Colorado the Pffog and Flatty way
 

A few months back someone mentioned TOR and Flatty said it sounded like a lot of Pelicans would show up, and someone replied he should come too. But without a wing man, and riding across the plains on a bike, he respectfully declined the invite. Well that got me thinking I had a big gap between riding with Dee and company in May and the trip in Sept. So Ii PMed flatty and asked if he would be interested in going if I took the trailer out, his reply, abso-freakin-lutely! We also decided to keep it quiet that we were showing up.

Too long a hike for just TOR, so we planned 2 weeks. Roads were researched, routes programmed, bikes loaded we headed west. MAN IT IS FREAKING HOT! Poor Saab got used and abused hauling a trailer and 2 bikes across the Midwest , in 105 degree temps! Had running issues due to the gasoline BOILING in the gas tank, yes BOILING! Fuel pumps don’t pump foam very good. AC strained to keep up at times, and did I say it was just plain HOT!

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Day1 in CO
We finally got to Colorado and decided we would take a minute to practice some skills for the twisty roads

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Got to the mountains at lunch, stopped for a bite, and then went looking for a motel, found one just as it started to rain, and hail!

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Cell phone streaming weather is great; we unloaded, and waited for a break in the thunder storms. First ride, the highest paved road in the US, Mt. Evans, at 14,300 feet, as we headed up hit some rain and temps dropped as we climbed hit the top to 40 degree temps, and 20-30 mph winds. Needless to say we didn’t stay long, also we just hit elevation and never acclimated to it, so physical exertion took your breath away quick.

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Road some very nice foot hill roads before heading back to the room for the night.

Nice you missed that weather when mounted! Thanks for the picts. First time I've heard of boiling gas. woa

Looks like a lot of tongue weight on the poor Saab. Any opportunity to move some of that weight rearward? EDIT: A different draw bar with 6 inches additional rise might help a lot too...

Hope you have a ball,

N.

Nice Monster!

Keep the pics coming you guys. A travel thread is worthless without pics. :)

Richard an Flatty, that is absolutely a wonderment. Great sneak attack on the west coast Pelicans. Why waste all that good rubber running straight and level. I hope you to have an absolute blast. I kow Flatty is happy to see Bill for a reunion. Two thumbs up for you.

Nice!

Looking good.

Yea, it was squatting a bit, we brought too much crap along. tools tires, gear, everything except folding chairs which all the guys on bikes had, so much for being prepared.

At the first stop in Colorado I borrowed the maintenance mans drill and repositioned the front stops on the trailer to move the bikes about 6" rearward, that took some weight off. With 177K on the clock the rear springs are sagging a little, even without the trailer, but aside from the heat issues, she pulls the trailers well.

Very nice report! Thank you.

Looks like fun!

Despite the forecast, the next morning was clear and cool. We took off to do some more canyons on the eastern side, little traffic for the most part, and cool sunny temps, and great riding.

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The eastern front is full of little twisting roads, most had little traffic, and wonderful views


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Looking back across Boulder to eastern CO and the flat land


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More twisties


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Flatty making conversation with an English couple


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Stopped for lunch and checked the weather and found it was rapidly closing in on us. So we headed back on the road along the front range, hoping to avoid the rapidly building thunder storms. How we did it I don’t know, but aside from a five minute rain, we got back to the motel just as it started to rain again, and it rained the rest of the day.


Toms boots are not quite waterproof anymore, after a day of strafing the canyon roads.


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Honked and waved at you on our way outta town Richard. You were tying the bikes on the trailer as my son and I went by early Sunday morning.

Richard, I'll be interested to hear your assessment of CO vs WNC roads.

I saw you and nodded my head, I couldn't wave as I was holding the Duc up, trying to get the 2nd strap on it.

Glad you had a safe trip home. 4 1/2 more hours of driving until Tom and I part company, then 6 more for him, 3 1/2 for me. LONG trip across the plains.

O.k., enough of the nice pictures of the scenary and the bikes. We all know that Flatty is a Babe Magnet and on a Ducati, there must be a dozen paternity suits pending. Let's get to the good stuff.

well there was this hippy chick in....uhhh....Richard what town was that? nothing happened though as we were leaving town.

jeez flatty, scrape the dust off your stud instruction manual, because you've got it all backwards:

something should happen....then you leave town.

next time....honest.

many pix to come soon.

I can only wonder what would happen to my diaphragm and my tear ducts, if Flatty AND Brad would happen to be in the same vicinity and I should be lucky enough to witness it.

It would be nice to find out though?

We packed up to head to Granby Co for 3 days, pulled out early and got to Granby about 10, room was not ready and it was still in the 50’s with rain.

We grabbed a coffee and killed time waiting for the air to warm and rain to clear. We got our room, unloaded and took off to the North. Colorado does have mountains, but it also has a LOT of high prairies , this road started out meandering along a stream, with some interesting geological features.

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Until it hit the plateau, then we had a lot of this.

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We headed back S towards Steamboat, on a long flat highway, wicking it up at times. When we hit 40 we were going to head into Steamboat for lunch, so we started up Muddy pass, when the sky opened, so we did a quick u-turn and beat feat back to Granby.

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We went for dinner and found a FANTASTIC little restaurant. There is nothing like a first class meal to top off the day. Now what was that campground talk of MRI and freeze dried eggs best used for bait...............I will take this any day.

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Hey!
It was great meeting youze guys and actually putting a face to the names. I could use a shot of the Captain Morgan about now. Keep the pictures coming, I'm glad you kept your trip report seperate too. More to look at.

Flatty just kills me... people like him are the salt of the earth.

Man, am I glad you guys decided to show up... made for even more laughter than we already had.

good stuff, geez some of you lot really cover some ground! it;s nuts - but in a good way

Enjoyed the beautiful pictures. More!

Great pics, it was really nice meeting you guys.

A Little Reminder for You Two Northern Boyz
 

TomTom herinnert u eraan om veilig te rijden tijdens de feestdagen! - YouTube

It will put this out of mind.

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Tom and I felt we might miss out on the rally experience, as we were stuck in Air-conditioned motels, while you guys had fun in the rain, heat and bugs. So when we spotted this, we thought next time we will get one and join the camping scene.

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We didn't even know there was a F550!

Tom would still need a wing man, just to get to the spare tire, should he have a flat.

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Of course we wouldn't need to strap up tarps to sit under, we could just sit here.

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Well after drought and fires, wouldn’t you know rain would be in the forecast when we arrived. You’re welcome CO. Another cold wet morning, with forecast for afternoon thunder showers and heavy downpours. On the way we caught some sun and a train snaking its way down the valley.

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Beautiful blue sky and puffy clouds prevailed most of the morning.

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We headed to Steamboat again, dodging rain along the way, found some delightful small roads that twisted and turned, nothing technical, just entertaining sweepers.


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We stopped for a quick snack in steamboat and headed out over rabbit ear pass. I have to say, CO has nice views, and decent roads , but there is a lot of traveling to get to the good ones. We spied heavy rain and lightning in our path back to Granby , so stopped and geared up for rain.

I subscribed to XM weather that shows up on the GPS screen, it was GREAT, although there is a limited amount of roads to circumnavigate around it, it did come into our decision process of how long to linger, or whether we should stop or boogie through.

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Again we got back just before the steady hard rain hit.

Mr. Fog, where is the long winding road before the GPS shot?

That was going to Steamboat from the S and west, we took the 134 off of 40 W of Kremmling. then up the 134 to 20 mile road (co rd 27) then cut in to Steamboat on Co rd 33, MUCH nicer ride than 40 for sure.

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=Kremmling,+CO&daddr=40.064787,-106.820074+to:40.367949,-107.0315505+to:Steamboat+Springs,+Colo&hl=en&ll=40 .250184,-106.754837&spn=0.449125,0.891953&sll=40.349422,-106.911049&sspn=0.224233,0.445976&geocode=Ffo_YwId SKKo-Slnia_qEANqhzHwjDInb--tkQ%3BFRNXYwIdFg6i-SlpIWkAdR5ChzFrpXxwhaNC8A%3BFU33ZwIdAtSe-SlXUaPDH0dChzFJQH9AINy4ig%3BFXHAaQIdnOCh-SlhRlYJgXtChzF9z25I0aOoGw&oq=kremmling&mra=dvme&mr sp=2&sz=12&via=1,2&t=m&z=11

LMAO. This double entendre is priceless.

I wanted to draw a line on the door labeled " MUST BE THIS TALL TO RIDE".

Sky’s cleared late and gave us hope for a good day to visit Rocky Mountain national park the next day. Sure enough, bright sunshine and temps in the 40’s delayed our start. We got under way and headed to the park.

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We finally got out of the way of some cars in front of us ;), and were running at a comfortable, yet conservative pace. We stopped to take a pic or two and headed out again, about a mile up, here comes a ranger around a bend, and he immediately hits the lights. We pulled over and he swung around and told us to drive to a pull out a mile up. He asked for documents and said he clocked us at 46 in a 35. We waited as he talked on the radio and wrote out some warnings, thank heavens, we thought it was going to be a costly stop and we would have to skip a good meal tonight.

The park is beautiful, but a bit boring at 35, so we just rode like old ladies and took a bunch of pictures.

We exited the park to ride some roads on the E side, and decided we didn’t want to back track through the park, so we headed south to swing back to Granby from the S. All was good until it came time to run back over the Berthoud pass, at 11K + feet high. We swung into a gas station and switched to rain gloves and watch the Radar, it looked like we would be out of the heavy stuff in 10 -15 minutes so we waited under cover of the pump island. If finally slowed down so we headed out, rode most of the way back on wet roads and in light rain. Then off to another fantastic meal ;)


Dinner was SO good the first two nights, we headed back, and had another fantastic meal, this is some of the best and most interesting food I have had in a long time. Who would have “thunk” it, a world class meal in Granby CO!

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Tom giving the obligatory salute.

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Headed back to the motel and to a wonderful sunset, to cap off our time in Granby.

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That is one sweet, special pic.

I've been pulled over by the park rangers. Just a warning as well. Now I re-tune the ride expectations when passing through the park and just go-with-the-flow. But go very early in the morning (It's open 24/7), which I've done a couple of times, and it is lonely and more sporting. http://www.farson.com/smiley/nod.gif

And how about that, Granby! Paused there for lunch three days ago.

Trail Ridge road June of 2011.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1343206296.jpg

Thats lots of snow!
Richard great photos ! What a great trip.

After a few days of climbing trees in this heat and humidity that snow and the thought of higher elevations is looking pretty inviting.

I just realized that when we count the heads including the photog...we could be the dirty dozen!

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Is that calamari on FOG's plate?

the man LUVS onion rings.

Day 6 in Co, was a move day. We had loaded up the night before and took a 2-1/2 hour ride S to Fairplay CO.

The hotel was at 10,000+ feet! The recent claim to fame is it is the Infamous 'South Park" . I am still not sure who killed Kenny, but there were a lot of shady looking people around:D

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I don't know if I wore Tom out, the great Granby food weighed him down, or he just wanted to caress his red hot Italian. Either way, he decided to take a break from riding and clean the dirty duc.

Colorado has a lot of great roads, but a lot of this too. So you just wick it up and enjoy the distant scenery.

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Headed for some back roads, and some I knew were dirt. Headed S then back N on a county road through the pike national forest. Road was paved, but awash with the red sand and gravel from recent storm, but that was good as it filled in the plentiful potholes!

Some beautiful scenery and little traffic.

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A little further up the road, I stopped here, took me a few minutes to realize this is the place Mr Farson snapped his HP2 pic. I can see why, beautiful spot!

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As usual skies started to turn ominous in the afternoon, I checked the radar and saw that to the East, storms were building fast,

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Sooooooo.........., I headed East into the storms. Why, I like little roads and I was not ready to head back yet.

I headed for a small high pass, on a road that looked interesting and Sfarsons book said was fun.

Sure enough, it was, IMHO one of the best in CO. Dirt, narrow rough pavement, new blacktop, little traffic, great views, and a lot of fun, aside from the ridiculously low speed limits. Luckily the rain had moved on and I had a window of nice weather.


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Back over Hoosier pass to Fairplay. Tom was well rested and we headed to the Irish pub next door, which only had Mexican cuisine, and terrible at that. Worst meal of the trip.