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You all know that it's not over, right? Couple of more good days to ago and a couple of road days to get back to Bryan.
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Conspiracy against riding. I rode 3,744 miles anyway.
- Thread starter humanrace
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Here's a pic of the ridge walkers a little closer.
One of the four Natural Bridges.
I didn't prepare for breakfast in camp because, with the road closed south of Natural Bridges, there was no close place to buy milk. I decided to ride to Mexican Hat for breakfast, with a couple of stops along the way.
Muley Point overlooking Gooseneck State Park in the canyon.
Mexican Hat, the town and the formation it's named after, is hidden in the smoke.
The sign at the Motel, tourist trap and closed cafe in Mexican Hat. The other cafe was also closed. Nice Bridge.
The actual bridge over the San Juan River that would take me 25 miles to Goulding, UT for my eventual breakfast at around noon.
I was kind of glad that the two cafes in Mexican Hat were closed. It forced me to travel to Goulding Lodge where I ate green chili stew with Navaho fry bread. Yes!!!!
This was my view out the window.
Backtrack toward Cortez which would be my stopping point. Looking over my shoulder, I realized there was another View of an iconic place, this one with the road turning left at the horizon.
Of course that wasn't THE PLACE so I stopped again
The namesake of the town
I stayed in the weirdest motel of this trip and many other trips. Sitting on the commode, my knees hit the wall in front of me. The toilet paper was in the ideal place for a contortionist. I turned the hot water on and 5 minutes later it was still cold. I walked to the office and was instantly shown the sign, No Refunds, taped to the counter top. I explained I just wanted a room with hot water and was told the maintenance man would meet me at my room. It turns out the maintenance man was living in the tiny room next to mine with his wife, two small children and three dogs. I had left the water on while going to the office and when I went into the room with the maintenance man, I could tell he thought I was an idiot because the water was running hot. The next morning I turned the water on and checked it every minute and it started to warm at 14 minutes.
The commode and contortionist TP
Day 10
Along the road from Cortez to Telluride.
I decided to take the Last Dollar Divide cut off to Ridgeway and I am glad I did. The scenery was great and the road was a class 3 for maybe ten miles.
Aspen were dense for long stretches
I stopped at a motorcycle shop in Montrose. My phone said they were a motorcycle service center, but they sold Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha and Husqvarna according to the sign. The sign didn't say KTM, but they sold them and I didn't see any Huskys. They had more inventory than my local shops. I bought chain lube, discussed area roads with one of the salesmen and headed to Monarch Pass.
The sign at the tram says the most scenic views in Colorado are available for a fee and a short ride on a cable car. I've never paid. If you have, should I the next time?
This is Dan of Dan's Land-Free Camping between Salida and Buena Vista, Colorado. Search for it on Google Maps.
He is a very interesting man and I'm going to tell a wordy story about him later. I know most of you just want to look at pictures, but I think Dan deserves a little more attention.
Dan recently rolled his truck. His advise to me was, "If you're driving tired, don't use the cruise control." He used a jack and some 2X4 lumber to do the body work on the truck top so his door would shut.
Now the story: About 15 to 20 years ago, five of us had driven overnight to Colorado to ride dual sport bikes on jeep roads. We got there on Saturday of a 4th of July weekend and surprise, we couldn't find a campsite, a motel or anything else. We resigned ourselves to staying overnight in the WalMart parking lot in Salida, camping in my van. As we were driving to town Jeff said, "Hey, there's a campground down that road. I explained that I had been there and the campground was small and only had about four sites and they were right on the river and highly desirable. There was no talking him out of checking so we did a U-turn and went down the maintained gravel road. On the way, Jeff shouted, "There's a sign that says free camping." I told him it said No Trespassing.
All the sites on the river were filled and we headed back. Sure enough, there was a sign that read, "Dan's Land-Free Camping" and we pulled in and camped there in five tents for four nights. I'm sure Jeff gloated to himself. No one ever came by or even waved at us as they drove up and down the road. On the fifth day someone suggested that we go whitewater rafting instead of bike riding and everyone agreed even though I was the only one that had ever been in whitewater.
We were driving along Hwy 285 trying to decide which one of the 16 different rafting places was going to get our business when a young lady in a white bikini came out of the office of The River Runners. The consensus was that we didn't need to look any further so we turned around and went in. Just as a point, we never saw the woman in the white bikini again or for that matter any women in bikinis. We signed up for class five whitewater with four of us lying about our experience in rafts and our health. They were not accepting heart problems, high blood pressure, asthma sufferers, diabetics or inexperienced rafters for class 5 water. We had all five types in our group.
We were sent down by the river to wait for our guide and a van that would take us to the launch spot. Along came a jolly man that was bent over at the waist about 90 degrees because of sciatic nerve damage. He held his hand out to me, twisted his neck so he could look up at my face and loudly proclaimed, "HI, I'M DAN AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE." Jeff immediately asked, "Are you Dan from Dan's Land-Free Camping?" He responded, "Yep. Are you the freeloaders that have been camping there for a week?" He then laughed loudly.
We picked the one guide service out of 16 and they assigned us Dan out of their 28 guides. Some coincidence.
These are pictures of pictures from 20 years ago because I don't have a scanner or the originals. Class 5 water with newbies in the boat. I'm in the left front of the boat with Jeff on my right.
Dan in the back guiding the raft in class 5.
Dan not in the boat with four newbies and an idiot that agreed to get in the boat with them.
Back to our regularly scheduled program. My morning view from my campsite at Dan's Land.
Day 11
After waking up to a beautiful view, I made plans to get back home. My wife wanted me to meet her doctor before her operation so I decided to do a couple of long days to get home. My mom's resting place is 62 miles in the opposite direction from my house, but I decided to add 124 miles to my journey.
Mom's resting place. Looking left.
Looking right
Bishop's Castle was on the way home so I made a brief stop. The castle is 160"' tall. There is a man climbing in the spire at the top. Zoom in to see him.
Not much work has been done on the castle in the 5 years since I was there and found out Jim had cancer. For those of you that have been keeping up with Jim Bishop, castle builder, he recently had a cat scan and was cancer free. He's been building the castle, nearly all by himself, for over 50 years. He's in his late 70s and still building. The castle was built with a truck and a winch. Now, Jim is working on a dungeon out front. The lawsuit was found in Jim's favor and he is the sole owner. The equipment you see in this picture is being used to build a souvenir shop to replace one that burned down. It's being paid for by donations and Jim has nothing to do with it except for saying OK.
479 miles today.
Day 12 572 miles today and home today
I saw this VW trike being ridden by a tiny woman. She and her husband, on his chopper, were returning from Sturgis and going to Dallas.
Statistics
Bike-2018 DRZ400
Rider-overweight retired man
Days gone-12
shortest day-29 miles
Longest day-572 miles
Total-3,744 miles
Average-312 miles per day
Amount of fun-immeasurable
Beauty seen-my eyes are sore from looking
One of the four Natural Bridges.
I didn't prepare for breakfast in camp because, with the road closed south of Natural Bridges, there was no close place to buy milk. I decided to ride to Mexican Hat for breakfast, with a couple of stops along the way.
Muley Point overlooking Gooseneck State Park in the canyon.
Mexican Hat, the town and the formation it's named after, is hidden in the smoke.
The sign at the Motel, tourist trap and closed cafe in Mexican Hat. The other cafe was also closed. Nice Bridge.
The actual bridge over the San Juan River that would take me 25 miles to Goulding, UT for my eventual breakfast at around noon.
I was kind of glad that the two cafes in Mexican Hat were closed. It forced me to travel to Goulding Lodge where I ate green chili stew with Navaho fry bread. Yes!!!!
This was my view out the window.
Backtrack toward Cortez which would be my stopping point. Looking over my shoulder, I realized there was another View of an iconic place, this one with the road turning left at the horizon.
Of course that wasn't THE PLACE so I stopped again
The namesake of the town
I stayed in the weirdest motel of this trip and many other trips. Sitting on the commode, my knees hit the wall in front of me. The toilet paper was in the ideal place for a contortionist. I turned the hot water on and 5 minutes later it was still cold. I walked to the office and was instantly shown the sign, No Refunds, taped to the counter top. I explained I just wanted a room with hot water and was told the maintenance man would meet me at my room. It turns out the maintenance man was living in the tiny room next to mine with his wife, two small children and three dogs. I had left the water on while going to the office and when I went into the room with the maintenance man, I could tell he thought I was an idiot because the water was running hot. The next morning I turned the water on and checked it every minute and it started to warm at 14 minutes.
The commode and contortionist TP
Day 10
Along the road from Cortez to Telluride.
I decided to take the Last Dollar Divide cut off to Ridgeway and I am glad I did. The scenery was great and the road was a class 3 for maybe ten miles.
Aspen were dense for long stretches
I stopped at a motorcycle shop in Montrose. My phone said they were a motorcycle service center, but they sold Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha and Husqvarna according to the sign. The sign didn't say KTM, but they sold them and I didn't see any Huskys. They had more inventory than my local shops. I bought chain lube, discussed area roads with one of the salesmen and headed to Monarch Pass.
The sign at the tram says the most scenic views in Colorado are available for a fee and a short ride on a cable car. I've never paid. If you have, should I the next time?
This is Dan of Dan's Land-Free Camping between Salida and Buena Vista, Colorado. Search for it on Google Maps.
He is a very interesting man and I'm going to tell a wordy story about him later. I know most of you just want to look at pictures, but I think Dan deserves a little more attention.
Dan recently rolled his truck. His advise to me was, "If you're driving tired, don't use the cruise control." He used a jack and some 2X4 lumber to do the body work on the truck top so his door would shut.
Now the story: About 15 to 20 years ago, five of us had driven overnight to Colorado to ride dual sport bikes on jeep roads. We got there on Saturday of a 4th of July weekend and surprise, we couldn't find a campsite, a motel or anything else. We resigned ourselves to staying overnight in the WalMart parking lot in Salida, camping in my van. As we were driving to town Jeff said, "Hey, there's a campground down that road. I explained that I had been there and the campground was small and only had about four sites and they were right on the river and highly desirable. There was no talking him out of checking so we did a U-turn and went down the maintained gravel road. On the way, Jeff shouted, "There's a sign that says free camping." I told him it said No Trespassing.
All the sites on the river were filled and we headed back. Sure enough, there was a sign that read, "Dan's Land-Free Camping" and we pulled in and camped there in five tents for four nights. I'm sure Jeff gloated to himself. No one ever came by or even waved at us as they drove up and down the road. On the fifth day someone suggested that we go whitewater rafting instead of bike riding and everyone agreed even though I was the only one that had ever been in whitewater.
We were driving along Hwy 285 trying to decide which one of the 16 different rafting places was going to get our business when a young lady in a white bikini came out of the office of The River Runners. The consensus was that we didn't need to look any further so we turned around and went in. Just as a point, we never saw the woman in the white bikini again or for that matter any women in bikinis. We signed up for class five whitewater with four of us lying about our experience in rafts and our health. They were not accepting heart problems, high blood pressure, asthma sufferers, diabetics or inexperienced rafters for class 5 water. We had all five types in our group.
We were sent down by the river to wait for our guide and a van that would take us to the launch spot. Along came a jolly man that was bent over at the waist about 90 degrees because of sciatic nerve damage. He held his hand out to me, twisted his neck so he could look up at my face and loudly proclaimed, "HI, I'M DAN AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE." Jeff immediately asked, "Are you Dan from Dan's Land-Free Camping?" He responded, "Yep. Are you the freeloaders that have been camping there for a week?" He then laughed loudly.
We picked the one guide service out of 16 and they assigned us Dan out of their 28 guides. Some coincidence.
These are pictures of pictures from 20 years ago because I don't have a scanner or the originals. Class 5 water with newbies in the boat. I'm in the left front of the boat with Jeff on my right.
Dan in the back guiding the raft in class 5.
Dan not in the boat with four newbies and an idiot that agreed to get in the boat with them.
Back to our regularly scheduled program. My morning view from my campsite at Dan's Land.
Day 11
After waking up to a beautiful view, I made plans to get back home. My wife wanted me to meet her doctor before her operation so I decided to do a couple of long days to get home. My mom's resting place is 62 miles in the opposite direction from my house, but I decided to add 124 miles to my journey.
Mom's resting place. Looking left.
Looking right
Bishop's Castle was on the way home so I made a brief stop. The castle is 160"' tall. There is a man climbing in the spire at the top. Zoom in to see him.
Not much work has been done on the castle in the 5 years since I was there and found out Jim had cancer. For those of you that have been keeping up with Jim Bishop, castle builder, he recently had a cat scan and was cancer free. He's been building the castle, nearly all by himself, for over 50 years. He's in his late 70s and still building. The castle was built with a truck and a winch. Now, Jim is working on a dungeon out front. The lawsuit was found in Jim's favor and he is the sole owner. The equipment you see in this picture is being used to build a souvenir shop to replace one that burned down. It's being paid for by donations and Jim has nothing to do with it except for saying OK.
479 miles today.
Day 12 572 miles today and home today
I saw this VW trike being ridden by a tiny woman. She and her husband, on his chopper, were returning from Sturgis and going to Dallas.
Statistics
Bike-2018 DRZ400
Rider-overweight retired man
Days gone-12
shortest day-29 miles
Longest day-572 miles
Total-3,744 miles
Average-312 miles per day
Amount of fun-immeasurable
Beauty seen-my eyes are sore from looking
Attachments
Last edited:
Windmill
0
Great report. It is good that you visited your mom's beautiful resting place. She is pleased with you.
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A truly great RR, thank you. It was great to see sights that I haven't seen in a number of years and have those memories rekindled.
When in Cortez at lunch or dinner time there's a great Mexican restaurant called Tequila's on the main strip that we always eat at. We were unsure about it the first time until a group came in from right off the ranch. It looked like the ranch owner or manager and half a dozen of his vaqueros, all with spurs jangling. At that point we felt we made the right decision and we've been going back ever since.
When in Cortez at lunch or dinner time there's a great Mexican restaurant called Tequila's on the main strip that we always eat at. We were unsure about it the first time until a group came in from right off the ranch. It looked like the ranch owner or manager and half a dozen of his vaqueros, all with spurs jangling. At that point we felt we made the right decision and we've been going back ever since.
Thanks for taking the time to share, what a great rip. Hope your wife is doing well, these days a hip surgery is not the carnage of yore!
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Thanks for taking us along. I really hope to be able to travel like this in the next few years. I like your balance of riding and looking at things along the way.
Thanks for sharing about Dan. He probably has lots of good memories from “freeloaders” camping on his land.
Take care of your wife and plan your next route.
Thanks for sharing about Dan. He probably has lots of good memories from “freeloaders” camping on his land.
Take care of your wife and plan your next route.
Reminds me of a time we had most of a day off on a TV shoot in Albuquerque. All the NY crew wanted to go to Santa Fe for brunch & since I knew the area fairly well I drove them up through the Pueblos with the aromatic smoke from Sunday lunch curling out of the hornos. As we drove into Santa Fe on the Camino Real I spotted an old Pizza Hut converted into a family restaurant. Parked in front were 2 high-dollar, shiny pickups, both with reservation plates.A truly great RR, thank you. It was great to see sights that I haven't seen in a number of years and have those memories rekindled.
When in Cortez at lunch or dinner time there's a great Mexican restaurant called Tequila's on the main strip that we always eat at. We were unsure about it the first time until a group came in from right off the ranch. It looked like the ranch owner or manager and half a dozen of his vaqueros, all with spurs jangling. At that point we felt we made the right decision and we've been going back ever since.
I immediately whipped into the parking lot, with screams from my passengers that they wanted to eat on the Square not at some old pizza place! I told them to all just shuddup and trust me on this one. As we entered we saw the truck's occupants, two immaculately dressed elderly Navajo couples, the ladies dripping with turquoise and silver seated with that quiet, noble poise you see in their culture.
Of course we had the most incredible food, home cooked family recipes served on locally handcrafted clay plates and seated on hand carved furniture, all for under $10 each. As we left the crew asked me "how did you know?" I told them the trucks were the clue and these abuelas would never eat anywhere that didn't cook better than they did!
Thankfully Los Potrillos seems to have survived Covid too, and like you I've been back as often as possible - https://goo.gl/maps/V1Rwa9T9a7MsBiSj8
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I forgot to mention, Dan had a hip replacement operation just a couple of years ago and the operation cured his sciatic nerve pain. He can walk upright. Google his place and camp there if you are ever in the area, get him talking about himself and take a raft ride with him. You will enjoy sharing his life. If he were a writer he would be famous. The man lives in what many would believe to be extreme poverty despite having a net worth that would make many envious. He seems extremely happy.
Last edited:
dukey33
0
But did you die?
Johnf3
0
You are my hero humanrace. I hope I am alive to do what you are doing when I am your age, which is sooner rather than later. We just had a race (Enduro) last month in the mountains right behind Bishops Castle. Turned off on Ophir Creek Rd just a mile or two west of the castle there and then up 25 miles of washboard road to the race start at around 11K feet.
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Should I ask for my money back?
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How did you pay attention to the course with all that beauty around you?
Johnf3
0
It was beautiful. There is a trail there called "Horse Ranch" that is a series of steep switchbacks up a mountain. If you went off the side of the trail you weren't getting back up. I guess you would just have to let gravity help until you reached the switchback below that you just came up. It did have my full attention but at the top the view to the west and south was stunning. Always wanted to ride that part of the San Isabel national Forest and I finally checked the box this year. Someday I am going to take a ride like the one you are documenting right now.How did you pay attention to the course with all that beauty around you?
_RG_
Forum Supporter
Truly an enjoyable ride report. Some familiar country and some I've never seen before. Thanks for taking us along.
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Thanks _RGH_
Also thanks for all the prayers. Linda is home. The operation went better than planned and she walked out of the hospital much better than she walked in. On the way home we stopped at Cycle Shack in Conroe and looked at new adventure bikes. Who knows?
Also thanks for all the prayers. Linda is home. The operation went better than planned and she walked out of the hospital much better than she walked in. On the way home we stopped at Cycle Shack in Conroe and looked at new adventure bikes. Who knows?
Most awesome report.
You can get as wordy as you like.
You can get as wordy as you like.
I loved reading your ride report and I'm glad Linda's surgery went well. I've been wanting to spend a week here and there tooling around in Utah, I love canyon hikes. I added a bunch more saved locations to my map while looking at your gorgeous photos!
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Sign me up