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A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 10:49 am
by Twist
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:
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This one was along the Colorado River near Gypsum:
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Dropping down into Breckinridge from Boreas Pass:
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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:
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There's lots of old mining ruins up in the hills there:
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Headed up into Cinnamon Pass where it started to get real:
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A mining ghost town, Animas Forks:
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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.
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Some of it looked like Mars:
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We spent most of the afternoon above the tree line in the San Juans:
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We hit it just right for the Aspens to be in full color (and unlike Appalachia, no leaf peepers here):
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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.

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:00 pm
by Boom Boom
Epic ride.

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 4:23 pm
by Laoch
:thumbup: :cheers:

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:17 pm
by Bucho
Wow! Great pics.

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:15 am
by Twist
There was an odd thing about this ride. My friends and I rode the Trans America Trail in 2015 and it goes over Cinnamon Pass. I distinctly remember that we all thought it was the most challenging riding we'd ever done (on KLRs loaded for camping and a 3 week trip). I remember back then thinking oh crap, not another rocky switchback! When we started up the pass this time I was thinking that I didn't remember the approach road to be so easy. It's basically just a gravel road with some steep drop offs but otherwise pretty much like any forest road. We got to the first steep switchback to climb the hill and I'm thinking "OK, it's about to get real." But then before I knew it, we're rolling up to the Cinnamon Pass sign at the top of the pass. Wait, what?! It was a lot shorter climb than I remembered it from 4 years ago and definitely a lot easier. We never broke a sweat. The only thing I can think of is that when they cleared the snow and avalanche debris this year, the cleared away a lot of the larger scree that littered the pass.

I sat looking at the epic view from up there thinking, yep this is as incredible as I remembered it. But I couldn't help thinking I'd just spoiled my memories of conquering this pass in 2015.

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It got real enough when we were descending out of the high passes on Corkscrew Gulch. The one guy in our group that had never dropped his bike on the entire TAT or any epic ride after - he dropped his bike twice in 15 minutes coming down out of there. Luckily it was in spots that didn't require a medivac and a winch to recover.

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 3:33 pm
by Boom Boom
Great pics but also making me feel sorry for myself by not working in a Colorado trip this year.

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 5:14 pm
by Twist
It's the first time I've been back out there since 2015 when we rode the TAT. I feel like I checked off my bucket list for the Rockies on this ride so I don't see going back soon. There's so many great places to ride and so little time....

Re: A DAMN long way from home

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2019 8:06 am
by John F
Looks amazing.