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September 25, 2022
Mt Evans - Take 2
So today, I was thinking about doing Argentine Pass, but with daylight fading quickly, I decided to check out Mt Evans instead. I'd heard that it was closed at the summit, but figured I'd see how far I could get anyway.
Now, it's somewhat ironic, I think, that they're trying to rename Squaw Pass AND Mt. Evans. I think that's sort of the heart of the problem...once you start renaming, where does it end?
When you turn onto Squaw Pass road from Colorado State Highway 74, the sign says "Echo Lake 18" and "Mt Evans 32". If you take Squaw Pass from Colorado State Highway 74, it's 18 miles, 32 minutes to Echo Lake.
From Echo Lake to the Shell Station in Idaho Springs it's 12.8 miles 20 minutes. Then from there to the Buchanan Rec Center via Colorado State Highway 103 North to I-70 to Jefferson County Road 65, it's a total of 24 miles, 36 minutes.
This is my second ride up Mt Evans this year. The first time was on opening day. So, my guess is that my first ride up was on Friday June 10th.
"Mount Highway (Colorado Highway 5) is open to the public for the 2022 season as of 8 a.m. Friday, June 10"
Looks like my first ride up was on Sat June 11th.
It's 15 miles from Echo Lake to the summit of Mt. Evans. But as of a few days ago, the road is closed at Summit Lake. Summit Lake is 9 miles from Echo Lake.
So, this looks like my ride up.
And this looks like my ride down.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 25, 2022 at 7:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink
September 24, 2022
Kenosha Pass/Guanella Pass
Today, I figured I'd take advantage of the nice weather (it was cold and rainy for two days), so I decided to go check out the foliage on Kenosha Pass. Then, when I got there, I rode around for a little bit on the Africa Twin on the south side of US Hwy 285. Ended up down a little dirt road leading to a couple of camp sites and then, as I was coming out, I ran into Jen and Cody. Small world. So, we took a couple of photos with someone's camera, and then I took off.
Jen mentioned that people had seen a moose by the lake, but I never saw the moose.
On the way back, I decided to hit Guanella Pass, so at Grant, I turned north to take Guanella Pass back. The foliage was even more colorful on Guanella pass, as compared to Kenosha Pass.
I passed some people that were stopped on the north side of Kenosha Pass. They had seen a moose, but I never did see it.
Then down to Georgetown, and I-70 east to Idaho Springs. Stopped to eat in Idaho Springs, and then home before dark.
My ride today looked something like this.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 24, 2022 at 8:52 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink
September 20, 2022
Shelf Road
Today, I figured I'd go down and ride the "Shelf Road", which runs from Cripple Creek to Canon City. So, I headed out a little after 2:00 pm. My ride looked something like this:
Basically, from 285, I went down to Pine Junction. Then south on Pine Valley Road (County Road 126) to Deckers Road (County Road 126) to Deckers. From Deckers, south on Colorado State Highway 67 to Woodland Park. Then West on US Highway 24 to Divide, then south from Divide on State Highway 67 over Tenderfoot Pass (10,200') and down into Cripple Creek. From Cripple Creek, I turned down Xenia Street (Teller County Road 88). The name of the road quickly changes to Shelf Road. Shelf Road is approximately 16 miles long, and then leads eventually to Canon City.
From Canon City, I went west on US Hwy 50 to Colorado State Highway 9. North on State Highway 9 to Teller County Road 11 (High Park Road). North to Twin Rocks Road (County Road 42). Then east on US Highway 24 to Woodland Park, and retraced my route back to the house.
2:08 pm 0.0 Leave the house.
3:00 pm 40 miles. Deckers, CO. 88F.
3:56 pm Tenderfoot Pass. Elevation 10,200. 75F.
4:00 pm 88.4 miles. Cripple Creek.
4:05 pm County Road 88 (Shelf Road). 76F.
4:49 pm Hard Top. Red Canyon Road 93.
5:20 pm 107 miles. Canon City. 89F.
7:14 pm 223 miles. 72F.
7:45 pm 240 miles. Home.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 20, 2022 at 8:10 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink
September 18, 2022
NFSR 211 - Matukat Road (aka Goose Creek Road) - 3rd Time's a Charm
So today, Robert came up and we fed Mark's goats. After they were well fed, I put up the goats and decided to go check out Matukat Road (aka Goose Creek Road). My thought is that we don't have a whole lot of summer left, and I need to get out and get some rides in before the snows come.
It looks like I've ridden (or attempted) this route at least three times before today.
My first attempt at Matukat Road was on April 2nd of last year (4/2/2021), but I turned back as the road was still snowed in.
My first successful attempt at Matukat Road was about a month later on April 30th of last year (4/30/2021).
My second successful attempt at Matukat Road was earlier this year on April 22nd (4/22/2022). This was the time that Cody and I both rode the same route on the same day on the same year-make-model motorcycles (2017 Honda Africa Twins), but somehow we were both unaware of this and only discovered it after the fact.
My third successful attempt at Matukat Road was today on September 18th (9/18/2022).
Today, I didn't have a whole lot of time before dark and I took a slightly different route. This time, I took Pleasant Park Road to Foxton Road to Foxton, CO, then up the Southwest Platte River to Buffalo Creek. Then down Deckers Road to National Forest System Road 211, also known as the Matukat road. My route looked pretty much like this.
This map/route shows my ride would be about 132 miles and 3 hours 49 minutes.
My notes say 136 miles - 4:00 pm - 7:15 pm so about 3 hours 15 minutes.
I'm always shocked at the damage from the Hayman Fire when I ride down Matukat Road. Terry Barton deliberately torched 138,114 acres, resulting in the deaths of 6 people, and in the 20 years since then, nothing has grown back. Not a single tree. And they released her from prison. They released from prison the woman that deliberately started the largest fire in the state's history resulting in the deaths of 6 people. Perfect.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 18, 2022 at 8:34 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink
September 17, 2022
Garden with Corn
I'm trying to find the photo of Jen holding up an ear of corn that we grew in the garden one year. Not really sure what year that was though. So I'm going through the old photos.
We also planted May 9 of 2003, but the website was not up until May of 2004, it seems. Photos are here: U:\_2003\Sony_DSC_S85\2003_05
Here's where we planted a garden in June of 2005.
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2003 - We planted on May 9 of 2003. Photos are here: U:\_2003\Sony_DSC_S85\2003_05.
Searching 2004 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2004.
Searching 2005 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2005.
Searching 2006 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2006.
Searching 2007 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2007.
Searching 2008 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2008.
Searching 2009 photos now...Looks like we didn't have a garden in 2009.
I did see that we grew a garden in 2010. And that we planted corn on 5/30/2010.
On August 5th, 2010, Jennifer is sitting in the garden, holding up something we grew, but I think it's a squash as opposed to corn.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 17, 2022 at 3:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink
September 9, 2022
A Colorado Summer
On the first day of June in 2022, it snowed so hard we lost power for 10 hours. We got a foot of snow. Then, we had a warm green summer with plenty of rain. And then today, on Friday September 9th, the temperature plummeted and it was nearly too cold to walk the goats. Tomorrow (Saturday September 10th), the forecast calls for rain and a high of 50F. Low of 43F. So, I think it's safe to call the summer officially over. Technically, it looks like summer is supposed to run from Tuesday 6/21/2022 to Thursday 9/22/2022, so we've got roughly 2 more weeks of summer, in theory, anyway. Lord.
Jennifer said she wanted to feed the chipmunks at the Phoenix mine, so I said "Come on". We'll leave here at 4:30 p.m. because the mine closes at 5:00 p.m., and that's the best time to feed them - when everyone else has left. Then we have the place to ourselves and I honestly think that the chipmunks and the ground squirrels recognize me when I walk up to start feeding them.
Posted by Rob Kiser on September 9, 2022 at 3:23 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink