Pre-Run Report
So I decided to take a mental health day yesterday and played hooky. After much deliberation I determined some time on the bike would do me good and headed out the door with the intention of cruising around for an hour or so. I ended up riding through to Paonia with a beer-break at Electric Mountain Lodge. I left at 3PM and got home at 8PM. The last hour was chilly but the rest of the day was perfect riding weather.
Sunlight Mountain, I'll be skiing here soon enough.
Fall is in Full Effect
First time riding the CRF with a street bike helmet, the difference in noise level vs. my dirtbike helmet is huge. It made for a very quiet relaxing fall ride.
Obligatory Poser Shot
I ran into some fellow outdoor enthusiasts
I had some dark clouds threatening all afternoon, but never got a drop.
Glad I left the house.
I even found some excellent single track in my wanderings.
Even at the highest point in the ride the temp was still quite comfortable.
I took a crack at moving this tree, said F#&% it and rode over it.
This turned out to be one of my favorite rides ever. Perfect temp. Perfect Scenery. And this layer of leaves with some tacky mud below was a complete hoot to ride on. Slick enough to slide the bike around, but a whack of the throttle would dig through the leaves and you had all the traction you could want. It was highly addicting!
After you get over 4-Mile and Baylor the roads open up a bit and the speeds increase.
Excuse the weird stitching my panorama app is a bit off at times.
The scenery changes, but it's still not too shabby.
About 2.5 hours in and I'm almost to the lodge, I can taste that beer already!
Ahh! A nice refreshing BlueMoon, my sports drink of choice for adventure motorcycling.
Dining area at the Lodge. I scanned the menu and created a .pdf, there were a couple other people eating and the food looked excellent! I was starving but I needed to hit the road or I would be doing a lot of riding in the dark.
Hit Paonia and headed back up 133 towards McClure Pass. I had to stop and clean my faceshield so I snapped a quick photo in front of this big-ass silo.
Near the top of McClure Pass: I may have passed a few slow moving tourists on the way up and one lady from Arkansas felt the need to stop and inform me that I had been exceeding the speed limit. She cut her lecture short and sped off when she realized I was taking a leak next to my bike.
It's all downhill from here... I rode a couple miles down the dirt rode that starts at the summit. Some great scenery and camp sites, I need to go back and explore this area some more.
After exploring the summit for a while I cruised down 133 past Marble, Redstone and coasted into Carbondale on fumes. Put 4.3 gallons into my 4.0 gallon tank and slabbed it home on Highway 82. I can't wait to do this ride again in a couple weeks!
Combining this ride with Kebler Pass and some exploring in that area is going to be a beastly day. At this juncture I would like to motion for grabbing a hotel in Crested Butte on Saturday night. Getting home to a hot shower and a hot meal was the perfect end to a great day of riding.