Sunday, June 01, 2008

Riding the Colorado 103 Loop

After watching part of the Blue Knights of Colorado Top Gun Motor Officer competition, I headed west of Lakewood where the competition was held towards Morrison.

Since I was already on the west side of the Denver Metro area, my initial thoughts had been to cruise over to Deer Creek Canyon Road and do some twisty riding.

I ended up on Jewell Avenue westbound off of Kipling and it became Alameda Parkway near where it intersects with C-470. So, change in plans, I decided to ride up towards Red Rocks Park and from there get to Morrison.

Once in Morrison I headed west of town on Bear Creek Canyon Road, traffic was pretty light and I was able to ride the twisting road through Idledale and Kittredge. At Kittredge I came upon an accident scene. I did not see it happen, but what ended up was a motorcycle on its side in the middle of the road. A few other motorcycle riders had gotten there ahead of me and my help was not needed as I pulled to the side of the road.

The rider was fine, he was practicing ATGATT and he gave us all a thumbs up as he wheeled his motorcycle off the road and to the side. Things seemed to be ok so I took off along with two other motorcyclists.

I got on CO74 at Evergreen I think and eventually ended up near Bergen Park and from there took the turn for CO103 which is the road that leads one to Echo Lake and CO5 which is the Mount Evans Road. Highest paved road in the US by the way.

Signs said that the Mount Evans road was open but only to Summit Lake. Having been up there before, I elected to just ride the CO103 loop to Idaho Springs.

Another pass for my Passbagger 50 attempt

Yep, there's a ski resort up here

The view from near the top of the CO103 Road



It was a very nice ride up, a little bit slower going down due to more traffic. I stopped a couple of times to let people get ahead of me so I could have brief spurts of smooth twisting riding.

I tanked up at in the town of Idaho Springs and then just headed home via the I-70 to C470 to E470 super slabs. About 151 miles of riding today, watched the professionals do their thing and got to do some enjoyable riding as well.

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