Ducati in the Rockies 2014

[ZLTFUL]

Ducati in The Rockies 2014 Ride Report

It seemed like an innocuous idea at first. Ride the bike out to Ouray, Colorado for the 9th annual Ducati in The Rockies event. I had done it before…ridden out in 2012. I had also ridden to Indianapolis and back for MotoGP in 2013. This wasn’t any different…right? The trip in 2012 had been across the southern tier of Nebraska and through eastern Colorado. But it was also excruciatingly boring even with going off the beaten path.

Ducati in The Rockies was started by a group of folks from the Ducati Monster Forum back in 2005 to celebrate all things Ducati, debaucheristic and hooliganistic. It has ebbed and flowed with the times but continues to be a fantastic gathering of good people willing to welcome any and all.

So a plan was hatched. Go north this time. I had tested cell service in South Dakota and had found a bunch of hidden gems and decided that I wanted to reacquaint myself with them once again.
The route would take me via some state and county highways from my home in West Des Moines, IA, northwest to Sioux City and then west through northeast Nebraska and then back and forth over the Missouri River a few times before heading west along the southern tier of South Dakota. Ultimately, I would end up in Wyoming and then head south to meet my wife in Denver.

At this point, the plan started to evolve. I started mapping out the route in Google Maps and discovered I was awful close to making the requirements for a Saddlesore 1000. I just had to add another ~200 miles onto the trip. After some fiddling with my route and such, I ended up with a route that would take me 1114 miles in less than 24 hours.

With the initial route planned, I began to fine tune things. Where would I stop for breaks? Would I camp or hit up a hotel room for part of the night? Would I just push on through with nothing more than gas breaks to break up the trip? As the time for the start came closer, I began to check the weather. 2 weeks out and it was looking fine. At 1 week out and there’s a 30% chance of rain along a good portion of my route. At 2 days out, the chance has increased to 50%.

Equipment that was  used on this trip…
Motorcycle: 2012 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring Outbound, all 3 bags on and loaded with camping gear, Inbound, Just top box mounted with extra water inside
Tires: Michelin Pilot Road 3s with ~3500 miles on them at the start of the trip
Gear: Firstgear Ranier Jacket, Firstgear HT Overpants, Shoei Qwest Helmet, Firstgear Kathmandu Gloves (wet), Ducati (Dainese) Motard Gloves (dry), Teknic Chicane (Cortec Latigo) Boots, Aerostitch Boot Raincovers
GPS: TomTom Rider (2014)
Misc: Firstgear Torrent 70 liter dry-bag (stored tent, sleeping bag, cot, sleeping pad and pillow)

My day of departure arrives and I head off to work. I decided to work until 2pm with an expected departure time from home of 5pm. Things at work tend to never go as planned and I end up not leaving work until 3pm. But my gear is all packed and all I have to do is strap what I am taking on the bike on and head out.

I get home and get the gear loaded. I take one final look at the weather and it looks like the gods will be kind as the lines of storms are all north/northeast of my intended route.
The trip from home to Sioux City is dry and uneventful. Threatening clouds loom but the rains hold off until I get to Sioux City, IA. At this point, the weather gods have mocked me enough and decide that I lack humility in their eyes.

IMG_1159 by zltful, on Flickr

The skies open up and for the next several hours. At one point, the crosswinds were so high I was forced to seek shelter under a gas station awning in Plain Center, SD. I was hiding behind the pumps as the wind was blowing the rains sideways.

IMG_1160 by zltful, on Flickr

At one point, a young Sioux Indian man mentioned that there was an awning over their patio behind the station and I was welcome to shelter there being that it was out of the wind, I would be better off there. I took him up on his offer and spend the next 45 minutes waiting for the rain to die down some and swapping into dry gloves and boots (Both were waterproof…both failed). At that point, the rains had died down to little more than a steady drizzle. So I soldiered on. I crossed over the Ft. Randall Dam which is one of my favorite dams in the Midwest. It “feels” similar to the Hoover Dam but with far more width and far less height.

My original plan was to stop and camp at the Burke Lake State Recreation Area but as much rain as I had already been through, I didn’t trust that I would find a dry spot to set up camp and decided to soldier on a bit further. I stopped for gas in Winner, SD and decided at this point that I was done for the night. It was time to find a warm dry place to sleep for a few hours. I had seen a Holiday Inn Express back a mile or two from the gas station and backtracked to the hotel. The lot was full of trucks with trailers and under the awning, about 30 Harleys all huddled together from the rain.

IMG_1161 by zltful, on Flickr

I pull up and walk in all drippy and road weary and ask the night clerk if there were any more rooms available. She has 1 room and it just happens to be next to the guest laundry. So I take the room, unload my change of clothes from the bike and head up to my room. I strip out of my gear and stuff it all into a dryer, throw a couple of dollars’ worth of quarters in and proceed to sleep for the next 3 hours. I wake up, gather my gear and proceed to the dining room for a quick breakfast.

Day 1, 404 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/u8NL7

With my belly full, my gear dry and motivation in my soul, I look outside and am disheartened to see that it is still raining. So I check the Weather Underground app on my phone and it looks like I will be west of the worst of the rain in under an hour. So I load back up on the bike. All the while, the rugged individualist prairie pirates are mocking and jeering at me and my desire to continue on in the rain. I just smile and shrug off their jeers knowing that I am having adventures while they are having coffee.

I continue west on US 18 at a good clip and am gunning for Hot Springs, SD as my next gas stop.

IMG_1163 by zltful, on Flickr
As I am riding, I lose my headset.
IMG_0716 by zltful, on Flickr

Well…crap…I guess I forgot to pack the charger for my Sena. So now my only option for music is my pair of cheap ear buds.  But after a short time, I realize that they are not blocking any wind noise and they are fatiguing me horribly. So back in go my ear plugs and no music for the rest of the trip to Denver.
All is not lost though as I encounter small herds of the notorious Prairie Pirates on their rugged individualistic Hogs all blatting out their monotone song. I begin to come up with, what I think, is an accurate interpretation of what they sound like talking to each other.

IMG_0718 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0721 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0728 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0731 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0735 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0738 by zltful, on Flickr

And thus is created, my new alter ego, “Smokey, the bad ass biker Prairie Pirate, perpetrator and perpetuator of the Rugged Individualist Persona”. I begin to have conversations with Smokey who proves himself to be a worthy companion on this trip. At the very least for his entertainment value as he is a clueless moron.

This portion of the trip is mostly uneventful except for 2 things of note.
1.   Through the width of the entire “Buffalo Gap National Grassland” I spotted exactly zero buffalo. Far and away the biggest single disappointment of this whole trip.
2.   
IMG_0739 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0741 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0742 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0743 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0746 by zltful, on Flickr

3.   Hail and torrential rains driven by a 65mph crosswind will leave welts even through decent quality riding gear. I ran into a tremendous storm coming into Cheyenne, WY. Hard to blame the storm as I saw it from about 900 miles away.

The trip from Cheyenne to Denver was pretty much slab as I was ready to wrap up this portion of the trip. My wife was waiting for me at my final gas stop down the street from our hotel for the night in Golden, CO. Here she signed my ending point witness sheet and my first goal of the trip was accomplished…a successful Saddlesore 1000.

Day 2, 710 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/fajD6

Mission accomplished. I made my Saddlesore 1000 with 1114 miles in 21 hours, 33 minutes from start to finish and even got a few hours of sleep in.

But at this point, I am flat out exhausted. I head into the hotel, shower, shave and lay down for a short nap. After my nap, we hop in my car (my wife drove the whole way as she doesn’t  enjoy the long bike trips as much as I do) and head to LoDo (Lower Downtown Denver) to meet up with a buddy at the Squeaky Bean http://thesqueakybean.net/ for dinner and drinks.
The food is amazing and the libations equally so, served to us by a wonderful young lady who was attractive, intelligent and very engaging. She made our visit a truly memorable experience. We will definitely be back.

The rest of the night was rather uneventful as I went to bed semi-early and slept in a bit as I wasn’t supposed to meet the folks from Denver I would be riding down to Ouray with until 10:00am.

The following morning, I load up what little gear I will be taking with me on the bike. My wife will be shuttling the rest of my gear the rest of the way to Ouray in the car so that I can increase the level of spiritedness of the rest of the ride down.

I meet up with 3 other folks in Morrison, Colorado and we head down to US 285 then over to US 50 to Montrose and then south on US 550 to Ouray. We stopped in Gunnison for a late lunch and ran into some construction west of Blue Mesa Reservoir but otherwise, the trip was rather uneventful with nothing to distract from the amazing views.

IMG_1165 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1166 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1168 by zltful, on Flickr

That night, my wife and I decided to walk up the road to “downtown” Ouray for dinner and happened across the Bon Ton Restaurant in the basement of the St. Elmo Hotel.  http://stelmohotel.com/ We inquired about a table and they offered us a seat on the patio. The weather was perfect so we accepted.

IMG_1169 by zltful, on Flickr

For an appetizer, we ordered the mussels. They were nothing short of amazing and being something of an expert in mussels, rank them in the top 5 best I have ever had. When my salad arrived, the waitress also brought a bowl of the soup of the day. It was a locally harvested wild mushroom soup with hints of roasted red peppers in a very flavorful beef stock. I hadn’t ordered the soup but the waitress said that it was close to closing time and she hated to see it go to waste…besides, she thought I might like it. She was correct. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if it had chunks of roasted pheasant in it.
For dinner, I had ordered the chicken picata. It was tasty but below par in my eyes as my wife already sets that bar ultra-high with her own. It was still a nice light meal to end the day on.
Of course, being a dessert junky, I had to spring for the tiramisu. And I wasn’t disappointed. While not the best I have ever had, it was still awful darn tasty with a cup of coffee chasing it down.

IMG_1170 by zltful, on Flickr

After dinner, we wandered down and then back up Main Street and headed back to the hotel to read and go to bed. All in all, a fantastic end to a wonderful day.

Day 3, 290 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/GBIl6

[ZLTFUL]

The next morning, I awoke bright and early (Getting caught in the rain seems to have inflicted me with a slightly Ebola-like cold…but can’t waste the day!). We headed over to the hotel’s breakfast room. I had a Denver omelet sans peppers while my wife enjoyed some of the assorted continental breakfast foods they offered. We chatted about what we wanted to do for the day while finishing up breakfast. My buddy Larry from ABQ wanted to head out towards the Gateway Canyon area and being that I had never been out that way myself, I decided we should tag along.
So off we go.
Along the way, between Ridgway and the turn-off for Telluride, I noticed a large ranch with the designation “The Double RL Ranch”. This struck me as somewhat familiar but it didn’t click for me. I have been past this area probably 50 times in my life and never really noticed how breathtakingly beautiful it was until this trip. Later on, I would Google “Double RL Ranch” and discover that this 17,000 acre plot of ranch land belongs to Ralph and Ricky Lauren. I didn’t get any pictures as we were too busy riding but I definitely want to explore more the next time I am down that way. Absolutely stunning views of the San Juan range.
(Disclaimer: Photo credit goes to DSABOPhoto.com)



We continued on, looping around past the turn off to Telluride and continuing on to the town of Norwood. We stopped for gas and Larry realized that he had forgotten his license and insurance card back at the hotel so he decided to turn back.
My wife was a bit freaked out by the ascent up the canyon wall before Norwood (she has a tremendous fear of heights) so we decided that instead of looping around to Delta to the north via state highway 141, we would loop through Delores to the south via state highway 141. This would give us the opportunity to stop at the Argentine Grille in Rico, CO for a late lunch. Plus, having never seen the desolate stretch of road that is Colorado State Highway 141, I was curious.
At one point during the ride, we didn’t see another human soul or sign of civilization besides speed limit signs for some time. Eventually, after winding through dry and desolate landscapes, we dropped down into the Joe Davis Canyon and stop for a brief break at the edge of the Delores River.

IMG_0759 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0760 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0761 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0763 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0764 by zltful, on Flickr

After our break, we continue up and out of the canyon and begin climbing back to more green landscapes. Eventually we ended up connecting up to US Highway 491 were we turned east and head back towards the Cortez/Durango area.

IMG_0766 by zltful, on Flickr

We stopped in Delores to top off the gas tank and take a water break before continuing on up towards Lizard Head Pass on highway 145.

IMG_0769 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0776 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0782 by zltful, on Flickr

Unfortunately, unknown to us, the Argentine Grille had changed its hours and was no longer serving lunch during the week.
http://www.ricohotel.com/argentine-grille.html
We decide to soldier on with a bathroom break on top of Lizard Head Pass.

IMG_0787 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1171 by zltful, on Flickr

We then continued on to Mountain Village and then Telluride. We thought to stop in Telluride for a quick bite but looking at the time and seeing how busy the town was, we decided to instead, ride up to the start of Black Bear Pass and snap some pictures of Bridal Veil Falls and some of the Jeeps descending Black Bear.

IMG_0795 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_0800 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1173 by zltful, on Flickr

 We then headed back to Ouray to call it a day and to relax in the hot springs-fed “oasis” at our hotel.

Day 4, 277 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/4ILN6

I woke up on Saturday morning not really feeling like riding all that much. But I did really feel like making a pass up and over Red Mountain to Silverton and back. So I went and joined in on the group photo before returning to our room to leisurely get ready for my video run down the Million Dollar Highway.

IMG_1179 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1180 by zltful, on Flickr

I make my spirited run up Red Mountain Pass and down the other side and stop for gas in Silverton. At this point, I decide to ride through town to get a “lay of the land” and spot the sign pointing up to Silverton Ski Area. So I follow the road to the northern corner of town and up into the hills. The road changes over to gravel and I find myself following some Jeeps up the road into the back country. I rode up and past the ski area and realized that I really need to start skiing again as the back country skiing available at Silverton is nothing short of amazing. I stopped north of the ski area to shoot some pics at an old mine site and had Jeep guys eyeballing me each time they drove past.

IMG_1183 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1184 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3325 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1182 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3327 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3331 by zltful, on Flickr

After shooting some pics and just enjoying the altitude, I decided to head back up and over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray with a quick run north to Ridgway for a peek at the Art Fair. Didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without so I went back to the hotel and met my wife.
We hopped in the car and went back down to Silverton (I say down and even though it is South, it is higher in altitude than Ouray) over Red Mountain Pass to snap some more pictures and have a late lunch at the Pickle Barrel in Silverton.

IMG_3336 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3338 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3339 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3345 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3347 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3349 by zltful, on Flickr

My wife’s father worked for one of the Chessie System subsidiary railroads when she was a child in West Virginia…imagine her delight when she found this sign in Silverton, CO!

IMG_3352 by zltful, on Flickr

After our late lunch we returned to Ouray to relax and rest before our planned departure the next day. I did take a hike around the rim of Box Canyon above Ouray to snap some pictures and check out dome of the beautiful geological formations around the canyon.

IMG_3353 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3354 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3361 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3365 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_3367 by zltful, on Flickr
IMG_1187 by zltful, on Flickr

Later in the evening, we walked up to Main Street and ate a light, late dinner at the Bon Ton.

Day 5, 83.5 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/FLX9f

Sunday morning arrives and it is time to bid a fond farewell to the group of fellow Ducati enthusiasts and our favorite little town in southwestern Colorado.
My wife heads out in the car up US 550 to 50 at Montrose, which she will take north to Grand Junction. I have a grander plan…ok…I have a Grand Mesa plan. I have never been over Grand Mesa in my many trips to western Colorado so I decide that this is as good a time as any. I split off from my wife’s bumper at the town of Delta and head east. Then, turning north towards Grand Mesa, I start working my way through some of the amazing little towns surrounded by orchards.
Once I begin my ascent up the Mesa, I begin to notice how it seems like every few miles, the terrain and landscape change.

IMG_1188 by zltful, on Flickr

Ultimately, at the top levels of Grand Mesa, it is more alpine with pine trees and aspens and gorgeous alpine lakes scattered all over.

IMG_1190 by zltful, on Flickr

This is also open range land so don’t be surprised if you find yourself encountering a small herd of cattle meandering down the middle of the road.
I have decided that I need to spend about a week on top of Grand Mesa and just explore as much of it as I can. There are fire roads leading off in every direction and with several campgrounds and a couple of cabin rentals, I think I can find a place to stay that would encourage my wife to join me.

I descend down the northern side of the Mesa and find the terrain turning once again. Following the De Beque cutoff road, the terrain turns into something straight out of a John Wayne western movie. Red sandstone, tan sandstone, washed out arroyos…it’s all here. Keep your eyes on those bluffs yonder…there could be Injuns! Amazing stuff and the road is roller-coaster-esque in the dips and rises and sharp bends. This was probably the most fun riding of the whole trip if it wasn’t for the sand and mud washes over the road in places.

I meet my wife at the Kum & Go (snicker) at the I-70 De Buque, CO exit. I gas up and check my tire pressures and then take the lead as we hop on the interstate and head east. Aside from the wonderful track along the Colorado River, the great climbs and descents through the mountains and the great tunnels, I-70 is surprisingly fun. If ya gotta slab it, might as well be I-70 between Grand Junction and Denver! Well…that is until we got east of the Johnson Tunnel…
We had seen the warnings of 50+ minute delays east of the tunnel to Idaho Springs. But they kept decreasing. 40+ minutes. Then 20+ minutes. Just west of Georgetown, we hit the traffic delays. And 2.5 hours later, we finally make it east of Idaho Springs and are back up to a speed limit trip towards Denver.

One of the agreements my wife and I have for these trips is that on the return trip, *she* gets to pick out the hotel. In this case, she chose the Oxford Hotel in lower downtown (or LoDo) Denver. http://theoxfordhotel.com/  Just a block from Union Station, The Oxford Hotel is touted as Denver’s oldest hotel. It has a wonderful old grand hotel ambiance and charm along with comfortable modern amenities.
I felt burnt out at this time and we decided to hang out in our room and let room service bring us dinner from McCormick’s down in the lobby. After dinner, we head down to the Cruise Room. This post-prohibition bar is a throwback to the days when booze was elegant. The Art Deco style of the place is elegantly subdued and was quiet on this late Sunday evening. Nice ambiance and some solid mixology going on behind the bar.
After our beverages, we decide to turn in for the night as the second longest day of the trip will also be the last.

Day 6, 337 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/55oIw

[ZLTFUL]

Monday morning dawns sunny with no threat of rain at all. The plan is to wait for rush hour to wrap up while eating a light breakfast in our room and then head for home.



Around 9:30, we check out of the hotel and head across the street to the parking garage. I fill up my hydration pack and make sure that my phone is plugged into the charger for the long boring drone home.
The goal is to make the trip in less than 11 hours and to stop as little as possible. I am under a half tank of gas at this point, having filled up last at the Conoco station in Vail. But I am fairly certain that even without pushing it, I can make it to Ft. Morgan before needing to fill up again.
We navigate our way out onto I-25 and then over to I-76 where we open up our throttles and set “cruise” at 82mph (My cruise is a cramp buster and a determined focus!). We make it to Ft. Morgan with little drama and fill up. The next stop…Kearney, NE! Other than some construction that brings us down to one lane a couple of times, there really is nothing but prairie and the Platte River to keep me entertained. My hind end is starting to shout at me by this point and I begin to think of ideas to help when we next stop for fuel. I already have a sheepskin seat pad but it has stopped helping and I need to find another alternative. So at our fuel stop in Kearney, I decide that I should strap my camping pillow to my seat. That’s a great idea! This will work wonderfully!!!


 
After filling up in Kearney, we hit the road again and shoot for Lincoln, NE as our next (and hopefully last) fuel stop of the trip. In very short order, I establish that the soft cushy pillow seat is a horrible idea. It raises me a couple of inches further into the air flow over my windscreen so now I am being buffeted more. The width of the pillow is also pushing my legs out so that they are affecting the aerodynamics as well. I can almost watch the mileage drop like a rock. On top of that, my ass has started hurting more rapidly than on previous stops! Stupid pillow! So, when we stop for fuel in Lincoln, the pillow of Satan is removed.
While filling up, some guy pulls into the gas station and up to the pump in front of me. He gets out and keeps glaring at me while filling his truck. As I am getting situated, he comes storming over with a look of unfettered rage on his face and starts shouting at me about how drivers should have the right to “mow down stupid ass bikers like” me! Uh…what the hell did I do? “You didn’t do a gawddamned thing but some other bikers on those gawddamned loud assed Harleys cut me off a little bit ago and almost ran me into the ditch!” Uhm…sir…I apologize for that but not all motorcyclists are like that and I certainly shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of some “bad ass biker prairie pirates”. That sort of caught him off guard. His expression softened a little bit and he said, “Well I guess you’re right…just pisses me off that they seem to take over and make their own rules during Sturgis.” I talk to him for a little bit and calm him down some more and then regale him with my own tales of adventures with the inconsiderate weekend warriors that show up for rallies and poker runs with little more than drunken debauchery on their minds.
After a few minutes, he has calmed considerably and says that he sees that not all folks who ride bikes are a-holes and he apologizes for jumping down my throat for the actions of others.
My wife has been watching this from the car and chooses this time to pull over and mention that we should probably get rolling again.
So I bid my new friend a fond farewell and get back in the saddle for the last push home.
The next ~170 miles is fairly uneventful except for the last 10-15 miles. That’s when my last bar on my fuel gauge started flashing and my range dropped below 10 miles on the display. I begin doing my own version of hyper-miling and end up pulling into our driveway with 7 miles left on the range and the last bar had gone blank.
So, in the immortal words of one Samwise Gamgee, “Well, I’m back.”

Day 7, 661 miles. Route: https://goo.gl/maps/rh3KF

Some lessons I have learned on this trip (which I have done before but that has never been so exhausting or generally trying in the past):
1.   Waterproof boots are not overrated. Non-waterproof boots are. My boots weren’t waterproof and my rain-covers didn’t help all that much from the front tire spray that seemed to be able to enter the covers from the bottom.
2.   I need to investigate seat options for my Multistrada. While the sheepskin from Alaska Leathers helps, it only extends my seat time by about an hour before I get all fidgety. I need a seat/pad combo that will allow me to get maximum seat time between fill-ups.
3.   The TomTom Rider is a fantastic GPS so far but has one major flaw. When you load your intended track to it, they are loaded as waypoints. This is nice except when you bypass a waypoint or 3. The GPS keeps trying to route you back to the missed point and you have no option to skip all waypoints up to the next in line. Not only that, but as you pass more waypoints, it continues to ignore them until you go back to or delete the original one (which has now become 20). It would be nice to be able to select an option to delete all previous waypoints up to the current or next waypoint.
4.   While the Multistrada is a solid all-round motorcycle, its touring chops have to be fine-tuned to get the most out of it. Some sort of cruise control is a must. Even with a cramp buster, my right wrist and hand experienced some fatigue when droning alone straight, flat highways. The cockpit is a bit cramped for my 5’11” frame after more than a couple of hours. My knees aren’t great to begin with but as the week progressed, I found myself dangling my legs more and more or cocking my feet up onto the crash bars. The cruise can be handled with a software option or the Throttlemeister option. I intend on adding one or the other sooner rather than later. The other, the seat, is covered above.
5.   I don’t pack for camping light. But then I also enjoy being comfortable. I brought along my smaller, lighter tent and this worked out well even though I never camped. It packed better. The problem I ran into though was when loaded with camping gear I can’t wear my hydration pack on my back. Not a major issue as I would drink when I stopped for gas but something I need to consider when heading out for a camping trip.

All in all, it was a nice, fun trip. I find that as I get older, I want to explore and meander more on my trips where I used to just bee-line it for the next stop. But of course, this takes time. To that end, my wife and I have decided that we need to win the lottery or have a rich unknown relative leave us a financial windfall soon so that I can continue my dream of meandering through life on a motorcycle!

Thanks for taking the time to read my wall of text.
Ryan

[ducpainter]

Nice write up Ryan.

[Grampa]

this write up is dumb.......




mostly cuz I was not there.

 

[red baron]

Awesomeness.

[Curmudgeon]

Nice write-up. See any Range Rovers doing the Great Divide Expedition re-run? Ouray never changes I guess.

Have you considered one of these? http://www.sargentcycle.com/Seats-Accessories/World-Sport-Modular-Seat-Ducati-Multistrada-2010/ While there's no such thing as a magic bullet, these come close for many.

[ungeheuer]

Wow... thanks for posting....

I see now why The Rockies are called The Rockies.

Great write-up and pics 

[koko64]

Thanks for a great read. Another place I now want to see.

[DesmoDiva]

Great write up Ryan!

Beautiful country we live in.

Ducati in the Rockies is on our bucket list.

I would highly recommend the Throttlemiester.  Both B and I have then and I can't imagine doing slab runs with out.  It takes a little getting use to and can be a bit fussy finding the sweet spot where it holds and you can still roll the throttle off easily.  It is great to be able to rest your right hand/wrist.  I've even caught B resting both his hands at the same time.   

What did you end up getting for a cot? 

And congrats on the SS1000.

[ZLTFUL]

Thermarest Ultralight large for the cot.

I would move to Ouray or Ridgway or Telluride in a heartbeat if I could...

[ZLTFUL]

Been working on editing the GoPro footage from the trip too. I will post it up when I am done.

[herm]

Great write up, and pictures!

I love Colorado,....would move back if I could find the excuse

[grunte]

Nice!

[Buckethead]

Nice write up.   

Glad to see someone else found Grand Mesa/De Beque Cutoff. I took that route out and back when I went out a couple of years ago. It's as good as Ryan makes it sound.

I'll just have to skip whatever wedding happens on that weekend next year.