RR; Taylor Park
Rex McKinney
coming in to Colorado for his annual Taylor Park ride. He and buddy Keith
make the trip up here just about every year. He has been inviting me up for
a few years and I always seem to have something going on. This year I only
had Friday free but have been wanting to join him so I made the 3.5 hour
trip.
I left the house at 4AM to meet the Texas boys at 8AM. Got there a
little early so I was able to take a 20 minute snooze beside Taylor
reservoir before meeting at Taylor Trading Post for breakfast. I hadn't seen
Everett in about 7 years so we did some catching up then headed back to
their cabin to leave from there.
The morning broke partly cloudy and a nice temp of 55 or so as we headed
out. We had a short little road section up to the start of Timberline trail.
This is a rocky son of a gun. Keith was leading on his trials tire equipped
KTM. They had been getting lots of rain up there and one point a little
creek was running down the middle of the rocky trail, lucky for us you can't
wash rock away so the trail could handle this. This trail is true single
track, it would take a huge effort to get a qwad started down this thing and
without a helicopter it would be stuck there for a long time.
About the half way point we ran into a guy from Iowa and stopped to talk
to him. As we were talking I started to notice the clouds building. We
talked for a bit and headed back down the trail. About that time those
clouds opened up. I was lucky enough to have a rain jacket along and
slipped it on. We came out at an old mine and was able to find a little
cover under the old structure to eat our lunch. We finished lunch and head
for a short road section. Everett and Keith about froze with their wet
jerseys and the drizzle continuing. The rain had slowed enough that when we
got to the next trail section we continued on.
We started up what I think is called Spur trail. This is full of a bunch
of switchbacks and is just a blast to ride. The rain was starting to come
down a little harder and the roots were getting slicker. I was leading at
this point, came around a tight corner, caught a root and before I knew it I
was giving Everett and Keith a show. The bike went down faster than I could
feel and next thing I knew I was sitting on top of my now downed bike, my
butt never touched the ground.
As we came out of this trail the rain let up so we continued on and hit
the Star trail. We got about mile into this one when the rain came back
again. This is a root filled trail, with sections of rocks too. Got a little
slippery in places but I was having a blast having the bike dance on the wet
roots. We got through that section pretty good, hit Lilly Pond trail and
popped out just as the rain let up again. Had about 10 mile section of road
to finish out the day and get into some dry, warm clothes.
It was a fun day and great to ride with some old rmd guys again. They
were staying up for a couple more days but I had to head back to Denver for
work. Everett was going to take some pictures but his camera need some juice
so just the memories. Now it's time to go out and clean up the bike and
gear.
Rex McKinney
HardWorkingDog
"Rex McKinney" <endurodog...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> It was a fun day and great to ride with some old rmd guys again. They
> were staying up for a couple more days but I had to head back to Denver for
> work. Everett was going to take some pictures but his camera need some juice
> so just the memories. Now it's time to go out and clean up the bike and
> gear.
>
> Rex McKinney
Thanks for taking the time to write :) I did a little search about
Taylor Park and came across this from a fishing site:
http://www.coloradofishing.net/ft_mmtaylor.htm
...We loaded canoes on our vehicles and headed to Mirror Lake, the
headwaters of East Willow Creek. People are friendly up there. The
residents of Tin Cup seem like they might be keeping an eye on you at
first, (can't blame them since all the tourists in the world drive by
their front yards to visit some of the prettiest country in this
state), but mostly, they're just friendly. We know this, because we
didn't realize we had lost a canoe on the bumpity road up to Mirror
Lake and scattered belongings for 3 miles. A nice lady caught up with
us on a dirt bike and pulled us over. "Hey! You lost everything WAY
back there!" We backtracked down the mountain and encountered a chain
of do-gooders carrying our stuff and making piles of our possessions
along the road. We weren't missing a thing...
"Dirt bikers are good people, too."--Bruce Brown
--
Charles
'99 YZ250
Rex McKinney
IMHO I have never ridden any place better than Taylor Park, it is my
favorite place to ride of all the places I have been. Everyone should make
a trip there once in their life.
Rex McKinney
"HardWorkingDog" <har...@mush.man> wrote in message
news:harvey-57A8E9....@individual.net...
txmxrider
figure. Anyways, I got several photos on Saturday and posted them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10725569@N02/
Hopefully I'll have a ride report soon.
--
Everett
'04 KTM 300 EXC (the new Treefinder)
'00 CR 250 (for sale)
'75 Kawasaki S3 400 (2-stroke triple)
'74 BMW R90/6 (Gentleman's Express)
"Rex McKinney" <endurodog...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:Q7ednflYt-Y9eDHb...@comcast.com...
Dean H.
> figure. Anyways, I got several photos on Saturday and posted them here:
>
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/10725569@N02/
>
> Hopefully I'll have a ride report soon.
>
> --
> Everett
>> IMHO I have never ridden any place better than Taylor Park, it is my
>> favorite place to ride of all the places I have been. Everyone should
> make
>> a trip there once in their life.
After seeing those pictures, I can see why you say that Rex.
Thanks for posting the pix Everett