Uraling with a new member of the DAU

Note: This posting is also located on examiner.com. So what's the difference?  I get paid per # of hits on that site, so if you feel like helping my fuel budget, read the article there instead:  LINK,  Thanks!

 DAU:  Denver Area Uralisti.   The informal name by which those of us Ural owners who've had a chance to ride together call ourselves.  Today, John and I met up with a new member: Steffen.  John and Steffen had exchanged emails through sovietsteeds.com and today our schedules worked out to get a small ride in as a way to welcome Steffen to our ranks.

Steffen rides a beautiful 2006 Retro, black with white trim.  Very nice.  We met up at Morrison at 1:00 PM today and John (Spat) joined us shortly afterwards.  We shot the breeze and got to know each other a bit, while being UDF'ed by the occasional passerby.  Finally though, it was time to ride.  Spat was still recovering from having a six inch metal plate removed from his leg (and yet he rode to this meeting!) so he went on home.

Steffen's Retro and Spat's GearUp

Now, is that a clean engine or what?

Check out how all the lights and such are part of the headlight bucket!

That left Steffen and I to see what kind of trouble we could get into!  I led the way out of Morrison, heading west on Bear Creek Canyon Road, twisting our way through the nice curves and making our way through the small towns of Idledale and Kittredge, finally arriving at Evergreen.

It had been my intention to show Steffen Bear Creek Rd but I managed to miss the turn in Evergreen darn it.  So we ended up cruising along CO73 until we arrived at the town of Conifer where Steffen tanked up and I donned a long sleeve shirt.  It was a bit cool still in the mountains.

 On Pleasant Park Rd, just outside the town limits of Conifer

photo courtesy of Steffen
yep, still a little bit of snow left in the area near Conifer

We then got onto Pleasant Park road so Steffen could get some glimpses of the long drops into the valley below, with only metal guardrails keeping us from going off the sides of this curvy road. 

Pleasant Park became High Grade Rd and eventually we were making our way down from the foothills, onto Deer Creek Road which eventually dumped us onto Deer Creek Canyon Rd.    I took a small detour into Deer Creek Canyon Park where the rich folk live so he could see some of the rock formations which make this area so attractive.

On the far end of Deer Creek Park

The Uralisti and their rigs

photo courtesy of Steffen

Rock formations in Deer Creek Park

Once we exited Deer Creek Canyon Park, I led Steffen over to the vicinity of the Lockheed Martin building and we had us a good view of the entrance to Deer Creek Canyon and the foothills nearby.

A view of the break in the foothills which forms the entrance into Deer Creek Canyon

We then doubled-back on Deer Creek Canyon road till we got to South Park Rd which we took North towards the nice rock formations once sees along the eastern side of  this road.

photo courtesy of Steffen
A small sample of the many colorful rock formations along Valley Rd, north of Deer Creek Canyon Rd

photo courtesy of Steffen

Proceeding along, we got to the entrance to a park near the rock formations above.  Turning into the parking lot, we got a good angle on this large rock formation.

A small park with hiking trails along Valley Rd, south of Ken Caryl Blvd

photo courtesy of Steffen
Here is a demonstration of the outstanding cargo capacity of a Ural sidecar

It was about 4:30PM at this point and both of us had to be heading on home.  It was great riding today and I think Steffen had a good time, he is definitely planning on joining us at an upcoming "tech day" that I am hosting on 8 May.

The Ural sidecar rig count in the DAU now stands at five, plenty more room for other rigs and they don't have to be Russian!