A Ride to Guffey, CO

Pretty good riding weather today, sunny, warm with temps ranging from mid 70s to mid 90s in spots.

I first made my way down to Colorado Springs via Parker and CO83. I followed the GPS directions to Action Cycle who is the local URAL dealer near me. I was curious to see if they had a URAL sidecar rig on the lot and they did. It was the "Gear-Up" version, camouflage paint scheme. The one they had only had 483km on its odometer and apparently had racked up those miles by being used by the owner to go back and forth from work to home. It's just as well it was already sold to someone, I found the pedal arrangement on the right a bit cramped. The seat was no great shakes either and there were class one leaks on each axle. Maybe that's normal but still something unsettling.

I made my way then to Manitou Springs and saw the sign for the Cave of the Winds tourist trap. The way up to it is steep and hairpin curve-filled. Nice. Here's a couple of shots from the top, I elected NOT to go and take the cave tour.




I went on back to US24 heading West. I thought I'd see about finally getting around to checking out the skeleton horses in the little town of Guffey. It lies about 30 miles south of the junction of US24 and CO9.

The way to this road junction leads you through Florissant and then Lake George Park. Maria went over 40k miles on her odometer a little west of Lake George Park. A few more miles onwards you come upon Wilkerson Pass which empties out into a vast valley as you head West.




I finally got to Guffey shortly before 1600 and I gotta tell ya, it was a bit of a disappointment. It's just a few public buildings, some delapidated stores with mounds of junk for sale disguised as antiques. Scores of old cars rusting away along with collections of farm equipment. The town is quite run down overall and the objective I had sought it out for, a montage of a couple of skeleton horses pulling a prisoner's cage was ok but nothing more.

City Hall has looked better, I am sure

So, I headed back pretty much the way I came, back on CO9 to US24 this time heading East back towards Colorado Springs and the I-25 Superslab. I took this slab to Castlerock and then back roads back to Parker and from there more of the usual back roads to home. Got home shortly before 1900, about 330 miles more Maria's belt without any problems or cager issues except for being stuck behind slow trailers at points.