My girlfriend Cheryl and I wrapped up a dream trip last week. The plan was to depart Milwaukee, WI, ride to the coast and hit Sturgis on our way back. Naturally, we wanted to hit as many highlights along the way as possible.
The Goal - The West Coast
It all started a month ago when Cheryl told me she had a business meeting in Medford Oregon. She didn't just mention it casually - she knew I would want to ride it. We had long discussed a big trip for the summer and she knew this was an excellent opportunity for us to combine business (5%) with pleasure (95%). Naturally I, after some arm twisting, agreed to take the bike.
Day 1 - 8/3/2011
Now it's a road trip!
It was a beautiful day to ride - a theme that would repeat itself every day for the duration of our trip. Motoring west of Madison.
Southwest Wisconsin is a great area to ride. We elected to slab it for the first day to quickly cover familiar territory and get to the Rockies. Rest assured, the secondary roads in this area offer even more enjoyable views.
With only the Mississippi to cross, we are in our first state of the trip by morning.
The 1st of many state crossings
Last edited by nevada72; 08-31-2016 at 12:19 PM.
Reason: pic update
Your camera battery didn't die in Iowa, I hope....
Sounds like a grand trip, so far. Can't wait to see/read the rest of it. Thanks for sharing.
No, it didn't die - but we did turn it off for the next state.
I have thousands of pictures. Cheryl was clicking away the whole time (except Nebraska) and I had a fairing mounted Go Pro taking pics every 5 seconds through the more interesting stuff. Don't worry, I'll bore you guys for days with a very long road report.
We made Iowa in no time. Iowa is not a bad state to cross if you do it the right way. We chose Hwy 151 to Cedar Rapids, where I know a decent coffee shop, Brewed Awakenings, that serves food. 151 is a 65 mph 4 lane highway, but not technically an interstate. As such, the ride just seems more mellow than huffing along I-80 (which came later).
Things are different west of the Mississippi. Our gas stations have boring names like Quick Mart and Speedway. Here the two choices where Kum n Go or T (&) A.
Day 2 - After slabbing most of the way from Cedar Rapids, we found ourselves in "Colorful Colorado". The sign may come off as a bit sarcastic to those who have never been to Colorado. This corner of the state is a bit bleak and not exactly colorful. And yeah, there was a state between Iowa and here but......
I should back up and say the one interesting thing about Nebraska was that it was a main thoroughfare for bikers heading to Sturgis. We had a nice Mexican meal somewhere in Nebraska 750 miles from home, with a bunch of Hell's Angels. That's a good feeling - walking into a cantina with a petite blonde woman (wearing chaps and pig tails) after a long day of riding, to find it populated by a bunch of bikers who were at least 3 Margaritas into their evening. Unlike the Hollywood version that might have played out, our evening was without incident, which came as no real surprise. In fact, we encountered many 3 patch clubs heading to Sturgis. They were all, without exception, courteous. We are, after all, all doing the same thing - enjoying life on two wheels.
We entered Colorado in the usual way taken by travelers from the east - via 76. I have made this trip many times by car and bike, but I'm always excited to get that first view of the mountains. Look closely - you can see them.
Heading into Denver is always fun. Traffic. Construction. Yep....big city riding. But, I do like Denver. And, I have a lot of family there which means free food and lodging! Some team other than the Packers plays here -
We had a nice time visiting but we had to turn in early because the real trip would begin the next day. Our first route takes us through the Rockies, to Gunnison, over the Million Dollar Highway, down to Durango, and then into the Mojave to make Mexican Hat by night. Here's the route - (In hindsight, that's one helluva long day in the saddle. WE went from freezing cold to burning hot - about an 85 degree temperature differential. If I were to do this route over, I would stop in Durango. This was a long, long day.)
Early Friday we departed Denver. At 6:00 a.m. the traffic is manageable and the temps cool. We opted to take secondary roads for the most of our trip west. In this case, our first road was 285 heading southwest out of Denver. The idea was to meander through the mountains and valleys and avoid I-70. We also wanted to travel over the Million Dollar Highway.
The foothills are fun, but there is always traffic near Denver, even at 6:30 and heading away from the city. Once clear of that it was smooth sailing -
As you get farther in, the topography changes all the time. Sometimes it's lush and green like the pic aove. Other times its more like high desert areas.
Regardless, the views are always great - especially for a pair of midwest travelers.
After 285 we hung a right on Hwy 50.
This is Blue Mesa Reservoir just west of Gunnison
After Blue Mesa we entered Montrose. It was getting pretty warm, but we were excited to see the jagged peaks of the Rockies to the south which signaled our impending arrival to the Ouray and the Million Dollar Highway. We were hot, hungry, and thirsty. A local watering hole took care of that. We stopped in at the Horsefly Brewery. The wings were hot and the beer was cold - perfect!
Cooled down and refueled, we mounted up and headed for Ouray. The trafiic in Montrose belied it's small size. It was very busy and the drivers were a bit nuts. We filled up at a local gas station and chatted with a couple who just rode up from Durango over the "Highway". They also mentioned the sh*tty traffic and said it's even worse in Durango. Oh joy. But, as we headed out of town, traffic thinned and the ride became more pleasant. As we climbed in elevation it also got cooler which was welcome. We didn't even mind the showers that quickly moved into the area. It was quite beautiful in fact.
Ouray is a nice little tourist town. Sorry, no pics worth showing. We didn't hang around and headed right for the first milestone of our adventure - the Million Dollar Highway.
Heading North to south the drop is to your right. It can be a bit intimidating. The drops are steep. No guard rails. Cross that fog line, it's over.
Unfortunately, truck drivers use the Million Dollar Highway too. They can be a real buzz kill. We were stuck behind these two for quite a ways. Top speed about 20 MPH and no one seemed willing to pass at the few passing zones.
08-21-2011, 11:20 PM
Bob and Cheryl - Trip #1 - Milw to PCH and Back
