My first ride for 2010

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Ah, a new year is upon us and all I can say is a pox on the old year and welcome to the new one!

I awoke at 6 AM and putted about the room prepping things on the motorcycle for today's riding back towards Denver. I left shortly before 8 AM since I wanted to have the sun fully in evidence to ward off the morning's chilly temperatures. After tanking up, I headed west on CO Highway 69 towards Westcliffe and further on, the town of Cañon City for a ride up it's Skyline Drive.

The rolling hills that comprise the valley with the Sangre de Cristo Range of mountains on the west and the Wet Mountains on the east obscured the view of the Spanish Peaks unfortunately. Still, there was plenty of mountain scenery to be had as you will see.

The Sangre de Cristo Range

The road leading to Westcliffe is nice and easy to ride on and still be able to admire the scenery provided by the east facing side of the Sangre de Cristo Range mountains. The town lies at the junction of CO Hwy 69 and 96 and also lies adjacent to the town of Silver Cliff. Westcliffe struck me as a quaint town which has chosen to retain its historical look.

The view enjoyed by the residents of Westcliffe

I transited from Westcliffe seamlessly into the more commercial looking town of Silver Cliff. I was leaving the Sangre de Cristo Range behind me as I headed east now on CO Hwy 96 towards the town of Wetmore.

Looking west back at the Sangre de Cristo Range

CO Hwy 96 transits through the Wet Mountains and is much more twisty than CO Hwy 69, so be aware. Specially as the road drops down from its highest elevation, because it tightly twists and turns with steep grades with little room for error. There was lots of sand on the road as well, so motorcyclists beware during the winter months.

Once I was clear of the Wet Mountains, I passed through Wetmore and found the junction with CO Hwy 115 at Florence, which takes you to Cañon City. The ride at this point was slow and meandered through Florence's suburbs which eventually became Cañon City's suburbs.

I soon came upon US 50 and headed west out of town to the entrance to Skyline Drive, a wonderfully narrow paved road riding along a high ridge line next to the town itself.

The views along Skyline Drive, I really like riding on this narrow road

Natasha does tend to take up more room than Brigitta though, had to be mindful of where my sidecar's wheel was at all times.

A view back where we came from, that's US 50 way down below in the valley

Here's Natasha on the way down Skyline Drive, just before the couple of hairpin turns that lead you back into town

Pictures of Skyline Drive done, I headed for a quick gas stop to shed a couple of insulation layers as the temperatures had soared to 50 degrees! There was a large gathering of Harley riders along with some other marques in the town itself. I figure it was a "First Day of the Year" type rally.

As I headed out of town on US 50, I turned onto CO 115 to go to Colorado Springs. I spied and managed to stop Natasha fast enough to grab a picture of "the world's largest rocking chair", as claimed by the now defunct business it's located at these days.


It's fortunate that I stopped too, I looked down at my odometer and noted the following milestone for Natasha....or is it kilometerstone?


I rode along CO 115, past the western boundary of Fort Carson and stopped only to capture this giant bug before I got to the outskirts of Colorado Springs.


It denotes the location of the Mays Museum dedicated to insects, collected by the owner over the years from all over I believe. There was a closed sign next to the "bug" so I am no sure if the museum was only closed for the winter or closed for good.

The rest of my riding was a few miles of the I-25 super slab to cross Colorado Springs until I got to the Interquest Parkway which eventually lead me to CO 83 aka as Parker Road. Natasha got me home by 2:30 PM and she performed great I am very happy to report. No mechanical issues in the whole 526 miles of riding done in the last two days. She's turning out to be pretty reliable eh?