It's winter and the bikes are put away until next Spring here in the frozen tundra of the midwest. Time to put up some ride reports to keep my mind thinking about warmer days ahead.
I'm sure a lot of you guys - such as Bilco, et al - have been to a few of these places, others maybe not. They might also serve some that want to go there. But anyway....
My bud Goose from Ireland flew over to Indy and hired a HD (only bike we could find) to rid ealong wiht me on my old Pan for a westward trip.
Goose picked up the HD in Indy...
...and received a quick lesson on the inner working of leather tassles from the HD guy...
First thing that we notyiced about the Shitbox, as it became to be known, was the distinct lack of range. Out in Nowhere, Kansas the fuel stations are few and far between. Not the place to be riding a HD with 120 miles of range. So we bungeed on a spare bottle of fuel...
Bright and sunny day at 10,000' the next morning....
I really like staying in Breckenridge. Small enough that you can walk to everywhere in town. lots of lodging in the summer as it's a busy ski resort all winter, decent number of dining options, too.
Route 550 from Silverton, CO to Ouray, CO is a great ride. There are loads of single and double track trails off of the road as well, heading up and over the mountains to Telluride, CO...
We pull into Ouray at dusk and look for somepalce to eat dinner. Just as we pull into town, Ouray's one and only cop almost tags Goose with radar. My radar detector was screaming, so I avoided the trap. Fuzzy pic, but the cop is just to the right of Goose in the second picture, sitting on the side of the road...
Although it's almost 10:30 PM, we still have another 150 miles to go this evening. So we plenty of time for some night shots in the hills...
We arrive at our destination, Gateway, CO around 1:00 AM. A lopng day's ride as we took our time getting there. But the next day is a sit around the pool and drink beer day anyway.
Next day and we're at Gateway Canyons Resort - a fantastic place out in the middle of the desert. Owned by the guy that owns the Discovery Channel, History Channel and a whole bunch of other channels, it's not all that well known and not many people ever stay here....