Slow Riding on Mother's Day

Temperatures from high 50s to high 70s depending on the elevation. Sunny, little to no wind.

Mother's Day activities pretty much kept me from riding till after lunch, I left soon after 1300 hrs and headed over through Denver to CO58 and from there past the Coors Brewery once again to the Golden Gate Canyon Road exit off of CO93.

I'd meant to do some nice twisty riding but it was not to be. Everybody and his brother were out on bikes and cages on the roads I was on. No matter how I'd delay or wait or try to get in between clots of cars, I'd end up stuck in a line of cars slowing making our way down Golden Gate Canyon Road's twists and turns. Oh well. The price of gas apparently is not preventing the cagers from getting out and enjoying the scenery.

Here's another set of pictures of a set of curves on this great canyon road:

On Golden Gate Canyon Road

I eventually made it to the junction with CO119 and took a brief water break there along with some other riders. I studied the map and decided to take CO119 South towards Blackhawk and its casinos and from there ride US6's twisty canyon road back towards Golden.

Traffic remained heavy throughout the ride though I was able to make decent speed on CO119. Here's the view of the road just West of Blackhawk.

On CO119, just West of the city of Blackhawk

CO6 was full of traffic as well but it moved pretty smoothly and it seemed like the westbound traffic was heavier, this was good for me since I was going eastbound towards Golden.

Once in Golden, I wandered a couple of streets in and around the Coors Brewery for a bit. Tiring finally of that, I headed back home using the E470 Slab to get to the Quebec Street exit near the Park Meadows Mall.

Once past the mall, I took the winding road through a business park and eventually got on Arapahoe Road and soon afterwards, was home after tanking up. 130 miles of riding with about 3 hours of saddle time. It was pretty nice riding conditions, I did have to put on the jacket liner in the mountains since I was only wearing a tshirt under my riding jacket. That liner came off soon after I neared Golden, much too warm by then.

Lesson learned: You want open roads and space for spirited twisty riding? Go early in the morning! Definitely, not Sunday afternoon! : )