Four Corner Rally Durango 08/31/2007

It has been quite some time since I have last been to Durango. I was really looking forward to this trip and it didn’t disappoint. We had eight bikes head out on Friday morning. We decided to head down through Salida on hwy 50, over Monarch Pass, through Montrose to hwy 550 and south to Durango through Ouray and Silverton.

We had good weather for the majority of the trip that is until we were on Red Mountain Pass. Right before we hit the initial ascent to the summit we pulled over to break out the rain gear. You could see the wall of water we were about to hit so it only made practical sense. That wall of water lasted for the duration of Red Mountain Pass and the entirety of Molas Pass. At the summit of both passes we did have a few die-hards who wanted to make sure they got their pictures taken with the elevation signs of the passes. The trip down had a wide range of temperatures and as I just mentioned, the rain.

Saturday we covered the rally type of events, making sure we stopped by the local Harley dealership for demo rides and the Ignacio vendors. Joe & Julie and Len & Eve took a couple of rides on the touring models and we got the chance to see something we never thought we would, Garry Mesick on a Road Glide. The numbers of Ignacio vendors were what I remembered them to be the last time we were down here. Instead of the vendors setting up in the fairgrounds they were up and down the main drag. As what you would expect with a rally, there were bikes everywhere. Ignacio wasn’t the run down town I remembered however, buildings had been renovated and the casino is adding a major hotel on the north side of town. For those who were along for the first time this was a good example of what a good rally looks like. The concert at the end of the day was set up to entertain a couple of different generations. Smash Mouth had the younger crowd rocking and Reo Speedwagon finished the evening with the older generation. However there were a few in our group who enjoyed Smash Mouth better.

The group split up on Sunday, we had a couple who took the train to Silverton with the rest making their way towards Mesa Verde. We had talked to a lot of bikers who had said there wasn’t anything happening at the Sugar Pines site. That made it easier to eliminate that as a stop for the day. The ride in to Mesa Verde was interesting. About tem miles in they had milled the road causing the traveling to be much slower. We did manage to make it to some of the ruins. We got some great pictures here. The second part of our plans was to go to the four corners monument. Along the way we had to make a stop in typical CC Rider fashion at the local Dairy Queen.

As we continued our way southward we kept noticing this mean looking cloud behind us. Thinking it was movie eastward we didn’t pay too much attention to it. By the time we hit Four Corners we looked back and noticed the cloud again. It just seemed to be sitting there, not moving, and just waiting for us to come back. If it hadn’t been for some unbelievable timing on this trip that is probably what would have happened. We bumped into a couple of bikes who had just come through it. We heard the stories of hail and driving rain. We decided to continue along our projected route through Ship Rock. Coming home we drove through the area that had been hit by the rain and hail. We drove across inches of mud that had been washed across the road with a flash flood and a lot of standing water. We all could not believe our timing. Even though we were prepared for it we didn’t see a drop of rain. This was quite the day.


There was just so much to do that only a couple of us made it into downtown during this trip. Coming home we broke into three groups with only one catching a little rain. I couldn’t believe that we put 1200 miles on the bike with this trip. I guess with prior trips I never really bothered to figure that out. Overall, this was one great weekend. I can’t wait to see everyone’s pictures.

Sincerely:
Larry Faut (griz)

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