Stavee called last night, said Steve arrived from FL, suggested a ride through the mountains today. Well, duh
For a morning ride, Ralph always picks up a bucket of breakfast burritos, this AM was no different. Steve and Ralph arrived at my place about 8:00, coffee was barely ready, we talked bikes as we wolfed down the morning fare.
Deciding on a trip through the park (RMNP) we headed toward the bikes. Me on my 165k mile C-10, Ralph on his 'Silver-Dammit" C-14, and Steve on his 30 some-odd-thousand mile one year old C-14.
Only one problem, Steve noticed a nail, and it wasn't on the road
[smg id=48] [smg id=49]
After another cuppa Joe, we headed out. Now if you don't know my place, turn one is 200 yards from my garage door. The rule is to whack on the loud handle as soon as you're pointing in a semi-straight line out my door, and we did. Little known factoid: Extreme acceleration with a new sticky-string plug installed, the sticky-string plug tends to get pulled out under the torque load. Back to the barn for another
I had to stop for fuel in Estes Park, it started to rain.... buckets, with what looked to be snow at the higher elevations. You can see RMNP from where we were. I opted to have another drink of water and let the major part of the rain pass, and it mostly did.
Entrance to the park was uneventful, it's a weekday after all, not as much traffic as on a weekend (barf). We stopped at about 11,000' and I took a few pix of Steve standing next to a snow cut that was well over his head. Steve will post these pix when he has the time, I'm sure.
On to the Continental Divide, and obligatory pix [smg id=51], then down the West side of the park, through Granby and Winter Park, and onto I-70 for the 'shortcut' into Frisco, Keystone, and Silverthorn (AKA the US-6 bypass of the Eisenhower tunnel) [smg id=52]
Steve checked into the Best Western in Frisco (think Frisco National), then we headed over to "The Mint" in Silverthorne for dinner. The Mint is somewhat rustic, but the food was quite good and the prices reasonable. Not to mention it's the first time I'd seen a Fat Tire beer in a 22oz bottle. Sure, I'll try one!
You do cook
your own food, either steaks or Salmon / Tuna (I don't recall a menu of any kind) on a huge community grill, but my ribeye was quite good, and the wait staff a pleasure to talk with. The Mint is on CO-9, about 1/4 mile south of I-70 in Silverthorne.
After dinner we retired to the parking lot for our goodby's when a C-10 we passed in/near Winter Park pulled up. I forgot his name, but he's on the forum, and near Lawrence Kansas. I gave him my number/location and said to stop by. Ralph and I bee lined it back to the Front Range. Me via Central City parkway and Peak to Peak, and Ralph via Foothills Parkway.
All in all, a most excellent day
Steve is riding on a plugged tire. We totally thrashed it riding up the N side of Berthound Pass and I have no doubt the tire will get him back to FL, but you never know. From Four Corners Steve says he'll be visiting Vegas then L.A., then Phoenix, then across NM to Loo-see-anna and finally home. If you're along his proposed route, and know of (or have) a C-14 rear tire, stay tuned.
A couple more pix in my media album:
http://www.zggtr.org/index.php?action=media;sa=album;in=9Rick
