Johnf3
0
Ride Reports are some of my favorite posts to read. I look at some of the other pictures from other reports and see pictures and routes that I took myself, some within a few days of when I was there. So, this report is nothing new. No food pictures, no selfies (why ruin great scenery with my ugly mug), just mostly scenery pictures and a few others. I’ll try to concentrate on a few other aspects just to be a little different from all the other outstanding reports already posted here. With that preface we are off.
The last week of September I was invited to a week long ride around the San Juans. 99% dirt with single track and tougher jeep roads the focus. Our group ranged from a teenager on up to riders in their 50’s. The ride started out at a family cabin built in 1950 out of aspen harvested on site. The property belongs to the ride leader, and is located near the west end of Rio Grande Reservoir east of Silverton. It was a five day ride (M-F) with Saturday being the ride back. We stayed at a different place each evening until we made it to Rico where we stayed for two riding days.
The cabin is the real deal. Propane lights, water drawn from a creek coming out of the mountain behind the cabin. Amazing. I set up camp in the forest the first night but after that it was all first class lodging. Well, I will talk about Rico later.
Monday morning I woke up to this view.
The cabin sits on the west end of the lake, an 8 mile impoundment of the Rio Grande not far from the continental Divide and the headwaters of the river itself. It is beautiful.
A note about the foliage. We hit the absolute peak by the end of the week. Now I know why we ran into busloads of 80 year olds later on in Ouray.
I think there were nine of us (I will count later when I post the group pic). Everyone was on a KTM (mostly 300 two strokes), there was one Husky (a new blue KTM), and then me on my Husaberg—the last real Husaberg that KTM produced before killing the brand (not bitter, ha). All had license plates of some fashion. My bike worked out perfect. We logged just short of 500 miles and I did nothing to the bike except add coolant a couple of times (more on that later). We had a full chase truck and trailer with enough spares to open a shop. Also more on that later.
My ride for this trip
Next installment: Day One. Singletrack and jeep roads from our starting point to Inn of the Arrowhead. Single track teaser picture from day one.
The last week of September I was invited to a week long ride around the San Juans. 99% dirt with single track and tougher jeep roads the focus. Our group ranged from a teenager on up to riders in their 50’s. The ride started out at a family cabin built in 1950 out of aspen harvested on site. The property belongs to the ride leader, and is located near the west end of Rio Grande Reservoir east of Silverton. It was a five day ride (M-F) with Saturday being the ride back. We stayed at a different place each evening until we made it to Rico where we stayed for two riding days.
The cabin is the real deal. Propane lights, water drawn from a creek coming out of the mountain behind the cabin. Amazing. I set up camp in the forest the first night but after that it was all first class lodging. Well, I will talk about Rico later.
Monday morning I woke up to this view.
The cabin sits on the west end of the lake, an 8 mile impoundment of the Rio Grande not far from the continental Divide and the headwaters of the river itself. It is beautiful.
A note about the foliage. We hit the absolute peak by the end of the week. Now I know why we ran into busloads of 80 year olds later on in Ouray.
I think there were nine of us (I will count later when I post the group pic). Everyone was on a KTM (mostly 300 two strokes), there was one Husky (a new blue KTM), and then me on my Husaberg—the last real Husaberg that KTM produced before killing the brand (not bitter, ha). All had license plates of some fashion. My bike worked out perfect. We logged just short of 500 miles and I did nothing to the bike except add coolant a couple of times (more on that later). We had a full chase truck and trailer with enough spares to open a shop. Also more on that later.
My ride for this trip
Next installment: Day One. Singletrack and jeep roads from our starting point to Inn of the Arrowhead. Single track teaser picture from day one.
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