Mountain passes and crazy weather!

No lounging under the pergola to report this weekend (sorry Dave!), it was a 400 mile motorcycle ride weekend! Early Saturday morning, in a light drizzle, my friend Suzanne and I took off towards Breckenridge for the weekend. Most of the ride Saturday was rainy and pretty cold at times, but well worth the effort. We took backroads all through the mountains and got a lot of experience driving hairpin turns on wet roads. We were pretty excited when we went over our first mountain pass, Wilkerson Pass which is at an elevation of 9507 feet. When it was all said and done, we went over three passes that were over 11,000 feet (Hoosier Pass at 11,542 ft, Berthoud Pass at 11,307 ft, and Loveland Pass at 11,990 ft). The passes were all part of the Continental Divide. It's pretty cool that the Rockie Mountains are the border between two watersheds. Water that flows off the Rockie Mountains will either run towards the west to the Pacific Ocean or towards the east to the Mississippi River.

As you can see from the picture of Suzanne with our bikes on the side of the road, we were driving in the clouds for most of the day Saturday. As much as I hate the cold, it wasn't bad since we had enough clothes on. I had jeans and a long-sleeve shirt as a base layer, leather chaps and coat for the second layer, and rain gear on top of all that. A friend at work let me borrow a full-face helmet, so I actuallly stayed pretty warm and dry. The hot tub at the hotel we stayed in didn't hurt either. I sat in it and boiled myself at the end of the day!

This morning, we woke up to a clear sky with a chill in the air. I could see my breath as we were packing the bikes this morning, but then again, the city of Dillon is at an elevation of 9000 feet, so we expected it to be chilly. After going over Loveland Pass, we headed down to Cripple Creek where there was a rally for American Veterans going on. It was a salute to veterans and a rememberence for POW/MIAs. There were tons of bikes - some beautiful, some interesting, some just downright strange, but all were great to look at during a beautiful day in the mountains. Look behind me in the picture and you can see the bikes lining both sides of the old gold mining town of Cripple Creek.

Although we got off to a cold and wet start, Suzanne and I had a great time. It was hard to keep my eyes on the road as we made our way through some amazing scenery and wildlife. Early this morning, we scared three huge buck deer out of the road as we made our way up to Loveland Pass. On the way to Cripple Creek, we came across this field full of yellow wildflowers and llama! Never a dull moment!

This trip was a warm-up for a longer one we have planned. For Labor Day weekend, we're heading down to Taos, NM for what will probably be the last long ride for the year. Winter is just around the corner, which means ice and snow riding. I don't know if I'm up for that yet, so I'm gonna get as much riding in now as I can!