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HispanicSlammer

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  1. HispanicSlammer
    The Canadian Crew and Me at the lookout on the Old Spiral Highway
    As another riding season begins to draw to a close I can look back at it with a smile and think "good times" - just right not too much not too little. I feel like Goldilocks in riding leathers testing the seats of other peoples motorcycles. Most people I ride with on my trips live an awful long ways away from me, a days ride if not more, so its not often I see them just corresponding here on vfrd. Its always a pleasure to see them again and usually the ride together becomes an epic adventure and once again I am happy to be riding with friends. I have always been a bit aloof but I have never been so much the loner that I shy away from people. The consummate average Joe, so average that my own mother called me "Charlie Brown" ever since I was a little child, Charlie Brown had friends. At my time in life reaching middle age friends are not so easy to come by, you meet them at work, at church (if your the pious type), and places but mostly they are just acquaintances.
    It is as a motorcyclist I have found the most friends, not just with vfrd but long before that, I have always found a bond with people who find themselves at home on two wheels with a motor between their legs, people who don't think its crazy to do that! People like myself, and that is the key. As profoundly different as we are in life, by race, religion, culture, nationality I can honestly say motorcyclist are "people like me". I find an awful lot of comfort in that - since that spirit of kinship doesn't come so easy, not for me, the loner "Charlie Brown". So when I go to a vfrd rally in Troutdale Oregon and meet a few new people and come to know them, then reunite with vfrd members again its an honest friendship I find very rewarding. It is the reason I really created this website, out of a selfish need to find people like me. So it goes a very special riding season draws to a close and I am once again planning for next year!

    Lake McDonald Glacier National Park
    It was the the end of the PNW meet in Troutdale and we had split up - half of us on the way to Canada and the rest of us on our way to Glacier National Park. Radar, Radars-rider, and I would ride one more day together to go and visit Montana. We took a rather out of the way route from Idaho to Montana or so we thought, my gps was constantly trying to route me off what it thought was a dirt road, up to Thompson Pass I was getting confused as to where to turn off or if just to keep going? We were sort of playing it by ear, Radar had never been to Glacier before so he let me lead. We got off the interstate as soon as we could and turned on this back road and it was shaping up to be a nice road that mirrored a nice creek, lots of fishermen wading in the stream and a generally picturesque place to behold. Soon a turn came and went and the sign said Thompson Pass so I turned around and took it. Thats when it got to get interesting since the surface took a turn for the worst. Like it had not been resurfaced in years, bumpy and up and down wavy roller coaster type things going on, I thought perhaps the gps was right we might be heading for a dirt road right into Deliverance. I was very surprised when we rolled up behind the longest stack of cars, Harley's, and RV's I had ever seen. The road had no straits long enough to start picking them off one by one so we just sat behind them all for mile after mile till we came to a village in Prichard Idaho, where some sort of festival was going on. It was all very confusing. Where were they going since we could see none of them turning off and why so many all bunched together. I saw an opportunity after the village to pass them all at once and I took it with Radar in tow right behind me. No real traffic behind that mass of locust and none past them either? It remains a mystery where that caravan came from and where they were going?
    Then Thompson pass came along for a few miles of great twisties on the Idaho side and a few more on the Montana side but a bit bumpy on the shady side of the mountains. It was turning out to be one of those great roads - you don't really enjoy it till its almost over? Then you realize "hey that was good"! Too bad that it was all slab from there on out, along with 15 miles of road torn down to the dirt. You would think a car with 4 flat square tires could handle it better then a bike but nope they all want to go 15 miles an hour on dirt? One guy even went so far as to bob and weave around so much that I though he might have blown a tire, he was only looking for the smoothest part of the road - again at 15 mph - Radar and I found a bit of daylight and passed him at 40 and showed him the correct way to smooth out an easy dirt road - go faster! Somehow we were soon at Flathead lake and rolling our way into Kalispell but I turned off and totally missed the entire town, good thing since I don't much care for that place so much. Radar had reservations at an RV park that had a motel, cabins and even teepee's to stay at! I got a little apartment off on the edge of the property and they had a room in the motel. We took a break and washed up then headed to Hungary Horse for a meal and some awesome Huckleberry pie!

    Radar And Fay early in the morning up Glacier National Park

    Going To The Sun Road

    Logan Pass on Going to the Sun Road

    Short Delays Mt Logan

    We made it through the park between storms

    Fantastic view

    Full Size
    The next morning we bundled up expecting cold rain but somehow managed to ride between two storms - all the way into and out of the park. It was early so we did not have to pay, the ranger at the gate did not even acknowledge we where even there, sitting there like fools waiting for somebody to take our money till a cager passed through without paying and so we followed. It was even rude - totally ignored us! Oh well its was much cheaper this way!

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/glacier.mp4
    At the end of the park is where I would have to say goodbye once again to radar and his lovely traveling companion Fay, they were on their way to Saskatoon and me I was gonna try to make it to Cody Wyoming. In the Indian country on the Montana Plains is got to be where the name "Big Sky Country" comes from since it is very much so. I was rolling south to Helena and racking up the miles one by one at a pace that if it was not Montana might land me in Jail. Stopping for lunch in Choteau I found a wonderful café that had some of the best food of the whole trip, Biscuits and Gravy and real gravy! Good stuff!

    Brunch In Choteau The food here is excellent

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    The rest of the day was slab to nth degree, nice sweepers on interstate into Helena then an awful 2 lane road hwy 287 on the way to the interstate heading east to Red Lodge. I was planning to make over Bear Tooth Pass by nightfall but I was taking too much time, a huge fire along the highway at Columbus almost choked me to death with smoke so I got off the interstate there and went a back way into Red Lodge, it was also under construction and down to the dirt base so I was going along even slower then I would have. Then smack right into a rain storm I finally pulled into Red Lodge and looked for a motel! I found one on south side of town and I am glad I did cause it was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Harley Davidson's parked side by side the whole parking lot, two large groups of motorcyclist had pulled in also to get out of the rain. One group from Boise and the other from Queensland Australia - talk about an epic trip. I was hardly able to swing my leg off the bike before a nice Aussie was handing me a beer and a braut and inviting me to come have dinner with them at the BBQ - and I did and it was great! Lovely people these Australians the the Boise group too, all different walks of life, age, fathers, sons, wives and old friends. I was like I landed into a second rally in Red Lodge!

    Out of the rain - at the Red Lodge Inn two groups of Harley Davidson's also stopped to get out of the rain

    Australian HD riders they cooked burgers steaks and dogs for everybody - with beer for everybody it was like a mini rally in the Red Lodge Parking Lot we had a great time
    I drank so much beer I got a headache cause every time I finished one somebody was handing me another! We stayed up till the moon rose and the stars of the Montana sky were so bright we could see well enough to stumble to our rooms. Oh boy did I have a good time! I woke up to the sound of roaring Harley's and the entire bunch had gotten up early to head over the pass together. I has semi packed already so I just showered up and put the bags back on the VFR in an empty parking lot. I gave my key back to the owners, a nice couple who just bought the place and renovated it, trying to make a go at being innkeepers, I must say they sure were great hosts, shuttling us to the grocer for burgers and making beer runs for us all night long. Good people I hope they are successful in their business. If ever in Red Lodge make sure to stay at the Red Lodge Inn on the south end of town, new red paint and brick parking lot.
    Red Lodge Inn
    811 S Broadway Ave, Red Lodge, Montana 59068
    (406) 446-2030
    I got on my bike and headed for the pass 20 minutes later and to my amazement I caught them all at the base - of course I passed them and waved as I went by, I had a long 700 mile day ahead of me yet to go. Stopping a few times for pictures till they almost caught up again and off I went, it was incredibly cold at the top of Bear Tooth Pass the digital thermometer on the dash said 32F! My hands were frozen with the lite summer gloves even with the grip heaters on high!
    it was 30f at the top my hands were numb

    Bear Tooth Pass Panoramic

    Bear Tooth Pass it was 30f at the top my hands were numb
    The ride to Chief Joseph is always fun, 80 mph sweepers and then some nice 20mph switchbacks on the way up to the top, I was again alone.

    Battleship Rock at the bottom of the Chief Joseph Highway

    Chief Joseph Highway Wyoming

    Chief Joseph Outsmarted the US Army In those mountains

    A few more curves before the slab starts
    I stopped for breakfast in Cody and wondered out loud what was I thinking? No way could I have made it here by night fall then just about then a guy rolled up on a Honda Shadow no helmet and an earring in his ear like Sinbad and a bandanna on his head. He gets off and says hello, he tells me he and his friend rode strait from Detroit to Cody Wyoming in one shot, and instantly made me feel like the ultimate pussy! He said he was hopped up on cigarettes and coffee and that it had become some sort of how long can you go competition between them and no way would he have done that alone! I thought he was a nut, especially since it was all interstate, I would be frozen on a fetal position if I was him! Dude good luck get some sleep now!
    So off I went to cross Wyoming and I took the most boring path possible but the fastest, although wind river gorge was nice it too turned into a construction nightmare with a pace car and the, whole crawl a snails pace for and half an hour scene! Economic recovery DOT style, fix all the roads all the way down to magma now? We need fresh magma, hot molten rock to build this road on! ?!
    OK so the rest of the day sucked - end of story! but I did 700 miles on the veefalo - no bandanna or earing but not bad! I rewarded myself 50 miles to go with an ice cream in Sedalia! It was a great vacation!

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    ********Update***********
    I got an email from Dawn, the Matriarch of that fine bunch of Austrailians I met in Red Lodge - I was happy to hear from her.

    Dawn Page & crew Dawn sent me this photo via email from thier adventure in the USA - as is thier fashion they invited the owner of the hotel into the shot - very good people.
  2. HispanicSlammer
    August 14-21 marks an epic vfr trip, some 4000 miles from Colorado to Nelson BC and back again. Craig and I started out around noon on Sunday and headed for Grand Junction to get a head start on the trip, after taking a 4 hour nap after working all night. we took hwy 24 all the way to Leadville and it was Rather uneventful except that there were so many rv's on the road we thought wtf its not even close to Labor day yet what is going on, then Craig figured it out. It was the last weekend of the summer break before school started again. Every year schools seems to start earlier and earlier.

    Leadville Colorado

    Snow on Mt Massive
    When we stopped in Grand Junction we had to pass through Rifle Colorado where there is this massive Mesa top that towers over the area, a storm was brewing over it and the wind was spilling off the mesa down into the valley at 50mph! There were some places where I was almost blown off the road, Craig and I got separated and I had pulled off under an over pass to get out of the wind while he went over it. Oh well we got past the Mesa and the wind died down significantly after that, it was crazy. Not many twisties except a short section over Battle Mountain pass in Minturn from Leadville. There was some guy on an R6 with full leathers hanging off but not leaning over, Craig said the dude drifted over into his lane in the hairpin and gave him a yelp. He looked ridiculous hanging off like that and not keeping the bike steady in the turn, looking too short no doubt and chopping the throttle mid turn. We stopped in Minturn at some bar and had some tacos since thats all they had, nothing but weak Mexican food.
    The Next Day we got up early and headed up Douglas Pass, a bumpy frost heaved road with gravel in all the corners and Cows chewing on the weeds right on the side of the road. It was pretty up there but the riding was a pensive. I was on edge no doubt, going the speed limit cause of all the hazards.

    Douglas Pass

    Douglas Pass

    Douglas Pass

    Craig on his VTEC
    It wasn't long before we where in Vernal UT at Betty's diner, seemed it was the only restaurant open downtown, so we stopped for lunch. the joint was packed and I had a Betty's Burger but after looking around it seemed the Locals where still eating breakfast. Breakfast? Shoot we had already ridden half a day already Breakfast?? From Vernal we shot strait up to the Flaming Gorge.

    Stieneker State Park UT

    Flaming Gorge UT

    Met a couple of guys on the road
    These two guys we met at Mountain Home Wyoming - coming from the big Harley Fest in Sturgis, we where admiring the Ulysis in touring trim. Onto Utah again cutting into the sw corner of Wyoming cuts off some time on I-80. We turned off at Evanston to ride the Wasatch Cache area

    Twisty Sign

    Wasatch Cache National Forest UT hwy 39

    vfrs in Utah
    Craig and I overnighted at the Motel 6 in Ogden, it was the nicest Motel 6 I had ever seen, more like a mid priced hotel than a sixer! We loved the mountains there, but of course they are opposite of us and on the east side unlike Colorado. Ogden has an airstrip where the National Guard flys f-16's wow they where impressive but I am sure the residents get a bit tired of f-16's flying over their homes on full afterburner! We rode a mile north of the hotel for a nice steak at some local steakhouse. The waitress seemed like she was bothered a bit, slamming plates down cause well she just had to be there. Craig was joking "there goes 1%, and another, and another" heh we liked the food anyway!
    Tuesday we where slabbing it to Boise where my Uncle lives, for a visit, Craig has a couple of friends in Boise he used to work with so we got on the interstate and headed North to Idaho. It wasn't long before I had enough of that crap - too slow for the fast lane, too fast for the slow lane and I was going EXACTLY the speed limit! That gets old fast, you just cant cruise at all! So I turned off on hwy 83 and we went off into the marsh land north of the Great Salt Lake. There was a huge rocket factory there that took up nearly 20 miles called ATK formerly Morton Thyocol Infamous for the Columbia disaster. They obviously did the same work

    ATK Rocket North of Ogden
    Then we were back onto the interstate for a little longer and I turned off again and headed up hwy 81 for some lonely desert miles, no semis no more, no nothing till we got to Conner and turned off. Mindful of our gas tanks we where wondering if we hadn't made a mistake turning off. But my zumo said there was gas within 20 miles, turning off on another county road 77 at Malta Idaho we headed up an interesting pass and the road got interesting. Rolling into a nice little town we gassed up and looked for a place to eat in Albion Idaho. Boy did we find it!!!

    Sage Mountain Grill Albion Idaho - incredible great food
    The special was Chicken Cordon Blue and a Prime Rib Sandwich. Expecting sliced prime rib I went ahead an ordered that it turned out to be a prime rib steak with garlic cloves on a slice of bread for $7!! wow it was better than the steak in Ogden! and the Waitress was this very nice lady who was 6 months pregnant. I have yet to meet an Idahoan who wasn't nice! we loved it, and she mentioned desert and that was great too, and Apple tart for me and some ice cream on top. I was almost too stuffed to ride. Albion Idaho some times it pays to get off the Interstate!! We wanted to make some time so back on the interstate again, following some guy from Washington pulling a rock crawler 4x4 and a camper. We met him and his wife at a rest stop - he was coming back from Moab (it sucked he said) well ya, its summer man Moab must be 200 degrees hot in August! Never again he said but I suppose he missed all the great stuff cause Moab has some great stuff if you know where to go. It sucked, that sucked, this sucks, heh OK buddy have a good one!
    My Uncle let us do some laundry and fed us a home made potato taco salad he put together - it was good, and we watched the Olympics and talked all night, drinking of course and having a good time. We had a good night and I saw them off at 5am to go to work. Never been to Boise before we where soon riding the Payette River on the way to Lolo Pass the next day. We found some good twisties before that off hwy 55 going north

    Payette River ID

    Riggins ID

    River Rock Café Riggins ID
    There was a great pass near Payette Lake from Macall to New Meadows that was railed, Craig took the lead and we got in some tight ones there, very exciting for about 10 minutes. Then we rode along the Salmon River a bit all the way to Kooskia at the bottom of hwy 12 to Lolo Pass

    Salmon River Idaho

    Nez Pierce War Monument Pass hwy 95

    Nez Pierce War Monument

    The Road to the Monument
    LOLO PASS was anti climatic especially since there were better twisties on hwy 13 just south of Kooskia that were far better than hwy 12!

    Kooskia

    Beginning hwy 12 to Lolopass along the Clearwater river

    Clearwater River

    Clearwater River

    hwy 12 ID follows this river for 80 miles

    Lolo Pass

    Lolo Pass

    Lolo Pass

    Welcome to Montana

    Lolo Hot Springs
    I enjoyed the road - it basically follows Clear water river for 80 miles then heads over Lolo Pass for about 12 miles and into Montana, all sweepers and no tight stuff at all, very clean and you can rail it if you want to go 100 mph for 2 hours, we did it at 80mph instead and just cruised. A logging truck overturned on one of the tighter sweepers and we had to stop - other than that there wasn't a police presence at all all day long! The Whole trip for that matter so far! They had us stop as they loaded the logs onto another truck with a Caterpillar.
    Missoula is a beautiful town and we stayed over night there, but we where just too tired to go explore it, opting instead for some pizza delivery and beer from the gas station down the street, I passed out. The next day we had Glacier National Park to explore
    GLACIER NATIONAL PARK - the crown jewel of the National Parks system does not dissapoint, we still had a 100 miles of slab to do before we made it there, I decided to bypass Kalispel and go around Flathead Lake on the south side. but just getting to the lake was a bore, they where laying down new asphalt for 20 miles then on top of that they where chip sealing the road? Never seen anybody chip seal new asphalt before? OK whatever - 35mph was getting to be too much so I hit the Detour button on my zumo and it had us turn off on some side road, very scenic for sure

    Montana Mountains from Near Lake Kalispel

    Yack Yack Yack

    The Zumo Detour button is cool until it puts you on a full on Jeep road going down hill at a 15% decline
    This detour almost turned into a nightmare - starting out paved but worn, then some flat hard gravel road, no problem but then the road went up a hill into some trees and all of a sudden we where on a damn Jeep road that was so bumpy I thought I might get tossed off the bike, lucky it was only a half mile long but the hill was so steep brakes were useless so I just rode it out in gear using the motor to slow me down and doing my damnest to keep it up, but at the bottom we ran right into Flat head lake an cut off 10 miles of construction.

    E shore Road Hwy 35 on Flathead Lake

    Flathead Lake Montana
    the Road along Flat head lake is very pretty and there are cherry orchards all along the hillsides on the east side - we should have stopped cause I love cherries but we wanted to get to the park, stopping only for a hot dog at the gas station -casino-deli at the crossroads a few miles down the road

    Welcome to Montana gas station/casino/sandwich shop at the crossroads of hwy 35 and hwy 206

    I got one of these in my bedroom the German Judge gave this one a 7.8

    Lake McDonald Glacier National Park

    Mt Brown

    People Jumping off the cliffs at Sacred Dancing Cascade

    Going to the Sun Road West side of the park

    Glacier National Park

    Glacier NP

    Craig soaks it in

    My Turn

    Only one place in the world to see these busses

    Heavens Peak

    Beatles are ruining the trees in the PNW

    construction zone 1/2 hour to 4 hour delays

    four of these busses went by most of them waved

    Construction stop its nice to see stuff like this if you have to stop, see the road on the left side

    Mt Oberlin

    water falls everywhere

    closer

    The Valley below from where we came

    The Weeping wall

    Logan Pass the overlook Mt Oberlin

    Clements Mountain

    Bishops Cap

    Looking back (north) Going to the Sun road

    Cresting Logan Pass

    Dusty Star Mountain

    Piegan Mountain

    WOW

    Glacier National Park

    Reynolds Mountain

    St Mary Lake

    Glacier National Park

    St Mary Lake
    We overnighted in Kalispel and I thought I recognized the place we stayed, it was the same place I stayed the first time, did not like it then, still don't. Kalispel is a pit really, don't do the scenery justice, such an ugly town for such a beautiful place. The next morning we where on our way to Canada and the Hootenany. Not much to see really but a few lakes

    Loon Lake it was so still hwy 2 Montana
    THE MAP
    right click and refresh if the map is blank

    Full Size
    THE VIDEO
    [vid]44[/vid]
  3. HispanicSlammer
    The Kansas Crew Lined up in front of Pikes Peak Crystal Creek Reservoir
    It was a year in the planning, planning done by committe of which I was only involved in as the official route guide. In that I really must thank Didit, Radar, and Volsfan for thier work in getting this thing put together - the lions share done by Didit of course. I knew when I stood up and asked the Candians at the Kootenay Hootenany if they would be willing to ride to Colorado for a national meet sombody would jump on it, and Didit sure did! It was a great success and I enjoyed myself! It was really a big deal and thanks go out to the local guys and those few with trusty GPS units who served as ride leaders too. Not one accident, not one lost rider, one ticket though and a group got the sherrif warning but all in all a safe and fun rally in Dillion Colorado.
    My experience started at home in Colorado Springs where I would lead the flat land boys from Kansas Nebraska Oklahoma and Missouri to the top of Pikes Peak and into Dillion. We had some fun the night before at one of my favorite resturants in the Springs - its Craigs favorite place and the owners always treat us well so we thought we would take everybody there for a margarita and mexican food at La Unica in Old Colorado City.

    Waiting for road crews to finish work before heading to the top of Pikes Peak

    Devils Playground Pikes Peak Summit

    Colorado Springs Down Below Pikes Peak Cog Railway tracks in the foreground

    Lee2002 found his way to the summit sign

    Hoosier Pass Summit on the way to Dillion
    I did not take many pictures at the hotel, some members had much better cameras than I took care of that, lining up the bikes and getting shots with wide angle lenses and all. I just took some shots of my group and the ride out afterwards.

    The Scenic Group stops at the summit of Loveland Pass

    Loveland Pass Radars group stops at the overlook - you can see the chairlift from Arapaho Basin Ski Area

    Loveland Pass Punchy Rider scurries to get out of the shot - too late I got ya

    Historic Downtown Central City Opera House Yes that is a no parking area - we did not stay long

    Mount Meeker

    The Chapel on the Rock

    Waiting for somthing to eat at the Peak To Peak diner

    Rocky Mountain National Park from on top Rainbow Corner

    Mt Chiquita Yipsilion Mountain and Fairchild Mountain from Rainbow Corner

    Longs Peak Looms above Mt Wuh

    Me and the Big Piggy Baileyrock was out for the day on my vfr appearantly losing ingition key on some backroad somwhere

    Scenic Overlook

    Takeing a shot of Longs Peak

    Elk on the alpine tundra

    The Lava Cliffs

    Never Summer Mountains

    Our Last stop in Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road the highest continuous road in the USA
    Dinner was great, everything except the food that is, people and beer is all I need really. I never foget a face but I will forget your name in 2 seconds flat if you dont repete it to me about a million times. So I learned a few, forgot alot and remember everybodies face! God help me putting together real names with forum names - thats a lost cause there!
    We had some good breakfast, Baileyrock didit Craig and Radar - we hiked up the dillion lake trail to some lodge joint up the road about a mile and were accosted by the waiter for asking for water, Craig pretty much got a smack down for that - in ski bum summer colorado punk style! It was clear this gig was not the waiters main thing! It was funny though and we made sure to let Craig know we thought it was funny. I was glad to have Baileyrock there since he had always been so gracious to me on my trips to Tennesse to go to the Texasmac for the last few years. Baileyrock was haveing a bit of fun with Didit over the last few weeks - egging him on pulling his leg and such, if you know BR you know he is just kidding. Them two together was a hoot - the back and forth half insults and jokes. Guys will be Guys no matter what border you cross.
    The Day before I took out a group and Baileyrock took out my VFR to go ride with Sfarson and the fast group and I guess my key wiggled out and got lost, so that ruined half of thier ride, running around looking for a lost vfr key. It was lucky they made it back to the hotel cause the gas cap was locked. Dutchinterceptor loaned me his bike and I went home and got my spare key. It took forever casue of the weekend traffic and I forgot my wallet on my desk and had to double back to get it. It was not fun untill I got some alone time on a part of Hoosier pass on the way back, I was rather comfortable on that VTEC at that point and let it rip a bit. Not my bike so I kept it sane.
    After the meet I was looking for somthing to do so I hooked up with didit and radar for a couple of days and rode with them down to the western slope on the southern end to go do the Black Canyon and the Million Dollar Highway and back into Telluride. We stopped in Montrose for a couple of nights and based out of there. The silver loop is what its called. We rode over Independence pass and had a fun time trying not to dump it on the loose chip seal, hate that stuff! I took some video but it seemes my battery packe for the helmet cams was comming unhooked and it was skipping parts. That was too bad cause when we started up McClure Pass a fellow on a KTM 990 dirtbike took off in front of us and we gave chase for 20 miles all the way down to Paonia Lake, where he turned off. That dude was fast and he had that thing leaned over as far as I could imagine those dual sport tires could go! 80 Plus in some of the tight sweepers he was holding me off pretty good, he stopped racing us near the lake and was acting like a ride leader by then cause well were all there right there! Pointing at road debris and giving hand signals, boy I wish my camera had caught it on tape! It was a blast and we gave him a salute when he turned off. Then we stopped in Paonia for lunch and then rode my favorite road in Colorado (of all time) hwy 92 into the Black Canyon. Didit said it was the hardest he had to work the whole ride from Canada. I am sure some of the roads he is riding now in California are that way too but hwy 92 is definitly there!

    Radar and Didit at the Golden Burro in Leadville

    Radar poses at the hairpin of Independence Pass

    10am at the top of Independence Pass

    Independence Pass the first switchback

    Mountain Boy Park

    Radar and Didit on the Black Canyon hwy 92

    Radar and Didit starting up Red Mountain Pass on the Million Dollar Highway 550

    Stopped on the way down to Silverton we stopped to let everybody we passed go by so we could do it again

    Lizard Head Pass a bit wet and slippery

    Lizard Head at 50mph

    Riding into the eye of a storm

    Sheep Mountain

    Yellow Mountain Radar

    Radar gets out ahead as I dig for my camera near Telluride
    [vid]109[/vid]
  4. HispanicSlammer

     

    Last summers August adventure had already started, (see previous blog post) I had made my way to my uncles house in Boise after spending a restless night in Ogden UT, a place I am not so impressed with - being that it is the home of the IRS, or at least that is the place where I sent my tax returns? I was surprised at how pedestrian the place was - not nearly as nice as SLC just south of there, but not ugly by any means - its just the opposite of Colorado the mountains are on the east side! I am used to them facing the other way, but mountains none the less, I dont quite feel grounded without mountains within sight. After a ho hum meal at the restaurant next door, I decided to forgo any evening entertainment and just hit the sack and get up early and get to my uncles place in Boise, shoot I already wrote about that part - Albion Idaho - I should note the restaurant I like in Albion is called the Sagebrush Grill, I got it wrong about 20 times on my last blog post.

    In any case I made to my Uncle Lonnies place and we spent a day together catching up with the goings on in the Mayo clan, him? ~ not so great just another one of the many many folks in the "land of the laid off" currently looking for work, hes an IT professional who formerly worked for the state of Idaho as a contractor, that's the worst part about contractors - the contracts run out. So we went over to his favorite bar and shot the breeze for several hours and I met most of buddies. It was nice hanging out with Lonnie, I have never really spent that much time with him before other then Christmas and Thanksgiving surrounded by everybody else in the family.

    So the next day I had one more solo trip up to Coeur d'Alene. Thats a name I cannot spell to save my life. I always have to google it first! Coeur d'Alene, Coeur d"Alene - freaking frenchy names get me every time! Just like the Cache La Poudre in Colorado, just means lots of snow! They can make a turd sound good, or Grand Tetons - you can guess what that means! French place names always seem to resolve to something usual. Oh but NOT Coeur d'Alene, that was a name given to the local indian tribes by French fur traders and it means simply Heart of an Awl. Hey for once a name that has some thing a bit more interesting, it means "heart of an awl"? They found the locals to be shrewd traders apparently, but the indians they called themselves by the name the Schitsu'umsh which brings us back to stupid names again, it means (The people who are found here) aww jeez! I might as well be called "fat dude on a bike"!

    So I found every twisty road that lies between Boise and Coeur d'Alene on the map and took it, I headed a bit backwards at first going up to Idaho City on hwy 21 a great twisty road that finds the tightest twisties just south of Lowman Idaho. The road is a bit bumpy and in need of repaving on spots, lots of repairs but I took it fast, catching and overtaking several bikes along the way RV's and what not, I was having a good time on that road - then I turned west at Lowman and headed along a river bank, winding along with even more cars and RV's - it was the weekend and it seems all of Boise turns out to go to the mountains - that road was too short and soon I was on hwy 55 heading north to McCall, a good road if it where not for all the traffic! Thats the main road north in Idaho so there really is no getting off it, just plug away - I found it useless to pass the cars since there was so much traffic up ahead I was just wasting energy, it was more then I could see, once out of the mountains and onto the high plains the highway department slapped up 30 mph signs all over the place for 40 miles as they chip sealed the road - of course not on the weekend so NO CONSTRUCTION CREWS OUT but the cops were - handing out tickets for speeding over 30! I just sat behind a car that had gotten fed up and took off, I hung back far enough to save myself if the cops should see and well a rabbit is a rabbit is a rabbit, let the coyotes get the first one out of the gate! It was like this all the way from the point I turned off to McCall, all 64 miles of crawling along at 30 miles per hour, I was going insane! Finally in McCall I pulled off for gas. At gas stations the Veefalo seems to be a draw with its beautiful lines or some say ugly lines!

    I had to talk to every idiot who had never seen a bike before in their whole lives! Already irritated by the 2 hour ride up there - the obvious questions and idiotic warnings from total strangers about how "dangerous motorcycles are" - proved to be more than I could take. I retreated into my helmet and pretended I could not hear what they were saying to me. Hand gestures to my ear - just get back into your car woman and leave me the hell alone! Yea yea OK I will ride safe yea OK thanks - as I sat there waiting in line behind the next guy for a free pump, trying not to notice she just stuck a cell phone up to her ear as she drove off.

    Some people don't understand that unsolicited advice to a motorcyclist is not welcome! Especially if your going to get in your car and drive off with a cell phone to your ear! I hit the Detour button on my GPS since McCall was a total parking lot at Noon on a summer Saturday, I found an offshoot road to the west and was so glad to be free of that nonsense! I was a bit exuberant when I found some twisty roads just west of town and got on the gas and started to dip the bike into the corner, just in time to hear my Radar detector go off and a sherrif flashed me with his lights as I went past at some twice the posted speed limit! OPPS I saw him begin to turn around but I rounded the next tight turn and got on it hard! HEH the sight of open road ahead sort of shot down my hopes of getting away but to my surprise NO SHERRIF was behind me now? I guess he gave up and did not want to do any paperwork, its one thing to hit it in tight twisties and another to try to get away on a strange road that is strait as far as I can see! I thought I was toast! Well that was good for a thrill and it certainly took the foul mood right out of me, a scare can do that for ya! I was happy to be alive and enjoying the open road again!

    I pushed on up to Coure d'Alene at a better pace, I found a great road called Greer road, after Koosia pass I was really finding some nice roads now, Greer road Cavendish road all northern Idaho roads seem to be pretty good.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     

    All in all it was a great day of riding minus that McCall Nonsense, I had a good day soloing, but I was ready to ride with friends, I made it to Coure d'Arlene in one peice and thats where I met Radar, Fay, Craig, and Didit. We were about to go on another great adventure in the summer of 2011.


    Full Size


    Stay tuned next up - the Spiral Highway, stators, Rattle snake grade, Enterprise - ALL OF OREGON.
     
     
  5. HispanicSlammer
    San Francisco De Asis Taos New Mexico
    I sort of slapped together a ride down to New Mexico to catch a ride with Vanion and the New Mexico riders to hit the Gila Monster once again. This would be my third time on that road, the Deals Gap of New Mexico as it were, not quite but darned close. The only drawback is its practically in OLD MEXICO and so a ton of slab on the way down there. I took a 4 day route, one down, one for the ride, a rest day at my sisters house in Santa Fe, and finally the ride home. I told my boss I intended to ride down right after work and get some sleep when I get into Albuquerque. He thinks I am nuts for doing these crazy rides but he always comes to me for advice about what good scenic roads to take in Colorado so he thinks I am on to something. In any case he was kind enough to let me have a couple days of personal time and off I went. I took the interstate into Walsenburg, a town of which I have never much liked, it always seemed a place of which to endure going thru on the way to my real destination, you have to go through it to get to hwy 160 and over La Veta Pass. Hwy 160 is probably one of the most patrolled hwys in the whole state, simply cause its go so many different counties it goes through and its one of the State Patrol training areas - so speeding on it has its risks, usually La Veta Pass is clear but the San Luis Valley and further West near Pagosa Springs is always a speed trap - just every thing west of Alamosa count it as a speed trap. I usually avoid it when ever possible hwy 50 is much more scenic to me. However when heading to Santa Fe to see my sister I often take it cause the interstate is a serious bore. Turn off 160 and down into San Luis the oldest town in Colorado and the name sake of the valley for which it is named for, its a small town steeped in Hispanic history, once part of Mexico you can bet every body there knows everybody's business!
    The ride into New Mexico from Questa New Mexico is pretty, it is much different than Colorado more arid and desert like, and it has lots of Indian Reservations along the way. New Mexico is a very spiritual land with traditions that go back a millennium in some places. Taos Pueblo for example has been occupied destroyed and rebuilt always with native Indians living on it for over a thousand years. Thats what you call Pre Columbian! Now enough with the history lesson - since I don't really know what the hell I am talking about - just regurgitating quotes from my broother In law Billy so I will try not to bore you too much. Yea I learned a thing or two from the man. I was always impressed with how much Hispanic and Indian culture has shaped the state of New Mexico, there are places in Colorado that are as well but it has been washed over and pretty much erased by later history, most of it settled in in the last 200 years. I am just used to being part of a small minority on Colorado where as Hispanics are the majority there and their influence is everywhere. One could say I am conflicted being half Caucasian and half Hispanic, and never having learned to speak Spanish I often get strange looks by people when I tell them that I don't speak Spanish. Well I don't! My daddy is as white as a snowflake and my mom pretty much forgot all the Spanish she learned with she was a kid. My aunts and uncles are all fluent but much older than my mother and she was raised in foster homes so she lost touch with the language at an early age. My sister on the other hand is blond and blue eyed and she speaks it much much better than I could ever - she is after all a genius when it comes to language and academia.
    So on with the ride, I made the mistake of riding right into Taos right into the mess of tourist and got pinned behind a mass of cars on the main strip, the ride into New Mexico from this point on was to become a life or death struggle it seemed as every rice jockey in a celica and what ever cheap ass compact car was out to take the 5 inches of pavement right in front of me. No signals, no thats for losers! These people meant business I need to turn now and I can so here I come move or else! Shoot I just SIPDE'ed the hell out of Taos, and Espanola, Pojaque, Santa Fe all the way into Rio Rancho cause it was non stop for 200 miles. Aggressive as hell and every body was out for themselves! I saw a couple two up on a gold wing and being not from here I decided to let them take the lead and see how they negotiated it - the word is Aggressive, tailgate, and pass at every opportunity is what they did! Daylight for two car lengths they took it - no matter if there was traffic ahead as far as you can see they took it. Me I followed cause at this point it was the only thing keeping me awake. Shoot even an Ambulance in Espanola almost took me out with a left hand turn right in front of me - idiots no signal - I slowed down and started to pull aside as this was a 4 lane split down the middle with a no mans land in between the Ambulance driver failed to signal and just jerked the wheel left right in front of me till I had to come from 30 mph in a 55 to a dead stop to avoid getting hit. Jebus he went right over the median and turned left right into me? I was dumbfounded it was like he was looking to cause and accident for something to do? I mean over the bump on the median over the dirt mound and down the bump and right INTO ME! I thought I was safe but NO! then he took off down a dirt road and disappeared as I check to see if I had wet myself!
    Just a half hour before coming into Rio Grande Canyon past Taos I was heading around a corner - saw a semi tractor trailer on the side of the road on the other side, and he pulled out right in front of me too, I had to stop for him too dead stop, passed him as soon as I could! NO yield no stop and look just here I come stop or get hit! IDIOT and he was a commercial professional driver? Never before had I had this much trouble driving in New Mexico, it did not help that I was on no sleep since 4pm the night before. 18 hrs into it I was WIDE AWAKE let me tell you! I was so glad to make to my buddy Marks house - relieved actually to be off that bike and away from that carnage!
    Mark (I call him MrDude cause he says Dude allot) he goes by Millrtm on the forum, he put me up for the night, they just moved there about 6 weeks ago from Colorado - working at Intel. It had been 3 years since I had seen his family and his kids grew almost towered over me, his oldest for sure. Mark is pretty tall himself. Nice family and his two oldest boys are very articulate, well mannered and good kids. I watched them play halo for a while then just dosed off after an hour. They have a hectic schedule and lots of boxes to put away from the move.

    Early Morning Meet-up in Albuquerque
    I woke up at 6am on the dot and showered up, Mark too - we put on our gear, pumped up the tires and headed out for the meeting place across town. Vanion, Echo, Zia Rider and Sal where already there waiting for us. So we had a few refreshments, kicked tires and caught up a little bit. Vanion lead us out of town, then he did something funny he waved me on by? Huh? Ok I guess I am taking lead - I did have the only Radar Detector, it was a long 200 miles to go and one stop at Socorro to pick up Blythe. I just let a few faster cars and even a bus play rabbit up ahead speed up to match speed and keep some distance - if I got a hit on the radar I would slow down and let the rabbit get eaten! One more stop for gas past T or C (Williamsburg) I think it was called and finally we got off the darned interstate and headed west on hwy 152, more slab for about 10 miles till we hit the foot hills and into Hillsboro, nice sweepers there before Hillsboro actually some of the best turns of the whole ride (insert omen here) ! Then Iead some more to Kingston and stopped to let Vanion take up a position to take pictures and he did.

    Lined up ready to hit the Gila Monster
    I don't know how I got suckered into leading but I pretty much lead the entire ride, I don't mind I am used to leading rides but man it was 500 miles of it! I guess I got spoiled in Troutdale I did not have to lead at all maybe one day thats it! So I took some video of the best parts of the Gila Monster, I was disappointed with the road since its condition had taken a turn for the worse since I last road it, pot holes, and crumbling edges, gravel washed out in places due to heavy rains and CHIP SEAL! OMG we ran right into 40 miles of fresh chip seal - piles of loose chip, no doubt about it was came at the wrong time! Maybe a week before we would have missed all this stuff, but we did not so it was slow going all the way into Silver City from the top of Emory pass, we did have a little bit of good stuff, up to Emory Pass

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

    Top Of Emory Pass

    Rest Stop Emory Pass
    So for the most part the Gila monster was a bust, Blythe must have been peeing his pants cause he was worried about the little bit of sand in the corners then smack 40 miles of loose chip seal! If he was worried then he must have kung foo grip on the bars now! It sucked thats all I could say I even followed a pack of Harleys and let them take the lead just so I could relax a little bit. I was ready for some lunch and so we stopped at a barn place that is a steakhouse, I have always stopped there but this time the food was really good! I enjoyed it and all the company. Interesting people sitting across from me getting to know them, Mr Dude he sort of has this detached sensibility about him, a military thing he sort of analyzes things and comments on them - lots of comparative talk and sometimes he goes a bit overboard comparing this or that. Colorado to New Mexico a bit too much - I like both myself for what they are. I remember at some point along the ride I heard "Colorado Smallerado" and though oh well Mr Dude strikes again! He does that to everybody! I cant count on my hands and feet the number of times I heard about the specs of this bike or that bike compared to a vfr! I just tune it out, now with the Bandit he had the advantage in the engine department, but not so much anymore! The Veefalo don't handle so good as my old bike so I lost a bit on him there and he can keep up pretty good in the sweepers but the tight stuff the vfr 1200 is still better, and no more big Bandit engine advantage no more! Compare that Mark! heh - I will probably hear about it now! I know I know you modded the bandit - took out the butterfly's secondaries, added a full header, on pipe, fuel injection mapping and all that.
    It was a bit more slab then about a 50 miles into the ride after lunch the road got very good, on the way into Reserve was probably the best part of the whole ride, we went up and down a very good pass with some nice sweeper that I was really digging, me and Mark just sort of took off on and had some fun! Even after Reserve there was more good stuff but we had to split off with Blythe there so we stopped at the cross roads at his turn off and took some pics

    Gas One At A Time Reserve New Mexico

    Rest Stop Reserve New Mexico the last 40 miles were superb

    Stop at the Cross Roads Blythe was leaving us after this point

    Veefalo leads the way

    Perfect day for riding not too hot not too cold sunshine all day long
    The rest of the ride was interesting too out on the western plains of New Mexico and into the Malapias National Monument area definitely some pretty country, if a bit bumpy and roller coaster like - it was a challenge and more traffic now, the closer we came to interstate 40, then one more stop for a butt rest till we could stop again for gas and then we headed off our separate ways! It was an epic ride and a good one even if the Gila was a bust, all I can say is next summer with new chip seal it will be a real treat for the unsuspecting motorcyclist if they do it right!

    La Ventana Arch

    Millertm looks at the other bikes

    San Francisco De Asis

    Taos Doorway

    Full Size
    Source: Gila Monster Run
  6. HispanicSlammer
    Ohlins reinstalled, powdercoated pieces installed worked overnight to reassemble the bike
    I spent most the night and last night istalling new bearing on the swingarm and beginning the reinstall of all the parts. I installed the swingarm last night and rebuilt Ohlins shock, put the subframe into position and put in the plastic undertray. I had to make some repairs to the undertray since it had alot of holes drilled in it over the years for various parts. I filled them all in and smoothed it out with my pastic welder. Keep the dirt and rain out.

    My wheels still need shoes! 83° Aluminum Racing Angled Valve Stem Ariete from Kurvygirl.com

    Different Angle
    I installed new LED lights in the dash - all from superbriteled.com there is a thread on it in the forum by veefer800canuke I opted for white for a brighter dash and to save on wattage over bulbs.

    LED Dash Lighting I had to get the correct polarity but they all work by turning a few around.

    knobs and switches Left Lamp turn off switch, HI LO Double Burn switch, Heated Seat, Heated Grips

    Powdercoated swingarm Passenger Hanger and footpegs, powelet panel

    Reoganized accessory wireing moved all the boxes forward and some by the fuse box, moved the accessory fuse box on top of the battery lid, to make more underseat space for tools
    I rewired the whole accessory area, rerouting the wires to the front of the bike better and added a powerlet on the front and side for my Zumo GPS and the side for my heated vest. Rerouted the autocom wires and moved the autocom forward. Changed the battery leads with less leads and changed the switching power from the plate light to a soldier job from the headlight relay wires, less wires to deal with 3inchs vs 2 feet of switching wire. I wired in LED indicator on the dash for my heated grips its blue on the top right, the top left is the voltmeter from signal dynamics, its red in the dash shot above. I added a heattroller for the heated seat I built, I could never quite it right before using resisters either too hot or not hot enough, now it can dial it in just right. I heated seat is great when I get out of work at 7am and there is frost all over the seat, it clears it off in moments and is comfy in minutes.
    So far I have done tons of work
    New Chain New Sprockets New Fork Oil New Fork Seals Rebuilt the Ohlins Shock Powdercoated swingarm, footpegs, rearsets, hub, and passenger hangers Installed new bearings, rubber dampers, and seals in the eccentric hub rewired the accessories added 2 new powerlets repaired plastic damage from a couple of getoffs that resulted in deep scratches, 8 years of roadblast. sanded and sanded and sanded getting ready to paint Primed all the body pieces Sanded off scratches on the Staintune polished and cleaned Repaired a broken header stud replaced and put in new seals on the rear cylinders and headers New Wheels powdercoated installed trick valve stems New bearings on the wheels, swingarm, rearhubs, along with new dustseals New bolts and nuts all over - cleaned up most though Rebuilt the rear brake caliper new seals and polished the pistons, new bolts Bled the rear caliper Bought new graphics for a VFRD inspired paint job - even made my own font to use for the project availible in the site comments forum
  7. HispanicSlammer
    Gardner Road 52 mile dirt road 10,500 feet up here at the top 3,500 feet down to the bottom of the road
    My Mission
    I wanted to ride all the way to Santa Fe from Colorado Springs on as many dirt roads as I could find. How did I make out? Not too bad actually, as far as solo adventure touring goes. I started out on the first dirt road south to Pueblo its called Meridian road here and when it gets to Pueblo it changes to Overton Road, same damn road two names. Its a 30 mile jaunt strait down to Pueblo from Fountain Colorado. I made short work of it cause it was hot. There is a 40 mph speed limit but I was the only one on it. In Pueblo I gassed up and headed into the Wet mountains over to Buela Colorado where the road goes up and over 19 miles to Lake Isabel, I turned right and headed over to Gardner road (above) this is a 52 mile dirt road that takes you up to the base of Green Horn mountain the highest mountain in the Wet Mountain range and down the other side, its a 3,500 foot decent and its fast and fun if you avoid the deep ditches on the sides and the ruts.

    Pass Creek Pass off in the distance my next assignment
    Once in Gardner Colorado I quickly made my way over to Pass Creek Pass, I had to turn around once cause I made a wrong turn but soon I was at the top, its a nice wide dirt road and easy to go fast on, at the top it connects to La Veta Pass hwy 160, I decided to take the Old La Veta Pass down to La Veta and have lunch there. I stopped and gassed up but my regular lunch stop was closed for a month? So I headed up Cucharas Pass and saw that there was a place in Cuchara that looked like a grill.

    Dog Bar and Grille Wonderful food! Cuchara CO
    Wow the Owner Kenny and his wife run the place, well OK he just serves and she cooks and actually manages the place. I came in and Kenny says "what can I get ya" I said "whats the special"? Another patron shows me his plate and its some kind of turkey meat on a bun with Guacamole and bacon, and homemade wild rice pea soup with carrots and barley. I say " OK I will try that" - OMG was it good!! If your ever in Southern Colorado near Cuchara stop here and eat its worth the trip! I am glad I found it, it is sort of tucked away in the village way back in the back.
    I took off again and found a nice dirt road over to Stone Wall where I crossed the "Highway of Legend's" and headed south again on another dirt road, my GPS said it would take me all the way to Red River?

    Stonewall Colorado

    Torres Ditch Colorado L-R Purgatoire Peak, Vermajo Peak, Red Mountain, Culbrea Peak (14,047')
    The Wall of Death
    Once I got 20 miles south of Stonewall near Torres Ditch the road stops and its gated off with chains? Private Property it says, so I reroute the gps a bit east of there on another dirt road and take off on road 13 east, soon there is a sign that says "something and something ranch - stay out!" Crap not again! There were some folks fixing a fence there so I stopped and ask them what happened to the roads? The maps, they say they go through? On the map anyways. A woman says "oh about 8 years ago you could go through but its all private now you have to go around to Trinidad" Shit!!! 70 miles out of my way for this?? I kept seeing Halliburton trucks pull out onto the highway in front of me - there must be mining or drilling going on back there - thats why the state line is closed off for 40 miles? Well at least its putting some rural folks to work I hope?
    I headed east to Trinidad and over to I-25 but decided to stop at the lake there and eat my orange and have a drink of water. I pulled up on an island peninsula and sit down to enjoy my orange but there is a couple of folks RV'ing on the road next to me, the woman sitting there looking like a typical idiot camper just stares out me the whole time. So I get up and move - mind you I am no where near them at least a good 300 yards away with the lake between us. She is still staring at me. So a shrug my shoulders and yell "WTF are you looking at"? She moves her chair around for a minute but as soon as I got up she was staring at me again? I could hear them talking too "whats he doing now" jebus nosy idiot campers. Mind your own bizatch! I got on the bike and did some slab over I-25 to Raton where I topped up again and filled up my water jugs. It was getting late in the afternoon and I thought about just getting a motel room but decided naw keep pushing on, that private property detour cost me 2 hours.
    I headed up hwy 64 in New Mexico up Cimmaron Canyon and was having a bit of fun on the twisties there, the XR doesn't handle so great with toasted knobbies especially with they way I had it set so soft. There was smoke everywhere from a forest fire in Tres Piedres, seems this place is on fire every time I ride by it, Toas which is near by must be smothered in smoke right about now. Once I crested the mountain and saw the valley at Eagles nest the whole sky was a peach color it was incredible, I wish I had stopped for a pic?

    Cimmaron Canyon NM at Palisades Sil
    The Three hour short cut
    I crossed the valley and headed up to Angel fire where the ski area was - I looked on the map and it showed a dirt road going over to Penasco - a place called Luna Canyon. I had been on the road before camping with my sister I remember it being wide and smooth. Its only an hour if I head strait down to Mora on the paved road. Nope I take the short cut, right off its starts to get narrow, then it climbs the hill, Baby heads everywhere (round rocks shaped like baby heads) they are bumping the hell out of me, then there are jagged rocks and wash outs everywhere its starting to get rather technical. I sit forward on the seat and just ride it out for 12 miles, rocks all the way, I caught and passed two ATV's on the road, I know it must be more of a trail than a road now. And its getting dark, there is livestock on the road too. A big bull and and about 20 cows and calves all standing in the road. I am not so keen on rolling up next to a bull so I rev the bike up and make some noise - nothing maybe a few of them look over at me! So I hit my wimpy horn and its scares them to moving?? What that POS little horn? So I start moving forward honking that wimpy horn till they all run up the hillside and let me by. Now its really dark Ya know twighlight where the headlights dont work but its not quite dark yet, shadows in the trees are impossible to see - so I flip up my visor only to get knats right in my eyes - and I cant see a thing. I decide to pull off and just camp overnight here, just lay in the grass with my stich and my space blanket and sleep here its about 8pm. Which I do for an hour or two but the moon is so bright and its shining right in my eyes. I can see lightning in the distance and thought "oh hell no I am not getting rained on!!"
    I get up off the grass look at the time 10pm and decide to try the decent know, I got a good Baja designs lighting system on the XR we will see. I kicked the bike over and turn on the headlight and low and behold its rather bright, its got a high and low that I can see far and close with. I started heading down the mountain, all baby heads and its dark so I am going like 9 mph all the way down - right about now I am cussing at myself, Mora was only 15 miles more you idiot!! but soon I start seeing a familiar sight, that wide and smooth road I remembered from camping with my sister 5 years ago, so know I am doing 30mph and every so often I can see a camp fire near the creek. That is what I remembered not that nasty ass rock strewn crap 15 miles back? Wow what a nightmare, oh and I fell off too I think I cracked a rib cause it hurts when I lay on my side.
    I guess I should go to the doc and get it checked out, but you know these injuries they have to heal on there own right? $2000 for that? nothing aspirin wont fix! I can move I can breath, I am not bleeding? It just bruised!
    I take paved roads all the way to my sisters place where she is waiting for me at midnight, she smacks me upside the head - "you had me so worried she says" I spent a couple of days hanging out with them and my niece and nephew to play with. We went out to dinner a couple of times and went to Albuquerque too for a day - good times!
    The ride back
    I woke up before everybody showered up and knocked on my sisters door - said "see ya in Colorado Springs", (they were comming up to Colorado now to spend time with us now and visit my other sister) "See ya tonight"! I pretty much retraced my route till Penasco where I headed north to Toas this time, its a twisty road that I was having trouble going fast on, paved by my XR was set way too soft so it was wallowing in the tight turns. Which is fine for the dirt roads I wanted to be on. I got to Taos and decided to gas up there, I pushed on my tires and decided they need some air, but the compressor was out of order (insert dark omen here) so I pressed on, totally bypassing the main town and going around it on a back roads. I thought I would go see what Arroyo Hondo was all about and headed strait north to that place, wow its a huge canyon, I was on a road called Rim drive but it too stopped "private property" I had to go back and head a bit south and around it. I should have taken pictures here too darn!!

    Santa Cruz Recreation Area NM hwy 4 near Cundiyo
    The $300 flat tire
    I got on NM 522 headed for Costilla right on the Colorado Boarder where I planned to peel off and head east on a dirt road and go around to San Luis. But my bike was starting to sqirm under me. I knew I had a flat tire, but I was out in the middle of the desert now, 7 miles to Costilla. I just rode it out till I got to the gas station convience store there. The air pump did not have a hose, they keep it in the store for some reason, I guess sombody stole it once before. I put in my quarters and tried to fill it up but it just went flat instantly - CRAP!! There is nothing there in Costilla just some old houses and a gas station with no services. I got on the phone and called a tow truck to come get me and take me back to Toas - 48 miles back! I should have packed a tube patch kit and a few tires irons but ya know - limited space in the bag and I just hustled off too quickly and did not think about it till it was too late.
    Anthony Navarro
    The tow truck guy shows up an hour later with his toyota and a trailer to come get me, hes a heavy set hispanic dude like me, only a bit rounder. He shakes my hand and says "where is it" I point to it, my bike that is, but he cant see it behind the car and freaks out? "OH NO VATO" - he says "I cant do a car with this"? I walk him over and show him the bike behind the car and he starts laughing big belly laughs! Right off I like the guy. Hes a single father whos been working tow trucks for 10 years, always on call, he wants out. Tony is his name and we start talking for the 48 miles to Taos, he gives me his Philosophy on how to avoid speeding tickets"
    Intruduce yourself in a freindly manner
    Shut up and let the cop do all the talking
    Dont admit anything
    Smile and be freindly
    Dont challenge the cop
    Tony says he gets pulled over all the time but always gets away with a warning. Then he started to sell me on his home buisness which pretty much ended the conversation! Sorry Tony not interested! He pulles to the back of the motorcycle dealership and rings me up $200 for 48 miles - JEBUS this is getting costly! I pay it and thank him for comming so quickly! Then at Taos Cycle works I get an earful from some tech who says we are not supposed to be in the back move the tow truck, already I am worried , with service like this? Jebus what am I in for? So I says " I got a flat dude! Shut up and help me unload this bike" which he does - "crotchety" cancels out "cranky" I was having a bad day and taking no shit!
    I walk into the show room and up to the service counter and right away there is a guy there with another flat he brought in complaining about the price, he brought in just why was it so much when the other dealer was only $8?? OH no I am getting screwed looks like right about know. I see on the wall $69 an hour for labor, time and half for emegency repairs no appointment? AW jeeZ!! This shits gonna cost me $150!?! I waited in the lobby looking at ATVS reading magazines for another hour. And I get the call, its done! $89 bucks - well its better than $150 but jeez thats a screw job!! I pay it and get back on the road! Then I hear them talking about changing prices on tires to a flat rate of $15 if you bring it in yourself? I started cussing myself for not finding another air compessor earlier in the day! Oh well what can I do?
    I go back up the road AGAIN for the 3rd time and turn off at Costilla and find a dirt road into Colorado I like, its wide and very fast, 70mph time!

    Ventero Creek near San Luis Colorado

    Sangre De Christo Mountain Range Same mountains as Stonewall - on the other side

    Looking back towards Toas
    I get back on the paved road at San Luis and head for Fort Garland to gas up and put oil on the bike, she burns a bit of oil so I have to keep tabs on it at all times. I guess its common with the XR650r? I was soon heading up La Veta pass with a very dark onimous cloud ahead I was watching it the whole way from San Luis it looked nasty. Yep it started raining huge drops that hurt like hell when they hit, then it started just pouring and it was beating the living crap out of me. I was screaming "come on stop this shit" I was really having a bad day now, I was going to go back over Pass Creek pass again but F'that I just wanted out of this rain from hell!

    Welts all over my arms and chest I dont know maybe it was hail too?
    I have been caught in rain and hail before on the vfr but this just beat the crap out of me! I was wishing I was in a car at this point! Or just home by now! I decided to do some more dirt roads once I got clear of the storm and headed north on hwy 520 from Lavita to Badito CO. I have been on this road before its about 20 miles long.

    Storm over La Veta Pass taken from co-520

    Chavez Arroyo Co Road 520

    Spanish Peaks south on co-520
    I had to get on I-25 for a bit till I got to Apache City where I found another dirt road which took me a back way into Colorado City. Gas station and a drink there! I routed the Gps to a place called Burnt mill hoping for a good back road to Pueblo and sure enough it payed off, nice long 30 mile dirt road all the way to Pueblo, It was all back country canyons and farm land out there, very nice, almost worth the beating I took on La Veta Pass vs going back over Gardner road again. The front range has some good roads too! Once in Pueblo I just snaked through town back to Overton road right as the sun started to go down over Pikes Peak! What a nightmare - I mean adventure flat tires, $$$$, a beating, welts and a bruised rib to take home for war stories!!

    Sunset in Pueblo CO taken on Overton Road

    Colorado Map

    New Mexico Map
    GPS Tally
    Miles 812.3
    moving avg 44.8
    max speed 82.8
    overall avg 34.1
    stopped time 5:41
    Map Files
    Mapsource tracks
    Streets and trips file
  8. HispanicSlammer
    Talimena Skyway
    The road to Texasmac 2008 - the first installment
    I took off a couple of weeks from work to do this and it about killed me this winter thinking about it. I was able to ride some here is Colorado but not nearly as carefree as in Appalachia where the roads are cleaner and the weather is not so vicious. I left on a Sunday for my first day, some 550 miles of superslab across south eastern Colorado and into the Oklahoma Panhandle.

    It was cold as usual, with a biting wind that took all the warmth out of my body as soon as it hit me, coming out of a shallow canyon, or passing a truck. I headed east on hwy 50 along the Arkansas river not stopping for gas until the thing was running on fumes.

    The Arkansas River Still in Colorado on hwy 50

    Arkansas River
    I was expecting nothing but flat brown Comanche National Grasslands heading south out of Rocky Ford toward Oklahoma but I was pleasantly surprised to find some nice bluffs near a place called Higbee Colorado and some welcome curves to keep me occupied for a short while. It did not last.

    Higbee Colorado

    I took some lunch at a Dairy Queen in Boise City OK, I was surprised to see entire families sitting down for a meal from the local DQ as if they had just come from Church - probably so. Well dressed for the most part and 4 generations strong to a booth. I did not linger as I could tell I was tolerated but not exactly welcome with my wild motorcycle outfit on. Now I had some dull drone to do to get across the panhandle for some 200 miles. It was all I could do to keep the thing strait since there were cops in odd places with radar blaring, no exactly hidden well since I could hear it for miles before I finally saw the car off in the grass some 5 miles down the road. Jebus who cares out here??? Only to find a town hidden in a sunken area not visible from the highlands, if not for the few trees I would have passed it at 70mph but the radar advertised its existence well enough!
    It was like a 12 hour shift at work really - something to be endured - and that is what I did, not that it was difficult riding, I played my entire audio book of "the hobbit" something I thought I would enjoy instead of music - it passed the time well. Finally I rounded a bend and I was out of the panhandle, there were trees and green grasses and it looked like a place where people would live! No more endless rows of telephone lines. I looked down to see the town of Woodward coming up and I realized my bike was about to click over 100,000 miles on the clock I had to stop and record this great milestone in my riding career!

    100k in Woodward Oklahoma a huge milestone
    A few more hours and I was trying to Call GSwanson on the phone to see where to meet but I could not connect cause of some strange Oklahoma roaming rules on my cell phone, I had his address programmed into my Zumo and so I just clicked go and I was soon riding on one helluva bumpy road out in the sticks to his place. I turned up what looked like a country road to nowhere and there he was outside waving at me, I was sitting on my bike trying to call him when I got a hold of his wife, at the same time I saw him waving at me.
    Gary is a great guy and his family are some wonderful people - they took me out to Cattlemans restaurant where I met their daughter and her husband for dinner. They have a busy little toddler who keeps them rather busy a very pretty young woman who has her mothers face. I don't think there are any ugly women in Oklahoma City?? We talked about Mini Racing and how much Gary's son had grown in less than a year, now a full 6 inches taller than me now! Gary says you can get a cart for 8 grand and be racing - almost like racing dirtbikes, they use carberated R6 motors.
    Gary got me up early and we where off to Seminole OK to meet VFRErnie - who I forgot had provided me with a clutch cover by mail the year before. I sent him the one I ordered a month later when it arrived. OH yea Geeze how could I forget that?? what a dolt! I cant keep my own families names strait either. We met Ernie at the Brahms in Seminole and headed for the Talimena Skyway, some 150 miles away, some more slab, with a few curves thrown in for good measure, but there were some slow poke cages in the way. It did not get interesting till we were on the skyway!


    Gswason and vfrErnie meet at the Brahms parking lot in Seminole OK

    Three 5th generation vfrs on the Talimena Skyway

    Ernie cant believe the good weather

    Talimena Skyway

    Talimena Skyway we met the others shortly after stopping here
    Gary said he saw Rapidsnipe on his vfr riding with another group that day - we passed him on the Talimena, I saw the vfr but did not know it was him. we did however run into Dutch, Tightwad and MTX73 later on the other side. Together we had a big group of 6 riders for a while till we stopped for lunch in Mena, Ernie turned back to go home there, he had lost his glasses on the skyway at the last stop and went back to retrieve them. The rest of us headed for Magazine Mountain with Dutch in the lead, with the smell of chicken shit everywhere - guess its a big chicken raising area, lots of big coops where all over the place, when we finally were on the road to Magazine mountain some redneck pulling a trailer full of metal barrels was crowding the narrow road and going much too fast for the conditions, he held dutch and I off for at least a quarter of the way?? Idiot - I hate it when people do that - go fast cause they see motorcycles in the mirror - just drive like you normally do and don't worry about it!!!!
    The two of us got around him but the others were stuck, we took off for the top and enjoyed some curves!
    ]
    Mount Magazine

    Gswanson Tightwad and Mtx73 stop for a break on top of Mount Magazine

    Top Of Mount Magazine
    Then we headed for Russleville and stayed the night, Mike was not feeling good and decided to end the trip right there, he headed home the next morning, mentioning that he was not used to the kind of miles we where doing and he was making some dangerous mistakes. We did not argue - but we all though all he needed was some sleep, but in the morning he was headed back to Texas?? OK buddy be safe!!
    Gary was still with us, tightwad, dutch and I and we headed up hwy 7 to Jasper where Gary was heading home! Tightwad was heading to Nashville then he also was going home? Lots of partway guys on this trip! It was nice having tightwad along since he could keep up with Dutch and I at a our normal pace for the most part. I have ridden with Dutch a few times and we are on par for good pace. Tightwad took a half day but he was soon right along side!
    We had a scare cause Tightwads voltmeter was showing that he was overcooking the battery, but my voltmeter showed it to be fine, later his voltmeter stopped working all together. Typical long trip stuff! Nothing every works the way you want it to!

    Gswanson Tightwad and Dutchinterceptor we pulled off to let a park ranger get on ahead

    Lunch in Marshall AR

    The Lake at Norfolk Damn the water is high

    Norfork Damn


    Beaverdamn Road TN

    Dutch and Tightwad take pictures

    Gotta Love a sign like that
    We crossed the big Mississippi river at Dyersburg and bedded down at the Days Inn. then we took some crazy back roads I mixed in with some suggested roads Baileyrock gave me, passing by some weird army ordinance base, and some crazy hilly roads and into the Natchez Trace State park for what seemed like roads no wider than a sidewalk, it was challenging but fun, thank goodness no cars where coming the other way since we where using the entire road!

    Centerville hometown of Minne Pearl

    Brees Café in Centerville TN add this one to the greasy spoon archive good stuff

    HEH

    Tottys Bend TN

    Pucketts Leipers Fork TN

    The Lawnchair theater next door to Pucketts

    The Road to Tmac ends the first leg at Baileyrocks Place
    I called Baileyrock from Brees diner in Centerville and told him we where 2 hours away (accurate) but it was less than 60 miles as the crow flies, what a great day of riding!
    The Video

    Map of the Mount Judea road

    Full Size
    :media: Mount Judea Video High Resolution this video is in wmv format and runs for about 5 minutes - hwy 123 in Arkansas with Dutchinterceptor leading me in the middle and Tightwad sweeper - I borrowed some of Tightwads footage to complete the video with 3 cameras. Music by Coldplay
    so ends the first leg on the road to Texasmac at the Home of Baileyrock in Nashville
  9. HispanicSlammer
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/pigchasingpirates.mp4
     

    I was itching for another out of state ride, the NY ride was going on around the same time up in the Catskills but boy I just could not swing that much time off it takes 4 days just to get there reasonably and no way I am gonna ride interstate the whole way out there! I decided I wanted to ride the Ozarks again. So I contacted a bunch of vfrd people who live relatively close to the Ozarks and a few who live close to me and low and behold found out that a bunch of Texans lead by Dutchintercepter where already going. Turns out they were all from around the Tyler Texas area and have known each other for years. I have known and ridden with Dutch for a few years myself so I asked if I could tag along. "Sure" he said and soon I was on my way to Arkansas.

    It was a bit of a gamble since I would work the night before leaving, I asked my boss if I could leave at 4am so I could get in a nap and he agreed it was OK, so I would be somewhat awake. I found out from an email list that one of my favorite musicians was playing in Lawrence KS so I bought tickets and headed for Lawrence Thursday morning, I skipped my nap and headed strait for KS in the pre dawn moonlight. I was excited I would get the chance to see Pat Metheny play again - I have seen him once before in Denver 15 years ago and was delighted. I was going to head into Oklahoma and pick up gswanson and then head to the Ozarks but the Pat Mentheny gig was too tempting. Lawrence KS is the home of KU the Jayhawks and its not too far from Topeka KS where Lee2002 lives and he asked me more then once to come and stay with him. I thought a good deal about it but did not think it was fair to show up at 3 in the afternoon and then go strait to bed for 3 hours! So I headed to a motel in Lawrence and did exactly that. The trip out to Lawrence was rather windy and well crazy. I was blowing gusts of 50 mph in Colorado as the sun came up, and cold about 40 degrees on the plains near Kit Carson Colorado I was freaking cold I ended up stopping to put on a layer of clothes under my transit suit and thicker gloves.

    Colorado was the worst part since the road was 2 lanes and bumpy, bumpy and windy is a sucky combination and will it plays havoc with your gas mileage! 130 miles and my tank gage was flashing already! Good thing there was a solitary gas pump in Kit Carson, I filled it up and was rather amazed at the amount of traffic there was at 4 and 5 am in the morning on the way of of Colorado springs, lines of cars rolling into the Shriver air base and into Colorado Springs it was crazy, folks live out in the sticks and a whole bunch of them, commuting every day from out there must be a real chore!

    I made my way strait east to Oakley KS for another fill up since well the wind was still blowing 30mph but more steady and not so gusty and the smooth interstate made for a much nicer ride to be honest, the wind wasn't so bad anymore and I could cruise and listen to music for the rest of the day. Only my ear buds stopped working! Jeez, I pulled them out and stuck in foam ear plugs and boy everything got quiet and serene - even the 30 mph wind was quiet and I just cruised down the interstate with 50 miles more per tank then I got in Colorado! All damn day long the wind was relentless! I stopped again in Hays for a burger at a steak burger place called Freddie's good stuff! I like that place, not so much Hays but the burger made for a nice meal. Then I put my head down and settled in for the rest of the ride, the further east I went the less windy it got, so much so that each town would get a little less brown and a little more green, more trees popped up and the moisture in air became noticeable, still windy mind you it did not go away but it wasn't killing me anymore!

    I could see signs up for places like Abilene KS - good place to live and have a career? What? OK good for you Abilene, I suppose it goes along with the Abortion is a sin signs on hwy 50 - Kansas is a conflicted state, strait up bible thumping fire and brimstone side by side with heartland hospitality? I guess the further west and windier it gets the crazier it is! By the time I made Topeka I waved at Lee thinking "well hello sorry I will see you come next summer summit", I really wanted him to come along on the trip but hes only go so much time off and family matters pressed the weekend out. So I rolled into Lawrence on some back road to avoid the toll on I-70 and had to stop for a crazy accident , a car had gone off the road and over an embankment cops everywhere! I finally rolled into the hotel and got my key then laid down and set the alarm for 6pm and dosed off for a nap, up for 24 hours is not good! But I think I could have rode another 300 miles if there were some twisties to keep me awake!

    I woke up and headed for the Theater and was surprised to see Lee standing on the corner waving at me to park his bike next to his! Wow I did and walked up to him in disbelief I was not expecting to see him there? He chastised me for not staying at his place and I explained myself and well it worked out - turns out Lawrence has a first rate brewpub its right next door to the Liberty Hall theater where Pat was playing so we stopped in and got a brew and talked for a bit, Lee just sort of had a little did not even have a drink really handed me his beer after I finished mine, he had to go to work at 11pm so he was just being nice. I was glad he stopped over, way way out of his way to come meet me. Lawrence is a nice place, and there was a very large group of folks at the show, it was amazing, I said goodbye to Lee and walked in sat down and 2 seconds later Pat came out and started playing a whole list of my favorites and a few new ones, just a duet and a scaled down version of his Orchestron, a one man band computerized synthesizer that he did some amazing music with. Just him his guitar and a bass player, and the Orchestron. He is a very gifted musician. He even played my favorite tune of his.

    Great show and afterward I walked next door and sampled another beer from the Free State Brewery again, and listened to the local conversation about meth labs from a biker dude out on the patio, bantering back and forth with a lady about the state of the justice system and drug policy in the USA. In any case I had enough and went back and finished off the night with a big mac and fell asleep with the tv on back at the hotel.

    Up early in the morning surprised to see the parking lot mostly empty - boy these Kansas people get up early in the morning! I took off south and looked for back roads into Missouri apparently another vfrd member from Kansas saw the veefalo as she headed out of Lawrence while he was on his way to work at KU, Huskysooner saw me leaving and pm'ed me asking if that was really me! YUP! I met him a few years ago at Lees Kansas meet in Topeka.

    I stopped in Baldwin City KS for breakfast knowing I was gonna be alright speeding when I left cause just about every cop in the county was having coffee in the restaurant in the next room over from mine, I had some eggs and listened to the locals joke - some guy comes in he says "hello darling" to the lady at the table next to mine and she says "well if you call me darling what do you call your wife"? He says back "old bag"! Then he says "maybe thats why I have been married four times"?

    Like I said all the cops were still drinking coffee so I made my escape from Kansas in a big hurry doing some good time on the back roads trying for Harrissonville MO - but somehow I got ahead of myself and had already turned off just blindly following the gps route I made the night before and passed right through it without even knowing it! I was gonna look for a new set of ear buds since my singing to myself was getting tiresome! That area of Missouri is a bit flat, but allot of trees and the further east you go the more the roads get like roller coasters, not many turns just a lot of undulating up and down and some of it quite dramatic you can catch some air if you are going fast! And I was - and I did! Thrills come cheap on a motorcycle! I just kept on going and going and going then I turned on a familiar road I have been one 3 times before or so I thought I did? I ended up taking a frontage road and not the main road and had to double back, strange place called Tightwad MO! Lakes around there are nice, and further up the road I missed the turn, and ended up going through Warsaw a couple of times cause I missed the right turn on hwy 65. Then I turned off that road again onto hwy 7 another road I know from before - this one still is a roller coaster but it has some turns in it. Unfortunately the locals like to think they can race you when you get behind them and proceed to make their vehicles go faster then they are capable of safely driving! Dude in a beat up Chevy pickup tried to hold me off as long as he could and the oncoming traffic is the only reason I waited patiently behind him as he drover over the double yellow a number of times and then onto the dirt shoulder in the right turns, what an idiot. I saw a dotted line and clear lane and was past him so fast he had no idea - then he disappeared in the mirrors just as fast!

    I stopped in Lebanon MO at the walmart and was back in business with tunes when I picked up some JVC mushroom buds, the fit just right and isolate the sound just as good as the foam earplugs I was using, best of all my rendition of "landslide" by Fleetwood Mac in my head was finally over - why do I torture myself with the same tune over and over again, who knew you can make that song last 3 hours if you sing it half assed half remembered lyrics and made up lyrics to fill in the parts I did not remember! Thank goodness for walmart!

    Well I have had just about enough of the up and down roller coaster shit of Missouri and well almost 1 mile into Arkansas the road started to turn RIGHT AND THEN LEFT - oh yea I forgot what that was! TURNS THESE ARE TURNS and good ones too! I turned off at hwy 178 to follow along Bull Shoals Damn and ran smack into a nightmare of traffic? I don't know why all the businesses were closed and 80% of the buildings were shuttered? It was depressing but I did get to see the Bull Shoals Damn! I am sorry for the bad pics the camera was set to low resolution quite by accident.
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     

    The road got interesting after I got past the lake, and the traffic thinned down, I got behind a caddy of all things that was keeping a very good pace in the turns, I got around him soon enough and he stayed with me a bit until the turns got tighter and tighter then I was gone, and there was Yellville up ahead - I pulled into the Carlton Motel and saw a bunch of bikes from Dutch's Tyler Texas group and talked with the guys, then about an hour later Gswanson pulled in with 2lthr (Gary and Steve) and then Dutch himself pulled in on a KLR? I see he tells me hes parting out the black viffer cause he cant deal with all the electrical issues and wont sell it outright cause he does not want to pass that mess on to somebody else? Rumor has it hes gonna pick up Gswansons old Betty? Gary got a RWB vtec last year but still has his 5th gen in the garage. Its already black!

    Then here comes flavadave and his girl on the back 2up, we walked over to the bbq joint down the road and had some grub. Dutch joined us, it was good, the food in Yellville is OK but not great, but the BBQ was the right price (CHEAP).

    The next day the Texas crew took off onto destinations their own and I had prepared a route for the viffer group, down the fast sweepers on MO 14 and over to Push Mountain for an early morning romp - we actually ended up behind one of the Texas guys Dutch's buddy on his Bandit, he lead us up to Push mountain and said he was just going to run it a few times and go back. I was rocking it pretty good on the veefalo when all of a sudden a fast moving red blur went by and I could swear it was another vfr1200! sure enough it was but he did not stop. Everybody thought I had turned around and was coming back since I was leading and got ahead just 2 of use alone for a while me and Steve.
     
     
     
     

     

    Then we headed over to North Fork and took in the sights at the North Fork Damn
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     

    Then we settled in to some great roads all day long for 350 or so miles of Ozark bliss! I call it the Ozark lullaby since some of the roads just sweep back in forth like a waltz, and you just get a great rhythm going, then we came up on hwy 16 and then the fun started it was more challenging and technical, I did not remember it being so much fun I love that road, one of my favorites and I think I like it best of all of them personally, Pulled in for a stop at Pelsor and then we hit hwy 123 as seen in the video above, those pirates would not get out of the way! I had to pass the whole group on a long bowl between two hills with a mile long passing lane at full speed, full speed cause the lead pirate tried to speed up his HD to hold me off? I guess 110 hp and 170hp v4 is a big mismatch! He got small in the mirrors too! The only thing in them anymore after the next few turns was 3 vfrs behind me they all made it safe around the pirates!

    Douche bags on Harley's think they own the road? Why not just let the faster bikes pass and be done with it? Jeez? Back to the motel and more food at the café down the road it wasn't bad - it was a buffet! Then beer and sleep! Most of the Texas crew was already back so it was an all night party and BS session! Good folks these Tyler riders, most of them are on two wheeled Texans a bigger site then vfrd and they all know each other!
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     

    The next day I found out that the pirates were a small percentage of the Harley's in Arkansas that weekend - Blues Bikes and BBQ was in Fayetteville for the weekend rally some 10000 cruisers in the Western Ozarks - good thing they limit themselves to 200 miles or less cause we were far enough east to avoid them for the most part except that group on hwy 123, its a famous road and is featured on most sites and motorcycle maps as a destination, the 10mph hairpins on Mount Judea are the attraction. I personally like the sweepers better especially when there are no Pirates on them!

    Too bad we had to go west past that bunch of vagabonds! I decided to head into Oklahoma with Gary and Steve the next morning and stay in OKC with Gary - hes always such a good host. We took 100 across, and I made a route full of back roads and side trips off the main drags and for the most part we missed the horde! But it added an hour or two to our ride some 500 miles back to OKC! I lead from Yellville into Oklahoma and then Gary took over from there, and took me past Tinkiller Lake and cool side track with hills and turns in Oklahoma I was not expecting, good to know! Then 200 miles of strait boring road into Edmond, then Steve cut out for home and Gary and I made our way to his house and I got a great home cooked meal of beef stroganoff - Garys wife Cathy is a great cook, and a dog lover, they have so many dogs I cant remember how many there are, she liked the tee shirt I was wearing of my local brewpub cause it has a picture of a Lab on front! Laughing Lab the beer is called and so I told her when I got home I would get her one and send it in the mail!

    Gary had to work in the morning and always commutes on the bike when the weather allows so we were up before sunrise and I was off on the road myself back to Colorado, and sure enough the further west I got the more the wind started blowing soon it was like Kansas all over again! I headed across the Pan handle and that bumpy mess - budump..badump..budump..bang (a big pot hole) badump.. for about 2 hours strait! I was relieved to be back across the boarder and into Colorado but the very south eastern tip of it, meaning another 2 hours to go at least. I found a road that skirts along the Comanche National Grasslands into into the Northern tip of Pinion Canyon and enjoyed a western change of scenery after 6 hours of plains plains and more plains, but then I was back onto the plains when I came out of it.

    I stopped in Rocky Ford for a cold drink and was sitting in the shade by the side of the gas station, on a milk crate when an old Hispanic man came up and walked past, then a few minutes later he came out of the store and stopped to talk to me.

    He says "did you see that couple arguing at the gas pump"?
    Me "No sir"?
    He says " the woman was yelling at him.. its your baby I know it is yours"!
    Then he says "the guy was yelling back.. its not mine.. no its not"!
    Then he hits me again "the woman yelled and said I know for a fact its yours...the other 3 I am not so sure about"?

    He completely blind sided me with a joke and so I must have laughed for an hour strait! Old fart sucked me in, and got me! What a way to end an out of state ride.... come back home to jokes!
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
    pig chase.gpx
  10. HispanicSlammer
    NEW VIDEO BELOW - updated chapter 4
    I had a forced vacation from work for two weeks so why not take a trip, the roads west are full of sand and snow so I decided to head east where Spring has already taken hold. The original plan was to leave early Thursday March 29th and make it as far east as possible but Rapidsnipe convinced me to stop over in OKC to spend the night and ride to the Ozarks together. So as usual I woke up at 4am all messed up turned on the weather channel to see that a tornado hit Holly Colorado and ripped the place apart, looked on my map and sure enough I was scheduled to ride through there about 10am, then a local report from Denver showed the TV weather man standing in about 4 inches of snow along I-25 so I panicked and rushed to the window to find somewhat clear skies and no sign of snow. Denver is only 65 miles north of here so its close enough but there is a natural weather break at about monument where the weather seems to change for some reason. I could be blasting snow here and Denver will be sunny and warm or vise versa, I imagine those folks in Monument Colorado and east of there get the worst from both sides of the divide. It just seems to funnel between Mount Evans and Pikes Peak right into that place!
    In any case when I finally left at 7am the sun was shining but it was cold as a witches tit! I had my farkles on full blare and not so comfy as 30 degrees seeps in every nook and cranny of my Aerostich it can! My hands where warm on the bottom from the grip heaters but my finger tips were frosty. It wasn't till I made it to Lamar that it started to warm up to about 55 degrees, then I could relax a little and take my hands off the grips to stretch. I cant stand the cold too much, I would rather be roasting that freezing any day! Riding in that kind of cold just makes you stiff and miserable, but I knew that the Ozarks were waiting. I was approaching the Kansas boarder and finally came within about 5 minutes of Holly Colorado and did not see any sign of massive devastation?
    The weather channel said that there were reports that the tornado that hit Holly was a mile wide! I did see a water tank toppled over but no debris lying around? what gives - then I could see that they had a traffic jam up ahead in town, the closer I got to the center of the little town the worse it got, a house would be missing roof tiles and there was a lot of mud in the street, then closer you would see broken windows and more debris till ground zero, right at the RV park. Why do tornado's zero in on trailer parks?? It was totally destroyed, trees ripped from the ground, aluminum siding wrapped around bushes, no trailers to speak of that I could even recognize and wood and what looked like a home but only the foundation left. There was a tree ripped in half with one half of it upside down hanging upside down across the street and 500 yards away on the power lines above. HALF THE TREE! wow then as soon as I was in Kansas it was all back to normal again!

    I was getting hungry so I stopped in Garden City (not so aptly named) who's main industry seems to be feel lots and a huge Tyson plant on the west side. I saw what looked like an authentic Mexican food joint, so I stopped. Everybody was speaking Spanish in the place so I figured hey must be good right! NOPE! It was awful! At least my server was nice to look at, a sort of J-Lo look alike complete with big back-end like hers! I was pleased to find that it was now 75 degrees outside! So I shed my jacket, vest and glove liners for something less bulky!
    I could see a big storm off to the north but my route just had me skirting the edge of it the whole time. Lots of slab lots of wet roads but no rain.

    Typical Kansas Your average small town this is Minneola KS

    Big Wind you know how they call Montana Big Sky well KS is...
    BIG WIND

    The closer I got to Oklahoma the less boring the roads got, they were becoming rolling hilly tree lined roads with all these great pink trees that just seemed to dot the land scape, along hwy 160 in southern KS there is some interesting red clay landscapes that were rather pretty. I was surprised at how nice it was, but then over the hill the smell of yet another feed lot would just ruin it! Finally in OK I just cruised into OKC fresh and ready for bed, I would get off the main roads and take a little detour off into some sleepy little place such as Calumet OK just west of OKC nice place that is!

    Thursday
    I soon had Rapidsnipe and his wife knocking on my door at the motel to take me to what would be one of the best steaks I have ever eaten in my life, hes a young guy and they are a very young couple very cute together, and shes got him on a very short leash! UMM maybe you shouldn't show her the video Chase! There I met Gary Swanson and his family he would be joining me and Chase the next day into Arkansas.
    THE VIDEO!
    I took great pleasure in building this video its rather long at 21 minutes and it has highlights of the best the Ozarks have to offer, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri all are part of the mountain range that extends across the region and makes for some great riding. I could not beleive that these guys were not out there every weekend riding these great roads!!

    The Ozarks a video oddessy - 6 guys 500 miles of some of the best twisty roads Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri have to offer. Highlights of hwy 62 out of Eureka Springs, Push Mountain, Talimera Skyway, and the heart of the Ozarks Hwy 16. Music from the Breath Sunshine cd, Tori Amos, John mayer, New Order, and Paul Desmond.

    Day two Oklahoma
    Chase and Gary met me at my motel and then we went across the street for breakfast all suited up for the worst. It seemed that my very presence created a high pressure zone in Oklahoma that was pushing the wet weather off and to the northeast. It was overcast be we did not see much rain at all, stopping in some half closed town for gas I once again shed myself of my over gloves and jacket - unzipped the vents on the stitch cause well it was getting downright hot. Following Rapidsnipe (Chase) I could see that he was using the route I had programmed in my Garmin but for some reason I had no clue what direction I was going, east, south, west for all I knew I was so disoriented that I couldn't get my bearings. I again was awake at 4am, a byproduct of working nights and sometimes I just lose all track of time. I pride myself on having a great sense of direction, and can read maps rather well. However when you lose track of time you cant tell direction, since morning seems like evening and vise versa. The first time I was in Tennessee riding to the Texasmac with Kevin in his Jeep I could have swore we were heading west cause it seemed like the sun was going down, I mean I was awake and for all intents and purposes I head into work after I wake up - WEST. I get all confused now. So there I was just happy to follow along, and check my gps once in a while to see if we were going to go pioneer for a bit and go local? Nope right on course.
    Rapidsnipe suggested we make a detour to go ride OK hwy 2, said it was a good road, so we headed northeast on hwy 270 to Limestone, that seemed to me like a rather boring road till we made it to the hwy 2 turn off and headed south. I could see the squiggly lines on my gps and was happy to see the first twisties in 700 miles! The road did not disappoint as Rapidsnipe was soon rolling on the throttle and leaning it over into a very sweet and long sustained sweeper, I could tell he wasn't just some squid like he described himself to be, no he can ride! I was twisting the throttle for all she got just to keep up he wasn't gonna lose me! The after that a series of tighter turns and some blind right handers had us bunched up behind some slow moving campers out for the weekend. We passed them all one by one and I soon realized it is just like Colorado slow movers don't let faster vehicles by here either! I guess that only happens in TN, CA, Montana, and northern Texas? great turn after great turn would pass by slowly till we could see enough daylight to get by them one by one. Chase stopped at the turnoff to hwy1 to let Gary catch up to us and soon the horde was again in front of us, since it took a while to get my gloves back on. He was right it was a good road but too much traffic. We decided to wait some more and just let the Mongol horde get far enough ahead that we could have the road to ourselves. It wasn't long before we were at the entrance to Talemera State Park, they have a nice visitors center there where you can de-water yourself in peace. I set up the camera and let Chase take the lead. I think it made him a bit nervous to be on camera, I usually don't tell people I have then on camera so that they just ride their normal ride, but it was obvious I was going to film the Skyway, it was beautiful. He rode rather well if I can say so.
    The Talimena Skyway ( hwy 1 east/west) is split into two sides 3/4 of it is in Oklahoma and the last bit is in Arkansas, with it being intersected in half by hwy 259 (north south). It is an exciting road with nice fast sweepers throughout and stunning scenery approximately 2000 feet in elevation and a 1000 feet above the valley below. I has some breathtaking scenes that rival the Cherehola Skyway - not as long but certainly just as beautiful and fun if not more scenery. You can see more below from the road than the Cherehola, but then again the trees were not leafed out as of yet. I was enjoying it, particularly one section that had us heading down a steep hill where you could see the road on the other side ramping up the next hill.

    Talimera State Park Oklahoma/Arkansas boarder hwy 1

    The Talimera Skyway Talimera Talimina who knows what it is?

    Somewhere on the Talemira
    Chase took us off the road and over to the Three Sticks Memorial on hwy 259 on the opposite valley you could see the Talimera from there rather well it has some great turns up the mountain.

    Gary stopped at the three sticks memorial
    I could see that Chase was a bit ruffled from me riding behind him with the camera on, so I asked him if he wanted me to lead, which I happily did, making them both go back to that spot on the Talimera so I could get that picture above. There were some nice tight ones just before the turn off at 259 that I wanted to do again, I must say that is one of the highlights of my trip the Talemera is a wonderful ride. I am a bit more experienced rider so I was soon a bit of a ways ahead of the two of them when an interesting rhythm section came up 4 successive tight esses that I could see though to the end, I did not slow down - my mistake cause I had to trail brake through the first one and that had me off my pace and I was crossed up a bit into the next three trail breaking it the whole way till on the last turn I was barely going 10mph - it seemed to me like I was going to fall over! I did not cross the line at all or otherwise blow any of the turns but my aggressive braking has scrubbed off so much speed it caught me off guard when I had no power in 5th gear to round the last corner, lugging it hard till I could fumbling with the shifter to get some power to the ground and not fall over. It must have looked pretty stupid from behind. The guys were about a half minute behind me so they did not see any of it! Heh me lugging the last turn must have looked awful.
    Like I said they looked easy but were much tighter than I had anticipated oops!! Who knows why they put them there - obviously did not need them as you could see all of them, it is just enough to make you slow down to half speed. There were some nice down hill turns on the back side to Mena where we had some lunch at Wendy's.
    I said "we must be in Hill Billy country",
    Gary said "whys that"
    "cause the women are wearing overalls" pointing at the woman behind him
    The further we got into the Ozarks the more Redneck things got, teeth didn't look so strait, shirts were optional, as was women with shoes, hair no longer seemed to be combed and strange sightings occurred regularly. Wild turkeys running out into the road, and turtles run over, of course the ubiquitous skunks are everywhere. It was the airport phone booth converted into a mailbox that had me laughing out loud though - most definitely redneckish! What was it it about this place that says wear overalls with no shoes, and have a straw hanging from your teeth? I don't know but I was relaxed by it, seems to me do as the locals do! We rode some back roads and took a merry long way around to Hotsprings where Dutch was waiting for us. His gixxer buddy pussed out - his loss too bad he didn't meet us in Oklahoma to ride the Talemina with us!
    Now here is the strange part neither Chase nor Hondalover drinks beer - so I started in with the teasing. Telling then that they must be Zima drinking pinky flipping guys who don't drink beer! HeH! Then Dutch, and Gary, Chev started in on them too!

    Dinner In Hotsprings Left to Right - Rapidsnipe, Hondalover, Chev, Dutchintercepter, HS, GSwanson.

    Thursday

    day three Arkansas
    we woke up to a steady drizzle of rain and so it took us a bit longer to get situated, everybody was donning rainsuits and I was digging out my overgloves that are supposed to keep my elkskin ropers dry. They worked out ok but for some reason as usual my farkles started to fail. My gps kept saying aquiring satalites and not zoning in on the route, which is strange it didnt work untill we made it all the way to Ola where we stopped to fill up and respite from the rain. I asked Rapidsnipe to take the lead since his was working, but I think any of us could have it was rather simple to stay on hwy 7! There was a really nice section of highway 7 right before that near Hollis, lots of nice banked curves and a few decreasing radius off camber turns thrown in for good measure. It was a bit tricky because of the rain - we wanted to go faster but the painted lanes seems much narrower than normal and some of us blew a few turns, slipping on the yellow paint. It eased up in Ola and so RapidSnipe and Gswanson peeled off to head back to OKC when we made it to Russleville. Two riders down 4 left, we headed up hwy7 ever climbing into the Ozarks on those fast sweepers passing the slow traffic as we could, it was pretty much double yellow the whole way? I really think those yellow lines are painted for RV's with no concept that Motorcycles can pass safely and quickly in shorter stretches? I wish the law could see it that way too? I mean it was solid double yellow for the entire stretch from Dover to the hwy 16 turnoff! Crazy!

    Somewhere on hwy 7 my camera could not focus on the hills in the background
    In any case we did what we did.
    The rain stopped enough for me to film part of hwy 16 to Witts Springs where it started to come down hard. I fell in behind Chev for most of it but he was struggling with the bike in the tight turns so I passed him and caught up with the other two, Chev and Hondalover had communicator on so I knew that if Chev fell too far back he could radio us to stop. It was at lunch later that I felt his front tire and the massive cupping he had on that old bias ply on his vfr1000, 16 inch wheels with heavy cupped bias plies and 3 guys on sport radials makes for a tough day for Chev, I could feel the tire fall off on the sides about 15 degrees sharper than the middle too, it must have felt like riding in a dingy boat in a hurricane trying to keep us with the rest of us?? I know a bad tire will ruin any ride, he was riding much faster than I would on those things!! I think they were the OEM TIRES?? Dunlop bias plys would have had me worried right off the bat! Then he was into the tread indicators too! JEBUS! OH man hes got more balls than..............
    We stopped in Tilly for a picture stop.

    Hwy 16 wet wet wet

    The sky was getting ready to open up on us
    We continued on with me in the lead while it rained we team-worked lead duty. I lead pretty much the rest of the day from then on, my gps was working again. Hwy 341 Push Mountain was the next great road, not that those in between were bad, but that road is a monster, lots of tight turns and long straits that suck you in faster than you want too. I sort of took off a bit alone as my tires were just sweet in the rain, I was getting some great feedback and took it almost as fast as if it were dry. Never slipped once I felt confident the whole time. The clouds finally parted in Mountain home where we stopped at the first restaurant we saw, dripping wet and very hungry it was almost 3pm when we made it there. We waited an awful long time for our meal so plans to continue to Missouri were shelved in favor of a more direct route to Eureka Springs, we found some interesting back roads, and managed to salvage the rest of the day on some decent roads. We pretty much headed west from Mountain home till Harmon then did some back roads to a strange road 281 near the Missouri boarder, it as mighty twisty in places and long 270 turns that seemed to never end, and a up and down a steep hill I was glad to have found it, very interesting riding there. Turns out it was a typical Missouri road as they all seem to be like that in the Ozarks up and down roller coaster hills that dive off one way or another into a thick forest area it engages you completely! This is where the skill level seems to shake out on those iffy roads, your either comfy or your not! I liked it but rode it cautiously. Then the gas gage was showing near empty with only 156 miles on the clock? So we stopped in Ridgedale and Dutch and Chev came out of the bathroom looking absolutely disgusted. I decided to just hold it right then and there. then it was over hwy 86 and west again to Eureka Springs over the bridge at Table Rock Lake we soon encountered a car that had driven off the road and down the embankment about 20 feet below the road. I guess whoever it was was hurt cause there was an ambulance. There was a bar/nightclub on the hill above us - my guess is a drunk came down the driveway and went across the road and down the other side!
    We took MO hwy 86 all the way to 23 and headed east to Eureka Springs it was starting to get dark already and when we made it to the Traveler's Inn there were a hundred or so dual sport bikes there. It must be the motel of choice for motorcyclist, the owners were sure friendly to us. The place was a model of convenience - a Pizza Hut on the right, a Liquor Store to the left, and across the street a breakfast buffet! What more could you ask for?

    Saturday

    day 4 Missouri
    We had a nice breakfast in Eureka Springs then rolled down the hill to the train depot.

    Train Depot in Eureka Springs This place reminds me of Manitou Springs where I live

    Spanning the generations

    Ideal setting indeed Eureka Springs is a pretty town

    Underway
    ATTACH
    I have attached the entire route I took from Colorado to the Ozarks in back, and put place markers on all the best roads. MS Streets and Trips

    VFRS parade the town

    lots of bikes in Eureka Springs hundreds of them
    We started out Sunday with a quick jaunt up hwy 62, as seen in the video, lots of traffic though and small towns in between makes it a ride you should be cautious on. It was soon after crossing the boarder that the road got interesting, Hwy 112. Southern Missouri in general is full of great roads that all share one thing in common, they seem to be like a wild roller coaster ride. You can't help but get sucked into taking the turns just a bit faster then you should. Cresting a hill and then diving off in one direction or another, I always roll off near the top of hills cause well who knows whats there or which way it goes. In Colorado there is often gravel from a driveway at the top of hills so I am conditioned to slow down before cresting a hill. Its the quick acceleration of rolling down then back up thats so much fun, however Missouri seems to mix in a few sweepers in between and then a few tight ones - just enough to make the road that much more unpredictable. Its the unpredictable nature of this kind of road that can put you in a ditch though so be prepared for whatever.
    I had my GPS set to take the "Shortest route" I have found that it often takes me to great roads I would not have known about, but sometimes it leads me to a dead end or a dirt road. Such was the case with the Roaring River State Park , the GPS showed a clear route back to hwy 76 from there but it was not the case - we ended up stopped at the fish hatchery which well was pretty interesting, not planned but interesting. There were hundreds of people at the park all fishing, it seemed like it wasn't even sport but there they were none the less.

    Roaring River State Park MO one wrong turn on hwy 112 had us stopped at a fish hatchery
    Once on Hwy 72 we headed east, its sort of a road that skirts the tops of hills sides and dives up and down past cow pastures its very pastoral and in itself a very pretty road, we were starting to see a number of other bikes as it was the weekend and at one section two Ducatis were railing a corner and came right into my lane a bit. I cant comment on the speed but if you cant stay in your lane your out of control! I saw them coming and took the turn a bit wide cause you could tell they were hauling ass. Then we rolled in behind a couple out for the day on a nice Black Goldwing, looked like they were having a lot of fun, they even stayed with us a bit after we passed them, we all got caught behind a fairly fast moving Toyota truck and when I saw an opening I took it, then the road opened up into 4 lanes as we went under an overpass and the rest of the guys got by. I guess me passing the Toyota took the wind out of his sails cause he slowed down right after I did. I wonder if he was pushing it at 9/10ths or something? Heh I sure wasn't!
    76 to 160 is very interesting in these parts but its a main road so there is some traffic - not much cause its rather rural out there but more than side roads. their is a curious 180 degree loop that slings back around and up a mountain side at Walnut shade that you can really rail on if that was what you like to do, but I could see that as one hell of a speed trap for motorcyclist, there are houses on both ends so you have to slow down before and after.
    Then I turned off on Road H, its all chip sealed with the familiar white chip rock that they tend to use around there, it can glare in direct sunlight but it is very grippy so I upped the pace a bit. lots of fast sweeper all the way up to the Mark Twain National Forest, looks like some good off road around there too as we passed a number of trailers hauling dirt bikes and ATVs must be off road heaven back in there! I loved it, canopy trees covered the area in places then you would see glimpses of rock ledges overlooking valleys below. Its very pretty there, and the roads are challenging. Looping back south on 125 all the way to Garrison Chev and Hondalover peeled off to go home. We stopped for a good bit and counted the sport bikes that went by.
    I was dumbfounded that neither Chev or Hondalover had been there before? Its only a half days ride for them to get there? I suspect they will both be returning very soon! It was actually my second trip into the Mark Twain and it was different the second time, I recognized some things but most things no didn't, I think I was off the main path for a while the first time. Hwy 76 intersects the road and you dog leg off a bit for what I consider the best part, its gets tighter on the southern side of 76 and its banked so you can go really fast and just have a total blast, Me and Dutch were just flying in that section waving at the bikes coming the other way. It wasn't too long before we were on the Ferry to head back to Arkansas.
    Since we could not do the entire route we planned the day before we decided to do the Missouri part back wards and track back to Russelville in the opposite direction. The ferry ride was very cool, more bikes on the ferry then cars, and it is FREE!

    Peel Ferry bikes outnumbered cars trying to cross Bull Shoals Lake
    Hwy 125 intersects hwy 14 where we turned east and that is when Dutch decided to wick it up a bit on those great sweepers, for a good half an hour we were just blasting it with out a single car! It was great, I was just really enjoying the faster road - from the tighter turns on 125. The Ozarks has it all.
    Lunch in Mountain Home was a banquet, we stopped at the Exxon station and the clerk recommended "the Steak house" in the middle of town - still on hwy 62 When we got there the place was empty, seemed abandoned but after we went in it filled up. Glad we did! It looks like it might be a chain - I have never heard of it but it was a good stop.
    "The Steak House"
    859 Highway 62 E
    Mountain Home, AR 72653
    Tel: (870) 425-8515
    Lunch menu is more like dinner - I asked for bread and they brought me a freshly baked loaf of bread! Salad, fix 'ns its was a huge meal for a great price.
    I ate so much that I was tired afterward, I was loafing a bit so Dutch took off to go find some chain lube by himself I told him I would catch up to him back at the Exxon. Then we were off to go ride Push Mountain Again. I took the lead and the GPS routed us through some strange back road that ran for 5 or 6 miles then turned to hard packed dirt, I just shrugged and kept going looked like we landed into some private redneck compound off to the right but it ended right at the foot of Push Mountain! I stopped to take a picture of the 'White River"

    White River at the base of Push Mountain hwy 341
    I started filming and was soon finding myself falling behind cause Dutch was in his element on Push Mountain, I found the pace to be pretty fast, but I could manage. Lots of long straits then afterward a hard left or right and a series of tight turns. I had to brake more than I like too, but I wanted to keep up, he was starting to walk away from me. The road is relentless and at the end I could tell I was not up to much more of it, I would have rolled off cause at that point I was pretty much beat from the 300miles of twisties we already did. I took the lead again and slowed the pace down a bit - seemed like I couldn't concentrate well I retraced the route we did before and stopped in Tilly to stretch a bit, Dutch got on his cell and checked in with his wife to tell her he was staying another night. I asked Dutch if he wanted to do the rest cause well I wasn't up to the task so he took over lead duties and we short cut back down hwy 27 to Dover and for an overnight in Russelville. It was one particular up hill road that caught me a bit off guard a bit, it was a very tight Esse Turn into a decreasing radius that had me almost blowing the turn. I took it way too fast and it scared me a bit, Dutch said some guy he was riding with had ran off the road on that very same turn its a sucker turn that is much tighter than the others so you are not ready for it. I managed to get through it fine but I really had to push the bike over hard to make it. That is when I decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night.

    Lake Dardanelle Russleville AR right out side our rooms at the Days Inn on I-40
    hwy 27 was rather challenging by itself as well some tight hairpins on the way down, and cruisers in the way had us making quick passes, it was still challenging. The sun was setting and it was cooling off, a perfect ending to a great days ride.

    Sunday
    I have attached the entire trip from Colorado to the Ozarks and back in an MS streets and trips file, its marked with all the best roads
    Missouri into Kansas

    Dutch and I took off early retracing our path up hwy 27 from Dover to Tilly to ride that sweet section of hwy 16 together, I was feeling better this time and was ready to roll. 27 didn't seem as challenging going up but it was fun, then we had some fun on the sweeper at Ben Hur. Before we left Russleville we stopped at the Wafflehouse on I-40 for breakfast and I just couldn't help but notice that manager was a ringer for former President Clinton, same nose, same face, same accent, even the same mannerisms it was uncanny, but not so fat! Then we had a talk with a guy riding a Kawi zx14 - hes like me tours the whole country on the thing, with his wife on the back too!
    Dutch started having knee pain, and kept stretching his legs out. Not used to relentless twisties 2 or 3 days of riding can stress your knees pretty good. I was feeling pretty good and so we parted ways at the hwy 7 intersection, he said he took some back roads home so he managed to have some more fun. Me I continued up 123 to Mount Judea, this is my personal Favorite as its chock full of some nice turns - without anybody else riding with me I just took it easy or so I thought the pace was easy on the straits then for some reason I was leaned over all the frickin way in the turns?? odd heh
    I passed a couple out for a joy ride in one of those Mercedes roadsters, and just had a blast the rest of the way before the road gets super tight. Its right at Mt Judea that it becomes a very tight switchback decent into the town. Not much there a school, a few shops and one awesome café road stand, thats not much to look at either but the Bacon Cheeseburger is fantastic! A God fearing town the entire area is named after places and characters in the Bible. I stopped for a few pictures on top of Mount Judea

    Mount Judea I forgot how fun and challenging hwy 123 is in AR

    Hasty off in the Distance from the top of hwy 123
    I started heading west with the intent of just finding as many side roads as possible on the way, just playing it by ear and yes I found some great roads, I kept taking a stair step pattern in a north west route. The ride from Mt Judea took me to Hasty where its seems to be very rural very poor in terms of the condition of the houses around the place, it sort of was depressing to look at with such beauty around in the natural scenery. A dilapidated trailer with an ad hock roof built over and around it? Hasty seems to be the correct term. I managed to make my way to Jasper to fill up and again head west. I was riding in the hilly section - not so many mountains but more hills now. From Jasper I went west on hwy 74 and then North a bit on 27 again then I got on a main road 412 which I found to be boring so I headed north again on hwy 23 up to the next turn off on 127. I was pretty much all alone on both those roads.

    The only strait road in Low Gap

    A sign near Low Gap very true
    On Highway 127 (Rock Road) is a great convenience store/gas station with soft serve Ice Cream, the ladies were cleaning the machine so they were selling Ice Cream for half price, I couldn't resist, it was a nice store for such a lonely place! I gassed up and headed out again. The Hwy sort of snakes around up to Beaver Lake where the turns are very fun then you cross a bridge over the lake and completely avoid the bigger towns on the western edge of the Ozarks. There are large towns all along the north western edge of the Ozarks that make the ride a real bore. I managed to avoid most of it. Skirting the edge of Rogers up to Pea Ridge, its a strait road on the map and it has a lot of traffic but its very scenic none the less (hwy 94) then I crossed over into Missouri

    I Stayed away from the main roads here and headed west again on a fun road hwy from Jane to Noel, its a fun road, there is a spider web of great roads up near Pea Ridge you can have a blast on right on the boarder! Then the Ozarks were done! I had some Lunch in Noel where there is another cool convenience store with a nice overlook that views the river.

    Stopped in Noel Missouri great road hwy 90

    Elk River The gas station there has a restaurant in back that has bay windows that overlook the river.
    It wasn't long before I was in Kansas again and the wind was beating me relentlessly all they way to Wichita, nothing much to report about that!

    Monday
    the ride home

    Kansas sucks windy all the way from Whitchita, so much so I was leaned over going in a strait line, then the small town mentanlity there of - we dont need to provide bathrooms from passers by - I did fill up my bike. I came out of the bathroom to listen to the clerks and owners complaining about that. I guess it was me they where talking about, I guess they have never seen a motorcyclist before? I decided not to buy anything else and move on.

    Colorado hwy 94 87 miles away from Pikes Peak I could make out a faint outline of the mountain, I felt like Zebulon Pike himself when he first saw it

    Zoomed in you can see the outline of Pikes Peak vaguely I did catch up to that pickup later too! This was the first glimpse that I was almost home, yet it took me another hour to get to the city limits of Colorado Springs

    One whipped Pirrelli Diablo rear tire cords showing after 2600 miles, it was a great tire in the rain and never once slipped.

    Tuesday
  11. HispanicSlammer
    Veefalo on hwy 9
    I needed a much deserved ride Monday, and solo so no deciding, or waiting, or compromising just how I wanted to ride. I wanted to just go and go and go all day. So I got up, put on my leathers and headed for this secret road my friend Sfarson took the fast group on during the summer summit. I suppose its no longer a secret but in fact a part of the vfrd lore now that its been an official "summer summit route" but I don't care its a Colorado Paved road I haven't ridden yet so I needed to remedy that.
    I set the radar detector to highway and turned up the volume, added some new mp3 tracks of Sarah McLachlan newest album and turned it down for background music. I love the zumo its so nice to have a listen to music while you track your routes. I got about have way through the album after the first hour and thought well shes put out better music before this! Well it also took a good hour to get past all the usual hwy 24 traffic too, my route would take me up Hoosier Pass, into Breckenridge - past Dillion where the summer summit was and over to Kremmling. I would gas up there a second time since my first fill up along Ute Pass. I was trying a couple of new things this ride, new bike, new HD contour camera, new soft daily contacts, and newly fixed seat!

    Fix for my sore butt scoop out a bucket
    I haven't been too happy with the seat as of late since its pinching off blood flow to my legs and I am getting sore after 100 miles now, so I took a sander to it and scooped out some foam to make a more bucket like shape out of it, then stapled the vinyl seat cover back on. This was the test run to see if I can hack it all the way to Oregon next month, it don't look so pretty anymore but I am happy to say it feels better.

    Pikes Peak from the gas station on Ute Pass
    I gassed up like I mentioned at the Kum and Go station in Kremmling and there were all kinds of bikes out, mostly HD cruisers but a few Beemers too the Veefalo turned a few heads, you can tell who the motorcyclists are! They do double takes when they see it. My recently installed headlight modulator might contribute to that as well. My contact fell out so I stopped into a restaurant called the Moose Lodge to get it back in and felt like I needed to sit down and patronize the place for using their bathroom. I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu since well I am pretty much broke at the moment with only $30 bucks in my pocket, so the special said Grilled cheese - Tortilla soup - Desert $5! Yea that sounds about right! The whole thing was cheap and good very good, cant go wrong with grilled cheese! The soup was good too, and the apple pie hit the spot. Two sisters worked the place like a well oiled machine, one would pick up where the other left off and they teamed up on the lunch crowd like a couple of seasoned pros. It was definitely a local hangout and well that suits me since I cant stand yuppie tourist traps! Good price, good food, great service and well what more could you ask for? Pretty too they were both very pretty!
    So I strapped my new HD camera too my helmet and rode up Gore Pass a couple of times, up and down and of course first time I had the camera pointed too low. So I wont add that to the video stock, this thing makes quick time HD mov files, so I had to figure out how to edit those, so I used the Sony Vegas software I bought a few months back and it worked great. I have to figure out how to upload them here but in the mean time - above is the best one of the day hosted by vimeo. No its not the secret road ~ It was shot late in the day about 3/4 of the way home of my 500 mile ride, I like it best cause it was great hardly any traffic at all and the cars I did have to pass were all lined up in the passing zones with no oncoming traffic it was so nice! I got lucky on that run.

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/bearcreek.mp4
    Back to the story, I found this road 21mile road its called at Oak Creek Colorado and it heads north west from there up and over a mountain in a nice tight windy road up and down a few mountains, I can see why Steve was reluctant to share it, its sweet! Then it head into more open rolling hills where its like a race track, long straits and sharp to tight sweepers, you can definitely get in trouble speeding on that thing! It took a good half and hour to do it since I stopped to film some of it, and messed that up too. Had it on but did not set it to record properly, This thing needs some getting used too.
    I soon was on hwy 40 and in Steamboat Springs, the furthest away from home I would get on this ride, and pace up Rabbit Ears Pass at 80mph cruising speeds, the veefalo she likes sweepers but these are bit too easy to really be fun with all the traffic, coming down off the pass I chased a sporty Audi 2 seater and the driver made like he wanted to go! So I followed him, hes radar detector kept setting mine off so I was a bit paranoid at first about the radar blips, so I turned it down for the duration. Darned cheap RDetectors set mine off! Anyway he held me off for a good 5 miles and I had fun, till he got behind a row of cars and so I passed the whole bunch at a clip, he did not follow. Back in Kremmling I headed again down hwy 9 to Dillion, where I rode past this l lake I have seen a good number of times, Green mountain reservoir. Its very pretty and I have always thought I should stop and take a picture so I did!

    Green Mountain Reservoir

    Green Mountain Reservoir panoramic
    I did not stop much this trip for pictures, these are about it for pics, but I took all sorts of video. I did one going up and over Loveland pass I will upload next, vimeo only allows one hd upload a week for my account unless I upgrade, that will be next. I ended up catching a pickup truck on the way up and most of the way down the driver was going rather quick, too quick for me to make a safe pass on the top curves, not enough room or long enough sight line for me to attempt it. After watching him go completely over to the oncoming lane passing him would be on the top of my list, no talent driver - doing stupid stuff crossing the double yellow cause he was over cooking the turns not too skilled!
    I did get past him though! HEH

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/lovelandpass.mp4
    500 miles and some good turns along the way - here is the map

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  12. HispanicSlammer
    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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  13. HispanicSlammer
    The Sawtooth Mountains Stanley Idaho
    Continuing on from my last blog entry - I spent the night in Waldon Colorado - then early in the morning I packed up and headed out on the veefalo north. I just blindly followed my GPS that for some reason had switched to automatic route recalculation which sent me over the pass into Laramie. I had it figured out just about the time I found some really great sweepers on the Wyoming side - I decided not to turn back but rather to find out just how far this rabbit hole would go! I was enjoying the 30mph marked turns at double that speed and it was rather chilly so I only hit the good ones in the sun and not so fast in the shade. I dont ride too well when I am cold. I suppose a racing career for an overwieght 45 year old is out of the question so I will just stick to touring and writing in my blog and keep my night job.

    Sheep Mountain Waldon Colorado

    Balloons in Waldon 7am - 45 degrees out - still cool air perfect balloon weather
    So having figured it out that I had basically added 50 miles to my route with this stupid zumo reprogram job. I figured I needed to gas up in Laramie and grab some cash at the wells fargo ATM since I was already in town. Which sent me to an interesting gas station - tackle shop - gun store - candy store - resturant where the owner had fish bait and chewing tobbacco on the same shelf. Helpful though he pointed me in the right direction to the wells fargo with detailed directions right down to the shape of the windows in the Taco Bell next door. Right by the Wyoming Cowboys stadium he said. Sure enough there it was. Then 100 or so plus miles of super slab on I-80 to Rawlins. It was here I discovered my bike was covered with oil encrusted dirt pellets all over the forks, swingarm, and radiator. So in Rawlins I cut over to a car wash to get that crap off, and the 1/4 inch high pile of dead bugs on the windshield.
    Rawlins is the sort of place I like to just pass through, if it were not for the gas situation I would have! It did get me off the interstate and that dueling semi nonsense for the last hour or so - they always seem to look in the mirror and see me comming then try to pass each other before I get there - nope - snails dont make for good racing! So I would have to haul it down to below the posted speed limit and wait behind the chain of cages that also are stuck behind this 18 wheeler fiasco - interstates might be the fastest way to cross the USA but they sure are a pain in the ass on a motorcycle.
    I turned off for more slab, but this time it was 2 lane slab for another 150 miles till I hit the edge of Dubios Wyoming where the scenery took a turn for the better. Here it started to get interesting - I should have stopped for more pictures cause the whole way from Dubios to Jackson was very scenic. Too bad the highway department thought different. Togwatte pass was all tore up to the dirt and bumpy as hell since it was being repaved. It was all tore up for a good 15 miles and after that there was mud all over the brand new pavement. All the way into the Grand Tetons National Forest. Turning the corner and cresting the hill and seeing my first sight of the Grand Tetons was amazing, it took my breath away it was so spectacular!

    Dubois Wyoming pretty little town

    Grand Teton Range impressive sight

    Grand Tetons

    Veefalo at Grand Tetons

    Jacksons Hole Wyoming

    Jacksons Hole
    I was going to try to make it to Idaho City but it was getting late and the sun was about to go down so I found a place to stay in Jackson, it was expensive so I did not splurge on food opting instead for a burger at the DQ and an ice cream. I walked over to the Cowboy bar and looked at the strange wood fixtures - mutant wood with what looked like wood tumors all over it and saddles for bar stools. I had a bottle of beer and walked around downtown Jackson. It reminded me alot of Durango where I went to school. Only a bit smaller. Its a tourist trap too in the summer time.

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    I got up early and headed out, I had a room just below my bike so I could just lift my bags up onto the pavement and not have to carry them so far. I wound my way over Teton Pass passing scores of cars 5 at a time which was easy since the grade was 10% so they were barely moving 30mph at most. I had a little of the pass to myself just in time to catch a whole nother line of cars and pass them too. It was too busy to really do anything fun. Lots of traffic heading over to the Tetons and up into Yellowstone. I was glad to get off the main highway and over to Pine Creek Road where I had it all to myself. I really enjoyed the 50 miles of that road - and stopped for breakfast at a little run down joint run by a mother daughter team. The lady behind the grill looked just like my great aunt Jenny I am sure I made her uncomfortable they way I was squinting to see if it was really my grandmas little sister - and the daughter - she was very pretty too. Good food and plenty of it, pork chops eggs and homemade salsa. The daughter was a good conversationalist if a bit unnattentive as a waitress, Mom though set her strait a few times, "get the coffie honey" she said, and "bring those plates back here" gentle but firm. She seemed more annyoned at having to finish up the night shifts work than being a waitress. Aw but the food was special.

    Starting toward the pass to Idaho

    Balloons on the Tetons

    Angus Cafe Swan Valley Good breakfast but he outside is a little run down Swan Valley Idaho

    Swan Valley Idaho
    From here it got slabby again and into the city of Idaho Falls I ran into a 10 mile length of constuction with crazy 4 inch pot holes that I had to aviod. The car infront of me was going so slow I had to back off way back to get a good idea when the next pot hole was comming to avoid it. The cars behind me where no comfort!
    From there I gassed up in the boring town of Idaho Falls - note to self any town in the west out on the planes with the word "falls" in it is probably a sink hole! On my way into Atomic City Idaho I passed Harely Davidson after Harley Davidson after Harley Davidson. They seem to think that a 115 cubic inch HD can hold off a 1200 vfr? Not even close! I would pass with a simple 6th gear roll on and be done with them in a hurry. This thing cruises at 100mph while they struggle at it. Try twice the rpms and more HP its not much of a match, add in turns and its all over! I might see you on the way back.
    So I looked up some maps and headed up north a bit to hit the Salmon River roads stopping again in Arco to gas up since I have no idea where the gas stations are gonna be. It seemed prudent andnd once again in Challis since this was a back way or so I thought going along the Salmon. Nope it was busy, busy with all sorts of anglers fly fishing the river and driving along the twisty road. It was fun and fast. Then the canyon opened up and I saw the Sawtooth Mountain range for my first time and it Rivals the Grand Tetons in scope if not as sharp but massive, I stopped to take a pic.

    The Sawtooth Mountains Stanley Idaho
    Then I turned on what I thought was going to be the best road of the day and it was strait as an arrow, so my Uncle Told me! For a good 20 miles it was strait then slowly it started to get a kink here and there, then after 40 miles it was getting better and better, pretty soon I was enjoying it alot. Passing everything in range I was having fun on the fast sweepers, it was all good chip seal the kind that is done right and not loose anymore - not scrapped off by snow plows either just good chip seal. Its grippy and confidence inspiring.
    The at Lowman Idaho I turned a corner and the temperature went up 20 degrees and I started to sweat and then all of a sudden - whammo - tight tight twisty - deals gap of the west road! My Uncle had not set me wrong!~ I am glad he pointed this road out on the map to me at Christmas - this is some good stuff here! Wow I was not so sure about this bike up till now and I just leaned forward and gassed it smooth and let her rip and bump and lean and pitch. Flicking the bike side to side just like as if I was on the old girl. I think it was this road that made me think that I do have a good bike! A bike I can ride now, I was riding it well and it was responding well. I was happy with the veefalo all at once and completely focused on this road. I was having fun railing it and it was responding like it was too! Wow moments like this are a real treat, its not always you feel like your one with your bike or that its just an extention of your will, it was handling and turning like it was a sport bike! OH Harley guys try and follow me now!
    I looked down at my gas gauge - uhh oOHH its blinking! Aw shoot, 15 miles to Idaho City.. will I make it? The road started down hill and switch back after switch back melted away with ease, a little slower down hill I am still enjoying myself but trying to conserve gas. Then sweepers again till I saw what looked like a small village and a gas station on the side. I pumped 4.2 gallons and went over 150 miles, that last gas stop in Challis all they had was ethonol blend and I dont think I filled it to the rim, just topped up. I was really reving the pants off the bike for the most of 75 miles - and another 40 along the Salmon river. I really ran that section hard.

    I think your brother is all over my windshield
    Stange looking Zebra beetles in Idaho City they where everywhere - never seen bugs like them before? Cool looking especially when in flight. I stopped and fueled up and fueled up my belly with some Red Bull Cola and an Ice cream. I was only 50 miles to my Uncles place and was really happy with the bike! I feel like I broke an invisable barrier on that day!

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  14. HispanicSlammer
    Skyline Drive
    I once took a dirt road from hwy 9 last summer just to see where it went, along the way I passed a road that headed west and there was a sign that said "Salida 40 miles" I did not have time to explore it, instead I was looking for back way into Cotopaxi, which I never found. I was on some forgotten dirt road some developer had cut for houses that never got built. It ended and I had to turn back. I never forgot that sign though and though well "some day"! Last tuesday was the day, and after looking at the map I found it was named "ute trail" so I packed my tail bag, aired up the tires on the Big Piggy, topped up the motor oil and headed up Old Stage road to Salida.

    Cripple Creek

    Sangre De Christo Mountains in the Distance

    Aspens Changing above Cripple Creek
    I was getting my fillings knocked out of my mouth from the bone jarring waves of bumps that happen on the downhill sections where the grader had once smoothed out the road but the rain had made a nice row of shallow bumps. It makes my teeth nash together so I jumpped off and softened up the rebound a bit on my shock. It worked but then my bike was a bit bouncy on the pavement. I would say all in all I did 40 % dirt 60 % pavement on this ride.
    riding from Cripple Creek to Guffy was all pavement and surprisingly I was going faster than most the cars even with my back end bouncing around when I turned hard, I passed a mess of cagers going down hill to the High Park road turnoff, and then I was soon on the roller coaster we call High Park Road. Its fun but dangerous cause its open range and cows like to stand in the middle of the road. You have to slow down on the crest of the hills or you could plow into one on the blind downside! A woman riding with our local sport bike group lost her life there 3 years ago doing just that!
    Anyway I tunrned toward Guffy and headed west all alone at this point, seems nobody goes to Guffy anymore, all the resturants were closed and up for sale, seems the place is abandoned all except for the antique stores. We used to stop there for a drink on the way home from Hwy 9, then short cut over to Woodland park. Not anymore the resturant is closed now.
    I headed north west on hwy 9 till I found the turn off a couple of miles down the road to get to Ute Trail, a dried up mudd road called co-88 it was full of mud ruts and somewhat tricky to handle, I turned west on what I thought was the trail but ended on some private road. I turned around and headed south again to Stirrup Ranch where Ute Trail picks up. I thought I was alone so I was riding somwhat slow. I saw the horses at Stirrup ranch and took a picture turned around to see a huge ford Bronco right behind me, oops didnt hear them or seem them way out here. They stopped and asked me what I was doing, I guess they saw me turn off on that private road and were watching me - I did not think I was tresspassing but those cowboys were a bit cautious about me. I just said I missed the turn and then saw the sign and turned back onto the road. "I just got lost for a mile or so thats all". They offered me a cup of coffie which I declined and they pointed me to the correct road to Salida. Thanks apparantly some folks have been trespassing on thier land and dumping trash. I guess I can understand where they where comming from, I saw the sign and went no further, turned back and got back on CO-88 - so they followed me to make sure I got out. Co-88 goes into private land but the road is a public road.

    Horses at Stirrup Ranch

    Aspens Changing at Mud Creek

    Whitehorn CO

    All the Essentials Satalite T,V Shower, Hole in the ground - an outdoor paradise!
    Once on the Ute Trail they followed me some more but I was aware of them now and just twisted the trottle and left those cowboys in the dust, I was all the way at the bottom of the next valley before I saw them top the hill I had just come, by the time I was past the next valley I was long gone. I found a strange shack out in the boonies near Whitehorn, it was just particle board painted red and slapped up like an old box car, there was a tower with a 50 gallon water tank on top for showering I guess and a hole in the ground for when nature calls. It was definitly crude, but they had a satalite dish!! HEH
    I was soon into the mountains around Salida and heading down the Pass on Ute Trail where I was witness to a breathtakeing view of the Collegiate Peaks across the valley.

    Ute Trail - Salida Colorado

    Ute Trail - Salida Colorado Mt Antero and Mt Princton

    Ute Trail - Salida Colorado Collegiate Peaks
    It was 112 miles on the trip meter at this point and my 4 gallon tank was getting low, I am sure I can go alot further but the plastic tank is sort of divided by the frame, and so I would have to syphen the gas from one side to the other once it gets too low. I stopped at a gas station and filled up. Some construction workers where sitting on the bench and waved hello, I went inside and got a cold drink, came out and they where having a full blown shouting match about which was more powerful, a 450 4 stroke or a 250 2 stroke? Heh it was funny I just kicked the bike started and headed into town to the 1st Street Cafe. A Black Labrador Retriever greeted me at the door and I sat down at a table where I could observe my bike, I had forgotten to bring a lock! The house specialty was jerk chicken with sweet potato fries and cole slaw on the side. The chicken was tender and the jerk sauce dip was spicy enough to make me cough! The sweet pototao fries where a bit too much for me though - the flavors in combination was a bit overpowering and it left me a little unsatisfied with the meal, and I hate cole slaw, expecially since they seemed to have added horse radish to the slaw! I ate it all up though cause I was really hungery! I had not ate all day!
    I headed east on hwy 50 to Cotopaxi behind a guy on an old yamaha crusier, inline twin - no gear at all and he was going around 70mph in the sweepers, my boucy shock was leaving me feeling a bit too unstable and he got away from me - if I was on the VFR however he wouldnt have seen my taillights for more than a few seconds before then cause I routinely ride that section at 90+ one handed and ready for sleep! Oh well Cotopaxi came up soon enough and I stopped at the general store and got some beef Jerky cause I was still hungary. I though ok now I am going to find that elusive back way to Ute Trail from here! rode strait north and the pavement went on for at least 15 miles, which surprised me! I thought as soon as I got past the town it would turn to dirt! then I found a fork in the road, one said Salida 25 miles and the other said Mt Wudiga so I took the Mountain road! past about 12 deer feeding on the weeds and headed up the hill. then the road got worse for wear and it was definitly dirt, and I saw a No Tresspassing sign! Shoot I guess I could head back to that fork in the road and head for Saliada, cause I saw where it came out by that strange shack a few hours back but that puts me too far west on Ute Trail I would have to back track some 60 miles? It was getting late and I did not want to be one some strane road so I went all they way back to Cotopaxi and took hwy 50 to Cannon City!
    Canon City well I might as well go up Skyline Drive and watch the sun go down!

    Skyline Drive

    Skyline Drive Canon City Colorado

    Skyline Drive
    THE MAP
    [map=AARTsJoQUUI5Xu3Ku4P49UUR_K0MmYCHSA]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=CO-115&daddr=Gold+Camp+Rd+to:Park+County+Rd+102+to:Unknown+road+to:Highway+2+to:W+1st+St%2FCO-291+to:38.368041,-105.696716+to:Waugh+Mountain+Rd+to:Skyline+Dr+to:Highway+123+to:CO-67%2FPhantom+Canyon+Rd+to:CO-115&hl=en&geocode=FWKITwIdpLDA-Q%3BFcgiTwIdZH---Q%3BFShKTwId1t61-Q%3BFWbvTQIdSl6z-Q%3BFfq-TQId1yCz-Q%3BFXULTAIdtKiu-Q%3B%3BFV90TAIdEniz-Q%3BFaS0SgIdpAW6-Q%3BFWXfSgIdi8G7-Q%3BFdTeSgIdVBm8-Q%3BFQ-DTwId6rDA-Q&mra=dpe&mrcr=4&mrsp=6&sz=11&via=4,6,9&sll=38.46488,-105.682983&sspn=0.310754,0.725098&ie=UTF8&ll=38.636182,-105.380859&spn=1.240048,2.900391&t=p&z=9[/map]
    Attached is the gps tracks and a google earth file of the path
  15. HispanicSlammer
    Veefalo and Pikes Peak South face of Pikes Peak
    Facebook can be a pain sometimes but for the most part it seems to bring people together, a guy I knew from work Dave C I friended on FB and I have been keeping tabs on whats going on with him in the last few months. He is working at a new job now and life for him has been a bit rough as of late, lots of drama, he just wants to start over somewhere else but he is stuck for the moment due to circumstances and sometimes the only respite is a motorcycle ride! Motorcycles can do that ya know, make everything better. I am talking about a 6 hour escape from your troubles and a fresh breath of Colorado Mountain air, and a few fun curves to boot. Anyway I asked Dave last week if he wanted to join in on a failed ride I was planning that never came to life. So yesterday he writes me back finally and says what are you doing today? Next thing I know I am meeting him at a gas station along the way to our destination. Its no big trek today just a popular loop among Colorado Springs and Pueblo riders the Bishops Castle run, we added in a second destination Victor-Cripple Creek too and made a big 230 mile loop out of it. Lots of stops and lunch at Texas Creek Diner.
    Dave meets me at the gas station and hes got on a mesh jacket and helmet but then hes got on shorts and tennis shoes? I am a bit uncomfortable with this and tell him that, knowing that if he tries to follow me at my speed in that getup he could end up rashed up pretty bad, but he assures me hes going his pace and well hes a full grown man and its his life not mine! So we ride!

    Bishops Castle Dave next to his bike
    Some road work has us riding up and over some weird bumps at weird angles on hwy 50 its a bit unnerving with the diamond cut grooves too but we make it to Florence and turn off along the route to Hard Scrabble. The weather is sunny and freaking hot! My Transit suit is a bit stuffy but a pull on the main zipper vents it enough to get comfy again. Familiar roads sometimes are a welcome site and I often forget how good the roads are just a few hours from my home. Dave and I talked about that at lunch. What would I give the roads in Colorado on a scale of one to ten? I came up with an 8 out of 10, cause well it is a bit of slab to get to the good stuff, and its a bit short good the good stuff, lots of traffic sometimes and the road conditions seem to be in a constant state of disrepair, bumpy front heaved passes mostly. Beauty is...well its Colorado its unprecedented how pretty it is in the mountains, but 8 out 10 is awesome. I have yet to find a 10 but 9.5 I have (tmac roads) some Oregon roads were great, some California roads, Ozarks all 8 or above. Idaho cant forget Idaho! Oh well I digress here.
    The ride to Bishops Castle is clear NO traffic at all! I was awesome and Dave rode his own pace so I wicked it up on the good stuff and waited for him on the straits. He rides a 650 vtwin Hysong. A budget bike for sure but not bad at all and hes got a two brothers pipe on it that sounds incredible. The bike is based on the sv650 by Suzuki and in fact Hysong contracted with Suzuki to make SV motors so the bike is an awful lot like the SV, not at lite as the sv but there are so many similarities its almost a carbon copy. The brakes are not as good the suspension is not as good but adequate. Upside down forks and the they are massive, heavy wheels though but Dave says that those who opted for lighter wheels found the suspension just could not compensate, in need of re-valving and springs I am sure if you go with lighter wheels.
    Hes taken good care of that bike and it looks just like it did when he first got it, with some new parts on it, color matched rk chain is a nice touch. Its sounds awesome too but the Veefalo just leaves it in the dust! Passing cars is a bit of a problem for Dave, so I just wait at turn offs or on the straits. He just doesn't have the get up and go I do! I pulled off after gassing up along hwy 69 cause there is a bend in the road there that is a great picture stop, matter of fact its been noticed by allot of motorcycle magazines too.

    Gibbs Peak Colorado 69 - this stretch of road has been featured in a more then a few motorcycle magazines

    CO 69
    We rolled on out of the Castle and headed for westcliff and then got some gas and then rolled down to Texas Creek for lunch, the place was packed with tourist. Dave was telling me a story about hwy 50 and tourist. Apparently a couple of tourist were playing you cant pass me on the opposite lane, and one tried to pass while the lead car sped up - just as he was coming the opposite way. He had to stop, literally stop his bike and jam it against the guard rail cause the passing car was head on both stopped in the highway 5 feet away - middle fingers flying he said! HEH wow! Too close for me!
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/bishop2011.mp4
    7 min video from the Castle to the McKenzie Junction
    Lunch was very good a smothered green burrito I utterly gobbled it up in a few minutes, nothing to eat all day long I was seriously hungry by the time we got to the Café. I love that little joint, they put out bird feeders and humming birds feed just a few feet from you behind the big glass window.
    I lead most of the way and took Dave the back way to see the south side of Pikes Peak, up over High Park road into Cripple Creek it was fun riding up the pass into Cripple Creek but he got stuck a few times behind cars, they move just fast enough to make it difficult to pass but not fast enough to care about staying put. Open road I always want open road! I waited at the overlook and watched him make his way past them finally and up the pass, Into Cripple Creek and over to Victor the road was full of traffic and a few Deer on the side of the road really slowed me down from there on.

    Pikes Peak Hwy 81 near Goldfield CO
    After this pic stop it gets back onto the main hwy to Divide from Cripple Creek, and as usual since Cripple creek is a gambling town there is allot of traffic, I was picking them off 2-3 at a time but Dave was content to stay where he was, I rather enjoyed a bit of open road on the twisty parts and got in some good turns before we had hit the slab on hwy 24. Its a slab fest all they way down to Colorado springs from there Ute pass was a bust too semi tractors and slow cars we just crawled down it - not to mention its patrolled by the state allot too. I waved to Dave goodbye and well a good 6 hours on the bike spent for my last day off of the week. It felt good to ride. Thank goodness for Facebook cause I would have just sat at home if I had not got that message. I don't much like riding alone anymore, well at least in Colorado.
    THE MAP

    Full Size
  16. HispanicSlammer
    The Apishapa Arch
    I spent Monday setting up my XR650 from long distance dual sporting, tearing off the vinyl seat and cutting the foam to make the seat top a bit wider, to better support my wieght. I cut up a sheepskin seat cover and used it for the seat cover. It came out ok, and very comfortable! I put a layer of soft foam around the seat that had a plastic laminate so it wouldnt absorb water.
    I have been wanting to head down to the Spanish Peaks to do the dirt roads down there, paticularly Codova Pass. It comes out in Aguilar Coloardo where my Mother Was Born and where my Grand Father was Buried. A Coal miner who suffered the fate most coal miners did of that era, black lung. I am 3 generation Coloradoan and I think my Great Great Grandmother was born in Aguilar too which would make me 4th generation but that is unconfimed. I passed through Ludlow where the infamous Ludlow Masscure happened, 1913. I did not stop but it peaked my interest and I did some research.
    My Grandfather emmigrated from Mexico during the Mexian Revolution to avoid being killed by Pancho Villa who was killing seminary students who where loyal to the government, so he crossed the Rio Grand and became a Coal Miner in Colorado. I dont know if he was involved with any of those where were killed at Ludlow but I know it was around the same time he met my Grandmother. I went and visited his grave outside town, he died when my Mother was 3 both my grandparents died before I was born. Last time I was in Aguilar it was rather run down. I was pleased to see that it had gone through some renovation and it seemed the town has grown some these last few years. There is a lot of oil and gas industry activity down south and people are moving there to retire - no small wonder its beautiful there!

    12-mile hwy 78 Greenhorn Mountain Near Buela Colorado
    I have been wanting to explore this dirt road from Wetmore to Buela for quite some time, I started to turn off on it and some dude in a pickup truck turned right infront of me. I followed for a mile and got tired of the slow pace and passed him on a clear section. It was bumpy as it winded its way up a mountain then surprise it was paved for 20 miles into Buela. I love that place, its so nice there. So peaceful and pristine and only 17 miles southeast of Pueblo.

    Greenhorn Mountain Aspens Changing

    Aspen Grove open view of the high plains

    12-mile hwy 78

    Ophir Creek Road
    I ran into an old couple who where changing a flat, I stopped to see if they needed assistance. the long haired old hippy man said he was fine but he warned me of a fire on the other side of the mountain said it was a controlled burn and not to worry. Nice guy and boy did he have a long beard!

    Gardener Road cr-634 a contoled burn by the forest service

    Presribed Burn

    Mount Blanca from Gardener Road

    Gardener Road From where I had just came it had been graded since my last visit

    Colors where incredible

    Gardener Road 10% grade in places

    Sangre De Christo Mountains across the wet mountain valley

    Lets See here names - left to right - Marble Mountain, Broken Hand, Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, Humbolt, Kit Carson

    Tiseras Peak, Tejeras Peak, Music Mountain

    Sangre De Christo Mountains across the wet moutain valley

    Williams Creek

    Gardener Road

    Blueberry Mountain

    Sheep Mountain and Little Sheep
    now for another dirt road to get to Lavita Pass head west to Malicite and over Pass Creek Pass

    Mount Blanca

    Hogbacks Co-572 going up Pass Creek Pass

    Pass Creek Pass

    Pass Creek Pass

    Spanish Peaks from Old Laveta Pas

    Spanish Peaks same spot zoomed

    Old Laveta Pass

    Highway Of Ledgends
    The pavement up to Cucharas was brand new and the colors where fantastic, I sometimes wish I have both bikes at the same time cause I could have railed those turns on that wonderful pavement on my vfr at 30 mph faster!

    Cuchras Lunch at the Dog Bar

    Cucharas Pass seen from the top of Cordova Pass

    Trinchera Peak

    Cordova Pass

    Adolesent Mule Deer they just stood and watched me

    his partner in crime

    Spanish Peaks from Cordova Pass

    Looking East from Cordova Pass

    More Hogbacks

    Trinidad Lies below from Cordova pass

    West Spanish Peak

    The Apishapa Arch west side

    The Apishapa Arch east side

    East Spanish Peak near Ludlow

    Purple Mountains Majesty

    Pikes Peak

    The Dark Road Home
    All in all it was 320 on a dirtbike! wow I was so tired when I got home I fell asleep as soon as I got out of my gear

    Full Size
    This map will probably be blank click on it and then refresh. I attached my gps tracks and the path in google earth
  17. HispanicSlammer
    Radar with his brand new VTEC Sun Honda in Thornton Colorado
    Radar flew into Denver Monday Morning to pick up a Brand new wine colored VTEC he bought from Sun Honda in the Denver Area, he said coming here and buying his new bike saved him 3 Grand Canadian Dollars. He did the math and it was cheaper, much cheaper to guy in the USA. I PM'ed him and told him that I would make the trip up there to Denver to meet up with him and ride a bit the rest of the day. I rolled into the Dealership about 11am and Darren was already done with the paperwork and almost ready to go, they installed a ram mount for him, and they installed the rack for his pack on the back, added a powerlet for his Zumo, put in a brand new Sargent Seat and he was ready to go. I went to high school only a mile down the road so I knew exactly where the place was, back then Sun was just a little place now its huge and operating out of 3 buildings. The only thing I could think of that was wrong was they left on those god awful Metzler M4 tires. The worse OEM tire ever inflicted on a VFR. So we talked a bit and Radar hands me this tube - "here ya go". Thinking it was something related to the Summit meet coming up in the next few months I just took a wild guess and said "The Flaf"? No dummy - he gave me a set of his famous sliders for my bike. Well wow thats a surprise for sure and a I wasn't expecting that! Thanks man - thanks very much!
    Radar says "I hope you have some lunch in mind soon cause I have been up since 4:30 am and I have not eaten yet" I tell him maybe a half an hour up to the Wondervu Café! Then off we went, Zig Zagging the main roads in Arvada till we finally we came up on Coal Creek Canyon and without missing a beat it starts raining, just as soon as the canyon walls closed in and the road started to curve and a cold rain at that. I figure well - New Bike, Crappy tires, we should probably take it easy. So I do that and hes all over me like Olivier Jacque riding his brand new bike in the rain. Hes on my 6 all the up the mountain on the way to Wondervu and then we find out that the Diner is closed on Mondays! OK well then lets Try Nederland, so off we went winding down the hairpin turns at a snails pace cause I hate going down that mountain - always wet or there is gravel in all the turns, but alas I was just a bit too cautious for the conditions cause Radar was all over me again. Then we crossed the railroad tracks at Pinecliff and the road eases up a bit and its much faster here. So I roll it on some. The place I had in mind for lunch in Nederland was also closed, WTF!! It wasn't even a restaurant anymore, it was some kind of art galley now? OH hell - Radar by now is getting desperate and was eyeing the leather on his gloves a bit too much. So we just rode into the town square and hoped something was there. It was - a nice bar and grill at the end of the strip. A pretty European girl came out and waited on us, and we were finally fed for the day. We got out and were putting on our gear when a couple of neo-hippies were talking to everybody, a man and a woman who seemed a bit tore. She was telling jokes. "Why don't blind men jump out of airplanes"? - "cause it scares the shit out of the dog" and "Why was the strawberry crying?" - "Cause its mom was in a jam". The guy being a guy was asking all kinds of questions about the bike, and lots of them, till finally the roar of the V4 mysteriously drowned him out and off we went. Bye bye Hippy dude! Nederland - should be called Nutterland in all honesty!
    At the Grill Radar says "you know you can speed it up a bit". OK well then than more speed it is Captain! So we rolled on out of Nederland down the Peak to Peak hwy and into some tasty sweepers where I am more at home and soon we were leaning it over much more than we were in Coal Creek Canyon - ever mindful of the police I slowed down in the straits. Then the road came to a stop and I pulled off and asked Radar "this way is scenic, that way is twisty, what do you want to do"? He says "twisty" and down the hill we went into The Stain Vrain Canyon - the scene of one of my videos, this time not screaming down it so hard as that but still at a good clip. The pace was allot more challenging now, but not so bad that it was out of hand.

    Gassing up and waiting out a rain storm Lyons Colorado
    From here we headed into the farm country on the way to Stove Prairie road - I took him up to Carter Lake along the foothills and we stayed out of the metro area east of there, then looking north I could tell the place was getting pounded with rain. We made the turn off to Masonville where the road begins and sure enough the road was all wet again, and so it was back to riding like Olivier Jacque in a rain race. Then we encountered a small car in the tight stuff, I signaled to Radar to let the car go on ahead for a bit, but he mistook it for "take the lead" and whoops all of a sudden I was following him now. He was riding it pretty well, the car had found a spot to pull out and let us pass. Stove Prairie is a fun road but a bit contentious with all the wet spots and leaves that had been washed down from the trees and onto the road. Gravel washed onto the corners some and of course those darned cattle grates - in the turns! It was still enjoyable and soon we were at the Rist Canyon turnoff

    Stove Prairie Road

    Rist Canyon Taking a water break - just off Stove Prairie Road

    Top of Rist Canyon

    Radar all decked out for winter let nary a drop of H2O land on this man without being ready for the worse
    I lead the way down Rist Canyon and it was worse than Stove Prairie, that at least was somewhat dry but Rist was all wet and it had mulch all over the place from a recent mowing. Damn so much for Rist Canyon. Then we were in Fort Collins on the outskirts where some crazy old biker on a ratted out 60's era Harley Sportster with missing spokes and a rusted up Shovel head came rolling up behind us. We stopped at a light and he yells out "I am from New York"! I take a look and hes wearing cut off jeans, and flip flops and hes got a beard like Moses himself, wearing these funny goggles he looked ridiculous but he rode that rat bike out here all the way from New York? OK then it seemed like it was ready to fall apart as soon as he used the brake once more. Then he saw his opening and blasted past the both of us. I could just imagine what it was he was saying as he blew on by ....."those pussies"!
    So its 5pm and Radar pulls into the La Quinta, and I am thinking well the sun is going down and I hate riding into Denver in the dark so I thought we should just split a room - get some dinner and then head out in the morning. Radar says sure why not, he gets a room and its all the freaking way on the very back of the hotel - like a mile down the corridor, well its nice so we forgive the hike. We drop off the stuff and head to a steak house down the road, the hostess takes one look at us and then all over again we are trekking past the bar, past the this section, past that section, all the way to the back of the house again? What gives with Fort Collins? - she must of thought "oh no not bikers - I will just stick them in the back"! Either that or the New York guy stopped in and said "if you see two pussies riding red rice burners stick em in da back"!
    OK so I ordered a steak cause Radar was paying - heh sorry man - I got lunch and well he got the sort stick on this one! So he hands me a set of sliders, says mail this for me please. DA OK will do.
    Darren and I stay out in the sun after dinner and watch the sun go down then head in for some sack time, he knowingly hands me a set of earplugs cause apparently he knows I am going to need them? YUP he snores, YUP and I work nights so guess how my night went! I was wide awake till 3am when I finally fell asleep, to wake up at 7am with Radar already eaten - showered, shaved and packed up ready to go! I slept through all that? Well it was good seeing you and have a good ride into South Dakota! Enjoy yourself and be safe. Just like that he was gone, I take a shower and start organizing my stuff when he knocks on the door, forgot his jacket! YES you might need that. I am surprised he didn't have a spare packed away cause he was packed for a nuclear winter it looked like to me, food, gear, thing's! Well dude see ya - again.
    Then it was my turn to head out and I made my way to Loveland on some back roads, boy northern Colorado just sort of melds together, Fort Collins, Loveland, Berthod, Longmont it all melds in together. I decided to do the scenic stuff we missed out on yesterday. So I rolled up the Big Thompson, never been on that road and it was fun, lots of good turns and an interesting canyon, little villages all along the way to Estes Park - but boy does Estes Park top everything!

    Estes Park This place just blows me away every time

    Estes Park from further out and zoomed in

    A Stanley Steamer At the Stanley Hotel

    Stanley Hotel Estes Park redrum redrum
    I thought for a moment to head into Rocky Mountain National park but the slow drivers were already getting on my nerves in the Big Thompson, lucky they have lots of passing zones on that road I would have gotten a bit irritated - 20 mph irritated! So I just rolled south on the Peak to Peak hwy all the way to Central City

    The Chapel on the Rock Mt Meeker

    Work Horses Impressive animals

    Peaceful Valley Sawtooth Mountain off the Peak To Peak Hwy
    I wont describe my lunch at the McDonald's cause its indescribable how awful that place was, never seen a McDonald's that filthy before! Too bad I had already paid! Then after eating I played who can corner faster( a motorcycle or a bicycle) going down Kerr Gulch road in the hairpin turns with 2 riders on the way down, guess who was faster! YUP (yea it was me - don't even). Then up the hill at Kittridge over Parmalee Gulch road where I got stuck behind a dump truck, no way I could pass with a car coming every 5 seconds I just endured it. Then I saw a post office in Indian Hills and remembered Radars Package he wanted mailed, pulled out from behind the dump truck and pulled the package out of my tail bag. I talked with the postman for about a half an hour about motorcycles. 75 miles a day he puts on his Harley riding to and from work. 210 miles per tank 40 mpg - about what I get almost, a bit less. However I am sure it would take me much less time! He looked like a biker too, tattoos mostly military tats but he was at least agreeable for a biker, and even talked to a rice cake like me. Then I headed down Deer Creek road and again played with the bicyclist in the tight stuff. One guy was holding me off for about 3 turns - just because it did not seem safe to pass with the guard rail so close and he was sort of protecting the lane. I waited till there was a strait short just long enough to pass. By the look of it I got the impression he was trying to take me on in those turns pedaling his ass off? HEH OK as soon as I got by .....gone, just gone, gone gone gone.

    Full Size
    Day 1

    Full Size
    Day 2
  18. HispanicSlammer
    Motorcycles in Monument Valley w/ Two New Videos
    As many of you may know my one epic trip this season was to be a two week trip to California to go see the MotoGP at Laguna Seca. Tt was originally supposed to be a trio of us, Me, Dan, and Craig. Well NO, we were all set to go, bikes packed, ready to flip the starter and then Craig's bike wont budge - bad stator. A years worth of planning down the drain. So we did this make up ride to Utah instead - to go and see Zion National Park, and visit Southern Utah along the way.
    It started out great, although a bit windy, and a bit cool. We both work at the same Fab (semiconductors) where we work nights on the same shift. He helped get me a job there. So we stayed up all day after working (lots of Red Bull) and took off 9:30am after a short 2 hour nap.
    THE ROUTE

    Colorado Map

    Utah Map
    Google Map of the Route to Zion
    Google Map of the Route Home
    THE VIDEOS

    You Tube low res of Zion
    :media: High Resolution Video - wmv format - Zion National Park

    You Tube low res of Escalante Grand Staircase
    :media: High Resolution Video - mvw format - Escalante Grand Staircase
    We rolled over Monarch Pass where the clouds had gathered and froze our butts off at the top, there the temp gage read 30f!! Colorado can be a Biznach in October! I was hauling ass up Monarch Pass until about the point where the cold hit then the snow started falling and so I just put the vfr in safe mode after that.

    Monarch Pass Whoa it was cold up in here
    Then on the way down the clouds broke, the sky let out the sun, and we were in relative warmth after that - if 60f is warm. Well anyway it seemed a whole lot warmer, time for a cup of soup and a sandwich at the Firebrand deli in Gunnison. The Firebrand is a local favorite, a homey little deli if not a bit on the mountain muffin side of the table, yea its sort of a modern hippy hangout but the sandwiches are great. You cant get a better Ruben sandwitch anywhere else on the western slope.
    Stopping in Gunnison means only one thing, fuel and food for the "Black Canyon"! One must never miss the opportunity to ride Colorado Highway 92 west of Gunnison, its simply the best road in Colorado for the sights and peg scraping action. It can be intimidating to the occasional flat lander but its not as tight as Deals Gap, average speed is 70mph if your any good. We railed it to the end and then slowed down for a nice picture taking tour the second pass

    End of the trail Turn around and do it again

    Black Canyon North End of Hwy 92

    The Bushes were turning A black bear popped his head out but he was too fast for the camera

    The San Juan Range in the background Colorado hwy 92

    The Road follows the mesa

    Enjoying the road

    Pines and Aspens mixed together on the hillside

    Aspens in fall color Aspens exist naturally in a narrow band of mountain elevation roughly (7-10k') the Black Canyon hwy 92 runs right through it

    The valley below
    After we made our obligatory pass of the Black Canyon we were back on to hwy 50 which in itself is a great road over to Montrose. There we tried to gas up but some yahoo in a big freaking truck smacked into Craig's bike as he was gassing it up. To me it looked like the guy actually swerved to tag him? Craig yells out and made the guy stop, HE WAS pissed - boy he was pissed! Then the dude says " I don't see nothing wrong" and took off in his over sized diesel truck. I couldn't see any damage either but he looked like he did it intentionally! We had some time to make up and 200 miles yet to go so we decided not to get the cops and just get going. He stewed over that for days after though! The bike seemed fine.
    It wasn't long before the San Juan mountains took our minds off that incident, Dallas Divide was up next

    Dallas Divide Mount Sneffels covered in snow

    Dallas Divide Looking southeast the million dollar highway getting pounded with high wind and snow
    The sun was winding down as we approached the Utah border and then as soon as we crossed the temperature dropped back down to 30 degrees! thankfully we only had to endure it for 40 minutes as were were closing in on Blanding where we made reservations, ordered a pizza and some "Gammys" (read the other blog entries for that one) and I crashed out, I was up for 27 hours strait and I didn't even make it to the second "Gammy" before I passed out.
    The next day we were off to the Bicentennial Highway across Utah

    Bicentennial Highway Utah

    Fry Canyon

    Fry Canyon

    Glen Canyon Bridge

    Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

    Bicentennial Highway Utah The Colorado River to the right, you can see the bridge off in the distance
    We took a lot of pictures on this trip, many more than I actually posted. One of us would stop and snap a pic and the other would go on ahead and mosey around real slow till the other caught up. That is until I decided to take that last picture above. Craig pulled off on a side road and I did not see him go off and so I sped up to catch him, thinking he had gone ahead. I remembered the last time we did this section of road a year ago Dan was with us then and we were pretty much hauling butt through there. So naturally I came to the conclusion Craig must have busted the top off a can of whoop ass and took off. So I upped the throttle to 90 something something, getting my knee awfully close to the pavement (no pucks) and going awfully fast in those ever so sweet sweepers in the Canyonlands - then pegging it hard in the straits. Nope no Craig in sight I topped it out all they way to Hanksville in 30 minutes or so give or take +- an hour (for reference only) heh I don't recall - and I plead the 5th! I did not see him at either of the gas stations and reasoned with my sharp mental skills (duh George dah maybe he is da behind me an I duh missed him) so I waited a good 40 minutes at the gas station for him as he cruised in doing the speed limit. Yep he stopped at a pull off out of sight and I whizzed on by at full speed.
    So we might as well grab a burger at the diner in the gas station, where they serve this overloaded shake that is so full it is stacked up 3 inches over the top of the cup. The guy at the counter was a bit slow in the head and I worried he might charge my debit card 80 bucks or something instead of the 8 bucks it actually cost, apparently they have pretty pictures he can touch on the screen that look like the food you order so he doesn't have to do math! Jebus that guy was a dolt! Nice though! Food was good though. There was a couple of families traveling together in a caravan - we chatted with them a bit - they were motorcyclist, a mom and son who both have bikes - they seemed interested in my throttle mister, she said she has a Road Star and the young man said he owned a Ninja 600 an older model.
    Off we went to Capital Reef, no pictures just more fun sweepers to rail. Its awfully pretty, if you would like check out the VFRD video section, its got a great video of Capital reef at sunset the fabled ride we did last year. The we turned south at Torry and did Hwy 12 up and over the pass to Escalate

    Capital Reef

    Escalate Grand Staircase hwy 12

    Escalate Grand Staircase
    We skipped Bryce and decided to skip Zion that day and put it off till the next day, instead we explored this squiggly line on the map called hwy 14 to Cedar City, it was late evening and the sun was low in the sky. And the Deer were out and about, it wasn't 3 turns into the road before we saw a deer skate right out in front of us, then I passed Craig and another darted right in front of me (hard on the brakes I missed the damn thing by 5 feet) and on the way down a whole gang of them darted across the road - this damn road was downright life threating!! I was getting paranoid! So I pulled off for a moment to gather myself and take some pictures from the scenic overlook.

    Zion National Park seen from above UT hwy 14

    Zion National Park hwy 14
    We stayed in Hurricane, where the food is adequate but nothing to write about, they like to seat you in booths that are already occupied, imagine my surprise at the JB restaurant when two women returned from the salad bar only to find two men occupying their booth! It was awkward to say the least, I cracked a joke and we found a nearby table. Nothing a few "Gammys" cant cure! (no I am not gonna tell ya what a Gammy is you have to read my last big blog entry)
    The next morning it was overcast but 70 degrees out, and we half ass-ed sort of came to the conclusion to go to Zion, I guess. I passed out the night before and we never really figured it out, I just sort of assumed we were gonna do the park, it wasn't in the day plan, we were supposed to have done it the day before but did that damn video game road (don't-hit-the-deer on Nintendo 64) Jebus that was nerve racking! Stay the hell away from UT hwy 14 at twilight or you will be sorry! Any-who I just steered it over to Zion, and Craig says "um I thought we were skipping it? Aw F it lets do it anyway!" We decided to do the whole shebang, pop for the $12 bucks to get in and go for a ride on the bus too! At this point my Garmin Quest decided it wasn't gonna work anymore so I just sort of was pissed as it was, hells yea we are doing the damn park! We came all this way! And my F'n Gps is Jacked! OK I wasn't really pissed, I was riding my vfr after all - how could you possibly get pissy on a vfr? Somehow we ended up in the park for 3 hours!

    Hurricane Utah Gateway to Zion

    The Road to Zion

    The Road to Zion

    Native Flower

    Zion National Park

    Zion Canyon Scenic Drive Accessible only by park bus

    Court of the Patriarchs

    Turn at Big Bend

    Big Bend

    Great White Throne

    Great White Throne

    The Grotto I think?

    Towers of the Virgin US flag flies above the Human History Museum

    The Watchman the view from our table at the deli next to the park

    Zion-Mount Carmel Highway

    Climbing switchbacks to the Tunnel you can see the tunnel windows in the rock

    Zion East Entrance it started to rain
    So now we were already at noon and we only went 40 miles! Heh time for slab! All the way across Utah too and into Arizona for a dash as well. We stopped in Page for gas and a pee, and there I fell in love with a beautiful Indian Navajo girl washing her truck, she must have washed the bumper on that thing for at least 30 minutes. Scrubbing the same spot, over and over again with a loving swirling action. I however did not mind at all (schwing) I wished I was that bumper "for just one moment, I could be you" (don't mind the Dylan reference) OMG I love beautiful Indian women! Most however are not so beautiful and look upon me with an distrustful eye, "9 fifty" she utters, for my gas and Red Bull. That is the extent of conversation you get from the typical female Navajo working the counter at the gas stations in the Nation. Absolutely no eye contact or an acknowledgment you actually exist. I guess they don't like being gawked at "All I want is a PEPSI" heh another reference you will have to figure out yourself. I stated thinking about my first girlfriend, she was Ute Indian though, good times, I still get weak in the knees over her, ahhh dreamland.
    NINE FIFTY!!!
    Craig snaps his fingers, "snap out of it we gotta go"! and so we rolled on out of there - me still in dreamland somehow we made all the right turns. We were roughing it without my damn GPS working. God knows GPS makes riding so much easier! Now we actually had to follow road signs what a pain in the ass that is!

    Glen Canyon Damn Page Arizona - Lake Powell

    Colorado River @ Lake Powell
    We had been chasing the tail end of a storm all day long, not getting rained on but riding on a wet road and getting misted by every vehicle that passed by in the opposite lane, the 18 wheelers - they just plastered you with dirty muddy mist and totally fubbed up your visor for a few miles till you get enough mist from the other cars to actually wash it off. We were approaching Monument Valley right as the sun was at its best and there was a mystical fog rolling along the hillside, and it was frickin cold again! I will say this, It was the highlight of the entire trip!!

    Heading into Monument Valley Navajo Nation UT hwy 163

    Monument Valley

    Mitchell Butte bathed in sunlight after a storm

    Eagle Mesa

    Monument Valley

    Motorcycles in Monument Valley

    Rainbow between Castle Butte and Big Indian Butte

    Eagle Mesa at 65mph

    Speed Effect

    Setting Hen Speed effect

    Setting Hen

    Eagle Mesa shrouded in fog

    Backside of Mitchell Mesa

    Monument Valley Stagecoach - the King on his Throne - Brigham's Tomb

    Rolling into Mexican Hat Utah
    Mexican Hat is wonderful place, just on the boarder of the Navajo nation in UTAH its separated by the San Juan river and is seated in some of the most stunning scenery imaginable, we stopped at the Mexican Hat lodge, a dodgy rusty place where you can get a streak and a beer and find a nice comfy bed and watch old Gene Autry movies all night long on the boob tube.

    Mexican Hat Lodge next best thing to roughing it

    Mexican Hat Lodge home of the swinging steak - as seen on the food channel
    Its the closest thing to roughing it Craig likes to get, there is no bar soap only a Gogo liquid soap dispenser in the shower that he utterly destroyed trying to get a squirt of soap out of, its kind of funny but he said, its is his second favorite place to stay ever. He said it was like camping out or something cowboy style but with a comfy bed to sleep in. We did however miss the swinging steak, the reason I wanted to go, that cold freaking storm we rode through shut it down for the evening, no steak awwww. So we headed over to the diner by the river and had a wonderful meal there. The place was packed with a bus load of French Canadians and sweet young couples on their first cross country trip together. You could write a book about it, a slice of Americana right there in one big room. Our waitress was the most friendly Navajo woman on the planet but a little over worked, two rooms of frenchys and a couple of dodgy bike punks she must have thought we were dragged through hell the way we looked. Nice pretty faces in the big picture window booths, it looked like a French post card this old café from outside as I waited for Craig on my bike. Southwest style at its best.
    THE LEG HOME

    Mexican Hat Rock

    Valley of the Gods

    The prettiest slab you can imagine

    Valley of the Gods in the early morning

    Cedar Mesa off in the distance UT hwy 163

    Hwy 162 follows the San Juan river in the Navajo Nation

    Finally In Colorado Somewhere on hwy 160 where it intersects with the old hwy 666
    More slab across the reservation to Colorado, and into Durango for lunch, I stopped at my favorite place in Durango, Old Tymers bar for the best burger in the four corners - yes its good enough to write home about. I needed to charge up my ipod since I forgot to at the Lodge so I snaked an open power plug and charged it up while we ate lunch, the ditsy waitress she didn't care. We wanted to go ahead and ride the Million Dollar Highway CO 550 on the way out.

    Hwy 550 Colorado possibly the prettiest road in the US - also known at the Million Dollar Highway from Durango to Ouray

    Engineer Mountain Durango mountain resort

    This image might look familiar I took the logo pic here 4 years ago - this is Molas pass and Craig's VTEC

    My turn my 5th gen on Molas Pass

    The big switchback at Chattanooga La Junta Peak looms overhead

    Approaching the most technical section the Million Dollar Highway

    Craig rides behind me

    The Million Dollar Highway

    Million Dollar Highway Red Mountain

    Ouray at the end of the Million Dollar Highway

    A Strange Pet A young buck sunning himself in downtown Ouray

    Top of Monarch Pass The leg home

    Baldy Peak at Sunset hwy 50 east of Salida
    I hope you enjoyed reading the story and looking at the vids and pictures - as always
    Slammer!
  19. HispanicSlammer
    I got a pm from Reddog congratulating me about the new bike, and then it turned into a question of just when the hell would be out riding again. Usually Bill and I go out for a day long fathers day ride to the Black Canyon, my favorite road of all time. We usually drag a couple of noobs with us - noobs to the road not to motorcycling so they can see how fantastic it is. At the end you find a new rider - tires freshly scrubbed edge to edge and hand shaking from the all out adrenaline of riding along a 1000 foot deep canyon, jaw dropping scenery, and turns so sweet you can only imagine - (southern boys its allot like the Cherehola, shorter, but the scenery is better). So I invited Sfarson who I knew had ridden it before. He wanted to bring along his regular riding buddy Chorner - I have ridden with him too a few years ago on a couple of rides. I was saying yea bring Chris along, so the conversation shifted from the Black Canyon to the Creede Run, another ride I do annually/semi-annually/hardly at all! So I was like yea sure lets do that instead. So a week goes by - I invite a few more guys, Chris his father gets sick all of a sudden and is not sure he can get away for a 10 hour ride so we switch it up again to a Squaw Pass ride. Final count 8 guys invited but only 3 of us go!
    So I meet up with Reddog in Woodland Park and he is flabbergasted that the bike is not 12 foot tall and a football field long, its actually smaller looking than his VTEC! We eat breakfast and catch up on news a bit. Then off we go to meet Sfarson in Pine Junction at 10am.

    Meet-up in Woodland Park Reddog waiting for me
    Reddog says he hasn't been on a group ride since the Kansas meet, so hes rusty and has only been doing solo rides and 2-up with is lovely wife Analise. The day before in fact he was out riding and Gambling in Central City with her 2 up he said. So hes had more saddle time in the twisties than I on the Veefalo. So he taking it easy on me in the twisties near Deckers and going easy in the tighter ones just north of there, all the way to Horsepower Hill. Thats where I let loose, Bill he just lets me go cause it seems the Veefalo she like these fast sweepers. I am soon going 100+ up the 3 laner - deep sweeping fast turns - 2 lanes you can take up and then fast sweepers at the top, and on down the other side of the mountain. Into the bowl and all out on the long strait of the next mountain. I waited for Reddog on the strait. I was going as fast if not faster on HP hill then ever before and it seemed like I was holding back. Veef she was liking it allot, I mean allot!
    Shes a sweeper hound, not so much the tight stuff - she holds her own but the sweepers are her playground. Then down into Buffalo Creek and Pine, I took off a bit on the tighter turns going up the climb from Pine to Pine junction, a couple thousand foot ascent up the mountain there. I had to pass allot of cars doing it cause they are building new houses in a new development, so much more traffic up it than before. I was thinking more tinder for the tinderbox that is Pine! That place goes up every other summer! Maybe they should have put that in the Brochure! Its a fire place guys get fire insurance!
    I pull into the grocer at Pine Junction at hwy 285 and there is sitting a Mint absolutely mint red 5th gen with 16k on the Odo and sitting in a plastic chair in the shade is 6 foot 2 Steve Farson waiting for us. I mean I haven't seen a 5th gen that nice since I painted the old girl! It was nice, and he looked huge sitting on that thing. Steve says "yes I don't need to go out and buy an exotic 20k Italian bike to get thrills - for 4k I bought this thing and I reach for the keys of the vfr as much if not more than my more expensive bikes. It sounds great handles great and its just a great find" Then he says "When I am riding it I become ONE WITH THE BIKE" . I thought I should relay that story cause every time I met Sfarson for a ride he would be on a brand new exotic Duc, or BMW, or Supermoto, or some such other new fangled bike. Then he would say to me "still riding that vfr eh? how many miles now"? Now he knows first hand why!

    The crossroads at Squaw Pass Road cross roads co 145 and squaw pass road
    Steve Takes the lead and heads strait for North Turkey Creek - a tight little road that heads toward Denver, its gotten a but busy in the last few years so you end up picking your nose as the cages strangle up the twisty parts, so we are hoping the turn onto high drive will be better? We see the turn hit the signal and the cage in front of us goes strait but then a sedan and UPS truck pull right just as we start to make the turn - DAMN IT! 3 turns later we are past them and off onto some nice high mountain access roads, 180 degree switchbacks, tight uphill turns, undulating road and driveways everywhere so we take it easy on there, then down the mountain to Little Cub Creek road to Evergreen. It was an easy pace but fun - the turns are marked 10 and 15mph we were doubling and tripling that but still not insane at all. Fun it was fun.
    Then the high traffic again into Evergreen and over to Squaw Pass, there are about 4 cars in front of us on Squaw pass - all locals who are turning off soon except one idiot in an SUV who took the most lazy pass around a slower cager I had ever seen. He took like what seemed 5 minutes to pass this guy - plenty of room and space to do it. But no he takes his lazy sweet time till another car was coming head on - still not moving over till he is about to get hit - he finally jerks the wheel over hard and back into the lane! Idiot, I am glad Steve decided not to follow him passing the cage. As soon as we could we got around that jerk! It would not be the first time on this ride we encountered idiots.
    The Squaw pass was bumpy as usual, some of you might know it from the Summer Summit it was the Mount Evans loop. This winter did a number on it again and even buckled up the newly paved section from last summer. If ever a road was in need of a complete repave this one is it! Even chip seal would be an improvement!

    Reddog Parry Peak and James Peak loom in the background 16 miles away

    Three Generations Sfarsons 5th gen - the Veefalo - Reddogs Vtec
    We stopped for a break at the cross roads of some dirt road and had a nice view of Parry Peak from there, then tried to set up our cameras later for some video, I messed it all up, the input cable fell out cause I did not use the Pelican box I had it in for so long, then I had the dash cam aiming at the dash and thats it, all you could see was the tops of trees as I rode so there is no video! I did get some good pictures, here are some from Juniper Pass.

    Veefalo

    Juniper Pass on Squaw Pass Road

    Zoomed in a bit Parry Peak again Saint Marys Glacier in there somewhere
    The way down from Squaw pass was fantastic, still bumpy but fun, the turns at the bottom are sweet! I am still not carrying the same corner speeds I did with the old girl but I will be soon enough I was glad to just be smoother on the throttle this time out. I have to get on the gas sooner it seems to make up for the shaft drive lash or whatever its not as instant as the chain on the old girl. But the power is more linear than the 5th gen. Then we headed up to Loveland pass. The guys started to push that pass harder then we had all day, going much faster we encountered 3 vehicles right before the first good turn. Sfarson and Reddog got around 2 than I did and we hit the turn and right way they got past the last car, who for some reason speeded up to hold me off for the next 3 turns. I could see them going up the pass faster and faster getting farther and farther away till finally she pulled over and let me go. By this time I could see Steve just flying up the pass a good half mile ahead. You can see the whole pass in places as it climbs up and he was way way up ahead of me, Bill not far behind but Steve was gone just gone. ONE WITH THE BIKE he says! Yea the back tire was edge to edge to say the least.
    Me I was just glad to be there!

    Loveland Pass

    Loveland Pass Colors were fantastic

    Me and the Veefalo Sfarson grabbed my camera and took a shot
    I took the lead on the way down and was going slow, but smooth I was really proud of how smooth I was riding, it was so nice. I got behind a bicyclist woman who was anything but smooth heading from the top down to Keystone, she was using up the whole lane and I was running out of passing lane before the switchback but I got around her as did the others. She made me nervous I did not want to side swipe her - she was that erratic! shifting around on her seat jerking the handle bars around turns braking mid turn? bah! We had gassed up before Loveland pass in Georgetown since I am not so sure about the tank range on this thing just yet, 3 bars left I thought I better not risk it. If ever there was a Colorado tour guide motorcyclist (besides me) Sfarson is it, he has a story for everything. Love his stories, he even had a story about the gas station in Georgetown, about how some truck came down the pass on I-70 came down the offramp and crossed the road and hit the side of the gas station there - and nobody got hurt!~
    So we intended to grab some Tacos in Breckenridge but the place was closed so instead we ate a some Yuppy steakhouse bar called the Kenosha, stole all the names of the local mountains and passes for the menu items - stupid touristy stuff and the food was outrageously priced just like everything in Breckenridge is. Pricey and not so good - but the company was great and the stories were great so it was a win! Then we hit Hoosier pass which has become a darned favorite of the in and out crowd, its busy with traffic all the time now, nice turns too ruined by way too much traffic. We did not even try to get around them there was so many, it would have been an exorcise in futility.
    Steve Peeled off at Fairlplay and Bill and I continued on to Hartsel, I tried to signal to Bill to see if he wanted to switch bikes - he thought I meant I needed gas cause he turned around and started headed back to Fairplay. I guess my switch hand signal looked more like "I need gas"? So I rode the vtech for 10 miles and he rode the veefalo. I noticed that the riding position was almost exactly the same coming off the veef, but the throttle response was NOT! I guess you get used to power rather quickly. VTEC is always nice and I love the exhaust note, since veef has none with that stock slip-on. very little actually even wide open!
    At Woodland Park I stopped at the gas station and got a drink and some candy and sat in the shade a bit counted the almost endless procession of cars from Woodland park down Ute pass on the way to Colorado Springs. Its crazy how busy that hwy 24 was, matter of fact all the roads all day long were like that. Hwy 285, hwy 24, Hoosier Pass, Evergreen. These near mountain communities are getting overpopulated! The traffic is ridiculous! Thats why I prefer to ride south and on the western slope now, not nearly the traffic!
    So I got back on the bike and headed down Ute pass, I went around some really slow moving cars doing 10 under and look in the mirrors to find some POS Pontiac sunbird or some such small car ALL OVER MY ASS. He would pass as I passed but only instead of smoothly passing he would jerk the wheel and get like 5 feet behind me. So I showed it what 172 hp could do and took off at the first chance I found daylight and then he was 1/4 mile behind me the rest of the way back. Till I got to the twisty part where the traffic bunched up again, and then he was on my ASS again, so I weaved out of his way and tried to let him pass but the asshole would not pass me. So I slowed way down and then he took the bait and took off like a bat out of hell, jerking that car in and out of traffic threading haphazardly in and out and between cars in the turns. I was behind him a good hundred feet following in the wake of that jackass. Till I decided I was coming close to the normal check-spots the State Patrol stop at and slowed down - Sure enough I let him go and turned the next corner to see him get lit up and pulled over by the state patrol! HA HA dumb-ass! He was driving like a complete jerk too! He took the twisty part of the pass tailgating folks 5-3 feet behind till he could jerk his car around them, I was actually afraid for a couple of Harley guys cause it looked like he was going to try to jerk that car around them at inches too. They had on NO GEAR at all! Thats when I ducked in behind them and waited it out - Pontiac was gone in the 2 last turns and I followed the Harley Boys into Manitou Springs they were going rather fast for HD's! Thats when we passed that Pontiac pulled over by the State. The HD boys flipped him off as we went by too! Funny as hell! I would have too but Karma is a bitch!
    google Map
  20. HispanicSlammer

    The Gila Monster

    By HispanicSlammer,

    The Gila Monster
    NEW VIDEO
    Let me explain, this whole trip had one mission, one thing in mind, one specific road to ride, one reason to go "The Gila Monster". It was two days ride to get there, two days back. Why would anybody want to slab a day to go ride a road in the remote Gila National Forest in New Mexico? Well cause its a great fricken road thats why! Helo... heh I think so much about it I gave it a name "The Gila Monster" so lets cut to the chase ... see for yourself.

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/1236161313_gilamonster.wmv.flv
    This video is 5 minutes of unadulterated road riding, no cars, continuous and un edited. I did add music since the wind noise was annoying but its basically me chasing Motoman for 5 minutes till we got stuck behind a line of cars where it ends. The road by no means ends here rather it continues on for another 20 miles but it is safe to say it is the best part.

    Full Size
    The Ride Report
    DAY ONE
    Colorado Springs to Santa Fe New Mexico

    Lunch in Cuchara
    We mostly slabbed it on I25 south but I just cant take that much slab so I asked Craig to turn off at Walsenburg so we could go ride Cucharas pass. There was a great litle bar there that serves lunch I thought of stopping at. Craig loved it, and the road too. He had not been on the vfr in two months since it was broken down - see my laguna seca writeup. Anyhow he was rusty and not so comfortable with the bike at all but if there are fast sweepers hes on it! Once I got up the pass and onto the high speed sweepers he was passing me to take them in stride. Its funny hes always been like that, if he knows the road that is. I stayed with him and we were taching the bikes out at 20k just like Joey D in the Isle Of Man (well maybe not). I was amped up on a Dickens Cider energy drink ( ya get it ;) ) so I was keen on keeping up. I seem to have the advantage on the tight stuff since well he was still rusty.

    Trucas New Mexico
    Once in New Mexico we headed into the mountains and up Cimmaron Canyon, It was full of tar snakes and lots of campers out for the weekend so it was 6/10ths at best, but fun none the less. It was overcast and I knew it was going to rain on us. I headed down to Mora on the wierd and unique road hwy 38 - it is like a driveway that goes on for 30 miles. Two pickup trucks with some rough looking Mexicans were trying to hold us off, I was worried about passing - but I did anyway and after I did Craig got by too. They certainly were not about to pull off and let us by - and they were going faster then they would have been had they not seen us behind them. Idiots! I think passing them even after they tried thier darnedest to outrun us was funny, at least they were not blocking the other lane too - what little of it there was.
    Then came Mora where I saw a goddes driving her Pontic Sunbird (who would have thunk it) - her lip gloss was glistening in the sun and I was instantly in love. I decided not to pass her for 5 miles even though she was going 15 mph. What can I say I couldnt help myself. Then once I saw some twisty road heading up the pass I snapped out of it and started riding harder up the wet roads into the high country. It was here that we though we saw snow - nope it was acumulated hail. We got lucky and missed that - it was all in the road but we managed to ride through some dry tire tracks.
    Penasco we encountered yet another crazy Mexican guy in a Ford F150 going way faster than he probably should be trying to hold me off. I followed safely right behind 2 car lengths or so and waited to pounce - I guess I was semi mature about it, not gonna squid pass the guy but Yea I am gonna pass him no doubt. Its like he asked for it or somthing. It came to a long hill climb out of some other small town and I twisted the throttle and showed him why a bike can out accelrate a stock F150 - It wasnt long before he was completely out of sight - but Craig was right behind me. I guess I should explain that Dan was also comming but he was driving his truck down with the Gixxer in the back since he had to work one more day than us. It would be another days ride before we hooked up with him.
    Trucas NM was where the skies really opend up on us, all the way down into the valley below. I was gambling a bit on fuel, well not really I know my bike and I know the road I was safely in range but Craig was freaking out. Pointing madly at his gas tank I guess he wasnt too happy with the fuel situation. I motioned to keep going. Sure enough once we got to Gas Station in Pojoque he only needed 4.4 gallons - whats the big deal he had another gallon left? Opps I on the other hand needed 4.8g.
    I spent the night at my sisters place in Santa Fe and Craig moteled it for the night, but not before we took him out on the town to La Choisa Resturant for some Santa Fe style cuisine. He enjoyed it - I certainly did, my niece and newphew provided the entertainment.
    DAY TWO
    Santa Fe to Soccoro
    I thought it would be nice to take the back way to Alb and ride up Sandia Peak. It was nice in the morning and sunny. The road up to the peak is nice and twisty and lots of fun, but it can catch ya out with the tight switch backs at the top. I wasn't "railing it" per sea but I was riding it well enough to finish off the chicken strips on my newly shod Pilot Powers - well up to the edge ok. Craig wasnt so bold he stayed in his comfort zone, saying he wasnt sure how far he could go - still a bit rusty. Then we got hit with a 3$ ENTRANCE FEE?? Ok I forgot about that. Why dont they make you pay at the bottom? Seems like its a bit of a trap waiting to make you pay at the top? Maybe it is just to stop at the top and use the facilities - I mean you can certainly turn around before the top? There were green trucks all along the way too so who knows - they were probabaly out because it was labor day weekend.

    Sandia Peak
    After that we headed into the Indian country for some semi slab and had to stop for gas in some speck of a village, the attendant was really attractive for such a nowhere ville little dump? On we went and then the rains came again, not only did they come they beat the crap out of us with some hail too. I was here we decided to cut off half the ride and head strait for Soccoro ( instead of doing cloudcroft) the place we were headed was nothing but an inpenitrable wall of water - forget that!!

    Chupadera Mountains

    Craig adjusts his rain gear
    DAY THREE
    What we come for.

    White Coyote Cafe - T or C NM
    The slab from Soccoro to Truth or Consequences was almost torture. Knowing was was up ahead is what kept us going, so insted we stopped in town for breakfast. We planned on meeting there at some cafe called the Coyote Cafe. I just looked up a cafe having no idea what it was like. It was artsy fartsty and a bit too foo foo for me but we ate there anyway. I saw a great post card - an arial photo of the Monster and looked up the website on the back.
    http://www.landerland.com/Kingston/Ashot.html

    The Gila Monster at Kingston New Mexico
    We headed out of T or C and slabbed it some more, getting passed by three other guys on sport touring bikes a mile or so from the turn off. I though hey maybe we will have some company? Nope they kept on going down the interstate, not knowing what they missed!
    The turn off at hwy 152 in Cabelo was sort of uneventfull or so I thought as I started on down the long strait to the mountians. I passed a few cars and then a few more and a couple more?? WTF was up with all these cars? I kept going then all of a sudden I hear a siren - I was being pulled over? CRAP!! It was an unmarked sherrif, no radar? He said we all did not make a complete stop, and we were speeding in a 55 zone at 70 or so? I just kept quite and polite, yazza nozza!
    He pointed to the other two to pull over too, crap all three of us! Then he asks for my stuff. The usual - I am thinking I am toast. He doenst go back to his car??!! OK!
    "here is the deal"
    whew I think!
    "instead of a $200 dollar ticket for not stopping at a stop sign, and anoter $200 for speeding...each of ya" - "your just gonna keep on going 55, and slow down"
    He said "I am too lazy to write ya all a ticket" and with that I shook the mans hand and we all sighed a sigh of releif! OMG close one!
    I asked him where all these cars came from? Since the interstate was not so busy, where did these cars come from? He told us he was patrolling for the big apple festival in Hillsburo up the road. Yea it was big, it took us 30 minutes to go a mile through town! Must have been 10,000 people there at that festival, all of them walking right out in front of us. I guess it is our reponsibility to not hit sombody who walks out into the steet without looking? Oh well, I was hoping and praying that the road was clear up ahead.

    Vertical Profile from my GPS
    Well yes and no, not 10,000 but maybe a 100! It was a bit congested on the Monster but not so bad, we got in 5 minutes without any cars to pass so I was happy. Craig got some left over apple pie in Kingston and we all had a good time on the Monster. Dan was squid passing a bit more aggressive than I cared for so we let him go on the second pass. He went all the way back to Kingston and ran it again alone. It was hard enough catching up after passing just one car but 2, 3 was too much of a task.

    Kingston NM

    This is the Monster Tail

    Scenic Overlook

    The Gila Monster

    Late Lunch in Silver City
    We had to cut off the upper part up into the Gila Clif Dwellings it was getting too late and we were hungry. Dan says we really got to hit it to get back to Soccoro before night fall. I dont know? Silver City to Reserve in an hour and ten ok - you do the math. Then it was strait to the hwy 60 turn off at Datil? My GPS started recording top speed numbers here.

    The Very Large Array

    Closer
    Our plans changed yet again and so we had to stay in Soccoro one more night instead of pushing on to Alb. Dans truck was at the Walmart in Soccoro so he took off ahead of us and loaded up the gixxer. we stayed in Soccoro and ate pizza and drank beer instead of what we planned. OH WELL
    DAY FOUR
    The slab home
    Those two stayed up too late so yea well ...they got up late too. It was almost 11am before we all left Soccoro. My plans to ride the Jimez loop and Cumbres pass had to be scrapped if I was going to get home by midnight. I saved just two treats for the day, well maybe three. One was the painted rocks on hwy 84 and the other was the great sweepers from Tierra Amarilla to Tres Piedres hwy 64. 64 is Craigs kind of road and I knew he would be happy to ride it. It was great.
    Pictures of the painted rocks

    Vetrans Memorial Hwy 84

    Ghost Ranch

    Ojitos de Los Gato

    Hoodos

    El Monte Rojo

    El Monte Rojo
    The road to Tres Piedres

    Brazos Cliffs

    Brazos Cliffs
    We crossed up into Colorado and had dinner in Antonito, having not eaten all day it was a welcome site to see a sit down resturant. The Korean lady serving was a hoot, she was getting all mixed up but she was on the ball, if not a bit upside down. Dinner was satisfiying and so I decided to ride the "road of the anchients" other wise knows as "Los Caminos Antiquos" its a strait line on the map but its a beatiful streatch of road when the sun is going down. My favorite time of day. What ride!! Some times I get complacent about where I live, I dont stop to appreicate it as much as I should, being a native born Colordoan I some times get desinitized to the beauty around me. I takes a trip out of state to make me see just how great Colorado is. I did not take pictures of the Camino but I have it in my mind. Somthings are too good to share.
  21. HispanicSlammer
    MT EVANS
    I took a look on the internet for the weather this break, I call it that since I don't get weekends off. Sunday 70% chance of rain, Monday 30% chance, Tuesday 80% chance of rain. Well thats a no brainer go for a ride today or get wet. 30% chance of rain means that your going to get rained on but only for 30% of the day! I stood outside my shed and pondered which bike to take, the XR or the VFR? I wish I had taken the XR now since the VFR would get me a nice fat ticket going up Ute pass. State Pat Troll says I was going 67 in a 40 and that it was 6 points for that! 67! thats walking come on (I say to myself in my mind - since I don't ever argue with cops)! He cuts me a break and writes the speed lower by 2 mph so that the ticket drops by 2 points to a total of 4! Then he tells me if I send it in by mail by the date on the paper its only 2 points. I am thinking well I never once got a blip on the radar detector - and I know it was on, and I know State Pat Troll uses radar I am thinking he might not have had it on! I don't know maybe I should take my chances and go ahead and appear for this one.
    So not even a half an hour into my ride its already cost me $160 for the day and I have yet to gas up. Oh well, I head up Ute pass a slower speed with my tail between my legs and bugged eyed looking for cops around every tree and every corner. I turned north at Woodland Park to head up Deckers road into Pine - my usual route when heading north into the mountains. Boy as soon as I started down the hill into the twisty part the road turned from fun to dangerous. There was gravel in all the turns from heavy rains, then when I rode past Trout Creek I ran into several road crews clearing out debris and land slides from an apparent heavy flash flood. They had dirt piled up in mounds along side the creek like a dike and it was all over the road, bits of trees and other debris piled up along the road side for the next 12 miles almost all the way to Deckers. I could see where half of the mountain had slid onto the road in one place and they had heavy equipment out to clear it out - already done I could see an arroyo that was 12 feet over my head where they had cleared out the part that slid onto the road. It was bad I am amazed the road was still there. On past Deckers the road was in typical shape, lots of gravel in the turns where the dual wheeled yahoos who live around there spread it all over the turn cause they cant seem to keep those pickups on off the shoulder of the turns. Its always like that so I take it really easy there all the time.
    What surprised me was even more road crews were out on Horsepower hill, apparently the creek on the west side of the hill had overflowed over onto the road and it was a river there for a good mile or so, they had piles of washed out trees piled up 10 feet high, trees that were dead from the forest fires of years past. The damage of the Hayman fire continues to takes its toll I see. I did not see clean road until I got to the top and it was clear from there on down to the bowl. I love to blast the bowl, but ripping up horsepower hill was not in the cards today.
    I decided to do a scout run on one of the routes we are doing for the summit meet, Mount Evans, I rode up Shadow mountain road, it was good, not much traffic but a little. I got stuck at the end where it turns from Shadow mountain to Brook Forest Road, I am not sure exactly where it does that but it does. I was thinking it is not an easy turn off to find so my ride leaders better know the route, or have a good gps with them. It is definitely worth the extra 20 minutes to go that way, either that or suffer behind the shuffle of traffic from Connifer to Evergreen. I never ride that route if I don't have too, way too slow for me.

    The westward view from 14,000 feet Mt Evans

    South Pikes Peak is like a ghost silhouette in the rain cloud

    Kenosha Pass from 4000 feet above it and 10 miles away

    Summit Lake 1000 feet down

    The Sawtooth from up close Guenella Pass is just 2 miles strait west of here

    Mt Evans Summit Observatory parking lot you can make out my vfr on the left hand side - never seen this many people out on a Monday before

    A pool of water summit lake and Saint Marys Glacier put into perspective

    Saint Marys Glacier to the north

    Friendly little girl sitting on my rock taking pictures I suddenly feel two little hands grab my shirt - I turn around to see this little girl help herself up on my rock by grabbing hold of me and standing up - I don't blame her I had the best seat in the house

    Mount Evans Road

    A Marmot this one was kind enough to stand still and pose for me as I dug in my pockets for my camera

    Colorado Big Horn Sheep the matriarch stands watch as I snap a photo - I had to give my horn a toot so that they would clear the road

    Squaw Pass Echo Lake you can see it wind its way down the mountain to Idaho Springs

    Sqwaw Pass coming up from Evergreen
    Riding home I had finally caught up to my 30% of rain in Kittridge, I rode down from Kerr Gulch road, another road on our path, again not easy to find from Kittridge its a little goat road for the first mile or so going up the hill its all recycled pavement smashed down with rollers and then its brand new pavement another mile or so up - one of those roads Busy Little Shop would say is a "little leprechaun road" it starts off as then it gets good the further along you go.
  22. HispanicSlammer
    All dressed up and no bike to ride
    Yea you can say I went all crazy, as if Paris Hilton were to suddenly become a serious motorcycle sport tour rider! Scratch that I wont have no usless mexican rat dog yapping away with its head sticking out of the top box, I said serious sport tour rider! Yea I got my overtime sorted and worked some extra hours, and a generous tax refund resulted in some new gear for this year. I retired the old stich, sold it actually to a fellow rider I know from work, he needed gear - I had it - it fit him - cash was exchanged!

    All New Gear Transit suit, Sidi Boots, Held Gloves, Nolan Helmet
    So what does a serious sport touring rider want? I want a fricken leather suit! The textile stuff is nice, but man is it dorky! I want that mad max leather suit that just says "yea I live out here get out of the way"! Ok I have to back up a bit I still opted for a bit of dork - the Aerostich transit suit. It has the dorky visi strip on the back and legs, but its not drap olive and with goofy colors. Its black, traditional leathers black. My old roadcrafter was looking rather orange in the shoulders from taking a pounding from the sun, and a few bumps on the dirt bike, a backwards flip over on the piggy going up a steep ravine I ended up in the scrub weeds on my back and upside down with my leg stuck under the bike. Scared the crap out of my riding buddy cause it looked like the bike fell on me but good boots and the stich well... they are expensive for a reason, they work!
    I wanted the same functionality of the stich, I could live with a little less with regaurds to a two piece instead of a one piece but still I wanted it to be WATERPROOF. If anything experience says "your gonna get stuck in a fricken downpour" I know this! I have ridden in at least 12 of them, 200 miles of a 500 mile ride to the Black Canyon - downpour. Riding BR's brothers bike to Nashville from Robbinsville - downpour. Riding 1-40 in Oklahoma City - downpour. Yea I get rained on alot. This Transit suit is water resistant leather and its got a gore tex liner - its waterproof! All sorts of breaktroughs in leather technology this suit is micro perferated to release water vapor from the body and to cool off, impregnated with a reflective black die that reflects 15% more heat in the hot sun than standard leather (look at the top pic of me in the suit - it is reflecting the light of the flash). Big ass standard rear vent keeps you cool! No underarm zipper though, like the Roadcrafter? Oh well. Its got a front zipper too I suppose !
    Boots I have been using goretex waterproof touring boots for years now, I always wear out the shifter support leather, they pad it with foam and it tears through? Alpinestars waterproof touring boots. After reading about BR and Veefer800canuke breaking legs with boots perhaps I should get some real sport boots! I need waterproof cause - you know. Hey SIDI mades a waterproof sport boot! YEA got those
    Waterproof gloves, got some already - technic gloves but man are they stiff and the liner is too thick I have no feel and no flexlity. The answer Held warm and dry gloves - geez but the price! More overtime!
    top it off with a Nolan flipup (bought last year actually last season) and I am ready for a 2 week adventure out to the south for the Texasmac and beyond, hopfully the ozarks ride too.

    Vertigo Mega (wide sizes) Gore-Tex Boots

    Aerostich Transit suit

    Held Warmn'dry

    Held Warmn'dry

    New Nolan N103
    Oh and a stich silk scarf to keep my neck warm and unharmed by new leather. So how much did Paris spend? $2700 over the last 2 years on gear, recouped $500 for the stich, selling more gear too on ebay. OWCH. Addin a couple of coolmax shirts, patagonia wickable, wickable underwear, wool socks, and a Gerbing heated liner (also last year).
  23. HispanicSlammer
    After arriving in Nashville three days of over 500 miles each on the bike had played me out, worn out and sore, I couldnt even muster the energy to go for some Chow. Still stuffed from the pizza I ate 3 hours ago in Erin TN I just sat in Baileyrocks massaging chair. I told him I was having a strange vibration in the front tire when the speed hit 50 mph and so later that night we rolled my bike onto his bike lift and removed the front tire and spun it on a stand to see if it was out of balance. Niether of us could get it to settle in the same place so I figured it must be the chain makeing the vibration. Somehow we ended up checking the runout on the brake discs too - BR is a stickler for getting brake discs into spec with his dial indicator and a few well placed hammer hits on this button out, that button in and soon it was right into line! Baileyrock made sure to make fun of how tight I had all the bolts - prompting me to go out and buy two new torque wrenches when I got home.
    I found out I had an old college friend living around the Nashville area and made arrangements to have breakfast with him the next day. Baileyrock was a good sport and sat with us while we reminised over eggs and toast for a good 45 minutes - it was great seein Keith again and I am glad he survived being in the special forces for 13 years. Good man and that was it we were off to the TMAC together for the second year in a row. The route was very enjoyable and we just lazily rolled up and down those TN hills - occassionally powering up for some great twisties but mostly we just enjoyed the ride.

    Great Falls Road at Rock Island State Park

    The Old Pump house at Rock Island State Park, a natural spring

    Great Falls Factory Rock Island State Park BRs and my bike parked out front

    Great Falls Rock Island State Park
    I took us most of the day to get to Franklin, and BR had finally had enough of my pace and took off on the last leg of Wyha bend road. I have to admit I gained a few pounds since last year and it showed in my riding skill, Wyha bend road kicked my arse. We both passed a KLR about 1/4 of the way up the 42 miles of the road and the dude was on my 6 for a good 5 miles before I finally broke away. Those KLRs can turn a good pace in the tight stuff, well at my pace anyway - BR was long gone at this point. I have been there before - on that road at least 4 times and the tightness of the turns in North Carolina always amaze and surprize me. I finnally seen BR pulled over on the side of the road (changing his oil or somthing waiting for me) and we rolled into the Franklin Hotel together.

    Thursday evening gathering The Usual Suspects Baileyrock seated Theoxmole Nicole Motorhead1977 Marazmus and a couple other women I cant rember all the names

    Wrestler next to Sebspeed

    Phedrusman and Hypertention

    Chev with a big smile on his face

    Vifferluv I think this is what the locals refer to as *all bowed up*

    Redfish Luther is a regular Texasmac attendee

    Oyama I think the question was *is there going to be cheesecake*

    IntAceptor Bob was on of our lead riders

    Trace always follow the Trace Pace

    Kperham well the back of his head anyway and House in the background carrying some whiskyous substance no doubt
    Having been on the road for 4 days I was a bit tired Friday morning when we broke out into groups, having ate too much, drank too much, and slept a bit too little. I think I may have bit off more than I could chew going off with the Chatanooga clan VFR chapter of VFRD - DB05 took off in the lead on roads I could hardley imagine being so close to Franklin and yet so foriegn to me it was like I had never been to TexasMac before. I felt like I did the very first time, excited tired and a in a bit over my head. I just ran a pace I thought I could manage and if I get dropped oh well I get dropped. Yup I got dropped a few times, Jebus it was like Wyha Bend road all over again. However after Sochiro Joined us the pace seemd to smooth out a bit, probably because of the rain, it started raining soon after we stopped and joined up. He took us up some mountains and then onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a short spell then down into the valley below for somthing to eat.

    Pre Ride Meeting and a moment of silence for Bruce (Texasmac)

    Gathered for the pre ride meeting

    Earthshake asking where are we supposed to park

    Just a few bikes out here

    Group Bike shot

    Baileyrock photo op

    Layers on Layers
    I have to admit I did enjoy it but I felt like I was holding everybody up, and for once I would like to actually stop and look around a bit - take some pictures ya know. This is the third time I have been to the TexasMac and I never really stopped to enjoy it before so I took off on my own for the last leg and stopped at all the great places I had only glanced at in times before.

    Intermediate Group Balsam Grove waiting on Sochiro

    Lunch Stop At Juke Box Junction hwy 281 and Pigon Road

    Smoke Break

    This looks like a good place to stop to get off that stiffling rain gear
    [vid]91[/vid]
    Earthshake cautioned me that hwy 64 into Cashiers was a nightmare of slow traffic he was right be he failed to mention if you pull over and take some pictures you can space it so you get in some good riding in the gaps!

    I split off and headed back on hwy 64 this is one of those *boring* shots from that boring road - ha wow
    Now I have been on hwy 28 between Franklin and Highlands at least 10 times and I never once stopped, well Ok we stopped when Trace *stopped* once but that was it, all this time and I never once stopped at Bridal viel falls! Not this time!

    Bridal Viel Falls who hasnt taken a picture here

    Bridal Viel Falls

    Cullasaja Falls 20 minutes ride from Franklin on hwy 28
    I enjoyed being a tourist so much I decided I would just go out on my own for Saturday too, I borrowed a bit of the route from the day before and headed over to the Blue ridge parkway again, and spend more time looking around and taking pictures. I wasnt waiting on anybody and holding up nobody either, just me and my pace alone all day. It was fun and I just went where ever a bit into South Carolina too.

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Wild Flowers

    Rhododendron along the roadside

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Rhododendron everywhere

    Blue Ridge

    Blue Ridge Parkway

    Blue Ridge Parkway
    After comming down from the Blue Ridge Parkway I headed south into South Carolina and found some good roads down there too, Ceasars Head state park in South Carlina at hwy 276 was a real treat. Then a bit of slab and back into North Carolina on hwy 178 I was having a real blast on that one, called Moorfield Memorial Highway my gps said turn on horse pasture road and head west from there at the top, so I started climbing hwy 178 and the turns were delicious and I was really finding a good rythmn and riding the best I had all week, I felt like my old self finally. When I got to this horse pasture road it was a no go, no way it was all rocks and it looked like it was more suited for a jeep so I just headed for hwy 64 and routed myself back over to Franklin via a little zig zagging to hwy 107 and back over the same path the guys showed me the day before. It was called Cullowee Mountain road I think and it changes names a few time where it comes out near Franklin as Walnut Creek road. Fun and it can get tricky as I soon leared cause I ran into Ryanme17 on the side of the road with his bike on the opposite side totalled. I stopped of course and checked to see if everybody was alright - they were waiting for the police to show up. I told Ryan I would go get sombody with a trailer in case he could manage to ride it - I found motorhead at the hotel and together we took Sebs truck and went and got Ryan. Motorhead advised him to let the wrecker take it cause it looked like a complete loss.
    Too bad too cause it was a great meet so far, but he managed to walk away just a bit sore - but he walked away afterall.

    Looking Glass Falls Hwy 276
    I spend the rest of the day eating and drinking with the group and enjoying myself, For sunday I would have to head as far west I possibly could, the rain of the weekend was a bit of a downer but not all bad, however I would fight with it all day by myself across Tennesse, I bascialy headed over the Cherehola in the rain, down hwy 30 to Chatannoga and across the bottom of TN all in the rain! It was miserable for half the day and the rest it was just a bit boring, hwy 64 was a bust for the most part except I was able to sample some wonderful southern fried chicken!

    Cherehola Skyway in the mist

    Joyce Kilmer National Forest

    Platters Buffet Cowan TN
    I took a side trip up to Lynchburg TN - I could smell it before I saw it, the home of Jack Daniels no wonder I could smell mash from 3 miles away. It was the rolling hills and country roads there I found to be very enjoyable. The again back on hwy 64 till I crossed paths with the Natchez Trace, I pulled up onto it for a spell and then turned around again and continued onto Memphis, I think I was on the Natchez for about 50 feet then I turned around - but I was on it!

    Lynchburg Tennesse Town Hall
    I think I will keep Arkansas all to myself, some things are not ment for public - just ment to be enjoyed and rememberd fondly as you remember the good things on your trip. It had no time to stop and I had to get across the entire state in one day and I did but I took a great route I will not soon forget, it just melted away the miles in the most laid back manner - like a stroll into the woods I just rolled across the Ozarks with the wind in my face and a song in my ear all day long till the sun finally went down and I layed my head down and slept like a baby.
    Kansas on the other hand was not so pleasant, right off the bat my bike started surging, I took a wild guess after the 3rd time pulling over and removed my PC2 and the problem went away , then the wind started in on me so bad I had to lean the bike over all day long to stay stait, I made the mistake of rolling across Kansas on hwy 50 which was full of Semi trucks all of them when they passed by they hit we with a blast of air that sent me reeling for a second or two. I think I will call it Kansas airbording! cause it almost tourture, I am sure the boys at Gitmo can find somthing in Kansas to make those Terrorist more compliant, at least on the drive through.
    I knew I was home when I saw this though another TMAC done and gone, and I enjoyed myself thanks vfrd for being so great.

    Old Bent Fort Rocky Ford Colorado
    tmac2009tracks.gdb
  24. HispanicSlammer
    This is an image of Aztec family raceway - its a privately owned dirt track (members only) for dirt bike enthusiasts and racers alike. Right next to the Aztec raceway the city of Colorado Springs is going to build, or already has built some wonderful single track for ohv use. Here is where the trouble begins, my buddy Dan is an avid dirt bike enthusiast, who is a bit cash strapped and is really exited about this new park the city is proposing. He cant afford the prices Aztec wants - and who would if your just a weekend trail rider looking for some place close and legal to ride - for free, or for a small day use fee. Aztec wants a down payment and monthly fees? Thats fine if you are a racer there but if your just looking to go for a ride on your day off its not cost effective?

    http://www.corralbluffs.com
    He has been talking non stop about his place ever since he read about it on thumper talk, and already the motorcycle crazy among us have been giving privately our own hard earned cash to make this park a reality. Now here is where it gets interesting. Dan is a college student and during class one day a librarian came to his class to "discuss" something with the class. She was going to talk about how she was opposing this new OHV park - about how it will destroy the natural beauty of Coral Canyon. OK WHAT??? So naturally Dan - being the engineering scientist type, lets her speak, and when she finishes her speech she asks the students if they have any questions. Of course Dan is the first to raise his hand.
    Being an engineering student he launches into a series of questions of a Socratic nature, designed to undermine her argument.
    1) Mame have you ever been to Coral Canyon - NO
    2) Are you aware that a dirt bike facility already exists next to the park? - NO
    3) Are you aware that a dump site exists just adjacent to the Park? - NO
    4) Why did you not complain when the county commissioners allowed the building of the dump site? - I had no idea it was there?
    5) Are you aware that there are already single track paths laid out by hikers and illegal dirt bikes, and mountain bikers - that the land has been used this way for years? NO
    6) Are you aware that our organization intends to clean up the random trash strewn around the property and that we are making an effort to shore up illegal single track with erosion barriers and signs to point out legal trails. - I knew that there were trails but not that the park was intended to fix them?
    7) Are you aware that 70% of the funding has been by private citizens not city government funded? NOT A SINGLE TAX DOLLAR WILL BE SPENT? = NO ANSWER
    The thing is he pretty much gutted her arguments and provided a solid foundation for why the park should be allowed. I for one welcome the park, its a great cold weather park and limited access place to ride in the winter when its too difficult to trail ride in the mountains, it is also close to the city and was targeted for urban development anyway! What is the problem lady?
    I guess if you want to ride you have to fight for it!
  25. HispanicSlammer
    Pacific North West Meet 2010 Columbia River Gorge on the historic scenic Hwy 30
    I spent the night before the meet in Boise at my Uncles place - he fed me steaks and diet Dr Pepper. It was nice to catch up with him again since I maybe see him once a year during the holidays. It was a cook it yourself deal which is perfect since I like to cook my own steaks - that way nobody can take the blame for it being over cooked or raw but me. It was a smidgen too raw on one side too. Oh well, my old man called him and told him I was supposed to be there Sunday instead of Monday so him and his girlfriend went all out - and then I called him from Jackson to tell him I was gonna be there on Monday, JUST LIKE I SAID I WOULD in the message I left him the week before. Dad got it all wrong. Oh well the steak was in the fridge and booze in the pantry - which I stayed well away from. I am a shitty drunk, especially on the hard stuff.
    It was alright we watched the Jets and Giants on Monday night football playing in the new shared stadium in New Jersey - how does that figure? Is a rename in order the New Jersey Jets vs the New Jersey Giants? Heh we had a good laugh at that one - since both of us are really Broncos fans anyway and half assed fans at that.
    So he wakes up at 5am with his casual western work wear for his job as a computer programmer for the State of Idaho - he wont own a computer at home since he has to type on one all day long he hates them! I can see why he likes it there in Boise its a nice place, lots to do, good roads, small town but not too small, outdoorsy and very friendly people. I have yet to meet an unfriendly Idahoan yet! I am sure there are some and they are probably originally not from there.
    I call up Maddog who PMed me about riding out to Troutdale together earlier in the week, I called the guy since he left me a few messages wondering what was going on, and we decide to meet in the morning at the rest stop along the interstate at the state border in Ontario OR. So I pulled out of Boise around 7am and headed west on the long strait road to the interstate - on State Street it was a 15 mile long road to the interstate and it was busy the whole 15 miles. I should have gone south and got on the interstate soon but I did not have on my magic traffic goggles - so how was I supposed to know? Then of course as always when your on a schedule the interstate absolutely must have a 15 mile long road construction project going on that shuffles traffic all to one side of the highway. Nothing like seeing the country side behind an 18 wheeler smoking diesel fuel. I get there at 8am on the frickin dot and no Maddog? Ok so I wait he said 8-8:30? Then 8:45 rolls along and I say well 5 more minutes then I am leaving - and here comes a yellow 5th gen with a guy on it in the most faded stich I have ever seen! He could win that aerostich contest they have at the ugly boring rally they have. Hes got on some soft bags and top bag - and hes all of 130lbs if that. I am thinking hes got at least 150lbs less haulin than I - I hope I can keep up. Then he says "I am slow" Yea I have heard that before and ....NOT!
    Off we go into Oregon and as soon as we hit Vale we had to roll our clocks back 20 years to a time when gas was pumped by an attendant at the gas stations. Where the insides where lined with wood paneling and nothing was labeld - no rows of fancy drink coolers - no fancy neon signs - or multi flavor soda dispensers - I really felt like I had stepped into a time machine in some of those places he took me. On some of the stops we had to get off the highway and drive into the town behind some back alley and find the only gas station for 30 miles. If he hadn't of known it was there I would have never found it. Maddog, he says we will fill up at every stop cause you never know when these back country places will be open. Eastern Oregon is about as rural as it gets. I can only think its a product of the state law that requires a gas station attendant to be present to pump your gas. It negates the all night - pay at the pump - do it yourself thing thats for sure and if Bubba is sick today well I guess you just close down for the day leaving a community undeserved for its gas needs! Oh well the Gov-a-mint knows best eh? Shoot, I had to get used to waiting in line for gas in Oregon - all I can say is IT SUCKS! Half the time they just said "go ahead man"! After waiting for 5 minutes to get his attention. Nope I did not see any female attendants - not sure if that is a law too. I did meet allot of anti gov-a-mint folks in Oregon though and well no wonder! Like I said IT SUCKS! Let freedom ring and let us pump the darned gas please!

    Maddog suffering from the Oregon Heat shedding a layer

    Service Creek Café

    Dilapidated Barn viewed from t he Service Creek Café
    So we headed out from Vale and made our way to Unity and I tested this "I am slow" declaration he made, in some tasty sweepers and NOPE - DOES NOT HOLD WATER! I calculated it in my head and found that 1) those chicken strips he had on in Ontario have somehow mysteriously disappeared in the last 100 miles and 2) he seems to be able to accelerate at a very steep rate compared to me? I had to conclude at this point that Maddog was full of shit! He ain't slow! It was like Shamu trying to catch up to Dani Padrosa! I mean look at the guy he cant be much bigger than Dani Pedrosa!
    So I figured I was feeling good about the bike the day before when I was railing it solo, but when your riding with other riders all that changes and the doubt creeps in along with some anticipation of whats to come especially if your riding with somebody you don't know. Its only natural to want to keep up - but having put on more then my share of miles on a vfr I think I can honestly say "F that" to myself and go at my own pace. If its fast enough then good, if not well I am sure they will wait for me at the next turn. There were a couple of times Maddog stepped away and I let him go cause I was liking the roads. Sometimes you get caught up and don't look around to see all the good stuff your missing - wow this was some pretty country in Eastern Oregon. I like how they make roads that follow rivers and creeks, its a natural rhythm to the road it just flows like the water does. Maddog pulled off at Unity and told about this great country road 20 we were going to take at Bates and take it all the way up to Long Creek. He said watch out for the cattle grates, but he mentioned nothing about the clods of dirt all over the road, we soon were on it and I found I could just keep it in 4th gear most the time and modulate the throttle well enough to power out of the sweepers, deep ones that make you lean more at the end and they just kept a coming! I was having a blast on that road, keeping him close this time I was in my element. I put my foot down on the chip seal and sure enough it was solid and no loose stuff, it was time to rip it. Pretty soon though the road stopped the chip seal and it looked a bit glassy in the shade, I know its just an optical illusion but for me it was enough to slow it down a bit. It also had some tar snakes on the north side so I let Maddog go again. I can't count the number of times I just had an odd feeling about a road and slowed down only to find my ridding buddy on the side of the road! Too many times I don't know this road but I know whats good and whats not, tar snakes are not good! So yea I slowed down.
    We rode for a few hundred more miles and then the heat started in on us, Maddog had to peal off some layers and then I saw I was dealing with a very lite rider in front of me. I thought this darned 1200 cant keep up? Whats going on..oh hes not very big thats why! And he doesn't have much packed with him either. Ok 400 cc's is not that much of an advantage in this situation especially when the bike sort of limits the power in the lower gears too.
    Toward mid day I felt I could keep up - and he wanted me to lead but my gps was all goofy - telling me to turn on dirt roads and pointing me in the wrong direction, I ended up just shutting off the route cause it had recalculated it all, then reloading it to fix the errors. Not happy with this replacement zumo garmin sent me, its a lemon. It takes 15 minutes to draw the maps - always shuts off for no reason and wont power back up. Darned thing, I got tired of fiddling with it. So I just let him lead. I usually lead all the time at home, mostly actually with my buds. Some of my buds prefer to lead its all good I don't care. I don't mind leading if I know where to go. I tend to use the rear brake allot so it bugs some people before entering turns, a habit of dirt biking It involuntary mostly I don't even think about it, and I don't jam the brakes just lightly put my foot on it and thats it. I usually just unplug my rear brake light sensor so it don't bother people, they say to me "your brake lights on but your speeding up"? Yea I know! I wouldn't do it if I could train myself out of it. Thats just the way I ride, 300,000 plus miles and I am habituated.

    Shaniko Oregon Maddog and I were standing in the lawn sprinkler cooling off

    Mt Hood snapped a quick pic from the road
    One more gas stop in Spray then we hit some of the best turns of the whole day, just west of spray there was a good pass and then at Antelope a very tight twisty section that I was able to record with my contour hd camera.

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/antelope_shaniko.mp4
    There were great roads all in that section of road, up until mount hood then we slabbed it into Troutdale, I took the lead for the last 100 or so miles into town since I had a radar detector. I saw a few cops and they lit me up, I slowed down in time and kept on going. It was a good day or riding.

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