Or is this Day 1 because it was the first day on the bike. I woke up pretty early on my own and in no rush to get out the door. I packed up, said goodbye to the truck which was left at the hotel in Grand Junction.
I headed down Rt 141 which twists its way around NW Colorado. The moon was out so I pulled over to grab a shot of it. The temps were about 90 at this time so it wasn’t great but wasn’t too bad.
After that, I knew I would be driving through an active Fire area. The fire is called the Turners Gulch fire. It is currently around 1400 acres. The road was still open (although it may be closed now). So I figured I would make it through or worst case double back.
The fire wasn’t really near the road so it was clear sailing, the air was pretty Smokey so when I stopped for the moon shot I put on a mask.
From there I continued along the Delores River where at the top you get a good view of the Delores River Canyon.
I continued along toward Ouray and got gas. I did a Quick Look up and wound up at a small BBQ spot in Downtown Ouray. Which they have motorcycle parking, but it is off camber and on a big slope.
If you ever watched the opening credits of the Netflix Show “The Ranch” the beginning view is from up the hill looking down upon Ouray, So I pulled over to get that view.
I then went to walk around town and noticed some very Ominous clouds, so I decided to just hit the road. This was The Million Dollar Highway which was pretty twisty and had some good views, the only problem was it started to rain. Well, I forgot I was wearing my mesh jacket so I got decently wet through it. I didn’t mind until the temps dropped down in the 40’s, so I pulled over to put my rain/over jacket on.
As I came down out of elevation it started to get warm just outside of Durango. So I pulled over and took on the Jacket. Once I got into Durango I stopped to check where Danger and Harv were. They looked to be heading west so I called Danger. They were 15 minutes out from Durango so we arranged a meeting spot at Home Depot right off the two routes we would both be coming from.
We headed towards Farmington until my bike decided it didn’t want to run normal. The bike went into limp mode and I wasn’t on comms with them yet. So I honked and pulled over. This happened to me once last year and I turned off the bike and turned it on and went on my way. So I did that again. Off/On and started going again. I called Danger to tell him I had stopped and was moving again.
After this Harv rode in the back and sure as sh*t it happened a second time. Hopefully like last year that was the last of it. We arrived at the Best Western in Farmington, checked in, unpacked, took some cool off showers and then went to dinner with Harv’s (well he can explain the relation better than me).
After dinner we headed to Walmart next door to get Harv a headlight. I don’t think anyone ever came to unlock the bulbs. Eventually we gave up, grabbed water and left. Harv headed to the auto parts store instead. Although I think he just needed a minute alone as he may feel a bit unique with a Yamaha. So much he put a BMW cover on it. :-)
Tomorrow we do a quick blowby the 4 corners marker then head to the Moki Dugway. After that we will have to decide if we can handle the temps in Moab. To make the best of it, we are hitting the road bright and early, which is even earlier for me now that we are in Mountain time. So off to bed I go, alarm goes off soon.
Phat Barstewards 