Ride: Sunday Sept 16th, 2007 to the northwest western slope

[Bashed]

125 on the way back. Outbound will be Independence Pass (many miles to run-so no puttin' around on the local stuff), Paonia, north outa there to Dinosaur, tires on the border with Utah, then back across the northern tier.

Unless somebody ripped out the pavement, this will be all solid.

I do believe I'm in. Just for curiosity's sake, I looked out a good route. 451 miles for me round-trip from Loveland. I'll send it to ya via e-mail, and see what you think.

You people better start earlier than 08:30 to do this route as quoted by pilot.

Cycle Monkey, better add 400 miles to your calculations.

Mapquest says 788 miles and change.

[atrainthornton]

Very Interested in going...need to weigh out my soccer game at 1:00 as my kiddos are with their mom this weekend and my day is open except for my game smack in the middle. What is the realistic route as miles seem to be added one each thread (map?)

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

You people better start earlier than 08:30 to do this route as quoted by pilot.

Cycle Monkey, better add 400 miles to your calculations.

Mapquest says 788 miles and change.

Guess I wasn't sure. Ummm, 800 miles is probably a little much if I've got to go to work the next day. That's a dawn-till-dusk deal there.

[Warren]

I've got work off so I am definitely in! Another nice long ride sounds like a lot of fun!

[pilot]

No law says one has to ride the full route. Sunday evenings the traffic is really light past 6. Heck When we rode over Squaw Pass (Mt. Evans) two nights ago we only passed two cars. Of course that was at midnight. Man, I'm starting to like night rides. 6 point buck on the Bergan Park side, too.

Frank, you can recover in your chair at your desk, ha.

[ChickenStrip]

I don't think I want to go to the Utah border, I can't be gone that long. I'll ride with you guys till aspen. Then I think I'm going to come back down independence pass and take 24 west to 67 north.

[DucWise]

I'd like to go... but cannot be gone that long either. I'll probably peel off with ChickenS or whoever at some point. Let me know if anyone else has to make it a shorter trip and where you'll be turning back.

[pilot]

Roll out.

[gummibear]

Roll out.

Yo Pilot. Hope the ride went well. Hope you were able to "represent" for the ZZR crowd.

[pilot]

Hey there Kyle!

It was one hell of a ride!

[Warren]

Good ride you guys! You guys missed out on the fun 27 miles of slick mud though! How was the rest of the ride?

[ChickenStrip]

I got rained on all the way on I70 until the tunnel. Nevertheless I had a great time riding with you guys. Thanks for letting me tag along.

[pilot]

Good ride you guys! You guys missed out on the fun 27 miles of slick mud though! How was the rest of the ride?

We gotta admit, we were wondering how your off-road adventure went. Terra and Frenchy said you owned them on the way back through the sprinkles.

I got rained on all the way on I70 until the tunnel. Netherless I had a great time riding with you guys thanks for letting me tag along.

Glad to ride with you Brian. The real fun started later that night.

[ChickenStrip]

What did I miss?

[pilot]

65 through Grand Mesa!
Oh, that and a hurricane.

[ChickenStrip]

I cant beleive that you guys would have all that fun without me!

[pilot]

We... are @-holes, ha.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Glad you guys had "fun", and everybody came out ok. We got hailed on in Grand Lake, then abso-fucking-lutely-DRENCHED from Granby over Berthoud pass. Soaked thru to the skin, then 60mph over Berthoud at 38deg?!?! Can you say "flash-frozen"? Then sprinkled on lightly all the way home. My gear is still airing out.....

"Slight chance of showers" my ass...... Goddamn global cooling.....

[Warren]

We gotta admit, we were wondering how your off-road adventure went. Terra and Frenchy said you owned them on the way back through the sprinkles.

Oh there was definitely no ownage going on. Those guys were flying through there. What time did you guys roll into Denver? I was at my house around eleven.

[Repsol a095]

Warren,
Did you go on the ride to Utah or were you on a different ride?

[Warren]

I was on the ride most of the way to Utah. We gotta ride soon it is always good to ride with another FZ1

[pilot]

Patrick,

Our plan was to make it all the way through and we even discussed continuing on. However, we knew the weather (not whether) was coming in. And boy did it come in fast. We made it as far west as Grand Junction. This was by far the best ride of the year.

I'm going to post up some pics of the ride along with a narrative.

[pilot]

Total distance ~= 510 miles from MoCo to Leadville to Indy Pass to Snowmass to Paonia to Skyway (state 65) to I-70 back to MoCo. Total time including all stops was 13-15 hours (depending upon rider).

Also, I would like to extend my apology to the riders who started out with us in the morning and things got a bit off track.

• I had neglected to mention that we needed to make a quick stop by the Empire exit to meet up with Warren. Warren later found the crew at the Climax Conoco.
• That, above, is why I pulled over at Georgetown and Terra went back to look for him.
• The stop at Silverthorne was unscheduled but needed by a rider and I had to get back on the interstate to spot Terra when he rode by--which he did and then I had to catch up to him.
• Terra and I waited by exit 203 and saw you all passing by. We thought that you were continuing on and we would fast catch up. I hear that you turned off at before the Copper exit and headed south on another route. We thought you were going on to Leadville, on the scheduled route, and rode quickly to find you.
• We waited in Climax, at the Conoco, this is where Frenchy, Warren and Chicken Strip caught up.

Again, sorry things got messed up at the beginning. However, the weather would have put most riders in a hotel for the night. This was by far the most intense ride (weather) I have been on, and the best (roads combined with riders and views).