mullerb's musings

I said I was going to resurrect this thing. I missed last week...hard to get into the habit again. But I'll try... Yet another unreal fall day. 58F and sun with raging winds and snow over the divide to the west. Hardly a breeze down on the eastern road loop, just a steady flow of coolish air from the northeast. Solo, as usual for my rides this year, and very enjoyable.

NYC with Uncle Joe and Aunt Yoli for the kids, pinion and juniper heaven in Colorado for Rach and I. We dropped the girls off at DIA (we did walk them to the gate, despite our pent up energy to get on the road) and were heading south on E-470 by 5PM on Friday eve. 3 hours later we pulled into the Sand Gulch Campground on BLM land, 12miles north of Canon City on Shelf Road. A snuggly night in the van topped off by a blue sky morning got us psyched for the day's activity: a ride up Shelf Road to Cripple Creek. From 2008 Nov Shelf Road Trip It's a dirt road, 14 miles one way, well guarded by a sign that clearly warns all comers: "High clearance or 4-wheel drive recommended". Most definitely an excellent deterrent because we only saw 5 cars the entire ride up the canyon. And we could have taken any old car up there - no 4x4 or high clearance needed. No complaints on our end though as it was way nice to have no traffic. The landscape is rugged, first with a canyon rim line