Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126023
R9cky Mountain ride I •, t seemed like a good idea at the . ti me. When we'd crested t he rim of the little valley we sca red ' small herd of elk off the edge of the mo un tain. While the rest of us gamboled around the little lake set in the tundra, Bob rod e ove r to see how t he elk had m an aged to bail off the cliff. What he found was a little trail that led do wn a steep slope and into the trees. "Looks rideable to me ," he ventured to the re st of us, now sitti ng o n the edge of the cliff. "Yeah, fo r yo u m ay be , but , no t for m e, " I t ho ugh t. About 2,0 00 - feet bel ow u s, and a co u ple - t hre e miles> away was th e high way fro m Silverton to . Du ran go. Above th at was 'a heavily logge',! area,': wi th ro ad s th at ob vio usly would go so me wh ere. The ' tree tops outlined a steep, but unbroken slope to the logged area. I had visio ns of ridin g casu ally th ro ugh an \o p en park-like st and o f pine t rees. Maybe he 's ,- right. "Okay , let 's give it a try , but since it 's y o ur idea, you lead. " With that, Bob was off the edge , I a St eve follow ed , then Richard. While I sat awaiting my tum, I was drinking in the sigh ts. I seemed to be on top of the wo rld ; rocky 12,00 0 foot mo un tain peaks poking up out of dense fore sts and flower sprinkled meadows. That's part of the reason the San Juan s are my favorite part 0 f Colorado . Go in g down the talus slope wasn't too bad on t he straight spots, but the switchbacks were too short to ride around. Dragging t he bike arou nd im m ediately fatigued me, a sure sign of th e 11 ,000 foot altitude. Once in t he trees the trail slope eased up , and I rap idl y caug ht up with the res t of the bunch. We sto pped along a str ea m to cool o ff, munch a sn ack, lay back, and look a t th e clouds d ri ft over t he tr ees. Bitchin . The idy l was n ot to last, t hough. As we got d eeper in to th e trees th e trail go t steepe r - and was blo c ked by tw o, three fo o t th ick down falls. We helped one another lift o ur bi kes o ver the firs t lo g, and d ra g the m un der th e second. No turning bac k now. Fur ther down the trail faded out, and we spent a lo t of ti me riding o ur various dead end paths. Finally, it was impossible to continue. Ahead of us was a maze of jack-strawcd downfalls. Parking the bikes, Bob and I set out afoot; walk a path 'til it ends, backtrack, pick up the th read, how about this way - no so ap , okay, what if we cross this creek, and .. . It was ge tting serious. I estimated how long it would take to wal k out before dark and wo rked ba ck to a decision tim e. \Ve didn't have much lo nge r. I gave up lo o kin g for a rou te without downfalls, looking only for a pa th wi th small ones. After aw hile , I was down to the edge of the logged area, and t he last of th e do wn falls. Bo b was workin g his w ay back up, doing t he sam e. "How's it lo o k?" " Well , I think th at we can ge t down to t he road over th er e, and aro und that p ile o f stuff beh ind th at tree. " " O kay. Well , I thin k tha t we ca n get to there." The rest was e asy - a lot o f gru n ti ng an d swe atin g ge tt ing th e b ikes down ,