Fall Colors Uraling, Last Day

Monday, 28SEP15

I woke to somewhat "brisk" temperatures in the Gunnison, CO area.  The temperature on Scarlett said 34°F(1°C), and it was a motivator to get moving fast to get everything packed on and hitting the road with fleece jacket and liner under my riding jacket!

Sunrise at the Blue Mesa Reservoir

The "supermoon" hanging above the reservoir at dawn

I had breakfast 20 miles away in Gunnison at a McDonald's restaurant where although their wifi Internet access was working, it seemed "throttled" for picture uploads which is why I am writing this posting a day later.

A brief stop to look west while on US50 heading for the summit

of Monarch Pass.

Shortly after the above picture, I came to one of the usual stopping points for pictures.  There's a rock ledge of sorts that protrudes quite a way out into emptiness with a long drop down to the valley below.

I set up the tripod and using the remote control app for my Sony A5000 and my iphone app, I positioned myself sitting on the ledge for a picture:

Doesn't look too bad right?  Here's what the ledge looks like from a wider angle where the tripod was set up:

It's a long way down to those pine trees below....

I don't have a fear of heights, but I do have a healthy respect for heights.  Here's a view of the ledge as one is walking out onto it.  I am not ashamed to admit that I only walked out part of the way before "caution" stopped me.  It was all I could do, to slowly sit down with my feet hanging in space, to pose for the picture.

Let's just say I didn't spend a long time sitting on the ledge afterwards.

The Ledge

Scarlett and I continued upwards to the summit of Monarch Pass and she posed with the distant mountain peaks:

Near the summit of Monarch Pass

We rode down to Salida on US50 with no incidents until we were twisting and turning along the curvy road that borders the river between Salida and Cañon City.  There was construction at one point and traffic had come to a stop as the two lane highway became a one lane road.

I'd been watching this 40ft RV in my rear view mirror thinking he was going pretty fast even though he was far enough behind me.  Sure enough, I had come to a stop after a curve (there had been signs saying: Construction! Prepare to Stop and so on before the point I had stopped behind a line of cars).

I was watching my rear view mirrors and as I feared, saw this monster RV whip around the curve that was hiding me and the line of cars in front of me.  He slams on the brakes and starts veering to his left to avoid collision, and I had already started moving the rig with "elan" onto the shoulder!  The idiot stopped less than ten feet from where Scarlett and I had been sitting while on the road.  Always, leave yourself room to maneuver around the car in front of you when possible.

I looked at this idiot, he didn't even have the grace to look ashamed.  Once traffic started moving again, I made sure to stop and let him get far ahead of me while I took a picture of this huge bronze Buffalo I saw next to a sign advertising taxidermy services:

Later on, I caught up with the idiot from Montana in his 40 foot Phaeton RV in Cañon City.  I pulled up next to him at a stop light and he would steadfastly refuse to look in my direction.

Note: Skyline Drive was closed due to maintenance so no pics from that scenic bit of road.

The rest of the ride home was via CO 115 to Colorado Springs and from there used the I-25 Superslab to get home by 2:30 PM.  Started the 25,000 Kilometer maintenance services on Scarlett right then and there by changing out all her fluids to include the oil filter.  There rest of the services will be done this week between work stuff.

The temperature soared to the mid-80s by the end of the ride, a temperature change of over 50 degrees Farenheit!

Scarlett, I'm happy to report, performed marvelously during this four day trip.  1574 Kilometers or almost 945 miles covered in the four day's worth of riding both pavement and dirt trails.