CDT Trail ride

[bryanchurch06]

I'll be honest with you, the reason your not seeing more pics from the trail ride is I'm not taking any, Sneakydingo is taking some and hopefully will post a few, it's been all I could do to ride the sections we've been on. We rode the supposed easy section from Grants to Cuba yesterday 119 miles and over 50 miles of it was a little nightmare I've nicknamed PRISON RAPE!!!! I spent so much time in the air going over rocks and ditches the motorcycle did 15 miles more than the tires did, and the sand you ask? Oh yeah that's a nice little surprise at 30mph, only went into the sage once, stayed upright by some miracle. Remember the movie Braveheart? The scene where the mad Irish man said " The good lord can get me out of this, but he's pretty sure you're fu***d" I wasn't feeling to confident. I think we're going for a bypass of sorts today to get to Sargeants because of thunder storm in the area, I'll try to get more pics the rest of the trip

 

[SneakyDingo]

Sneaky’s report:
Not much to add to that. @bryanchurch06 didn’t like the roads and we got screwed in Cuba for accommodation. Currently just shy of the Colorado border in Chama, NM.

Some photos from the best part of the easy section. Don’t let the nice smooth roads fool you, but the views are legit.

Bryan on the uphill, not much of a photo but it is what it is. Bloody hot.



The views:

 

[Cardinal Direction]

We salute you. 🫡

 

[Backwoods]

This picture should be in a Honda Trail commercial.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Left Chama for Salida CO, 169 miles on 2 lane roads, 10,000 ft elevation pass just outside of Chama, threat of rain all day finally hit last 30 miles, arrived in Salida soaked, scenery is amazing with snow covered peaks and water everywhere. Welcome to Colorado boys.

 

[Tchap]

Left Chama for Salida CO, 169 miles on 2 lane roads, 10,000 ft elevation pass just outside of Chama, threat of rain all day finally hit last 30 miles, arrived in Salida soaked, scenery is amazing with snow covered peaks and water everywhere. Welcome to Colorado boys.

Wow guys! You have ridden the NM section and now you’re in a new state. The pics you have are awesome, the narrative is hilarious, and I’m pretty sure that Colorado is going to be amazing. Keep on truckin’, friends!

 

[bryanchurch06]

Pic outside baymont inn Salida, stampeding turtles gonna get a bath

 

[Backwoods]

Left Chama for Salida CO, 169 miles on 2 lane roads, 10,000 ft elevation pass just outside of Chama, threat of rain all day finally hit last 30 miles, arrived in Salida soaked, scenery is amazing with snow covered peaks and water everywhere. Welcome to Colorado boys.

Looks like some nice riding in those pics, that deep blue sky must either mean the air is real clean or an ocean is fixin to dump on y’all. Colorado is very scenic, I lived there long ago. Las Animas, Colorado. Keep the reports coming, this is fun following this adventure.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Left Salida 9am, heading to Silverthorne, we tried riding sections of the official trail I'm 2 places just to muddy for the little bikes, you know we were originally worried about snow on the trail causing detours, turns out heavy rain and flooding is causing or detours. So about 150 miles on pavement extra miles were ridden leaving the pavement to check road conditions on dirt. Same story as yesterday about 30 miles out we got hammered all the way to Breckenridge, with large hail coming up the pass. Beautiful scenery took a few pics, just ready to be done with rain and pavement.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Today's ride from Silverthorne to Steamboat Springs was what I've been waiting for, beautiful ride with about 30 miles of dirt road I think, Sneakydingo can give better mileage report. The dirt section gave us sand, mud, snow drifts to ride thru and hail / rain. About 100 mile day, tomorrow will be to rawlins WY. Took a few pics today, could have stopped every 5 minutes for pics.

 

[SneakyDingo]

Yesterday’s profile was a bit backwards for my preferred route but it was the right breakdown - with the weather we’ve been having lately, a morning ride in sunshine and an arvo ride of rain has been common. So dry dirt and wet roads is nicer than the reverse. Yesterday started with 45 mi of pavement, had another 40 of dirt, and 10 of pavement. One of the nicest things was with the casual short mileage of the day, we could afford to take more time on the dirt sections.

Everything started off well, but as we got towards the top we started to cop a bit more rain and the occasional snow crossing. @bryanchurch06 gave his approval and we were at around 9250 ft with the day capping out somewhere close to 9750 ft, so not much more snow expected.

That ended up being mostly true with very few truly unridable conditions encountered.



The worst part really was coming down the other side, we had wet dirt, which means the bikes now have a healthy but not substantial coating of mud. Colorado reminds me a lot of a more beautiful Washington, but this was the first time I encountered a field of green that you won’t see a lot in my home state.



I would say that if the road had been in slightly better condition and dry, I wouldn’t have minded most of the entire trip being those conditions. There was just enough rutting, just enough mud, just… enough to mean that any time I diverted my gaze to look around, I would risk taking an unscheduled naptime and the bike would remind me of this promptly. So having the nice version of that road would allow for more enjoyment of the surrounding landscape, something I appreciate when on good quality pavement.

 

[SneakyDingo]

Oh, and a quick mileage check: I started off with the odometer reading 6,679 mi, currently at around 7,847 mi, so we are at 1,168 mi, or 1,879 km in metric land after ~7 days of riding.

I also should speak to Las Cruces Honda when I give this ride check in. I am very, very glad they took care of me by accepting delivery but they overfilled the oil in my bike that required me to repeatedly clear the sight glass, and they didn’t change the spark plug due to a miscommunication. So it seems like someone pulled the engine apart and then filled by volume instead of checking the dipstick, and it ended up with about 3 fl oz over what it should have had at the top of the dipstick (90mL, where the difference from bottom to top is about 100 mL).

After replacing the plug I haven’t had any overheating problems which is something that seems completely unrelated to me but I can’t deny the reality. Thankfully both of these things are incredibly easy to solve; spark plug is a 5 minute job, and the sighting glass just requires a set of needle nose pliers. Edit: not sure what it’s called, but that little tube that hangs down from the snorkel you look at to make sure water or oil didn’t get in.

A new tire has been ordered for Helena as well. At that point we will likely be about 2000 mi into the trip, so while I expect these tires to last the entire trip it will buy me some guarantees for the mileage if my wear is higher than normal. I’m running the 2.5-3.0 SR244 combo with the X-link chain, and the SR244 rear is showing some signs of not liking being run like this but with good overall tread depth for now.

Apart from when I swapped to the 13T for the trip, I haven’t had to touch the chain either.

 

[Shoot870p]

Sneaky, s the 13 tooth pulling well enough for you?

 

[bryanchurch06]

Big detour today thru Utah to Rock Springs WY, 231 miles

 

[SneakyDingo]

Sneaky, s the 13 tooth pulling well enough for you?

Yup. Was a good choice. Mostly because it puts the gear ratios closer together, that’s been really helpful on dirt.

Sneaky’s report 6/7:
215.1 mi

For various reasons we decided to try for Rock Springs today. It meant a lot of pavement miles but some dirt possibilities.

The first part was about what you’d expect. Slab for about 70 mi to the midpoint refuel station and then on to the finish line some 140ish mi away. But this wouldn’t be an adventure if Lady Luck didn’t decide to test us right?



Our midpoint fuel stop was down for maintenance. In a car? Mild inconvenience. On this bike? Supreme problem. The next available place was 30 mi back the way we came, so substantial time loss.

Luckily before we left, I had filled my reserve tank with 1 gal and there was a guy there that put around 0.6 gal from his reserve into @bryanchurch06 ‘s tank. Unfortunately we suspect that it was E85 or something really rough.

The lady running the station also told us that the road we intended to take had some pretty gnarly terrain towards the end. Now I’m not sure what she meant and I think I need to establish a common baseline for future conversations because the resulting detour was pretty damn long.

Absolutely eye candy though. The one roadway we were on of I-191 was just vista after vista. I wish I could have taken better quality photos because it was so beautiful.

I did pretty much run out of fuel though and was glad I had the extra reserve on hand. Looked into the gas tank as I was refilling it and could see the bottom very, very visible. Probably 1-2 more mi of fuel before I ran completely dry.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Beginning mileage Las Cruces was 262, mileage today leaving Rock Springs, WY 1707. Making it 1445 total miles in 7 days average 206 miles daily. The big issue for the trip so far had been the rain starting early in Colorado, I originally planned on missing the rain season in NM and CO by starting June 1st, worked for NM, got hammered in Colorado making the dirt sections unridable. Causing us to detour on 2 lane paved rds, not the best riding but not the worst either, still getting soaked just not sliding around in mud, fun for a mile or 2 just not 50 to 100 miles. So far on the trip the biggest limitation on the bike is suspension and travel not horsepower. The dirt roads we rode will rattle your teeth out, that's with yss shocks and Preload Front installed, glad I didn't try it stock as planned. So here I am a little over halfway, the next 1000 miles is very familiar country for me unlike Colorado was so I may change my route a bit to ride roads that are better suited to me and the bike, originally planned on riding Yellowstone tomorrow with Sneakydingo but I may detour thru Idaho and meet him in west Yellowstone, that allows him the time to sightseeing without me holding him up and I don't have to fight Yellowstone traffic on a Fri , nothing in stone yet just thinking of how best to finish this ride without breaking either the bike or myself.

 

[bryanchurch06]

Rock Springs to Pinedale 100 Miles of Antelope, Wild Horses and this small rest stop where I stopped to pee, looked down and saw what I now realize is a truck fan belt, but what I saw then was a large black snake coiled up by my foot and ready to strike. I was not scared I merely jumped that 8ft because I didn't want to pee on the snake. And the screaming was to warn any other snakes in the area I was coming so they wouldn't get peeded on either. Later when I was able the release the death grip on my penis and congratulate myself on an amazing display of athleticism I investigated and found only a fan belt not the penis eating snake I originally saw. The rest of the ride was un eventful.

 

[Tchap]

Rock Springs to Pinedale 100 Miles of Antelope, Wild Horses and this small rest stop where I stopped to pee, looked down and saw what I now realize is a truck fan belt, but what I saw then was a large black snake coiled up by my foot and ready to strike. I was not scared I merely jumped that 8ft because I didn't want to pee on the snake. And the screaming was to warn any other snakes in the area I was coming so they wouldn't get peeded on either. Later when I was able the release the death grip on my penis and congratulate myself on an amazing display of athleticism I investigated and found only a fan belt not the penis eating snake I originally saw. The rest of the ride was un eventful.

I understand, with your Willy in your hand and out in the wind you must have had “snake” in your mind to begin with. Like, it could have been just about anything penis or snake-like to be kind of startling. Another delightful update! I think that the country that you’re traversing sounds gentle and fun. Have you done much camping on the trip so far? I love to camp, but I also love showers and take-out.

 

[bryanchurch06]

With the rain and lack of camping we've been in motels every night, btw avoid the rock springs motel 6, terrible place

 

[Tchap]

With the rain and lack of camping we've been in motels every night, btw avoid the rock springs motel 6, terrible place

In the past while hiking I have come across small bed and breakfast situations that were kind of fun because you can get really great treatment from the proprietors and meet fellow travelers as well. Very friendly, really. And lots of characters, too. Mostly these were posted in guide-books back in the day. I’m not sure how you could find that on your route, but the cultural experience and meeting people is so much fun, it’s usually for me a big part of the experience. Anyway, thanks for your reply. Your load looks fair (as in “streamlined”), and secure. I’ve got lots of more questions, but you guys will probably answer most of them in future posts. Well, do be safe and fun. Thanks as ever for sharing this adventure!