Mosquito Pass - Conquered by Branton Thompson on his Harley

This is an account from Mrs. Blazer
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Leadville, CO. August 24, 2009 we had just arrived and it was past noon, so we wanted to get out for a little ride to check out the area. Of course, the first thing we did was head up to Mosquito Pass.
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At the base of the pass we ran into a guy on a Buell Ulysses, asking some cage riders what was the “road” like? They told him, “It’s not too bad, just a little rocky”. Well, having just arrived, we had nothing more to add. He asked if he could ride up with us. We on our KTM 525 and 300 EXC, look at his bike, loaded with a huge mess of backpack, sleeping bag, pad and who knows what else, tell him, heck yes! Come on!
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Mr. Blazer and I ride up about half a mile, the road gets fairly rocky right away. We stop; assuming our new friend would abandon his thought of riding his street bike up this pass, but nooooooooo, here he comes. Dust just a spewing from his low exhaust, kicking and a bucking. We give him the thumbs up and head on up a bit further. Again, the road up Mosquito Pass obviously has seen a lot of four wheeler traffic and is pretty knarly. Well, here he comes again, this time; it looks like he has the Ully under his command and is riding it like a big dog. As the road gets worse and it has become obvious he is not giving up, I let him in front of me, cause I knew I was either going to see a huge crash or an amazing feat of riding ability. Luckily it was the latter.

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<o>https://suzy761.smugmug.com/Vacation/2009-Out-West-Adventure/9572754_WopsN#649764098_PmJfL</o>
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A smiling Branton Thompson, from Arkansas (now in Denver) peaked Mosquito Pass at 13K on a Buell Ulysses. Now I know, we have been dirt biking CO and points west for a good 15 yrs now, and have seen plenty of folks, riding ill handling/grossly under suspended/pack loaded bikes in places they should not have been, and most of the time it was not pretty. But in this case, Mr. Blazer and I both agree. If Branton Thompson ever gets a real dirt bike. We’ll Russell Bobbitt or Ryan Villapoto need to watch out! As owners of a pair of heavily modified Dr650’s, pair of vstroms, and a superduke, we had never given the Buell a second glance, but believe me we were checking out the boingers on the Ully at the top of the pass.

I took my Ford Ranger up there a few weeks ago and it was kinda ugly. There is no way I would have subjected my Tiger to that. Nice going!