Less Talkin', More Rockin' 2012 LA to GC ADV Ride

I have been to Colorado only once while I was driving from LA to DC 2 years ago. It is my second favorite state after Cali. I'd love to live there if not Cali. Beautiful scenery, beautiful trails...
Funny thing is one of my GF's thought I was a stoner because I liked Colorado. :huh

That's because John Denver was famous for singing Rocky Mountain High.

Guy, I am so sorry to tell you, as a result of a heavy influx of near psychotic Californians, Colorado now requires a tourist visa for any Californians who plan to stay longer than one week. You will have to start working on that now, and immigration visas are nearly impossible to get at this point without a forced move from your employer. Gosh, sorry guys...



It used to be Texans who really liked CO, and now it is CA who seem to think their state is going to fall into the ocean, so they come to prettier grounds.


One of the things people worry about with more folks moving in, is the legislation that comes with them. The state is getting more and more concerned that the open public lands, in which vehicle based recreation is going away at an alarming rate. Not as bad as Utah, who lost some seventy percent of their open lands with a stroke of dirty (federal government) politician's pen. Obviously Colorado does not want that.


If you are thinking about Silverton, may I submit checking into Ouray Colorado? It is just down the road, and has the same access to the same trails, but is (IMHO) a superior town. Ridiculously beautiful, and nestled into a box canyon. It is on the other end of the Million Dollar Highway from Silverton (about 30 miles).

Also if you get onto Funtreks.com you can check out their books, one of which covers the area nicely. "FunTreks Guidebooks provides books and electronic trail guides that cover backroads and 4-wheel-drive trails for SUV owners, ATV/UTV & bike riders, and ..." (From their web page) This link will take you to the correct book for your trip!

It would seem your skills are good enough as a group that I would highly recommend (from Ouray) Ophir Pass down into Telluride, and then Imogene Pass back into Ouray. Imogene is an amazing road, and the view is stunning. The peak takes you to 13114' above sea level. It is almost always cold up there, though I was there two weeks ago and was comfortable in shorts and a T-shirt (only two of us in our large group felt that way however.)

The campground 4J+1+1 is a great campground, and the Best Western hotel is a really nice hotel, and they really take care of you. (Plus a natural hot springs fed swimming pool and hot tubs).

Last note for you on the area, obviously the trails all get snow covered there, and MANY of the trails do not open until the 4th of July weekend. This is because it takes that long to get up the trails with the bull dozers and cut the roads out of the snow most years. If you go at that time the snowy sections of the trails will be like rivers oft times, and the canyons of snow are easily 30' in places.

Safe travels!

i rest assured the folks of co that this california adv rider from sunny socal has no intention of moving there.

why?

1. i like to wear shorts and thong sandals everyday
2. the mountain dirt riding areas are within 20 minutes from my house and we ride year round
3. plenty of job opportunities for my profession, and the pay is not bad
4. the ocean, less than hour away, i like deep sea fishing and scuba diving
5. culturally diversified and enjoy international food
6. the desert is wide open and provides lots of riding terrain; dirt cheap
6. we love our cars and they don't rust significantly
7. i don't have hvac in my house, never found a need for it in the last 30 years

many desirable places are like beautiful women....nice to look at cuz they are gorgeous..... but...... expensive and hard to maintain....


thanks for the info about ouray and the fun treks guide books (already have it). hope we could hook up at northern ut, that 's on our list

+1

Well said, Joel!

FIYA WATA

Nice little clip there Aram.

Brings back some good memories. Sure wish we could just do it all over again, same time, place, riders.

yes, lots of good stuff. thanks aram.

paul and i took a different route (my gps died) and added another hour to the ride.....

bring on the rest...

Nice video Aram. Thanks. Especially the preparation part at Jon's house. We look like we are planning to save the world.

Nice video Aram. You missed the part where the guys in the truck had a couple of extra cold beers and the bottle of home brewed vodka that they shared with us while Ersin finished up his tire.

Yeah...I look like an old white-haired congressman or CIA opp, eh?
Enjoy your years, they slip away before you know it.

My white hair population is growing exponentially in the last 1 year as well.

Sounds good to me! I'm already working on my camping gear for next year.

I'll do my best.

FIYA WATA!!!! I'll be a little more conspicuous with my camera next time. Wildlife is sometimes shy and I didn't want to ruin the beautiful moment.

Next trip will be better. Learning a lot with my laptop/gopro/point-n-shoot tech. I even have the fancy little retractile tether you and Joel had for this trip. That thing is awesome. Thanks for the link btw.

This was an amazing trip for me: My first multi-day long-distance off-road camping-off-the-bike adventure. Gave me the confidence to take the long way for 14-days to Idaho and back camping most of the way. I'll always look back on this trip with fond memories. I got to do a lot more forest riding after this trip and I think that's my favorite. The trails we rode through the forest where that Toyota Camry was stranded was my favorite part of the ride. I'll recruit a jeeper next time so we can go glamping.

I had to do some PE editing (http://www.ntcore.com/exsuite.php) to the editing software's executable file to get the program to work with the file sizes I had from this trip. It was a nightmare getting this far but I guess being stuck alone in AZ with no bike or ammo left me plenty of time to crack the code. Hopefully I can roll out the rest of the footage without issue.

2013 edition is coming soon.

with the exception of tim, brruugger, browneye and i, sorry to hear the usual suspects could not make it this time.

planning in progress. new recruits aboard.

tune in.

just read this. awesome RR!!!

thanks bill for checking in.

we have a sequel to this.

sorry for the slow reply.

Slow to respond? Two years ain't bad...

Best group ride ever...

Aside from riding up the mountain, hiking back down, and continually picking Joel's bike up off of him the first day, it was a great ride!

what happened is my smugmug account got neglected after i lost my sbcglobal.net email. then, credit card got hacked, someone made a $3,500 purchase at longines in the east coast, so no automatic payment.

...all the pictures gone!

thanks to the smugmug team they reinstated my account on another email and after 2 days, they recovered our pics.

haha, tim, i am the reason why you look in great shape. i built those chest, leg and arm muscles. you owe me big, and only payment i will take is "prerun elbow canyon".




yes, it was a great ride!

Joel,

Are you sure it wasn't you getting a good deal on a an other new bike at East Coast???