rocker59
Cruisin' Guzzisti
June 22
I'm sitting in suburban Denver today waiting for the MGNOC rally in Salida to begin, so I thought I'd take a little time to get started with the ride report!
I found out that the Colorado BMW Club's annual "Colorado Classic 1000" would be the weekend before, and that my friend Andrew wanted to ride it, so we decided to plan a trip that would include both the CC1000 and the MGNOC National!
Since the CC1000 was on Saturday, the 20th, we decided to head up to the Denver area on Thursday to allow some time to acclimate and rest before the big ride. I met Andrew at his house on Thursday morning early. 0445 early and we headed for Denver. With the destination being the main consideration on this leg of the trip, slabbing it was the solution. US-412, I-35, I-135, and I-70 would get us there quickly... Quickly was a consideration because it was supposed to be 100 degrees in central Kansas on Thursday and neither of us were looking forward to that!
Day One:
Thursday, 18 June.
The first (and quite uneventful) photo of the trip came and went at the first fuel stop. The travel plaza on the Cimarron Turnpike:
Rolling down the highway:
I'm glad we were running early, because our second fuel stop, which was in McPherson, Kansas, was at 1100 and it was already about 90-degrees!!! Third fuel stop came at Wakeeney, Kansas and it had already started to cool down a bit. Mid-80s. Fuel and a quick SUBWAY sandwich, then we were back on the road... By the time we made our fourth fuel stop at Stratton, Colorado, the temp was really nice!
Here's the obligatory state line photo with the Rally Baton:
Be careful if ever you pull off for a photo here at Kanorado. Andrew found out the hard way that there are soft spots in the gravel. Originally he had parked next to me, but his R11RS decided to take a nap on the gravel... He moved it up to the concrete after we got it back up on its wheels, so his bike didn't make the photo...
Our destination was a suburb of Denver, called Parker, that sits on the southeastern side of the Denver metro. Knowing we'd be rolling into Denver around 5pm, we decided to cut off some of the I-70 route and run CO-86. This is a great two-lane highway that runs from exit-352 just west of Limon to Castle Rock at the intersection of I-25. Here are a couple of pix from that section of road. Beautiful High Plains!:
You can't really see it in the photo, but topping this hill gave us our first view of the Rockies. Pikes Peak is visible just above where the road meets the horizon:
We arrived in Parker, at a friend's house, 13 hours and 800 miles after hitting the road, and were greeted with this type of view from the balcony!
Map of day one
Stay tuned... More to come...
I'm sitting in suburban Denver today waiting for the MGNOC rally in Salida to begin, so I thought I'd take a little time to get started with the ride report!
I found out that the Colorado BMW Club's annual "Colorado Classic 1000" would be the weekend before, and that my friend Andrew wanted to ride it, so we decided to plan a trip that would include both the CC1000 and the MGNOC National!
Since the CC1000 was on Saturday, the 20th, we decided to head up to the Denver area on Thursday to allow some time to acclimate and rest before the big ride. I met Andrew at his house on Thursday morning early. 0445 early and we headed for Denver. With the destination being the main consideration on this leg of the trip, slabbing it was the solution. US-412, I-35, I-135, and I-70 would get us there quickly... Quickly was a consideration because it was supposed to be 100 degrees in central Kansas on Thursday and neither of us were looking forward to that!
Day One:
Thursday, 18 June.
The first (and quite uneventful) photo of the trip came and went at the first fuel stop. The travel plaza on the Cimarron Turnpike:
Rolling down the highway:
I'm glad we were running early, because our second fuel stop, which was in McPherson, Kansas, was at 1100 and it was already about 90-degrees!!! Third fuel stop came at Wakeeney, Kansas and it had already started to cool down a bit. Mid-80s. Fuel and a quick SUBWAY sandwich, then we were back on the road... By the time we made our fourth fuel stop at Stratton, Colorado, the temp was really nice!
Here's the obligatory state line photo with the Rally Baton:
Be careful if ever you pull off for a photo here at Kanorado. Andrew found out the hard way that there are soft spots in the gravel. Originally he had parked next to me, but his R11RS decided to take a nap on the gravel... He moved it up to the concrete after we got it back up on its wheels, so his bike didn't make the photo...
Our destination was a suburb of Denver, called Parker, that sits on the southeastern side of the Denver metro. Knowing we'd be rolling into Denver around 5pm, we decided to cut off some of the I-70 route and run CO-86. This is a great two-lane highway that runs from exit-352 just west of Limon to Castle Rock at the intersection of I-25. Here are a couple of pix from that section of road. Beautiful High Plains!:
You can't really see it in the photo, but topping this hill gave us our first view of the Rockies. Pikes Peak is visible just above where the road meets the horizon:
We arrived in Parker, at a friend's house, 13 hours and 800 miles after hitting the road, and were greeted with this type of view from the balcony!
Map of day one
Stay tuned... More to come...