VFR Discussion Group -> Gore pass

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With Video

This ride was actually a SportTouring.net group ride but - he who own the camera owns the pictures, �plus I am vfrdiscussion.com walking and in person. :goof:

I was worried that I wouldn't have enough time to get up and head to El Rancho, its on the far side of Evergreen near I-70, the first meeting place at 9am. �I had thought I would ride up along the front range up to Denver and then head up I-70, a rather boring first hour and a half to be sure - thats what you do in the warm winter days - Its summer now right!! To hell with that I went up to Woodland Park and rode to Deckers, up Horsepower Hill and was in El Rancho maybe five minutes late. �It was a nice way to loosen up for a ride by diving head first into twisties!!!

The Maps
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Top Map Full Size �Bottom Map Full Size �Streets & Trips File

I arrived the last one there, met the new people and said hello to the ones I already knew.

VFR800A Brandon (Brandon) VFR VTEC Silver w/Red Checkers
arcangel (Chad) CBRXX Black
sfarson (Steve) RS1200 Silver/Blue
chorning (Chris) CBRXX Silver
COS_VFR (Gordon) VFR750 Red
HispanicSlammer (Miguel) VFR800 Red - Beat Up too

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Brandon showing enthusiasm

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Steve rolling out his Beemer its a nice looking bike!

The guys thought for some reason that I was fast and so expected me to take lead?? I don't know how I got that reputation, a fat ass like me?? :goof: � Anyway this was Steve's ride so he took the first leg up Berthod Pass. �Somehow quite by accident I ended up riding to the top out front, must have been a mistake somewhere in the directions??

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Steve leading the pack for the first leg

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Steve still in the lead at the bottom of Berthod Pass

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For some strange reason I was at the top alone so I took some pictures of the north side of Berthod Pass

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How about those Highway workers eh.. they really know how to make the signs look curb smart huh...look at those stupid porta potties behind the marker?? Thats the way to market the state tourist attractions eh?

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All lined up all pretty look at those clouds, they call that monsoonal flow

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The ride down Berthod was bumpy as hell and very slow due to the cage traffic, it was pretty clogged up going down, the pass was full of gravel in the middle lane anyway, no need to go down so I took it easy.

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Grandby was blocked off

You may have read about a Granby man making a make shift tank out of a bulldozer, well they were not allowing anyone on the main street so we couldn't see first hand any of the damage

Bulldozier Rampage

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We stopped for a drink at the edge of Granby, I don't like gas station photos but look - guilty as charged

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This photo was taken about a thousand yards from that gas station

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Riding hwy 40 along the Colorado River it snakes along the Hot Sulfur Springs wildlife refuge, a 15 mile long park.There is a nice canyon with some good twisties here.

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The town of Hot Sulfur Springs opened in 1911 as the very first ski area in Colorado, it has been a resort ever since the hot springs were discovered.

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Crossing the Colorado River

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The town of Kremmling a sleepy little town in the mountains

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This part of the state changes so much in so little space, here its desert like with dry sandy soil and about five minutes later your into pines, then Aspens, then down into red clay. �Its so strange

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Lockstep up hwy 134 to the top of Gore Pass

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This is the bottom of Gore pass, my Gore pass pictures came out blurry so this is it, but I did get some good video of the pass.

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This is hwy 134 riding to Wolcott for lunch, its pretty lots of Aspens

I really liked Gore pass its so pretty there, no snow capped mountains but is a nice twisty road with plenty of pretty aspen groves on the sides, I had to go back down and do the S turns over again. �We stopped at the top for a stretch, then I moved to the front again for the way down, I was way in the back taking video on the way up. �Going down was a bit straiter but there were some nice long blind turns I sort of got carried away. �Brandon wasn't far behind, I was having some fun on those turns.

We stopped for lunch at the Wolcott Yacht club for an outdoor lunch, a pretty foreign girl served us and she had a Dutch accent, well thats what we all thought. �Food was good, there was a VTEC parked across the way and it was sort of sideways and close to the wall. �Two different people drove right into the space and blocked the guy in. �Cage drivers are just asses sometimes. �Actually all day long they were a pain, we had some trouble keeping the group together cause the cages were not moving over for faster traffic. �6 riders can get stretched out pretty good if a cage decides to make it difficult to pass.

We tuned off at Minturn and found a sign that said the road was closed, NO!! but a local guy told us that it was open, they are building a new Bridge at Red Cliff.

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A new bridge at Red Cliff, our detour was around that rock on the left

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Detour to Red Cliff, I didn't even know a town was down there

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These three cages made it difficult to enjoy the pass ahead, all of them were driving as fast as they could to block us from passing.

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A couple of shots at the bottom of the canyon then up the hill again to the other side of the road

I was following Steve and he passed the two trucks and I thought he was gonna make a stab at the last blue car, so I kicked it down a few gears and rapped it up. I pulled out but Steve didn't go (for good reason) there was a tight S curve coming up but I just passed anyway. �It was a total boneheaded pass and as soon as I did it I was thinking to myself �"That was Damn Stupid" I was free of the cages anyway and took advantage of the rest of the good road, I just kept on going and managed to lean it over nicely in a few nice turns. �We missed the best part of the pass cause of the construction and the troublesome cars and trucks. �Nothing like riding great roads behind cars �:pissed:

Sorry Steve that was really a stupid pass!!

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Sugar Loaf Peak and a man made lake - this the old Camp Hale

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I stopped at the Memorial Honoring the 10th Mountain Division Soldiers who died in WWII

Gordon got off his bike and picked up some flowers and a Wreath that had blown over and replaced them. �It had fresh flowers from the Memorial Day weekend, Camp Hale where they trained is not too far from that lake in the Picture.

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Well Brandon and Chris peeled off at Leadville and headed back down the other way since they live north, �Steve, Chad, Gordon and I continued on south. �Steve had to be back home at 5pm and so he started really hauling ass down to Buena Vista, I followed close behind, I felt like I was riding with Craig or Bill there for a while. �Gordon and Chad were stuck behind a couple of cars but we kept on going. �when the turnoff to Wilkerson Pass came Up I turned off and rode down for about a mile and thought "Gordon should be along here anytime" �So I stopped and about five minutes later there he was. �We rode the rest of the way home together.

Thanks Steve for the ride, Gore Pass is great!!
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:media:
Gore Pass Video

6 minutes run time streaming media 26 mb

Once again, good job. If you saw the roads I've been on so far this year, you could use the video for sleep induction in an insomnia clinic. It was great to hear motor sounds too.

Fantasticshots, great write up. Nice touch honouring the ww11 vets too. Nice job alround.
Gary  :bow:

Great video Miguel. I liked the music mixed into the background audio. It sucks about the windnoise though. Is there anyway to run a remote microphone back to the exhaust to cancel that out?

Hulked Up, Feb 22 2005, 03:40 PMGreat video Miguel.  I liked the music mixed into the background audio.  It sucks about the windnoise though.  Is there anyway to run a remote microphone back to the exhaust to cancel that out?

This was one of thos old vids from last summer with the cannon 330. The JVC does have provisons for remote recording from a dvd or a helm cam but there is no remote mic plug.

I have it back behind the windscreen now with a new clear targa screen so that should cut down on the windnoise, but there is somthing rattling in the dash I got to run down. I thought it was my other broken windscreen but its still there. From the Skyline Drive video, some rancher was hauling rocks and one busted my screen.

I should remake this one as the wind is really distracting. add some pictures and just edit it better all around.

Hey Slammer, more great ride stuff, thnx for sharing. It sure is beautiful there. Long time ago I was in the Boulder area for a few months. Beautiful.

Great stuff - thanks for the glimpse at what is hopefully coming back real soon...riding weather.

Awesome vid's.