Dinosaur NM to Rock Springs, WY

It rained pretty hard last night with a little bit of thunder (kachuga kachuga, from the movie Cars don't know if I got it right) Anyway moving on, I rode up past the camp ground to some petroglyph's and then there was this little cabin at the end of the canyon which was owned by a lady who ran it by herself until she was in her 90's. She used the canyons as natural pens for her livestock. I then made it to the Flaming Gorge Dam, amazing. It was built almost exactly like the Hoover Dam but in the 50's so it was documented very well. The tour is pretty simple but you get to go outside at the base of the damn and get to look up at it from just about water level. The wild part about the whole tour was there was me and another fellow on this tour and that was it. It turned out that he was from the UK and was on a solo motorcycle trip around the country. What are the chances that the only 2 people on the tour are doing solo motorcycle trips. He was riding a Harley that had 10 beautiful ladies air brushed on it from the 40's and 50's movie era. After we got done with the tour I say some pretty dark clouds gathering and decided it was time to get on the road. I was going to take the west side of Flaming Gorge Reservoir and made it to Manila, UT and pulled into a gas station just has the heart of the storm passed over. I'll tell you one thing when you riding just in front of a storm and you see lighting strikes a few miles away you body tries to make you the lowest part of the bike, which isn't possible. All I could think about was getting to safety but there was no where to go until I got to Manila. So I had lunch there and was waiting for the storm to pass so I could follow it. Just as I was getting on the bike this older gentlemen stopped for gas in his Mercedes and told me he just drove through the worst rain storm of his life coming from Green River, WY which is where I was headed. We looked at the clouds and thought it would be best to ride the 35 miles back from the dam and take the east road past the reservoir, which paid off. A few times I begged the road to turn more north because I was headed to the next storm, but I managed to find the window and flew a couple of miles an hour over the speed limit to beat the storm, and it worked. I have been so lucky with rain storms. I've run in to some rain drops here and there but full on storms I have managed to miss. I found a great place right on the hwy I am gonna take up to Jackson tomorrow and a laundry mat right next door. I am excited to get up to Jackson and check some things out where the last time I saw it was over 10 years ago.

Grandby lake to Dinosaur National Monument

Today, I am sorry to report, was a pretty un eventful day. I am back slogging through miles of highway but unlike Texas or south east New Mexico there is actually things to see on the trip. Once I got out of the mountain area of Steamboat Springs, which is a pretty cool town, it turned in to big rolling hills which reminded me a lot of eastern Washington and Oregon. In stead of wheat feilds and farms it was just rolling hills of Sage brush. Then I was creeping (70 MPH) towards the border of Utah the geologically fasinating mountains started to rise again. The colors and the crazy shapes these hills and mountains make almost makes we want to switch gears and become a geologist, maybe I can do it on my days off. I arrived on the southern end of Dinosaur National Monument and found out that they big display of bones is closed. They have to rebuild the facillity because the gound kept shifting under in and broke down the foundations. So tonight it will just be camping and on the road tomorrow which out a chance to see much. I did manage to snag a camp site right near the Green River. I always love camping next to a river and hear the water flowing past. On the down side the river is flowing way to fast for me to hop in a cool off and take a bath so its a couple more days of sweaty stinkyness. Oh and the crikets or what ever insect is makeing that racket is either getting louder or closer so its starting to drown out the river noise. More on the trip tomorrow, Good afternoon, good evining and good night.

Estes Park to Grandby Lake

The ride thought Rocky Mountain National Park is absolutly incredible. You weave your way up the side of the Rockies, where there is hundered foot drops to the side. You end up at the highest point somewhere north of 12,000 feet. As with all the national parks I have been to its a circus. To top it off there was road construction, of course. Besides these few little gripes there is the wonder of what it was like before huge RV's or even motorbikes where your taking these roads on horse and buggy or even on foot like the mountain men. It is also no wonder that places like this are National Parks. There were a few camp grounds before you headed over the Great Divide and I was going to check the park out and head back if need be but because of construction and all the traffic I headed out of the park. I went through several camp grounds that were RV heavy until I found the one I am at, which is still RV heavy but all along the lake front it tent camping... My tent is sitting 12 feet or so from the edge of the lake. Back to the Park though. The Great Divide is a little spot, where basically you can sit in the middle and put one foot on one side and the other foot on the other. If you want a great Divide experiance I would recommend the southern route through the Rockies where there is a lake and one side drains to the Pacific and the other the Atlantic. I will say it again though. Washington and Oregon has wonderful mountains but there is nothing like Colorado to access the mountains with such ease. What a beautiful place, you have to experience it to believe it.

P.S. Estes Park

I had a pretty rough night last night. The bears came through camp at about 3 am last night and I had a hard time needless to say. I was lucky though the only thing I lost was my camp water bag, they ripped a nice hole right through it. I at first thought they were gonna wrestle my bike because all my food and smelly stuff was in the right pannier. But I think its air tight and kept the smells from escaping. So I got on the road and was gonna take a picture but the camera battery died so I found a little coffee shop and am writing this in the morning and I will write another one tonight about the days progression. I always think about so many things to write in here but always forget to write about them when it come time to sit down and write something. I was gonna write last night how nice people are in this state. I had a few people come up to me in the REI parking lot just talking bikes. This one fellow was curious about the waterproof bag I had on the back and come to find out while he was in Rowanda, Africa he met up with Ewen and Charlie as they were filming the Long Way Down and spent a few days with them. What an incredibly small world. Anyway just sitting here charging all my batteries and sipping on some coffee. Looking forward to the day.

Red Rock CG to Pre-Rocky Mountain National Park

This morning was the earliest morning I have had this whole trip. I woke up at 6:30 and was on the road shortly after 8. I am very proud of my self and hope to do the same tomorrow so I can either grab a campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park or just on the west side if it. I have a feeling that campsites are going to the plentiful in the mountain areas because from what I have heard they mostly shut down the week after Labor Day. So there really shouldn't be an excuse to camp from here to Washington. I really hope that my Father can come out and ride the final leg in, even if its just a few miles it doesn't matter it will feel like a Police escort into town. Today was a pretty short milage day but I did figure out that I am just shy of 10,000 miles on the motorbike and that would mean almost 6000 miles total trip mileage. I spent quite a bit of time in Boulder today, mostly because I got lost looking for the REI and come to find out that I passed it on every loop I made.... Some times a GPS would be nice but I think the only thing it's good for is in city stuff. I love Colorado. Maybe not the whole state but everything I have seen so far is amazing. One of the roads I traveled today is called the Peak to Peak HWY. And not shit it runs a ridge top from one Mountain top to the next. Although it was a hwy and not to many places to stop I have mental pictures that I will only be able to share via word of mouth. The greatest part about the view in Colorado is there is a ton of trees but out of no where there are these huge rock out croppings that make you feel small. There is a lot of hills and mountains in Washington and Oregon but there is only a few select places you can go and most of it is hikeing that you can see for miles down a mountain range that you can here. I love Colorado. Tomorrow I am going to ride into Rocky Mountain National Park and see what the deal is there because it would be hard to top what I have already seen the last few days I have spent in this state.

Cripple Creek to Red Rocks Camp

Today I got quite a late start, about noonish. After I went down to help Chris clean up the bar a bit we came back to the cabin and I did a load of laundry to let the weather pass. It rained off and on in the morning and I was letting the road dry out a bit so I didn't repeat the ride up there and put the bike down. Once I left I headed up the hill to the Molly-Cathlene Mine. It is no longer a working mine but you still ride the same elevator cars that the miners took up untill it closed in the 50's, and you drop 1000 feet underground. It was a very informative and spectacular tour. The tour was set up as a time line, so you started out with a hammer and a chisel and worked your way up to modern phneumatic drills and every step in between. Very cool stuff, and all of the tour guides used to be what they call "hard rock" miners so they do this to make a little extra money. After that I made my way up to the American Eagle Overlook to the moden open pit mine just outside Cripple Creek. When I got up there I was told they were blasting and I had to wait 15 before I could go up there. While I was waiting there is an old mining town you can walk through. So I was leaning against a huge rock and all of a sudden the rock starts shaking and then you can here the blast, I was not expecting that. I thought you would just be able to hear it and thats it. So once they let me pass I rode right across and active mining road where the huge ass dump trucks were traveling along. Once you get to the top you can pretty much see the whole open pit mine but at the top was the actual mine of the mining town I saw while I was waiting. The area around here is so rich with history and I would venture to guess one of the only placed you can see the old and the new side by side then learn about everything in the middle.

After all the excitedment of the day it was getting late so I rode back to Woodland park grabbed some food and then headed north a ways to get to a set of camp ground. I found a good little spot and now its dark gonna get some rest then make my way further north and hopefully make it to Rocky Mountain National Park and if I don't no big deal because I love this whole area here and could spend plenty of time here.

Cripple Creek

I must say that today has been one hell of a day. One of the days that I will probably remeber about this trip for the rest of my life. The day started out with a few drops of rain and was looking pretty somber. I made my way up to the National fossil monument, which was mostly petrified trees and a huge area where they have found tons of fossils, which are kept at various museums and a few held in the gift shop. I followed a park ranger guided tour and was just amazed at the amount of history stored in this one little area perfectly preserved by seemingly random geological events. Then it was time to head into gold county to take some tours of the mines. I made it to the town of Cripple Creek and went through the town museum which took a few hours. So much history here and they still produce about 900 ounces of gold a day out of the main mine. I lot of history meets the present time gold mines, you can see the remarkable movement from old to new in one small little town. After the museum I decided to grab some food and found a little joint that wasn't connected to the many casino hotels here and orderd a calzone. While I started to eat this delicios lunch prepared by the owner I started up a conversation with Chris, the owner. After a few minuets it started to absolutly pour rain so I stayed at the bar just waiting out the rain storm and discussing my options with Chris who is an extreamly nice guy and a very giving individual. At first he was giving me info on where the nice cheaper places to stay were then he said he takes care of a house for a friend and I could stay there. He drove me up to the house and I was hesitant to stay there because I didn't want to impose or feel like a free loader but he was very insistant that it was all good and the house was built for people to hang out there. So we made it to the house down a dirt road and it has a spectacular view of the Rocky Mountains and I said why not. The owner of the house Todd was already there and very much welcomed me to his house. We drove back to the bar grabbed a few supplies and then headed back to the house. On the way there though I hit a very slick spot of clay and laided the bike down at about 20 MPH. The worst crash I have had yet and I just got the bike muddy tweeked my bad ankel and burned my leg on the exhaust, so all in all not too bad at all.

I made it to the house and we started drinking beers and bullshitting getting to know eachother and Chris cooked an amazing dinner of several fish he caught when he was in Canada and some beans, corn, and a salad. I can't say enough about how generious these guys are and welcomed me to stay at the house for several days and eat what ever I want out of the pantry.

So tomorrow I am gonna head down with Chris and work off the hospitality helping him clean up the bar and get it ready for the day then I am gonna finally get to take the gold mine tours. I am unsure if I am going to stay longer or just keep on trucking. The ever nagging feeling that I need to get a job grows stronger every day. Thats the price you pay when you start to get older I guess.