spoilsport
Well-known member
So, what do you do when you have a trip to the mountains planned with a couple of work buddies from Oregon and Canada and the weatherman is predicting unseasonably warm weather? You change your plans! We still headed for the mountains, but on motorcycles. Because weather can be dangerous in the mountains of Colorado, especially on a motorcycle, we decided to play it by ear and adjust our route and objective on a daily basis. We had an idea that we wanted to catch the Sandhill Crane migration if we could get over Poncha Pass, and, weather permitting, spend a night in Taos. The plan was to get back by 5pm on Sunday so we could cook a special meal for my wife. My buddies needed to fly out on Monday.
John and Ford are business colleagues who are in Denver a lot. They both keep bikes in storage here. John, a Honda Transalp (in mint condition), and Ford a BMW R1150R. I am a new FJR rider. I bought my '08 in Feb with 9600 miles on it and have ridden it just a few hundred miles since I got it. This is my first trip on it longer than a 100 miles.
We wrapped up our work in Denver at about noon on Thursday, March 11, and went shopping for for some winter gear for John, who just started riding last summer. He bought TourMaster winter gloves and a powerlet socket. I rigged up an adapter so that he could use my spare electric vest and by 3:30 we were on US 285 heading for Buena Vista - about 120 miles west. The temp was in the lower seventies when we pulled out. We were hot but we knew that once we got 20 miles west of Denver, the temp would drop fast.
Here's a shot of my odometer right before we pulled out.
It says 4:11 but it's really 3:11. It's an hour fast because that how it was when I bought it. Daylight savings time starts Sunday and so I kept is that was as a reminder to spring forward (losing that hour could cause a problem meeting that 5pm deadline). Yes, it's really 73 degrees!