T-Dubing along the Shelf Road from Cripple Creek to Cañon City

Today Yagi and I rode over to Cripple Creek using part of the Gold Belt Tour Road system, using CO9 to CR11 ending up in Cripple Creek where we got onto the Shelf Road aka Teller County 88.

But first, some pictures of the sunrise I woke up to, not too shabby:

The northern part of the Shelf Road is a bit of a twisty roller coaster, narrow dirt road, steep hills and lots of blind curves with careening cagers speeding their way through the area.  It pays to stay alert.

 A lovely view of far off peaks near Cripple Creek

 The rock formations on the Shelf Road are much more

scenic than the ones on Phantom Canyon Road IMHO

 It's been several years since I've been on this road, 

and the Eye of the Needle ridge is quite the sight.

 The other side of the Eye of the Needle Ridge.

The following pictures illustrate why they call this road the Shelf Road.  Once you cross over Wilson Creek, you gain some altitude and the valley floor drops off very fast giving you these views:

At the end of the Shelf Road, the road becomes Red Canyon Road and one comes to the Shelf Road Recreation Area, a BLM campground with decent cellular data coverage. 

Further on down the Red Canyon Road, you come to another BLM site, Oil Well Flats.  The entrance is a bit tricky for a long RV but I think Umarang could do it.  There were a couple of wide camp sites with decent signal as well and the road into the area was better than what I drive to get into the Penrose camping site!

 The view from one of the campsites at Oil Well Flats BLM

After three turns or so, you end up in Cañon City's 15th street that you can take all the way to US50.  

Fire Station Mascot?

Once on US50, it was 3rd street all the way back to the Penrose BLM area to avoid the higher speed traffic on US50.  Boy my butt was feeling it after almost 5 hours of sitting on Yagi's seat; and that's with a Maddog ATV seat cushion on top!

Still, a good day of riding.  The Shelf Road is not in as good a shape as Phantom Canyon Road but its quite Uralable, so a piece of cake for Yagi.

Riding Yagi on Phantom Canyon Road

Glamping again at the Penrose BLM site.

After work, rode over to CO State Highway 67, aka Phantom Canyon Road.  It used to be a railroad route between the town of Florence and Cripple Creek.  Apparently a lot of gold was transported by train back in the day.

Nowadays it's a pretty smooth dirt road with two narrow railroad tunnels and one remaining steel bridge (I think it's been restored, looks too good).

 Towering, rocky canyon walls

 The southern or Lower Tunnel entrance

 The northern side of the Lower Tunnel

I rode past the Upper Tunnel and turned around after riding across the Steel Bridge pictured below.

 Another view of interesting Canyon Walls

 Posing Yagi near a rocky ledge

Here's a view of the southern side of the Upper Tunnel:

There were several tent campsites established along the creek bed that carved out the canyon, no cell service but I guess the campers I saw come out here to disconnect from the real world.

Got back to the Penrose BLM campsite with no issues.  No clouds so not much of a sunset today.  Perhaps tomorrow.

Short Rides

Last ten days or so have been a bit of a strain in the House of Chang.

Miles, aka Thing 2, was finally diagnosed with a severe case of Mononucleosis and much time was spent in different emergency rooms and urgent care facilities over the last couple of months before that was determined.

Good news is, all other much more worrisome causes have been eliminated, it's definitely Mono. 

In between visits to medical facilities, I worked in some short rides.

April 7...clear views of nearby peaks

 Mount Evans

 Pikes Peak

April 8 Sunset

 Lovely from a distance

Denver is a cesspool up close

April 14, another sunset

A Little Bit of Red

I think it was SonjaM, who told me before I acquired Scarlett, my red 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig, that National Geographic photographers liked to have a dash of red somewhere in their pictures.

Over the years, people remarked how well Scarlett's red color showed up in pictures.

Yagi, the newest motorcycle in the stable (or harem as Martha calls them) is a mix of black/blue and silver colors, but mostly black.

This color scheme makes it really hard for Yagi to be seen clearly in some of my pictures.  Of course, over the years, my focus has been to minimize the presence of the motorcycle and emphasize the scenery I see in my rides; but I do want folks to notice Yagi when she's present.

So, here's a thought that's been rattling around my brain of late.

A rattle can paint job, with the brightest red I can find that is good for plastics and paint the presently black plastics (most of them) on Yagi:

Yagi as she is now

 Minimalist Red

Redhead Minimalist

 A bit more red, would involve a red seat cover too so

now we're talking more money than a can of spray paint.

 Over the top Red

Your feedback, my few faithful readers, is requested.  I may end up not doing any painting but your thoughts would be appreciated.