Wandering Retirees

Today we met up with a friend we made on our motorcycle tour last year. Andre lives in a small town north of Ft Collins and is a long time Coloradan. He’s a pilot for Delta and happened to have a day free to ride and share some good roads on his new bike. We rode for nearly nine hours with stops for lunch and stretch breaks, and covered 250+ miles.

Connie and I left Estes this morning on US 34 and met up with Andre just outside Loveland. We got reacquainted over outstanding donuts from a road stand truck and headed north along Co Rte 27 toward Masonville. It was a pretty and curvy road but not too challenging. (Our guide said he’d take it easy on us.) Then along 38E which took us around Horsetooth Reservoir and really pretty terrain among the mountains of the Front Range. (The Front Range of the Rockies is the first string of mountains you see coming from the Great Plains. They run from Casper, WY to Pueblo, CO. ) Then the challenge.

Andre has ridden these roads for more than 20 years and knows some exceptional roads. Like Rist Canyon Road to I’m not really sure where. Heading west there were a ton of sharp twisties and a handful of hairpins that kept my attention pinned on the road ahead. We met up with Rt 27 again heading north to Rt 14, Poudre Canyon Rd, which led us along the Cache La Poudre River deeper into the mountains, nearly to the north east corner of Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park. The roads are good and thrilling. Along the way we passed Lower Dadd Gulch, and stopped at a Forest Service Visitors Center. An amazing ride through an area that has great sentimental value for Andre. It was wonderful.

After a brief rest we retraced much of our route to Andre’s beautiful home where he graced us with comfortable chairs and some good coffee for our return leg to Estes Park. An awesome day.

Tomorrow a little riding, some laundry and a trip to Laramie, WY to see family.