What a weekend! I don't want to hear 1 more thing from people in Colorado bragging about how the cold weather kills of the bugs every year reducing your bugs, that's a lie, my bike after 2 hours was testimony to there being as many if not more bugs than we have in Oklahoma. No photos right now, phone droppped off the bike outside of Cascade so until I get a screen on it to get into it and back it up I don't have pictures.

Momma wound up going with me, but she was nervous about the altitude so I modified the route and we played it by ear.

Day 1:

Tulsa OK to Taos NM. Basically 412/64 due West. I've never been West of I35 on 412 so it was new country for me. Most of the panhandle is really boring but between Enid and Woodward the ride was enjoyable.

Hit Clayton NM and took 56 west to Springer NM got gas. It started drizzling on us at that point. It's not a trip if you don't have to put rain gear on. We got intermittent rain and heavy showers from Springer NM to Eagles Nest, between Eagles Nest and Taos we had some light drizzle but mostly just wet roads. Stayed the night in Taos.

636 Miles for the day.

 

Day 2:

This was the play it by ear day, didn't feel like going down towards ABQ based on weather chances, and the heat, momma said let's try Colorado since she didn't have too much of an issue the previous day.

We headed west from Taos NM on 64, stopped at the Rio Grande Gorge for a couple of quick photos then moved on.

Chama NM was really cool she loved all the prarie dogs we saw passing through, from there we headed up to Pagosa Springs and had lunch and discussed options. She was still concerned about he passes on the million dollar highway so far we had not been over 9000 feet and she said she had some chest tightness but overall was doing ok. So we headed west on 160, after passing over Wolf Creek pass she said she was feeling good so wanted to really test and see if she could handle a trip next time, so let's go to Pike Peak.... Now I get to grind out a crap load of straight boring miles on 285 to get us to bikes peak... I almost killed the idea because I didn't want to ride a bunch of straight roads. But she really wanted to go, so we went.

Over Poncha and Wilkerson pass she did just fine, then as we were passing through woodland disaster struck, my phone came loose from the mount and dropped off the bike, I didn't have the cords plugged in because I wasn't using it so to the ground it went... .

As some may or may not know this past weekend was the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Race... the mountain was massively busy, and tons of no driving fools, but up the road we went, all the way to the top, she had no more issues than I did, stress test successful next time we go no worries about the passes for her now.

From there we went through Manitou springs to check it out then hopped in I25 to get to Trinidad for the night.

610 miles for the day.

 

Day 3:

Headed South out of Trinidad CO for Raton NM, then west to Clayton NM. We stopped at Capulin National Monument, (A volcano that last blew just 60 thousand years ago). Paid our 5 bucks, checked out the visitor center, rode to the top and hiked down into the crater then back up and headed home the same way came from Clayton.

Since I have known my wife she has used her inhaler exactly once... it's so old they don't even make it anymore. The second time she used it was on the way home. Not in the mountains but as we were coming into Guymon OK she had trouble breathing, the heat and the humidity got to her.

547 miles for the day, the entire trip was just under 1800. 1793 to be exact.

 

Glad you had a good ride and your wife handled the elevations okay.


Bill