This past Sunday it was about noon and I thinking/hoping the weather would hold so I could squeeze a ride in. In Denver it was 38, cloudy and drizzling . Ok, crap weather for a ride but I check weather.com; 45 and clear in Evergreen. Hmmm, not so bad. So I head out on a convoluted route heading for Evergreen. Heading out of town the weather just sucked, it was, after all, 38 and drizzling. The ride up Deer Creek Canyon just south of Denver was mildly enjoyable, the road was dry and things looked OK. Things, however, got ugly quite fast. The trees were now encrusted with a nice layer of ice and while being quite amazing in sight it made me nervous about the road conditions. Oh, did I mention is was foggy as #$#@$ now and colder. I was glad to see the beads of water on the windshield were still, uh, water, until they froze and started flying off and hitting me in the face shield. Also, you know your not having fun when youre happy to see gravel on the road. I never really did slip but it was hard to tell and I would rather roll on gravel than black ice So at the junction of Deer Creek Canyon and 285 I wimp out and head home. And just as I made it down the mountain and out of all the S turns a Toyota pickup in front of me does a quite elegant 720 while never touching either of the concrete walls, it just spins, stops and then continues driving And so, in a controlled and calm voice I utter to myself seriously what the fuck am I doing on this motorcycle". I should have known better to think that gaining 2000 feet (Denver to Evergreen) in elevation would result in a 7 degree rise in temp and clear skies. Although, it could have been 70 with people BBQing, ya just never know in the mountains. In the end I made it home safe. And while I consider all experiences on a motorcycle to be a good experience, this was probably a mistake to begin with and could have very easily ended, well, not good.
4 years... I was just being way overly optimistic... Never say die, I don't want the riding season to be over!!!
Stunning pictures. You know,,,,,, it's not writing about or an adventure unless the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up.
It was cold enough anyway not to go out... driving! So to go out in that weather is definately a motorcycle addiction. Not sure how it is in other parts of the country but weather.com never seems to be accurate By the way that Avatar Rules!
Congrats on staying up...exactly a year ago I was near Tarryall. Went through slush, snow, and a shaded downhill icy turn, all no prob. Then I guess I was getting cold and my reactions slowed and I downshifted late as I approached some more slushy looking stuff. Didn't look any worse than anything I'd already been through. Hit it with too much engine braking. Rear went left, then right, then left again and I'm heading for the creek. Figured it would be better to put it down than put it in the creek, so I put it down. Can't say I enjoyed the ride home with a bent peg, tweaked forks and a dangling turn indicator....
Hey pawk, great pics & story we run into the same problem in the vancouver area this time of year. Our little banana belt can be nice & warm, but 100 miles east where the road climbs into the mountains, the weather can be very different. It is the same problem on the way to whistler. Last year, I had to turn around while on a business trip on my V-strom. I was disappointed and wondered if I was being a wuss; but the attached pic shows the road at the BEGINNING of the climb. I went the next day in the car and spent a bit of time using the ABS and sliding through corners. So, parking the bike was the right thing to do.
been there, and it's scary, it makes you think, "WtF". for sure. but it's more fun on a bike that you don't care about, or that's realy crash worthy. That's the eventual goal for my Waterbuffalo (hey thay rymes..) just an old fun tractable bike that will be a great ice bike. Soon. before I crash the 950 on ice, hopefullly.
The weather's been whacked lately. Between Morrison and Idledale is my winter "jones" fix. Above that, there be plentiful sand.
The weather can be strange around this time of the year: Two weeks ago we had -5°C and dangerous roads. I changed from bike to car because they predicted snow. So the first day I went by car, we had snow. It's been ages since we had snow that early. Sometimes it even only starts in january. Last week we had +5°C and a lot of rain. This week it will be dry (starting tomorrow) and +10 to +12°C. So it will be back on the bike again. They promised us it will keep dry till after the weekend, so there is a chance there will come a ride report out of it.