Northern Colorado: Deadman & Cherokee Park Roads

[VIVID1]

After no dirt riding for last 6 months, our dirt riding hiatus is officially over   With a 150 mile route planned - 80 miles of the roads being paved and 70 miles being dirt, we got on our dual-sports and headed north on 287 toward Livermore.

Then we turned west toward Red Feather Lakes. There was a bit of traffic on Redfeather Lakes Road, after all it was the weekend. Further down the road some cowboys were getting their herd of cattle across the road and Mike got stuck waiting for the road to clear. This is the Wild West, don’t you know?  



Then just as I was laughing in my helmet about the whole “Wild West” notion we came up to a line of cars going painfully slow. Ahead of them there were two horses running in the middle of the road    Mike passed all the cars and followed the horses and I followed him. They were not moving out of the way and it looked like they were racing each other. This IS the Wild West! After about two miles or more they started to move to the shoulder, then one of the horses noticed Mike passing him and he started race him. One horse was no match for multiple horse power bike, the horses finally moved over to the dirt shoulder and we passed them.



Redfeather Lakes Road turns into Deadman Road and that’s where the pavement ends    At first the road is gravel, but after you enter the Roosevelt National Forest there is less traffic, no weekend homes and the road becomes nice hard packed dirt.  This is where I started to really enjoy the ride. Crisp fresh air with scents of pine, spruce and other evergreen trees rushed in to my nostrils. The road climbed gently and soon there was some snow on the grass near the road but a bit further there was snow on the road. Parts of the road were covered in melting snow, so I was getting a bit of mud on me, but some parts of the road that were in the shadows were slick, specially the parts that had melted and re-froze.



Deadman Road



Mike riding on Deadman Road through the Roosevelt National Forest

Once we climbed to 10,353 feet in elevation, the highest elevation displayed on the GPS, the road got even more twisty. The going was good but I was slowing down over the snow sections. My back tire slid out a couple of times and that didn’t feel all that great specially going downhill.



Snow on Deadman Road through the downhill curves

We came down the mountain and the road opened up to an amazing view. We brought some sandwiches and snacks with us, we decided to stop here and have lunch.  





Our lunch spot



After lunch we continued to descend in elevation and turned north on to CR-80C, I think this road is called Cherokee Park Road further to the east of here, I don‘t know what it‘s right here.

CR-80C was not at all like Deadman Road. Where Deadman Road ran up and down a mountain and through a forest, CR-80C  ran through an open area at first, then some hills, then past a bunch of ranches, toward 287 there was some awesome canyons.



CR-80 C





So many awesome rock formations on CR-80 C



It's black and white with spots but looks nothing like the cows in Wisconsin



Cherokee Park Road

This was a great ride on some great roads. And there are so many more dirt roads to explore in this area. I didn't take too many pictures on 80C since it was geting late.  



Our GPS tracks showing approximately the location of the highest elevation on this route





More pictures and more words on my blog http://excessivelocity.blogspot.com/2008/10/deadman-rd-cr-162-cherokee-park-rd-cr.html

[R Doug]

Forest, rock formations, prairie, elevation changes.  That loop looks like a keeper!