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April 10, 2021
Oh My God Road
Today was pretty nice. Clear, sunny, with a high of about 60F, and the forecast for the coming week looks like a lot of snow and rain and falling temperatures. So, I'm out riding today, trying to hit some of my old faithful trails around Clear Creek County before the snows come.
There's a road that climbs out of Idaho Springs which is alternately referred to as "Virginia Canyon" or "Two Brothers Road" or "Clear Creek County Road 281" but the locals invariably refer to it as " 'Oh My God Road' Road". At the summit of Oh My God Road is an abandoned stone building from the Gold Rush.
When I get to the summit of Oh My God Road, I see two full-sized pickups pulling two trailers with several ATV's, and they're stopped at an odd location. So, I stop and speak to them.
"Where you guys headed?"
"We're not real sure. We're looking to unload the ATV's..."
"You can't unload them here. They'll tow your trucks, plus, you can't ride the ATV's on the roads..." I explain. "Are y'all not from around here?"
"No. We're not from around here, and we don't know where to unload them."
"I'll show you where to unload them, boss. Follow me." And with that, I take off, and they follow me about 5 miles/15 minutes, up Virginia Canyon, down into Central City, up Upper Apex Road, to Columbine Campground Road to the officially designated "Staging Area to Unload RZR's". They were so grateful that I showed them where to go, that they handed me a $20 bill. I tried to refuse it, but they wouldn't hear of it.
I tried to ride up the Columbine Campground Road further, but it was too snowy/muddy for my Africa Twin, so I turn back.
But this is what I'm doing. I'm out riding, every day (weather permitting), trying to figure out which trails are open, carefully monitoring the snows as they recede. I don't want to go riding in August, see that all of the trails are open, and wonder how many days of riding I missed. I want to go out and push the envelope every day so that I know what roads and passes are open, as soon as they are open.
Posted by Rob Kiser on April 10, 2021 at 9:49 PM
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