Peenie Wallie: Apex, Colorado

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June 01, 2008

Apex, Colorado

Went for another ride yesterday. This time, I went up "Oh My God Road" (yes, that really is the name of the road.) Then, dropped down into Arapaho National Forest in the Shadow of Bald Mountain, down Upper Apex Road, and up to Apex, Colorado. Tried to get through to Rollinsville, but the trails around Apex are all still snowed in. You can tell when you're fixin to have to turn around because the dirt roads are full of running water. When you see water running down the road, you know that it's melting snow and pretty soon, you're probably going to have to turn back.

But it was a nice day for a ride, and to say that it is pretty is just stupid really. It's just mind numbingly incomprehensibly breathtaking. To the west lies the continental divide, covered in snow. To the east, you can see to Kansas on a clear day.

I don't shoot many pictures, because when you're riding a motorcycle, it's hard to shoot. I have to stop, take off my gloves, pull out my camera, and hold the camera up to my helmet, which is less than optimal because you can't get the view finder close enough to see the full frame to shoot.

This assumes that I don't kill the bike, put the kickstand down, get off the bike, take off my backpack, remove my helmet, and then shoot. So, taking a decent photo is a fairly big ordeal. And, shooting on a running motorcycle doesn't exactly lend itself to great shots, but this is what I've resigned myself to do, mostly. To take a few pictures here and there while sitting on the running motorcycle.

One of the things that irks me to no end is that the Forest Service doesn't post the roads very well. And, so you're left sort of hunting around for access to the national forests. People that own private land near the forest roads post all these "Private - No Trespassing - Dead End" signs, and you have to drive past them to find the forests. So, it really sucks because the private land owners post these signs which are misleading, at best. And the forest service doesn't post any signs at all, hardly. So you just pretty much have to ignore all of the signs and just ride until you find the trails.

I'm reasonably sure that I can't post my GPS tracks without going to prison, but I have some helmet cam footage from the drive up "Oh My God Road" that I'm uploading to YouTube, and I'll post some still pics presently. (I saw a Western Tanager Friday in Hamlin Gulch. No photos, but here's some Western Tanager photos.)

For now, here's the stats on the trip:
Trip Odom: 107 miles
Max Speed: 69.5 mph
Total Ascent: 11,620 ft
Max Elev: 10,845 ft

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