Mt. Evans ride on 7-22

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:55 pm

So, a few of us were very excited to go to Mt. Evans. It is the highest paved road in N. America!

We gathered at 9am at a local powersports dealer, even though they were closed.

The Scoots:

Chris "Agent Squirrel" rode his Kymco B&W 250.
Me, "Sgt Mooseknuckle" drove my Kymco people 250
Miah, "Private Parts" drove his Buddy 125
Jason "DJ Sn1pr" drove his '68 honda s90!

We were also joined by another rider on an Mp3. He doesn't get a codename because we don't really know him well yet.

We ended up in Morrison just after 10. Unfortunately, the only route accessible by the smaller bikes was blocked by someone who was injured on a nice-looking sportbike. It was quickly hauled away on a flatbed and the rider(s?) were transported away. I hope they're OK, as the ambulance didn't seem to be in any real hurry. I hope that means it was a routine checkup after the accident.

We decided to wait it out at the base of a hill, and go back up and around when the road opened. We took a fairly windy route all the way to Kittredge, where we topped off our gas tanks in preparation to assault the summit!

After everyone had fueled, we took off to Echo Lake, at the base of Mt. Evans. The S90 was not jetted for the altitude and gave Jason fits. we were concerned he would be unable to continue, but he's an expert on the bike and got it running in no time.

Several winding miles later, we came to the Ranger's station, where Chris' veteran status got 3 of us in for free! After tossing in a few $ for road maintenance, we started up the mountain.

Roads were windy with lots of forest to start. Very beautiful, 40mph speed limits. Other drivers were pretty sparse, and no idiots, which is rare for this road!

After that it became more barren. up above tree line there's not much foliage at all besides brush. the final couple of miles are very winding roads, and it tends to back up as cars going both directions slow down. there are few actual drop offs where, if one were to mess up, you would fall a very great distance into another lake (Summit lake I believe). These were nice views on the way down, if a little scary.

We spent some time at the top resting and chatting. We all have a few pictures taken in our fb pictures, working on getting small blog together to document these adventures.

The smaller scoot and motorcycle definitely had a hard time, but it was well worth it!

Here's the wiki link for Mt Evans in general:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Evans

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:18 pm

Great ride, skully.

I have a picture from back in the film days of a Dall's sheep standing in the Mt Evans roadway, blocking traffic. Everyone who saw the picture would ask the same thing: "Is that a banana in its mouth?"

Yep it was a banana in its mouth, because the sheep walked up to a car and someone in the car handed the sheep a banana. The next car handed the sheep a Cheetos, but I missed the picture because I was laughing too hard!

jrsjr · Post by **jrsjr** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:49 pm

I have a picture I took from that road but it's blury because my hand was shaking so much.

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:29 pm

they aren't picky! They also stand in the road with no regard to anything. The part that irritates me is that people block the road for a century to see a goat. I mean....IT'S A GOAT OR SHEEP. Not a very exciting animal...maybe because we have them here and I see them a lot in the mountains.

They're pretty much acclimated to humans, and if you are still they aren't bothered by you being near them. the downside is they aren't afraid to eat your clothes or anything they can chew off your bike either!

Overall not a ride I will do frequently, or when I have something to do the next day. I'm pooped!

iMoses · Post by **iMoses** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:31 pm

Love, love, love Mt. Evans. Been up there quite a few times way back when I live in the Denver area for three years.

Syd · Post by **Syd** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:05 pm

skully93 wrote:they aren't picky! They also stand in the road with no regard to anything. The part that irritates me is that people block the road for a century to see a goat. I mean....IT'S A GOAT OR SHEEP. Not a very exciting animal...maybe because we have them here and I see them a lot in the mountains.

They're pretty much acclimated to humans, and if you are still they aren't bothered by you being near them. the downside is they aren't afraid to eat your clothes or anything they can chew off your bike either!

Overall not a ride I will do frequently, or when I have something to do the next day. I'm pooped!

We learned quick that if there was a car parked along the side of the road to slow down; if there were a few cars parked along the side of the road, stop because there is wildlife about. Got to be kind of a joke, really, but it is probably still true today.

Post by **ericalm** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:08 pm

Pics!

Sounds great!

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 10:42 pm

14,000+ feet ... very impressive!

I checked out that Wikipedia link. The scenery looks incredible. That had to be an awesome ride.

Rob

303mike · Post by **303mike** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:39 pm

I've done this ride twice on the Buddy, including last summer. SO much fun! Here are some pictures I took (hopefully the link works):

https://plus.google.com/photos/10126433 ... bCvgaO2pgE

Scooterboi · Post by **Scooterboi** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:54 pm

MAN that looks like fun! Wish I coulda been there.

Next time for sure!

skully93 · Post by **skully93** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 5:55 pm

that's the one!

Unfortunately other than fb, I don't have mine hosted anyplace. I need to quit being lazy and get a wordpress blog or something going.

velobuff · Post by **velobuff** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:59 pm

Nice!

Hope the Kymco did well!

If I ever get the kahunas to ride the shelf roads I'm gonna cheat on my 2nd 14'er and scoot to the parking lot and hike to the summit

Just hiking up Bierstadt and looking across the Saw Tooth to Evans made me tuck my tail between my legs and run back down to Guanella Pass

velobuff · Post by **velobuff** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:03 pm

skully93 wrote: I don't have mine hosted anyplace. I need to quit being lazy and get a wordpress blog or something going.

Honestly I have one and I'd just recommend putting it here or advrider.com or something.. You'll get more ppl stumbling upon your ride reports that way.