A DAMN long way from home
Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:49 am
I've just returned from a weeklong romp up and down the Rockies in Colorado. We rode the Continental Divide Trail from south to north and then turned back south on the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route that was recently published by the folks at BDR and Butler Motorcycle Maps. My schedule was a little compressed so rather than riding my WR250R out there and back (or haul it) I rented a KTM 690 Enduro R in Durango. Here's a few photos from our trip:
We spent a few nights camping. This one was in Marshall Pass near Salida:
This one was along the Colorado River near Gypsum:
Dropping down into Breckinridge from Boreas Pass:
The first pass that required any focus was Cumberland. We got to the top and were feeling like adventure riders when this 80 year old couple in a Toyota Rav4 pulls up. So we got them to take our photo:
There's lots of old mining ruins up in the hills there:
Headed up into Cinnamon Pass where it started to get real:
A mining ghost town, Animas Forks:
Going up into California and Hurricane Pass was a lot of fun. It was the riding back down the other side that got exciting. It seemed like endless tight, steep switchbacks where running wide meant dropping 1,000's of feet off the mountain.
Some of it looked like Mars:
We spent most of the afternoon above the tree line in the San Juans:
We hit it just right for the Aspens to be in full color (and unlike Appalachia, no leaf peepers here):
So bucket list checked for off-roading in the Rockies across the roof of 'merica. We did the Trans America Trail in 2015 and crossed just Cinnamon Pass which back then kicked our ass. We felt good to have survived it. This time, I think we all enjoyed it a lot more and went off in to much more challenging riding.
We spent a few nights camping. This one was in Marshall Pass near Salida:
This one was along the Colorado River near Gypsum:
Dropping down into Breckinridge from Boreas Pass:
The first pass that required any focus was Cumberland. We got to the top and were feeling like adventure riders when this 80 year old couple in a Toyota Rav4 pulls up. So we got them to take our photo:
There's lots of old mining ruins up in the hills there:
Headed up into Cinnamon Pass where it started to get real:
A mining ghost town, Animas Forks:
Going up into California and Hurricane Pass was a lot of fun. It was the riding back down the other side that got exciting. It seemed like endless tight, steep switchbacks where running wide meant dropping 1,000's of feet off the mountain.
Some of it looked like Mars:
We spent most of the afternoon above the tree line in the San Juans:
We hit it just right for the Aspens to be in full color (and unlike Appalachia, no leaf peepers here):
So bucket list checked for off-roading in the Rockies across the roof of 'merica. We did the Trans America Trail in 2015 and crossed just Cinnamon Pass which back then kicked our ass. We felt good to have survived it. This time, I think we all enjoyed it a lot more and went off in to much more challenging riding.