Stage 5
Over the highest pass of the entire ride !!!
Somehow Kevin gets himself together enough to ride and we head towards Colorado--only a few miles away. There is no sign at the border crossing--just the white line on the GPS. Monty Moore Just get in a rut--let go of the handlebars--and run-er wide open !!! |
We crossed at least 300 cattle crossings.
They were are really smooth--but I was always on the lookout for the one
with a sharp metal edge that would send you over the handlebars or flatten
your tires and bend your rims.
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This is a live 3 ft. wide narrow gauge railroad just North of the New Mexico border in Colorado. The Timbres Coltec RR |
The same railroad crossing above can be seen in this picture---it was georgeous out here. Beautiful sunny cool day !! We were to not be rained on for the whole trip--maybe a record, as everytime I've ridden in the moutains it seems to rain everyday---at 4PM no less ?? |
What a beautiful and colorful mountain.
I first thought it was from mining--but not so. The sign said it was all
natural.
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Down in that valley was some really
deep sand and was Monty's least favorite part of the trip. I thought Monty's
clutch and body temperature were both going to explode watching him come
thru there. He was panting at the top but soldiered on like a trooper.
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We slowly passed this wagon train coming down the moutain--maybe they were traveling the same route we were. We came across a lot of horses and always gave them the right a-way. I'm sure they appreciated our stock mufflers. The bicycle riders did too. I've gotten to the point that I won't ride with guys with loud pipes--nobody out here wants to listen to it--nobody !! |
I ran into these 4 guys on a high speed dirt road South of route 50. I tried to make an impression and came in like Fabrizio Maoni in the Dakar at speed and hammered the brakes and slid in home plate like Mickey Mantle. I did this knowing full well that I wasn't Fabrizio and I wasn't on a KTM 640RR. Luckiy this old man didn't fall down and embarass the hell out of himself--it was a chance I took. Left is Bryan on a nice XR650L and next to him is Micho We all ended up at the same Motel that night in Gunnison--of course the young guys sat up half the night drinking beer outside--while we were snoring by 9:30--but we were long down the trail when they wobbled out of bed :)
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The weather had been perfect today--55°
to 85°
Nice to finally to run into some other Adventure riders and exchange thoughts
and get helpful hints about the trail up ahead. A couple of these guys were
using a GPS route I sent them and said it was working out perfect. I was hoping
I hadn't sent somebody something that would just cause them problems.
We cleaned our air filters that night---they were plugged. Kevin opened the side door to his air-box and a lot of dirt fell out--then he took a spoon and dipped dirt out for awhile--this was all before he could even think of removing the foam filter. Mine was bad too--even tho I was leading all the time.
233 Miles for the day
Stage 6 Doyleville to Kremmling, Colorado