Ride Report: TelluRIDE August 27, 2011

A few weeks ago my friend Becky asked if I wanted to ride to Telluride, CO. She reserved a four bedroom, four level condo for the weekend which brought my overnight share down to $50+expenses. Of course I was in!

Our trip was nearly 900 miles from start to finish with the blue line being the route there and the red line being the return route.

View TelluRIDE 8-27-2011 in a larger map

Unfortunately we had a a late start due to someone not being able to wake up on time and then some R1 difficulties in Woodland Park, CO. Over Monarch Pass we ran into rain, snow and hail and in Montrose we ran into the sheriffs. Well, I didn't run into the sheriffs as I stopped to take some pictures at Blue Mesa Resevoir and arrived a few minutes after they were stopped and questioned.

A vast majority of the people on this ride were people I'd never ridden with before and a couple of them were new to riding. I was annoyed that the faster people kept leaving the slower riders in the dust, especially when I explicitly stated during the safety brief (which I was asked to give) that if you can't see the person behind you in your rearview mirror, you're going too fast. There was no dedicated sweeper to make sure everyone was safe and people sometimes fell 20 or more miles behind. We had 8 motorcycles, one two-up and one BMW who said he's sweep but who kept passing the slower riders when he had a chance.

I didn't like the way they did kept separating the group so much. However, after the faster people were stopped by the Montrose sheriff's office they made a unanimous decision to go much much slower, allowing the group to stay together.

On the way back, I metioned I'd like to try a different route and 5 of us went that way (the red line on the map above). Two went to Grand Junction to visit friends, the BMW left early as he needed to get back to Denver before 4PM and two other bikes (one 2-up) decided they just wanted to get back as quickly as possible and headed straight for I-70.

It was a long day, but a fun day.

Since we had a smaller group it was easier to stay together which pleased me just fine. We stopped when we wanted, tried some new roads out and passed the 12,000ft above sea level mark. We didn't run into any snow or hail on the way back to Denver, but we did ride through some rain, some cold cold rain.

I really wish we'd stopped more for pictures, but we didn't. Maybe next time. And I really wish I'd used the GoPro more, but I didn't. Seems like every time I brought it out to attach it to the bike we hit long straights which aren't very fun to record.

Finally, kickstands up at MoCo