Riding the Cache La Poudre Scenic Byway with a fellow Rounder

Ken Phenix was staying with me this past weekend, I was his "end of ride" witness for this second attempt at a Ironbutt 1000 miles in 24 hours ride.  Ken made it handily with almost an hour to spare I think, but he was one tired puppy at the end of that ride.

Ken is looking like one tired puppy

Ken's Suzuki Bandit adds to the herd of motorcycles in my garage

After about four hours of sleep, we both rode down to Performance Motorcycle Accessories so Ken could replace the rear tire on his Suzuki Bandit, it was a bit thin down the middle.

He showed me how easy it was to take off the rear wheel, doing it right there in the store's parking lot.  He then took the wheel in and the store swapped it out for him for a small fee.

The next day, once Ken was fully rested with a full night's sleep under his belt....we rode out towards Fort Collins and then West on CO 14, aka the Cache La Poudre Scenic Byway.  The weather was gorgeous though a bit cool, especially for Ken who lives in SE Texas and is used to warmer temperatures by this time of year.

 This is the opening scene when one enters the canyon portion of the Scenic Byway

It's here, where Ken had chosen to stop, that I told him things would get even more scenic.

 Just before the rock tunnel, we stopped for pictures of the motorcycles with the high canyon

walls and flowing Cache La Poudre River flowing by

 Another angle on the motorcycles, the road is quite twisty at times

 a glimpse of the Cache La Poudre river

 The rock tunnel one traverses on CO 14

 A snapshot of Ken from movies we took while at the tunnel area

Several lovely and twisting and turning miles later, we stopped around 1PM for lunch

at Glen Echo resort.

 The requisite food p0rn shots for the readers from the rounders website

of which Ken and I are members

 After lunch, the objective was riding to Cameron Pass, we would be stopped at the above turnoff 

area due to increasingly wet and icy conditions on the road.  

 Ken and I pause for a moment at our furthest point of progress, 

Cameron Pass will have to wait for another day, another ride

 As we headed back East on CO 14, Ken stopped a few times to shoot 

pictures, here he is playing in the snow.

Here I am, with the camera looking back towards the West  

 The last stop we made on CO 14

We didn't go all the way back to Fort Collins to get home, I elected to turn south on Stove Prairie road as it's quite twisty in points and more scenic.  The choice however turned out to be a wet one.  We got snow-showered on during most of the time on this road so not able to enjoy the twists and turns.  In fact, since it was below freezing and the roads were wet, it was a bit worrying for me.  Ken, trusting me implicitly it seems, and riding behind me, told me later he was almost giggling while riding in the falling snow.

After the longest transit of Stove Prairie Road by this writer, we arrived at the crossroads where the small settlement of Masonville still exists.  There's an eclectic collection of ironwork, old contraptions, vehicles, statues and such here for the passing rider:

 This metal sculpture was my third favorite one at the Masonville site

Here's the number one and two metal sculptures at Masonville, we parked 

our motorcycles without realizing what a neat alignment they formed with 

the two statues of wild stallions.

Proceeding south from Masonville, we were soon on CO 52 heading east towards the city of Laporte where we again turned south on US 287 and motorcycled our way through one more snow shower.  We made it hope a bit after 6PM, almost 300 miles under our belts and about 8hrs in the saddle, quite the ride.  We experienced all four seasons, Ken got to see and play in snow, ride during a snow fall and neither motorcycle had issues.