Bike adventure.

Shane and I often get asked “How did you guys meet?” We often answer with a slightly goofy smile and try to make the other answer. The short story is, I was living in Alabama and going somewhere every chance I had. A friend and I went to Nashville for a weekend.  Shane was hired as a photographer for a Chicago group who does a pub crawl every year; They also grow mustaches for this pub crawl. Thus we were both in Nashville one snowy weekend a year and a half ago.  I eyed his camera equipment, we got to talking and turns out his dad once had a condo in Dillion (Summit Co Colorado)… and we’ve been friends since.

I’ve visited Shane the last several times in Chicago while he’d not been to see me.  So at 5am on Wednesday Fabiola and I took off to grab Shane from DIA.  A great b’fast at SNOOZE an a.m. eatery and we were on our way. We took a detour around the tunnels to Loveland Pass.  It was a great day even though all were exhausted. 

All of our photos at the Loveland pass sign..

Shane and I would never take goofy photos…

Who’d have known that Shane and I (along w/Fabiola) summiting this pass would lead to countless others.. We enjoyed the sun, elevation, snow, and friendship!

We drove into Vail dropped Fabi off and relaxed a bit by catching up at what not then we walked into the village for some people watching and puppy watching. Burgers at the Tap Room and the night was complete.  Due to our lack of sleep we took it easy, watched a movie and slept.  Only a hint of what was to come …

Thursday morning I got up early and had several things settled.  Shane got up and we decided to head out to see his cousin for a long day in Grand Junction (?? Miles).  We couldn’t do something the normal way so we rented a bike. We got a dual sport motorcycle (dirt bike with slightly different tires, head lights, and turn signals. We rented from Vail offroad rentals and so should you!  We left my car in the parking lot, packed up our things in the Pelican cases and were off with not entirely a plan.

WE STOPPED FOR A MAP. Who’d have thought such good planning could lead to a wild three days!  On this map we noticed a little road that cut down to junction.  Who wants to do 75 on the highway when you have a machine, mountains, and dirt roads!  So we exited I70W at Silt and wandered around for a bit and somehow ended up on the road we wanted.  It wasn’t long before Fairview Road turned into FSR270 then entered into the Grand Mesa National Forest and turned into a Forest Service road. This means no winter maintenance, oh and gravel and dirt!   We passed a lot of ranches who’d sold mineral rights to big gas companies for nat gas and fracking.  The road was fun, the view was amazing and Shane and I were having a ball!  We were pretty sure the road was going to lead us to where we wanted… we’d had such good luck so far!  Once we made it to CR 330E we were sure.

Photos from  270/330E

(insert online map of 270/330e from silt)

We made it to a small town of Collbran (look up things town is known for and details) We had a YUM lunch of pizza and of course more water. We planned a little more of the trip.. and decided to take another random road from Mesa Lakes.  We continued on 330 toward Powderhorn ski area and skyway. This road was beautiful too!!! We climbed in elevation and lost a bit of the warmth. Another layer added and we were good to go!