Slept in (it was glorious!), and departed the house close to 10:00 AM, destination the hardware store for some supplies and from there a tentative ride to Lookout Mountain near Golden, CO. The mountain is home to the grave of Buffalo Bill and a small museum dedicated to his memory. It's also pretty much the closest mountain to the Denver area that one can ride to and enjoy without a lot of driving time.
It was close to 11:30 by the time I got to Golden and proceeded along the 19th Street entrance to the road that takes one winding up the mountain. There were bicyclists galore but they were mostly following the rules and hugging the side of the road as they huffed and puffed their way up the mountain.
Scarlett and I stopped at the first open spot on the way up the
mountain, where one can get a fine view of Golden, the School of Mines and
the Coors Brewery. Flanking the city, are North and South Table Mesas.
I believe that's Green Mountain in the background, looking
SE from the above stopping point.
Further up the mountain, once can get quite close to the rocks
painted white by the students of The School of Mines; the rocks
form the large M visible for miles.
After reaching the top and finding my usual stopping spot eliminated by the
moving of the guard rail, I started back down and stopped for one
more shot of Golden.
One of the several hairpin turns one negotiates while ascending
and descending the gentle grades of Lookout Mountain.
As I was walking to set up another pano shot, I saw another URAL sidecar rig stop and pull in next to Scarlett. I walked back to the rig and it turned out to be Dan K. Dan was also tooling around since it was such a nice day.
Dan K and his GearUP
Dan and I BS'ed for quite a while. He told me jokingly that it was time to sell the URALs, they were becoming too commonplace! You see, he'd run into new Uralista Marc L with his Battleship Blue GearUP on the back road from Left Hand Canyon Road!
What are the odds, unless you plan in advance, of running into another sidecar rig right?
Once Dan K. geared back up and left, I finished the last pano shot of the day:
It was quite warm by now, temperatures had to have been in the low 80s at least! I rode sedately back through the city, ending up back home just before 4:00 PM. Not too bad a day of riding, Scarlett did fine and no close calls from unwary and clueless cagers, a good way to spend a Sunday.
7 comments:
It looks like a nice day to be out and about. Funny comment about Ural being too common. Maybe it's just in Colorado. After all, they sold something like 1,200 units last year?
After today's ride, the leading link front end sounds pretty attractive.
A wonderful way to spend the day. And you didn't know when you started out you were heading for an impromptu Ural meet-up.
A perfect day: Sleeping in (a luxury!), a warm day, motorcycling plus a UDF by another Ural.
Love the hairpin pano shots!!!
I remember you said the steering is lighter on the Ural than on your rig....you looking for a leading link front end? Or easier yet, buy a used Ural? :)
Trobairitz, seems Ural rigs are no longer rarer than hen'a teeth!
Thanks SonjaM, it was pretty nice.
Dom:
I don't believe it ! You never sleep in, otherwise you could have gone to a farther mountain but then you would have missed the Ural meet-up.
I still don't see many Urals around here. I'm not even sure where the Ural dealer is. They used to be downtown on Powell Street but they moved to Langley somewhere
One of the few times I ditched my gear was when I was your Monkey, and it felt a bit funny without it. I sometimes make an exception in 100°F weather not to put on my riding pants if I am not riding on a highway
bob
A weekend photographer or Riding the Wet Coast
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