The Long Way Home: 07/26/15

The Long Way Home - Day 27 - Two Dumbs make a Smart

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Our day started in Ouray, Colorado and we were faced with a decision: Would we head over the optional Black Bear Pass or stick to the easier Imogene Pass. Truthfully, I was really sore and stiff from yesterday's crash but I was still on the fence. Then we looked at the weather and it was calling for thunderstorms all across the area which caused me to chicken out. If I had a picture of a chicken I'd post it right here:

Imogene Pass would lead us into Telluride and from there we'd head west to Monticello, Utah.

Leaving Ouray we snapped this photo. It's clear why this area is known as the American Alps.

The trail up Imogene Pass was spectacular and it made me forget all about Black Bear Pass.

Over 13,000 feet!

I was busy stopping at every corner to take pictures but Hank found a good spot to wait.

From Imogene Pass, we headed west to Telluride. Heading down into Telluride we could see Black Bear Pass. The switch back road leads up to the pass which is out of sight to the left.

There were no thunderstorms and it looked so close. Now it appeared that our first decision to skip Black Bear Pass was a dumb decision so we thought lets make another dumb decision and go back up and then down Black Bear Pass. - Brilliant! We hustled down the remainder of Imogene Pass Road, through Telluride and up Black Bear Pass. About 80% up the mountain, there was a sign saying that only downward traffic is allowed. Shoot.... we didn't come all the way up here to not go up the pass. We continued thinking that we could easily get out of anyone's way. It all worked out and we made it up and back down.

We met John and Chris working their BMW 1200s down the pass. Our bikes went up and down pretty easy but these big bikes are a real workout on this stuff. We helped them down a tiny portion of the tough stuff and they insisted on buying us lunch in Telluride. -That's our second sponsored meal! Thanks guys and good luck on your adventure.

Telluride

After lunch with John and Chris in Telluride, we started on the remainder of the day. We had only covered 35 miles of our planned route and it was 3pm. Hank made me promiss we wouldn't stop for pictures so there are no pictures of the next 150 miles!

....except for this one I took while riding! I was shocked to see how fast the terrain changed from mountains to farmland.

We pulled into Monticello, Utah around 8pm. It was another long day but the two dumb decisions resulted in us getting up and down Black Bear Pass which we've been thinking about for a few weeks.

Tomorrow is a long day and we have a deadline of 2pm to make the ferry at Hall's Crossing or we don't get a bed for the night! The green line on the map shows the route. It's just over 200 miles and we're thinking that we have never made that distance by 6pm -four hours too late. We're going to have to come up with a new approach!

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The Long Way Home - Day 26 - Good News, Bad News

We were eager to get started this morning after taking 4 days off to take the round trip to San Diego and back. I got up early to change out my clutch that had burned out when we were in the back raods of Maine. Our quick fix of the clutch amazingly lasted another 5000 miles but it was starting to show signs of failing again so we changed that out before the tough Colorado and Utah sections coming up.
The ride for day 26 takes us from Salida, Colorado to Ouray, Colorado. This really gets us up into the great divide. We will cross Engineer Pass at 12,800 feet right before decending into Ouray for the night.

Our day started out with an option right away. We choose the tougher single track option shown in red on the map. Good news: This was fantastic, tough single track and very beautiful.

We were impressed by this beaver dam. It was more that 10 feet tall on the downstream side and it was 100 feet wide. Amazing engineering!

Not all of the trail was smooth single track. Lots of it was rocky hill climbs and downhills like this one.

We met this couple on their bikes. When they heard we were headed to Ouray they replied, "How the @*& are you getting to Ouray from here?". We weren't exactly sure but we knew we had to head west. They pointed to a mountain on the horizon and said Ouray was past that. Wow, we better get going.

They have two young kids and were wondering if they could get them on the Trans America Trial in a few years. They offered to pull out their recreational cannabis to give us the full "Colorado image" for the photo (they were only kidding... i think)

We continued our climb on the single track and eventualy got above the tree line.

Bad news: We had so much fun on the single track that we had lunch at 2:30 and we still had 130 miles left to go.

Good News: We had some fast roads to catch up on:

Every corner brought more amazing vistas.

Bad news: The amazing vistas and fast roads combined to cause me to loose my focus on the road and I went into a corner too fast. The bike was sliding both wheels to the left, then I over corrected it to the right where the tires suddenlty decided to catch and it sent me over the top. I'm not sure how, but I have a badly bruised jaw, sore knee, bruised hip, and my shoulder is really stiff. The bike faired better with only a broken mirror and bent clutch lever and handguard. It still runs fine, it only looks a little more haggard.

Good news: after I collected myself we started our assent up Engineer Pass. This was moslty easy jeep roads but it was so beautiful. I was stopping at every corner to take a picture and it was taking a long time to reach the top.

Good News: We were able to catch the last light of the day at the top of the pass!

My somewhat haggard "new" Yamaha WR250 R at the top of Engineer Pass (12.800 feet)

Good News: The last light of the day made the scenery just so much more fantastic

Bad News: Catching the last light of the day at the top of the pass made the descent into Ouray very slow. On top of that , the jeep road got more challenging with more rocks, drop offs, and sher cliffs on the side.

We finaly got to our hotel around 9:30pm. Ouray is known as the American Alps. It's surrounded on all sides by sheer cliffs, waterfalls, and mountains. I'll take some pictures for tomorrows update.

Good News: After a day like today, the bad news quickly fades and the good news of the fantastic single track and amazing grandjour of crossing the great divide at 12,800 feet prevails!

Tomorrow we leave Ouray and we are considering taking the tough route through Black Bear Pass. I'm feeling a lot more stiff this morning after yesterday's crash so that will play into the decision. Our route is shown in green on the map and the Black Bear Pass option is shown in red. If all goes to plan, we will end up in Monticello, Utah

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Where are they now?