The Roads Less Taken: TENMA

The Route

The day started where yesterday ended...at the Tops Motel in Idaho Springs. When I set my sights on a $50 room, this was what popped up. The place looked like hell but, except for the lack of a paved parking lot (which would be a big improvement) and (unneeded) air conditioning, the room was as nice as many $100 rooms I have slept in. No complaints from me.

The first leg of the trip took me on the Central City Parkway...which leads (remarkably) through Central City, a very cool ex-mining (now casino) town. The residents clearly showed more imagination in building the place than the drones who named it. I continued north toward Estes Park along the Peak to Peak Highway. It is an old Narrow Gauge rail route that linked all the old mining communities up there. It is a sweet pastoral ride...not breathtaking but very pretty.

After breakfast in Estes Park, I made for Steamboat Springs via Rocky Mountain National Park. Holy Flying Tacos!! It was AWESOME. I had no idea what I was in for. (This shows my research for this trip had a few gaps.) The pictures cannot begin to do it justice. The road was prefect right over the 12,200 foot elevation pass. Temps went from 70F to 50F at the summit, which is well above treeline, where the wind was really howling. When I stopped I did not dare get off the bike for fear it would blow over. Put this park on your bucket list.

The ride down the other side was as much fun as the ride up. I may not have mentioned how much of this trip I have spent going 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 or 55 miles per hour. I have made it my strict policy to try to follow the posted curve speed limits...which are mostly very conservative...but a few have been right on the money. I have had some fast flat, straight stretches too, but the hills and curves are the real fun.

So speaking of fast flat stretches, that mostly describes the route after leaving the park and heading for Craig, which I had intended to be my destination for the night. I got there too early to call it a day, so I decided to make for Rock Springs, WY, one of the way-points for the next day's planned ride. It was a 3 hour hop but I figured to make it before sundown and the last leg was I-80, so even if it got dark I would not need to worry too much about wildlife on the road. (I am watching for wildlife very carefully on this ride. I suspect animals present the biggest risk on this trip.)

Winds had been gusty ever since I left the park but the closer I got to I-80 the harder they blew. Once on the Interstate the wind was straight into my face. That was an improvement over the side winds I had approaching I-80...but it is a 75mph road. The wind was blowing 30mph or better, so it felt like I was going 105mph. The wake turbulence off the big trucks was huge. I began to be afraid it was going to rip my windshield off its mounts. I normally ride with it raised high enough to create a calm air bubble in front of me...which allows me to ride with my visor open. But for 90 minutes late this afternoon the windshield was all the way down, my visor was sealed shut and I was hunkered down over the tank bag to avoid as much of the blast as I could. The wind was still howling as I pulled into Rock Springs right at sundown. The Motel 6 never looked so good.