The players:
Brian on a 2001 KTM 640 LC4 geared at 15/45
Tracy on a 2006 KTM 640 Adventure geared at 15/48. Changed to 14/48 in Ouray.
Mike on a 2001 KTM 400 LC4 geared at 16/50 (stock 15/45). Changed to 15/50 in Ouray.
Day 1, Saturday 7/22/06
We headed west from Kansas to a friend’s crash pad in Boulder on Friday. On Saturday morning we loaded up the bikes with our gear and headed out for 8 days of adventure touring in Colorado, and possibly southern Wyoming if time allowed.
I had used a Colorado Recreation Map and USFS maps for each of the forests we were to visit (White River, Grand Mesa, Routt, San Isabell, Rio Grande, Gunnison, San Juan, Medicine Bow (WY))to plot out the GPS route. I wanted this to be an adventure; which to me means finding locked gates, undoable trails, dead ends, etc. In other words, get out the paper (plastic!) maps, figure out where you are and where you want to get to, and find a work around.
From Boulder, with Brian in the lead, we headed up gravel towards Gold Hill on some very nice gravel roads, some maintained and some not. One side trip was up a 4WD road … Brian bounced, road up the cliff face, sent his bike vertical (it landed pointing down the hill he had been riding up), and caused us to rethink doing that road.
Why is Brian’s bike pointed ~down~ hill? IMGP0082.JPG
A wee little rock stuck where it shouldn’t be. We smelled burning plastic the next few days as the shock guard got pushed into the presilencer. The bag got ripped open as well. IMGP0084.JPG
Fixing Brian’s misaligned bars with a rock hammer. I really should have had on my safety glasses. DSC00126.JPG
We hit the Peak-to-Peak highway and had lunch in Nederland before heading towards Rollinsville and the Apex Rd, which would take us to Central City. Apex Rd is a very nice ride. Off to Downieville and some 4WD roads that I had plotted out as our route.
These 4wd roads proved a bit much for Brian. He hadn’t had a chance to ride as much as Tracy and I had during this past year. Last year when the three of us went to Moab for a week, I was 3rd in ability. With a lot of riding this past year, I moved into 2nd. Tracy will always be 1st do to experience, ability, and very little fear.
Above Georgetown, Tracy and Brian turning around. IMGP0087.JPG
The trail did level off. IMGP0088.JPG
Tracy coming up. IMGP0091.JPG
Tracy coming down. IMGP0095.JPG
An aside: I approach riding as I approach whitewater kayaking … you never discourage someone from “portaging a rapid”, or in this case turning around. Encouragement is fine, discouragement is not.
Up and over Guanella, soon to be paved in its entirety, to US 285 to access gravel toward Canyon City. We stopped at a general store on US285 for lunch fixins.
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Day 2: Sunday, 7/23/06
Heading out of our campground at around 8, after a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee/tea, there was a chill in the air. But it kept getting chillier as the morning progressed. South of Lake George, on a cruiser gravel road, Brian came up missing. Tracy turned around just as Brian appeared … holding his shift lever. Coming into a corner hot and attempting to downshift, a funny feeling in the lever caused him to look down just as it fell off. He had ridden to us in 3rd gear. We pulled my shift bolt to get dimensions and then started to search the bike for a suitable replacement: rear brake reservoir and headlight mask bolts will both work. A bit of Loctite (red, which I brought by accident), and we were off to Cripple Creek. And it kept getting colder.
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Snow, not hail. IMGP0113.JPG
Do I need this? Oops. DSC00137.JPG
The hardware store in Cripple Creek had a decent selection of metric fasteners.
From Cripple Creek we too Shelf Road to Canon (“canyon”) City. What beautiful scenery.
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In Canon City we had lunch and shopped at a grocery for our supper. Supper usually consisted of a large can of soup or package of noodles, extra meat (chicken, tuna, Spam), and a can of mixed vegetables). I had packed breakfast for the week (1/2 cup oatmeal per person with some brown sugar, and either walnuts or raisins.)
Through the Wet Mountains we headed for Gardner and Great Sand Dunes NP from the east over Mendano Pass. We camped on the west side of the pass. A bit of rain had us using the rain fly for the first, but not last, time. A cold bath in Mendano Creek, supper, and bed.
Wet Mountains behind us, Sand Dunes ahead. IMGP0129.JPG
The rest of Mendano Pass was a bit more difficult than what is in this picture. IMGP0133.JPG
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Bear proof cabinet and kitchen table. DSC00138.JPG
Day 3, Monday, 7/24/06
A sprinkle on us precipitated a beautiful double rainbow (hard to see in picture).
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After breakfast and breaking camp it was down Mendano drainage to the park.
Brian. IMGP0141.JPG
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Mike. DSC00146.JPG
And a few feet, and lots of wrist, later: DSC00147.JPG
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Lots of pavement and gravel got us to Alamosa for lunch, shopping for supper, and me fixing a blown fuse (taillight) caused by a shorted heated handgrip. I missed my heated grips in the mornings. Safeway had two pegs full of the old style, round glass fuses, but no blade type. Finally found some at Walgreens. (Yes, I was carrying some extra fuses, but I wanted a few more extra until I was sure that the grip had caused the problem.)
From Alamosa we headed SW to Centro and then NW toward Blowout Pass and then north to South Fork.
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Coming up the south side of Blowout Pass. IMGP0155.JPG
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Gravel to LaGarita and pavement/gravel to Storm King campground.
How to travel light: day-wear becomes evening-wear. DSC00160.JPG
Day 4, Tuesday, 7/25/06
Up and over Cochetopa and Carnero Passes toward Lake City. Brian hit a corner a bit hot … the only damage was a lost hydration bag bite valve.
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Brian and Tracy led … right past the turn. I waited, and waited. IMGP0176.JPG
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Tracy’s bike is going the wrong way … but is parked next to Brian’s skid marks … at least the skid marks in the road. IMGP0181.JPG
Tracy pushing Brian. IMGP0183.JPG
Engineer Pass, at more than 12000 feet, was a struggle on my 400. I figured due to rich jetting, which proved to be true. I finally got around to fixing it a day and a half later. Not really sure why I didn’t fix it earlier. Anything over 11500 feet required WOT and first gear to not bog down until I dropped the needle.
Tracy. IMGP0201.JPG
Brian. IMGP0217.JPG
Mike up front, Brian following. DSC00206.JPG
From Engineer we took the trail toward Ouray, and it started to sprinkle/rain, which made the rocky decent a bit more of a challenge, but would have stopped us if we had been ascending.
We hit Ouray about suppertime, just as the rain started to really come down. Desperately in search of a covered area to wait under, I found a closed storefront porch. The family that was there seemed a bit threatened by 3 guys in MX gear. Seems HD leathers would have gotten a better response.
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The rain continued to fall as we hit the outdoor store for a bite valve and a good Mexican restaurant for supper. At supper I was the first to bring up a hotel, I even offered to pay if reasonable. The busboy suggested one on the north side of town.
I walked in to the hotel and the owner said they had two rooms left, each with a queen bed, for $69. My reply: “That will work.” After he found out there were three of us, he offered me a kitchenette with two bedrooms (each with a queen) that he was in the process of remodeling for $40. And a garage to park our bikes. Turns out he used to ride DS and thought we could use a roof over our heads. Pity is a wonderful thing!
We used to garage to swap out front sprockets: Tracy took my spare 14, and I replaced my 16 with his 15. I was hoping this would solve my high-altitude power issue. It didn’t. The Laundromat was next door, so we threw together two loads to get rid of the building stench.
I’m glad we aren’t camping. Our room was in front of the white pickup, the Laundromat was by the light behind the truck. DSC00215.JPG
Day 5, Wednesday, 7/26/06.
A gaggle of Shelby Cobras was in town and parked in front of our hotel in the morning. From around back we could hear the thump of the big blocks as they assembled.
The real deal, Shelby Cobras ready to ride. IMGP0233.JPG
Biker friendly motel. Highly recommended. IMGP0237.JPG
We headed up Yankee Boy Basin, where my jetting issue once again reared its head. The lower gearing helped a bit, but didn’t solve the problem. Once again, 11500 feet was the magic number.
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Rain in the past 24 hours made the streams a visual treat. IMGP0240.JPG
No power (too darn rich) except at WOT and loose rock … what fun. DSC00227.JPG
We then headed to Telluride via Imogene Pass. Part way up we ran into a rider on an F650 GS. As all three of us own or have owned the Dakar version, we were amazed to see the F this far up a pretty difficult road. I think the rider thought I was making fun of him when I said had my admiration … I was not. None of us would have wanted to ride up what we had just done on an F650 with DS tires.
F650GS on dual sport tires. This guy did well to get this far (the path to this point was more difficult that it appears here). IMGP0244.JPG
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Looking back toward Ouray. IMGP0261.JPG
Looking toward Telluride. IMGP0263.JPG
Tracy’s dream girl. DSC00234.JPG
Brian’s bike had been spiting coolant out of the overflow for the past few days and on the ascent to Imogene Pass it got worse. Eventually the temperature red light came on. He coasted much of the way down from the pass into Telluride. At one point I could smell his brakes so we stopped and let them cool. Once we eliminated the fan, my guess was his coolant pump had gone bad and his was that his bike was running very lean. I used the time to clean some very leaky fork seals. Again.
Brian polluting the environment. IMGP0276.JPG
No film negative, so a discarded water bottle got sacrificed. DSC00256.JPG
We moved to the hardware store to buy some RTV and used their parking space. Yep, that’s a dumpster tie down. IMGP0280.JPG
A bit of carb adjustment. IMGP0281.JPG
Turns out the pump was fine and the bike was running way too lean. Odd, considering we were at a higher altitude than the bike had come from. (The air filter was fine.) BTW, always carry a rain fly.
From Telluride we road west to “To Hell You Ride” MC shop in Placerville to pick up some fork oil to replace all that had dribbled out of both of my forks. The valley btw Telluride and the shop was cut from red sandstone, different from anything we had seen in CO. Gravel to Ophir and up and over Ophir Pass.
Approach to Ophir Pass. Noted a few avalanche chutes. IMGP0282.JPG
Looking east from top of Ophir Pass. IMGP0286.JPG
We bypassed Red Mountain Pass by taking a short 4WD loop to the east of the highway. Lots of mines.
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Don’t eat: DSC00267.JPG
After a short distance on the highway we hit Corkscrew Gulch to get us up to California Pass on the Alpine Loop.
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We set up camp just below the ghost town of Animas Forks.
Looking south in the evening. IMGP0309.JPG
Looking north. IMGP0310.JPG
Morning. IMGP0314.JPG
Day 6, Thursday, 7/27/06
From our camp we did a short loop around Animas Forks that took us by quite a few old mines.
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New cabin, old truck, old snowmobile (note single ski up front). IMGP0321.JPG
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Up and over Cinnamon Pass ... passing quite a few 4WD vans that wouldn’t pull over to let us pass. Didn’t make a lot of friends, but were sick of stop and go in first gear.
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Gas and food in Lake City, back up the highway to Slumgullion Pass, and then gravel to Doyleville and the following passes: Black Sage, Tomichi, Hancock, and Tincup.
Butt break after a long, high-speed gravel section. IMGP0326.JPG
Plotting our route before the storm hits. DSC00292.JPG
The storm passed quickly. On to Tomichi. IMGP0329.JPG
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From Tomichi, Hancock in back. IMGP0332.JPG
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From Hancock, Tomichi in background. IMGP0343.JPG
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On the top of Hancock we were met by a group of riders coming up from the east. One had fallen just a bit shy from the top and hurt his wrist. Not sure if they continued or not, but the west side was much more difficult than the east.
We camped at Mirror Lake just below Tincup Pass. The outhouse, the worst smelling of the entire trip, was tiled. Brian figure it was because paint wouldn’t stick. I just felt sorry for whoever had to tile the dang thing.
Day 7, Friday, 7/28/06
After gassing up at Taylor Park we headed for Taylor and Pearl passes. Our plan was to take Taylor up and over to Ashcroft and then take Pearl back to Crested Butte.
The trials bike parked at the base of Taylor should have been a clue to what was in store. After a bit of struggle for all three of us on Taylor, we finally made it to the pass, where we met Bill from Aspen on a KTM 200 two-stroke.
That’s me up in the shade. DSC00298.JPG
Tracy, preparing for liftoff. IMGP0360.JPG
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Bill gave us some info, including that Pearl was more difficult than Taylor. He also told us about Italian Creek / Pass trail that connects Taylor Park to Cement Creek drainage. We decided to forge ahead and attempt Pearl. We made it to 11500 feet before Tracy and I both said “Uncle”. Brian didn’t put up any resistance to turning around, heck, he was stuck just in front of us spinning what was left of his rear tire. Between the altitude and worn out rear tires, we just couldn’t get the bikes to go any further on the loose rock we found ourselves on.
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“I’m spent.” IMGP0370.JPG
Brian showing his regards for the route planner. Tracy is already turning and burning. IMGP0372.JPG
We headed back to Taylor and did it in the reverse direction. Going up I had my only moving spill of the trip when the back end went sideways while I was being way to cocky through a steep, loose section in 2nd gear.
Italian Creek turned out to be a nice trail except for the huge number of ATVs.
Coming into Crested Butte Brian’s bike started belching black smoke and stalling at highway speed. Doing some troubleshooting while inhabiting the ditch (to stay away from traffic), we figured it must have been a stuck float.
“I think we will camp right here.” DSC00306.JPG
Our plan at this point was to take Schofield Pass and head to Leadville, where Brian would depart for Boulder via pavement and Tracy and I would continue on via Mosquito, Webster, and points east. Brian’s tires started the trip with 300 miles on them and the rear had been shot for a couple of days.
Once we got to Crested Butte and had a drink (non-alcoholic) break, all three of us decided that we had had enough and that our rear tires had definitely had enough. The GPS said we had done over 1100 miles and more than 113000 feet of elevation gain. Tracy changed out his front sprocket and we headed to Buena Vista via Cottonwood. Coming down the pavement on the east side we ignored the 30 MPH speed limit and used our rear “slicks” to really lean in the turns. My 400 couldn’t accelerate with the big boys on the straights so I waved them on. A few miles later they were waiting, figuring that they had pushed their luck enough.
After a burger in BV (and a sprocket change for me, back to 16/50 from 15/50), we headed up 285 for Denver. Pulling off for gas in Fairplay, my bike popped and died when I pulled in the clutch at 30 mph. It wouldn’t restart. Turns out the extended idle mix screw had vibrated out somewhere between BV and Fairplay. A few wraps of electrical tape on the finger end of an earplug served as a temporary plug and we were on our way.
It got dark about Kenosha Pass. We all had on our goggles, which by this time in the trip acted as star filters due to all of the scratches. I should have pulled off and switched back to my colorless safety glasses that I had worn most of the trip as US285 as we neared Denver was confusing in lane choice and exhausting in lead. A short stop in Morrison so that I could read the map (and get some help from a very friendly PO), dig out my safety glasses, and strip off some of the high altitude clothing I had on, and we were headed to Boulder for a beer (or two) and a long-night’s-rest.
Post Trip:
The gear I took was almost perfect:
Riding Gear: lightweight poly short sleeve shirt (2), SP1 pressure suit, long sleeve MX shirt, MX pants, knee pads, boots, wool socks (2 pr) with poly liners (2 pr), summer gloves, spring gloves (GoreTex), MX helmet (sunshade!), map case, GPS with maps loaded, Platypus hydration pack.
Clothing: heavyweight polypro bottom and top, midweight polypro top, stocking cap, swim suit (doubled as shorts), underwear, bicycle shorts, sandals, electric vest, rain jacket, rain pants, sun hat.
Personal Gear: 15oF down bag (packs smaller than synthetic), ThermaRest pad, spoon, cup (doubled as a bowl), toiletries, multitool, backpacking tent (Brian and I shared a 2-man tent (4.5 lbs), Tracy in a 1-man tent (4 lbs)), GPS USB cable, cell phone and charger, digital camera/charger/USB cable.
Crew Gear: MSR Whisperlite International stove (burns unleaded gas), 11 oz. fuel bottle (smallest one available), 2 L pot, large spoon, salt, pepper, dish soap, scrubber, maps (for each forest we were planning on being in), rain fly (don’t leave home without it), MSR MIOX water purifier.
Motorcycle Gear: clutch lever, brake lever, clutch cable, shift lever, zipties, 20 feet of webbing (tow/recovery rope or clothesline), zipties, loctite, modified KTM tool kit (sockets (8, 10, 13), rachet, spark plug added)), rubber bands made out of an old tube, extra tubes (1 front and 1 rear), GIVI side bags, Wolfman tank paniers.
Food:
Breakfast consisted of oatmeal (prepacked for 3 people: 1.5 cups oatmeal, 1 c dry milk, 1/8 c. brown sugar, ¼ c. crushed walnuts, ¼ c. raisins; add 3 cups boiling water) in individual day Ziplocs. Coffee prepacked in individual day Ziplocs.
Lunch was either eaten at a restaurant or consisted of bagels (they don’t smash easily) and pepperoni (“refrigerate AFTER opening”).
Dinner was bought each day and consisted of a large can of soup, a large pouch or can of meat (chicken, tuna, salmon, beef), and a can of mixed vegetables or Uncle Ben’s precooked rice. A bit too much sodium but filling and nourishing.
Potable water was usually available (most USFS campgrounds or enough in each of our 2 L hydration bags), but we did occasionally have to use my MIOX purifier. For the oatmeal and coffee/tea we boiled the water so no purification or treatment was necessary. Carrying supper in cans provided most of the water needed for that meal.
Gear Changes:
Leave the heated vest at home.
Bring a larger hydration pack, just in case the load grows. (a liter of fork oil?)
An extra, empty Platypus/Camelback reservoir for water purification wait time.
Add some film negative to my tool kit to clean out fork seals.
CD/DVD-R with repair manual and GPS program and data for use in an emergency.
Notes:
My rain fly was scavenged from a tent that was getting thrown away. CBoA.
My simple side bags (GIVI) stayed together better that the more complex others (Fieldshier?).
My tank bags (Wolfman) were very convenient and useful and kept the load on the back low and light.
My gear was packed in stuff bags lined with trash bags for waterproofness.