We've friends visiting from SE Texas. Ken P. has visited by himself before while riding on his motorcycle. This time, he brought his lovely wife Julana; they were up here visiting their son Eric who'd recently moved into the Denver Metro area for work.
Ken and I are members of the Rounders, a group of riders who ride year round.
Ken and Julana, along with their son Eric are dog people, and experienced trainers of said dogs. I was very impressed on how well they are trained and how well behaved both dogs are.
Valkyrie, a two year old German Shepherd
"such a ham"
"such a ham"
Yesterday, they returned from a day of driving Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Their son Eric and his dog Voltaire, a Golden Retriever, joined us for dinner.
After dinner, it was time to see if either dog would like a ride in the sidecar rig. Voltaire went first, and after a bit of adjustment and coaxing, was soon enjoying being the monkey while Eric rode slowly around the cul-de-sac.
Voltaire and Eric
Valkyrie took a bit more convincing but after she saw Voltaire ride, was convinced to go riding with Ken:
Valkyrie and Ken
So that was Thursday. Today, the Fourth of July, we rode out in a group of three vehicles towards Mount Evans. I was on Scarlett, Ken was on Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 and Julana brought up the rear in their SUV with Valkyrie onboard.
We made good time all the way to near Bergen Park and we exited I-70 there as it had become almost a parking lot due to all the folks heading west for the long weekend in the mountains.
We got onto CO103, or Squaw Pass Road and we ascended slowly, twisting and turning our way towards Echo Lake and the nearby lodge.
Scarlett and Brigitta with Echo Lake in the background
Parking the SUV, we decided to see if Valkyrie would like to ride in the sidecar with Julana. It was 14 miles up to the summit of Mount Evans and Valkyrie did great! Cagers coming in the other direction would break out in smiles once they spotted her in the sidecar, tongue wagging in the wind and sitting on Julana's lap. Ken brought up the rear with Brigitta and must have been highly amused the times he saw Valkyrie rise up and look back towards him, checking to make sure he was still with us.
We made it to the top just fine and found a spot to park the motorcycles within easy walking distance of the parking lot at the top of the mountain.
The real top is a big rock pile with about a 1/4 mile of trail to get to, but
none of us elected to walk up.
As we started the return trip from 14,130 feet, Valkyrie seemed much
more at ease in the sidecar.
We didn't stop for pictures on the way down, just slowly descended, entertaining folks in cages once again with sights of a pretty German Shepherd in a bright red and white sidecar rig. Valkyrie must have been having fun, sometimes she'd lay her head on my right arm, drooling on it of course.
The rest of the ride home was a run to get ahead of the oncoming rain. We made it home with barely a few sprinkles falling on us in the town of Morrison and as we entered my home neighborhood.
Good day of riding, everyone had fun and I think the experience has convinced Julana to give an OK to Ken getting himself a sidecar one day. :)
7 comments:
Handsome dogs, both of them. It seems that dogs and side cars go well together. I know a couple of riders who bought hacks, only to have their best buddies with them.
What a fun feel good story hope the vist was the same all weekend. A very good looking German Shepard in sharp Russian bike on the great Amercian holiday.
Sidecars are made for kids and dogs, dogs seem to 'WOW' people though
I like the "Valkyrie of the West" photo. Pretty classic pose.
SonjaM, like peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, dogs and sidecars just belong together.
Spat, I think I could have sold tickets for folks to admire Valkyrie...
RichardM, with your new rig, you should now see how your dogs feel about sidecar riding....
Me thinks in the case of Voltaire going into the sidecar first it was 'monkey' see, 'monkey' do, to get Valkyrie in there.
It looks like everyone had a great day and just think how many people you brought happiness and smiles to that day.
All I can say is WOW! I got to ride to the top of Mt Evans on a 27 year old R80 while watching my wife and German Shepherd in a Ural sidecar rig ahead of me. Beyond my wildest dreams - I just had to add all that to my bucket list so I could check it off. Thanks Dom!
I enjoy reading your blog and especially enjoyed this story and the videos of the dogs in the sidecar. Thanks for sharing this with us.
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