Cinnamon Pass

Saturday morning we were up early looking out at the herd of elk up on the mountain! But soon it was time to dress in layers and head out again on the motorcycles! I wore a LOT of clothes that day - a tank top, a long sleeved knit shirt, a heavy pullover sweatshirt, and a lined jacked! I had no idea I should have brought really warm pants but I managed to put a rather non-heavy pair of sweats UNDER my jeans so that worked out great!! Gloves were a MUST and although I didn't have a hat (not that I would have worn one - I despise having things on my head!) I could easily put up the hood on my jacket when I needed it!!

Dick and Jane arrived about 9:30 and we headed out - trust me, I NEEDED every item of clothing that I had on! It was still pretty cold that time of the morning but once the sun came out, it felt a whole lot better!

Cinnamon Pass was the destination for the day, then heading down into the town of Silverton for lunch and then home by another route! We were game for just about anything!


All along the way, we usually rode by beautiful streams! The clear water was always rushing downstream and even though we were climbing, sometimes it would be right beside us!

Once we got a little higher in the mountains, I could smell the aspens!! Oh, I love that smell - it's an earthy yet sweet smell and I just drank in that smell whenever I could!!

Most of the roads/pathways we were on were actually pretty good - sure there were the usual bumps and potholes and others had lots of rocks and gravel - those weren't so fun!! Unfortunately we got on a wrong road (nothing is marked very good up in the high country) and the road was bad - solid, loose gravel! After the first switchback I actually got pretty nervous as were sliding all over the place, just trying to climb up the inclines! Glenn swerved the bike around the next switchback to try to get a run and he dropped the bike - ouch - I landed hard and my ankle hit rock of course! Between the shooting pain in my ankle, all I could think of was that I had broke my leg again!! But I sat a few minutes and then got up and it was fine - very sore of course but not broken or sprained - whew!!! (As an added note - my hip and legs were really sore when we got home the next day - little did I realize that I had some pretty good bruises in different places on my body!)

We all decided then it was time to get off this road and find another one - but of course once you're UP, you MUST come down!! I chose to walk it - there was no way I was riding on the back of that bike down that gravelly path!! Glenn did a great job getting the bike down the steep parts and pretty soon we were back on the RIGHT road which was a LOT better!

We rode the bikes into Silverton and had a great lunch! Silverton is an old historic town also and very busy as there is a train that comes from Durango through the mountains and ends in Silverton! We walked around and relaxed before we got back on the bikes and headed back to the mountain. Below is a picture of the usual "road/bike path" that we were on so you can see it really wasn't that rough!

As we got to the base of the mountain, we saw what others had been warning us of along the way - a stream that was NOW a river - and the only way to get across was to go through it!! I hopped off the bike of course and Glenn plowed through as fast as he could - but to no avail as the water was up to his knees on the bike and it stalled out - Dick had the same problem with his bike! Now Jane and I - we rode across in some type of an ATV contraption that kept us dry - thankyou, thankyou to that marvelous person!! It was an experience but the downside was that both men were wet from the knees down, including boots and socks!!

The way back home took a LONG time - even though it was beautiful, we knew we were running short on time - not only for it getting dark but COLD!! When we FINALLY reached the highway, we were still over 40 miles from our cabin! Of course we could go 60 mph now on the highway - but keep in mind it's about 40 degrees at this point with the temperature dropping FAST as the sun went down AND we're up at almost 13,000 elevation!!

We just couldn't get home fast enough!! I was frozen just riding behind Glenn and I wasn't even wet!! Glenn's teeth were chattering and his body was shaking by the time we finally got to the cabin - I fixed hot cocoa for him while he peeled off those wet clothes and headed for the shower - it took him a LONG time to finally get warm!

Our plans for a nice grilled steak supper went out the window though as neither of us had the energy to cook after our long day - my, did the bed feel good that night!!

To be continued....................