Every Fathers day my friend Reddog (Bill) gets a kitchen pass from his wife to take off on a ride, and each year I usually go along. This year I completely forgot about it, until he mentioned it the night before in PM to me. I was at work so I did the mental checklist, bike works - check, oil changed - check, tires - uh oh! I had spanked pilot powers on and needed to change them first. I had a good set (made in Spain - read the home page is your pilot powers are made in France)!!! So I got off work at 7am, got home - put on my tire changer and slapped on some new tires, called Bill and said I was going to be late perhaps we could meet at Texas Creek instead of where he lives? He agrees but I misjudged how long it would take me to clean up and get ready and showed up in Texas Creek a good 45 minutes later than I told him! Hes a forgiving guy and let me slide - actually he figured I wouldn't be there at that time anyway knowing I screwed up. He took his time pulled into the cafe and ordered breakfast waiting for me to show up - he had gotten there only about 10 minutes earlier than I.

Texas Creek Café A lovely home style joint right along side the Arkansas River hwy 50

VFRS rendezvous with Reddog at Texas Creek

Texas Creek is a mecca for outdoor activities, the BLM runs a huge trail system just north of the park where you can Jeep, ATV, hike or motorcycle up to about 11,000 to the top of Table Mountain. Then the Arkansas river runs along hwy 50 where you can river raft on the rapids, or fish. Hwy 50 at Texas Creek is full of fun sweepers - we call it Texas Creek International Raceway. If your outdoorsy Texas Creek is a great weekend getaway.

here is a link to the BLM pamphlet on Texas Creek

http://www.co.blm.gov/recweb/documents/TexasCrkBroch.pdf

Texas Creek BLM Area Directly to the north of the café the BLM manages an off-road park with several trails winding up and down the mountains in the area, there is rafting in the Arkansas River as well. Its an outdoor playground for sure.

I ordered breakfast and we watched all the Harley's pass by, Bill was itching for some homemade Coconut Cream pie, I having sampled the Dutch Apple pie before on another trip and wasn't interested in the pies. So I stepped out to take the pictures above - don't get me wrong the food at the café is wonderful, breakfast is awesome, the bacon is like some farmer just cut a fresh hunk off a pig! However the pies are a bit disappointing. He come out smirking being a bit disspapointed in the pie. We rolled out around 11am and headed up Monarch pass. Ever since last year the pass has been repaved smooth on the sunny side and its just awesome to ride, I got in a good clean pass on some cages and just took off down the mountain. Bill was not so lucky when I passed a pickup pulled out to follow me and then thought better of it and so he got stuck behind a few cages till the next strait, by then I was gone! I waited for him at the bottom, having almost caught up to me - hes fast.

We decided just to gas up in Gunnison and go do a "There and back again" ride up to the Black Canyon hwy 92. It is a lot of slab to get there but the wait is worth it, I consider it to be the best road in Colorado but each year they seem to muck up the road with tar snakes, last year they chip sealed it, this year it was stable and quite grippy but they allow Cows to Graze along the side of the road on the South End, they were eating the grass along standing right on the road and of course we had to slow way down - not knowing what they might do as we pass. The cows were here and there, laying on the road, pissed me off, first time I ever saw livestock on the road before, being as busy as it was this weekend they could have moved them to other grazing spots?? Oh well it was only one mile of 25 that they were in the road.

This is where you end up if you happen to blow a turn

Bill lead the first run and I followed close by, having gotten a bit faster over the last two years I was glad to be able to keep up with him for once! He usually smokes my ass after the first good turn. He always wants to do the Black Canyon on Fathers day but he says he can never get into a good rhythm on the on the canyon road. Unless its raining - 2003 he just blasted it in the rain and left me way behind. I have come to love the dipping hairpins and the sweeping hidden turns, I know it quite well and know where to slow down cause of the ever present gravel. One particular turn the road rises sharply and dives off to the right where there is a hidden drive to a camping site. There is always gravel in the middle of the road right at the top and I know exactly where it is. Bill knows it is there somewhere but always forgets where and blows right into that turn, which of course destroys his confidence in the road for a mile or so. Heh I know its coming so I always slow down - not Bill - full steam ahead and OH S**%T!

The route

We thought we would ride to the end of the canyon and play it by ear. There we would figure out if we should make a loop out of the ride or just go back once we reached the end. I was getting sick of being pelted by wasps, damn they hit hard at 70mph so I wanted to carry on with the loop - must have been a thousand of them along the way. Bill wasn't happy with that run he did and wanted to do it again he decided to let me lead the way back, he SAID he was going to take it easy and just sight see it this time and let me go. I took off and sure enough he was right behind me - so much for sight seeing!! This pass we both felt much more at ease and just cranked it over turn after turn. Stopping once for a few pictures of the San Juan mountains in the distance.

Blue Mesa Reservoir

Blue Mesa Damn Gunnison River Below

Bluff at Blue Mesa

San Juan Mountain Range off in the distance

San Juan's zoomed out

Like I said before Bill always rides on Fathers day since 2003 we have hooked up for a ride, the first year we did Rocky Mountain National Park but later that year we discovered the Black Canyon and have come back ever since.

Fathers day rides from the past

Fathers day 2003 Rocky Mountain National Park

Fathers day 2004 Black Canyon

Fathers day 2005 Black Canyon

2006 I did not go cause I went to Miller Motor sports Park instead to go to the AMA races there, but this year we had another great ride. On the way back we stopped in Salida and enjoyed the local scenery -[perverts] heh however we are invisible since we are over 40. Then back on the bikes, where Bill was supposed to peel off and home via High Park Road, with me going back hwy 50. Right about 10 miles past Salida we encountered a fairly fast Harley rider cruising about 80mph and doing the turns around 65mph, the easy sweepers there - he was going fast enough for us at the time, passing cars along the way.

He was going fast enough for a while until Bill got sick of how slow he was going in the turns and passed him, so did I. He though he could keep up with us as we cruised the slabby parts around 80mph. We would pass the cages in formation and this guy would wrap it up and get awful close to me after passing the cars, like he couldn't slow down or something - he was making me nervous. We went like that for a good 20 miles then we both dropped him in some tighter turns around Cotopaxi leaving him a good mile off - basically not slowing down for the turns. But of course there is more slab to Texas Creek and he caught up to us again and he was soon getting too close to me again. We started to pass a line of cars and the dude went before me and luckily I saw him and pulled back into line - I let him get between us, had I gone he would have plowed right into me he was so close - having had enough of that shit I just passed him and Bill at the same time and took off.

Bill saw what I was doing and followed but I had the hammer down now and was pretty much wanting to drop this clown all together. Which we did - gone we were just gone. No more HD jerk to make things difficult I really sort of enjoyed that part, it was the good part of Texas Creek International Raceway anyways and we always wick it up there. I decided I needed some more turns cause that was exiting so I followed Bill up High Park Road too and we tore up the tight ones there too. But here I noticed my voltage light was blinking red - OH NO my RR must be going out! Sure enough - I had noticed it on the last ride when my engine was running hot. I just put it on last year??? OH YEA I PUT 30k miles on last year - DUH!! I unplugged a head light and the volt meter showed green again, but it would drop to red when idling at stop lights. I anticipated this and ordered a new RR which is sitting in my garage, time to install it now!

A FEW old VIDEOS of our Fathersday rides

:media: Black Canyon Loop

:media: Fathersday 2005 Black Canyon

:media: Fathersday 2004 Cotchetopa Canyon

Streets and Trips file