Coast to coast in the US -third time!

[Whiskerfish]

And somebody seems to be turning them around.

[Fred Camper]

Wow, thank you for the updates, great info as usual.

[mrs west]

Thank you for flipping the photos! I know it’s a lot.

July 4
We woke up in Sugar Loafin and got going! Rode the mile over to Turquoise Lake just to see it, then into town to get gas and stock up on groceries. I got tons of 4th of July BBQ stuff and we hit the road through town only to end up in the parade! At first I was bummed we had to wait for it to go by but we ended up being right in back of all the floats! So people were waving to us as we made our way down the old fashioned, western strip of downtown Leadville. Just as we turned out of town, the fighter jets blew by in the air.

With beautiful snow capped mountains in the distance, we snaked our way through Independence Pass, stopping at the peak and again at Devil’s Punchbowl. There was a caravan of maybe 20 bikers at the peak, and we met another couple with plans to marry this summer. We planned to swim at the punchbowl but decided to just have a picnic instead.

As we made our way into Aspen, excited to see the place we had heard so much about, we hit their parade too, but this time it just held us up in hour long, hot traffic. Pretty town! Wish we got to see more of it!

We took highway 133 down through Redstone and pulled into the Redstone campground around 3 and it said full but we pulled in to check and they had 1 spot that just opened up! By far the most beautiful campground yet. Great water, bathrooms, and spectacular view! We could hear the river flowing nearby. Perfect place for our 4th of July BBQ!

[mr west]

Pics

[mrs west]

One more Red Stone pic from the river by the campsite & a guy we saw coming out of Aspen on the 4th.


Also I hope everybody had a nice 4th!

[mrs west]

July 5th we hit the road headed for Kebler pass, stopping at the incredible Redstone General store. They had everything. Great, homemade breakfast burritos, tamales to go, and all kinds of other camp snacks. We continued down hwy 133 to Kebler, and I thought we should stop at the Kebler general store and ask about the pass. It looked great on Google maps, but it wasn’t listed on the Motorcycle roads website as a recommended route, so we stopped to see what the lady in the store had to say. She let us know that it was a rough, dirt road. We decided not to go that way and go through Paonia instead. But in the parking lot, and a guy there said that it was a beautiful pass and that it was really well-maintained and we should definitely check out Crested Butte, so again we changed course and headed 1 mile into Kebler, just to turn around cause the road was not safe or fun for 2 wheels.

So that saved us a lot of time cutting out Crested Butte! From Hotchkiss, we turned down 92 for the Black Canyon Run! What a stretch that was! We hit another bout of bad planning on my part though as I assumed after the absolute enormous beauty that is the North Rim of Black Canyon, that we could stop and eat in Sapinero, but there is nothing at all in Sapinero. One store that is closed Wednesdays and it happened to be Wednesday. So luckily we had snacks and found some shade before we heading back west around the southern rim of Black Canyon on 52. Good thing we did have snacks, cause there was construction that held us up for an hour while the sun was blazing. Great views though!

Once we got moving, we stopped at Pleasant Valley General Store in Cimmaron for a great black bean burger and breakfast burrito. Cool little business on a great property owned by a couple. Very kitschy inside with a cowboy mannequin and lots of souvenirs to buy.

We went along 52 to Black Canyon where we misread the sign that says No Water, and swung back around to the Black Canyon Country and got water and a really cool postcard. The shop was also owned but a nice couple, and the man decided that KG was a mountain lion and I was a hummingbird. Oddly this was the second time in 2 days that I have been called a hummingbird. Luckily we stopped in there, cause he recommended the East Portal campground in the park and we are so grateful he did! That campground is beautiful and far superior to the one the ranger in the park recommended.

So we camped way at the bottom of the canyon by the river flowing through. Pictures of that place to it no justice!

And the wing made it down the 5 mile 16% incline, steepest paved road in Colorado.

[mrs west]

More pics outside of Redstone

[Whiskerfish]

4 years ago I came over Independence Pass a bit earlier in the year, lot more snow then. The Road had only been open a couple days and the pull offs were Jam packed with tourists. I had to wait till I was on my way down the East side before i could find a place to get off the road for a pic.

rotated .jpg

[mr west]

6th July

I think we had a good nights sleep in the black canyon, we decided to take a slow morning... We went back and forth the river a bit and also up to the dam where Amanda befriended the butterflies. We packed up around noon and decided to go back up the 16 degree road to do the Rim Drive and see the whole canyon from above.

I did notice the rear tire had gone almost completely bald and it seemed unlikely there would be any thread left by the time we would make it to LA so we decided to look around for a new tire after checking out the canyon. When we changed the front tube the guy estimated another 2000 miles for the rear but with all this weight things happened quickly.

The Black Canyon look really cool from above. It was really steep down from the viewpoints and sometimes not even any handrails. It was not possible to capture the whole thing with our cameras but it was impressive..

After coming into Montrose we checked for a tire. First place Davis had one, but would charge around 350 for the whole thing, and the Humbles Vintage didnt have the correct tire so we went with Jeff and Linda at Vamoose who had the tire and charged 270 for the whole thing, tire, work and tube included.

After coming back after coffee the new tire looked really small! Something in communication was missed and we got a 130/70 instead of 130/90 which we had before.... I am already missing a sixth gear on this bike so going down several sizes in rear tire didnt seem that appealing. So Jeff suggested he change into a 80 road/offroad he had, free of charge "well I could change it again or I can do something else, it doesnt really matter to me, but I rather have you happy on your way and maybe you come back some time in the furure. I would go with the 80". What a great guy! So he changed it again, as the 80 actually is according to specification it should not be too bad gearing wise.

Jeff told me he had also gone on a three week motorcycle ride with Linda before getting married. "Its a great way to get to know your spouse"

So with our new tire we went on to camp in a free campsite in really nice area just outside Telluride and Norwood. One by one we went down to the river but there was just too many bugs and mosquitos in the sunset so we went to bed early with aim to leave before sunrise the next day.

[mr west]

More pics

[mrs west]

Pics from Black Canyon NP and the campsite at Lower Beaver Campground.

The ride from Montrose to the campground was gorgeous. The top of the million dollar highway. It was a shame we didn’t have time to go in!

[mrs west]

Whiskerfish, very cool picture! You are so brave to go over with that much snow! It must have been so cold! I can’t remember are you local in that area?

[Whiskerfish]

Whiskerfish, very cool picture! You are so brave to go over with that much snow! It must have been so cold! I can’t remember are you local in that area?

No I am East Coast. I had ridden to Oregon to watch my Grandson Graduate High School and was on my way back.

[mr west]

East coast to Oregon and then back right away? Personally I need few years in between the trips!

[mr west]

7th of July
Its getting quite warm, so we slept without the rain fly on the tent, also so that we could pack up quickly and leave early to beat the heat.

We went through Slick Rock, had breakfast burritosat the gas station in Monticello, then we went down to take 95 through Glen Canyon. In Hanksville we stayed for a long time at the Gas Station/restaurant services during the hottest hours. We took the time to eat and write postcards thanking all people who showed up at our party in NYC.

The whole area around Capitol Reef is amazing. Sittinf on a bike your mind starts to see all kinds of things in the rocks, and its just endless.

After that Amanda had the idea we should see a movie just to sit in a nice AC cooled theatre for a while. So we drove half an hour to Bicknell to see Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in a small cozy theatre. Unfortunately they didnt have AC so it was really hot, haha! But entertaining movie for sure. Few holes in the plot and not very memorable, but quite nice to kind of get away from the trip for a while and think of something completely different.

After that we back tracked a bit and stayed in a free camping with the horizon all around. The warm desert winds were blowing in the night and sky was really clear.