When you look at the map of our route today (at left), most of it was pretty easy – if you're just looking at miles. And it was another beautiful day! We were half-way to the Million Dollar Highway (550) by the time we hit our first pass. Around 9:15am on our way up to Cinnamon Pass, there's a couple of sharp switchbacks that are rocky. They're not particularly bad, but if you stop, which I did, you have to get your momentum going again. Which I didn't and promptly fell over. I tried to take a picture with my gloves on, but apparently my phone didn't register the touch, so I don't have anything to show.
I was really nervous about my rear brake lever, but the crash bars and luggage kept it safe. Whew! Tim and I righted the bike and off we went again. I had one more fall though. I had dodged a rock and ended up on the side of the hill next to a big bush, but didn't fall. It's when I started to go again that I lost my balance and fell over. The problem was that I had told Tim I was okay and he took off. So there I was with the bike over more than I could pick up. Fortunately a big ol'guy from Ohio was behind me in a nice SUV and helped me pick up the bike. I then made it up to the top. I'm open my tankbag to grab my phone and can't find it. Panic sets in and I'm thinking
it fell out on one of the two falls, so I head back down with Dave to the switchbacks which is about a mile and a half down. No phone. Crap. Now I'm really pissed because it's stupid to lose your phone that way. We head back up to the pass again and when I'm grabbing my hat, I see my phone in the tankbag, just hidden behind some other stuff. Dave and Tim did not let me forget that the rest of the trip. Dave was also happy because at this point, I had fallen more than he. Brothers are like that sometimes.
On the far side of Cinnamon Pass is the old mining town of Animas Forks. We stopped there at about 11:10am. This was one of the nice parts of the trip as it is a very well preserved example of life in a high mountain mining operation. The mining buildings are ruins, but there are several houses that have been kept in pretty nice shape that you can walk through. Originally called "Three Forks of the Animas River",
the town was started by prospectors around 1873 and just three years later had around 450 people living and working there. But by 1910, most of the mining had stopped in the area. Animas Forks was a ghost town by the 1920s. But for us, it was a great stop.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the traffic. It's Saturday in Colorado with the trees changing colors and the weather is beautiful. So there's a LOT of vehicles out. Trucks, SUVs, Jeeps, side-by-sides, and four wheelers.
We're literally the only other bikes on the passes right then. It's like Piccadilly circus up there! So we're headed up the next pass which is California and there's vehicles all over the place. They can start on an incline much easier than someone on a motorcycle. So on these roads that are only wide enough for one at a time, we often had to wait for people to give us room to have enough momentum to climb the hill.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
