… Finally, rolling into the Isle hotel, we get a room, hit the nastiest buffet I have ever experienced and start the gambling… Bikes are loaded up, I put away the camera and we rolled out of Blackhawk. Soaking up every second of sunshine possible. As we cover the same road that literally 12 hours ago was blanketed in ice and snow, we gain a new sense of appreciation for Colorado weather patterns. Meeting up with I-70, we stopped at the original gas station in Idaho Springs for an ever so nutritious McDonald’s breakfast. As Sean burns his tongue on the fresh piping hot coffee – Adam and I pull up weather forecasts. We all sit and discuss the slight chance of precipitation expected for our ride into Utah. Our conclusion is that although it will be raining on and off for most of the day – a dry rider is a happy rider. I put on my look-a-like green fishing pants and fill up my tank.
Waiting for Sean to finish filling up his bike, I inspect tire pressure and try to clean some of the dirt off my chrome pipes. Our bikes start-up – and we rumble off to Vail pass. 5 minutes outside of Idaho Springs the rain picks up steam and we start climbing altitude.
Something that needs to be pointed out about rain and motorcycles is that the first 30-60 minutes after the first rain in a long time is when dirt and oil begins to wash off. Tips from the motorcycle riders safety course would recommend taking a coffee break if possible- if not, ride slow and straight up. Hmm- I-70 is filled with curves, bends, and fresh sand from snow fall earlier that week.
Anyways, we keep climbing and eventually the rain starts turning into snow. Its early so the frustration isn’t as omnipresent as yesterday. With 6 miles left till Eisenhower Tunnel, the speculation grows. Eisenhower tunnel is a very interesting portion of I-70. As I mentioned before the weather can go from sunny to complete white out within minutes. Let me take a blurb from a previous post, “Eisenhower tunnel is roughly 11,000 ft and the scary element is you literally could go from sun shining to complete white out snow storm. Needless to say, handle bars gripped with all my might, body tense and nervous, we ride out of the tunnel and are met with even more snow. Lucky for us the snow wasn’t sticking to the ground”. It honestly is one of the more intense feelings I had during this trip- Going through the tunnel all I could picture was layers of snow on the ground, my front tire slipping, and me biting asphalt. The snow although not bad, made a pretty good case for us to slow down. Descending from the height of Eisenhower Tunnel is a long and steep road, keep the bike in the early gears and let my engine do most of the breaking for me.
Passing Breckenridge the snow intensifies and next up is copper ski resort. In between where we were and where we were going stood semi trucks, snow, and next to zero visibility. As the snow fall increased, I started thinking about the possibility of this trip coming to an end. I signaled to Sean and Adam that we had to pull over, so I took the exit ramp for Copper.
White Out
