COBDR: last years dream ride

[Zubb 1061]

7 hours ago, Goofy Footer said:

Some say Kelly is still out there in CO and hasn’t returned. That’s the Real reason we haven’t seen him on the SD trails this summer.

The gig is up, you've found me out.  LOL.

[Zubb 1061]

Somewhere about midlife I realized there's a certain amount of pioneer, vagabond and explorer genetically coded into my noggin.  I just can't stand not knowing what's around the next corner.  I mean if you're gonna take the effort to get way out "somewhere". . . . anywhere, . . . why the heck wouldn't you just peek around that next bend in the trail or the road?  I mean, who know's what you'll see or find?  And tell me, just when do you think you'll ever get way back out here to see what it was again?  So you might as well go see while you're there.

It's almost like a nervous tic for me.  Turning around ANYwhere just eats at my gut.  And that is why this next day sticks in my craw even today, 14 months later.

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Our end of the COBDR destination was not Four Corners at the southern border of Colorado.  We've ridden thousands of miles of terrain similar to Section 1.  And our itinerary . . . (itinerary? we don't have no stinking itinerary!) ok, our wish then was to meet up with our W38M crew Friday evening for the Level 3 class.  The map showed we could wander that way by continuing on Last Dollar Rd, however Imogene Pass was just a few miles back toward Telluride.  I vaguely remembered hearing this was a good'un, and having spent a little time in that town, thought it best to explore those shockingly beautiful mountains above it. No google required, we'd let the details unfold as it happened.

The road that climbs dramatically out of town is tight.  About a narrow Jeeps width in many places.  And to leave road accidentally in those first few miles is a fairly certain trip to the morgue. It is carved into a vertical mountainside.  So there's more than a few spots where bouncing right would give you a good several seconds at least to contemplate the state of your affairs back home.  One section with waterfalls pouring off the cliffs above onto the road in front of you immediately brought to mind those pics we've seen of the deadly roads in Peru and Brazil. The road is an endless steep climb of boulders and ledges.  But the great thing about CO is that there is traction EVERYWHERE (unlike our deserts here).  So even though it's almost 900#'s of bike/rider/gear, it's easy enough to blip the front wheel up onto the ledges and just keep rolling.  Being comfortable with 1' wheelies and tire placement comes in handy here.  We were pretty happy with having our recent suspension upgrades in place as well.

No pics of the cliff side road.  If you stopped, you'd quickly be overtaken by a jeep or a SxS.  And passing them again can be a frustrating challenge on real tight stuff.

Above the cliff walls things opened up but remained steep, ledgy, and loose in many places. We were having a blast.

With full size ADV bikes there's a couple 'rules' to success.

1. keep rolling.  Stopping means you have to put a foot down.  And there's no guarantee the ground will be there, at the right height, exactly where you've stopped.  We all know how that ends.

2. eyes up and focused on the future.  Not on the present.  Whatever is directly  in front of your tire is going to happen. So quite looking at it and keep picking the line ahead of you.

3. refer to rules 1 and 2.

This trail is littered with blind steep uphill corners where you cannot see what's around the corner.  Sometimes can't even see beyond the first third of the corner.  In a safe and reasonable world you'd park the bike and walk it first so you could pick your line and pace.  This is steep though and there's a ton of them so besides getting restarted, it was too much bother to do all that. The following particular corner was very steep in a blind super tight left hander with significant ledges in the beginning, middle and top.  Being able to pick a line 'instantly' and put the front tire on it while lofting the front and zig zagging the width of the trail was required.  It was a thrilling moment as the complexity of skills and timing came instantly together and I cleaned it.  I literally yelled WooHoo in the helmet, proud of my skill and appreciating a good dose of luck.  Adams response behind me was a stecatto of fuk-fuk-FUK!'s

He zigged instead of zagged and his front wheel took a huge roundhouse punch, launching him into the weeds. Hard stop.

We laughed a bit but I noticed he was grimacing a bit from pain. And off we went, him in the lead.  I noticed he wasn't riding well and in less than a quarter mile he went down in the middle of the road.  Yes, it was WAY steeper than the photos show, and there was considerable stretches of loose rolley rock on that pitch.  I walked up to see what the deal was as he spun the bike to face downhill.

 

"I bent my forks", he said.  What? Yeh, I bent my forks in that crash.

Now you skinny bikers already know what likely happened, but us big dog pilots hadn't seen this before.  Yes, the wheel pointed way off the side of the trail when the handlebars were straight, and the tire was jamming into the front fender.  It was a mess.  We took out a small trail saw and cut the plastic fender off so the wheel could turn.  What is it with fenders this trip????

He though he could ride back down to Telluride like that with the handlebars turned hard left while rolling straight down the trail.

To state how steep it was, I turned my bike around too but pointed downhill in first gear it was still too steep to stay on the side stand. Normally I keep a strap on the handlebar so I can strap the front lever to the bar, but for some reason my strap was gone. So I had to lay the bike down to keep it from heading to town without me.

It was a slow scenic ride back down to town. My gut was churning as we were just one more switchback from cresting the pass.  Now I'd not get to see what was on the other side.  Sh*t.

 

 

 

 

[Zubb 1061]

We got to town and I called Dusty to let him know we have a problem to solve that may alter our plans for awhile.  I described the problem and he said "can you ride pavement to Ouray?", to which we said yes.  It would be wonky, but yes.  Upon arrival Dusty and Tom (referenced in some other reports) and Chris (BMW corp) just stood around us snickering.

The solution was to just loosen the front axle bolts, then the middle and upper tree nuts, and "SPROING" the forks went right back to alignment.  Bounce the front a few times to settle things in and then tighten it all up.  Of course after thanking them, and grateful Adam was no longer facing bankruptcy, we turned attention to the weekend of Level 3 class ahead of us.

We base camped out of the KOA just north of town.

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Level 3 was described by Dusty and Tom as a class held one time a year, based in Ouray.  Because, 1) difficult terrain options are endless and 2) it's not for the faint of heart.  It's best defined by Dusty as "how the hell did I get here, and how the hell am I gonna get out".

For years, Dusty would design and set the courses for the GS Trophy Qualifiers.  And Tom for much of his life was a top finisher in Colorado's Trials Association competitions as well as making podium in 2018 on Team USA Trophy in Mongolia.  And they're both about the nicest truly humble guys you'll ever meet.

Saturday morning reporting for duty.

Here's Dusty showing us all EXACTLY where to place the front tire on a square edge to insure a smooth transition up the path.  If the front tire is a clock, you want to hit the square edge of that pallet at about 8 o'clock on the tire.  It'll be butter.

Without question the toughest drills were simple serpentines through cones . . . . set on loose rocky side hill.  With a ledge of two thrown in for fun.  Once you start to get it, Tom moves the cones closer together.  Dammit. Tipping the bike at about the middle of the clutch friction zone, full lock turning, without spinning a tire or dabbing.  90* turns on a downhill, in baby heads. Stuff that doesn't look too terrible, but in practice can eat your lunch.  Fun Stuff.  

Then off for a few trail rides for real world application of said skills.

Not much time for pics during this weekend as I was a student along side Adam.  Tom and Dusty are the only ones that teach Level 3 for obvious reasons.

Sometimes when you pull over, it's just easier to lay the bike on the hillside instead of hunting all around for just the right spot for your side stand.

Even pigs are easy to pick up from this position.

There are endless miles of amazing stuff near Ouray.

At one point Dusty jammed us all into an off camber trail end. We talked about what we'd just ridden and then he asked how many had thought about where they stopped here and how they were going to get out.

The point being, how many times do we or our buddies roll up into a wad of bikes without thinking ahead of time about best place to stop, slope, space to turn around, etc.  It's a minor thing, but illustrates once you have the skill fundamentals down.  It's your brain that keeps you out of trouble before you get to it.  This is a poor summary of that, but you get the idea.

We had fun.

Tom and I have an ongoing feud. I know better than to go through water or mud without looking over my shoulder first.  He has a stealthy way or roaring ahead of me just in time to drench me.  For some reason he thinks this is the funniest thing in the world.  I've been trying for over a year now and can't seem to even the score.

 

 

[Zubb 1061]

Bill Dragoo once said that a good bike is like a good horse.  A good horse will help you be a better rider.  It was also help 'cover'  some of your mistakes.  A bad horse will try to hurt you even if you are riding well.

Learning what your bike can do, what it likes and doesn't like (from the pilot) goes a long ways toward building trust.  The more you know your bike and trust what it can and cannot do, the more confidence you build which equates to fun fun fun.  One of the things these boxers are really good at is drifting corners.  They are heavy, and stable and with some proper technique can drift big sweepers at speed.  I am NOT suggesting we all jump on our pigs and hit gravel roads at the top of 4th.  But with some professional coaching, and building up through several steps of the process it can be so much fun and reasonably safe.  There are practical reasons to learn this but I won't digress here.

We hit up the perfect place to practice cornering at speed on gravel.

Wow.

We regrouped after some drifting at the sheepherders wagon.

I spent awhile conversing with the Basque sheepherder and his dog.  Mostly sign language though as he didn't understand more than a couple words of english.  And I was no better at spanish.

This was a great stop for water and to talk about what was working and not working for the class on drifting.

 

[Zubb 1061]

* * * INTERMISSION * * *

It seems I have breached the limit of what I can upload for pics here.

I'll work on finding a solution as the story's not over yet . . .

Hopefully, to - be - continued.

[Zubb 1061]

... and a good time was had by all.

Sharing truly adventurous days with strangers makes for fast friends.  And there are all types of folks who's common bond is a love for bikes and adventure travel.

There's always cool things to see and experience ...

It was pretty special that Adam and I could put together a COBDR trip, bookended with classes.  Adam was running out of time though and had a job, wife and three daughters waiting back in Seattle for him.  He loaded up his bike and we all went out for a nice dinner in Ouray, and Adam rolled out from there hoping to knock out a couple hundred miles before hitting a motel.

That's the worst part of every trip for me.  Watching my son ride off knowing it'll be quite awhile before we see each other again.  Leaves a lump in my throat every time.  Fortunately, I always seem to have a couple of days in the saddle ahead to cheer me up.

An early start the next morning took me through another one of Americas best roads south out of Ouray.  But before long it spits you out onto the high desert we all know so well.

I thought about paying the fee to go stand on the 4 Corners marker . . . . but there was a crowd of vehicles at the entrance and I was in the prime part of the day to get some miles done. So I snapped this pic and called it good.

Rolling west from 4 Corners to Flagstaff I saw miles and miles of these massive Monoliths to the north of the freeway.  I didn't stop for pics so this is a stock photo from the net.

The size of these things jutting out of the earth is astounding.  For scale, you'd look like an ant if you were standing next to one.  Notice also the sandstone hills behind it.  There are miles and miles and miles of this stuff and I imagine the next Star Wars movie will be filmed here.  It should be.  In my next life I want to just explore all over this stuff.

If anyone here knows more about that area, I'd love to hear about it.

Near Flagstaff my horse started pulling toward an exit, reminding me we hadn't fed the GS stereotype for quite awhile. We were surrounded by heavy weather so I acquiesced and ordered coffee.  I don't think we fit in, but I'm cool with that.

I was beginning to think I might have to wash it when I got home... hmmmm.

That rascal Tom. I'm gonna get him back good some day.

Well, once you hit Flagstaff you're practically home, so I cranked up the tunes, opened MyRadar on the phone and cranked out the remaining miles.  There were storm clouds and flash flood warnings all around me through central AZ, but I managed to ride between all of it.  So much so that the beast still needed a bath.

And the bags ...

It's truly over though once I jump in the pool and ol' Charlie comes out as if to say "where ya been, dad?"

Thanks for hangin' out with me through my reminiscing. It's been fun.

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Zubb

[shutterrev 469]

Very cool, great pics and report. I like how it was in stages throughout this thread. I don't have kids but my wife and I tour and ride together (she has her own multistrada) so I understand how great of a feeling that is 🤙

[Bagstr 287]

Zubb,

Great to have folks to share a big experience with.  Practicing how to “true” the front forks and wheel In the garage is an essential skill for off road riding. As you found out, the issue can ruin your day. Who knows you may find that you like to experiment with fork height and transform the riding experiece.

    🤓

[IanT 29]

What an awesome adventure.  Thank you Kelly for sharing it with us. 

[Zubb 1061]

Thanks @IanT, It was fun for me to look through again myself!