Day 5 ~ Friday 23rd: Keystone - Denver Creek Campground

100 Miles

It was a day of emotional and physical UPs and DOWNs - literally DOWN at one point.

Short version: I got lost following the Ute Pass Rd. and dropped the bike.

Long version:

Here WAS the plan.

PLAN was simple. But there is no guarantee that things will go as we PLAN. But it started out good. I stayed on the first floor of the resort. There was a nice path leading to my patio. So I decided to ride down the path and load my bike that way - instead of taking all the crap up the front entrance. I probably saved 30 min. by doing this. =)

My first stop was the town of Silverthorne to gas up NanC. It was a nice little town along I-70. So the traffic was rather heavy, but everything went smoothly as I planned. I kept riding north on HWY 9 until I saw Ute Pass Rd. on the right.

Ute Pass Rd was nice. There was a huge mining plant and immediately after that, a Bambi was standing in the middle of the road (in video 0:55). Soon the pavement ends and I turn to the right toward Horseshoe Campground. From there, the road was fabulous - almost as good as Phantom Canyon Rd. The Keyser Creek to the right was gorgeous. I saw several make-shift campsites along the creek. I would like to stay at one of those in the future.

I was having a great time until I got to one of the road split. (39.938094, -105.953965) At this point, I was running Google Map on my iPhone. I did not have a GPS route loaded. The Google Map decided that I should take a short cut at this point. So I followed. It was taking me deeper and steeper into the woods. Yes, I had some concerns. The road became narrower. I don't know if a full-size pickup truck can go through it. The road is getting rocky. This was especially not good on my NC700X. Lack of 19-inch front tire makes it harder to get over rocks. The clearance was also an issue. I had to be careful. I was scraping and banging on the SW-MOTECH skid plate. Also, it would have helped to have a set of more aggressive tires, instead of my Shinko 705's.

So after a while, I went down (see from about 3:00 in the video). No injuries on me or on NanC just bruised ego. I unloaded the bike, picked her up, and rested a while to move on. I was near the peak of the road and beyond peak was a piece of cake.

Here is the route I got lost.

Once beyond the peak, it was all downhill and road condition improved. Stopped at a make-shift campground and rested some more. I was exhausted. Soon after I found HWY 40 to head to Granby, CO.

I did not reserve any campground on this trip. I just decided to ride and find out. So the first campsite I tried was Sunset Point Campground on the Lake Granby. It was full. The nice camp host lady told me to try Stillwater campground. So I did. It was full as well. So my next choice was Denver Creek Campground. It was half full when I arrived. I found a spot where I can hang my hammock. So I stayed there for a night.

Once my campsite was secured, I went back to the town of Granby, about 12 miles from the campground. As I was coming into town earlier, I saw a nice restaurant. So I decided to visit there for late lunch/early dinner - Maverick's Grill.

A quick glance of the menu and Elk Sausage Sub jumped right into my eyes. And it was the right choice to make. It was THE BEST open face sandwich I've ever had in my life. (The 2nd best is coming up later in Saguache, CO) 

Quite happy with the meal and service, I was ready to explore the town a bit. I went to a grocery store to get my breakfast cup noodle. There was a nice GL1800 parked at the entrance and a guy was on it. He was waiting for his wife. I hit up a small biker chat. He was from Ohio and riding through Colorado with his wife. We both bragged where we have been and all the stuff we've gone through. I enjoy these chats as I travel on a motorcycle.

After the grocery store, I stopped to get gas. A local trailer truck driver starts talking to me. He hauls freshly cut trees. He said that he saw many bikes looked a lot like mine in town that day and asked if I was a part of it. I told him I was just coming through the town. Later, I looked it up on their Chamber of Commerce site that there was an adventure bike school in Granby that day. Who knew!

Earlier that day, I saw a sign of Farmers Market in town. So I decided to stop by and see what is going on there. I would say about 20 shops were there and a guy singing with his guitar. I sat on the lawn and listen to him for about an hour before headed back to my campground.

After I went back, I discovered that the campground is now FULL. Many family campers with small kids and two Harley guys sharing a tent together - brothers? lovers? who cares. Kids were loud throughout the evening. But once I went to sleep, I did not hear them - I slept hard.

Next time I visit Denver Creek Campground, I'd like to stay on the creek side of the campground.