Riding to the Regatta

[N4teTheGreat]

By the time I got to Shoshoni WY I realized I had less than 300 miles to go to Grand Lake, and it was only 9am. I decided I might just ride all the way and get there a day early. But first, breakfast.

I took Sand Draw RD out of Riverton, it was a two lane road that felt like it was headed to the middle of nowhere.

Pretty good views at the top of this short pass. Also a good place to drop off all that coffee and water I'd had back in Shoshoni

Despite all that, I required another break at Sweetwater Station (once a stop on the Oregon Trail) and I took the time to read the signage. I gotta give Wyoming credit, they consistently had well appointed and clean rest stops.

From there it was a long straight shot west towards more mountains. Along the way a bright yellow sign caught my eye.

So yeah, I guess no hiking...

Split Rock itself made for a good view, so when I pullout availed itself, I took it.

Looking back at the bike it always a fun shot, in my opinion.

Another national historic register ticked off, unintentionally.

It was a long road to the west.

As I was rolling through Rawlins a saw some food trucks with a lot of laborer types hanging around and figured a quick togo lunch was the move. There wasn't really anywhere to sit there, and it was pretty hot, so I grabbed food, gassed up across the street and got some beverages and decided I'd stop at the next rest stop I saw.

My route merged with I-80 for a bit and there was a sign indicating that the next rest stop was closed, which was disappointing. When I got to said rest stop however, it was very much not closed. Which was great. The burrito was darn good as well.

It wasn't long after that I got off 80 in favor of highway 130. I gassed up at the exit just in case. There was a large group of HAs getting gas and taking a break, presumably headed to Sturgis. I gave a nod on my way out and headed south towards the good stuff.

And possibly some weather...

Weather with a side of sunbeam.

130 started heading west towards Centennial and the sky was looking more promising, as was the terrain.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

The road started climbing into Medicone Bow - Rout National Forest towards the snowy range and I was in my happy place. Winding roads and mountainous terrain.

Snowy Range off in the distance.

Wildflowers were everywhere along the road, adding to the scenery.

Like, everywhere.

I remembered seeing the Snowy Range on the Wyoming BDR and being blown away by the scenery and the road, so I was pleased to confirm it was still mind blowing on both accounts.

Apparently there was a plane crash here back in the day. I squinted but couldn't see any debris.

The road was a proper hoon so no further photo stops occurred until I got down to Centennial. I got a picture in front of the Friendly Motel and bar, where my buddies and I had enjoyed a boozy night with the locals during the Wyoming BDR, the scene of the crime as it were...

I took a quick break for some water, and as I did it started sprinkling, seems the weather was chasing me. I finished my water, gassed up with some tasty ethanol free premium and took off. Looking back, the weather was definitely on my tail.

The road headed west Towards Laramie but I was planning to bypass the highway for a secondary road to connect to 230 and head southeast into Colorado.

Turns out that connecting road was dirt.

Also turns out that an earlier road which Google Maps didn't suggest would have been paved (freshly so).

It appeared there might be a bit of weather in store for me after all.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

I continued to follow this county road and eventually came out of 230. As I got further south 230 produced some awesome high speed sweepers and things started to get mountainous again. Photo stops were, unfortunately, not taken. Then, just like that I was in Colorado.

Not much to... whatever this old thing was, but at the time I liked the spot for a photo.

The road had some straights and sweepers and was plenty scenic but eventually turned into a straight shot south to Walden, CO. I passed a state trooper and apparently I was just cruising on the straights, because he didn't come after me, I had no real idea what the speed limit was. I stopped shortly after to snap a photo. At least I had views to enjoy on the straight sections.

I stopped in Walden to call my folks and let them know I was roughly an hour away. They were kinda surprised and had plans to be out to dinner with friends. All the better for me as I didn't have to make a specific time frame. I grabbed a snack and some water and headed back out after a short break.

I was pretty excited to be on the home stretch and I'd never done 125 from Walden to Grandby before. Turns out, it is fantastic. Between Rand and Grandby it's roughly 30 miles of winding mountain roads. I took full advantage of that road.

Rand is a scenic and touristy destination, there's a spot for ice cream but the store was closed when I rolled through.

Continental Divide again...

Gotta watch those pot holes, definitely a perfect road for the hyper.

The whole area burned as part of the East Troublesome Fire back in 2020, the fire took out 198,000 acres compliments of such high winds that burning tree tops were being blown across mountain tops to extend the fires reach. I remember watching heat maps from SF and being certain my parents Cabin and possibly the whole town had burned. Luckily for us, the firefighters defending the town stayed and started back burns which managed to save everything. It was pretty sobering to see more of the burn, but also nice to see how things are already coming back.

Once 125 met up with 40 I was on the home stretch and doing my best to get around traffic so I could enjoy the road at my own pace, this road being one I cut my teeth on in high school. Before too long I was in Grand Lake.

The lake.

I stopped by The Lariat for a beer. It was formerly a biker bar and was a yearly stop for the Hells Angels in July, I remember no one being able to find my grandfather after a neighbor told us the bar had gotten wild one year with a topless woman walking on the roof of cars down main street. He'd quietly stepped out to go observe the action...

These days the bar is full of TVs and tourists, the former own took a lot of the cool biker ephemera with him when he sold, but it still attracts bikes and I was glad to have ridden to it and enjoyed a beer in my gear.

While another beer was tempting, and proper meal at the cabin was more tempting so I rode the 1/4 mile down main street to our place and got the bike unloaded.

I made a sandwich and at my folks request got a fire going for them and their friends. Not a bad way to wrap up a 465 mile day.

 

[budman]

Right on!! Just great stuff

 

[ThumperX]

Loving this! Thank you for taking us along!

 

[CDONA]

I'm waiting for a regatta, , ,

I was thinking Dillon Lake was your target.
Do go on , , ,

 

[Escape pod]

Tacking, heeling, jibe, auto tack, in irons, a broach.

Happy boating!

 

[BillSmith]

Wife cut her sailing teeth on Dillon Lake while living in Keystone.

I'm waiting for the regatta too. So far, all we got a empty dock fingers! Come on, Nate.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Well, the regatta has come and gone, my dad and I finished 3rd place in our class. This sounds respectable until I tell you that we had a maximum of four boats in our class. Said class is referred to as the crazy old guy class as the M20 is a bit of a handful compared to modern lake scows.

This is what my office looked like Monday, Wednesday and Friday.




Decent views from there however.




Its hard to take too many photos when racing for reasons that oughta be obvious, but I got a selfie with my dad while we were waiting for wind and a race start.

The boat in action as shot by my brother.



Note those sails are borrowed as we tipped twice the previous day, the second time swamping the boat and the wind was so wild during the row that both sails windows got destroyed before we could get them down. This was on Wednesday.

Thursday evening we were told that Friday races would start at 9am to avoid the crazy winds of the week, so we decided we needed to rig those borrowed sails that night after the club BBQ. Good thing I had my headlamp.



We learned the new sails the following day and did pretty well compared to Wednesday, but nothing was gonna move us out of third. It was an exciting regatta no matter.

We also have a new to us power boat to replace the one that had a slight overheating incident this spring. It's pretty nice though it's carb did start leaking a bit this week. We've identified a classy fix employing JB Weld to seal a weeping plug in the float bowl. The boat is pretty comfy.



Oh and Grand Lake has better views than Dillon, way more confounding wind patterns and is a bit smaller I suspect.







Friday I helped my dad get the boat out of the water and stored until next season, I don't think he enjoys that part as much because it means no more sailing.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

I also found other ways to go for a swim as I discovered during the water sports day that my niece doesn't understand how to get into a canoe properly...

My dad managed to capture the moment perfectly...




Water sports is one ofany social events during the week, so if you're not sailing (or even if you have been) you'll have something to keep you occupied in the evening. This makes for an exhausting week, but it is fun. My brother's family being up was nice too, we had a family dinner on Wednesday which is the one night where not much is going on.




Nothing be healthy eating all week...



I also managed to get out on a hike during and off day with my brother and nephew, which was nice.





Oh yeah, here's us bailing out the boat after a tow from the race, did I mention we were in first by a long shot when we tipped over and swamped the boat?



And a shot of the damaged job

 

[budman]

That looks like some great family time.

Love the canoe shot

 

[N4teTheGreat]

It was a fun week and a half. Also helped my brother plug a screw in his tire and showed my nephew how it's done. also showed him how to adjust,.clean and lube a motorcycle chain.

Today it's time to get started getting home.since I have another ride planned starting on the 18th (NorCal BDR) gonna aim to get home in four days via this route trying to get a few good Colorado passes in before making more of a beeline home.

 

[GAJ]

Excellent photos of epic family time.

Choking when in the lead hopefully resulted in laughter not tears.

Have a sage ride home.

 

[CDONA]

The "Cane Mutiny" was a movie,
The Canoe Mutiny, was executed perfectly, , ,

With pix, for a "how to" documentation.

 

[ThumperX]

Black hearted freaking boats know no master
Great photos!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

I didn't forget about this thread, I just got busy or whatever. ANYWAY...

My route leaving Colorado was intended to maximize good roads and good views while being at least remotely efficient in getting me westward.

Byers Canyon outside of Hot Sulfur Springs started off the days views and fun.

The weather was looking good and I was still pretty close to home (well the cabin) so minimal pictures were taken as I had places to be and passes to see.

First pass of the day was Gore Pass and I didn't even stop for a shot at the summit...

Connecting with highway 131 I was in new territory and pressing south towards Wolcott.

131 turned out to be a sweet road.

Nice corners and lots to look at.

As I got to state bridge I managed to turn the wrong direction (very embarrassing as a former Coloradoan) and cost myself about 30 minutes. That resulted in a decent view from I-70 as I slabbed back to the planned route.

After a bit of frustration I was back on track on 24 headed to Ute Pass.

Not too much traffic for a touristy area (Vail, etc) and a good view from the top.

Leadville in the distance.

I stopped in Leadville for gas and fluids. I had some hard boiled eggs, cheese and apples (mom always makes sure ya leave with food) so I planned to have "lunch" at the top of Independence Pass.

Weekday road construction traffic at the base of the pass had me thinking I was not gonna enjoy this stretch.

Traffic started clearing out pretty quickly though as people were headed to fish or camp or whatnot.

I got past any remaining traffic and enjoyed an open road full of switchbacks all the way to the top. I was an excellent hoon.

"Lunch" (it was 4pm) with a view.

The backside of the pass headed into Aspen was beautiful as well, and a fun road, but it got progressively busier as I got close to Aspen, probably a combination of that town and the time of day. I just stopped for photos when traffic got annoying.

Fun fact, my great great, great grandparents on my moms side emigrated to the US from Cornwall England to mine and ended up in Aspen. There is a street named after them (somehow they get that but no property). I found the street.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which street I'm talking about...

My grandparents on moms side also have their ashes interned there, and I'd never been to see them as both passed when I was in positions that left me unable to come home for the funeral. It was good to pay my respects, albeit a bit somber. My grandfather liked his sports cars, so I think he'd have appreciated a shiny red bike parked right by the headstone for a few photos.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

After that I made my way through rush hour traffic in Aspen which is no joke. Also that town is bougey as all get out, I had never visited when I lived in Colorado and I am reminded why, it's a nice place, but way to upscale for how I like my mountain towns.

Looking back on Aspen

Back on 133 headed south again, things were getting a bit smokey

Still a pretty part of the state, despite the smoke.

Historic Redstone Coke ovens, for processing coal into coke which is used for steel production.

I stopped in Redstone for a break, and to have a root beer.

Shortly after I was at the top of McClure pass just past Marble Colorado.

I was aiming for Grand Junction that night so I kept pressing on, with occasional photo stops as I was running out of daylight.

Somewhere near Paonia Colorado

Hotchkiss Colorado

The ever smokier air did make for a good sunset.

So many bugs

Made it to a hotel IN Grand Junction around 9pm, just in time to grab a dinner and a "medium" margarita.

Big day, lots of passes, I passed out right after this meal.

 

[FLH03RIDER]

Good Stuff !!! You've put down some impressive miles this year and made a lot of photo stops along the way!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Thanks, trying to make the best use of my time as an unemployed degenerate I guess I should wrap up this report as well.

 

[N4teTheGreat]

I woke up in Grand Junction Colorado with the idea that I'd cross most of Utah ending up in Cedarville. It seemed like a good idea as I ingested a very large cup of coffee I'd picked up at the nearby truck stop and formulated my route.

While finishing said coffee I gave my ailing chain a quick clean and lube. No stiff links, but I could definitely see a bit of day light when pulling on the rear sprocket and the chain deflected left to right quite a bit.

But at least it's clean...

I pulled out for a quite stop at a scenic viewpoint in Utah. Some Navajo folks were selling stuff, but I didn't take time to check it out as I had a lot of miles to cover.

Even the gas stations have scenic views in Utah. Quick break for gas, fluids and to replace the tape on my left hand pointer finger.

While I could have saved time taking I-70 longer, I couldn't resist Goblin Valley into Capitol Reef.

It's a beautiful road, albeit rather lacking in corners. Far superior to the interstate.

I stopped for gas and went into this place finally, usually I have done this road south to north on my way TO Colorado, so the views, and where I stopped were different on this trip.

While I was hydrating a met a rider without a bike. Turns out he was doing the Utah BDR with some friends and after about the fourth time getting his bike stuck in deep sand he bailed and took a ride from a 4 wheeler and was working on getting his bike towed out. He said the sand was really deep and he didn't have that much dirt experience. I also would not have enjoyed riding deep and in the 100 degree heat. Did that last year on the way back from the annual dirty ride with my buddies and we routed ourselves into some super deep sand on a day forecasted to hit 105. Type 2 fun for a while on that one. We talked for a bit before he left to get water and beers for his buddies and I got back on the road.

While I was tempted to take route 12 to Escalante, I stayed reasonable to continued on 24 east through Utah.

It was no highway 12 but the views were still decent.

I had honestly not realized I was going to pass through Capitol Reef NP. It was a nice and empty and I got to enjoy the roads and the views mostly unhindered. Sweet.

I stopped at the visitor center for stickers and enamel pins. And older couple walked over to chat me up about the bike, we talked riding and I noticed the guy was wearing a sturgis shirt. I mentioned I'd seen a lot of riders headed that way and wanted to do it someday, they both told me you gotta do it at least once. We shared a few stories about our experiences with long days on the bike and then were on our respective ways. Always fun to meet and speak with anyone, but particularly other riders.

I stopped for a meal at a random diner looking place, inside it was newly remodeled and the menu was mediteranean. I figured why not and gave it a shot. Food was good and the guy running the place was super attentive and eager for reviews, which I now realize I still owe him.