June 5th, 2008---Day 3

My trail angels, Delmar and Sharon
I hate snow on a motorcycle
I really hate snow on a motorcycle!
Snow in the Rockies in June!

Today was a day of extremes to say the least, while I only covered 100 miles they were very hard fought! I started this morning with the intention of riding to the top of Pikes Peak, then going over to Cripple Creek for a little gambling and fun.
After a very good nights sleep it was ready to go at 6:00am. I had been watching the weather forecast the night before, and while they were predicting some bad weather, I thought I might get lucky like I did yesterday.
I packed up the bike and did my usual check over, It had burned some oil the day before, probably from me hammering it, with the 2 guys from Ohio. The hotel had a continental breakfast so I had a quick bowl of cereal and coffee, and stuck a bagel in my pocket for later in the day. The weather looked a little iffy, but it is hard to tell in the mountains, and I figured that if I had to endure a little rain, it would probably not be long lasting. I stopped at an auto parts store about a mile from my hotel and got some oil. Just as I finished adding the oil it started to rain and I mean rain! I quickly rode back to the hotel and parked it under the front awning. The Inn Keeper was really nice and she invited me back into the breakfast room and told me I could stay as long as I needed.
At about 10:00 am it subsided to a moderate sprinkle, I figured that over the next 10,000 miles or so, I would be seeing weather much worse than this, so I put on my rain gear and headed out. By the time I got to the entrance of Pikes Peak it was a just a drizzle, I did stop and put the fleece liner in my Motorcycle Jacket and water proof gloves as the temperature was hovering at 40 degrees.
When I pulled up to the toll booth at Pikes Peak the lady looked at me like I was crazy, she told me that they had gotten 5" of snow last night and only the first 5 of 19 miles to the top was open, she indicated it would be 2-3 days before anyone would be allowed to go to the top. Rather than just going 5 miles I turned around and headed for Cripple Creek, When I got to the turn off, I saw that a large storm front was hovering over the direction I needed to go, however I did see it was clearing to the west and I figured I would skip Cripple Creek and go west as I was planning to go towards Gunnison CO in a few days anyway. Traveling west on HWY 24 things cleared up for a while, there was snow everywhere, and it was wet and slick but as I got to Wilkerson pass (9500') things got bad again, as luck would have it there was a rest area and information station at the top of the pass. I pulled off and was able to get myself and my bike under shelter. It was raining then sleeting and snowing. I went into the information station and was fortunate enough to meet Delmar and Sharon Lankford, they were volunteers at the information area, they are a retired couple who travel in their 5Th wheel and do volunteer work. They were really nice and helpful and allowed me to wait out the storm. You could see it roll through the valley, I can handle the rain, but it is the lightning that scares me.
after a couple of hours it showed signs of clearing, I ate my bagel that I had stashed in my coat pocket and bid Delmar and Sharon good bye then headed off.
The ride across the valley was nice, it was over cast but no rain and the roads had begun to dry. One the other side of the valley was another range of mountains, on the way up it was not too bad, the scenery was out of this world!
On the back side of the mountain range things when to Hell in a Hand basket very quickly, to make matters worse highway 285 merged with highway 24 and the traffic was very heavy. The roads were wet and icy in spots, yet the truck drivers still want to go 70 miles an hour one the winding mountain roads. I pulled over a couple of times to let them pass when I could, there still were two occasions when I was doing 60 in a 45 mph zone and I had trucks on my back so close that they would not completely fit into my rear view mirror.
I finally made it to Buena Vista Co, It is a little town along the Arkansas River. This town caters to the white water rafters and is really nice, the kind of place I would like to live in someday. I found a little Mom and Pop hotel right on the main strip, nothing fancy I parked my bike right outside the front door, to the south is a liquor store, to the north is a Mexican restaurant, across the street is a hardware store and a Chinese buffet. It is 4:00pm the sun is shining it is 75 degrees out and I write this with a beer in my hand as my clothes are drying on the rail outside.
The weather forecast for the next couple of days is supposed to be "Perfect". Tomorrow I plan to head towards Gunnison CO, It should be a spectacular ride! Within 30 miles from where I am right now there are 6ea 14000 foot mountains all of them are taller than than Pikes Peak, should be great scenery. Two of the mountain passes I will be taking will be at 12,000 feet.
I will be curious to see how my bike will handle the elevation, my GPS shows elevation and I noticed that when ever I get to around 9400 ft the bike starts to miss out because of the thin air. This is due to the fact that it is carbeurated rather than fuel injected. It will be interesting to see what happens on the high passes tomorrow. I think before I leave in the morning I will take the cover off of the air filter housing to see if the added air flow will improve the situation. I noticed that my bike did not burn any oil today, probably due to the fact that I did not burn off 450 miles at top end.
Will talk to you soon.

Tim