Don't Flush The Cinder Blocks, Colorado has Old Pipes!

[Fencejumper09]

Quick addition to the previous post:
Florence Brewing gave samples in these nifty sippers!



Highly Recommend you stop for a sip!


The Gold Loop was a great way to start the trip in Colorado! It was not very technical but had a couple rough rocky sections so we all got a little taste of how our bikes were going to handle some elevation and how our bodies would react to the lack of oxygen! We made it back to the truck and were loaded back up and ready to make our way to Taylor Park before noon! The ride from Canon City to Taylor Park took us through some fantastic scenery!





We stopped in Salida to purchase our first foot of Subway for the trip! It is crazy that we made it this far without Subway in our bellies! We continued on to Gunnison where we planned to stop for groceries to stock up the cabins! This was a huge mistake. The Walmart we stopped at was like an old school Walmart that only sold non-perishable items. The City-Market next door was slammed and currently under renovation. The employees were running around trying to help people find things that had been moved over night, it was insane!

With some groceries in hand we continued on to Taylor Park. The road from Gunnison to Taylor Park was beautiful winding along on river with a bunch of fly fishermen out enjoying the flow!

Upon arrival at Holt's Guest Ranch we were greeted with a beautiful sky









Unfortunately we were also greeted with an incompetent staff that had shorted us one cabin! We had initially made the reservation in January for 4 cabins, but as people backed out Brian called to cancel 1 cabin! Well what-had-happened-wuz they cancelled one cabin in the books but then gave away one of the other cabins due to an overbooking mistake that they made! It was a shitshow as the lady in charge could not comprehend what we were trying to accomplish, sleeping room for 9. We ended up with (2) two bed cabins, two roll-away beds, a futon pad, and tent space with electricity! All I can say is stay away from this place, the most competent person was the lady cleaning the rooms!

[Fencejumper09]

After unloading the bikes we headed up to "The Nugget" in Taylor Park for some grub! I got a mushroom and swiss burger that was pretty good but it didn't compare to the jerky-esque rib-eye that Mully got! Overall it was a good dinner and I got to know Dan and Steve a little. We sat around and discussed bikes and I voiced my desire to pick up a gently used KTM 990 Superduke to which @SpeedyR replied "Get the 1290R" as if a 990 isn't enough for a dirt guy like myself! We headed back to camp and had a couple of pop-top beers that Dan brought in from Arizona. We did a little maintenance and it was off to bed.



The next morning greeted us with chilly temps in the low 40s and a fantastic view



We had some visitors on sharing the porch of our humble abode



We all geared up and headed for the Taylor Park gas station for some ethanol free premium.



@Mulley  on his KTM 500 pumping some fuel, Dan on his KTM 350 and @Brian A on the MIGHTY DR650



Steve has a KTM 950 back in Florida but rented this sweet KTM 690 in Durango for the week! Not pictured was @SpeedyR on his KTM 950 Super Enduro



The itinerary for the day was a nice painful shakedown run on some technical passes to wet our feet before the 3 day loop kicking off tomorrow. We left Taylor Park heading for Tincup where I saw this beauty of a camper shell. As a woodworker I really appreciate the time invested in this piece.



The trail started off pretty rough and we made a couple wrong turns but every wrong turn led to a beautiful view so no one was complaining!





Some of the crew opted for the long way around.



We trudged along up the rough, rocky and rooty Napoleon Pass running into several groups of off-road enthusiasts.



Discussing the finer points of how hard it is to catch your breathe at altitude!



We made it to the top of Napoleon Pass and views were spectacular!









Of course we need to climb this! Spoiler alert, I did not make it!



We made it into Pitkin for a much anticipated BBQ lunch stop only to find that with the current drought conditions a burn ban was in effect including NO SMOKER/GRILLS!! I was slightly devastated but settled on a BLT with deep fried bacon and it hit the spot!



Did I forget to mention I was sporting a fancy pink Tutu? It isn't too bad when it is in a setting like the picture below from @Brian A but the folks we ran into around Pitkin sure got a good laugh at the guy in a Tutu!



The morning's ride

[Fencejumper09]

At lunch a forest ranger was eating at the table next to us and we asked him if the reports were true, did the Palisades collapse limiting access to the Alpine Tunnel and is Tomichi Pass closed from a rock slide (we were planning to hit Tomichi tomorrow on the start of the 3 day loop). He confirmed that both were true. The only way to get to the Alpine Loop is on foot and Tomichi may be passable on bikes but be careful, last month a guy in a Razr tried to go over the rock slide and rolled down the mountain. He was ejected and sadly passed away. We instantly started thinking of ways to get around Tomichi but it would be a game-time decision tomorrow. The road out of Pitkin was just another beautiful mountain Colorado road.



@Brian A just keeping things real







I was representing my wife's place of employment which would later prove to be an interesting choice!



Some great information on the Alpine Tunnel and the rough and rugged group of men that built it!





Every single turn leads to another vista!





A filling station for steam engines



With access to the Alpine Tunnel limited, we decided to continue on towards Hancock Pass





@Mulley was just having a light read of all the dangers that lie ahead to those stupid enough to continue on Tomichi Pass, today the plan was Hancock Pass so up the rocky incline we go!





Tomichi Pass in the distance, that half round shape on the left side is the rock slide!



Keep going up up and away!







We all made it to the top of the Hancock Pass! Guess What.........................
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The views were awesome!



My little Red Panda spirit animal was hanging in there!



We worked our way down Hancock Pass towards St. Elmo for a much needed water break.



The locals were all sappy







We stopped at the little general store in St. Elmo to pick up some items for the family and some ice cream. Across the street there is a crowd gathered around a pile of old railroad ties. I walk over to find them all hand feeding chipmunks!! It was pretty awesome to watch the (mostly) kids feed the animals! Brian joined in and the joy in his face rivaled any kids on Christmas morning.



After replenishing our hydration needs we continued through St. Elmo onto Tincup Pass which was a fast and flowing trail that we all enjoyed. I may have gotten a little too excited and had the longest developing crash ending without a crash in history. I think I actually got video of it but POV doesn't do it justice as my whole body was flailing about!









There were some ominous clouds in the distance so we didn't linger long before continuing on to Mirror Lake!





We met back up with Jeff as he split from the group after lunch to try and figure out his carb issues. The storm started moving in and at this elevation you feel like you are one among the lightning when it strikes the peaks around you!



Brian and I bolted and headed towards camp. Mulley and Dan decided they wanted to hit up some single track so they broke off and headed towards some extended punishment!



We got back to camp with plenty of daylight left to perform some maintenance, I just changed my air filter but Dan and Mully also did some oil changes and other small bike stuff. We all prepared our luggage while Brian cooked up some frozen pizzas and in Cabin #4 Jeff and Steve made some tortellini and nice salad. I opted to do the honorable thing and help them finish off the pasta and salad so as to not let it go to waste! As we sat around enjoying some grub and adult beverages, we voted that Jeff had earned the tutu for tomorrow. He was honestly everyone's fourth vote as the top 3 votes went to the crew that disappeared and were off at some fancy hipster brewery with a nice hotel room waiting for them!!!!

It was a beautiful night in Taylor Park, CO



Afternoon's Ride

[SpeedyR]

love reading the ride report. almost like I was there. :)

I didn't really take many photos, but did shoot a ton of video. Waiting to hear what Apple is going to do with the (hopefully) new iMacs to upgrade then I'll have time to edit all that 4k footage into a decent video.

Can't wait for the next installment.

Jeff

[Fencejumper09]

Tuesday July 24, 2018 was a busy day with lots of pictures so this may get split into a couple posts!

We all got up at pretty early to finish the loading process! We all messed around with our luggage until we were confident it would make the trek to Lake City. Brian fiddled around with our cohabitant Mr. little bird and he actually ended up jumping out of the nest and making his way out of camp site! I hope he made it!





Brian, Dan and Steve decided to take a little bit more relaxed route to the lunch stop bypassing Tincup, Hancock and Tomichi passes. Mully, Jeff and I decided to take a small section of Timberline Singletrack to get a nice vista to start the day. Mully and Dan had discovered this sweet little spot the day before when they tackled the singletrack loop. It was an amazing 360 degree view that we figured would be a worthwhile stop since Tomichi was probably impassable from the rock slide.





Jeff was rockin the Tutu pretty hard!



We headed back up Tincup Pass the same way we came down yesterday and it was definitely more technical in this direction!







We made it to St. Elmo and enjoyed a drink and some bird watching.



After catching our breath for a few minutes we started up Hancock Pass. It was much more difficult in this direction!





We headed down Hancock to the trailhead of Tomichi Pass to weigh our options.



We mulled it over and after seeing a rider on a KTM going up the pass we decided to give it a go to at least see how bad the rockslide was. It was pretty sketchy but with a few cheers from a family that was hiking the pass and some heaves and hos we all made it through!





Sad to think about but less than 30 days earlier someone lost their life over the right cliff!









We made it through and I am sure glad we did! It would have been a bummer to not knock this pass out!





That is Hancock Pass in the distance as this is looking back behind us!





The top of Tomichi Pass looking back at Hancock Pass, the camera doesn't do the elevation change justice!



At the top we saw a group of about 20 cyclists on what looked like hybrid mountain bikes! They were killing it but I sadly didn't get a picture. At the bottom of Tomichi we found the old cemetery.



White Pine was a little town we passed through but they were serious!



We worked our way down through the valley to Tomichi Creek Trading Post to meet up with the rest of the group and grab some grub.



I ended up ordering "The Slopper" a green chili cheeseburger that blew my expectations out of the water. I was seriously expecting a burger with a scoop of chili on top but it was soupy mess that was delicious. Sorry this picture is blurry but I was too excited about eating it to slow down to take an artsy shot!



Next-up (after a food coma) the "flat and boring section" of the trip hahahaha

[Fencejumper09]

I knew we had a lot of miles to cover before getting to Lake City so I feared that the next section of the trip which was labelled as gravel roads didn't really excite me. But what I failed to remember about Colorado is that you can see forever in the plains and with views like this, the miles just melt away!











We made it to a turn in the track but this was blocking our way! I knew what it was just from following a bunch of ride reports on ADVrider of the TAT. This cattle gate marks a first for me! It was an exhilarating experience to open and close the gate for the group and I look forward to the next time I get the honor! Hahaha!



We hit a little section of what used to be a stagecoach route that provided a little technical break from the gravel.



As we were getting closer to Lake City the scenery started "improving" from great to greater!







The crew spinning up some dust!











This portion of the days tracks was one of my favorites of the trip, it was a great section of some gravel canyon roads that were fun and had great scenery on both sides.







These guys tried to kill Dan!







I was lagging behind the group at this point to let the dust settle a little and to snag some pictures. I was really just enjoying being in such a splendid place with the crisp mountain air and hanging out with my buddies. As I rounded a slight right turn with canyon walls on the right and a 60 plus foot drop into a river to the left, I saw Brian's bike on the kickstand and Steve's 690 wadded up against some rocks on the right side of the trail! THIS CAN"T BE GOOD!  By the time I park my bike and walk over Steve is up and shaking it off, I could tell it was a bad one as he wasn't quite all there but wasn't exhibiting any of the signs that I thought would indicate a concussion. This picture kind of shows the speed and force that the bike hit the rocks with. Steve was able to abandon ship early enough to roll along the road and not break bones on the rocks.



But trust me when I say, the right was a much better option!





Steve's 690 had a sticking throttle and badly bent front rim. We fixed the throttle (mostly) the front wheel was fine at a slow pace so we trudged along to catch up with Mully and Dan as they must be worried by now!

The clouds just seem to roll in so fast out here!





We came around a bend at I got another first time event for myself! Seeing a 14,000 plus foot peak. Uncompahgre Peak was off in the distance but still looked freakin yuuge!



@Brian A and I decided to detour up a little side street that promised an overlook.......................



Boy did it deliver!





It continued to watch over us as we made our way down a fantastic curvy road into Lake City!



There was a cave, and a house above it!



We arrived to find the other group had already disassembled the DRZ to try to improve its' response to the elevation!



Things were made worse! This is @kdtrull thinking Oooops what did I just break!?!



There is nothing this group of self proclaimed repair engineers can't fix!



A little bit of elbow grease and some MacGuyver action and Ken was satisfied with the performance of his steed!

I was pretty terrible about taking pictures after the ride but we headed down to get some southern cooking at "Southern Vittles". The chicken fried chicken was massive and delicious and the fried okra was plentiful! We sat around the parking lot of the Silver Spur discussing the days events and enjoying some adult beverages. We showed Ken what a "craft beer" was and he was not impressed! We were all worn out so we hit the sack and quickly fell into a slumber!

The route!

[Brian A]

I am thoroughly enjoying the words and pics.

I think this is the first group ride I have ever been on where someone else did the ride report.  Nice to see a bunch of pics and comments from someone else on the ride.

When you are all finished up, I'll share a few memories and thoughts.

Carry on!

[Fencejumper09]

Wednesday July 25th started off strong! I slept pretty good besides waking up at 3 AM to dried out sinuses and the neighbors blaring TV! I was able to get back to sleep and knock out a few more hours of shut eye before the 6 AM alarm went off. We were up and ready to roll out to breakfast by 8 AM, Brian and myself headed out towards Lake City Bakery to grab some grub while the others finalized their packing.

Not a bad view with breakfast and the Polish Sausage Kolache was delicious especially when chased with a Blueberry Streusal!





You know it is a good sign when the bakery has a line out the door! While waiting in line, the kid behind me noticed the lanyard my camera was on and asked if I went to UAB! Apparently he was from Birmingham and had recently moved to the area. It truly is a small world we live in.

Mully and crew rolled up to the bakery looking like they had a story to tell. Apparently Mulley was speeding through Lake City and got a warning while on the 3 mile ride to breakfast. He said the cop was really friendly and offered trail advice before sending him on his way!

We hit the road after stuffing our faces with some deliciousness and the scenery was as expected, BEAUTIFUL!



We started our way up Cinnamon Pass on some fantastic graded gravel passing by a great lake.







We started working our way up the valley and the landscape started changing! I don't really know what else I can even say about these views but they are non-stop and ever changing.







Cinnamon Pass is pretty heavily traversed by the 4x4 and side-by-side group so we had to deal with a little dust at times.





Everyone was enjoying the views.











We made it to the top of Cinnamon Pass and there was a decent amount of traffic.











We started working our way back down towards Animas Forks for a break.





Animas Forks was a really cool stop with some great history. The people who lived here were crazy strong humans!













Not quite period correct!

[Guidedawg]

We made it to a turn in the track but this was blocking our way! I knew what it was just from following a bunch of ride reports on ADVrider of the TAT. This cattle gate marks a first for me! It was an exhilarating experience to open and close the gate for the group and I look forward to the next time I get the honor! Hahaha!

That shows the intelligence of reading about the area in advance.  I'd either think that was no-rider land, or expect that gate to fall apart at the touch.  But then again, I'm a street rider, so I just enjoy living vicariously through the excellent reports.

There was a cave, and a house above it!

Meanwhile, at stately Wayne Manor....

[SpeedyR]

have to say thanks again for the write up. I keep checking the forum a couple of times a day to see if there's new posts about the ride. :)

great photos and enjoying the writings. I just downloaded and saved my tracks from the rides and looked over my photos. I didn't take enough photos, and my videos are all tied up in 4k purgatory till I get a new Mac, hopefully next month.

[Fencejumper09]

Thanks @SpeedyR it has been a slow process with the new job! Not as much time sitting in front of a computer!

It's funny, my videos are stuck in the same purgatory as yours, new Mac should arrive when I finish building my desk!

It is coming along nicely!

[griff]

Having been to Animas Forks, it really makes you realize how tough those folks were. Especially the ones that spent the winter up there.

[Fencejumper09]

To our surprise, the other group rolled into Animas Forks as we were finishing up our visit. One issue immediately caught my eye! @kdtrull was not wearing his pink tutu!!!



He said that it just wouldn't fit under his helmet!



We rolled out of Animas Forks and resumed the amazing sights. The rocks in the river were nearly all white probably from the byproducts of the mining that had taken place in the area. Some of the minerals buried in the earth are so dangerous and really destroy the surrounding environment.





As we are rolling out we see some familiar faces! The third group of Alabama Motorcyclists randomly ended up in the same area as the other 2! It was a crazy coincidence and great to see @odell2115 and family!





The trail to California Pass took us through some fantastic areas on some great roads. Through Grouse Gulch and Picayune Gulch.



The Bonnie Belle Cabin!





A couple of the crew deep in thought and taking in the sights. These view make you realize how small you really are in the world we live in!









Coming down Picayune Gulch





Turning at California Gulch



California Pass











Talk about feeling small!!



We saw this old Willy's jeep and it was in great shape for its' age and use!



We stopped at the peak hovering around 13,000 feet and enjoyed a snack!

[Fencejumper09]

We continued on, south of Lake Como, towards Hurricane Pass.







We continued on towards Corkscrew Pass along Corscrew Gulch Trail











We made our way to the Million Dollar Highway in Ironton and headed to Black Bear Pass!





A family in their sweet Bronco was hanging out just before the saddle of Black Bear Pass and we stopped to talk for a minute. While we were stopped some serious clouds with thunder and lightning started to roll in!





@Brian A saw the clouds first!



We decided to push on as this pass was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Colorado. Almost immediately we started to get rained on so we donned our Frogg Toggs and continued up!





We caught up to another group on dirtbikes!



Almost there! Telluride in the distance!









Made it to the Steps and there were about 6 Jeeps ahead of us. We made it by a couple but some just wouldn't let us by. We just waited our turn!

[Fencejumper09]

Black Bear Pass has been on my bucket list for a couple years now. The pictures of bikes coming down the switchbacks into Telluride, past the waterfalls, have always been inspiring to me. Didn't think I would have been able to check this one off of the bucket list at such a young age and especially not while it was raining!

When you get to the top of the Steps this is your view! No turning back now! (of course the water drop is blurring out Telluride)



The passenger in this jeep kept sticking her hand out and touching the rocks! I thought for sure we were going to see a broken arm!









A glimpse of Telluride through the rain!







Looking back up one of the first switchbacks!



Passengers in Jeeps were getting out and walking down! They just didn't have the stomach or trust in the driver!





It was definitely an amazing experience!



We met up with the other group at a gas station outside of Telluride and after an ice cream we made our way to Imogene Pass!





The weather situation was not improving!



Telluride seems like a very pretentious town but it was beautiful! I think I could find a pair of designer yoga pants and fit right in!



Imogene starts right on the edge of town! It was definitely wet from the rain and had some pretty technical spots as well.



Looking back towards Black Bear Pass



Some old mining facilities near the top





We took some fun but cold gravel down into Ouray to our fancy hotel!





We relaxed a bit in the natural hot springs then headed to Ouray Brewing for some beers and food.