7-29-09

Paonia trip

I stepped out of the doghouse and was about to reach for my nail belt when I noticed this bull snake hunting the area. Wow, what a quick jump back. I am glad it wasn’t a warm, pissed off rattler. I like these bull snakes as they often keep those rattlers away.

Charlie rode in to show me his new ride which is a Honda 1300cc machine. He likes it better than his old 750cc bike as it is more stable….. and maybe faster???  J

My potato plants were getting eaten alive by Colorado potato beetles. I finally got some BT spray for the larva but one plant was completely denuded of leaves so I dug around and pulled out a couple of nice new potatos. These are the Caribe ones and when they are this fresh the skins are just like a thin film. I used to thrash the vines off before digging my spuds down in Nevada but not sure if I will need to do that here. between the beetles and now grasshoppers, I may not need to.

Mark Weeding and I took off for a ride down to the Tongue River Reservoir where we camped the night down below the dam. The river was nice and cool and we both took a dip in the river. It was like a zoo up top at the lake where people from Sheridan come for the weekend of boating and fishing.

We took off the next day and rode to Ten Sleep, Worland and finally ended up in Meeteetse for the night. The road across the basin between Worland and Meeteetse was fantastic. I reminded me of the Nevada country. There was room to let my eyes focus out to distance.

This is a beautiful badland area right along the road that they have set up for a viewing area.

We pulled into town and found the town park which was a really nice little park with nice grass areas that we used to take a nap. We figured that it would be a nice place to camp the night but went for a ride around town to see if there was a better place and also it was getting near chow time. We went by a crowd of people down in a hollow in a RV park. The sign out front said it was a Cowboy Celebration and there would be a barbeque and dance. We went on down and I asked a lady if we were welcome as we were just passing though riding motorcycles. She said “Oh, yes, you sure are welcome.” The food was fantastic as a lot of the women brought side dishes and the desert table was about thirty feet long.

Tea and lemonade.

There were lots of kids and they were really polite.

There was this guy singing during our supper.

After supper was over the band cranked up. They were really good and I always love to hear the peddle steel.

The dance floor got really busy after a while. This group of people as you can see are just plain ranch people and it was a really wonderful group to be in. I sure am not cowboy, but felt comfortable in this group. There weren’t fancy clothes and make up, just plain good people having fun with their neighbors. I felt really fortunate to be able to join them in this party. It was a really nice crowd. I am really pleased to find that there is still the old west alive. What a difference between Bozeman and Jackson Hole. Cowboy up!!!

Some of the boys checking out the dance.

I have a little tractor sort of like this and like the rigging they made for plowing snow with it.

A couple of bronze guys.

I split with Mark who took the road back home while I rode down though Yellowstone park and down into Teton park to Jackson Hole where I spent the night with old friends. The mountains are always fantastic to see.

Damn ‘ol dogs everywhere.

Afton, Wyoming elk horn display on main street.

I really liked this gal with a pistol. Something you don’t see everyday.

The high country was really nice.

The little cabin was furnished with a table, wood, stove, paper to get the fire going, and a broom to clean it up when you leave. How cool it that to have it so a person could use it?

This cool little phone was built for the school kids that helped restore this cabin. It looks just like an old crank phone.

Nice roads though wide open country and NO traffic. Ah, aint it nice to be out of tourist country?

A strange pile of teddy bears out here for some reason.

Must be a sheep ranch eh?

I stopped in at Kemmerer and had lunch at the Mandarin Chinese restaurant. Wow, what an amazing meal and lots of it. I had the gal wrap up the leftovers which I had for lunch the next day. Down town they have these bronze plaques in the sidewalk.

I went to Fossil Butte National Monument and walked though the visitors center which is about all that is here.

I liked this one as it shows action.

Wyoming is energy country in all respects.

Flaming Gorge damn dam. I didn’t go through it this time since I knew that they would take my pocket knife away from me again, as I know by experience, they didn’t want me to take over the dam with it.

I took a back road and noticed that there was these signs along the way that said there was a CO2 pipeline. I suppose this is some of the carbon sequestration that is going on.

over the pass to the Green River valley.

They were putting in a new pipeline up over the mountain. I was amazed by the amount of machinery  and men involved in this project. There were huge cats and earthmovers working all along the route. They really have a huge right a way and they destroy it, when they come through.

A friendly little water fall after the rain they have had here.

Coke kilns

I am not sure what the Bromide is all about, but the kilns were fantastic. The sides were a lot smoother than the tops.

Some of the Coke.

They were using the Coke for a smelter not far away. I looked around and found a few samples of some of the ore that they must have been smelting. You can see some copper stain in these rocks.

The slag dump of the smelter.

Coming down off another hill to a river.

I was amazed to see this track hoe working in the river. I wouldn’t think the fish and game would allow such but you can see here that he is making some dams in the water.

A view of some of the dams, ponds or what ever you would call them.

The trees are dying in our forests.

I stopped in at a campground up in the forest and met my neighbor. He is from Chicago but is originally from the Netherlands. He was on a three-week bike ride following the Continental Divide. There are a lot of motorcycle folks that are doing it now too. The trail goes from Mexico to Canada. He was only doing a short part of the trail as he only had the three weeks.

The next morning I met him on the road as he was coming back. He said there were a couple of BMW motorcycle guys that had flooded one of the bikes out crossing a stream. He said the stream was too deep for him to cross and he was headed back to take a different trail.

I rode on down the road and found the bike guys. They said they were OK and had taken out the spark plugs and were able to blow the water out of the engine. They were riding the trail and had come all the way up from Mexico on it. They said it was mostly good trail but they had both been down several times in the sand stretches. Ah, to be young and strong again, and those are big heavy bikes they are riding.

A forest service truck came by and had no problem crossing the creek. It looked like when he went through it was maybe a foot and a half deep.

I think the forest service is thinning out the dead trees and stacking them along the side of the road. It sure makes it easy to gather firewood.

I stopped I the little town of Kemmling to have a cup of coffee and use the internet wifi they had there. When I went out to get back on my bike a guy came riding up and I told him I would be leaving and he could have my parking spot. I didn’t realize it was Bob and Anne on his big whiner bike. They had on their riding gear and helmets with sunglasses. What great timing eh?

I stayed around while they had a cup of coffee and then we rode out together.

We took the back road that is sealed with magnesium chloride to State Bridge. I have seen this sealer on several roads down here and didn’t know what it was. It makes the road almost like a paved road but is really dirt, sand, gravel. It does get a little dusty at times but for the most part is was a nice road. Bob said it was a little rough on his bike, but that makes sense as it is a pavement bike. The big yellow dog was just fine on it and I didn’t notice the roughness.

It is always nice to see logging trucks. I grew up with them on the roads.

It was a nice ride for sure.

I split from them and took another back road and found this yellow dog ranch sign. Ya suppose it is a puppy farm?

This was way out in the middle of nowhere. It seems like it was some sort of rodeo deal as there were bleachers along the edge.

I finally had to stop and take a dip in the river

The road went through a nice Aspen forest.

Up higher the mountain was covered in wildflowers.

This was a nice high rough pass. I made it over a couple of really rough passes as well as some really nice high passes. Nice and cool up high, but sort of warm down below.

This was actually a nice stretch of road on one of the passes. I couldn’t stop to take a picture on the rough spots. These roads were rough on this old body but the yellow dog did just fine even though it was way to heavily loaded for a trip over this kind of roads. I would have been a lot happier if was on the bloodhound or the texas blue tick.

Dogs everywhere ya look.

I made it into Salida and found Jack outside his shop playing his banjo. I went into the store and liked the display of the crosses he makes. He sure has an artist sense.

Jack has been covering his storage building with old tin.

I was offered the canned ham trailer for the evening.

Nice little wood stove inside the trailer. Jack remodeled the inside to more fit their lifestyle.

Jack and Linda just had their home stuccoed. They had new roof installed and chose a metal that will rust as you can see here. Jack has the solar collector covered for summer as it is for heating the floor in the kitchen. 

Jack salvaged this old 125 year old picket fence that he is using in front of his home shop.

The neighbors are a little noisy when they think you might come over and feed them some weeds.

My favorite anvil.

Jack has done a lot of rock work and this year has found three small rattlers that may have come from the neighbors who had a hatch.

High country again and nice dirt road.

This is made from chrome bumpers and trim from cars and trucks. Crested Butte, Co.

I finally made it to Paonia and found the park was already starting to fill up with tents.

A few bikes as well.

An R80GS fitted with an S fairing and a few other high end things.

I think I met the guy that rides this Transalp. He has ‘done’ over 125 mountain passes here in Colorado. He did say that they were not on this bike as I am sure he has a little rock climber for some of those passes.

I always like to see Guzzi’s.

hey, a rats ass whiner made it, and looking good. How about the nice curve in the clutch lever?

An unusual Kowsucker.

Nice ‘car’ on this side car rig.

Another nice little R80GS, but way too clean.

These are the new F800 BMW’s. They have two different types of crash bar protection. These bikes are really at risk when falling down without some sort of protection. It sure seems screwy that BMW doesn’t protect the basic bike better when they are making an off road bike.

About the only other bike here was this one ridden by an Australian guy. He had been around the world on it over the last couple of years.

A sweet little Honda Silver Wing. Ya don’t see many of these on the road anymore.

George’s R65 with special comfort seat.

Paul’s sidecar rig stopped me when riding in looking for Bob. Paul is often at Bob’s summer solstice party.

Nice solo setup with European bars on this R90/6.

Bob, Anne and Dr Bob with friends. 

Dr Bob’s Norton that he had ridden down to a Norton rally nearby.

I was talking with a guy when this guy came up and said….”Model A…. roadster pickup?”

It turned out that he remembered me from back in the early 60’s when I drove my Model A roadster pickup and we were at the drag races in Redding, California. He was from Red Bluff and came up to the drags and Beat ME!!! I remember getting beat but sure didn’t remember him especially after forty years of ageing!! Wow, I can hardly believe the synchronicity that is happening to me. His name is Joel Rapose and he lives in Chester, California. He still drives his Model A and now has old Beemers like I do. How cool it that? I am sure we will be crossing paths now that we are connected again after all these years. Amazing……

There were bands that played Friday and Saturday nights. This is the Friday night band getting started.

I didn’t notice until later the bass player. Wow, she was even taller than I am and what a tattoo job she had on herself. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. She was a fantastic bass player too and her style was……… yeah, what style.

Saturday morning I took a ride down south and stopped to take a photo of this old /2 and noticed that Dr Bob’s Norton was parked next to it. It turned out that Bob, Anne and Dr Bob had met their friend Richard at this restaurant. I had to turn off the gas as the carburetor was leaking. I went inside and had a little visit with them and met Richard. Bob used to own this bike and sold it to Richard thirty some years ago.

it sure is a nice looking bike.

I went on down south and found this lake in the bottom of the canyon.

I stopped in at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Wow, it is a nice canyon but I couldn’t take much of the sheep chutes of the Park.

We had eaten some what was supposed to be sweet corn at the rally the night before and when I went through Olathe I pulled up behind this truck filled with corn boxes. The corn was just coming on down here.

When I got back I spied this new arrival, a R25 single cylinder un-restored bike. I like these un-restored ones.

On the way back home I went through Glenwood Canyon on the freeway. Bob had told me that it was fantastic in that it was done with such great care to preserve the canyon beauty. He sure was right. I guess they had architects and designers from all over the world to figure out how to do this ‘right’. There is even a walking or bike riding trail along side the river. Very nice indeed.

I hit a huge rain storm with major wind along near Bill, WY on my way home. I was trying to make it home in one day but after the rain stopped I noticed that I had flat tire. Yuck. I have a tubless tire on this bike and trying to hear where the leak was when I had the little aircompresser going was impossible with a 40 mile an hour wind blowing. Even when I had it somewhat blown up I couldn’t hear it so I took the wheel off and still with hearing aids in place, I couldn’t find it. I finally searched millimeter by millimeter and finally found the nail hole. I had to unload all my stuff to get at my 15 lbs of tire patching stuff that was down in the bottom of my big pannier. Finally I got it plugged with one of those sticky ropes and pumped up enough to make it to Wright, WY where it was getting dark and still blowing like mad. There had been piles of hair, meat and bones all along the road and I sure didn’t want to risk riding at night to get home. I spent the night in a motel that cost an arm and leg but at least I wasn’t dodging deer and antelope at night.

yesterday I dismounted the tire and found that the sticky rope that I put in the tire to stop the leak had worked its way inside the tire all but the little ‘finger’ you see here. I had a slow leak all the way home and had to stop at every place that had air to fill up the tire. I now have a nice radial tube patch on the inside of the tire so I don’t think I will have trouble with it again….knock on wood….

Colorado route

Wyoming route