Great Ride!

[h2olawyer]

Today was the annual Timberline to Timberline ride.  Held annually, this was the 4th year for this event.  It begins at Timberline Church in eastern Ft. Collins and ends at the Alpine Visitor's Center in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I rode it for my second time today.  It was a fantastic day.  We started out with 43 bikes of all types, makes, colors & creeds.

When we got part way into Rocky Mountain National Park, we had already been rained on a little but nothing extreme.  At the main junction, a bunch of th Harley wimps decided they couldn't ride in the wet so they turned around & went home.  About 25 or so of us continued on up and over Trail Ridge Road.  The road was pretty wet & slippery in spots but not too bad.  I was glad I recently bought a new rainsuit, though!

As we neared timberline (the point where it is too high for trees to grow), we were riding in a cloud.  Actually more like riding in fog or the inside of a light bulb.  80 miles from the church, we arrived at the Alpine Visitor's Center.  Along the way, we reached an elevation of over 12,000 ft.  After reassembling at the Visitor's Center, the group disbanded to find their own way home.

Two of my best friends (since Jr. High!) and I continued on to the West side of Rocky Mountain National Park and the town of Grand Lake.  We ate lunch at the Grand Lake Lodge (it's on the national register of historic places & the bratwurst & sauerkraut is awesome).  We continued on to the town of Granby, where a year or so ago a nut went crazy with an armored bulldozer & trashed most of the government buildings in town along with a hardware store.

After filling the tanks in Granby, (125 miles from home), we continued on northwest to Colorado Highway 125 and Willow Creek Pass.  What a fun road.  It's been almost 20 years since I last rode that highway.  It is a ton of linked fast 4th - 5th gear sweepers.  Speed limit is mostly 40 - 45 but we were more than a little above that.  This is one of the main access roads included in several of the planned rides on the 25 year get - together.

After getting over the pass, and heading down into North Park, the road flattens & straightens out.  I haven't ridden an extended peroid at the speed we maintained  (quite a bit over the posted 65 MPH) for the last 20 miles into Walden in a long time.  My V handled it without a hiccup or complaint!

I filled my tank again - even though it was only 55 miles since the last gas stop.  However, it is another 100 miles back to Ft. Collins and there are no fuel stops for over 90 of those miles.  About 15 miles out of Walden is a cool place called the "Moose Visitor's Center".  We stopped there & took some photos on front of the moose sculpture.  The sculpture is a moose made entirely of barbed wire.  A truly amazing bit of artwork & patience shown by the artist!

The last 85 miles were fairly slow due to the Sunday afternoon traffic headed back to Ft. Collins.  It was just as well as I was getting a bit road weary at this point.  I kept thinking I don't want to end up like Brian M.!  (Hope you're feeling better, Brian!)  The road is a long canyon drive with lots of decreasing radius blind curves.  Not exactly what you want to run across at the end of a long, mentally tiring ride.  Anyway, no major (or minor) problems & a truly fun day.

Have about 1.5 hours of video from the ride & a few photos as well.  Need to do a little video editing & I'll get some of it posted soon.  Hope everyone else had as much fun today as I did (but that would be tough)!  Overall, it was just over 280 miles and took about 8.5 hours.  That includes the 2.5 hours we had to wait for lunch and several regrouping stops in the large group ride.  Small groups & better meal service would shorten the time by at least 2 hours.

When I post video, you want it with music or  just engine sounds?  I'll also be making the video available on DVDs as a teaser for what you can expect for rides next summer.  I'm going to be riding all the potential loops this summer so the videos may become available as I ride them or I may wait until I've got them all ridden.  I'll let you know as the riding season progresses.

Hope I haven't bored everyone to tears yet, but I'm still pretty wound up from the ride.

H₂O

[MotorPlow]

Outstanding!  ;D

[h2olawyer]

Uploading some video as I write.  It will be available on Extet's ROVmedia site whenever it finishes loading from my hard drive to his site.  I'll post when its ready for viewing.

H₂O

[ps2/bikevision]

feels good to get out and riding don't it. i have hung up my keys till i get my license back in August. i don't know what I'm gonna do till then. get them routes down for 07. we all want awesome roads so don't let us down ;D.

[h2olawyer]

Video Posted!  Extent may have a few details to fix but it should be ready.  It is over 25 minutes long & plays well in full screen mode.

H₂O

[Lucky]

how did you know it was done? i'm waiting on mine to finish

[Extent]

As soon as it's entered correctly it will show up on the page (you will have to refresh your browser)  It will normally happen instantly, but I'm still trying to figure out why yours didn't work right, it entered all kinds of blank data, even my embeded fields.  I can't get the same thing to happen again.

[Lucky]

ok, yup, i see it  :D