Did my first overnight trip with the Spyder. The route: Saturday, Longmont to Grand Lake. Sunday, Grand Lake to friends house in Idaho Sprints. Monday, return home. Packing for the trip we used the Can-Am luggage. These are very small inserts for the saddle bags and a wheeled carry-on type bag for the front trunk. All three pieces are smaller than the cavities in which they go. A very inefficient use of space. I took the front piece and my wife used the two saddle bags. For this trip there was adequate space but not nearly enough for a longer trip.
My long time riding companion, Bill, and his girlfriend arrived Friday night. We set out on a foggy drizzly Saturday morning for Estes Park. Around Pinewood Springs the sky opened up to a bueatiful cloudless blue. Breakfast in Estes Park then on to Rocky Mountain Park and up Trail Ridge Road. We decided not to go up Fall River Road as it is a single lane, one way dirt track. Heavy traffic would make this a “not fun” situation. However, after stopping at a scenic overlook we could see that traffic was light on Fall River Road. So with time to kill we headed back down Trail Ridge Road and then up Fall River instead. Bill's Caponord did fine given that this is its element. The Sypder was less than pleased although it did manage. Wash boards caused the rear wheel to become unweighted and spin. Plus I got high centered once when the right front dipped off the edge. Still we made it to the visitor center at the top stopping briefly along the way at a water fall. We arrived at our hotel in Grand Lake around 2:00 pm.
As we unloaded the bikes we saw emergency equipment rolling toward the park and assumed that some tourista drove off the side. In town we found lunch and browsed through the grotto shops. That evening we had appetizers on the deck and watched the sun go down. I smelled smoke as I got into bed and just assumed (there's that word again) it was a camp fire. Of greater concern was my back. I was in a lot of pain that was not responding to ibuprofen and I failed to bring any prescription pain killers. I was awoken in the middle of the night to stronger smoke smell so I had to close the door to the balcony.
The next morning my back was doing much better but we decided to return to Longmont via the park just be on the safe side. But the road was closed due to a forest fire. That explains the smoke and emergency trucks. So we were forced to proceed with the original plan. I was doing fine. We refueled in Frazer just outside of Winter Park and arrived at Bill's house around 11:30 without incident. From there we hopped in the car and went to the casinos in Central City/Black Hawk. But first a stop in Idaho Springs for Pizza. Marilyn exited $2.30 in the black. Everyone else in the red. I broke even as I chose not to participate. Unlucky at cards, lucky at love? We returned to Bill's house which we eventually left arriving back in Longmont at 8:00 pm.
If I had been thinking I would have kept track of total distance but I suspect it was something over 200 miles. This puts the total mileage at over 1800. For the most part my back has held up very well. Next summer I would like to try more days on the road. If this proves viable I would consider getting the matching trailer. First I would like to make some bag liners out of ballistic nylon that more closely form to the volume available.
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