Map of what I am looking at as a fun and easy 4 day ride in May. Hitting up some roads I missed the last trip and seeing some areas I wanted to spend more time in. Should be a great way to break in the “new” bike :)
even ordered my first bits of heated gear for the ride ( and some nice rain over-gloves) via Aerostitch.
Updated Video Time! (note that the video is embedded here fairly small, just click the resolution and make it full screen. The video is 1080P native.)
I spent the last few nights hacking on the CO ride video to fix some things that bugged me. This is what can be called a directors cut, or something. Some video was axed, some was added, and changed some music, and also added in some high res stills that I shot on the way.
The new version of the video is a much better way to tell the story that was the trip I went on. Hacking on this made me really long to get on another one of these trips as soon as I can! :)
Enjoy :)
So… I am starting to plan what I want to do for exploring the Rockies this year. The trip probably wont be until late June or sometime in July just due to wanting the roads to be snow free (as much as possible).
After the last trip, I have all the gear I need, except maybe some new tires for the bike. The trip last Sept was the single most liberating, exhilarating, and eye opening adventure I have been on. Not sure anything will rival that just due to everything being so new, and unexpected. But there is a ton of area to cover and places to see :)
Both the maps are ~ 1600 miles, and I would expect both trips to be between 5 -7 days.
The first map takes me out to SLC through RMNP, and some roads I was on last Sept, but many I wasn’t. Then down to Moab, and then back through Durango, and up some of the roads I wasn’t able to hit on my last trip. Also a swing by the Sand Dunes, and stops in my favorite town in Colorado - Creede.
The second, hits up Yellow stone (gotta see it before it blows up on Dec 12 2012 and all :p), meanders into Montana, Idaho, and then down to SLC, and back to Denver. I’ve always wanted to see Yellow Stone national park, and parts of the mountain ranges in Idaho. This trip would be shorter than the other just due to much of it being a straight shot in highways.
Both are routes I really want to take, I doubt I can or would want to do both in one summer… but who knows. One of these routes could be done in the car with Kate as well. While not as exciting as being on a bike, it would be nice to take Kate out for an adventure around the Rockies.
We are already planning to recreate much of my Sept route via car with her as there are also some areas I want to explore that the bike couldn’t go on that route.
(Updated the Link for the 1080P version - and fixed one typo)
Here is my final product of my trip (besides still going through SLR pics), all of Western CO distilled into one tidy 15 minute package.
Besides for video, much of this was captured with the GoPro HD on the motorcycle just taking one 5Mpix still image every 5 seconds. Which is also why parts of the video are at a slightly different aspect than others. The video was all shot in 720P 30 fps (to extend the life of my 80GB of memory I brought with.)
The GoPro was also hard wired to run off the bikes power system via a hack to a BacPac I did and documented here a few weeks ago.
Sorry for any motion sickness this may cause :) All the video and time lapse were sped up quite a bit to fit everything into 15 minutes. Many of the very twisty bits (most of the trip was very twisty) were edited out because of the rapid direction changes and how hard it was to watch (especially any of the time lapse shots).
The video is 1080P so enjoy!
This ride was amazing, and one of the most interesting trips I have ever done. I am already brain storming of new trips next spring to places like Yellow stone, or down into New Mexico or Arizona. (not to mention the possibility of Austin for the GP next November).
A few of the pics I snapped with the SLR on the trip. I brought a few lenses with me but ended up only using my Tokina 11 - 16mm super wide as CO is a damn big place!
More will be posted in the coming days.
Just some fun pics I found when sorting the 25,000 images the GoPro took. First pic is of me riding out of Nathrop, CO with the Collegiate Peaks behind me. And then a picture the bike captured of me taking a pic at the top of Douglass Pass in Western CO 50 mi north of Grand Junction.
