Day Two July 8th, 2001
We were all up by 6AM and went to a Casino in Cripple Creek for a very good breakfast. We had covered more ground than we really thought we could yesterday, so it was decided we would move the trailer and truck up to Fairplay and leave it there for at least a couple days while we rode some mountain passes and explored the area. So Don offered to drive the truck there and me and Kenny would ride the bikes taking some backroads and meeting him in Fairplay.
| Me and Kenny took the Cripple Creek and Florissant road North a few miles then turned of Northeast toward 11 mile Canyon Reservoir. This road was very beautiful and scenic but was a very different terrain than I was used to in Colorado. It seemed we were suddenly in Arizona with more wide open spaces and the mountains in the background. | |
| We stopped for coffee and a donut at what seemed the middle of nowhere-------there was a huge black dog on the porch who seemed to own the place. Although he was very friendly and love to be petted, he was really eyeing our donuts and we were prepared to sacrifice them to him if necessary. | |
| We then rode on thru the countryside taking some nice
digital images (photos for you non computer geeks). Kenny was on a GPS
learning trip as he had just got his Garmin III+ and was oh so fascinated
with its operation and was willing to share the virtues of his new toy
with anybody who would listen. I thought a couple of times he was having
more fun with his GPS than riding his bike J.
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| We went thru Hartzel and took an old ranch road North which
ran on the East side of Hwy. 9 to Fairplay. It was a great ride with
several glimpses of wild horses on the range. It ended up at a gate where
private property started so we had to go back. Well, we had looked at the
scenery on the way in so on the way back I just let the DRZ loose, riding
pretty fast on the way back, sliding around corners and wheelying over the
small rises in the dirt road. |
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| We then had to ride up HWY 9 to Fairplay. Don had found us a campsite right in downtown Fairplay. After a little lunch Don led us toward Breckenridge over Hooseier Pass where we would tackle Georgia Pass. This turned out to be a real great ride. It started raining on us and rained steady for several hours. We didn’t let this dampen our spirits and just road on. Don was doing a good job of leading us from memory to Georgia pass. We rode on French Gulch Road following the French Gulch river for quite a while. I really don’t know how he did it, because there were so many different roads and trails in the mountains. |  |
| . We finally stopped and noticed something really funny
looking on the ground and after riding some more the stuff got a couple of
inches deep. It was hail----we had just missed a bad storm. When we came
down the mountain some people said it was hailing all over the mountains. |
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| We made it up to Georgia pass which was a very difficult
climb to about 11,500 ft. The ride up was all thru thick pine forest.
The view at the top was great although it was still raining. It
quit raining later and this
was the only rain we were to ride in the whole trip. The trail finally
came to the town of Jefferson on RT. 285 and we road that road back to
Fairplay. It was a long day of riding on some rough terrain and we were
tired. We went to the Burrow restaurant in town for dinner. |
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Tomorrow we were going to the infamous Mosquito---well can you spell "SNOW"-----it didn't stop us!!
Click below for Day3 and see how we opened the supposedly closed Mosquito pass..