Need route advice, Toronto to Denver, and???

[regder]

Need route advice, Toronto to Denver, and??? Now with ride report!

Update: see here for the ride report http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-...route-advice-toronto-denver-2.html#post354998

In my usual procrastinating way, I've left the planning for a trip to the very last minute (been busy, that's my excuse!). Leaving tomorrow morning on an eight day getaway. I've decided to go south westernish, as I've already done much of the east coast, but never been west of Chicago on a bike. The plan is to ride for seven of those days, and take a day off to wander around Denver as I've never been and keep on hearing good things about it. I figure probably around 7k km round trip should be fine, 1200km+ days of slab aren't much of a problem to get to a destination. Outside of Denver, I'm free as a bird to go and see whatever I.

So far I'm thinking of maybe slabbing it straight to Badlands national park, South Dakota and going south from there.

Here is a very rough outline of what I'm thinking of, Mexico is there just cause I think it would be cool to bike to Mexico. I haven't looked at specific places to go really, just a few points that seem interesting from an hour of googling. Nothing is firm and all advice is appreciated. Looking for cool things to see like Rockies, deserts of New Mexico, thinking of maybe hitting up some bit(s) of Route 66 on the way back. Stops that I'd love to get to but unfortunately I don't think I'll have time for are Yellowstone national park, and Bonneville salt flats

Toronto, ON to Toronto, ON - Google Maps

 

[lytehouse]

Just a few suggestions:


If you're going thru South Dakota, try riding Peter Norbeck Scenic Highway.
Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway

Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park,CO:
Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Make sure you bring warm gear, it has been getting into the 30's here (Colorado mountains) at night & in the mornings.

and instead of going into Grand Junction, hit CO 65 thru Grand Mesa National Forest. Much prettier route.

Good Luck & have fun

 

[regder]

Excellent advice, thank you

Just a few suggestions:


If you're going thru South Dakota, try riding Peter Norbeck Scenic Highway.
Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway

Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park,CO:
Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

Make sure you bring warm gear, it has been getting into the 30's here (Colorado mountains) at night & in the mornings.

and instead of going into Grand Junction, hit CO 65 thru Grand Mesa National Forest. Much prettier route.

Gool Luck & have fun

 

[lytehouse]

Here's a couple of links to the Grand Mesa:


http://www.grandmesabyway.org/

Grand Mesa Scenic Byway | Scenic Byways | The Colorado Vacation Directory

 

[lonesoldier84]

Ouch that is a lot of interstate!

My advice is just pick a direction, and go. Plot your route in the morning over breakfast and a map, asking some local bikers for good routes when you come across them at gas stations and such.

 

[krid80]

I work for a bike shop near St Louis, MO. If you need anything, give me a holler.

Make sure you let me know when you are passing through STL and we'll meet up!

 

[Hobbesca]

I agree with lone, as of late i have been thinking about a summer trip for next year. The idea of pointing in a direction and riding is sounding more and more exciting. I was thinking of taking ten days and just riding I did a car road trip along those lines quite a few years ago and I saw more of the world than i ever thought i would.

Yea i think that is the plan for next summer ...

 

[lytehouse]

I'll keep an eye out for an FZ6 on the Million Dollar Highway....we should be riding that stretch around Thurday! I'll be on my graphite FZ1 & John will be riding his Ducati ST4 also graphite.

 

[Norbert]

I'll keep an eye out for an FZ6 on the Million Dollar Highway....we should be riding that stretch around Thurday! I'll be on my graphite FZ1 & John will be riding his Ducati ST4 also graphite.

million dollar hwy is fun!
there's not much between you and total annihilation......

 

[lonesoldier84]

Million Dollar Highway looks amazing. Googled it.

Yup, next year!

 

[regder]

thanks guys, should be on US 550 around Thursday as well :rockon:

I'm somewhere in Wisconsin right now, Spring Garden or Spring Green I think. Did about 1250km today, probably about 1200km tomorrow. My GPS decided to lock up about 500km outside of Toronto so I was stuck trying to use my backup paper map that is crumbling into many many pieces. Got lost a lot, and killed a lot of time trying to get back onto the highway.

Figured out how to do a hard reset on the gps now so I'm back in business, hopefully won't give me any trouble for the rest of the trip, I was an absolute mess today without it

 

[regder]

In Rapid City, South Dakota now. GPS is still screwed, will boot up if I reset it while connected to my computer, but will lock on the boot screen otherwise. I booted up through the computer yesterday morning to find my way to the I90 and it worked perfectly fine for the 300km until I had to shut the bike off for gas, no gps after that. Plan to be in Denver by tonight, and will try to find a Zumo there.

Yesterday absolutely kicked my ass. For the majority of the route west I was dealing with on and off rain, and absolutely killer wind coming from all directions. Probably with gusts up to 60mph. Worst was the wind was magnified ten times when passing a tracter trailer, pulled my right foot off the peg once. Body is sore all over from trying not to get blown off the bike.

Weather is chilly outside right now at 44F or so but should warm up into the mid 70's

 

[lytehouse]

You might consider picking up some maps at a gas station, sounds like your GPS is DOA!
The wind & cold is typical of this time of year...I hope you brought warm gear because it won't be much better once you start to get some altitude. When my husband rode the Ducati back from Nebraska...the wind actually pushed him off onto the shoulder...it can get wicked out on the plains.
Good luck & stay safe!

 

[regder]

Here's a brief ride report of my trip

This is a fairly accurate route of my trip (Directions to toronto - Google Maps) marked by cities where I spent the nights. Left Sunday Sep 5 and came back the following Sunday. Total trip was exactly 7720km according to the odo, throughout 7 days of riding, and I took a day off in Denver to just walk around. Bottom line was it was way too much mileage in too little time, but still an absolute blast. As my trips often become, it was a race to see as much as I possibly could within a very short time frame, as such taking pictures/rest/food took a distant second to just riding. As it is, I had to scale back some of my trip, wanted to hit the Mexican border but time was too tight. Incredible seeing the geography change so much, from plans to mountains, to desert, and the Rocky Mountains are unbelievable. Loved being able to go from 6k feet elevation in Denver, to double that within a hour and a half. Great weather considering the time of year, only saw real rain the first two days and mostly clear skies after that.

A brief outline of my days:

Day 1: Left Toronto around 8 and hit the road, of course 500km into day 1 at only my second fuel stop, my gps stops working. Good thing the first two days were mostly interstate and easy to navigate by map. Nothing exciting, hit some heavy rain by Milwaukee, with a few showers after that. Took a wrong turn off the interstate at Madison, and ended up in Spring Green through some backroads.

Mile 0, all packed and ready:

Day 2: More straight interstate riding, weather started out ok, but got progressively worse. On and off rain, with extremely high crosswinds, worst wind I've ever ridden through. Especially through South Dakota, the wind burst passing a tractor trailer pulled my right foot straight off the peg. Interesting experience for sure. Thankfully I passed the wind system by the end of the day.

Flat, windy, and rainy somewhere in Minnesota:

Rain covers on the bike:

After riding straight in the rain and wind for forever, this was a surprise:

mess in my hotel room after a long tiring day of riding:

 

[regder]

Day 3: Equipped with some paper maps, rode south from Rapid City, SD, Nice to finally get off the interstate and actually get in some twisties. Saw Mount Rushmore, and Crazyhorse. For a non-touristy guy, Mount Rushmore is really impressive, unbelievable how sharp the heads are in real life. From there, rode through Custer State Park, saw some buffalo (very cool btw), and hit Buffalo Gap Grasslands. Very cool riding through Southern South Dakota and Wyoming, not a single town or anything for many miles and miles, really have to be careful with your gas around here. Got to Rocky Mountain National park just a bit before it got dark. Unfortunately, by the time I really hit some altitude on the Trail Ridge Rd that runs horizontally across the park, it was pitch black. The sky was hazy, so I didn't even have stars or the moon. Very scary riding through switchbacks at 12k feet not being able to see a damn thing. Sky cleared by the time I got some miles out of the park, and I got the most amazing view of the stars I've ever seen. They were so clear, I swear I saw them moving.

Mountains in the far distance;

No explanation needed:

Crazyhorse:

Pics from the lookout at Mount Coolidge in Custer State Park:

I thought this was a rock at first, but that there's a buffalo!

 

[regder]

Shot of Buffalo Gap Grasslands:

Somewhere in Wyoming:

 

[regder]

Trying to get a pic in no light in Rocky Mountain Natl park:

Day 4: Spent a bit of time walking around Denver, but then it started to rain so I retreated to the hotel for some much needed lazyness and relaxation. Was able to get a replacement gps shipped overnight from gpscity for the following morning. That was a headache in itself, as the customer service agent told me everything was in stock to get a Nuvi 550 hooked onto the bike, with me calling to confirm three times. Then she called me back four hours after our initial conversation to say the power cable was out of stock, but by then it was passed the shipping cutoff so I couldn't change my order to a Zumo 660. After an angry e-mail to the company, someone whom I assume is the owner called me back right away, and promised to drop one off for shipping on his way home.

Pic from my hotel room in downtown Denver:

Day 5: GPS arrived at the hotel around 10. By the time I hooked it up to the bike, thankfully I setup an aux fuse box under the seat that made this fairly easy and I could reuse my existing Ram handlebar mount, and got packed I was on the road by 11. Amazing day riding through the twisty mountains at high altitude. Million Dollar Highway is easily the scariest road I've ever ridden, many many many hairpins with maybe a foot of room past the end of the lane and then sheer dropoff. Can't wait to do it again. Could have continued past Durango, but it was dark and I was seeing more and more deer and moose on the road so I called it a night.

Somewhere in the mountains:

Day 6: Started off early and went south and then east. Didn't realize there wasn't a single gas station between Bloomfield and Dulce NM, well there were two that were abandoned. Of course ran out of gas about 30km from Dulce. Spent about an hour in the middle of the desert flagging people down for gas before finding someone that had maybe a litre. That got me exactly 3km from the gas station. Another fourty five minutes of flagging people down and I had enough gas to get me to the gas station. Scared the living hell out of me when after filling up, the bike was sputtering and dieing as if something was blocking the fuel. Thankfully that went away after half a minute of riding and didn't give me any grief since. New Mexico overall was really beautiful, lots of arid land, and then you catch a valley that is marvelously green and full of life. The adobe houses around Sante Fe were something else, I'm still kicking myself I didn't stop and take a few pictures. Past Sante Fe did the Turquoise Trail which was interesting but not as nice as I had been told, and then back to straight interstate. The I40 through New Mexico and Texas is boring as hell. Flat and straight without a single thing to do, I was averaging 150-160km/h and was still falling asleep. I tried to do some detours onto Route 66, but that was a letdown, nothing but touristy crap, and the few old route 66 restaurants were charging an arm and a leg. Ended up just going east as far as my energy would let me. I missed Cadillac Ranch (the cadillac's buried into the desert half way) which I really wanted to see, but didn't realize I missed it until the next day.

Northern New Mexico, just south of the Colorado border:

Mmmm, rockies!

Anyone know what these rock formations are?

 

[regder]

And then it was nothing but flat and straight

Day 7: Pretty much just a mission to get home at this point. Stopped off at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial which was very touching and well done, hopefully the 9/11 memorial is done just as well. Tried to see some of Route 66, but once again the things to see were very few and far between. Continued for the most part on the interstate. Rode through St Louis late in the evening and rode for a bit around the downtown, seemed like a really nice lively city, will have to come back soon.

Thought this was cool at one of the touristy Route 66 diners somewhere in southern Illinois, owner owns both the '69 and '10

Day 8: Nothing exciting, more straight interstate all the way home. Wanted to stop by downtown Chicago and get a deep dish pizza (mmmm, soooo good), but I had a late start so just booted it straight home.

 

[lytehouse]

We rode the Million Dollar Highway on Thurs. the 9th.....I tried to kept an eye out for a blue fizzer, but it's hard to look at details of other bikes on that road! One wrong glance could end up being very nasty!
Sounds like you had quite an adventure though & I'm happy you made it back safe.

 

[regder]

We rode the Million Dollar Highway on Thurs. the 9th.....I tried to kept an eye out for a blue fizzer, but it's hard to look at details of other bikes on that road! One wrong glance could end up being very nasty!
Sounds like you had quite an adventure though & I'm happy you made it back safe.

I did it the same day, but I started from the north around 6:30pm, I'm sure you were long gone by then