20 @Winter park to Mt Evans, Morrison, Netherlands, and back to Morrison

With another day come new weather and to cross Berthoud pass 11'314' was going to be a treat with its dry road, good surfaces and long sweepers. It lived up to that and within the hour we were at Idaho Springs and up to Mt Evans. The road to the top offered views 500 miles in any direction. This is the highest paved road in the USA, though lacking in condition wasn't a criticism. 

Mt Evans at 14,624' took your breath away. We stopped at glacier lake. My stomach was reminding me if the glorious meal of the previous night. Continued to wind upwards. Amazed at the number of cyclists plumbing their way to the top, out numbered by bikers than sightseers.

At the summit was the remains of a building built in 1937-41 destroyed by propane in 1979 and pro-ported to be the highest building in the world! Photo opportunities prevailed and to stand up to the challenge we began the trudge to the top. A short but arduous journey with oxygen being in short supply. The views, well check out the pictures.

Tired of being short in breath and sick in stomach, curse that meal and thinness of air we descended and took a scenic route to Morrison and hit the Red Rock grill. I wanted to find out where the BMW club of Colorado were meeting tomorrow. The ride was fantastic. The burger a little less. Knowing that the bike is coming toward the end of its journey with us, we continued on to do some of the Peak to Peak ride. Past Evergreen, up through Canyon City, a smaller version of Las Vegas, and on to Netherlands! Mad Max would be right at home here! I heard the following day that a grandpa died here, hoping to be brought back to life later had his body put on ice being maintained by his nephew. The nephew had to go overseas so the neighbour gave a helping hand. A movie was made from this story, or so the story went! Refuelled, looked at the foreboding clouds and retreated to a hotel near Morrison.

19 @ Ester park over the range to Winter Park

Do you want to really want to know that we had 0 visibility crossing the great divide? That it was cold and wet, slippery with no guard rails, all making minimal enjoyment? The upside is knowing we're in beautiful country and don't know exactly how steep the drop off is! 

We expect to come back to Esters Park so there was no hesitation in leaving. Into the Rocky Mountain National Park we went, boy those yearly passes are good value. 
Up to Bear Lake and walk up to Emerald Lake. The puffing in altitude, dressed like a biker is as not as much fun as sitting on the bike staring at the white line keeping away from the drop off best you can. Lenore, my GoPro on the back, swivels from side to side and even to the back like she is gambled whilst I keep the ship steady! She has become the chief photographer in this expedition whilst the iPad and I have shown a fraction of that captured for the blog.
The Lakes were grand but more so the scenic journey and totality of it all. We are at The Lakes, well let's climb the pass. This and other such high mountain passes close on the 2nd September so timing was perfect...except for today. We hesitated at the summit for a picture for the blog readers, another sacrifice!

We continued on trying to get to a warmer and drier environment. Out of the park we stopped at a diner for lunch. The weather got worse. The heated grips and seat did little warming as we rode strait though Granby. At Winter Park we stopped, saturated and cold knowing there was a pass in front of us. Our shortest ride to date. The accommodation was more chalet style and lying around the room resting we listened to the doof doof from the restaurant below. We trust that won't continue!
A while later a fire alarm sounded in our room and corridor. Loud is not understanding the volume penetrating rocking the building. It got us up and interested in doing some dinner (downstairs was the easiest option). Seated at the table, water delivered, menu pricey, hesitating and off goes the alarm again. Well F# me. In comes fire men stomping through in their fluros. No bugger it! Yep, I spat it and got up and left muttering something to the waitress. Meagre apology? Out the front door and onto the front lawn the manager chases us down and offers a sincere apology. I grunt! I grunt again. He offers a complete dinner, wines and all to make me happy! The grunting subsided. So we return and to keep a little face, sit in the front room on comfy lounge room style chairs. Well what followed was a Italian influenced meal with un-proportional service and delectable delights. From the cocktails, wines, lemoncello, to the home made pasta, pork belly, to lemon citrus and chocolate something! The best pasta ever. It was fantastic. A true dining experience, our best by far in the States. At no cost except the $50 tip! We slept well that night, window open, stream gurgling outside and no fire men!

18 @ Steamboat to Esters Park

Officer Tim.... Was, as it turned out, quite accommodating. He nodded and smiled and as I gave reason, over and over to justify his intervention, his Buick SUV remained flashing blue and red behind us as if we had lit a beacon for all to see! We were tired after missing numerous turns, being redirected to dirt roads and going further than we anticipated, misdirected mentally and physically so much we were shagged. I was enthusiastic to get to where,???? and after missing the last GPS waypoint, fuck I hoofed it up the hill.

We were hungry, tired, butt sore and just wanted to be there but Officer Tim wanted a chat, and an Interpol check and so we were stationary, standing next to the bike, being interviewed. But yep that doesn't make any sense so I need to back track a little.

Departing from in Steamboat Springs we thought the ride via Granby was a little short, so via Walden was a way we could stretch the legs. Well, so we thought. Over Rabbit Ears Pass looking back at the Ears, turned left and off we went. 

Sometime later there's a bloke, a big bloke, hoodie, black, lots of facial hair, standing with a stop sign, I pulled over and asked, ' you're in the middle of nowhere, what's up? He replied "turn left", which is what we did. You don't argue in those circumstances! Into Walden, a quick piss stop, then out of the town looking for a sign. Mmm, we pulled over after some kms, I think we're heading to Wyoming, so we turned around and back we went. Back the way we came and we ended up speaking to another guy with a similar sign as the first apparition. 

Yep, we were misdirected. 

Again through the town. 

Back again through the town.

Bugger it all we'll go to Fort Collins. At least there is a sign. 

What a beautiful ride, then down the Pouche de Padre Canyon and turned right. Great for a while. 

Road closed. 

Detour. 

Road closed. 

Next road closed.

Rather frustrating accompanied with the realisation that on last nights TV we were warned of storms, like hail, snow, winds were arriving early this afternoon! OMG it's now 1:30pm. That's soon, we better hoof it.

Wrong turn again. 

Doesn't matter I'll hoof it. OMG With a flash of blue and red and a quick chase it was time to meet Office Tim! He revealed to me that I was doing 31 miles over the speed limit. I didn't even question those values, or that miles per hour are much faster than those kms! Anyway in reality if he booked me returning back to the USA would have been a reasonably costly fine. Some sense came to being and I thanked him. But not after he checked my Interpol records from the sanctuary of his Buick. With his directions and words of warning I speed off. Just kidding!

We arrived at Esters Park after a scenic yet slow trip up into the mountains. 

Hotel checked in.

Stephen King got motivation from this 'Stanley Hotel' for the Shining, so worth a visit. Lenore jumped ship and videoed the wanderings deers grazing out side this iconic building. 

Inside.

To the bar. 

A martini.

Then a dinner feast. 

It was good fun. Just a single drink, on the bike....no worries. After all no helmets are the go over here. Up in the mountains, does it get any better than this?

17 @ Rifle to Steamboad Springs

Blasted out of the room, filled up fuel from the Kum & Go and headed north. Went for awhile then turned on 5. An innocuous number but turned out to be a good valley ride with nice curves. It was quite a commercial ride as oil and gas companies were doing their most to extract what they can from the valley! Overlooking that, the ride was nice and scenic. Before long we were back on a major road which took us into to the town of Craig. Now before I tell you too much about Craig it was a little like the Eagles song Hotel California which goes you can check in anytime you like but you can never leave! Well that's how we found Craig!

Pulled up to see the cowboy and Indian museum which was fascinating. Spoke to some guy who came up to introduce himself, Airtubes up his nose, bottle on his back and got chatting politics, gun laws and so on. Didn't know at that stage that it was his gun collection upstairs. Extensive beyond belief! That was our first level of local conversation. Looking at the display, took lots of pix but had more conversation with other visitors. Downstairs another curator, who had intervened a few times through out the visitation wanted a chat. Shortly after, another visiting dude was drawn into conversation. Yes he has maybe 300 guns, only one on his hip but he was prepared to chat about all of that and more! Gotta go. Please!

Where can we get a good coffee....Starbucks? Mmm. Got biked up, rode 50 m saw a coffee shop/ book store so stopped there. The coffee was, as happens in the usa, drunk. But the conversation about life and politics was interesting. But we want to leave. Still hungry, Went down the road, yep 50m, theme happening here and in a restaurant ordered a sub. Well that went well, like it took an hour. Nice but we wanna leave! More conversation!
Finally being able to check out we took not the direct road to Steamboat Springs, but via Oak Creek, via the coal mines nope not optional and arrived an hour or so later. Rabbit Ears motel, what we wanted! What a load of bunnies. Towns was ok, room faced the river. Across the road was the hot springs and with rented togs, for $2 each which was not size dependant, so we immersed ourselves in hot bubbling water! It was darkish as not to worry the locals too much! Bubbles, Ahhh! End of the day!

16 @ Moab to Rifle

A big day in the saddle. Hot too boot. After Archer Park, Canyonlands and Dead Horse Canyon will have to be good! After we lucked it in a 3 week old motel with an upgrade we headed outta town to Dead Horse park named after the fact that cowboys heralded a mob of stallions across canyon top narrows and fence need them in. The story goes that tho there was the Colorado river some 2000' below they died of thirst. Made Lenore sad that bit. Spectacular views, mini Grand Canyon with rock stratas, erosion and that stuff imaginable, or if not just look the pix. The Canyonlands road is was twisty which makes the throttle hand a little heavy until I got a short flash by a passing sherrif. It's good they warn you if your a little over. Watched the rear view mirror as we tore off enjoying the bends, Lenore acting professionally leaning over the bike to capture the action.

Refused to stop at the visitors centre. They are a trap, you end up watching a tv, collect brochures and spend too much time rather than breathing it all in. Lenore needed some consolidation. Rode to the end of the road in the park so we could work our way back. We had the opportunity to catch a Rangers geological talk. Mmm, sounds worth hanging around for!

She began by talking about herself, yes she was an ex-teacher, junior, real junior I would say. Before long she asked her class to tell her where they were from. At this point I had buried myself deep in my iPad, no eye contact, brim shading my face. Lenore was asked to stand and show and tell. Well almost! After the rounds were complete she pulled out her picture boards complete with the text area together with personal touches and nice boarders. Mmmm it's getting better. We sat in the sun waiting for geology until she said when it rains little rivers are formed, they go looking for bigger rivers who in turn find the biggest river and then they look for the sea! I find that amazing. A bloke in the audience equally bemused by her talk said 'you call that gravity'? And she replied but it sounds so much more fun my way! We excused ourselves leaving the deep geological talk to the others!

Back to Moab, fuelled and up the Colorado river. That was a real treat with towering red cliffs in such a narrow canyon, weaving back on itself. The road was in disrepair and covered with black bitumen snakes. I hit a comer too hard and slipped over the double yellow lines with the only blessing there was no on-coming traffic. What a wonderful ride. This contrasted when we hit 70, the main free way back to colorado. Hot, un-interesting, tired, bum sore. A bit of shut eye. Only blinking.

Got to Fruita, on the outskirts of Grand Junction and went to a visitors centre. A couple of road rules here were stretched until we parked and fell on the grass in the shade for a 10 min recovery before we could enter the building. As always the system of support the visitors centres offers is an oasis. This older couple, of course volunteers, gave us all the info we needed, shared stories, gave coffee and when I added a few breakfast stolen sweet pastries the decision was made to continue along 70 to Rifle. The freeway was interesting, the town a little tired. We did the exit right but before we knew it we were back on the entry. That won't do, jumped the curb after Lenore dismounted and rode back towards oncoming traffic but on the grass. Oh well the technique worked! Lol Retreated to Comfort Inn by name. Chatted to another biker where we parked our bikes, yes wearing a piece. Oh well Rifle by any other name!