Nine Unpaved Western Colorado Mountain Passes in One Day
The Nine Passes
Yellow highlighted 450+ mile loop. Unpaved roads and passes are blue, paved connecting roads are magenta.
Baker's Dozen 4th annual Eight-not-nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride July 19, 2007. 3rd annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride September 14, 2006. 2nd annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride July 11, 2005. 1st annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride June 17, 2004.
Fourth Annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride July 19, 2007 Fourth annual many-unpaved-mountain-passes-in-one-day ride on July 19, 2007 was a very good ride for Billy (DL650), Gene (R1200GS) and me (KTM 690SM) until Gene was forced to drop out prior to Los Pinos due to a severe headache. Having ridden once with a severe headache I know even your control of the motorcycle is affected. I'm happy Gene made it home okay after a rest stop in Gunnison. Billy and I pressed on with the intention of riding Owl Creek Pass for a total of nine but rain and mud slowed our progress until it seemed advisable to skip Owl Creek and call it a day. What with route revisions and weather the ride took 11 hours.
This 450+ mile loop is half paved, half unpaved and varying in elevation from under 5,000 to over 12,000 feet. I've said before the route is more like a 450 mile motard track than like a typical dual sport route. The unpaved sections, although occasionally cobble-stone rough, are never technical. Therefore, it's only appropriate that I was riding a street Super Moto this year.
There were only the three of us. Originally there were several riders wanting to go but Jamie had to work and a couple other invited riders didn't show. We rode the route clockwise this year. Billy, Gene and I met in Austin, Colorado, a little before 7:00 A.M. From there we rode paved CO92 to Hotchkiss, then paved CO133 to the Paonia Reservoir dam where we left pavement on the road over McClure Pass. Just past the summit of McClure we turned south on the unpaved Ohio Pass road which led us near Gunnison, then paved CO135 to Almont, up the Taylor River on pavement to Taylor Park and our first fuel stop.
At Taylor Park we chanced upon Gene from Buena Vista, known to Billy and familiar with my web site. We visited with Gene and his friends. Buena Vista-Gene informed us that Marshall Pass, 7th on our route, might be impassable due to a wash out. Billy, Montrose-Gene and I decided to go directly to Sargents, CO, after Cumberland, Waunita and Black Sage passes, passing by the Old Monarch Pass road, and confirming the Marshall Pass washout news. From the Old Monarch Pass road, this side trip would add only a few miles yet could possibly save us many miles of traveling around to the south to ride unpaved Marshall Pass only to discover it impassable somewhere north of the summit. If this happened, we would have to retrace our path back around to Poncha Springs, CO, then travel US50 west over paved Monarch Pass.
Cumberland pass is always a joy. It can be cobblestone rough and littered with cobblestone-sized rocks but it's the highest in elevation of all nine passes, the only one above timberline and always beautiful. It's a popular pass yet the traffic was moderate this weekday crossing. After the summit, Billy picked up the pace and quickly disappeared into the distance. Waunita and Black Sage passes have little vehicle traffic but the area is popular with the ATV crowds. On both passes, Billy raced far ahead, having "found his rhythm" as a certain famous GP racer might say. Billy is smooth and confident, a joy to watch for that short time I can see him. All too soon his dust cloud is no longer visible even from high vantage points.
Marshall Pass was indeed closed, was even marked as such. We retraced our route to the unpaved Old Monarch Pass road where Billy resumed his fast pace. At the summit of Old Monarch, we stop to eat our packed lunch then continued on to US50 where we returned west over paved Monarch Pass, headed for Sargents again and our second fuel stop. Thank you Gene of Buena Vista for saving us perhaps 60 or more unproductive miles.
Storm clouds were gathering, looking ominous. At Doyleville we left US50 on gravel, a favorite fast road where I led but only because Billy decided to watch me rather than pass me and disappear. At paved CO114 we head south over North Pass to the south end of the road back north over unpaved Cochetopa Pass where the storms finally dump a little hail and rain on us. North of Cochetopa Pass, a gravel road heads west towards unpaved Los Pinos, ninth on our original list of passes. Again Billy disappears far ahead. After the summit of Los Pinos, Billy relinquishes the lead as we were changing our route from past rides, riding a road he didn't know. Normally we would travel a gravel road north from the west end of the Los Pinos road, emerging onto CO149 at Powderhorn. From Powderhorn we would ride towards Lake City a few miles to the unpaved Blue Mesa Cutoff to US50. Due to the KTM's limited fuel capacity, we would instead continue west on a different unpaved road, emerging near the top of paved Slumgullion Pass, then descend to Lake City for a fuel stop. Somewhere on the unpaved road west it began to rain, lightly at first then ever harder. First the road was damp, then wet, then running water in the wheel tracks. The mud may have been slick but it wasn't deep yet. The patches of graded clay looked greasy but the bike felt stable although at considerably reduced speed. By paved highway CO149 the rain was heavy and our biggest problem was vision. My helmet shield had to be cracked open to prevent fogging and then rain ran down both sides of the shield. Billy had similar problems. We refueled at Lake City, then rode on and out of the rain for a few miles. The rain began again before we got to the unpaved Blue Mesa cutoff. The Blue Mesa Cutoff can be nasty when wet. We stopped. Billy said, "I'm game." We went. Again our bikes were stable and Billy raced ahead, soon to be out of sight. There were no real problems until we got near the north end where the road drops quickly off the mesa through a notch. Here the road is usually rutted but now was also wet, muddy and freshly rutted by 4WD vehicles that had slithered up or down during this rain. This is the only place I had real concern about the mud. My low gear is much too tall to use engine compression to retard progress down the steep decline so I pulled in the clutch and descended very slowly using the front brake to keep it slow and both feet to stabilize the motorcycle, knowing if the front tire ever slipped I would have lost it. I was amazed the front tire held and this ordeal was soon over.
On US50 again, the heavy rain and road spray washes mud from our boots and the lower parts of our motorcycles. Our plan to ride unpaved Owl Creek Pass, so our final count will still be nine, is abandoned as it's raining at the turn off with black sky to the south over the pass.
Billy and I went separate ways at the east side of Montrose, having finally ridden out of the rain and onto dry pavement. I had originally intended to stop for dinner in Montrose as a rest break before continuing on home to Cedaredge but I was much too dirty. Fortunately, I was not unusually tired after this 11 hour ride and didn't mind not stopping although my butt was beginning to suffer from the narrow, hard KTM seat.
It was a very good ride, an adventuresome ride, with unexpected course changes and a good balance of dry roads and wet roads. Except for the vision problem in the heavy rain I would have changed nothing. The highpoint for me, though, was the KTM 690SM motorcycle. If there is a superbike for good unpaved roads, this is the bike. With 17" wheels, both ends, and sport bike tires, nearly everyone would assume it not suitable for fast riding on gravel and dirt roads. Wrong. I have never ridden anything that was more planted in unpaved corners than this bike. To be fair, though, we had no deep, loose gravel on this ride. This is the new-generation LC4 single-cylinder engine, recently introduced in the 690 Super Moto, not yet available in other models. The 653.7cc engine is rated at 64HP at the crank. I've read that it's the most powerful production single-cylinder engine in the world. Unhappy pulling hard much under 4000 RPM, the incredibly strong mid-range is where the action is. On this ride, I was honoring the break-in recommendations and it was still a fast ride, missing only the usual 100MPH straight stretches on the good gravel and dirt, limited instead to more like 80MPH. The gearing is tall and a 6th gear makes it seem even taller. A crank-driven balancer makes it very smooth for a single. The long-travel suspension is top-quality components, both ends. With 17" wheels and sporty tires, the focus is on pavement. Weighing only 335 dry, the handling is predictably nimble. However, it handles nothing like a sport bike but more like a DR650 Dual Sport with power and rubber—not a bad thing as I always liked my DR650 on a tight paved road. The four-piston Brembo front brake caliper, far more powerful than anything I've had on such a light bike, nevertheless was very easy to modulate on the gravel roads. I soon avoided the rear brake as I haven't yet mastered it and rarely touched it without locking the rear wheel. I expected the Super Moto to excel on the pavement but I never dreamed it would work as well as it does on unpaved roads. What a motorcycle.
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
2007 8-pass ride
Third Annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride September 14, 2006 Third annual nine-unpaved-mountain-passes-in-one-day ride on September 14 was a tremendous success. This 10.5-hour, 450+ mile loop, half paved, half unpaved and varying in elevation from under 5,000 to over 12,000 feet, is more like a 450 mile motard track than like a typical dual sport route. The unpaved sections, although occasionally cobble-stone rough, are never technical. I call such rides, "Adventure Day-tripping." This ride was all-day fun.
There were four riders: Troy on a KLR650 with upgraded suspension, Billy on a DL650 Suzuki, Gene on an R1200GS and myself on a DR650. All riders except me have serious dirt bikes at home; my serious dirt bike years were in the '60s and '70s. These guys are all better riders than me and I'm proud to ride in their company. This is an endurance ride, not a race, but we ride hard and fast with infrequent stops — a couple fuel stops, 20 min. for lunch, another couple unscheduled stops to urinate. This year's ride, although often sunny and beautiful, included several rain storms after mid-day with maybe 50 miles of wet road or mud varying from slick to it-looks-slick. We think the weather was perfect. Rain and mud are all part of the adventure. Our speeds on the better unpaved roads occasionally approached 100MPH indicated (flat-out on the KLR650 and DR650). We rode similarly fast on twisty dry pavement. Occasional stretches of slippery stuff — sand-on-hard-clay, mud, rain-slick pavement — slowed me noticably, Troy and Billy hardly at all. Gene, although never slow, was understandably cautious with his $17,000 BMW. No one dropped a bike or had mechanical problems.
This long, hard ride would not have been possible for me without a seat rebuilt by Renazco Racing . It worked so well I hardly thought about the seat at all. Given a proper long-distance seat, I can't fault the DR650 for this ride except for the small fuel tank. Even an IMS plastic tank may not have had sufficient range. I carried a plastic can with 2.1 gallons of gasoline in one of the panniers. I was on reserve when I added this fuel and on reserve again when we got to the first gasoline station. The only reasonable way I can shorten the distance to the first fuel stop on this ride is change the route and go out of my way, increasing the distance.
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Gene
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Gene
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Gene
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Verle
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Verle
2006 9-pass ride
Photograph by Verle
Route Sheet:
Second Annual Nine-unpaved-passes-in-one-day ride July 11, 2005
First Annual Nine-passes-in-one-day ride June 17, 2004 My goal was clear: Average one unpaved pass each hour from home to the summit of the ninth pass, be home before dark (this average has no real significance since some passes are bunched together and others are well spread out). My objective was simple: have fun, don't fall down. I invited others to join me but in the end I rode alone. Some had excuses, others had reasons, several had inappropriate motorcycles and many didn't want to ride nine unpaved passes in one day. At the last minute I decided to ride the 9-pass loop clockwise, or in reverse order from my original plan.
Despite mag chloride, thunderstorms, road maintenance and one abominable weird man, this first annual 9-pass ride was fun. Thursday, June 17th, 6:00 A.M. Back roads take me from home in Cedaredge across Cedar and Redlands Mesas to Hotchkiss, then CO 133 to Paonia Reservoir Dam and south/southeast on my first unpaved pass: Kebler. And my first adventure.
The graded, groomed gravel and clay road was wet. Not just damp but standing-liquid wet. Notice I said "liquid," not water. This was our highway departments increasingly-common solution for summer dust and washboards as well as winter snow and ice: mag chloride. I soon met a truck spraying this stuff on the road. I couldn't entirely elude the spray. Next, I met a grader grooming the road. They do this until it's smooth, more like pavement than dirt/gravel. After passing a temporary sign reading, "Drive Slowly. Mag Chloride being applied," I caught a truck spraying from one shoulder to the other. This truck was moving slowly and I was following in a gravel, clay and mag chloride soup. After a glance in his mirror, the driver showed no interest in me. Eventually, the ditch on the right widened and I used the ditch to pass the truck, fortunately finding a spot where I could get out of the ditch and back onto the road without breaking stride. Twenty-five miles of this, ranging from bad to terrible. I couldn't believe they were working on the entire pass road at once. There was a lot of traffic on this pass and a lot of angry drivers, I presume. I don't know how these vehicles got past the spray trucks. Perhaps they are nicer to car and pickup drivers.
Finally, after the summit of Kebler I turn onto the Ohio Pass road heading south. Its narrower, rougher and so much nicer. The bike steers again and I can use the front brake. I pick up the pace. I meet no vehicles on this road but catch two pickups, both with drivers nice enough to move over and let me pass. I make good time here and I'm only slightly off my 1-pass-per-hour goal.
At CO 135, paved, I turn north towards Almont. Unfortunately, this section of highway is being seriously redone and I had slow going and a stopped-engine construction wait. At Almont, I follow pavement along the Taylor River to Taylor Reservoir where I head south on gravel to Tin Cup. Both roads are fast and I make good time. After Tin Cup comes Cumberland Pass.
Cumberland Pass, at slightly over 12,000 feet elevation,
After the town of Pitkin I have three passes in quick succession: Waunita, Black Sage and Old Monarch.
A few miles after the summit of Old Monarch I pull out onto paved New Monarch, US 50, and head for Poncha Springs and fuel. At the fuel stop, I meet two Harley riders -- guy on a big Harley, wife/daughter/girlfriend on a Sportster. Nice looking. Both the Sportster and the girl. He asks, "You come from the north? Looks bad. Raining where you came from?" "Not yet," I said, thinking where I came from probably wasn't where he was going. "I've been riding unpaved passes," I explained. I got a blank look. The girl giggled. Was my fly open?
South on US285 to near the top of Poncha Pass and then off west and north again over Marshall Pass. Passed one camper going up; he got over to let me by. Reached the summit near noon, my seventh pass, making good time. Storm clouds look bad and I don't stop; I've ridden this pass in mud before and it's not fun. Near the bottom, it rains hard. The rain slacks. I catch a tourist in an Acura SUV. He blocks my pass -- twice. I see a wide spot on the left shoulder that probably doesn't look like road to him and blast pass throwing gravel. Opps! Sorry.
At Sargents, I'm back on US 50, riding west in the rain and making good time. At Doyleville, I take a gravel shortcut to CO 114. Fast road. I'm out of the rain again.
At CO 114 I have a dilemma: do I take the next graveled exit and ride south to the top of Old Cochetopa and back again or do I stay on 114 south over paved North Pass (New Cochetopa), going all the way to where the graveled road to Old Cochetopa goes north, thereby doing the entire unpaved Cochetopa Pass road from south to north. I choose to do the entire road, both sides of the pass, even though it adds maybe thirty miles to my ride. A few miles later I'm stopped with the engine off, waiting for a pilot car to lead me past a chip and seal operation. A few cars back I see a sport bike -- don't know what. Once past the chip seal, I go quickly over paved North Pass, a favorite of mine. I don't see the sport bike again until much later when I slow and turn back south on the gravel road. I wave. He doesn't wave back.
Either on Old Cochetopa or Marshall -- I'm not sure now -- I encountered the "Abominable Weird Man." I could say he was human-like but bigger than a human but that wouldn't be true; he was human-like and about the size of a human, Actually, he was probably human but he was surely weird. The road was winding through a forest. He was standing in the road, crouched, arms hooked and posed, much like a mime mimicking extreme agony and/or despair, head tilted downward but with eyes up, on me, his bushy red hair and beard unkempt. He had a predictable fierce look. I nodded; he didn't. He seemed disinclined to move or speak. I steered a wide path and continued on. I shouldn't tell this with levity -- perhaps he was severely retarded or otherwise disadvantaged. But it was a strange encounter in a remote and unlikely place.
Clouds look threatening and I don't stop on Old Cochetopa, another pass I've found unpleasantly greasy when really wet.
I pass the summit of Los Pinos,
Unfortunately, the last pass is a long way from home and with construction delays (a long wait for chip and seal on Black Mesa no less), another fuel stop and more rain, I don't get home until 6:10 P.M. Trip odometer reads 465 miles, round trip, probably at least 1/2 unpaved. The DL650 was a good choice for the ride. Twelve hours on the road with likely less than 30 minutes off the motorcycle. Why would I complain much about the seat or comfort?
I enjoyed this ride. Someone suggested it would be like a race, not fun and relaxing. It was nothing like a race. I never felt pressured or hurried. I did have fun and I was relaxed. For me, the motorcycle is an elemental machine to be ridden in ways and places that pleasure the rider. It's the ride. Some suggest I don't enjoy the scenery but I do. I may be focused on the road but I'm more than peripherally aware of what's around me. Some say you can't be relaxed at 85MPH on a gravel/dirt road. I say you better be relaxed if you ride 85MPH on gravel/dirt. If you are relaxed, you don't miss much. True, I don't stop to count the pine cones but I truely enjoy the ride.
Route Sheet:
