Riding the Cache La Poudre Byway

Today, I woke up in Walden, CO where I had overnighted enroute back to Denver and home from Silverthorne.

It was a brisk 42 degrees outside at 7AM when I initially headed out after a restless night of sleep. I was glad to be on the road in spite of the cold though. Trouble is, about 15 miles out from Walden, I realized the morning sun's light angles would play hell with trying to get a decent picture or two of the Medicine Bow Mountain range.

So, I turned back towards Walden and settled in for a leisurely breakfast while I waited for the sun to be higher up in the sky.

Breakfast over, I headed out once again on eastbound Co14 towards Gould. The sun was higher up in the sky and it was only in the high 40s in terms of temperatures. Trouble is, the light angles were still all wrong and I would be fighting the sun in terms of lightning all day. So, no pictures of the Medicine Bow Mountain range.

Just a note for anyone planning a ride to take pictures along CO14 which is also the Cache La Poudre Scenic Byway. Plan your ride so you traverse the interesting areas in the afternoon, morning light is not good for this route.

Here's a semi-decent picture of the scenery just before you hit Cameron Pass and cross the Continental Divide on CO14:


Shortly after the above location, you come up on the summit of Cameron Pass where I stopped for the requisite picture of the pass sign:


Here's a view of the scenery just north of Cameron Pass, the Cache La Poudre scenic byway is a really pretty road, with lots of forested areas and easy gentle curves for the most part.


Along the way, you pass the rock formation known as the Sleeping Elephant. Sorry for the picture glare but the sun was in a bad position relative to my position.

The Sleeping Elephant

I kept cruising eastbound on CO14 and stopped where possible to get pictures of the interesting rock formations one sees; also of the massive rock ways one rides by as the road follows the Cache La Poudre river:






Soon after the rocky canyon walls, I came upon the junction with Stove Prairie Road. I turned south onto this nicely paved road with many curves, heading towards Masonville. This is a nice road to use to go south of FT Collins without actually having to traverse the city itself.

Stove Prairie's curves can be quite tight and technical at points but for the most part they're just fun. I kept catching up to a couple of slow cagers so I had to drop back several times in order for them to get ahead of me. Here's a picture of the road at one point where I waited:


Soon enough, the road ended and I turned east to pick up US287 southbound, trying to avoid the I-25 super slab traffic to/from Fort Collins from Denver. Made it down to the Longmont area and decided that was enough. Picked up the I-25 slab and made it home by 1:30PM.

I had not being paying attention to the tripmeter and realized about 25 miles out from home that I had hit reserves. Whoops. I thought I could push it and get to my home gas station but nope, ran out of gas five miles short. This was the first and only time I had to tap the spare fuel tank for gas.

I cleaned up Brigitta once I got home and checked her oil level, it was all good. I rode less than 940 miles though for the entire Labor Day weekend. I've got to get serious about racking up more miles if I am going to break 100K by next summer!

Hope you had good riding during this past long weekend!

The Silverthorne - Walden Ride

I departed Silverthorne close to 10 am, guided my family out to the highway and then I turned north on CO9.

I soon came upon the sign for Ute Pass a few miles north of Silverthorne, I had bypassed it yesterday but had kept it in mind for today and I am glad I did. It's paved all the way to the summit and it is nicely curving all the way up. It does not take long before you see some awesome views of the Gore Range mountains to the west.

Going up Ute Pass Road

You can continue past Ute Pass but the road kind of ends at a large rock milling complex called Henderson Mill. Its located near a small reservoir. I turned around and got this picture of the information sign at Ute Pass.

The Gore Range

The way down from Ute Pass was just as much fun as the way up, highly recommend this road if you´re ever in the vicinity of Silverthorne!

Once I got back on CO9 I continued north towards Kremmling as I'd done yesterday. Today however I continued going north once I was on US40, heading for Steamboat Springs. The road to Steamboat Springs is nice and smooth with the occasional curve thrown in for your amusement. Along the way, you also transit a couple of mountain passes:



I arrived there shortly after Noon and again was unimpressed as on previous rides with the look of the town in summer. It is a much prettier town in the winter.

I cruised through town and found the road for Hahn's Peak Park which is north of Steamboat Springs. By the way, it's a really curvy but not technical road all the way to Hahn's Peak. Very enjoyable.


I think I got to the vicinity of Hahn's Peak shortly before 1PM. I stopped briefly at the park's visitor center for a bathroom break and a snack.

A quick look at the map indicated I was now less than 30 miles from the Wyoming border so I figured what the hell, might as well go see what's there.

There was a sign that said it was 23 miles to the Hog Park Recreation area in Wyoming so I figured, no sweat. The road was hard packed dirt with a bit of gravel and I was able to maintain pretty good speeds. I must have averaged 25-35mph with bursts to 45mph on occasion. That's pretty good speeds for me.

The terrain along National Forest 550, on which I was now riding, is heavily wooded with pine trees and lots of felled lumber. They're having a lot of troubles with some kind of beetle infestation I believe and you can see a lot of dead looking pine trees amongst the healthy ones.

It was a long 23 miles and I was looking forward to the Wyoming border where I believed it would turn to pavement.

Well, that was not to be. I made it up the Hog Park Recreation Area, part of the Medicine Bow National Forest but the roads remain packed dirt and gravel!

No problem I said to myself, it's only 41 miles to Cowdrey, CO or 21 miles to Grand Encampment, WY from where I stopped to read the map. I was getting close to going on reserve in my fuel tank but I had my extra fuel tank with me so no issues there. Surely it would turn to pavement soon enough and I would be able to make up some time. It was around 3pm around this point.

Again, this was not to be. I soon ran into a sign saying that the road to Cowdrey was closed, no reason given. I had to turn back now 26 miles back towards Grand Encampment! Damn.

The road remained nicely hard packed dirt and gravel and it hugged mountainsides as I made my way northwards. Not much in terms of scenery for quite a while but it did have some nice views once in a while:


Finally, after perhaps 60 miles of dirt trail riding, by the end of which I was riding pretty fast and comfortable by the way, nothing like practice! The only place I had slight issues was on the curves where I used engine braking mainly to slow me down as counter-steering was not working for me on the curves.

I had one interesting¨ moment when I came around this one curve and there were four cows on the right half of the road in front of me! I kept to my training though, I held down the rear brake and though the rear tire fishtailed a bit, I did not let up on it to avoid a lowside fall. The motorcycle finally steadied out and I slowed further and eased my way slowly past the cows. I noticed the lead cow, the biggest one, kept giving me the eye as I went past.

That excitement behind me, Brigitta then decided to let me know we were on reserve tank. That meant I had 20 miles to find gas. I finally got to pavement on WY230 near the town of Riverside. I got gas there with perhaps 10 miles of fuel left, but I wasn't worried since I had the spare fuel tank with me this trip. Still, it was nice to top off the tank even if the only fuel available was 85 octane.

After checking in with my loving wife, I turned East on WY 230 and headed again back towards Cowdrey which was about 26 miles away. It was nicely paved highway now though so I effortlessly cruising at around 80 mph.

The scenery here in the southern border area of Wyoming is rolling plains with small hills studded with rocky outcroppings, nothing remarkable. I soon got to the border with Colorado and I left Wyoming behind:


I was soon seeing more varied and mountainous terrain as I got closer to Cowdrey.


I was now riding on CO125 and reached and cruised through the settlement of Cowdrey in no time at all. Walden was less than 20 miles from Cowdrey and I planned to make that my overnight stay location.

Once in Walden, the Moose Watching Capital of Colorado according to a sign in town, I cruised the small town's main street looking for a place to stay. I settled on this unremarkable motel called the Chedsey Motel. It was less than $55 for the night so the price was right. It even had Wi-Fi and satellite TV.

After I booked the room, I rode over to the nearby Moose Creek Cafe and had steak for dinner. Yummy. I had not eaten all day so that chunk of meat went down well.

After dinner, I rode about town seeing what I could see. I was really hoping to see some wandering moose on the streets of town as the motel clerk had warned me about. No moose turned out to be in evidence.


I rode out of town looking for a good spot to pose Brigitta with the oncoming sunset.



After the sun set, I headed back into town with still no moose in evidence. I pulled into the motel parking lot and after a brief panic in not finding my system case keys, finally found them and unmounted my cases from Brigitta and carried them into the room.

One more check-in with my family and I readied Brigitta for an overnight stay and typed up this report. Pretty good day of riding, I estimate a bit over 300 miles of riding with over 60 of that on packed dirt forest trails. Perhaps 7 hours of saddle time.

I got more comfortable I noticed riding on forest roads, Brigitta is such an awesome motorcycle, she lets me go pretty much where I want.

The Kremmling Loop

My family and I are spending the long Labor Day weekend up in the central mountains of Colorado. Staying at a condo in Silverthorne along with a neighborhood friend family who scored the condo from clients of theirs.

The ride up yesterday went pretty well until I was just shy of the Eisenhower Tunnel and the Continental Divide on the I-70 Super Slab. It started raining pretty good, I stopped under an overpass and donned my wet weather gear and heavier gloves and rode on.

The rest of the evening was spent riding to/from Breckenridge where I met up with my family for dinner. Both Brigitta, my 1987 R80 and my gear did fine in the rain, but it was still not fun.

Today the sun rose under clear skies and cool temperatures. It would be in the low 60s as I left the condo around 10:00AM after the wives and kids left for Glenwood Springs. My fellow husband is a bicyclist and he took off on his bike to go riding. Left to my own devices, I took CO9 north out of Silverthorne.

It didn't take long to shake off the miasma that is a ski tourist town here in Colorado. Soon I was riding on open road and enjoying the scenery:

This is either part of the Gore Range or Slate Mountain

South end of the Green Mountain Reservoir

The top of today's riding loop was to be the small town of Kremmling on US40. I got there soon after the above pictures and I passed through town to bag Gore Pass which lay on CO 134 just north of Kremmling by about 9 miles.

The notch at Kremmling

I have to mention that the road up to and down from Gore pass is a lovely twisting and curving paved road that will bring a smile to any rider's face. It was actually rather enjoyable, not too technical and the road was clear of traffic; had it all to myself mostly.

The requisite picture of the pass sign

Yeah, it's going to be an early Fall I think, a house in Kremmling

After riding around Kremmling, I turned back south on CO9 and took the exit for Trough Road heading for the town of Radium. Apparently, lots of uranium came out of that part of the state, hence the name I guess.

Cool cloud formation while on Trough Road

I found this keyhole shaped rock formation eye-catching

Nearing State Bridge

No town sign, this is as best as I could find for the vicinity of Radium

Road conditions on Trough Road were just fine, hard packed dirt road with a bit of gravel to keep you awake. I averaged perhaps 35 mph on the straightaways so it I would classify this dirt road as easy. Heck, there were even some paved and roughly paved stretches as well. So, street motorcycles will do fine on this road.

This is as far as I got on CR11, a bit rougher than Trough Road but still not too bad, just more washboarded and more gravel. The road went up from the town of Radium, hugging the mountainsides and heading North/Northwest.

Brigitta waits at the RR intersection for the gravel train to pass. They were "topping up" the gravel mounds to the sides of the rail tracks. Interesting operation, I had been wondering up until I saw the gravel drop why there were workers walking alongside the train!

The bridge which gives the settlement of State Bridge its name

Saw this dragonhead-shaped rock formation while riding south on CO 131

I got on US6 as I neared where CO131 junctions with I-70 at Wolcott. US6 parallels the I-70 slab eastwards and I rode it till I could turn south on US24 at Dowds Junction. This is also the starting point for the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway. I took US24 through the small town of Minturn and twisted my way up to the Battle Mountain Summit. A very nice road, in spite of the fact that the skies had become gray and overcast.

Soon I was back at the vicinity of Red Cliff and the bridge over the Eagle River. I'd failed to take pictures of this gorgeous bridge the last time I was here. LINK.

The bridge over Eagle River

I then rode into the town of Red Cliff itself, hoping to get a picture of an old bridge there. I found the bridge but it's definitely seen better days, like most of the town actually. However, to the left and closer to me, there was this cool looking house:

Red Cliff dwelling and old bridge

I left Red Cliff and headed back north towards I-70. The way down from the Battle Mountain Summit was pretty much as fun as the way up in terms of twisting turns. You can definitely see the Fall season making its entrance into the mountain region:

Coming down from Battle Mountain Summit

I got on the I-70 Super Slab heading east towards Silverthorne which was about 30 miles away. On the way there, I was rained on briefly but not enough to stop and get my rain gear on. It did get a bit brisk though as the temperatures dropped to the low 60s once again. (It had hit a high of 78 during the day).

The view to the East at Vail on the I-70 Slab

Another pass bagged for the books

I got to Silverthorne and the condo around 5PM after tanking up in town. About 230 miles of riding with perhaps 6 hours in the saddle. Good days riding.

Must be nice sunsets season around here....

Sick as I've been, finally got the "good stuff" on Monday from Kaiser Medical. Just wasn't really getting better and now apparently I've infected sinuses....at least that's what my loving wife is thinking. She ought to know, she used to be a nurse practitioner before the boys came along.

Of course, once I had the night time cold medicine With codeine, I had to work all night last night! Didn't get to the stuff till like 3:30 AM. Results were mixed but I did wake rested about five hours later.

Anyways, full work day again today. I didn't finish till after 6:30 PM and I was heading home eastbound on Colfax Road. There had been interesting cloud formations all afternoon as I motored between tasks and I spied a great sunset moment in my mirrors.

I stopped rapidly, these things don't last long you know and one must seize the moment!

Looking to the west on Colfax Avenue, US40

The photos are just lightly retouched through the tools at picnik.com, I failed to capture the warmth of the light with my camera settings. I hope you like these.