COLORADO RIDE

KREMMLING, COLORADO

Ride dates: September 20^th thru 26^th, 2006

On the morning of Wednesday September 20, 2006 our ride to Kremmling, Colorado started at 4:45 AM. From Scooter Pete’s parking lot in Tyler. This trip from Scooter Pete’s started out at “O” on the trip meter and ended up at 2,484 miles round trip once we returned.

Our first day out we rode from Tyler, Texas to Trinidad, Colorado with a total of 707 miles, a 12 hour ride time. Everything went well that day except for a couple minor problems. Just east of Raton, NM I ran out of gas on HWY 87. Nisee and Peter went on into Raton to get gas and bring back. While there I sat on the guard rail watching construction folk’s work on a new road. While obtaining gas at the station her bike wouldn’t start. A main wire burnt in half, which she managed to fix. Peter returned to my location with a gallon of gas. We went to Raton and met up with Nisee. From Raton we went north to Trinidad, Colorado where we stopped for the night. Nisee tore into her bikes headlight while Peter and I headed to Wal-Mart to buy electrical parts. When we returned Nisee fixed her electrical problem.

Thursday morning brought quit a lot of rain to Trinidad and we had to sit for awhile. We were getting weather reports from allot of people about it snowing in the mountains. Our plan had us going to Canon City, CO on HWY 50 and taking HWY 9 up to Krimmling. Because of the reports we had gotten we changed our strategy and decided to take IH-25 to Denver, take Loop 470 around Denver to 70 west up to HWY 40 and go north. Cross winds were up to 50 MPH on IS-25. At mile post marker 58 the wind literally tore my visor from my helmet and carried it over the fence line.

Once we reached Hwy 40 we went north to Berthoud Pass with an 11,315 foot elevation. We ran into snow, sleet, rain and wet roads all the way up and over the pass. Temperatures varied from 32 to 38 degrees. Once we made it to the other side of the pass we decided to stop over at one of the resorts at Winter Park and warm up. Reached Kremlin around 5:00 PM and checked into our hotel.

The hotel is well over 100 years old with squeaky floors and all. Our rooms were without bathrooms. We had to share a community bathroom with those who had no bathroom. That does include shower and or tub as well. No, we didn’t have to share it at once! I can remember one afternoon when Peter was in the restroom. There were a couple ladies outside the door waiting their turn to use it. As I was walking by to go down stairs I heard someone in the bathroom pass gas, very loud. As I observed these two older ladies they began to giggle and laugh. I couldn’t help from laughing when I found out who was passing the gas. Only joking, just wanted to get your attention!!!!!!!! Peter did get bit by a bed bug a couple times, that is true!!!!!!!

Friday morning we all went to eat breakfast. After words Peter got ready to begin his retreat. Nisee and I decided to do some riding and rode to Hot Sulphur Springs where we visited a winery. Went over to the springs but it cost too much to get in. We rode on, finding a country road and took it. Stopped and took quit a few pictures and spoke to a fisherman. From there we rode back to Kremlin.

Saturday we went to ride Hwy 134 and Gore Pass (Elevation 9,527).  Rode over the pass to Hwy 131 where we stopped to warm up at a gas station in Yampa before going back over Gore Pass to Kremlin. On this trip we seen several old western style cabins and barns that were vacated.

Sunday Nisee and I rode over Muddy Creek (Elevation 8,772) and up to Rabbit Ears Pass (Elevation 8,426). We had to stop and turn around four miles before the summit. Roads were slushy, to slick to navigate. The clouds ahead of us were real dark and just too uncertain for us to continue. We did a U-turn and headed back to Kremlin. At the hotel we watched a couple TV movies, went to the local hunting supply store that had used books for sale, which we bought some. Nisee picked up a couple small sharpening stones and we went back to the hotel. Watched more TV, read some, slept some. We walked around town a couple times, not much of anything to do there. Across Main Street is a very high mountain, no trees. Some dirt bikes were riding u and down the trails, even tried making their own a couple times. Watched them about 30 minutes or so and went back to the hotel.

Sunday around 1:00 PM we met Peter at the retreat and headed south on Hwy 9. Went to Breckenridge and over Hoosier Pass (Elevation 11,541). Stopped there and played around in the snow, took allot of pictures before going onto Hwy 50 and Canon City where we stopped for the night. We rode through several valleys and mountains to make it to Canon City. WOW, what a rush!!!!!!! We stopped at the Royal Gorge and rode our bike across, again, several pictures. Buck Skin Joe’s western town was closed by the time we got there so we went on.

Leaving Canon City Monday morning we went on several country roads then down to Hwy 12 where we started to go east on HWY 12. Lots of fall colors but couldn’t get a lot of pictures as there was no where to stop. When we could we did manage to get some pictures.

Driving down through the desert country Nisee’s bike lost the air cleaner cover and filter. Lucky that Peter seen something fly off and we stopped. It took awhile but the filter and cover were found and we were on our way once more. We decided to call it a day and stopped at Larkin, Kansas.

Tuesday morning Nisee and I decided to wash our bikes as they were covered with salt and bugs. The car washed robbed me of about $3.00, it didn’t work. Nisee seen she didn’t have a head light and we went back to the motel. There Nisee discovered the head light burnt out and caused a direct short. Her low beam was out but there was still high beam. We stopped several places along the way but were unable to find a replacement lamp. Upon reaching Greenville I took over the lead and we headed on in. Stopped in Emory to visit Bryana for awhile then went on into Tyler and home. Got in about 11:50 PM with a total mileage of 2,492 miles round trip from my house. Peter & Nisee’s round trip from their house was over 2,500 miles. I would say Peter’s mileage was around 2,200 since he was at the retreat for two and a half days. The last day we drove over 17 hours and put on over 800 miles. We were saddle sore and hurting, I’m not going to lie. We were exhausted yet had a good old time. There were allot of things going on during the trip, unable to cover it all.

That’s it folks, we made it back home safe and sound. We did have our doubts at times we would make it back but we did. Never believe the weather channel or weathermen on the news. When it was reported that there was deep snow falling in the Rockies it wasn’t true. It snowed at elevations of 9,000 feet only.

Sarge