Day 3: The Million Dollar Highway (yes, that's really what it's called)

Today we travelled on Highway 550, part of which is also known as "the Million Dollar Highway". Highway 550 begins in CO and ends in NM. Obviously, we didn't ride it all the way to the end. We were a little worried about the weather at first as it was rather overcast when we set out in the morning. Luckily, it did warm up over the course of the day. But then it started raining. We'll get to that part later.

We rode south through Ouray and began ascending into mountain passes. I didn't realize that we would be on the outside lane of the highway (i.e. closest to the edge of the pass) until we were already heading up. Did I mention lack of guard rails? It was all very breathtaking and all very heart stopping. Although the distance between Ouray and Silverton was 30 km, it felt exhaustingly long. The exhaustion came from the extreme amount of concentration I was exercising to pay attention to the road. I barely had any moments to be a tourist and soak in the beautiful surroundings. The road was very technical: many tight switchbacks that seemed to go on forever. Although I was terrified, it was a good kind of terrified. Matt? Well he was completely relaxed and didn't understand why I didn't want to go faster. Jackie and Bill accompanied us partway up. At our first stop on the highway to take some photographs, they decided to ride a different route for the rest of the day. We parted company and continued on.

Matt and I stopped at another scenic overlook to take more photographs. While we were there, a local who also arrived on a motorcycle chatted us up. He gave us some ideas for day trips while we were here. He highly recommended our tentative trip to see Arches. We thanked him and continued on our way. About 15 minutes later, he caught up to us on the road, passed us, and disappeared into the distance.

When we finally reached Silverton, we filled up our tanks and continued another 80 km to Durango. On the outskirts of Durango, we stopped for a quick lunch at a southern bbq establishment. Pulled pork! Yummy! After lunch, we continued through Durango towards Telluride. And now I can talk about the rain.

About an hour after leaving Durango, we noticed the skies ahead of us had dark, angry-looking clouds. We could see that they were dark, but no rain was falling at that time. We rode under the dark clouds, and nothing happened. About 20 minutes later, we noticed the road was suddenly wet and the vehicles travelling toward us still had their wipers on. Uh-oh. We rode into the suddenly torrential rain and made a quick decision to find the first safe place to stop on the side of the road and quickly put our rain gear on and rain covers on our bags. By the time we were done, the rain had moved. Ahead of us. Yes, we were going to ride right back into the rain.

Riding through rain is not something we normally chose to do, unless we're touring. At that point, we're usually on a tight schedule and have to ride regardless of the weather.  We ended up keeping our rain gear on until we returned to our chalet. We did stop briefly for another refuelling near the turn off for Telluride. At that point, the sky had cleared up and the sun was shining. Unfortunately, the skies above the direction we were headed were not so pretty. So, we rode along, in and out of rain showers.

After arriving at the chalet, getting out of our billions of layers of gear, and unloading the bikes, Matt re-lubed our chains. Every time we've gone on a multi-day ride, we've always forgotten to bring chain lube and wound up either purchasing a new bottle or borrowing from a fellow traveller. This time, we remembered the chain lube. But we forgot the little nozzle straw. Oops. Well, Matt was still able to reapply the lube. It was just far messier than normal. Next time!

We had discussed amongst ourselves the possibility of a dinner one evening at the chalet and had tentatively scheduled it for Monday. We had already eaten out for 3 nights in a row. Boy was that a wise decision. Jackie and Bill arrived about 10 minutes after we did with groceries for dinner. We were all standing around chatting about maybe going into Ouray for a brief visit when suddenly it started raining. Well that ended any possible excursion plans. Dinner at the chalet was on! Jackie made a nice green salad with homemade croutons, and pasta with a simple vegetable sauce. She even oven-roasted the tomatoes for the sauce! Jackie: thank you so much for a wonderful dinner. =)

The weather outlook for the remainder of the week looks pretty bleak. Rain, rain, and more rain. Of course, that's how the weather looked for the beginning of our trip, too! So we're not exactly sure if we should believe the weather predictions or not. We just have to take it day by day.

Day 3 route:

Million Dollar Highway:

Million Dollar Highway:

Scenery viewed from Million Dollar Highway:

Mountain lodge:

Red Rock Formations along US 145:

Cess being silly with red rocks:

Day 2: Short but #$%&! scenic

We had decided at the end of Day 1 that we were not going to do a long ride on Day 2. We were unsure what the weather would be like (when we checked the forecast it called for a fair bit of rain!) and frankly, we wanted to have an easier, more relaxing day. As it turned out, Bill and Jackie (a couple staying in the same chalet as us) had very similar goals for the day. So over breakfast, we decided we'd ride out together and do a short jaunt to the town of Telluride and back.

Telluride is a small town with a single main street. Like many towns in this area, it's done up in an old western style. It's a tad gimmicky but I guess it's in line with the rich mining history Colorado has, so it works. The ride to Telluride was short, but beautiful. We left Ouray, headed northwest to Ridgeway, then turned west along Route 62 until we reached a junction with Route 145, at which point we turned southeast until we reached Telluride. The ride was beautiful. The roads were essentially never straight, full of long sweeping corners cutting through mountain passes and valleys. When we hit Route 145 the geology of the area visibly changed as suddenly we were surrounded by nearby and more distant rock faces composed of a reddish stone.

Once we reached Telluride, we stopped for lunch before retracing our route back to our chalet. After dinner, we spent the evening on the porch of the chalet with our lodge mates chatting and doing a bit of storm watching as a thunderstorm rolled through the area.

Day 2 Route:

 

View of US 62:

Rock formations:

Keystone Hill Overlook along US 145:

Whispering Pines chalet:

Lightning strike:

Day 1: Welcome to Ouray

MATT IS A MORON. Ahem. He said I could say that. ;) Being a creature of habit, he left home without his earplugs and without his documents (driver's license, ownership, and insurance slip). Why? Well, we were not leaving on our bikes; we were taking the TTC and then travelling by air to meet the bikes. Luckily, we had pre-arranged for some friends to water our plants while we were away. Matt sent a tearful email pleading with them to hurry along to our condo and take his documents to be scanned and emailed to us so that he could at least have a printed copy to carry with him for the duration of the trip. Thank you, Martin, for rescuing Matt in his grovelling state. =)

We chatted briefly with the tour organizer, Ben, for a few minutes before we headed out. He gave us a list of the living arrangements and the local contact person should we arrive in Ouray first. We would be staying with 3 other people in our "unit".

After breakfast, we set out from Denver for Ouray. The weather was fantastic. The ride to Ouray was mostly uneventful. We stopped at a few scenic lookout spots to take photograhs. We stopped in Clifton for lunch. When we finally rolled into Ouray, it turned out that we were not the first to have arrived. We gratefully got our key and headed to our accomodations to check it out. 

As it turns out, our "unit" is actually a sprawling three bedroom, 2 bathroom house. The kitchen is very well equiped and has a breakfast nook. There is also a large living room and a dining room. The two-car garage has ample space to park our 5 motorcycles. The outdoor space has ample seating (in the front and the open space in the rear) and comes with 2 different barbecues and a fire pit. Wow.

After settling down, we headed back to town to have dinner with the rest of the group. In total, 18 people were participating in this trip, with 15 bikes. We had a hearty dinner of elk burgers and sweet potato fries. After dinner, we took a stroll down the main street of Ouray. It's definitely a small town. We managed to purchase milk, eggs, and bread to make breakfast for ourselves for the week. Then we headed back to the house for the night.

Route for the day:

 

View of I-70 elevated above the ground:

Cess' evil eye during a rest stop:

Clifton - crappy town with a great backdrop:

Day 0: Flying Away

When I started researching flights for this trip, I knew I wanted to fly the first leg with Porter. Why not? We can walk to the Island Airport, how snazzy is that! It turned out the best priced option was flying into Chicago-Midway and then onto Colorado with Frontier Airlines. Although we were all stoked to walk to the airport, we ended up taking public transit because we were running late. We made use of the complimentary beverages and wifi before boarding our flight. Our seats were in the first row of the plane. Talk about ridiculous leg room!

The flight itself was uneventful. We landed in Chicago-Midway and were the first passengers off the plane. We had to exit the arrivals area and then make our way to the ticketing area to get our boarding passes for the connecting flight and then pass through the security check again. Luckily we had 2 hours to get this all done. After all the necessary evils were out of the way, we got ourselves something to eat while we waited for our next flight. 

As it turned out, our seats on the Frontier flight were also in the first row. Pretty funny. =) The best part of the Frontier flight? A warm chocolate chip cookie for a snack. Ahhh. We arrived in Denver and then called our hotel for a shuttle. After about 15 minutes, we were aboard the shuttle vehicle and on our way to the hotel. Our hotel room was a bit of a surprise. I only expected a room with a king bed. What we got was a suite with a kitchenette and livingroom area, and a separate bedroom and bathroom area. Wow. Talk about luxury!

Now we need to work on getting our bikes from the transport truck that should be parked across the street at another hotel. Hmm ... 

It's the Final Countdown!

We said goodbye to our bikes on Wednesday night. They are being trailered down to Denver, CO and we are flying down to meet them Friday afternoon. The majority of our luggage is with the bikes. We will only be taking the bare essentials along with our delicate electronics and photography equipment with us on our flight tomorrow morning. Now that's the way to travel!

Project bike... of a different sort

A little while ago Cess and I decided we would try to acquire a couple of bicycles to allow us to run errands downtown and go for an occasional bike rides.  Having said that, we didn't want to have to worry about the bikes being attractive to bike thieves so we opted to look for used bikes.

After some initial research, it turned out that my father in-law had an old Sears Free Spirit city bike in his garage.  We're not sure how old it is, but it's likely between 20-30 years old.  It's going to require a restoration effort to get it into good working condition.  It hasn't been used in many years and it shows. 

So far, this has been a learning experience, but I'm fairly happy with my progress.  Thankfully between some of my friends and my Dad I've got some good resources to lean on for advice.  To date, I've done the following:

• Completely dissassembled the bicycle down do the frame
• Revitalized the front brake calipers, cranks, front cog
• Stripped the handlebar of all rust
• Sanded the fork in preparation for a new paintjob
• Started sanding the frame

Here are a few photos to illustrate the original condition of the bike and how the restoration is going.

Stem:

Brake calipers, one arm in original condition, another restored:

Handlebar, before and after stripping:

Front cog and crank in their restored glory:

Paint:

Track day at Mosport

Having bought a bike specifically for use on the track last year, Cess and I spent Canada Day at Mosport where I was doing my first track day on the ZX-6R. For the unitiated, a track day is organized is organized as follows... 

You arrive at the track bright and early in the morning with your bike.  You register, the bike goes through a technical inspection, and a rider's meeting follows where all the rules and regulations that must be followed are reviewed.  All the attending riders are divided into several groups (generally 3) based on experience and skill level.  Each of those groups enters the track and spends 15 minutes or so riding, after which the other 2 groups get the chance to do so.  This sequence continues throughout the day.

After being off the track for some time I was glad to see that which each successive on-track session everything I had learned previously about riding on the track was slowly coming back.  By my 6th session I felt that I had improved a great amount compared to my 1st session.  My lines were improved, my lean angles and corner speeds got better.  Having said that, I definitely need to continue to work on my body positioning.

Midway through turn 1:

Exiting one turn and preparing for the next one:

Our group of friends at the pits:

My Kawasaki ZX-6R resting after the last session:

Aaaand ... we're back!

After breakfast, a quick clean up, and packing a lunch for the road, we were ready to go home. We made sure that Mojo and Momo had plenty of food in their dishes and plenty of water in their bowls before heading out. Unfortunately, Mojo likes to play with the water in the bowls. He sticks his paw in and splashes the water around and out of the bowls. With 2 full bowls of water at his disposal, who knows what disaster will happen.

The drive home was uneventful. The only disaster: I forgot the bottle of maple syrup on the counter that I was supposed to take home for my dad. Oops. I guess my sister will bring it the next time she's in town. =)

Goodbye, Ottawa. Until we meet again!

Explorations in the backyard

Matt met the neighbours while he was in the backyard yesterday, barbecuing our dinner. "What happened to the other couple?" "We're just cat sitting for them." "Oh." When I wandered out for a moment, I could hear an accordian playing and singing coming from someone else's backyard. The neighbours joked that we should all go and crash that party. We all got a chuckle out of that.

Every time Matt went out to the patio in the back, Mojo wanted to go too. When we realized that there were 2 thin leashes attached to the deck, we let Mojo out and hooked him up with one of the leashes. Eventually, also Momo decided she wanted to go out. We obliged. And then we discovered that their collars weren't very sturdy. Shortly after Momo was allowed outside, something freaked her out and she started tugging at the leash, wanting back inside. The collar suddenly snapped apart and she bolted for the door. Well! Back inside for everyone. No more outdoor play time.

Earlier in the day, we did some shopping, and then some window shopping. The shopping was a result of a brain cell failure when we were packing to come to Ottawa. The window shopping was for fun, the way window shopping aught to be. We went over to another local motorcycle dealership and accessories store. This one was much larger than the one we had visited the day before. They carried a wide variety of Rev'it gear. I will have to do some research on prices to see if the local prices are worth coming back for. =)

Lazy day, Lazy cats

Friday was a lazy day. Matt got up before I did and played video games until I woke up. In the meantime, Mojo decided he was going to be a lap cat and plunked himself down on top of Matt who was sitting in the couch. That's how I found them when I eventually got up and went downstairs. Matt had made himself a pot of coffee. I put together some breakfast for us and refilled the cats' water dishes and food bowls while Matt played and Mojo snoozed on Matt.

It's been a while since we were here and spent any time with Mojo and Momo. We remembered them to be not quite so ... pudgy. Of course, we had just spent 3 weeks with a much younger, very talkative and active cat. Mojo and Momo are a bit older and lead more sedentary lives with an unlimited supply of food. 

We eventually left the house and paid a visit to a local motorcycle dealership and accessories store. We were somewhat excited as they advertised themselves as an Aprilia dealer. Unfortunately the Aprilia section was quite small compared to their cruiser section. On the way to the store, we joked that Matt could consider coming here to have his bike serviced if he liked what he saw. Well. I think we'll stay local for that.

We returned home for lunch and to figure out what we could do in the afternoon. Ah yes, the Tulip Festival. This weekend would mark the end of Ottawa's Tulip Festival. Despite the impressive numbers of tulips on display, they were getting to the end of their lives. Quite a number of them were starting to lose their petals. After our stroll through the tulips, we had ourselves some caffienated beverages at Planet Coffee in the Byward Market. We spent a bit of time enjoying the ridiculously nice weather and sipping our beverages. When we were done, we spent a bit of time meandering through the Market before heading home again.

Update on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 12:01AM by Matt

Resting cat... really:

Mojo really does lie down like this a few times a day.  This behaviour seems new as we don't recall him doing this in the past.  Momo seems to do this as well, but not nearly as often.  Oh, and no, he's not lying like this because he wants someone to rub his belly; he doesn't like his belly rubbed.  Apologies for the low quality picture... the iPhone isn't known for it's low light prowess.