Riding the San Juan Mountains in SW Colorado 7/29 - 8/3

[Tourmeister]

Well... we arrived a little before dinner time. Mike, Steve, and Jay were already here. As we unloaded, I found the front tire of my 530 TOTALLY flat! So we went to dinner[emoji14]

After dinner it was raining pretty good so I used the trailer as a garage and Steve helped me do a quick tube change. Better here and now than on top of some mountain.

We are meeting RG and Chris tomorrow morning (Sunday) at the base of Corkscrew. We’ll be doing California gulch, Placer gulch, Cinnamon and Engineer passes. I think the weather is supposed to get better.

Will update as I can.

 

[Deleted member 23845]

Welcome to my home. Definitely keep eyes open on WX and road conditions. Spend lots of money as the locals need your inflow. I know the best places for grub, and where the cutthroat trout hang out....

 

[woodsguy]

Welcome to my home. Definitely keep eyes open on WX and road conditions. Spend lots of money as the locals need your inflow. I know the best places for grub, and where the cutthroat trout hang out....

Scott is thrifty! lol

 

[_RG_]

Chris and I warmed up the trails a wee bit. Starting near Silverton, we went down Ophir into Telluride...up and over Imogene... down into Ouray where we found Mike and Steve in the motel parking lot doing a quick top end job on Steve's fine looking KTM. After a good visit we saddled up and made a spirited dash up Corkscrew into Animas and made our way through the Great San Juans back to Silverton. Great day and a fun adventure. More to come...

 

[woodsguy]

Chris and I warmed up the trails a wee bit. Starting near Silverton, we went down Ophir into Telluride...up and over Imogene... down into Ouray where we found Mike and Steve in the motel parking lot doing a quick top end job on Steve's fine looking KTM. After a good visit we saddled up and made a spirited dash up Corkscrew into Animas and made our way through the Great San Juans back to Silverton. Great day and a fun adventure. More to come...

You make what scares me sound so easy and nonchalant. Lol. Hope all y'all have a great time.

 

[Tourmeister]

Awesome ride today!!

I’m tired... loaded up on ibuprofen. About to head out for dinner.

 

[humanrace]

Scott, you ride the same roads that I have ridden many times, yet you take beautiful pictures of things I have never seen.

 

[woodsguy]

Scott, you ride the same roads that I have ridden many times, yet you take beautiful pictures of things I have never seen.

 

[_RG_]

Doo, Doo, Doo looking out my back door...

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/unaggie/Colorado18/back door_1.jpg

Home for the duration...

 

[_RG_]

Nine riders. All fully capable off-road. This is a rare group that handled everything the trail threw at em. Awesome day!

Hope FBI facial recognition stuff doesn't handle motorcycle helmets....

This dirty little dude just about put a sweet 690 and it's pilot out of the picture. Tricky stuff.

There's all sorts of worse ways to spend your days.

 

[FCBH]

 

[Tourmeister]

Another’s awesome day!! Today was a big bike day with a mix of fun dirt and incredible pavement!

Small bikes tomorrow. Doing Black Bear into Telluride.

 

[jredford]

Nice pics Scott. I’ll be heading up to Bayfield on Thursday.

 

[woodsguy]

_RG_
"This dirty little dude just about put a sweet 690 and it's pilot out of the picture. Tricky stuff."
Which 690 and what happened?

 

[TDtrans]

awsum me and 5 buddys are headed there friday the 10 we stay just down the road from freemans general store .whoo ooh cant wait

 

[PigTrail]

Great photos. Keep it up!

 

[Tourmeister]

I need new knees... mine are KILLING me! Nonetheless, today was a fun but rough day. First up was Black Bear, Bolam, Hermosa Creek, then Lime Creek. All of it was ROCKY. My old 530 is taking it in stride, but it’s gonna need some work when I get back.

I tucked the front here at about 2 mph, my only drop thus far...

Most of this is so steep that it is REALLY HARD to stop. The tires just slide in the loose stuff.

Lunch in Telluride

 

[_RG_]

Yep, Blackbear for breakfast. Helps if you're still working through last night's tequila infusion.

Hoped to beat the crowds...didn't happen. Fun ride up to the steps but Jiminy Cricketts!!! I've never seen crowds like that on the bear. Jeeps (dozens), hikers, bicycle.... take a number and wait.

I started down the steps just to see about a dozen hikers coming up round the bend. Do you have any idea what it's like grinding to a halt halfway into the steps??? Oh well, new experience...fun in a mildly sadistic sort of way.

Part of the crew got stuck waiting behind a gaggle of jeeps navigating the first switchback...yes, that switchback. It was well lunchtime when they broke through and made it down the mountain.

After lunch, three of us split for some single track... the East Fork trail. It's relatively mild as Colorado ST goes but is truly beautiful and technically challenging - just too doggone short, really.

Kubotamike demonstrating what the folks in Austria built his beautiful 501 to do.

This is Mason's look of "Who is this old character and what was I thinking" at our first stop. He adapted remarkably fast and by the last part of the trail was chewing the back fender off my bike.

The trail kicked us out very near the top of Bolam pass. We went to check the old cabin where we were to meet the rest of the group. Surprise! They weren't there?

Seems we made it to the top just a wee bit ahead of them. So, we tooled over to the lookout to kick back and enjoy the cool breeze and chunk rocks.

After the rest of our crew arrived, we coasted on down the Hermosa side of the mountain. Here's our own Tourmeister showing the world how to splash the dude with the camera who's sitting too close to the stream.

I was going to bail as the rest of the crew headed toward Lime Creek road. Tourmeister questioned my sanity for such assumptions. We decided to go check it out. Turned out to be a really fun and incredibly scenic "road." I did mark a new single track along the way... for future exploration.

 

[TDtrans]

great pics the 10 th cant get here quik enuff

 

[Tourmeister]

Nothing spectacular today. Everyone is getting tired and worn down from the rough stuff. The original route for today got scrubbed based on updated info about some of the roads. Half the guys stayed back to relax, leaving me, Roger, and his son, Mason Rogers to do the ride. On the roads that were fun and which typically have awesome scenery the smoke was terrible. So I only have a few pics. It hit 100 F during the late afternoon and we decided to cut it short and head for the hotel and the hot tub. I got in a whee bit of a hurry and got stopped by one of Colorado’s finest... Fortunately, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry and it is not a huge fine.

Most of the pics are from Black Canyon of the Gunnison and then Hwy 92 along the North side of the Canyon. We made a short run up the South side of the Grand Mesa on Hwy 65. Near the bottom we came up on a motorcycle accident scene. I didn’t see the bike, but I did see them loading the rider into the ambulance. Hope it wasn’t too bad!

Tomorrow we do Imogene and some other fun stuff!

 

[Vinny]

I've been thru those roads/trails many times. Will never get tired of them.
RG and Mike on the same trail ride, 2 of my favorite guys to ride with. Sorry I missed it. Explains why Mike isn't in Cloudcroft.

Have fun boys. Buy some property up there. Only getting hotter over here.

 

[2WheelNut]

Looks like you guys are having an awesome time. I love those roads and trails. They never get old to me.

Thx for the pics. Not as good as being there but helps...

 

[misterk]

Great pics! Thanks

 

[jhansen]

Don’t think of it as a ticket, think of it as a contribution to the State of Colorado coffers. Or maybe call it a “Performance Award”. And we won’t tell Beth.....[emoji106]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[_RG_]

It started getting kinda warm around here. Camp is at 9532' and it was 80 degrees! Time to cool off with some San Juan ice cream in Lake City. Gear on and fired up the 1190R.

Left Silverton and headed for Animas Forks (of coarse). Looking down at the ghost town from the trail to Cinnamon pass.

There were plenty of jeeps and quads to play with along the way. I'm pretty sure one lady tooling along in a quad will need new undies. The 1190 is pretty quiet, really. It's all a matter of perception... what seems like a pretty snug situation to some is actually plenty of room to pass.

Looking back up the valley toward Silverton.

I call this the Cinnamon Window. You're cruising along and the trail narrows with a wall of trees on either side. You come over a quick rise and boom, here's this incredible view of the great San Juans. Pictures just don't do it justice.

Approaching the pass from either side is a rocky ascent and the temp drops to a downright chilly nature. Wind was blowing pretty good too. After making the pass there are some really cool views.

This pair was waiting for me along the trail. I killed the engine and let them pass by.

The ice cream was better than ever and LC was buzzing with it's usual hum. Made it back over Cinnamon just as the evening sun began to spread across the western sky. Really a great day for a motorcycle ride through the Rocky Mountains.