Fire Miles
Had no reception for a couple of days. This is 1 out of 3 belated posts. Grab a drink and read a lot. Or skip altogether. Or skim. Or do you.
Just do you. That’s what I do (meaning me not you) :)
Leaving Telluride, I got back on the tail end of Million Dollar Highway with Wyoming as destination in mind. The idea was to make a serious dent in the 2-3 day ride to Yellowstone.
Plans are plans and reality is not the plans. After about 100 miles, as I was going to turn up north on CO-13 from I-70, I found out it is closed due to fires and the smoke all over was pretty thick. Only then I recalled that my original original plan was actually to go west and hit some really cool sites in Utah (which I’ve done before such as Dinosaur and Flaming Gorge). Instead I ended up extending the day by 100 miles going east and basically retracing some of my route coming into Telluride.
Oh, also just at the end of Million Dollar Highway as I was refueling I met a couple of riders my age riding my bike on the BDR! The BDR is a rough off-road set of routes across many states. These dudes did it on loaded heavy bikes. My hat off to them. Wow. Inspiring but not for me. The balance between fun and stress skews too much to the stress end for me. Especially solo. But they mentioned that the uphill on Ophir pass was baby head style rocketing (an actual bikers term, you can imagine. Gnarly times 100).
The first half of the way the views were great but I was just in the riding not-stopping mood and anyways it was mostly fast roads. The second part into Wyoming was not as nice but impressive in its bare endless barren land. All in all I broke my trip record at 480 miles for the day.
So, today there are no photos really. Just a grind ride with a bit of rant. Good change for a change. Anyways I flooded previous (and future posts) with photos.
I ended up in the most shit hole town/motel I’ve ever been to. I’m looking forward to get out of this nowhere shit hole Wyoming. That reminds me that some of this state is incredible such as Yellowstone, and the rest is shit holes such as where I am at now. True lousy, authentic Wild West without any charm or appeal.
I need to replan my following week because I’m still way ahead of schedule whatever that means. I might hang longer in Yellowstone and Glacier. Why not :)
Mood -
Calm good except the fire detour took me aside for a bit but I’m going with the flow. Still reminiscing on the festival. It was really special for me. Awesome. Let’s hope I keep my spirits up. Some stuff is coming down to more turmoil but let’s keep ourselves, meaning myself, in the present.
Music -
I’ve been playing all day Spotify’s Telluride Festival playlist. It has some artists I haven’t heard and other favorites that didn’t make it into the playlist. But still representative of the event.
Telluride Jazz Festival 2025 Playlist