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Last summer Reddog, Giraffe and I took a 500 mile loop to the Black Canyon, (posted in the ride archive) we had a great time. Bill and Scott are both faster than I am so I was playing catch up most of the day - I hate to admit it but they were getting away from me at times. Which is what is shown in this video, I like riding with faster guys cause I expose my strengths and weakness as a rider. This video is one of the former!~ Though still a good video of a fantastic section of road in Central Colorado near Gunnison, hwy 114 at Cotchetopa Canyon.
THE MAP
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map link
The road is only about 17 miles long along the canyon then it straitens out considerably and heads over a pass, it was the scene of a couple of accidents the 4 times I have ridden it. The first time was again with Bill where a semi truck hauling live chickens overturned in a 90 degree turn - spilling chickens out all over the place! Bill and I were at full lean when we came up on a highway patrol man who waved us up to his window! We thought were were about to get the riot act but instead he just warned us about the overturned truck around the corner.
Then Sport-touring.net had their national meet here in Colorado 2 years ago and I led a group of bikes into the canyon and 3 of them went off the road in the same corner! Unfortunately one rider broke his back and two others suffered damage to their bikes, it only now that the downed rider is starting to recover ~ I still feel a bad about what happened. So I am more than aware that this road is a dog that bites and doesn't bark! So as such I always feel a bit pensive about riding it very fast. Not so with my two buddies who dropped me like a hot potato after 4 turns! Me riding all wide eyed looking for cars hidden in the bushes ready to pull out in front of me at any moment! There is a small creek along the side of the road which feeds the thick bushes along the road, there are driveways and camping sites all along the way which sort of freaks me out a bit so I am always on alert!
The Terrain
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The road is mostly in a rocky canyon of the height of 12 story buildings, mostly scrub oak and brush then it gives way to dense evergreens, its pretty much flat and difficult to see where the turns go, as some of them are very long turns where your leaned over constantly 180 degrees into the turn then dashing off in the other direction. It is a challenging ride and fun - I had fun anyway!
THE VIDEO
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Cotchetopa Canyon Video
runs for 5 minutes - music by Metheny/Mehldau contemporary jazz wmv format 1mb/sec enjoy its too cold to go riding for me!
attached is the streets and trips file and the google earth file
cotchetopa.est ( 5k ) Number of downloads: 1
cotchetopa.kmz ( 2.98k ) Number of downloads: 0