The mighTTy 600 goes Level 6 in Colorado

[Number Two]

How does Colorado put the Dakota in DDSR?  Is a TT600 even a dual sport?  What's Level 6?  Do Zooks really eat their bread with the butter side down?!
Follow along for all this and more!



I had a few hours to go for a quick ride and took the camera, so this is not a 'trip report' per say, but it'll scare the crickets out of here for a while.

[Number Two]

Photobucket is chugging - pics coming   

[Number Two]

Alright - I got started a little before 8 this morning.  The weather said 24 degrees and sunny - Perfect. 

Here's the noble steed for this ride: my clapped-out 1983 Yamaha TT600. 



And the rider: Darth Number Two

[Number Two]

The real dissapointment with solo rides is that pictures just aren't all that exciting without someone riding through the frame.  After a jaunt down the highway, I stopped to take a leak.



Looking back at the highway



The road ahead

[Number Two]

I spent a lot of this ride maxed out in 5th gear due to roads like this.  I've already upped the front sprocket to get more highway, but the trans is too narrow of a ratio to go any further without losing the low end.  I need a six speed.  This would have been a great big bike ride.  I say that a lot out here in the wide open... makes me want a 950.



Oh yeah, the rock pile in this pic is called diamond peak.  It's one of those names like the 'north fork' or 'snake river'; every part of the country has a different version with the same exact name.  However, the diamond in this peak is not so obscure.  The crust of the earth is stretched thin in this area, and we have lava-tube features called Kimberlite Pipes.  The pipes can and do contain every type of precious gem, and are the only source for diamonds in the US aside from Arkansas. 

[Number Two]

There were a lot of hunters out today.  Lots.  I came up on two fellas hiking down the road with rifles and passed them slow.  Less than a mile and over the next hill, I come across two buck deer standing in the middle of the road.  My handsome thumper struck fear into them enough that they skittered off the road, then ran straight up and over the ridge on the east side of the road.  I felt bad for a few seconds - but that's why you don't hunt the road. 



I checked over my shoulder for the deer, and to make sure the hunters hadn't seen their catch run off by some oakie from Wyoming (I was into the foriegn land of Colorado by this time).

[Number Two]

I took pictures of all the road signs since I didn't have a map and I didn't really know where I was going.  I spent about five minutes on Google Earth, and figured I could loop south into Colorado, head west, then turn back north into Wyoming and work my way back to Laramie.  This is my turn West.  If I got lost, my plan was to look at the camera to find my way back the way I came.



This method of navigation and route finding is certainly exciting, but I would pay for it a little later in the ride by going a little further than I planned.  To perfect the technique, I need a little more fuel range.  The total distance rode was 87 miles, which is about my range; even though I didn't hit reserve.

[Number Two]

Yup, so level 6 means no snow removal.  A little anticlimatic I know...



I tried to leave a nice controlled burn mark with my back tire.  I never did see any smoke, but it was the weekend.

[Number Two]

Here's my turn north to Laramie.  Not quite what I expected.  I was looking for a county road.  This was classic logging road.



The clear cuts make for some open views of the terrain.

[Number Two]

More



My little forest service road was getting smaller not bigger, and I was losing my confidence that this would take me all the way back to the high prairie.



I decided to turn around here and try back at the county road going east-west.

[Number Two]

Well aparently all the spirited riding and water-bar jumping had taken its toll on my invertibrate liscense plate, as the TT has shed another one.  Maybe it's trying to tell me something.  I may try a Wyoming plate this next time, along with some reinforcement.   



I headed straight back the way I came to see if I could find my plate.  Oh yeah, there was a little 'Level 6' in the shadows.

[Number Two]

I made it back to my eas-west pipeline and gunned it for a few miles.  Once I made it up onto the ridge and got my bearings I realized where I was.  I had overshot my turn to the north, but was headed toward a landmark that I recognized.



Highway 130 through the Snowy Range is already closed for the season.  You can see the evidence off in the distance.

[Number Two]

I'm back in the vicinity of another county road that I recognize, so I tucked in for the rest of the ride home (had to make it back for the kids carnival - didn't want to miss the cake walk, kiddie kastle, pumpkin patch, etc.).  This is the strangest little chunk of land in my neck of the woods.  It looks a little like Moab slickrock, and this is all there is.  It's sherman granite, shale, and quartzite in all other directions. 

[Number Two]

Here's a map for those familiar with the territory.  In all, I had a great ride; really need a buddy and a GPS though.  Took me 2hr 45min door to door.

[Number Two]

Just realized I made it past 100 posts and have reached 'full member' status - look out world 

Where have the rest of ya'll been out riding?