Is that a vfr1200? why yes it is!

I have been riding by the Black Canyon all summer - right on past it along hwy 50 going to other places, Utah for instance. I could see it from across the canyon winding along the mesa side in all its glory. I just had to get over there and ride it on the veefalo just once this summer its my favorite road of all time - hwy 92 Black Canyon Of The Gunnison. I got up early, my sister was in town with her family and their scout troops up from Santa Fe. They were headed over to Rocky Mountain National Park for a small two night Back Packing Trip. They were camped out in the back yard with 6 kids and 3 adults. She asked me if I wanted to come along - I honestly thought why not but all I have are inappropriate shoes since I tossed my hiking boots cause they were so damned uncomfortable. So I put on my leathers hugged my niece and nephew goodbye and said I would see them in a week when they come back from up north.

I started up the bike and took off for a day ride up to the Black Canyon. I rolled down hwy 115 and over to Canon City (hate riding through that town) and of course as always I was stopped by all 8 stop lights as usual. I gassed up at the Shell Station and talked to a couple of HD riders gassing up across the median. People were very friendly the whole trip. Then off I went west on hwy 50 over to Poncha Springs. I was sort of winging it - the pass at Monarch had some really dark clouds over it so I said well why not head south to Sagauch then take hwy 9 into Cotchetopa Canyon? Sure why not, so I headed up Poncha Pass and sped up the hwy 285 to the top, passing folks with ease since it was 2 lanes, then once a the top I settled into a nice cruising pace into the San Luis Valley, great views of the Sangre De Christo Range on the left dotting the land scape as far as I could see. Then crossing the little town of Villa Grove I was on the lookout for the inevitable State Trooper, sure enough there he was 2 minutes south of town. I used to take that route on the way to college - 12 times a year it seemed and always there was a state trooper there. My radar detector caught him before I did, good job ole boy! I passed him at the speed limit on the DOT!

Another half an hour and I was in Sagautch, a nice little village you can miss if you blink - I stopped at the gas station 132 miles since my last fill up and got a drink and popped a couple of Tylenol. I did everything except fill up the gas tank! Oops dumb ass! I talked to a couple of folks while stopped the new bike seems to be a real conversation piece! 3 guys with dreadlocks as hanging down to their knees - must have been in a band or something? Reggae is alive and well in Colorado don't think twice about it. I took off and forgot to secure my helmet strap and had to stop, after just having passed a pickup truck. I was seeing allot of cars and trucks on this road. Last time I rode into Cotchetopa Canyon I was the only vehicle for at least a full half an hour, I was passing by a car truck or RV every minute or so! Early August the height of the vacation season in Colorado!

Cotechetopa Canyon was great, It always scares me a bit cause I was leading a group of riders on it a few years back and there was a bad accident and a few riders got hurt pretty bad on the way to the ST.N meet in Montrose. So I don't play around on it and give it the respect its due, that and the darned oncoming traffic freaks me out more than it used to. I guess getting run off the road by a blue van does that to you. I am paranoid about people coming into my lane now! I took my new contour HD camera out and slapped the vacuum mount to the rear fender and tried it out.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/cotchetopa.mp4

Its a short video shot in HD and detuned for less resolution if you turn hd off - 4 minutes or so of just the wind and motor. I don't like the mount it shakes too much. I was noticing about half way into the canyon I was flashing on my gas tank. Already at 150 miles I was getting a warning. So I slowed it down and conserved fuel till I could make it the 18 miles to Gunnison. When I got there it took a full 4 gallons so I had another half gallon left at 168 miles. 42 mpg - Tank range is probably around 190 miles on fumes give or take 5 miles. I think I average 40 mpg though.

Three guys from Indiana On their way to Creede, then Durango and the Million Dollar Highway

I met these guys at the gas station in Gunnison and talked a little while they had Indiana Plates and were traveling together two cruisers and an Triumph ST. I was not liking the dark clouds over the mesa tops, I had avoided rain so far on this trip and hoped I would make the Black Canyon before it started. NO WAY mother nature said, and as soon as I turned off on hwy 92 I got my first rain drop and thought 'you bitch'! What is it with the Black Canyon and afternoon rain? I was able to do about a 3rd of it before it really started pouring, I turned on the camera again and let it go the whole way. It started to come down heavy about 3/4 into it. The bike handles OK in the rain but I don't like these Dunlops too much not much feedback so I took it easy for the most part.

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/blackcanyon-rain.mp4

I stopped in Crawford and had lunch at the Boardwalk, a big plate of smothered burrito that was scrumptious. It was huge though and I could not eat it all. There were more bikes there, a group of ST riders on cruisers, 2 goldwings and a Beemer ST bike with Missouri plates. Most of the guys were from Denver and all sporting gray hair except the cruiser rider. The red GS was really nice some of those Goldwings are really nice. The other one was a typical chromed out job, not so interesting to me too much crap on it, even a metal grate on the back with a cooler strapped to it? Too much crap it seems, some GS owners get carried away with accessories.

I ate up and took off hoping to get over McClure pass while the rain let up. NOPE it was a wall of water to the north and back south, West looked no better and east was all mountains. I was getting tired too, odd hours at work I was up at 3 am the night before and playing on vfrd. So I stopped in Hotchkiss when I started raining again and asked for a good place to stay. Hotchkiss motel they girl said at the Ace Hardware store. Apparently my HD contour camera is NOT water resistant and water leaked in past the glass. I bought a jewelers screwdriver to take it off and dry it out. Then tightened up on the gasket to make it seal better.

I spent the night in Hotchkiss - nothing on me but a camera and my leathers and a cell phone. The Slovak fella at the front desk seemed a bit bothered - "just sign it" he says as I was attempting to fill out all the spaces. Some Slovak European TV show blaring on the TV and he was talking to his son? I am guessing he was from Bosnia? I don't know somewhere in Eastern Europe. Gypsy

The room was clean and a bit sparse but I did not care pulled off my gear and I was asleep in a matter of minutes 4pm in the afternoon, I would not wake up till midnight! Hungry but the whole town was shut down, save the bar. It was a mile from the motel and I did not want to drink and ride so I rode back to the city market I passed, all I had was 10 dollar bills so no soda pop from the machines either. Back to room I had ice water and went back to sleep 2 hours more then up again at 3am. Darned graveyard shift ruined my sleep habits. I watched infomercials and stupid old TV shows from the 70's till I finally fell back asleep. 8am and well rested finally I walked across the street to the "home town cafe" the waitress was really nice, I guess the sign in the middle of town was true "Hotchkiss the nicest people" ! I am betting so all except that grumpy Euro dude in his wife beater back at the motel, even he was OK! people in this town are mostly farmers and outdoors-men. Staunch Republicans too, I read a couple of local papers and well its very much leaning to right. I tend to do that myself now that I am older. Its a conservative town but they drink here, remember the bar was the only thing open at midnight, and well the church is not the biggest building in town so I think its got its share of hootin and hollerin - this is the wild west ya know! "The nicest people" the sign said!

My plate of bacon and french toast was wonderful it was scarfed down much too fast, that burrito held me over pretty good the night before but boy I was hungry. I dropped off my key and headed back to the Black Canyon hoping it was dry this time!

Crawford CO 9am in the morning

Fog Over The Black Canyon a bit cold too

Fog rolls up hill Up the Black Canyon

The road disappears around the bend

Nope it wasn't dry not in the shade and it was freaking cold, 60 wet degrees out and misty out, fog was rolling in from inside the valley and up and over the mesa sides. I was pretty, there were rodents all over the roads too, little critters everywhere sunning themselves cause it was wet and cold and the road was the warmest place. I hoped I would not run anything over. I saw a few who did not run in time and the crows were having at them. So again going slow I cant ride for shit when I am cold either. Wet and cold its twice as slow. So I just stopped allot and took pictures!

A memorial on the side of the road the Gunnison River below reminding me its not a road to take lightly

Hwy 92 from across the canyon

Black Canyon Hwy 92 road is wet from the all night rains

Green Pastures across the canyon The scenery is incredible here

I was rounding the big turn about 3/4 of the way into the deepest canyon section and spied something red, sure enough it was another vfr1200! I did a quick U turn and introduced myself to the 4 guys stopped at the overlook. They were all from Midland Texas, 3 brothers and 1 friend on his VFR1200. I talked with them for a good 20 minutes - warned them about the critters and the buckled up road ahead, then shared routes. They were heading up to Independence pass and over McClure on the way, good ride they had in store for their day. Me I was on my way to Creede and back home via hwy 160. The guy with the VFR is a member here but for the life of me I cannot remember his name! I stopped and took a picture with him and the two bikes.

another vfr1200 dressed up for touring from Midland Texas

Another vfr1200 with side bags

Two vfr1200 owners I am awful at remembering names - he says hes a member of vfrd

It was tuning out to be a great 2 day ride, but coming up on 9am the clouds were already forming up for another hit on the mountains so I scooted off up to hwy 50 and then turned off to Lake City. I stopped there for lunch at the Country Vittles around noon. The young fellow running the place came over and talked to me about the bike, a Texas transplant the whole family works at the restaurant, he rides a Buel which he paid too much for - missed out on the going out of business prices he paid 10k for his. He was giving me warnings about "Slum" the pass just south of town, its got gravel in the turns from all the RVs who cant stay on the pavement in the tight turns. So I ate my Cajun combo grilled cheese sandwich and cup of Gumbo and REAL CANE SUGAR DR PEPPER from the DR Pepper Plant in Dublin Texas. Thats why I stop there!

Slumgullion Slide and the veefalo

Red Mountain

Bristol Head

Creede Colorado

The road into Creede was very bumpy all they way down the pass, then it smoothed out a little and it was wet too of course but that did not stop me from riding pass all the RV's and Pickup trucks with campers on them. I rode into Creede about 2pm and there wasn't a place to park, its was packed! Every restaurant was full and so I did not bother and headed for Del Norte to fill up - even then I did not stop, I rode instead into Monte Vista cause Del Norte was packed with traffic too.

Monte Vista is at the end of the Gun Barrel and strait road that crosses the San Luis Valley north to south strait as a gun barrel! I had forgotten how congested hwy 160 gets and learned soon. A train had crossed the road then stopped right at the side of the road for a good 10 minutes which did not allow for the crossing to stop alarming, the arms were still down holding up traffic. Some cars crossed anyway but me I figured I am in no hurry and waited. Finally the stupid train pulled ahead and the crossing cleared, there was traffic piled up for a mile on both sides! It was bumper to bumper all the way into Alamosa from there, and it took another 20 minutes to get through Alamosa. It seems the town has sprawled out a good 5 miles on either side since I last went through, new restaurants, new wall mart and new everything the place is booming!

Once out of town I was picking off cars and trucks one at a time then I had La Veta pass all to myself. Its easy sweepers really easy sweepers, you have to go 120 mph to really lean it over, I cruised it at 90 and just enjoyed the mountains. Gassing up again in Walsenburg the way home would have to be interstate 25 from there cause the wet mountains looked..well WET! I had enough of riding twisties in the rain so I just slabbed it home from there. Thats when all hell broke loose 10 miles from home a squall with 50 mph gusts and rain drops as big as grapes hit me just south of town. Oh well at least my gear was now clean from all the bugs!

Darned good two days of riding!

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