Windswept Plains Ride

Yesterday afternoon, the sun was out, temperatures were in the high 40s to mid 50s and so I went riding on Natasha after having "waterproofed" her ignition coil.

It was quite windy with gusts into the 40+ mph range I am sure.  It was mostly coming from the North so I could feel Natasha being pushed by the winds whenever I rode in an easterly or westerly direction.  Still, she handles wind much better than when I am on two wheels.  Sure, there's pushing motion on the motorcycle but no worries about having to lean her into the wind!  : )   The sidecar makes riding in strong winds just a matter of holding the steering steady with some slight pushing on the grip that's alee of  the wind.

I had headed towards Buckley Air Force Base on Gun Club Rd, hoping that the spot on Picadilly Rd where water always collects after a rain storm still had some water to ride Natasha through.  It had been quite water-filled on Friday night when I had to dash into work to retrieve my laptop for some work but it was all gone on Saturday.

Still, the lighting was good for this shot of a couple of the golf balls at Buckley with what I believe is Long's Peak in the far background:

Buckey AFB

After some fruitless riding around my data center's area looking for shots, I took Smith Rd out of the commercial district and headed east towards Powhaton Road.  I cruised by the mystery track and indeed I could see a small channel running down the middle of the track.  This lends credence to the commenter who'd described this channel and who had doubted my previous source of information on the purpose of said mystery track.

The ground was very muddy though and I could not get Natasha much closer than the fence line so pictures of the track, without snow covering it, will have to wait for drier days.

I continued on eastwards from the track towards the town of Watkins.  The plains to the east of Denver are so flat, that the locals have this expression: "One a clear day, you can see Kansas".  Well, today was not very clear of a day but pretty close, and all I could see was the nearby town of Watkins:

  Looking east towards Kansas on part of the vast eastern plains of Colorado

I rode south to the highway that forms the southern border of Watkins, and taking Watkins Rd south once more towards Quincy Rd.  The roads were very lightly traveled today and the winds seemed to pick up once I was on Quincy Rd heading back west towards my home neighborhoods.  I actually had to shift my butt more towards the right edge of my seat in order to ensure the sidecar wouldn't go "light" on me.  Interesting, not scary, just interesting riding.  I would have surely been in my "dances in the winds" mode had I been on Brigitta!  Did I mention they were strong winds?

Made it home with no issues, less than two hours of riding in sedate country roads, with the occasional strong winds to remind me of Spring in Colorado.