Mid October Ride

I went riding. Nothing special, just a quick jaunt up Peak-to-Peak and back while the weather was good again. I'd made the same run last week, but this week the weather was more forgiving. Mid-80s in Denver with mid-70s in Estes Park and, unlike last week, there was little to no wind.

I recorded the ride on my GoPro on the way up to Estes Park and then moved the camera to record the ride behind me. It's that video that I uploaded to Youtube. Unfortunately, I got caught up behind a few cars and even another motorcycle that was going extremely slow and had to tone it down a handful of times.

To be fair, I tried adding music to the video just so you didn't have to listen to the engine's noise being picked up by the terrible mic in the GoPro, but I couldn't figure out how to add more than one song, especially since these videos are longer than a song's length.

So, my advice is to simply turn down the volume and enjoy.


This first video is from the intersection of Highway 7 and Highway 72, heading south. This is part two. Apparently, GoPro won't record one long video, but instead cuts off after about 20 minutes. Which turned out to be fine, actually.

Peak-to-Peak

Yeah. Sure.

Yesterday as reportedly the warmest day of the week. With highs in the mid-80s I thought it was a good time to get some miles on my wheels and took the SV out for a ride.

The original plan was to head south to Woodland Park and then out to Buena Vista, returning on 285 through Fairplay and the home. It would have been an all day ride, but for the most part, very long, very straight and very boring. So, at the last minute I decided to head up Peak-to-Peak highway from Golden, CO to Estes Park and back.

Being a Monday the traffic was light, but still much heavier than I was expecting, especially after the fall viewing season was pretty much over, but I persevered - sometimes at speeds matching the speedlimit. What really annoyed me, though, was the fact that I went on the ride unprepared for the cooler temperatures up in the high country. Since I wasn't really going over any passes I didn't wear anything more than a light t-shirt underneath my motorcycle jacket and my mesh gloves. Therefore I was a bit chilly during many parts of the ride, helped in no small part by the gusting winds that at a couple of points threatened to send me careening off the road.

Colors of Fall

I refilled the bike is Estes Park and debated taking another route home, but I knew from experience the other way would have much higher volumes of traffic and construction.

Overall, the ride was pleasant. One of the things I like about riding by myself was the ability to stop where I want to stop and set my own pace, as fast or slow as I choose to go, without having to try and keep up or slow down to stay with others. For example, on a ride like this, the normal group I ride with would have stopped four or five times each way. Instead I stopped in Golden, where I turned on my GPS tracker and then again in Estes Park where I gassed up and had a small bite to eat. I did made a couple of stops on the way home, though. One for the picture with the sign and once to, uh, relieve myself. According to my GPS tracker, I was recording for 4 hours and moving for three hours and fifty-eight minutes, if that give you any indication.

I almost brought the GoPro with me, but I worried traffic would be as bad as it was and that any video I recorded would show nothing but the tail lights of whatever cage was in front of me, so I didn't bring it. Sure, there were a couple of times when I regretted not having it recording, but all in all, I think I made the right decision.

In the end, I put in a little over 220 miles. So, it was a good day. Minus all the back pain. Damn, I'm getting old.

Green Start / Red Finish (for the most part)