The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 4 Mesa Verde

No, you didn't miss a posting, not much riding got done by me on Day 3 of this week long trip to southwest Colorado with my family. We went to Pagosa Spring's downtown area instead where we tried "tubing" down the river which runs through the town.

Long story short, I flipped over while going over a couple of small waterfalls and damn near drowned on the first run through. Second one was not much better either for myself or my two sons who were having problems as well. We called it quits at that point and survived to tell the tale. I have to say, I've felt safer on my motorcycle in heavy city traffic than when I was on that inner tube floating down that river.

So the only riding I did on day 3 was about 40 miles to and from Wolf Creek Pass near sunset to see what I could photograph, which turned out to be nothing.

Day 4 was a better day overall. We went as a family to Mesa Verde National Park. My family in the minivan and me riding along on Brigitta. On the way, the sun was hitting Chimney Rock which lies to the west of Pagosa Springs on US 160, nicely so I stopped for this shot:

Chimney Rock

Once past the city of Durango (Gateway to the San Juan Skyway), you come upon the small town of Mancos which lies just before Mesa Verde National Park. Not much to tell about the town itself, the only memorable thing is Hogan's Trading Post which is located to the west of the town. It's just another spot to buy souvenirs and knick-knacks; but what makes it memorable are the telephone sized arrows buried in the ground around the trading post.

Giant Arrows at the Hogan's Trading Post

The entrance to the Mesa Verde National Park, ancient home of the Anazasi indians, lies a few short miles from Hogan's Trading Post. The cost per motorcycle is $8 and $15 for a car. There is a large rock formation, which I believe gives the place its name, visible from outside the park. It looks much more imposing closer up:

The view shortly after one enters the park

It is, however, another 15 miles of twisting ascending roadway to the visitor center so be prepared for that! The views are nice but the layout of the roadway and vegetation along the road precluded a lot of scenic viewing.

Still, if you ride slow enough in spots and it's not too crowded with cars, you can get a view or two of some of the geological formations.

See below for a better view of the background vistas

Overlook into the Montezuma Valley

I left my family at the Chapin Museum area as I had a business call to make. Turns out you get no cellphone signal in the park (that I could find anyways). I went back to the visitor's center, get on Brigitta and then head back to the town of Mancos to get a signal and participate on the call. Afterwards, I filled Brigitta's tank and returned to the visitor's center to retrieve the minivan and further on, my family.

Together again, we rode the Mesa Top Loop driving route and saw far off views of the cliff dwellings. No one, including myself, wanted to do the actual hiking tours so this was just fine by all in terms of seeing the sights:

The Cliff Palace, note the tour group in the upper left to get a sense of scale, this was shot from the other side of the canyon, perhaps a 1/4 mile away.

A different view of the Cliff Palace, later that same afternoon

From earlier that same afternoon, with telephoto lens at full magnification

We departed as the sun was low in the sky, on the way out of the park I managed to get this shot of the Knife Edge rock formation near the Montezuma Valley Overlook:

In the parking lot of the Montezuma Valley Scenic Overlook, that's the Knife Edge rock formation directly behind Brigitta

The above is the fertile top of the large mesa you saw in the second picture of this posting. The ancient indians apparently farmed the tops of the mesas, climbing up and down to them each day from their cliff side dwellings.

For more information about the Mesa Verde National Park and its historical significance: NPS Site

We rode together, me trailing the minivan, and reached Durango in time for a late dinner. Afterwards we made a beeline back to Pagosa Springs; both of us carefully watching for deer that might decided to run across the damn road in front of us.

No deer, and we arrived back at the Chimney Rock formation in time for this badly lit shot of the rock formations:

Chimney Rock at Sunset

I was back in Pagosa Springs soon after the above shot, darkness falling fast and thankfully no deer sighted.

EOD Mileage 76,669 (transmission flushed at 76,327)

The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 2

This morning I revisited Wolf Creek Pass to see what the early morning sun did in terms of lighting up the landscape. I had not even gone a mile from the timeshare resort when I saw the distant mountain range reflected in a small lake nearby:

Near the Wyndham Timeshare Resort

I rode north on US 160 away from Pagosa Springs, tanked up at the station outside of town, and enjoyed a brisk early morning temperatures ride back towards Wolf Creek Pass:

Approaching Wolf Creek Pass from the south

Above the Wolf Creek Pass Scenic Overlook

The lighting was disappointing at the pass itself though, dark shadows and bright sunshine combined forces and defeated my attempts at getting decent shots.

I turned back south on US 160, transited through Pagosa Springs again, and was soon at the Chimney Rock Archaeological dig exit where CO 151 junctions with US 160. The Chimney Rock formation is visible from quite a distance away and is located in the Southern Ute Indian Reservation.

This is as close as I got to the rocks, the tour guides at the site did not recommend my taking the motorcycle up with the other tour vehicles. While I don't mind trying tough roads on my own, I draw the line at witnesses watching me drop my motorcycle!

Chimney Rock

After I left the vicinity of Chimney Rock, I continued south on CO 151 all the way to the small town of Ignacio. The terrain turned into farmland and ranches soon enough and I found it a bit boring.

So I headed back towards the town of Bayfield via county roads from Ignacio. Once at Bayfield, I crossed over US 160 and proceeded on this county road towards Durango and Highway 550.

I got to Durango soon enough, tanked up again at Hermosa, and proceeded north on Highway 550 also known as the San Juan Skyway. It's part of the million dollar highway scenic byway. I must say, the first time I rode this road, I was less than impressed. I think perhaps it was the overcast weather that was causing all the rock formations to look dull and drab on that occasion.

I now take back all the comments I made then. LINK to my first ride on the million dollar highway back in October of 2007.

The San Juan Skyway is an awesome motorcycling road with great views of imposing mountain ranges, near and far. Perhaps these pictures will give you some idea:

West Needle Mountain (I think)

Looking towards Engineer Mountain

Twilight Peak

I am guessing this is Snowdon Peak

Grand Turk and Sultan Mountains

In due course, I arrived near the town of Silverton and was greeting with this view of the town:

After a short drink break in Silverton, to re-hydrate myself as the day was quite warm, I rode the San Juan Skyway back south towards Durango:





Back at Durango, I got lost for a bit but found US 160 eventually. After enduring several miles of construction traffic I finally broke free of Durango and cruised east back towards Pagosa Springs.

A bit over 8 hours of riding and picture taking, 327 miles racked up on Brigitta. A good day of riding!

EOD Mileage 76,327

The Southwest Colorado Trip - Day 1

Today was day one of a long overdue week long vacation with the family. My loving wife chose a timeshare in Pagosa Springs, CO and booked it many weeks ago. Work continues unabated at United Airlines, but my manager said I could still go. I just have to attend some meetings during the upcoming week and since I am a contractor and no work means no pay, it should all work out.

Anyways, I worked all last night and early morning, grabbed three hours sleep this morning and was on the road by Noon. Traffic was bad, couple with a couple of spots with construction-related lane closures but I still made pretty good time. Riding on US285 as I did this past weekend, I made it to Poncha Springs by 3:30 PM and checked in with the family. They were in the minivan and about two hours ahead of me.

Before I got to Poncha Springs, I went by Mount Princeton on US285 and spotted a sign for Chaffee County Road 162 which seemed to head straight for the gap between Mount Princeton and Mount Mamma. I deviated from my highway run for 30 minutes and came upon the town of Mount Princeton Hot Springs, some kind of spa resort apparently. I went past the small town and took these pictures:

Looking west on CR 162, just beyond Mount Princeton Hot Springs

The foothills of Mount Princeton, to the east of the Mount Princeton Hot Springs

The "ghost town" of Saint Elmo was about 12 miles further west but I did not have the time today to explore it. I headed instead back towards US285, stopping briefly to get these shots of the mountains:

A panoramic view of Mt Princeton and Mt Mamma

I proceeded south on US 285 and encountered a bit of stormy weather as I cruised towards Saguache and US 160. I did end up getting rained on a couple of times, briefly, but each time I was able to outrun the rain and the warm weather dried me out nicely each time.

I was riding directly at this weather pattern

A closeup view of part of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range

While Brigitta was shadowed by the rain clouds, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains were nicely lit

Looking south on US 285, somewhere north of Saguache

I got to US 160 and turned west towards Pagosa Springs. You ride through the large San Luis Valley and go through a couple of small towns such as Del Norte and South Fork. As you leave the San Luis Valley you get to the mountains around the Wolf Creek Ski Resort and the Continental Divide.

The requisite pass picture of Wolf Creek Pass

The view one sees when starting to descend from Wolf Creek Pass

The valley below, from the Wolf Creek Pass scenic overlook

The riders in the pictures blasted past me just before I got to the overlook, moving way faster than I was, and yet we ended up in the same spot, same time.

A vertical panoramic view, showing the cool rock formations at the base of the overlook

The scenic overlook one gets to after descending from Wolf Creek Pass is well worth the stop. You get a great view of the valley in which Pagosa Springs is located. The road up to the overlook is nice and twisty as is the road down into the valley. The light wasn't quite right for some of the rock formations near the pass so I hope to be there tomorrow soon after sunrise for another try.

I rode on down into the valley, and was soon in Pagosa Springs which was about 20 miles away. Again, it rained on me briefly as I neared the timeshare's location. Here's where the only real danger of the whole ride existed. Clueless cagers wandering about lost inside the timeshare complex trying to find their units! Truly amazing these people were able to pass driving tests.

No matter, I reunited with my family at our timeshare unit, safe and sound. Dinner was almost ready and my loving wife had the wine handy. What more could I ask?

I got to Pagosa Springs at 6:30PM so it was about six and a half hours of riding with picture stops. Brigitta's odometer was right on 76,000 miles when I parked her for the night.

There's some truly beautiful scenery in this part of Colorado so far. The next few days should be some great riding!

EOD Mileage: 76,000

Brigitta's stripped transmission input spline

I got Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Beemer back from Pete Homan today. Pretty fast work really, the most time was spent trying to fix the neutral sensor switch and they ended up replacing it instead.

I thought I'd show you what went wrong this past Saturday, which left Brigitta and me stranded for a short while on the side of the road.

Basically, the transmissions on these airheads use an input spline to mate with the clutch plate to engage and disengage the gears in the transmission when shifting gear. I thought you were supposed to lube them with special lubricant every 15,000 miles, no more than 18,000 miles. Well, according to Pete, one should do this service with every major service, every 10,000 miles!

I had been planning to lube the input spline when Brigitta hit 79,000 miles which I had calculated was roughly 15,000 from when I got her. I guess I should have done it sooner. Here's the result of what happens when this is neglected:

Here's the forward end of the old transmission, note the plentiful shiny metal flakes splattered about, they're the metal that was sheared/worn off of the input spline's gear teeth!

A closeup of the failed input spline, note how far down the teeth had been worn down! The correct height for the teeth is shown at the base of the input spline. Yikes!

Here's a shot of the input spline from the transmission I bought on Ebay and which now is mounted on Brigitta.

Pete Homan was able to get Brigitta back on the road in two days because I had bought previously a used 1981 airhead transmission thinking it would take the place of the one Brigitta came with when it came time to rebuild it at 100,000 miles.

Turns out, I was wrong about that too....sure the engine might go to 100,000 miles before needing an overhaul but transmission are really expected only to possibly make it to 50,000 miles! I'd been on borrowed time ever since I bought the motorcycle it seems.

I cleaned up the failed transmission this evening, I think I'll be having it rebuilt with a new input spline (rumored to cost $300), have the rest of its innards checked out and have it ready if/when the one I got from Ebay fails or needs work.

Pete wants me to change out the transmission fluid about 500 miles from now, or when Brigitta hits 76,000 miles to check out the fluid's condition. He'd noted some water had leaked into the Ebay transmission and was not 100% sure of it without cracking it open.

So, hopefully this Ebay transmission will work out well for a long time. I've got to save up the money to have the failed one rebuilt so I hope it lasts at least that long!