Colorado on Trip 2

OFMC 2011 route, trip 2 Eight stud bikers made up the contingent on this trip: Bill, Friggs, Dennis, John, Ken, Randy, Brett, and Johnathon. With people coming and going at such different times on such different routes, the map only reflects what could be called the main group.

New Castle was the gathering point on Day One, with John coming in solo from his place out west; Bill, Dennis, Friggs, and Ken heading out of Denver on U.S. 285 to Fairplay, and then over Hoosier Pass to pick up the interstate; and Brett and Randy blasting out on I-70 later in the day.

One memorable moment for the group coming over Hoosier was a place on the downhill side where the creek was flowing over the road, necessitating a ride through about 8 inches of water. But these tough dudes got through OK.

Leaving New Castle the next morning, John led us north on smaller roads on a backcountry route over to Rifle. Didn't quite find the road we were looking for, and so missed Rifle Gap Falls, but oh well.

We then followed old U.S. 6 to Debeque where we headed south on the Debeque Cut-off and up over Grand Mesa.

We hit CO 92 a bit east of Delta and then John led us on more backcountry roads, winding down to Olathe on routes other than the way-too-crowded U.S. 50. We saw a lot of corn. Little choice then but 50 on down to Ridgway and then we looped around to the west to our next stop in Telluride.

Here we ran into the first of several screw-ups with reservations. John had made the booking and had called back a couple days ago to confirm--all was fine.

When we got there the guy had us down for one room, two nights. Of course we needed two rooms, one night. So he opened up a private suite and we saw how the owners live. Much nicer than your average room. And Randy wanted to go out and hit the town but with this crowd of married guys he could find no takers.

Debeque Cutoff Next day it was down to Dolores, over to Durango, to Pagosa Springs, and down to Chama. This is where Johnathon showed up. He had had some good-paying gigs in town that he couldn't pass up, so once he was free he blasted on down. This was where we were first treated to the LED show on a couple bikes.

The following morning we headed for Antonito, a backtrack for Johnathon, and ran into a herd of cattle coming over Cumbres and La Manga Passes. We waited patiently for the cowboys to clear the cows off the road for us but soon saw that that was not going to happen. A car and pick-up starting shoving their way through, horns blaring, so we tagged along. But the cows weren't as intimidated with us, so the closed back in like the sea and we were surrounded.

Behind Telluride Then it was up to the boys on Harleys to use all that noise for a constructive purpose. We did finally work our way through and were able once again to hit the throttles. Checking out the bikes later, there was cowshit on radiators and the underside of every bike. At Antonito we headed south back into New Mexico, to San Juan Pueblo and the Indian casino there. Stopping on the way in Ojo Caliente, Randy pointed out how thin his back tire was. Yikes! No dude, you're not going to make it home on that tire.

LEDs on motorcycles There was a little uncertainty about how to find the casino/hotel but we got there. Randy got on his smart phone trying to find a shop nearby to work on his bike but ended up deciding on a place in Alamosa. So the next morning, while Randy and Friggs backtracked up U.S. 285 to Alamosa, the rest of us took the High Road to Taos.

Cattle herd Cumbres Pass A bit of confusion on John's part took us on a bit of a wild goose chase at one point, but hey, exploring is fun. From Taos, the other group circled around with a stop at Angel Fire and then went down Cimarron Canyon on the way to Raton. From there we headed north on I-25 to Trinidad and took the Highway of Legends to Cuchara. Friggs and Randy were there to meet us and after dinner we continued to La Veta for the night. The La Veta Ranch House Inn has rooms individually decorated and is a pretty nice place.

Casino mirror Leaving La Veta the next morning it was time for Johnathon and Randy to head home. The rest of us headed west over La Veta Pass. Coming down toward Fort Garland John pulled over because his bike seemed to be acting funny. We concluded there was nothing to do but keep on to Alamosa and stop at the same shop Friggs and Randy had been to the day before and get it checked out.

Heading for Raton The guys at the shop had no good ideas what it might be but offered assurance, which was enough to satisfy John so he was willing to keep going. A week after this trip he found out it wasn't all OK, but in the meantime he got to continue with the group without being too worried.

Coming down from North Cochetopa Pass We headed north from Monte Vista through Saguache, north over North Cochetopa Pass, and down to Gunnison. Then on to Lake City for the night. Getting up the next morning we found a restaurant that looked good for breakfast and found ourselves in the clutches of the slowest cooks in the world. Once we finally had breakfast we continued south over Slumgullion Pass down to Creede, to South Fork, over Wolf Creek Pass, and back along U.S. 160 to Durango. Had to stop at the Harley shop in Durango.

Then north over Coal Bank and Molas Passes to Silverton to spend the night there for once, in one of those old, refurbished, grand hotels.

Continuing north over Red Mountain Pass, we cruised through Ouray and up to Montrose where John took us to a really good brewpub, with homemade root beer and cream soda. Definitely a good stop. Then it was east to Gunnison. Here, the reservations got screwy again.

Silverton Ken had made this reservation, talking to a guy who spoke perfect English. Shortly before the trip, John and Friggs decided not to stay in Montrose and golf, so it was necessary to revise the reservation. This time he spoke with a woman for whom English was not her native language and it was difficult but it got done. However, we had a couple rooms and one bed was a fold-out and another was a rollaway. We thought, why not just get another room with two beds?

Hah! Easier said than done. The woman at the desk was probably the same one on the phone, and on top of that, she probably didn't know how to use the reservations software well enough to change the reservation, so she canceled the old one and created a new one. Funny thing, the new one came with the current rate, not the old rate, and the current rate was a lot higher. Nevermind that they had a big banner out front saying "Ask about our special walk-in rates." That's right, we'll give you special walk-in rates that are only 100 percent higher than if you make your booking in advance. Meanwhile, there were vacancies in the place next door and what was going to be the cheapest night of the trip turned into the most expensive night of the trip. And at a Super 8!

Red Mountain Pass There was a motorcycle group on a weekend outing staying there, too, plus some others, so almost the entire place was filled with bikes. We walked across the street to the park and found a lot of really cool carvings done to turn tree stumps into art. Not the chainsaw bear crap, but real art. Worth a look.

And then it was the last day of the ride. John headed west and the rest went east. Bill and Friggs jumped off at Poncha Springs to visit family, so at Aspen Park it was down to three, Dennis, Brett, and Ken, and we all took Dennis's route to Deer Creek Canyon and split from him there. Meanwhile, just after turning off onto this alternate route, a deer ran out in front of Dennis, reminding us that we really shouldn't take these things for granted.

And that was that. Another year in the books.

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