Riding the snowy eastern plains

Late start for me today, the plan had been to ride over to the Boulder area and see what sights presented themselves. On the way out of my home neighborhood though, I noticed my bicycle speedometer which I've been using to "supplement" the Ural's speedometer was not working.

It was cold, in the upper 20s so the Ural's speedometer was doing its usual "windshield wiper" dance leaving me unable to tell how fast I was going. I thought to continue on but ended up stopping at the Denver Tech Center for troubleshooting of the bicycle speedometer.

Found a broken wire but the dang bike speedometer refused to work once I had it patched up. I turned Natasha around and headed for the Target store near Buckley Rd and Quincy. There I found a new bike speedometer for $11! Cheap!

Bought the new speedometer, got it home and less than 30 minutes later, had it installed and working.

So I headed out once again, tanked up and this time headed east along County Line Rd off of Smoky Hill Rd to check out the weather clouds I'd spotted in that direction.

Pretty soon, I was cruising at 40 mph on dirt county roads. I headed basically east by north and ended up using CR 129 to get to Bennett. I saw where they'd demolished the buildings that had once surrounded the old original grain silo:

Taken during 24JAN09, this is the original silo at Bennett

Today, all that remains is the main silo building itself. I am thinking that too will be demolished soon.


The skies, which had been mostly cloudy up to this point, became heavily overcast and I was soon seeing light snow falling as I got to the town of Strasburg using CO Hwy 36.

Once past Strasburg, I got on CO Hyw 40 and continued heading east for a bit. A few miles before the small town of Deer Trail, I turned south to check out the old racetrack building one can see from I-70. The entrance was blocked so I just continued heading south on dirt county roads as the snow grew increasingly heavier and the winds picked up. It was starting to feel "brisk.

I wandered the county roads and soon found myself looking at fog both to my front and rear so I stopped for these shots:

Fog and snow near Strasburg

I kept heading in a generally west by north direction as allowed by the straight dirt roads which separate the large ranches in the area. Each time I hit a "dead end" sign, I'd change direction; with the eventual goal of making my way back to Bennett.

On one of the county roads, I came upon this small and narrow bridge over a meandering creek. It provided for a nice background don't you think?

Lonely bridge out in the eastern praries

More riding on dirt and some pavement later, I spotted the silos of Bennett and turned in their direction. Pretty soon I was back on CO Hwy 36 which I took westward to the town of Watkins.

I even spotted a lone motorcyclist pulling out of a trailer park but he soon left me behind as he raced westward to the sun. You see, the skies to the west of Bennett were nice and clear and the sun was shining brightly.

I headed south on Watkins Rd from the town of Watkins and soon enough I was at its junction with Quincy Rd. Less than 20 minutes later, I was in my home neighborhoods and the temperatures were in the mid 30s I think. No snow, and sunny; what a difference just a few straight-line miles made in terms of weather!

Natasha did great again, the new bike speedometer works fine as well. She was covered in muddy dirt specks from the riding on the dirt roads, I'll probably wash her tomorrow. About 120 miles of riding on slightly muddy country roads with a bit of snow thrown in for variety.