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Zubb

COBDR: last years dream ride

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Thought I'd finally write a quick RR from my Colorado trip last summer.  So here goes . . .

It was time for my son Adams and my Annual or semi-annual guys trip.  With us it's always only 2 guys, just him and me.

He left his home in Seattle when I did here in San Diego; at 10pm in the evening, for two reasons.  Traffic avoidance, and to mitigate the heat by riding through the night.

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A good audio book interspersed with a playlist of hard driving '60's tunes can go along way toward making the next 10 hours endurable.  We both tend to take 20 minute naps when needed on trips like this.  He's a chip off the old block I guess.

I would do hit the gas pump 5 times over the course of the night.

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Once and awhile we'd call each other through the Sena's and check up on each others progress and state of mind.  The hottest part of my commute was 99 degrees near Las Vegas at around 1 or 2 am.  And finally around 9am or so we met at a motel in Salt Lake city.  Roughly 850 miles achieved for both of us.

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.... To be continued.

Edited by Zubb
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You guys are nuts....left at 10pm and rode through the night...😵

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It was far too early to check into the motel, so we went across the street for a celebratory breakfast, which always includes waffles and more.  We killed a couple hours there catching up with each others lives and then moved to a microbrewery for more conversation and a proper start to our trip together.

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We drank more than we should've but remember, we were celebrating the end of a very long day (night) and not the beginning of a new day.

A great steak dinner together that evening and then off to bed quite early.

We got a good nights sleep and an early start the next morning.  We were headed to Fr. Collins CO and wanted to get there early enough to enjoy that evenings camp with West38.  

We'd no more than got out of SLC and I noticed a bunch of debris, looked like leaves swirling up off Adams rear tire every couple minutes . .. . . problem was, there was no leaves or debris on the road ?!?!?!?!?  What the heck?  So we pulled over.

Seems as though the stuffing was blowing out of his Remus can and into the spokes every time he'd hit the throttle!  So... 10 minutes with some bailing wire (always always always carry bailing wire, dad taught me) and we'd 'mended' the can and off we went.  For about 2 or 3 minutes anyway.  That didn't work.  In fact the wire burned right through and flew off the can.  So we hit the next truck stop and found some fiberglass muffler tape (I forget the correct name) and steel zip ties.  THAT should do it!  Out of our way bitches... we got this!

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The split can was on the inside toward the tire.

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HaHa! How often do you see a can split wide open on tour?? NEVER!  Nothing a couple MacGyver's can't easily handle.

..... ----. The fiberglass wrap and steel zip ties lasted 10 minutes at best.  What the hell!......

After using up all the glass and steel zips ... we stripped the mess off and assessed further.

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I had never imagined how incredibly hot exhaust could be to literally obliterate this stuff.  Our biggest fear was having it literally roast the tire.
So our planned scenic route for the day across northern CO was binned and we just rolled the freeway all the way across Wyoming toward Ft. Collins.

We weren't having any luck anymore at the truck stops finding material to wrap the thing with anymore, but we rolled at the bottom of sixth gear trying to moderate the exhaust temp until we got to a Home Depot, not too far off the highway.  We were looking for one of two things now.  1- some stove pipe that we could wrap the Remus can with and some larger/heavier clamps to go around.  Or 2- some of the fiberglass cloth the welders use to put behind their project so they don't catch the shop on fire.   We found the welders cloth and bought the last 3 packets of it they had along with some more serious clamps.  We bought some red high heat ties as well, just because.  Pro tip - they are not high heat.

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Onward.

As luck would have it we were headed straight into a summer monsoon though with major flash flood warnings over the hundred or so miles ahead of us.  So we detoured north and made a big 40  or 50 mile loop around the closest section of storm.  When we were stopped again to inspect the can, a couple guys in a one ton pulled over and said "are you guys going east?"  To which we replied yes as we donned the rest of our rain gear and closed all the vents.  They were moto riders too and said we would never make it.  They've closed the freeway and there was heavy flooding.

Really?  Not today Satan! and off we went in a southern direction following the magenta line on our Garmens; trusting it would continue to get us around trouble and eventually to camp.

If anyone doesn't know . . . it's been very helpful over the years when navigating heavy summer rain storms to keep the MyRadar App open on the phone while riding.  You can easily see the storm, where it's raining or not, and many times detour a bit to avoid the worst or even all of it.  MyRadar on the phone next to the NavV Garmin is a powerful combination.

And just as the chow tent was ringing the dinner bell, we rolled into camp.

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The welders cloth had been slowly failing, but did get us to camp.  Adam had been communicating with his brother in law (gotta love those Sena's) through the afternoon and had him searching for a replacement can.  Finding another Remus was not happening, and $1200 didn't settle well with his wallet either.  But Doug did come through finding a guy in Denver with an OEM can for sale, for . . . . wait for it . . . $100.  I figured I'd put Adam on my bike for class and I'd spend Saturday morning running a 3 hour loop to Denver in Dusty's truck, and have the bike whole again by noon.  But alas, the gods were with us, and it turns out the seller had been wanting to take a W38 class.  So I encouraged him to come up Saturday and have breakfast with all of us and hang out for a bit and watch.  Well it took about 2.4 seconds for him to agree that was a capital idea even though he couldn't free up the whole weekend to actually take a class.  And just like that, a proper solution would be delivered right to camp the following morning.

Super nice of the guy to ride up, hang out, and practically gift us the solution.  About 10 minutes with the tool roll and we were good to go.

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Adam is an excellent GS rider and had some moto related ambitions for later in his life.  He's never had any formal training though so the greater plan was to run him through the Level 2 class.  Then he and I would ride COBDR north to south, looping back to Ouray the following weekend for the Level 3 class.

Class begins...

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... and for next 2 days, a good time was had by all.

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Sundays final segment on drifting corners at speed ended at the Wyoming state line.  Adam and I had planned to begin our trip from this point instead of going back to camp and overnighting there again.

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Rather than head to the official end (start) of the BDR we  tracked west on dirt back roads across the northern edge of CO toward Steamboat.  Our plan was to camp at Strawberry Springs but Covid rules were in play still and we could not get a reservation.  Even though I tried for the 6 months prior to this trip.  So I'd planned then to camp up on Rabbit Ears pass.  But by the time we got there it had already been a long day and we opted for option 3.  The Rabbit Ears motel in town and another steak dinner.  It's good to have options.

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Steak.  Whiskey. Hangin' with my son.  Good times.

 

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Holy moly...Keep it coming

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We intentionally skipped section 6 above Steamboat for the sake of time mostly.  I'd spent a lot of time up there in a previous life mountain biking and we both knew it to be beautiful but nothing extraordinary.  So we jumped the BDR trail and headed south.

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It felt good to be on the route.  There were a few work-arounds due to fire and wash outs, but I had loaded them from the latest BDR updates onto the NavV and marked them RED as alternates.  The BDR org makes this stuff so easy.  We eventually hit the Rock Creek Stage station and it's nearby water crossing.

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There's a pretty good hole at the entrance but we've learned to (almost) always walk this stuff first.  When you suck water into a GS and hydrolock it . . . you'll really wish you hadn't done that. And you'll never ever forget it.

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We like to ride. So I don't often stop to snap random photo's.  But sometimes you pull over for no particular reason and just breathe in the moment, and the place.  Might even grab some jerky and an apple out of the kit.

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THIS!

This right here is why you have kids young and endure the poverty of starting a family when you're barely 21, and foregoing nice cars and toys and vacations and just working your ass off to come home and give mom a break instead of going to the bar for a few with your buddies.  All the money and time and commitment of sports and seemingly lost weekends and wondering how you'll get those bills paid on time cause you're trying to be a good parent and give the gift of time to your kids.  You pray like it's all up to God, and work like it's all up to me.  And hope like heck for a heavy splash of good luck on top of it. We had our times of friction and distance, but funny thing. . . it was motorcycles that brought us back together.  Another story for another time.

 

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It was monsoon season in CO. Those who've been there in July know it rains almost every afternoon.  Not San Diego rain.  MONSOON rain.  It usually lasts for an hour or two (or three) and then the sun comes out.  But you often get a full days worth of water in that hour or two.  We found ourselves moteling it more than usual because we've long since proved our grit to ourselves in enduring severe weather, so if a motel is nearby . . . why not indulge, and get a shower and hot meal.

We came to one of those RED lines on the Garmin as a bypass from the route that went up this canyon.  It had flash flooded a few days before but thought we'd make our own judgement on the possibilities.  At first glance it was a definite no-go.  But we rolled through some brush and debris that was passable thanks to a recent visit by a bulldozer.

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My concern wasn't a blocked trail.  It was the looming afternoon rains.  IIRC it was about noon and like many of you, I've witness up close what happens in a flash flood.  Getting caught in a tight canyon with the 'road' going right up the bottom of it for the next hour plus . . . . didn't strike me as one of our better ideas.  So we consulted Garmin for a bit ...

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And then using deep mathematical and scientific calculations of time, distance and space, basically rock-paper-scissors ... we thought what the heck, let's roll.

And just like that, the universe reminded Adam to stop looking at his GPS and pay attention to the world in front of him.

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You can smell the self-discust from here, LOL.

Anyway, we beat the rain and had a typical epic ride up.  Plenty of picking our way through scrabble and debris, which made if all the more fun.

Oh look.  Lunch.

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Way better than gorp and jerky.

 

Edited by Zubb
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Hey look, I just found a pic of what 'muffler stuffing' and fiberglass wrap looks like when it shoots out the split side of the can into your spokes.

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We tagged a pass or two and had a shockingly deep water crossing about 20 yards or so long.  Remember how I said we like to walk them first?  This one appeared immediately after cresting a ridge carrying a little speed so I just took it.  Pretty much pooped my pants as the water level was literally just below the air intakes.  STOP-GO-NO STOP- Uh GO! Sh*t. just keep rolling and pray for success. No pics available for this moment though. It was over before it started.

More rain that afternoon wetted down our desire to camp, again so we rolled into Leadville and looked for a room.  Now when in CO, in the summer, in tourist season and territory, motel rooms are scarce as hens teeth.  And when you find one, you may have ridden to two or three little towns to find vacancy.  So when they sell you a night in a $60 perfect for moto riders dump and charge you $200-300. . . . you just shut up and take it.  Right up the , . . . a, bank account.  Because there are 2 sports car clubs and 16 Harleys circling through every street looking for the same room.  Needless to say with all the rain, we blew the motel budget by about a grand or so.

We found an ancient hotel that was closed but the lights were on and the side door was open.  It took some effort on our part but the sun was down and it was raining like hell and I sure as hell didn't want to go ride out to find a spot to pirate camp at that point.  $200 sealed the deal on a room on the 4th floor with no elevator.  The rooms and hallways were stacked with antique furniture for the restoration project.  Hauling our gear up 4 flights of 150 year old stairs in sopping wet gear . . . well, it was better than the alternative.

The town was so full of Tourons that you couldn't get a table anywhere with less than an hour wait.  Ugh.  So we bought some time with more jerky and gorp and hit up one of the oldest saloons in the US of A.  This place is so historic. In its day, Leadville was the very definition of rough and tumble lawless cowboys and miners, drinken and whore housing towns.

Here's a stock photo of the Silver Dollar Saloon.

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It's a pretty amazing thing to sit at the very bar, and rest your elbows right where legendary icons of the old west sat and did the same thing.  Any famous name you've ever heard from murders to bounty hunters, to rustlers or gang members sat here.  Even a few law men that were brave enough to go to Leadville.  I wish I'd have taken pictures of the old pictures of these guys on the wall, sitting at this bar.

Here's a little reading if you like about Doc Hollidays time in Leadville.  https://coloradocentralmagazine.com/the-fading-of-a-legend-doc-holliday-in-leadville/

Our bartender was a lifelong resident of Leadville and could have taught history at the local high school.  He told us how this saloon was one of a very few that never closed down during prohibition.  It was so remote, and so "useful" to the folks there that the feds didn't dare risk coming up to do anything about it.

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Lots of history on those walls.

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Oh yeh, once and awhile we'd stop and tag a Pass Pic.

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You may have noticed a slight similarity in the two bikes.  They are almost exactly the same bike, same aftermarket suspension, etc.  

We both left our homes with brand new MotoZ tires.  He ran the RallZ and I ran the ADVENTURES.  Almost identical tires with near exactly the same miles on them, exactly the same trails, same bikes, same suspension, etc. We both typically get around 4,000 miles from the RallZ's.  I wanted to see how the Adventures performed and if I could get close to 6,000 miles.  And in the end they performed perfectly for me in all ways.  Well, except for mud.

Remember it rained like hell the night in Leadville.  And we were about to hit the section of BDR most known for "don't go there if it's muddy" section.

You guessed it.  It was greasy pig snot. It was impossible to ride anywhere but right down in the tire track. Any attempt otherwise left you just sliding sideways down to the low spot in the trail.  The farther we got, the worse it got.  Adam in the lead, was very slowly adding distance between us albeit anything but in a straight line.  I dropped the bike.  Couldn't hardly stand up on the mud.  Lifting was a joke but managed to work the bike down into the bottom of the track.  Got her up and then went down again in 20 yards.  Adam came back and helped with the lift and then I went down AGAIN in another 10 or 15 yards.  And Adam started laughing his ass off.  But instead of coming over to help, he just walked off into the brush.  He came back with a proper stick and let me know my front tire was locked by mud wedged between the tire and fender.  Apparently I'd been working on making cement up under there for a little while as it was not coming out.

 

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The stick worked for about 20'.  Then we cleaned it, kind of, but not really.  There was only one thing left to do.

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Sometimes it's nice for the ol man to step back and let the kid take over.  He's young (40) and aggressive when he needs to be.

Got that dam-fender out of the way.

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Strapped it to the Mosko Moto fender carrier, and decided even if the front tire would turn, there's no telling how many hours of this we had ahead of us.  So we retreated to safety.

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We retreated to Buena Vista and the better part of an hour and a $40 bill at the local bike wash / luggage wash / Klim gear wash.  That sh*t did not want to come off.

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So with half the day shot, we figured there was one thing we oughta do while in town.

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Our mud wresting morning left us feeling like we'd just come ...

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I sure liked this "food truck" just off main st. BV.  Something about them rang of valor, and truth.

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WE grabbed our food and went across the street to a brewery (as it was too early for Whiskey) and considered our options.

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I figured noon wasn't too early though to call the next few towns to see if any rooms were available, because ... rain.

I had called numerous times in the months leading up to this trip attempting to get a spot at both Strawberry Hot Springs and here near Buena Vista at Cottonwood Hot springs.  No, not available now, probably not ever, don't you know Covid rules are still in play?! was the response.  But since we were here, couldn't hurt to just give em a call now could it?  And BAM! lighting struck.  They had a cancellation a few minutes ago.  Yes they had a room with 2 queens.  I'll TAKE IT! I almost screamed into the phone.  Bracing myself for the next question of How much for the room?.  $70 cash.  Um... seventy dollars?.  Yeh.  Please take my credit card.  No need, she said, I'll hold it for you.

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I love this old place and used to come here when it was necessary to separate my head from the current stresses, or just for a day or evening with friends.  Pretty much a clean but hippy style group of hot pools beside the river, all with different temps.  what's nice is when you've finally hit the well-done mark you can just dip into the ice temp river beside you and see how long you can take it before your teeth fall out.

We soaked for a couple hours that afternoon.  Took a VERY much enjoyed long nap, hit town again for dinner and then back to the pools for another 3 hours just soaking and telling more stories, and being in the moment right there.

God smiled down on us and said, "it is good".

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Edited by Zubb
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Well we her having a pretty posh trip with all this moteling and hot food and such.  And we were fine with that.  

We hit all the POI's that are along the route.  Tin Cup, more water crossings, etc.  Saw moose on several occasions which is always a bonus.1233565737_ScreenShot2022-09-27at3_06_01PM.png.2ac6b755115cb52ca2343f317fe8e500.png

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We bought gas at todays prices.  And were happy to do it.

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We also bought steaks and cold beer for the evenings camp.

 

We were nearing the sections that everyone see's in their mind when they hear the word "Colorado".

 

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A little more of this.

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And some of that..

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And before you know it you're cooking steaks and peppers caked in Montreal Steak Seasoning over the fire. And of course there's a hydro flask of ice cold IPA to wash it down.

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The Snickers is the perfect pairing with some Pendleton by the campfire later.

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It seemed the weather was all behind us now and that improves ones mood to putting down miles.  We tagged the passes on the BDR track through the Alpine Loop, 

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And enjoyed Animas Forks Ghost Town.

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After about 45 minutes of just looking around through the buildings and reading the plackards, we realized the parking area was filling up with bikes, side by sides and jeeps were rolling in.

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So we skeedadled down a road like this.

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Ophir Pass was great and we enjoyed skating around on those loose shale plates on the off camber road.It was enough to make you want to pay attention to just what the heck you were doing for awhile.  We were more in the mood to ride today so I barely got off a snapshot of this before Adam was already rolling again.  Not much to look at up at that sign anyway.

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Before too long we rolled up on this view and I just had to holler over the intercom "STOP!"  Just stay there and DON"T MOVE!  He accommodated me but was grumbling about it.  I grabbed the phone off the handlebars and took about 5 seconds to adjust the light, focus and snap the shot.  And instantly we were rolling again.

So this ...

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 became this ....

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Which finally over a year later, became this.

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Do I wish I'd had a real camera with real lenses? Of course.  It was an all time bucket list shot for me. Good weather, good sunlight and good composition.  Just good enough that Butler liked it.  And once my son knew he'd make the map cover.... he promised to never gripe about stopping for pics again.

 

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We rolled into Telluride around 2pm and hit up a big old historic cowboy bar for lunch.  It was a warm bluebird day and we were killing it.

We were about a day ahead of schedule and thought we might take time to find a 'special' camp spot and do some more campfire cookery.  On a whim I asked the bartender gal if she knew anywhere we could look and she lit up with how stunning Last Dollar Road was, with a ton of places to wild camp.  That was good enough for us so we paid the bill, hit the liquor store, gassed up and bought more steaks and cold beer for dinner.  She was right.  The road, the views, the Aspen forests, it was all spectacular.

We found a cozy spot off the beaten track.

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The forest floor was full of these huge and colorful 'shrooms.

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Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast the next morning.  Fast and easy.

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We'd done a little map work over breakfast and figured we should see Imogene Pass instead of heading south into the high desert at the end of the BDR (section 1).  This turned out to be a great decision, as it turned into quite an adventuresome day.

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19 hours ago, Zubb said:

It seemed the weather was all behind us now and that improves ones mood to putting down miles.  We tagged the passes on the BDR track through the Alpine Loop, 

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And enjoyed Animas Forks Ghost Town.

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After about 45 minutes of just looking around through the buildings and reading the plackards, we realized the parking area was filling up with bikes, side by sides and jeeps were rolling in.

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So we skeedadled down a road like this.

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Ophir Pass was great and we enjoyed skating around on those loose shale plates on the off camber road.It was enough to make you want to pay attention to just what the heck you were doing for awhile.  We were more in the mood to ride today so I barely got off a snapshot of this before Adam was already rolling again.  Not much to look at up at that sign anyway.

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Before too long we rolled up on this view and I just had to holler over the intercom "STOP!"  Just stay there and DON"T MOVE!  He accommodated me but was grumbling about it.  I grabbed the phone off the handlebars and took about 5 seconds to adjust the light, focus and snap the shot.  And instantly we were rolling again.

So this ...

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 became this ....

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Which finally over a year later, became this.

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Do I wish I'd had a real camera with real lenses? Of course.  It was an all time bucket list shot for me. Good weather, good sunlight and good composition.  Just good enough that Butler liked it.  And once my son knew he'd make the map cover.... he promised to never gripe about stopping for pics again.

 

That’s awesome, it’s so nice when the planets align and you get a great shot. I know professionals work for hours or days to get a perfect shot, and sometimes plan for months to get a shot like that.

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@Zubb good for you - how cool that you got to do this with your son.  I hope this isn't the end of the story, I enjoying it too much.  Thanks

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I am cancelling all my motorcycle magazine subscriptions.  This is way more entertaining.  Can’t wait for the next installment. 

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Patience grasshopper. Trying to get back to it….

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I will never sleep again until this is finished. Haha this is GOLD, you're a fantastic photog!

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19 minutes ago, bfar33 said:

I will never sleep again until this is finished. Haha this is GOLD, you're a fantastic photog!

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.

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