Along the Million Dollar San Juan Skyway

We're camped at 8500 feet or so in the San Juan National forest, NE of Mancos, Colorado. Fired up the Raider yesterday morning to have her carry us two up to Silverton and Ouray.

Rolling east we dropped down into Durango at 6500 feet and then started the climb to Coal bank at 10,640 feet High in the Rockies!

Then you drop back down a ways before you make another climb...

This time you top out on Molas Divide just a sliver under 11,000 feet high.

The Snow ain't all gone yet... and the Aspen are just starting to leaf out... But it's no less a beautiful ride.

After making the Molas climb you drop into Silverton... where you can take on groceries if you're needful... and then continuing North you make another climb up over Red Mountain pass... This time you break through 11,000 feet to 11,018!

and then almost immediately drop into Ouray.

We met some good friends who live there... and fed us a fine lunch before we climbed back on the Raider and made the trip in reverse, rather than the long way 'round through Ridgeway, Telluride and Dolores...

 The skies going up were blue as they could be... but weather started coming in as we ate... and we made the return trip under cloudy cover.

Got back into Durango to find, when I refueled, that that Yamaha Raider carried two of us up over those passes and back again; starting from 6500 feet, climbing up to 11,000, back down a ways and back up... six times! over 189 miles, and tallied up 46.5 miles per gallon doin' it! ... and just for sayin' it... she's in pretty strong need of a tuneup too! ;)

She is an Awesome Machine!

So awesome... it looks like a friend of mine might be talkin' me into a Second run to Alaska on her in 2013!

Life is good when you live it on two wheels

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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Hard Lessons Relearned

Have you ever let life get in the way of Living?

It's an insidious thing. One day, long after you thought you were free, as you talk about how much you struggled to cut the rusting chains of a wage slave... so that you could split the wind in Freedom on the Open Road...

... You realize that the son of a buck has snuck in on you and, once again, the Bike has been parked too much... so you could work... That though the view might be changing, you've slipped back into old ways and old habits... chasing the living that NEVER gave you any compensation the FIRST too many years you chased that phony BS.

I've been so busy it seems trumpeting the lifestyle of LIVE today 'cause tomorrow may never come... that I missed the beast sneakin' up and herding me back onto the self inflicted treadmill of watching the dollars and living for makin' a living!

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

How-some-ever... Luckily for me... For US! There's enough other folks chasin' the same sort of a dream that you can't help but run across a few of 'em now and again. That is a good thing.

Their Freedom on the road is In Your Face. Without saying a word they give you a smack as they roll past that asks; "What the Hell are you doin'?!!" Their disappearing tail lights and the receding rumble of their motors... calls to you.

They rattle your cage and reinvigorate your ambitions. They serve to refocus your attention on what's truly important... and they refocused mine.

Crossing trails with the Ural Riders a few days back... Stumbling across the websites of Redlegs and the Rounders ( I rode all winter in Colorado, down to 10 degrees!) and others... was a wake up call. Life is to be LIVED today! Who knows what tomorrow will be.

The Open Road calls; "I'm here... I'm waiting on you..." The Horizon beckons.

Don't get me wrong... The past two years, living on the road have been Fine... But... There's ALWAYS a but! ;) It's come to me the past few months that too much of my life has slipped back to worryin'.

... the cost of fuel... the cost of this... the cost of that... what will I do if this or that happens...

Worryin' 'bout the same damn things I tell ever'body else to push away!

I let myself, as I was concentratin' on spreading the word... to be manuevered back into sweating about things that don't matter. In the grand scheme of things... they are simply the tasks that must be dealt with to LIVE! Not something to be allowed to gain power over your LIVING.

So... Today I get to step off once again with a clear eye and a fine Motorcycle and hack away at the regrown tentacles of a bunch of grasping "cagers"... and restore my soul once again... on a Ribbon of Highway.

Grab Your Handles and Ride!
Brian

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*Tell us Which you think is the... The Best Touring Motorcycle
*Share...  Your Personal Motorcycle Philosophy with us!
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