Silver Thread Trip

I decided with farming work mostly caught up (you never actually ever catch up totally) and fire season being slow, it was time for another 2 day ride. I chose to head into Colorado again. So Monday morning I loaded up the Goldwing and by 9 am I was on the road heading east (the wife stayed home though). I took the river road of course for the first little bit. Mornings along the river road are aways great. Very little traffic and cool temps. But finally I had to get on the interstate and just cruise along. I sure love having cruise control on the bike. Stopping briefly in GJ for gas and some licorice to munch I continued east along I-70 till I reached the turn off to Powderhorn ski resort. When I use to ski Powerderhorn I don't remember the road being so twisty, but you follow a stream for quite awhile and twisty it is. Nice on a bike. The weather was scattered thunderstorms, but I managed to dodge them. Finally you climb up onto Grand Mesa. Pretty views up there. There is also a visitor center up top which I stopped at. Bathroom break you know. Dropping down off the mesa I stopped in a little town to have lunch. I couldn't find a resturant I liked, but there was a City Market deli there so I stopped in and had chicken pot pie. They even had tables you can sit at. So heading east some more I ran into construction. How I hate construction sites. Finally got through it and shortly later I turned south on a road that heads south and borders the Black Canyon of the Gunnison area. The Gunnison river cut a major canyon though rock that is black. It is impressive to see. I took this road by regular car last year and vowed to come back on the bike. It is a great ride. I would stop at most of the lookouts. Bugs were out in force though. Finally dropping back to river level, I traveled into Gunnison, Colorado where I spent the night at a Rodeway Inn. Rodeway Inns are usually not top quality, but this one was nice. I had Taco Bell stuff for dinner. I'm such a gourmet. 288 miles this day.

The next morning after a motel breakfast of sweet rolls, I wiped the dew off the bike and loaded up. It was cold - in the low 50s. Glad I took my heavy leather coat. Just west of Gunnison, you can turn south on Highway 149. This is called the Silver Thread road. It goes through a half dozen of old silver mining towns - Lake City, Creed, and South Fork to name a few. This was probably some of the best riding ever. Blue sky, no traffic, winding road through the mountains and canyons, just gorgeous country. It took me 3 hours to travel 100 miles. Lake City is a really nifty looking town at the bottom of a canyon. I would have like to spend time there and hope to go back sometime in the future. There is an old set of railroad tracks that parallel the road for miles. I've heard of places that turn these old track right of ways to bicycle paths. They should do that here. At one point you cross Slumgullion pass at 11000+ feet. About 4 miles before you reach the pass there is a bike sign - "Motorcyclist use EXTREME caution the next 8 miles". Eek. what am I getting into. But it was mostly very sharp curves with rock and gravel on the turns. So you had to be paying attention. I must have crossed at least five 10,000+ high mountain passes on this trip.

A few days ago I was watching the TV show - "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader" and there was a question about the Rio Grande river that boarders Texas and Mexico. I didn't realize that river starts in the Rocky Mountains right in this area. But here I was crossing the Rio Grande multiple times as I headed south. Finally I got into the town of South Fork and stopped at their visitor center (bathroom break time again). This was pretty much the end of the best part of the trip. Now it was mostly high traffic roads back to Moab. You did have to cross Wolf Creek pass to get Pagosa Springs. From there it is low land travel to Durango - where I hit really bad construction. I hate sitting there on the bike in the heat at stop/go construction sites. From Durango, the next stop was Delores for a very late lunch, and then onto Monticello for an ice cream treat and then Moab. 400 miles this day - 688 miles total.