Princess Yum Yum and the Free Range Rednecks

[Nice Goat]

We had some fun in Colorado...

Starting with this pink tutu...



More to come...

[gulfcoaster]

Well with a title like that...I'm in.

[Chitza]

Woohoo! I've been waiting for this to start!!

[klaviator]

Well with a title like that...I'm in.

What he said!!

[springer]

 HANG ON! Wait a minute now, the popcorn is almost done...gotta have some popcorn for this ballerina dance.  :D

[norton73]

This oughta be interestin'...

[Nice Goat]

[klaviator]

Glenn, you really know how to pick titles for your ride reports.  I can't wait to find out how you came up with this one. 

Doing some off road riding in Colorado is one of the things on my bucket list so I'm really looking forward to this report.  Maybe it will help motivate me to replace my old KLR with something more suitable for this kind of riding.

[KevinB]

Rather than make a separate thread, I'll piggyback my photos/commentary here.


kdtrull, Nice Goat and myself loaded and leaving Vinemont Friday morning...





The trip out was fairly unremarkable, but we did stop in famed Dodge City for a short walk-around...










Somewhere in western Kansas...almost as if a gleaming Heavenly light was being cast upon our destination.




And then...finally!







We stopped short of our final destination for a warm up ride on Phantom Canyon and Shelf Rd. north of Canon City, which are part of the Gold Belt Scenic Byway.



@Brian A @Mulley @Fencejumper09
Brian, Mulley and David...





















The first full day of riding out of Taylor Park had Ken, Glenn and I riding to Mirror Lake and Tincup Pass.












This was my first time at this altitude (approx. 10k at the lake) and I was winded just walking around taking photos.



Glenn took a hard line about 2/3rds up Tincup Pass and went down in the rocks. We got the bike upright and had to take a breather. Ken's topo GPS showed that the trail got much steeper just ahead...we were all sucking wind, and not wanting to bust ourselves or the bikes on our first day we decided to head back down.











We also rode part of Slaughterhouse Gulch and found this old cabin...





Our accommodations at Holt's Ranch in Taylor Park got botched by the management and they shorted us one cabin. Glenn and Ken stayed in a tent the first night and I slept (well...tried to) on a fold-out cot that would probably be deemed in violation of the Geneva Convention if employed by our Military for use by POW's, so we decided to head for Gunnison, CO and find a hotel room. As soon as we unloaded our gear, we went in search of hydration...


This place had some awesome pizza and brew!

[KevinB]

Tuesday was the first day of our 3 day loop where we'd be hauling our gear with us and staying in hotels along the route.

Final prepping in Gunnison before heading out...




Our first section was part of the Colorado Back Country Discovery Route (COBDR)...awesome trails!













Then we arrived at our destination for the evening...the Silver Spur motel in Lake City. Ken, Glenn and I (Strike Force Bravo) arrived about an hour before the others (Brian, David, Mulley, Jeff, Dan and Steve...Alpha Team). We passed the time by downing some grub and brews at the Packer Saloon and Cannibal Grill about a block away (no pics...but a phenomenal burger).

[KevinB]

Day two promised us even better views and terrain than the day before.

First, we tackled Engineer Pass...




























Then we headed down and into Animas Forks...













This is where we crossed paths with the Alpha Team by chance...




While riding around the Animas area, I had a couple of musings waft through my brain...

While feeling "Adventurey" on my dirt bike with all my cool gear, I realized that all the structures were built by men and women that had to haul everything they needed (tools, materials, food, clothing, etc.) along the same trails 140+ years ago via horse-drawn wagons, compared to my lightweight fuel-injected machine with 10" of suspension travel...and they didn't have a climate-controlled motel room with internet and hot water waiting for them at the end of the day. It definitely put things into perspective for me and gave me a great sense of respect and admiration for the people who forged and pioneered this nation.


At the other end of the spectrum...

Animas Forks is the "hub" for numerous trails that lead to several of the popular mountain passes...it was very busy with people on/in rented atv's, side-by-sides and Jeeps. Some of the trails are very steep with loose, rocky terrain and precarious drop-offs (often hundreds of feet down) looming just inches away. With the only apparent requirement to rent being "Do you currently have a pulse?" (and maybe a Driver License for the Jeeps), I was shocked that we didn't see any kind of crashes, roll overs, carnage, etc....especially knowing that some of these people have probably never driven off-road before in their lives. I can't go a day at work without dealing with someone that couldn't avoid crashing on a straight, flat piece of smooth interstate six lanes wide. My faith in humankind was restored (at least until I go back to work Wednesday...)


From Animas we took Mineral Creek Trail (no pics...it was a challenging, rocky downhill descent for miles) to the Million Dollar Hwy. and ascended Ophir Pass.

Ophir seemed more like a huge pile of loose rocks than an actual mountain.




We ran into the Alpha Team at our gas stop in Telluride and teamed up to take the trip up and over Imogene Pass. The weather was becoming ominous (the A Team had just endured a heavy rain coming down Black Bear Pass) and we started up Imogene in a drizzle. The A Team scorched their way up the mountain as we took more of a "plodding" pace. The rain became heavier and the mud and rocks became slicker as we ascended. Just past the old mine approx. 2/3rds of the way up, we encountered a steep, loose, rocky section with a switchback thrown in at the top for extra measure.

We had a bike go down pretty hard, and with the altitude and conditions we were all three huffing and puffing pretty hard once we got the bike upright and turned around. We conferred amongst our trio and decided to turn around and call it a day. I discovered that going down a muddy, slick, narrow, rocky mountain trail isn't really much easier than trying to go up.

At the top of the section in question...




We later found out that there was a much easier line around the section that torpedoed us.  >:(


We backtracked and did a fun, 50 mile section of pavement between Telluride and Ouray that allowed us to dry out our riding gear.


Our destination for that night was Twin Peaks Lodge in Ouray. My view out the front door the next morning...

[KevinB]

Day three...

We left Ouray and took the Million Dollar Hwy. through Silverton back to Animas.

Stopped for construction south of Ouray...





From Animas we made it up and over Cinnamon Pass...










We stopped for lunch in Lake City, then wound our way back to Gunnison.





That led us to Friday and (unfortunately) the trip home.

There's some beautiful scenery between Salida and Canon City...





We ran into some heavy storms on the stretch from Pueblo to Trinidad. Waiting out a hailstorm under I-25 north of Trinidad...




To give some backstory...

I sold my Husaberg a few months ago and picked up the KTM 450 I eventually took specifically for this trip. The 'Berg was an excellent bike, but it has a plastic subframe, no provision to mount a rear rack, and a small 2.2g tank (and the options of adding larger fuel capacity are scarce ). As a longer-range dual sport, I thought it's capability was limited. I bought the KTM in Memphis in May with the intent of prepping it for the trip.

As soon as I got it home, I found coolant mixed with the oil in the crankcase. I replaced the waterpump seal with the hope that it was an easy fix...nope. I then surmised that it was a bad head gasket and possibly a warped head. I dropped the bike of at Max Motorsports for then to take a look-see. Due to their workload, it took a while before they could crack it open. Turned out that the "top end job" done by the previous owner consisted merely of tossing in a new piston and valves. Max sent the head out to have the valve seats cut and the cylinder off for honing and replating. The coolant issue turned out to be a bad waterpump shaft, which was replaced also. As the countdown to the trip turned from weeks into days with still no bike, I really began to sweat it...I was seriously worried that I might not make the trip (like "losing sleep" worried). I even began exploring other options...rent a bike? Buy another bike and sell it when I get back?

With time running out, I got the call on Tuesday morning (three days before trip departure!) that the bike was ready to be picked up. What they didn't realize was that I was almost there already, ready to lay down a mushroom cloud...




I needed to do a shake down ride to make sure it ran correctly and to get some break-in miles on it so I could do an oil change. I also had a ton of farkling I needed to do. I did approx. 110 miles on Wednesday, changed the oil, and got everything adjusted and installed.



I was abit miffed with the guys at Max leading up to the ride, but the bike ran performed flawlessly over the 5 days/470 miles of riding and I couldn't be happier with it.

[griff]

Nice pictures. That area is absolutely amazing. If you haven't been you don't realize how far you can go on mostly dirt. I remember one day we did 156 miles when we were staying near Salida. I think about 20 of it was paved. We were just having fun cruising around the mountains. Tin Cup pass really isn't that bad. There's a restaurant in Tin Cup that has excellent pie called Frenchies.

[Fencejumper09]

Nice pictures. That area is absolutely amazing. If you haven't been you don't realize how far you can go on mostly dirt. I remember one day we did 156 miles when we were staying near Salida. I think about 20 of it was paved. We were just having fun cruising around the mountains. Tin Cup pass really isn't that bad. There's a restaurant in Tin Cup that has excellent pie called Frenchies.

We had Frenchy's burgers and pie Friday! Tincup Pie was epic!!!

[Johnny Tobyone]

Looks like a great trip !  I have been going to CO. (bro. still lives there)  since '85  kayaking, camping, skiing but have never dirt biked it.  The altitude seems to get to me more and more though.