DAY 3 - Ouray to Southfork

Ouray is definitely a place I cannot wait to visit again. I think I could spend a whole day just riding back and forth between Silverton and Ouray alone. Also, the Ouray Chalet is one of the coolest hotels in which I have had the pleasure of staying. Their attention to detail is outstanding. Not only do they provide rags to wipe down your bike but an added bonus is they pipe music into each room from the likes of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and more.

We rolled into the hotel parking lot to find a chap giving his Road King “The Leading Ladies” a bath. Gary shipped his Hog ‘across the pond’ from the UK for a 5 month tour across America. We all spent the better part of the evening kicking tires and sharing stories after wiping down our own bikes. He has been documenting his travels in a great blog: garysusatour.blogspot.com. I highly recommend taking a look if not for the story, the pictures.

Another couple rolled in on a BWM K1200 while we were in the parking lots wiping down our rides. They were riding their new ride home when they learned of an oil leak and then to top it off, when he pulled off the tank bag he did not see a gas cap. That was when he realized it was left on the pump at their last stop in Durango. Quick to console, cold beer was offered and we mentioned we would be passing through Durango the next day. He called the gas station and they actually had the cap. We fashioned a temporary cover for his tank and Mike pledged we would pick up the cap and get it back to him. They were quite grateful and seemed to feel a bit better afterwards.

The next morning we gathered at the local coffee shop eagerly awaiting the opening. I would have loved to hang out in this little shop to sample all the coffees and chocolates but we were on a mission. We managed to get everyone together for a quick snap and then we were on our separate ways.

As we made our way north the skies were looking rather ominous. Needless to say nobody really wanted to ride in the rai

n but we would take our chances. Today we were riding a huge curve leaving Ouray to make our way up to Ridgeway where we would swing around to Telluride and then ride down to Cortez. On our way to Cortez we stopped in Delores for lunch at The Depot where I had the opportunity to try my first Elk Burger. DEE-LISH!!! So far we have managed to avoid riding in rain and to continue to do so we skip Cortez and hang the left from Delores to Durango where we pick up the gas cap as promised and determine we are really making pretty good time for the day so far.

You could not ask for better scenery or roads to travel than what we have been experiencing so far. It was tough enough not to stop at every lookout we passed. Some of them even had ridges and cliffs we could not refrain from climbing.

We press on across Colorado on Hwy 160 thinking we would probably stop for the night in Pagosa Springs. We pulled off the road into a parking lot to discuss where we would stay and to our surprise it just so happened to be the same place Mike spent his honeymoon years ago. Since we made it there faster than expected we pressed on to Southfork where we would find a great little cabin. We were thrilled to find out they had a hot tub as well. To no surprise though, everyone was so exhausted after dinner the general consensus was to get cleaned up and crash for the night. Hwy 160 was hands down the best road of the day! We all agreed we would definitely like to ride it again as with CO550. The next day would be a highly recommended road: Hwy149.