Roadtrip 2 - October 2008 - Day 1

Day 1 (Sunday, Oct 26 )

Destination : Rocky Mountain National Trip
Total Round Trip : 260 miles
Hike done : Yes

So, my trip was planned this way. Reach Denver on Sat afternoon, chill-out on Sat taking pictures of sunset at Denver city (ended up taking next to my hotel off Tower Road), visit RMNP on Sunday (all-day), work next week at the DR site, and then off to Utah and Wyoming for the roadtrip.

Recently ordered the 2009 Randy McNally map and 120 best drives in America. Cant say how pleased I am with both these books. Makes your trip so easy. So, took the Peak by Peak scenic highway to RMNP. (I-70W - CO-58W - US-6 - CO-119 - CO-72 - CO-7). Really, a wonderful 2 lane highway covering the peaks of Colorado. specially the stretch of CO-119 and CO-72 was awesome and beautiful. Ups and downs, changes through various elevations, and as usual driving fast (lol). would surely remember this drive. I did not stop anywhere in between as i really wanted to spend time at RMNP.

You know, RMNP really did not appeal m much. First, am going on a trip late fall. Ideally i should have done this fall trip beginning of October. Most of the leaves have withered away. Idea was to do a hike and cover the park inside/out driving. Comparable to Tioga Pass (Yosemite) is a road called Trail Ridge Road which covers the park. Unfortunately the road was closed on the west side (Seasonal closure) and so not much of driving inside the park/mountains

But, but, best thing i did here was a 9 mile hike to Flattop Mountain at Bear Lake. My longest hike ever. I took it pretty light and as expected it was snow all on top of the mountain. I hike from 9000+ feet to 12000+ feet ... Due to cold, my nose started bleeding. I was just in a t-shirt with no gloves or jacket !!! (Heroism paid itself). But i will remember this hike for ever. It was great fun.

DR Work + Roadtrip 2 (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming)

Schedule :
25 Sat - Denver City and sunset photography
26 Sun - Rocky Mountains NP
27 Mon - 31 Fri - Work at DR site
1 Sat - Start of Roadtrip (I-70W - Cisco - UT-128-Arches National Park-Halt at Moab)
2 Sun - ..... Not Planned yet

Post will be updated as and when roadtrip is being planned

Oct 13 + 14 --> Infineon Trackday with CLASS

Amazing, superb, scintillating .... what can i say.

My first trackschool / trakcday with CLASS (Reg Pidmore). 2 days at Infineon. Got the bike prepped by Chris with the Hotbodies bodywork on. So excited i was. At the last moment, Neil bailed out and called me to inform he could not give his truck ... Bummer !!! where do i search for a truck now ? Called my friend, Umesh at Budget and he manged me a F150 for 55$ / day ... Its pricy but I had no other option .... Lesson learnt again --> Do not rely on people too often !!

Well, another issue which happened was, we could not haul 2 bikes together (ie mine and Prabhat's) . If he would have allowed me to open the front fender i would have managed, but dunno why he was so skeptical about opening the fender. Well, he rode to the track.

We checked into Econo Lodges and Suites on Sunday night and had a good meal at Burger King. All excited for the next day.

Well, i cant really explain how much it was to me to ride on a track. Learnt a lot .... Learnt that 15 year of my motorcycle riding was wrong. Learnt about body positioning, cornering, relaxing and what not. It was so so fun ... was hauling ass 3 digit on the speedometer without worrying about any cars or cops. By mid-day i was passing B-group (C-group in a actual trakcday) guys left and right .. For the first time scraped my knee guard ... Yeaaaaaaaaaaah !!! I mean i cant really explain how happy i was.

So, ya let me end here now. its too difficult to explain. I am going to run Laguna Seca in Decemer. Me and Chris together. Am gonna buy another bike and convert this one to a full race/track bike with all the goodies. I need to be more fast, more comfortable, more relaxed, and improve and improve on body positioning. The other bike will be only for tour purposes.