Tonight we are in Littleton which I think is a suburb of Denver but might be a satellite city. We have had a great day. Not too many photos I'm afraid but a great day nonetheless. Riding conditions were perfect with high cloud and the temperature around 17 degrees C for most of the day.
We were up reasonably early again and on the road before 8am and heading out of Craig on CO40 to Hayden. Just a small town but we stopped for the photo.
We then had a couple of wildlife moments that got us going. Firstly D&D experienced a deer loping across the road between the two bikes. I was in front and didn't see a thing but Dick had a good opportunity to test the ABS brakes on the BMW. And the torque settings on the sphincter valve. No time for photos. Sorry.
Not long after I was enveloped in a cloud of birds. Some went over, some went around, some might even have gone under, but one went into the fairing and hurry curried on the cylinder head in a flurry of feathers and down. I stopped, extracted and contemplated CPR but decided against it. I was a little sad.
Nek minit we were stopped again by one of those interminable road works. We could almost have been in NZ.
We finally got back underway to discover that we had been waiting for the roadies to finish early morning coffee and get set up. We stopped briefly for coffee and petrol at Steamboat Springs where I filled up at this chain of Colorado service stations. Somehow I don't think the name will catch on in NZ or Australia.
We then went over Rabbit Ears Pass, a lovely section of windy road climbing up and then down towards Kremmling. Here are the rabbit ears.
We then swung east past Grand Lake and into the Rocky Mountain National Park. This was awesome. We saw a deer on the side of the road at the very beginning but the plus was the climb. At the peak Karen was reading an elevation of 3,713 metres ASL. That is almost as high as Aoraki Mount Cook. Amazing. And it was cold - down to below 9 degrees C at times.
We stopped at a high point and Kiwi chatted up a couple on matching Harley's. Seemed ok.
We descended a bit and had lunch at Estes Park. I had trout! It ws delicious. We then worked our way down through CO7 past Ward, Nederland and Central City and onto the freeway for Denver. We exited at Littleton where we met up with D&D's friends, Richard and Shelly Stekel. Kiwi checked them out. Seem ok.
Kiwi and I are sleeping in the basement. It is very kewl. Kiwi even has his own pedal car.
We have now had a lovely dinner garnished with lively conversation and, as is the way for old fart bikers, we are ready for early bed. Tomorrow the search for Draggin Jeans continues and at 4pm we are going for a baseball experience.
:-)
Today's ride: 442Kms
Cumulative: 14,367kms
Tipovers: 2
Location:Littleton, Colorado, USA
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