A Warm Day's Ride to Elbert, Colorado

Temps were in the high 80s to low 90s, sunny with puffy clouds filling the blue Colorado summer skies.

I went out for a ride after lunch, I wandered over to the East and rode down several different county roads, traversing the small towns of Kiowa and Elizabeth. I finally ended up on North Elbert Road and made my way on pretty straight asphalt to the old town of Elbert Colorado.



Elbert is a pretty small town where time has apparently come to a standstill and remnants of what appears to have been a couple of a big stores just bask in the sun now. The Russell Gates Mercantile Store is now apparently a historical landmark, it looks a bit delapidated and probably awaiting funds from some restoration group; but apparently its still in use as a gathering center. The town also boasts a small bar where I spied what looked like a Harley sitting outside as I motored past.

Elbert in its heyday?

Circa 1930? Pretty much what it looks like today

The roads are packed dirt/gravel so I went slow to take in the "sights". Not much to report really, except for a windmill on what I thought was a sideroad. Turns out it was the town's Mainstreet according a sign at the end of the road.

Main Street

I cruised back through town along the frontage road that borders the asphalt and continued on this packed dirt/gravel road on the North end of town. Spent the next 30 minutes or so crawling along at less than 20mph, going by fenced off grassy fields, what appears to have been horse ranches and some wooded terrain as well. Having had my fill of dirt roads by now, I made my way East and finally ended up on back on North Elbert Road, on the South side of Town.



I continued on Elbert Road southbound and soon hit US24. I took this highway slab to Woodman Road which borders Colorado Spring on its eastern side. No hot air balloons in the skies to the South where I expected them so I headed home.

Woodman Road becomes Powers Rd and soon junctions CO83 which I took to Franktown, then to Parker and home via the back roads I usually take. Had to stop just outside Parker and use the last of the water in my camelback to wet down the sleeves of my compression shirt and also dump some on my head. It was getting quite warm by this point. I now think I may have to come up with a way to douse myself while moving to "charge up" the shirt sleeves and the cooling vest.

Hot Air Balloon Chasing with Maria

Having missed last weekend's Hot Air Balloon Festival over at the "nearby" Chatfield Reservoir Park, I made sure to plan on seeing the balloons at the Colorado Balloon Classic festival this weekend!

It was down at Memorial Park in Colorado Springs so it was a bit of a ride to get there. I had intended on rising at o'dark thirty and cruise on down the slab to the vecinity of the park, hoping to find a vantage point for Maria to pose at as they did their "mass rising" at 0700. Alas, the bedsheets stuck to me and I did not make it to the vecinity of the park till well after 0830 I think.

There were perhaps 20 balloons visible in the skies around the park, you could even see them from the I-25 Slab as you approached Colorado Springs! I decided as I neared that I would go chasing the individual balloons, hoping for some good shots.

The first balloon I got near to was the one below, I pulled into a school parking lot and managed this shot:

Afterwards I cruised the neighborhood streets that surround the park and spied another balloon which seemed pretty low to the ground. Turns out, it was landing! I got there just after they touched down in the middle of the strip mall's parking lot.

I watched the crew for a bit as they collapsed and deflated the balloon in preparation for it being stowed aboard the support truck which apparently chases each respective balloon team.

I headed off again and spied the below ballon in the distance, as I neared, it too seemed to be trying for a landing. I lost sight of it as I negotiated the turns in this hillside park that separated me from the balloon. As I crested the hilltop near parking lot 19, I regained sight of the balloon and was able to park Maria in time to sit there and watch the team's basket touch down right next to the parking lot on the hilltop! Pretty cool stuff.

As I made my way down the hilltop road, I saw the balloon's support truck winding its way up to them. I was beginning to suspect my arrival in town had coincided with the few balloons still up in the air getting ready to run out of fuel. Hence, all the landings I'd seen.

I wandered about Colorado Springs, trying to find more balloons but none were in the skies. I wandered some more, tanked up with gas, and kept moving hoping for more balloons to appear after refueling perhaps. No go on more ballons but did get this shot of Pike's Peak Mountain as it looks during the summer:

Finally found the actual location of Memorial Park, the GPS was not as helpful since I did not have an address to point it to and it would increase the scale of the view on the screen when moving. No big picture of the area for me to guide on except a map of the park and surrounding areas I'd printed out beforehand for my tank bag.

Here's a shot of Colorado Spring's City Hall, which I found while wandering:

After a bit of wandering in circles, finally found the park. No balloons in sight but lots of support equipment and food vendors awaiting their return. Registered the park as a waypoint on my GPS so I can find it easier next time.

Stopped for a bottle of water as the temps were quite warm and the day was quite sunny. I headed on home via the I-25 slab and despite a couple of idiot cagers whipping in and out of traffic and generally creating hazardous conditions for everyone else, made it home by noon with no real incidents. Traffic was definitely heavier on the slab in the late morning, not pleasantly sparse as it had been when I rode down earlier.

A Lesson Reinforced about crossing intersections with multiple left turn lanes

Today was the second time this week where I had an idiot cager make a left turn and swing wide into my lane as I was making a left turn concurrently. In both cases, I was watching them closely and sure enough, both idiots swung right in front of me, causing me to brake to avoid being hit.

I am now convinced that when given the option of two left turn lanes, side by side, at an intersection; and you want to make a left, that it's safer to take the leftmost left turn lane to make your turn.

If you use the rightmost left-turn lane, chances are pretty good it seems, that the idiot cager on the leftmost left-turn lane will swing wide and into YOUR lane as you're executing a turn.

Having sat at the stoplight NEXT to the idiot cager means nothing, loud horn blowing means nothing, modulating headlight means nothing. These idiots are oblivious and think they own both left turning lanes.

Beware.

My Hot Weather Riding Outfit

Another warm day today, highs in the low 90s and feeling quite humid for Colorado. Sunny and very little in the way of breezes in the morning. Overcast in the afternoon with 40% chance of thunderstorms.

So, with that weather forecast, I managed to leave work a little after 1500hrs and arranged with my loving wife to have my picture taken on Maria while wearing my hot-weather riding gear. The jacket is pretty much the only different thing from my cold-weather riding gear. The overpants are Joe Rocket "Alter Ego" pants worn over jeans with the venting cover removed in the mornings. The jacket is from Firstgear TexMesh I believe. The combination is not bad while moving in this hot weather, but one does feel the heat when standing still at stoplights, stop-n-go traffic, and while posing for pictures!


The boots are made by "Bear", with zipper sides to ease putting them on and off while changing for the ride home. I usually remove the jeans and work shirt, and just ride with the overpants and tshirt underneath the riding jacket.

For anything above 95 degrees, the cooling vest gets involved! If I am doing a long ride, then the compression long sleeve shirt gets put on as well and soaked down.