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A Big Pig At Burnt Mill


HispanicSlammer

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The Big Piggy at the river crossing

I missed my chance to go riding when it was warm, Saturday it was 70 degrees out, but I was tired from working the night shift and so thought I could take a nap for a few hours (or so) then get up and go out and enjoy the sunshine around noon. When I woke up it was already dark out and I missed the whole day! Then Sunday it snowed and was cold out, Monday was sunny but still cold. Tuesday it wasn't so cold but it wasn't as good as Saturday. I get 4 days off every other week cause I work a compressed 12 hour day shift/workweek. Or should I say 4 nights off cause I always end up sleeping most days off. Tuesday (today) I was gonna ride hell or high water. I just installed a new 200 watt stator from Ricks on the piggy so that I could use my gps with it - and not drain the little nicad battery pack that came with the Baja Lighting/street legal kit. I installed the last year and I tried using the 100w stock unit but the lights would cut out as soon as I plugged in the gps about 15 minutes into the ride.

I got this thing all street legal, its still a race bike but its got dot dirt tires, turn signals, a speedo, crappy little mirror, and now I have a stator that can power up this light kit, and my gps at the same time.

I took off for Pueblo, via Meridian road from my home in Colorado Springs, it felt like 60 outside and the wind was blowin fierce. Dust from the dry winter was getting in my eyes and I haven't ridden this XR650r for months I had to get used to it again. Seems I have to get used to it every time I ride it, I am not a dirt devil by any means. My route would take me along dirt roads mostly except through the city of Pueblo, then off down Lariat Loop road onto another Dirt road called Little Burnt Mill road. I stopped at "Burnt Mill" but did not see a mill anywhere? I supposed thats because it was burned up?? Duh eh! I found this road last year on my trip to Santa Fe, looking for a way to stay off the interstate mostly and enjoy some back road adventuring. It seems to be well traveled though - I passed lots of cars on the dirt part. There is a creek that runs along the length of it and ends up at a Reservoir called Saint Charles Reservoir, thats the name of the river too the Saint Charles River - though its barely a creek really.

I really like the hilly bluffs around the southern side of this road, it got me out of the wind and the sunshine seemed to warm it up a bit. However when I reached Burnt Mill I found that it was much colder the higher up I got in elevation. Pueblo is about 4000 feet and Burnt Mill was about a thousand feet higher up. I live at 5200 feet so I was basically riding the bowl formed by the Arkansas River basin. Everything seems to flow into it from this area. It is always windy in Pueblo too because of this, the wind follows the same path as the water does.

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Little Burnt Mill Road Greenhorn Mountain in the background

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Little Burnt Mill Road I love the bluffs along this road and the old cottonwood trees.

When I got to Burnt Mill I decided to keep on going and go get a burger in Colorado City, there is a burger joint along I-25 Called Max's its a very homey small town home grown restaurant, where most everybody seems to know each other. However since its off the interstate its always packed with the lunch crowd. I managed to find a small table by the window. The burger was just as good as I remembered, I do enjoy this place, and the owner, the staff, and the customers always seem to be the same as when I left them the last time.

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Max's Diner Colorado City

After eating my burger I got back onto the bike and the temp dropped another 5 degrees so I unpacked my heated vest, thinking I would shut off the headlight and plug it into the battery charger wire. NOPE the gps died, the speedo died and no heat! I guess 200 watts is pushing it? I unplugged the vest and everything came back on again - the vest did warm me up though since it was 45 degrees out with the wind blowing 25 mph it seemed like 30F! I was feeling much more confident and took Burnt Mill road at a clip of 75-80 that is until I passed a cop on the paved section, a left turn and back onto the dirt part again and no sign of cops - I was back up to speed.

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Saint Charles River More like a stream than a river - this is at Burnt Mill

THE MAP

[map=AARTsJqsy-Wml_D8KxNwkqaChK_ZMM-3IA]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=11755780299001803584,38.777368,-104.777133%3B16171332272027393792,38.732540,-104.726979%3B7362721521074245626,38.564255,-104.608400%3B15580941568504734239,38.442820,-104.589546%3B2336215332259686766,38.346156,-104.697861%3B9429582127590062000,38.249760,-104.662010%3B9000269612217704604,38.182150,-104.679665%3B3944433312485290856,38.143896,-104.701113%3B10777289495694964411,38.051492,-104.794646%3B3030382981191587853,37.961130,-104.799980&saddr=S+US-85-87+%4038.777368,+-104.777133&daddr=S+US-85-87+%4038.732540,+-104.726979+to:S+Meridian+Rd+%4038.564255,+-104.608400+to:CR-501%2FOverton+Rd+%4038.442820,+-104.589546+to:38.42347,-104.610443+to:N+Purcell+Blvd+%4038.346156,+-104.697861+to:CO-45%2FS+Pueblo+Blvd+%4038.249760,+-104.662010+to:CR-230+%4038.182150,+-104.679665+to:CR-230+%4038.143896,+-104.701113+to:Waterbarrel+Rd+%4038.051492,+-104.794646+to:CO-165+%4037.961130,+-104.799980&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=4&sz=10&via=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8&dirflg=h&sll=38.449287,-104.69696&sspn=0.622712,1.496887&ie=UTF8&ll=38.414862,-104.916687&spn=1.246001,2.993774&t=p&z=9[/map]

Looking at the terrain map you can get a sense of this bowl effect the Arkansas River vally forms, wind just pours down the valley into Pueblo

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