Colorado Passes 2021 - Newb's First "Real" Adv Ride!!!

It actually happened!!!

一个fter about a year a planning, I just got back from an 11 day "Adventure"!!! This trip was the culmination of a lot of things. Having just bought my DS bike back in Feb of 2020, I really thought a trip such as this was just a pipe dream....but we pulled it off. I went from not owning a bike, or any ADV gear, 18 months ago, to what I would consider pulling off "real" adv ride (some might even say "epic"....I know I will...especially as time moves on). I went from reading about trips here, and watching countless YouTube videos to actually riding the same stuff!!!

But first....THANK YOU!!!

Thank You to this board. I have learned a ton, and mostly from all on this board. I have pestered many with gear, bike and route questions...boarding on harassment, both in strings and PMs. Thanks for all the info, and patience.

的Trip: Get to Colorado on Saturday August 28, and ride as many passes as we could for 8 days...Saturday to Saturday.

的Gear: Feel free to skip this section, but I put it here for all the folks that might be like me who wanted to know all the details.

Bike: 2019 CRF250L (aka Little Red Pig...aka Lucy). It's sort of a fat guy on a little bike story. I'm a biggin'....6'1" and between 250lbs and 285lbs "depending". I've ridden 2-stroke dirt bikes since I was a teen, and except for a brief sport bike period in the mid 1990s, I have been exclusively a dirt rider. Well, all my dirt riding buds got bitten by this adv thing, so I either had to ride alone or join them. I looked at A LOT of bikes, but settled on the LRP for a few reasons..it's a Honda (I'm a bit of a fan boy), super long maintenance intervals, can't get into trouble power, heavy for a 250, but super light for ADV....and lastly, I was perfectly fine getting a bike that was "not enough" versus getting one that was too much. After 18 months of ownership I couldn't be more happy. She shines where I like to ride and sort of sucks where I don't care to ride.

Boots: Rocked my 20 year old Gaerne MX boots. The other 3 riders that I went with (who are all better riders than me), all wore some form of hiking boots. Two had steel/composite toed boots, and one just had waterproof Merrill boots. I was jealous of them for the all day and off bike comfort, but I wanted the protection and not to have me ruin the adventure for myself and others due to some injury that could have been prevented. That said....I will be very tempted to opt for hiking boots in the future.

Pants: This was the biggest 180 for me. I absolutely hated the look of almost all ADV pants. And all the cooler looking cargo style ones never seemed to come in my size (looking at you Klim...body shamers!!!). But I finally bit the bullet and bought some ARC Battle Born Pants. Waterproof, thermal liner, hip and knee pads, and you didn't need to rob a bank to buy them...oh, and they came in fat boy sizes. That said....ARC must think the fatter you are, the taller you are. Unfortunately, as their waste size goes up, they force you with longer and longer inseams. I ended up with pants that fit, but were way too long. They arrived and I hated them. I felt like I was making a lunar landing. Well....after removing the thermal lining, using the snaps at the bottom of the legs so they fit around my boot and didn't drag the floor, and using them everyday for 9 days I love them and finally get it. They ended up feeling so natural, and very confidence inspiring with the material and all the protection.

Jacket: Klim Induction. For me, I truly think a mesh jacket is they way to go. Layer up underneath if you get cold, throw a Frogg Togg over if it starts to rain. Since I don't do a ton of riding in either cold or wet, why would I want that protection 100% of the time. Expensive, but I love the coat.

Gloves: Revit Sand 3. Even buying a size or two up, they are still a little snug, but they are great gloves.

Helmet: HJC i90. This is my first non-MX helmet in forever, so I'm not a great judge....I think it's maybe a bit loud, but I LOVE the modular function. I can't imagine ever going back to a "regular" lid.

Misc: Rok Straps: Get them...they work great. Darn Tough Socks: Can't go wrong with the sock favored by most hardcore hikers. They work in hot or cold, are soft, and don't stink. Forget what you think you know about wool socks.

的Crew: Me plus 3 friends. Two are a father son. The other guy is a former MX racer.

Pops: BMW 800
儿子:DR650
MX: KTM 890 Adventure R
Me: CRF250L

Yup, the biggest dude, and lowest skilled rider is on the smallest and slowest bike!

Trip:
Get to Lakewood, CO on Saturday August 28, ride a big loop south until Saturday Sep 4.

Day 1 & Day 2: My trusty Tundra has 206,000+ miles on her, but I just didn't want to trust her for this trip....too much time and planning and costs were involved so I elected to steal the wife's SUV and rented a motorcycle trailer from U-Haul. Worked great....her big SUV didn't even know it was pulling anything. Day 1 I went from the Chicagoland area to Omaha. Day 2 I went from Omaha to Lakewood, CO. The father and son duo woke up around 2am on Friday and drove straight through. MX dude did what I did and broke up the drive. All arrived in Lakewood on Friday. This is not a small thing...for those of us that don't live near great riding places just getting there is an issue. It's a 1000+ mile trip in one direction for us. Once all arrived, we took a dip in the hotel pool, then had dinner and drinks and turned in relatively early in anticipation for the ride the following day. Shout out to the Lakewood Holiday Inn who let us park our trucks/SUVs and trailers in their lot for a week plus.

Day 3: Lakewood, CO to Grant, CO to Hill Valley Camp Grounds, to Webster Pass.

Lakewood to Grant was all slab, but coming from Illinois, it was great riding.....beautiful scenery. We were all jacked up for the ride, so it was all great, and in no time at all we were at the start of Webster and Red Cone. There was some "big talk" about doing Red Cone from some, but me and Pops had already stated that we were not doing Red Cone, but everyone else was free to do as they wanted. All 4 elected to do Webster. And with very little transition, the trail throws you in the deep in with a fairly steep and very rocking beginning. My thoughts were 50%, whoooohooooo, I'm really doing it, and 50%....ohhhhhh shiiiiiiiit, what did I get myself into......




Webster Pass will always be special to me. She was my first, and she tested about 105% of my abilities, but I didn't wreck, I lived, and I truly loved the experience......




**that's an Adventure Rider hat BTW.

Too big a guy, with too much gear on a little bike....but she performed flawlessly. Going from bottom up...Precision Tail Rack, with Rotopak on top, tool kit in front, then a 40L water proof bag, and then a good old back pack strapped down via a bungie net. My version of the Beverly Hillbillies doing ADVing!!!!

It was fairly windy at the top, but we hung for a bit, then rode the descent down to a fairly deep water crossing....then made our way to Keystone for lunch. I must admit I sort of had a "perma-grin" on my face the rest of the day...having now recently become a real adv guy!!!. Lunch was great, as we all told our tales of how we rode the pass. After lunch we made our way to Breckenridge for our stay.

Total miles for the day: 99

Day 3: Continued....

Pops (who is younger than me by the way) did most/all of the planning. He elected for us to use Motels versus your standard chain type of places. Since I used to travel a ton for work, I am very familiar with the normal big chain properties...so I was a little leery. But I decided to sit back and go with the flow...tough for an old control freak...but I'm mellowing with age. Boy am I glad I followed his lead...these Motel sites were great (at least almost all of them). Cozy or charming might sometimes be a cover for small and dumpy, but not here...these were legit great little spots. And the whole door code versus keycard has ruined me!!! I love it! They texted and emailed me my "code" and let me know that it would work after 3pm. Huh? Where has this been all my life? I love it. No need to go to the front desk or waste any time...just pull up, punch in your code...boom...access! When you check out in the AM...just leave! No more keycards to worry about losing either. I'm sold! They have all you need....a bed, bathroom, what else do you need? And your bike is right outside your door!

Here was our place for the end of Day 3......




It's called art, bro.........

Day 4 (Sun):

Woke up in Breckenridge, and fell into what would be our normal routine, which was to have kickstands up by 9am. This gave all plenty of time to get a great night's sleep, let old bodies move slowly in the AM getting ready each day, and for the day to actually warm up a bit as some of the nights got a little nippy. Today we decided to meet at the nearby gas station to fill up, get snacks and water for the day, and spend about 30min trying to connect our Senas。这是我第一次使用通讯设备, and when they work it's truly a game changer for group riding...not just for general chat busting each others chops, but for warnings of cars, stuff in the road, etc. That said, in the age where iEverything is so easy to use that newborns can navigate almost all devices, the Sena's sort of blow in the user interface department (what are you laughing at Garmin...you ain't no betta). When a BMW GS rider pulled up with his Sena, we asked him if he had any advice....he said "Nope, these things suck".

一个s if Colorado needed any more of a sales job, this was the view behind the gas station.....



Now you're just showing off Colorado!!!


We left Breckenridge (with 3 of 4 Senas connected) and made our way to Alma, CO. Along the way the 4th Sena connected for no apparent reason. While on the way to Alma we went up and over Hoosier Pass...I'm not sure this "counts" as it's all slab, but for those less inclined to get off road, Colorado still has a lot to offer.




一个t Alma we made our way to Mosquito Pass....which started off as nothing too extreme...I mean, I'm a veteran ADV guy now and have like 24 hours of hardcore experience. But Mosquito was serving up huge slices of humble pie that day! The 4 of us came around an easy switchback, and 2 of us just kept motoring up, and 2 of us had a decision to make. Son and MX guy continued. Pops and I decided to take a break and contemplate. We both decided that it was a long trip, and with age comes wisdom, and we decided to take a pass on this pass. The pic below is where our ascent to Mosquito ended. May not look like much, but it's tons of watermelon sized rocks and steep, and long.



It might not look too different from some of the other Passes, but it is. The Jeep vs Bike rating could many times be reversed. Tons and tons of big rocks are great for Jeeps, with their big tires it almost turns into a flat ride. But not great for a novice biker. Whereas huge boulders cause climbing over and hanging up issues for Jeeps, bikes can snake through. Tough to explain, but you know it when you see it.

流行音乐,然后我出尔反尔了蚊子,our way to Fairplay, CO to do Weston Pass. Weston is a pretty mellow pass....probably the easiest we did all week, but still offers some great riding and great views.




一个fter Weston Pass, we slabbed into Leadville, CO to meet up with Son and MX to have lunch. They had already been in the town for a few hours, and shamed us with their stories of how great Mosquito Pass was. It was all in good fun. One of the great things about the group was that there was zero drama, and zero pressure for anyone to do anything they didn't want to. We were also perfectly okay to divide up as needed with no hard feelings. Having said that, I was pretty pooped for the day, but still got talked into more riding. It was late in the afternoon, and I was perfectly happy to call it a day. But the crew said Hagerman Pass was calling.



Hagerman might have been my least favorite pass. Zero wrong with it, and it's still a great pass, but by process of ranking, someone has to be last. It's a fairly short pass, but still pretty technical for me. The first 2/3 of the pass is pretty easy, with the last 1/3 pretty rocky. The views were good, but the peak isn't as great as some of the others (note power lines in view). Don't get me wrong, this is still a GREAT pass, but the competition is rough out here. The views of what I think is Ivanhoe Lake are pretty strong though.

一个fter summiting Hagerman, we came down the way we came up and made it back to Leadville, CO for our stay.

Total Miles: 118

Day 4 (Continued)....

I promise not to show ALL my motel rooms, but this was Sunday night's dwelling...another "code access" property!!!

Great report so far. I love that you attempted Mosquito pass with “all that experience” you have LOL. You guys rode right past our place just outside of Fairplay. Glad that Colorado treated you right and was more than you hoped for!!! Looking forward to the next installment of your report.

Day 5:

We started the day at the Sinclair gas station in Leadville with a new approach to pairing the Senas....shake and bake baby!! After watching some videos Pop's wanted us to try the shaking the Senas to pair....it worked! After pairing, gas, water, snacks, we were off. We went from Leadville to Buena Vista to St. Elmo to pick up Tincup Pass.

Tincup非常激烈。有一个很长的, pretty steep, pretty rocky section that was the toughest. Once you were going, you just wanted to keep momentum, not stop, and just keep motoring until you could get to a flat spot to catch your breath. These Passes all sort of have a mix of everything, in some areas you could do them in a Honda Civic, but then all the sudden, there's a stretch that gets real gnarly, and will test you. All made it to the top, and going down the backside towards the town of Tincup is Mirror Lake.




Coming down the pass and into Tincup, we should have stopped at Frency's Cafe, but it was still sort of early so we decided to press on. Sort of a mistake, as it would prove to bite me in the butt as I really got run down. We meandered our way to Crested Butte for a late lunch. The last stretch to CB was BRUTAL. It was Hwy 135, with a headwind....and need I remind that I'm a fat guy, on a little bike, that's also over loaded a smig. I had Lucy pinned in 5th (she couldn't hold 6th gear), in the tuck position and I'm barely hitting upper 50's. And I was hangry!!! But I made it, and apologized to Lucy as soon as we got into CB. We happened upon a little pizza place in downtown CB that broke my streak of daily burgers for lunch......not sure if it was the extreme hunger, but it was one of the best tasting pizzas that I've had in a long time...and I live in the Chicagoland area.



一个fter lunch 3 of the 4 of us still wanted to pack in some more riding. Me (the 4th) decide he had enough, so I slabbed it to Gunnison and our motel for the night. This time I still had to take Hwy 135, but I had a bit of a tailwind, some food in me belly, and First Wave (XM Ch 33) coming through the Sena speakers. The other 3 did a little loop of CB and got to the motel only about a hour after I did.

No separate post for the Motel this time around. It wasn't too cute or cozy, but it did have a pool, but only MX guy decided to "swim".....

Good stuff! Keep the pics and narrative coming, I'm hoping you all made it to the Alpine Loop.

Day 6 (Tues - Aug 31):

9点左右离开甘迅尼……很清爽的早晨。一个bout 55 miles to Lake City, once in LC we stopped for gas and to get some water and snacks. LC is where we picked up Cinnamon Pass. It starts out super mellow....a very flat dirt/gravel road, with lots of pot holes for about 1/3 of the route. The ride along Lake San Cristobal was nice. I used my Daughter's GoPro for maybe the last 1/3 of the ascent to the top of Cinnamon, but it will take a bit before I can get that uploaded to YouTube. We saw a few goats along the way. The shelf roads were nice and provided good views. While Cinnamon did have some fairly rocky sections, I would say this is one of the easier passes. Probably not as easy as Weston, but close. On the way down we stopped at Animas Forks to check out the former mining town. We then followed the river all the way down into Silverton for lunch. The last stretch of road to Silverton was probably the dustiest stretch of road of the whole trip.



Total miles: 120



Once at the top it was easy to see where this pass gets its name....

Day 6 (Continued):

We had some awesome BBQ while in Silverton. After lunch we took Hwy 550 (aka The Million Dollar Hwy) to Ouray. As far as slab goes, this is a pretty amazeballs road. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pics of it, but there are epic views, super duper sheer drop offs that will give most the willies. It was comical where they decided to put guardrails up and where they did not. Bottom line, there are many areas along this road where if you were to go off, it's game over.

Downtown Silverton....

I absolutely LOVE riding in Colorado. It has been 7 years since my last "motorcycle visit". Unfortunately it is 2,200 miles one way for me which makes it difficult with limited time off. Hoping to make my return in 2022. Thanks for sharing!

Day 7 (Wed Sep 1):

一个t the beginning of Day 6 I woke with a very sore throat..by the end of the day, I was very stuffed up and had a full blown head cold. I was also VERY worn out due to riding a lot more than usual. Lastly, the weather on in the late afternoon wasn't the greatest. So I took the back half the day off, as did most. MX guy elected to putt around, try a bit of Yankee Boy Basin and some single track north of Ouray.

By the time the morning came for Day 7 in Ouray, I still felt "meh", and the weather was forecasted to be about an 80% chance of rain...maybe even severe thunderstorms. So our original plan of riding Ophir to Telluride for lunch, doing Black Bear to Bridal Falls, and then taking Imogene back to Ouray was toast. What a bummer, Ouray was the only place we were planning on staying two nights, so we would have been to off load our bikes and ride them in svelte mode. I elected to take the full day off, try and get some R&R to feel better as well as so some laundry. The other 3 decided to try and tackle Imogene up and back and beat the rain. Pops started off and turned around. MX and Son made it to the peak, turned around and high tailed it back to Ouray before the rain. This was our only bad weather day, and unfortunately killed what would have been a two Pass loop to Telluride and back. Oh well....gives us a great reason to get back to this area again.

I still managed to take in some wildlife during this off day.....

Day 8 (Thurs - Sep 2):

This is really the last day of the ADV riding. After having the previous day either totally off (be me) or largely off (by others) all were ready to RIDE!!! We set out at our usual time to tackle Engineer Pass. It's start is only about 4 miles from Ouray south on Hwy 550. We got to the summit around 11am, and what an epic ride it was. It really had it all...shelf roads, easy parts, super tough parts, great views, a heard of sheep, you name it. This was the one pass that I needed outside help. I just could not get going. At a very steep point on the pass I came to stop.....it was pretty steep and very rocky. I came to a stop a bit sideways, and the bike was sliding backwards to the edge of a very steep drop off. I had the front break smashed, feet on the ground, tons of throttle and would let out the clutch and the wheel would only spin. Then when I sat on the bike, it just didn't have enough power to move all the weight. Thankfully Pops dismounted and was able to give me a push to get me going. This was the sketchiest part of the whole trip for me. When I was sliding backwards to the edge, it was serious. Thankfully all made it up okay. I think this was probably the favorite pass for all 4. I just had a bit of everything and the views, even with less than perfect weather were hard to beat. We came down the other side and made it into Lake City a little after noon, just in time for lunch. Having had a great day and still not feeling 100% I called it a day. It was a fairly low mileage day, but again, maybe the best pass we did. I checked into our Motel (more on that later) and chilled out. The other 3 rode up Red Mountian.

总里程:37岁,是的你看的没错。的pass is only about 30 miles, and we had very little mileage at the end and beginning.

Day 8 (continued)...

Day 8 (continued)....

Day 8 (continued yet again)....

Last motel shots....this one in Lake City...another awesome place....

That's pretty much it. The ending played out like this....

Day 9: All about making our way back. Left Lake City around 9:45am...on the way to Manitou Springs....all slab. Went through Gunnison, and onto Salida. Went over Monarch Pass in the process. Fairly chilly getting up and over the pass. Nice sites, fairly dramatic drop offs...but not quite like 550. Took about 2 hours to get to Salida....stopped for some gas, drink, and granola bar and then another 2+ hours into Manitou Springs. Both runs stretched my fuel range pretty far, but luckily made it. Got into MS around 2:15pm. This was not the type of riding I like to do on Lucy. On a Goldwing? Sure. But not on me LRP.

Total miles: 230.

Day 10: Manitou Springs back to Lakewood & Trailer/SUV. All slab and near the Denver area with lots of construction. Not fun. This might have been some the sketchiest part of the whole trip. Lots of traffic and "construction road"....meaning lots of redirects with grooved pavement, uneven asphalt, etc.

Total Miles: 76

Got to trailer, loaded up, and hit the road to Omaha…about 550 miles driving.

Day 11: Omaha to home…another 460 of driving.

Thanks!

Geat write up. Thanks for sharing. I've done most of your trip via jeep years ago. Hope to do it on motorcycle after I get a little more experience.

Recap:

For those scoring at home....

It was about 2020 miles of driving to ride about 828 miles, but totally worth it. It was also 10 nights of hotels, 5.5 vacation days taken, and a whole lotta last minute ADV gear purchases (pants, Sena, etc.). But the ride, and memories made were/are priceless.

I didn't even cover all the like minded peeps that we ran into along the way....all the other nuts that "get it" and we saw on the passes, in the bars, hotels and gas stations. Some we had conversations with, some it was just a simple head nod, or a peace sign (or two wheels down/harley thingy). It's great being in this "cult". Next ride I might just take pics of those folks that are all in our tribe that I see along the way and it could fill up just as many pages.

Thanks again to all!

Ride Safe!!!