Off Roading Near Breckinridge Colorado, 2006

Yes, these old bones decided to take another run at the Rocky Mountains.  I flew down to Oklahoma City where my college roommate Dave D., and his business associate Mark prepared to thrash me again on those high altitude boulder strewn trails. 

Dave does a wonderful job of not only supplying the motorcycles, but having them prepped with tags, insurance and tune ups.  He took his 640 KTM and his new KTM 450 EXC.  Mark brought a New Suzuki DRZ 400S and a veteran XL 600 Honda which had already seen Colorado several times.  It never hurts to have a couple of backup bikes available!  

I enjoy the newer off road bikes and I certainly appreciate the long travel suspensions.  However, because they are so tall, I can barely touch the ground even on level surface.  This is never a problem after you are moving, however, it makes for really exciting moments when the trail ends and one has to stop and try to turn around!  Consequently I ride a very nice Kawasaki KLX 300 which is about 2" shorter than the others.    It gave a lot of "motor" away to the other larger displacement bikes, but it still delivered all I needed and at least I can get on and off it!

Mark bought a fantastic dually trailer which hauled all 5 bikes effortlessly.  Colorado was a full day of driving to get to our destination at Breckinridge  This town is about an hour and a half west of Denver.   We stayed at the plush Gold Point Condos which is set several hundred feet above this very yuppie town nestled at at 9600 feet.  It was a wonderful place which directly faced the ski slopes.  It had 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, garage, and a hot tub room right next door.  We would never live so extravagantly for an off road week, but Dave got such a great deal trading off some of his time share that it was too good to turn down.  We were very good neighbors, no revving up of bikes early in the morning, and no trashing of the place.  The garage was a great area to store gear and clean up.

We did over 450 miles of riding in four separate days: a good 60% on very rough technical trails, another 20% on rocky roads that you do not dare to lose your concentration, and another 20% on paved roads or highways.  We went over Weston Pass, Guanella Pass, Boreas Pass, and Georgia Pass. The zenith was  Mosquito Pass which at 13,100 feet is the highest pass in the United States.  We also took jeep trails over passes to towns like Leadville, Alma, Dillon, Frisco, and Fairplay.

I never cease to be amazed at the beating that those bikes take-- and do not break.  We really ride at a decent clip.  We didn't have the GPS which recorded elevation and speed this year, but in past years, we averaged about 27 MPH any time the GPS showed motion!  I guess those rips down fireroads at 65 mph do take the average up somewhat.  However, every foot of those trails is filled with some variation of very hard rocks.  Some will just punish you, some will easily deflect you into a crashing disaster, and some will stop you cold with disastrous consequences.  I can't believe that those tires took that speed, and punishment but we did not get one flat.  Actually Mark did punch a small hole in his DRZ 400 engine side case on one particularly rocky trail.  Fortunately it was high up on the case, and JB Weld came to the rescue later that evening.. 

The other aspect of  the difficult climbing, climbing and climbing  that occurs, is that you cannot imagine the tremendous forces of gravity in play as you start to descend.  You just absolutely cannot lose concentration. You continue to be pushed downhill faster than you realize. Traction suffers, or rear wheels can lock up and make a quick attempt to overtake the front wheel which is having enough trouble on its own!  Worst yet are those downhill switchbacks.  If you misjudge them, they will propel you several thousand feet over the edge.  They always come at you much faster than you plan.  For example, it seemed like the downhill rollout of Mosquito pass must have been 5 miles of  very, very steep :pucker" descent until it finally levels out at the large mine at the edge of Leadville! Boy was that a long day.

This was a very successful trip. No crashes by anyone, and not even a bruise for me. We consider a good day of riding is when no one gets hurt.  Consequently, A great time was had by all.

Red Cone/Webster Pass intersects here.  This is way above the tree line 13,000 feet plus.

On the way to Mount Lincoln.  Can you tell whether it is up or down?  I can tell you that it was really DOWN and DOWN and DOWN and ROCKY!

D and D at Georgia Pass.  Ask me about the "Middle Fork sometime!

Dave D. High in the fog top of Mt Bross

No Dave D. is not really that crooked!

Mark D and I take a break

Just East of Mosquito Pass

At Montgomery Reservoir headed to Mt Lincoln

Headed up to Mt. Baldy