lawnchairboy Posted July 31, 2012 Posted July 31, 2012 Owl creek pass/ridgway area was a great first day of stretching my legs out on the dirty stuff with the DR after riding across the country in the truck. The mountain bike got some work here also: I also managed to ride last dollar road from the dallas divide over to telluride and took the asphalt back to ridgway. Last dollar road is a very pretty ride: managed to find my retirement ranch on last dollar road: met up with a grandma, mom, and four little girls near this promontory on last dollar rd. They were enjoying the sights, you can see the truck up there: It was such a nice spot I decided to get a DR glory shot: Just then, I heard the ladies behind me pulling outta there and then, they stopped, flat tire. Now I can't remember what flavor vehicle this was but let me tell you, getting the &*%$ spare out from under that thing required more work than I thought was necessary, holy cow. I had to dig a bit of a hole to get the spare on due to the place the truck was located I told them I would make them famous: more last dollar road: this is from a pulloff on CO62, just over the dallas divide looking back towards Ouray: The next day, I decided to suit up in my big boy pants and boots, put on my game face and try to get up on the alpine loop, engineer pass specifically. I came up from the Ouray side off of 550. It was apparent fairly quickly that I might be over my head a bit. I was riding between groups of four wheelers purposely and bumped into a couple of gents from Arkansas on the way up after which I felt a little less concerned, at least if I piled it off the side into a chasm someone may hear me scream. It is difficult to appreciate how some sections of this route incline. the switchbacks were rocky but got better once you got up the first mile and a half or so from Ouray: not many more pics on the way up. Near the top, it got fairly steep. I had to time short bursts up because of a slow moving toyota land cruiser in front of me but made it up and what a view: the snuggie had another moment of glory: Going down the Lake city side was considerably easier and I would recommend anyone wanting to try it to go up that way and NOT go down the Ouray side. I had run the GS up the million dollar highway to red mountain pass to scout for the Imogene and Ophir pass turnoff points earlier in the day... the next day, after some reading and questioning of locals, I decided to run the GS up and over Ophir pass from 550 to Ophir. It turned out to be not nearly the adventure that Engineer was for me although the last section just after the pass into Ophir had me duck walking the GS down through some large rock scree sections with a ledge. Along Ophir: looking up at the pass from Ophir side: near the bottom of the pass, again, it is hard to appreciate the slope of some of these pass roads: looking back at the pass: then hooked up with CO 145, I think, and down to dolores, through mancos and over to durango for lunch at the stater hotel, parking in the rock star parking area: Back up from durango over the million dollar highway, this time grateful to be on asphalt, with the snuggie notching another couple of passes in the process: and swinging through silverton: walked over to ridgway park to hear sister sparrow and the dirty birds all the way from brooklyn, ny for a public radio summer concert, they sounded good: The next day. Imogene was on my list. This takes off just outside of Ouray near camp bird road and runs by yankee boy basin: There are some pretty interesting sections along this pass, one of which had some flowers marking where someone apparently had miscalculated this corner: hard to tell here but the rock completely overhangs the road around that corner: on the way up Imogene: again, difficult to appreciate the slope: getting up there: The landscape changes from alpine tundra over to moonscape as you go up, although there was still some snowy spots: some FJ's coming up from behind and below from Ouray: top of the world: Started down behind the group of FJ's on purpose, the leader was a BMW rider who has a 450X in the valley below, told me to take it easy on the way down. The FJ's had to do multipoint turns near the top so as not to roll down the hill on something other than their tires: more to come....
Highway41 Posted July 31, 2012 Posted July 31, 2012 Wow. Great photos. Like seeing up close what you see from a distance on the asphalt. I would not even walk on the road to Imogene or Alpine Tunnel. Gives me the willies just looking at the photo. Bill PS - Good on ya for changing the tire.
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