Al's space

OK, I admit it. I haven't done a good job of updating the blog this summer. It was more enjoyable to ride the bike than write about ridding the bike. I decided to take the easy way out and do a single post to cover most of the riding.

I spent quite a bit of the summer exploring the Loess Hills in Western Iowa (Loess rhymes with Gus). Most of Eastern Nebraska and Western Iowa was perfectly laid out with straight roads that mark off one mile by one mile increments. From what I recall as a kid, those one mile by one mile blocks are called sections and contain 360 acres. All very organized. Not much fun to ride, but well organized. The Loess Hills are different.

The Loess Hills is a "hill of soil" about 500 feet high and a few miles wide (my estimate), deposited by a glacier long ago, that runs along the entire western border of Iowa.  It eroded over time and the county roads wind through the hills. You don't get the elevation changes that you do in the mountains, but they do remind me of the twisty roads in the foothills adjacent to the Central Valley in California.

Here's a general map of the Loess Hills.



Lots of folks like to use the Delorme state maps to plot routes



but for exploring Iowa, the Iowa Sportsman's Map is the best. It's a county by county map that accurately show paved and unpaved roads.



There are also some nice roads along the Missouri River on the Eastern Nebraska border. On some of my trips exploring the Loess Hills, I would cross over from Iowa back to Nebraska and ride back through the bluffs along the Missouri River. This summer, I also took a ride to Kansas City and back.

Here's the lazy part. Instead of posting each ride, I put together a collection of maps from the different rides I took this summer. The maps won't mean much if you aren't familiar with the area, but for the people that are, you'll know all the rides were very good.

This is the back way I take up to Blair, NE quite frequently. Mostly straight, but a few sweepers thrown in.

OK, I've been totally remiss (aka LAZY) in updating the blog. I've got a lot of stuff to add and I needed to start somewhere, so I'll start with my recent Colorado trip and add some of the rest of the stuff later.

October 7th...

Here's a photo of the bike packed and ready to go (click on any photo to see a larger version).



I had a limited amount of time. I usually like to take the back roads, but I needed to make time, so I took the slab all the way out. Here's my route out.



It was raining and cloudy when I left Omaha, but I had checked the weather and it was supposed clear off just past Lincoln. Sure enough, by the time I got to Seward, NE, it had cleared off. It was cool when I left Omaha, but by the time I got to Seward, the temps had warmed up to the mid-60's (and were in the high 70's by the time I got to Loveland, CO). There was a pretty stiff headwind straight from the West, maybe 30 MPH. I usually get 48 MPG on the Beemer, but with the headwind, I was only averaging 38 MPG.

I stopped at Penny's Diner in North Platte for lunch. It's a 50's style "coach" diner. Steak and eggs at a decent price with really good service.



I had put a headlight protector on the bike to prevent a rock from cracking the headlight assembly. I didn't hear it, but it got used on the way to Loveland.



I participate in a motorcycle touring web board called Advrider (http://www.advrider.com/forums). I asked one of the riders that lives in the area for recommendations on a scenic route and places to stay, plus I wanted to see some elk. I didn't want to head up the Big Thompson after dusk/dark. Too many deer. Look at the deer, nice. Hit the deer with the bike, not so nice.

The recommendation came back as: stay at the new La Quinta on the West side of Loveland. Elk hunting season had just started and all the elk have headed for the hills. I got this route. It was the best.



I took off the next day. It was fantastic, but there weren't many turnouts suitable (for me) to pullover so I didn't get a lot of photos.

Here is a photo on a county road about 5 miles North of Estes Park. The colors were just starting to turn. I think I was probably a week early.



This is from the same spot, but looking South towards Estes. I believe the peak in the distance on the right is Long's Peak (14K+ elevation) and the one in the center is Mount Meeker (13K+ elevation). A most excellent bike in the photo.



I stopped in Estes and had lunch at the Big Horn Resturant. It seemed like it was a "locals" resturant and not a tourist trap.



The colors were nice in Estes. This is along the Fall River just North of Estes.



I spent all day winding around mountain back roads. The weather was borderline hot. Maybe 77 degrees at noon and 85 around 3 p.m. That was October 8th. I saw on October 11th and 12th they had snow.

I decided to come back through Cheyenne, WY. It's only a few miles further than taking U.S. 34 and I-76. I figured it would give me a little more time so I wouldn't have to look into the sun heading east. Little did I know it would be overcast all the way to North Platte. Here's my route back.

When I left Loveland, CO on October 9th, it was 47 degrees. By the time I got to Cheyenne, the temp had dropped to 39 degrees. I was using my rain gear as a wind breaker. It was a little cool until I got my heated vest/pants/socks (powered by the bike) going. Then it was OK, but now I was battling a 35 to 40 MPH headwind (headwind out, headwind back, how's that happen). When I stopped for coffee, I noticed I was looking a little like the Michelin Man.



I stopped in Paxton, NE at Ole's. I had never been there. The food was slightly overpriced, but good and it was an interesting stop.





The weather was cloudy, windy and cold from Cheyenne to North Platte. The temp never got above the mid 40's until I hit North Platte. There must have been a warm front, because the temp jumped at North Platte to about 68 degrees. I needed to shed the heated clothes and rain gear. It was still pretty windy, but at least it was warm. Somewhere just East of Grand Island, the wind died and the weather from Grand Island to Omaha was perfect.

Day 12 - Parker, CO to Omaha, NE - 553 GPS miles

This was an easy route. Hop on I-470 to loop around Denver. Get on I-76 East to the Nebraska border, then I-80 back home. Just for completeness, here's the map.

I tried to take back roads as much as possible, but I've been through this part of Nebraska many, many times, so efficiency was more important than scenic driving. This was pretty much what you might expect. Get on the slab, point the bike East, set the cruise control, go to the next gas stop. The only excitement happened at the end of the day. When I hit Lincoln, there started to be thunderstorms developing North of I-80. I was watching the NEXRAD weather radar on the GPS.

I took this image at a later time, but you get the idea of what it looks like. When I hit the rest stop at milepost 420 between Lincoln and Omaha, I could see the storms were approaching the Interstate and after riding 500 miles, my butt was sore. I stopped, stretched, walked around, then put on my rain gear and headed for Omaha. The rain stayed North and West of the Interstate until just after I pulled in the garage, then a pretty strong thunderstorm came through.

Here's a photo of my GPS at the end of the trip. Notice in the upper right corner, (under the 553.3 mi) it shows 3,232 miles for the total trip (and an 8 hour trip from Denver).

Day 11 - Durango, CO to Parker, CO - 362 GPS miles

Today was a mixed riding day of alternate routes.

Here is the map of today's route.

My original plan was to take U.S. Hwy 550, the Million Dollar Highway, from Durango to Montrose, then cut across Gunnison to Salida. There are several 10,000+ foot passes on this route. When I got up and checked the weather, the temperatures were in the high 20's to low 30's and didn't look like they would get out of the 30's. I haven't tried my heated clothing on the Beemer yet and didn't want to have them fail at 29 degrees on a 10,000 foot mountain top. I modified my route. Instead of going to Montrose, I decided to go through Pagosa Springs, over Wolf Creek Pass, through Del Norte to Poncha Springs, and then decide on the route. I waited until the temperature at Wolf Creek Pass made it to 40 degrees. That was about 9 a.m.

The ride from Durango to Pagosa Springs was terrific. It was still cool when I started out, and I knew I'd be climbing, so I started with my rain gear on as a wind breaker.
A few months ago I made a posting about a local trip I took to Pisgah, Iowa and stopping at the "Old Home Filler Up and Keep On Trucking Cafe" that was the theme of a C.W. Mcall song. Well, CW also had a song about downtown Pagosa Springs and Wolf Creek Pass. I didn't get many photos today, but to keep with the C.W. Mcall theme, I took a picture of downtown Pagosa Springs...

I wound my way up U.S. 160 to Wolf Creek Pass (10,823 feet). The trip up and then down the other side was a nice mix of hairpin and s-turns. I made it to the top about 11 a.m. The temp at the top was about 49 degrees. There was a group of 4 women that were riding their bicycles up to the pass. WOW. That takes some work. There was still quite a bit of snow above 10,000 feet. At the top, there is a great turnout with really sturdy frame for a "Wolf Creek Pass" sign, except ... there was no sign. Just a blank frame. I sould have taken a photo of the blank frame and used an image editor to fill in Wolf Creek Pass.

When I got to Del Norte, it was in the mid-60's, so I dumped the rain gear (as a wind breaker) and headed North. When I got to Saguache, it started raining pretty good, so out came the rain gear. The rain stopped about 10 miles outside of Poncha Springs. I stopped to gas up in Poncha Springs at a gas station/convience store/bar and put away my rain gear. While I was outside, three couples pull up on Harley's. My license plate wasn't showing (I had backed in), but one of the guys walks up to me and says "My name is..., we're from Omaha. Where are you from?". With the Omaha connection, we got to talkings. They were a group of attorney's from Omaha. They had trailered their bikes out to a friends place in Eagle, CO (by Aspen) and were heading to Pagosa Springs. Nice conversation, but time for me to go.

I started North towards Buena Vista on U.S. 285. My plan was to take U.S. 285 up through Bailey and Conifer into Denver. The wind between Poncha Springs and Buena Vista was out of the West and vicious. The kind that feels like the gusts will rip your helmet off or knock you off the bike. At Buena Vista, I decided I want head East so the wind would be at my back, instead of a cross wind. I think it was a good choice. This was the worst wind I'd ridden in so far. It was really, really ugly.

I headed East on U.S. 24 toward Woodland Park and Colorado Springs. The ride going East was good except for a couple small areas where the road swung either North or South and I was back battling the cross wind. As soon as I turned on U.S. 24 in Buena Vista, I started following a guy and his wife on an older Gold Wing Aspencade. Somewhere West of Lake George, the on coming cars started flashing their lights at on coming traffic. I figured it was a speed trap. Nope. A really bad accident. They had a 1/2 mile section of the road closed. There was one Life Flight helicopter on the ground and another one landing. They were re-routing traffic through a field. OK, this is going to be a new experience. I rode dirt bikes a lot when I was a kid, but I havn't been off road in decades and I've never ridden a large street bike off road. A conundrum. It was a long way back against a really wicked wind. I hadn't ridden through a field before. So the guy on the Wing pulls into the field and starts following traffic. OK, if a guy packing a passenger on an old Wing can do it, so can I. I made it no problem.

It started raining just West of Woodland Park, so I stopped in Woodland Park and put on my rain gear. It rained on and off from Woodland Park to Colorado Springs. It was only 4 p.m. when I hit Colorado Springs, so I decided to head up to Parker, CO. I took the back way to Parker on CO Hwy 83. It's really a nice two lane road of sweeping s-turns that goes from Colorado Springs through Franktown into Parker.

My daughter, son-in-law and grandson used to live in Parker before they were transferred for work. I have really fond memories of Parker. It's not really the city, but the great times I had there with them. It's interesting how, even though they don't live there any longer, I still have these pleasant memories that get kicked off when revisiting Parker. The memories seem to set off all those endorphins and dopamines that make the visit seem enjoyable. When they lived in Parker, one of the places we would go out for dinner was "Joe's Crab Shack". I had a nice meal there and some good memories.

After dinner, I turned in for the night to get an early start for the run on Omaha.

Day 11 - Kayenta, AZ to Durango, CO (with a loop through UT) - 218 GPS miles

A good, uneventful riding day with dramatic scenery changes about every 30 miles. Here is the map for day 11 (as always, click on any photo for a larger view).

Monument Valley starts on the North edge of Kayenta, AZ. I took U.S. 163 North out of Kayenta through Mexican Hat, UT to Bluff, UT. U.S. 163 runs through the center of Monument Valley. A couple things were surprising about this portion of the ride. The first and most obvious is the dramatic scenery. As I mentioned in a previous post, the photos only show a glimmer of the grandeur of Monument Valley. The photos don't let you experience the vivid, changing colors and the imense scale riding through the valley. The second suprising thing was how empty the road was. I saw some cars in Mexican Hat and Bluff, but while I was out on the road, I probably only saw 20 vehicles (mostly cars, but some motorcycles) over the 65 miles from Kayenta to Bluff.

Here is another attempt at a photo panorama, this time of Monument Valley.

In the photo, after you go over the hill, the road turns right and dips down slightly. In the movie Forrest Gump, this is where Forrest quit running.

I took this shot of a monument in Monument Valley in the mirror of my bike.

My wife and I have talked about this photo. I like it, she doesn't. She thinks it's too cluttered. She totally has a much better eye for photo composition than I do, so I'm sure she's right, but I still like it because it combines so many elements of the trip. It has a single monument in the bottom of the main mirror. It has a panorama of multiple monuments in the concave mirror. The sign has "Navajo" written on it (backwards in the mirror) reflecting Monument Valley is on the Navajo Reservation. It has the bike and it has me. In the photo, I have on my yellow rain gear. It was very windy and the temps were in the low 60's, so I was wearing my rain gear as a windproof/warming layer.

Here is a photo of some flags at a Navajo market turnout (wasn't being used at the time). The flags shows how windy it was.

At the North end of Monument Valley is Mexican Hat, UT. It's a small road side town (population 100) with a couple gas stations and a couple cafe's. The San Juan River runs through Mexican Hat and it was really flowing (almost raging). I believe it is fed by snow melt and it looks like there was plenty of snow melt happening.

This is the rock formation that gave Mexican Hat it's name.

I made it to Bluff, UT. When you drive into Bluff, you realize how it got that name. There is a bluff, probably 1,000 feet high and 10 miles long, on both sides of the town. I stopped for gas in Bluff. Here is a photo of the gas prices in Bluff. At the time, this was highest price I paid for fuel. Little did I know...

I took U.S. 191 South out of Bluff (well, just West of Bluff) to get back to U.S. 160 East at Mexican Water, AZ. I only saw one other vehicle (a pickup camper) on this 30 mile stretch of road. This scenery was terrific. Very similar to the Painted Desert. U.S. 191 hits U.S. 160 about 2 miles East of Mexican Water. Back on U.S. 160, there was a reasonable amount of traffic. Not too much, not empty. I took U.S. 160 East to Four Corners Monument. Four Corners sits right on the East edge of the Navajo Reservation (it's a big reservation). I didn't realize it was run by the Navajo. Here's the photo I took at Four Corners. No clue who the people are.

From Four Corners, I went to Cortez, CO and stopped for lunch. I liked Cortez. It sits at the foothills of the mountains. I thought it was really clean and well kept. I'm not sure what people do there, but it seemed very nice.

After Cortez, I headed to Durango. My daughter and son-in-law love Durango. I can see why. The scenery is terrific. It looks well sheltered by the mountains. The summer weather seems pretty mild compared to the surrounding areas. It looks like there is a ton of stuff to do. My daughter had talked quite a bit about downtown, so I stayed downtown just to check it out. Downtown is nice. The Animas River runs right next to downtown. Here's some people taking off whitewater rafting at the walkway a block from downtown.

I checked out the town and then checked in for the night.