Afternoon ride near Elizabeth, CO

Spent the whole morning waiting on the DirecTV installer to show up, he was running late but at least calling to let us know he was running late.  Once he got to my home though, around 12:30, he got right to work and by 3:00PM he was done and gone.

I quickly geared up and headed out in a southeasterly direction, heading for a group of storm clouds I saw in that direction.  The county roads I used soon had me in the vicinity of Elizabeth, CO.   It's a small town, the nexus for the surrounding farms and ranches.  I saw folks watching their kids at a game at the local high school, people wandering the few shops in the main part of the town and even saw a few fellow motorcycle riders out and about.

I cruised out of town on CO Hwy 86 and took the first county road turnoff to the south to see what I could see.  It was soon rough dirt roads but Natasha, my Ural sidecar rig took them in stride.  I maintained good speed though at times had to stand on the pegs to give her suspension a break on the rough surfaces.

Lot of  horse ranching in evidence to the SE of Elizabeth, perfect terrain for it really.  Rolling hills and wide open spaces with very few trees.  You can tell folks move out here to get a little distance from their neighbors, except for folks in cars and trucks though, didn't see any other people about once in the country.

I spied a large wooden log ranch entrance gate from a distance and slowed as I neared it.  It seemed adorned with black vegetation.  This vegetation turned out to be black painted iron work depicting animals, trees and horses, cowboys and girls, wagons and all other kind of countryside objects:

I continued wandering the dirt county roads, watching the storm clouds get darker and nearer.  This was fine, since after all, I'd pointed Natasha in their direction when I set off from the house.

I started heading back home along the same county roads I'd taken to get to Elizabeth.  I stopped only once, taking Natasha down this side road for a shot of the incoming storm clouds.  I even got briefly and lightly snowed on for a minute or so while I took this picture:

I got home with no issues, a nice ride in the country and didn't get a drop of water on me.  Tomorrow, I am riding with two other Uralisti members of the Denver Area Uralisti.  Should be quite the fun time.

Hope you got some riding in today.