More Light Snow

We got perhaps another two inches of snow starting from overnight to about 1:00 PM this afternoon when it seemingly tapered off.

A bit colder than yesterday though as the temperature on the onboard thermometer displayed 24.5°F (-4.1°C) throughout the ride.  The skies were solidly overcast but one could see a rather dim disk in the sky at times, it being the sun trying to break through and mostly failing.

Once again, I avoided the unwary and unskilled at snow driving cager traffic by motoring over to the ranching suburb to the southeast of my home neighborhoods.

The additional snow on the dirt roads of the ranching neighborhood made for more scenic snow-clad terrain and as always, traffic was quite light at this time of day.

 On my way to the ranching suburb, the tree-lined street near

Grandview High School.

As Scarlett and I were motoring out of the ranching suburb, headed back towards home, we spotted and stopped to stare back at these young bucks who were looking us over.

So used they've apparently become to human presence, I was able to slowly walk over to the fence line in the above picture to get an unblocked view of them before they started to slowly walk away from me.

I rode back home via back roads to avoid cager traffic on Smoky Hill Road, got home with no issues and proceeded to clear the driveway and sidewalks with the snow blower.  I must have been quite the sight, clearing snow while still wearing my riding gear and helmet!  :)

Light Snow Day

We got perhaps 2 inches or so of snow in my portion of the metro Denver area, not a lot and it was fast melting when I returned home after less than an hour or so of riding looking for snowy scenes.

As I type this, the main roads are clear and wet, most likely we'll have some ice form on them overnight making the morning commutes tricky for unwary cagers.  I am glad I don't have the commutes I used to have.

Below pictures are from the usual ranching community to the southeast of my home neighborhood.  No mountains visible due to the weather of course, more snow expected tomorrow but much less than today.  Perhaps, just perhaps, I'll be able to see the mountains tomorrow if I go out.

The hope had been that there would be snow on the tree branches as on the trees in my own neighborhood, but as you can see, the trees at the site didn't collect snow.

Playing around with the B&W with color focus effect:

Pikes Peak Early 2016

This morning I figured why not close out the first weekend of the year right.  How? By riding to the summit of Pikes Peak (America's Mountain) and see how much snow there was up there, of course.

Highest point: 14, 110 Ft or 4300 Meters. (This beats out all but 8 of the mountains in the Alps) and you can ride your motorcycle all the way to the top!

Coldest point was the start of the ride with 20°F (-6°C).  Heck, I saw temperatures in the mid-30s and once at 40°F (4°C) while on Pikes Peak!  The sun was out in force as you'll see in the pictures and it sure had a warming effect on things.

Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar Rig and I motored out the neighborhood a bit before 8:30AM and we be at the summit of Pikes Peak by 10:30AM.  Traffic was light on the I-25 super slab that we took to make good time, even while moving at URAL speed: 55-59 MPH.

 At the scenic lookout parking lot in front of the airfield 

belonging to the Air Force Academy

along I-25 Super Slab.

 The requisite shot of the summit sign with one's vehicle

 Views from the summit parking lot of Pikes Peak

Next few pictures were taken as we descended from the summit of Pikes Peak, parking whenever there was a spot wide enough for Scarlett and not too close to the edge as I wasn't sure sometimes where rock ended and snow kept going.

 The Rock Pile

 The view towards the summit from the Rock Pile

On a clear day, you can see forever....

Soon after the last picture, I was below the treeline and picture opportunities became rare.  Got off the mountain with only a couple of slight incidents involving stupid cagers.  

Oh, the iciest spot encountered?  It was while exiting the fee station!  The narrow corridor that serves as an exit was packed with ice and I went into it a bit too fast.  The exit lane is in the shade of the fee station buildings you see, and it's hard to see until you're close.

The rig slid slightly sideways but the tires regained their grip and I managed to negotiate what had suddenly become a tight slippery turn with no problems.  It did speed up my heart a little bit though.

Scarlett and I rode home basically retracing our route on the I-25 Super Slab except that when we were passing Castle Rock I could see traffic had come to a stand still on the slab.  Scarlett and I quickly took the Founder's Parkway exit and meandered on Crowfoot Parkway all the way to the town of Parker.

From Parker it was usual streets to get back home.  All in all, a good day's worth of riding don't you think?

Here's hoping you got some riding in this weekend!

A Good Start for 2016

Happy New Year, here's hoping you have many miles of great riding this year!

First day of the New Year and Scarlett and I went to a gathering of BMW motorcycle owners onto which had been joined local Airheads club's riders, four of whom showed up on Airheads.

We met at 11AM down in Castle Rock at a local brew pub and much story-telling and getting re-acquainted with previous member and new members was done.  The BMW club of Denver was there in force as was the Pikes Peak BMW Club so the room was full of gray haired folks!  ;)

Scarlett drew her usual share of UDF and attention out in the parking lot but I was impressed with how many folks showed up not only in their airheads, but also oilheads and some other brands of motorcycles as well!

The temperatures weren't exactly warm and there was much talk about wanting heated grips by a couple of my fellow riders.

 This nice looking Airhead with the iconic toaster tank is owned by

Dick Paschen, the Colorado Air Marshall for the Airheads MC.

Dick also hosts an annual tech day usually in April the last few years, and it's a great place to meet fellow airheads and learn something about one's ride if one's lucky.

After a short lunch, we all went our separate ways.  I headed back towards home via Inspiration Drive from the town of Parker and stopped at the usual spot for a picture of Mount Evans.  The cold front is "hanging" over us here in the West and there weren't any clouds that I can recall, just shockingly blue skies.

When I got home, Martha showed me the latest issue of the AAA Colorado's EnCompass magazine.  I'd submitted Scarlett's picture back in November-Early December and it won the photo contest held for each issue!  There's also a $60 check enroute I believe.  Gas money for more riding!

The scan of the magazine page didn't come out too well, and to be accurate, it wasn't a great reproduction of the photo in question.

Link to the blog posting containing the above pic: LINK

The rest of the day was spent working on Milli, the PT Cruiser.  The battery was declared bad by the local auto parts' store tester so a new one was installed along with new spark plugs.  Hopefully, that'll preclude any jump starting actions on the part of my youngest son Miles.