I took the day off from bicycling today because I'm doing the Elephant Rock bicycle rally tomorrow. Since I didn't bicycle today, I thought that I'd get out on my motorcycle instead. My plan was to get out relatively early while it is still cool, and that I did. I headed out at around 7:00am. The temperature was around 58 degrees, skies were cloudy, and there was a slight breeze. Pretty darn perfect.

I headed up to Deer Creek Canyon Road, which leads to High-Grade Road - a favorite bicycling route. High Grade is, well, steep -- like the name implies. Lots of blind switchbacks, with sand in many places. I was in second gear for a lot of the switchbacks. Once I topped out, the road straighted a bit (bends, rather than sharp corners) and I could open it up. This part was really great. The skies were clearer up on the ridge, and the temperature was perfecto (I was in my heavy armored riding pants, so temperature is very important). After a bit of winding flats, the road heads down into Conifer, and beyond to Evergreen. The descent into Evergreen was enjoyable -- much more so than on my bicycle. Seems like I'm more of a chicken on my bicycle than on my motorcycle (but I am a chicken on my sickle, too).

I decided to ride right through Evergreen without stopping, even though my legs were getting a little stiff and sore. The ride down Bear Creek Canyon was just awesome. I did have cars to the front and back, but the going was never too slow or too fast (for my experience level). In Morrison, I stopped at a favorite cafe and had a cinnamon roll and big bottle of water (I'm not going to be dehydrated for this year's E-Rock like I was last year). I ended up chatting with a bicyclist who was riding on a tricked-out time trial bike with the tiniest cogset that I'd seen in a long time.

From Morrison I headed into Lakewood and dropped into the BMW motorcycle dealership on that side of town. Nothing much of interest there, and it looked like rain, so I headed home with my bladder close to bursting.