Our group for Saturday grew a bit compared to the first day, but it was still manageable and had the same riders included from the day before.  The intended goal was Mount Evans, the highest paved road in the US.

Forgive me, but I completely forget any of the names of where we went other than Mount Evans.  I'll get real names and stuff when I download the GPS tracks. Note: Updates are in italics.

Anyway, we went up towards Mount Evans on Squaw Pass Rd and highway 103 and stopped at a little 'general store' at the bottom of mountain near Echo Lake.  There was another crew of riders that had passed us on the way up and we chatted with them for a bit.  There was one girl who was on a Honda Hawk that the wife thought was kind of cool.  I really loved the sound of that little twin.  :) 

We headed up Mount Evans itself, after paying the three dollar park fee.  The ranger told us to be careful, as there were some major frost heaves in the road and she didn't want any of us "launched".  She was right to warn us...  The road could severely damage any vehicle that wasn't prepared for it.  It was kind of fun though. :)  The rest of the road was awesome.  Not quite the same kind of speeds we hit on the roads from Friday, but still really neat.  Lots of hairpins, most of which had a 1000 foot drop if you missed anything.  Traffic was fine and passing areas were easily found. 

At the top of the road, there's a parking area and restrooms.  Then you have quite a hike up to get to the actual peak.  I was told by many that I really need to hike it up and check it out.  Unfortunately, I knew I wasn't up for it.  The air was so thin up there (14,200 feet) that I could barely move.  Just walking across the parking lot made me feel high as a kite.  Not bad or sick, just weird.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to put up the effort to hike up unless someone was going to carry me back. 

The wife went up and enjoyed the hike, but I just hung out at the parking area and the little observation post.  I was quite happy to do so and it's a nice spot.  It was cool just to chill and watch people, bikes and scenery.

Anyway, we headed back down and all was good as soon as I dropped 200 feet.  Weird how that works.  The drive down was a bit more fun than the ride up, mainly because I had an idea of how the road was since I'd just done it the opposite direction. ;)  To give you an idea, the map above shows the peak area.  Altitude at the top of the map was 13000 ft.  Altitude at the turnaround and parking area was 14200 feet.  Nice road! :)

We made it down and then followed Phil (our defacto "leader" local rider) on some other roads that I also can't remember.  Faster, harder turns, fun. ;)  But, we hit some pretty severe traffic down in a valley on the way home and some higher temperatures.  The wife and I were cooked.  We headed back to the hotel while Jim and a couple others headed up to Lookout Hill.

At the hotel, we cleaned up, took the group picture, ordered frosty beverages, ate and then went up and started the packing, as we were checking out in the morning.  G'night!

The first day of the rally basically started with us getting set up with a route to ride in the morning.  Jim and I had one planned, but Jim had obviously been busy.  He'd managed to find a couple local riders and we formed up a group of about 10 riders.  As with the EOM a few years back, this ended up being the group we rode with the entire rally.  It was a good set of guys (and girls).  We gassed up and quickly split into two "packs".  The faster guys (including Jim and I) up front, with the others a little bit behind.  We were never more than 5 minutes apart.

We took highway 72 plus a few other roads North and we ended up for lunch in Estes Park.  The roads and the weather were both awesome!  Couldn't have asked for better.  The wife did very well and managed to lean with me and generally just be a good, predictable passenger. :)  The comm system I installed last week helped a lot.  I was able to explain things and point out stuff as we were riding and she was able to ask questions and point out stuff that I missed.  It was worth it's weight in gold. 

We stopped at the Stanley Hotel for lunch.  The Stanley was where a fair bit of "The Shining" was shot.  It's a neat place and the food was excellent.  We learned a fair bit more about the crew we were riding with.  I'll post up names when I can get all my pictures and other scribbled notes taken care of. ;)  On of the guys (Dave I think) was a bit sneaky and paid for lunch before anyone knew about it.  That was very nice of him...  I'm sure it was well over 200 bucks!

As we were packing up to continue on, it started pouring.  SERIOUS rain!  We didn't have a whole lot of options, so we just rode on.  The wife didn't complain a bit (we were both in mesh - we got WET). 

Jim and I decided we wanted to see the Rocky Mountain National Park, so we split off from the rest of the group and headed up.  The bottom portions were nice, but it was just more of what we'd already been riding through.  Then, we got UP into some altitude!  The temperature dropped drastically and instantly.  We were riding above snow fields.  My guess is that they're there year round most of the time.

We saw lots of other FJRs coming the opposite way... more rally attendees.  We stopped at the top and the wife and I waited while Jim did the hike to the peak.  We saw about 6 other FJRs pull in and out of the parking area and talked very briefly to one couple on completely matching 07s and wearing matching gear.  We'd bump into them later. 

We headed back down and put some hustle on to make it back to the hotel in order to catch Jim's wife when she landed.  We hung out for a bit and checked out the other bikes until the dinner.  Jim's wife arrived as we were finishing up, but the staff was nice enough to keep a plate for her. 

After dinner, we pretty much called it a night.

Jim and I met in Springfield, VA at 4:45 am on Wednesday, July 23rd.  The plan was to leave Springfield and head West for about 1500 miles on our FJRs.  That would have put us somewhere near Burlington, CO at about 2 am on Thursday if everything worked out ok.  This would have gotten us a Bun Burner Gold from the IBA (sorry no links right now, I'm composing offline).  The pace is rough, but it's possible and Jim and I have both done that kind of distance and time before.

What actually happened was a fair bit different.

A local DC-Cycles member and IBA member, Louis, was kind enough to show up and sign our starting witness forms.  Then, Jim decides he needs to check his tire pressure.  Ok, fine...  We air up his tires.  Then we pull up and get gas.  This gets us a time-stamped receipt and starts the clock ticking.  Jim tries to put his helmet back on and his speakers fall out.

Jim messes with them for 20 minutes or so, says goodbye to his wife and we can finally start rolling.  We've already lost time, but not much.

Then we head into Pennsylvania and it rains...  The entire time we're in that state.  Not too big of a deal, but it means we aren't able to use CBs (mine's not waterproof) and we're not making really good time.  But, we persist and aren't doing too bad.  The rest of the trip goes without too much incident until we hit Kansas.

Kansas is hot and boring.  We've messed with the CBs and they are close to useless.  Jim's is probably worse than mine, but that's like arguing about which pile of poo is bigger.  Not too big a deal, but it's another setback.  We just aren't making real good time.  I'm having to stop at every gas station and soak down my head-rag and drink lots of water.  Dehydration is definitely a concern. BTW... when I say it's "hot", I mean that the average temperature is about 100 degrees. :S

Then we hit St. Louis.  Traffic was real heavy to start with.  Add in some construction, then an accident and we're at a standstill.  We probably lost an hour or so getting through it.  We're also exhausted from the heat.  But, we press on.

We finally get about 40 miles East of Abilene and stop at a Denny's for food.  The service was pretty bad and Jim and I are both beat.  We reluctantly decide that it's not smart to continue and we cancel the Bun Burner plans.  We tried to get a room in two places and called two others.  All are full. So, we ride on to Abilene and managed to find one hotel with a room.  We notice another FJR out front and hope we can catch him in the morning.  That's it for us, good night!  Time...  2 am.

We get up Thursday morning and repack the bikes.  We meet up with John, the other FJR owner and chat with him for a few minutes while he's packing up.  He's from Richmond and we'd both met him before at the Eastern Owner's Meeting.  He's traveling with his wife and taking it a bit easier than we are, but he heads out before us.  We figured we'd catch up with later.  Wrong!

We keep on going and manage to get out of Kansas (YAY!).  We make it somewhere in Colorado and have figured out that we can still do a regular Bun Burner if we get a few hundred miles in about 5 hours.  A Bun Burner is 1500 miles in under 36 hours.  No problem!  We just keep on trucking and manage to get it done.  We pad out the mileage a bit and stop at 1580 miles.  Jim goes to gas up to get his final time-stamped receipt.  It's about 100 degrees out and we both have about half a tank of gas.

I'm at an opposite pump and am digging out my credit card when I hear a loud "whoosh" and then a big splash.  I turn around and see the remnants off a lot of liquid hitting the ground between me and Jim.  Turns out that his tank vent had clogged and it pressurized from the heat.  Jim says that a huge column of gas just shot out of his tank and arced over towards me.  Luckily it didn't make it all the way.  This is a wierd "glitch" I was already aware of, but it's news to Jim.  I explain it and we now are both in the habit of holding the lid closed when we release the key latch on the gas tanks. ;)

Anyway, we eat and then roll on.  We hit one really heavy thunderstorm, but it was actually kind of nice.  I dry out in no time (I'm wearing mesh gear by now).  We reach Denver without further incident, but then I had to choose to stay on I-70 instead of taking the bypass.  Traffic was congested, but there weren't any problems.  We finally make it to the hotel around 6 pm. 

My wife was there waiting for me. :)  We grabbed some food, hung out with Jim and then called it a night.  Let the NAFO rally begin!

Almost there! We had some technical issues on the way, so we aren't making the time we'd hoped, but it's still a reasonable pace and we'll get into Golden around 6 pm mountain time. We're currently in Seibert, CO getting fewd. it's about 96 degrees here, but it's been about 100-105 on the road for a few hours. We're pretty well cooked and figured we needed some down time. Anyway, all is well and we'll be in Golden tonight. :)

I'm at the gas station waiting on Jim. I'll be in Colorado this time tomorrow. ;)

0 miles - Springfield VA

Sorry I haven't been posting for a bit, but I've been pretty busy.  I'm currently prepping the FJR for NAFO - a national FJR meetup in Golden, Colorado. I'll be leaving in a little over a week.  Jim (the guy who did the 50CC trip to San Diego with me) and I will be leaving from Springfield, VA at about 5am on a Wednesday.  We'll ride 1500 miles to Burlington, CO where we will catch some sleep for a few hours.  Then we'll finish off the 200 miles into Golden, CO.  The wives are flying into Denver and will meet us at the hotel Thursday and Friday. 

We then spend three days with over 270 other FJR riders and passengers... exploring the Rockies, eating good food, kicking the tires and generally having a good time out of the office. ;)

Then the wives fly home, while myself, Jim and his friend Richard (a Beemer guy) head up to Yellowstone National Park for three days.  We'll check out the sites, chase some wolves around the park, then head back home.  We've got a week to get back and we have no real agenda other than to stop by Mount Rushmore on the way. 

So far, I've replaced the rear suspension on the Feej with a Wilburs shock (with remote hydraulic pre-load adjuster - allows me to "jack it up" for passenger and gear) and wired up the Zumo power.  Tonight, I've got to get a new oil filter, air filter, some crush washers and some spark plugs.  Hopefully those will get done tonight.  I've also got to wire up the communication system (an Autocom) so I can have some tunes and talk to the wife, install the CB (might not happen - looking less likely every day), synchronize the throttle bodies and I might flush the brake and clutch fluid.  Quite a list. :(

I intend to post up about the trip pretty much every day I have an internet connection except for the night we stop on the way to Golden.  I'm pretty sure I won't have a connection while in Yellowstone.  I'll probably write the posts anyway and just hold them until I can get a connection again.  They'll probably be pretty short, but it might be interesting for those stuck at the office. ;)

I'll post up again before I go and let everyone know how much work I actually got done. Till then!

I'm not going to go into any details (you can read them on the Garmin site), but I just wanted to post up that almost all the issues with the Colorado have been fixed with firmware 2.40 from Garmin, which is available on their update page.  Here's the quick and dirty version...

• Improved acquisition time in certain circumstances.
• Improved power on time.
• Improved backlight support.
• Improved support for NiMH batteries.
• Improved Wherigo player.
• Added ability to show and review geocaches on the map.
• Added ability to log geocaches as found.
• Increased maximum geocache count to 2000.
• Added support for BlueChart currents.
• Added ability to view extended information for custom POI's.
• Added ability for turn preview beep to reset the backlight timeout.
• Corrected map to display road labels.
• Corrected map to display small towns.
• Corrected map to not change orientation when beginning pan mode.
• Corrected metric nautical setting to display appropriate map scale.
• Support for Colorado Field Notes, at geocaching.com.

Anyway... Kudo's to Garmin.  As usual, their support is awesome and I expect we'll be seeing more updates over the next few months to make the Colorado even better.  I just wanted to point this out, because my previous post refers to the old bugged firmware.

Update: Garmin released firmware 2.40, which fixes all of the issues I posted here.  Get the update!  This is now the GPS we'd originally hoped it would be and the problems with Geocaches, updating and rechargable batteries are now pretty much fixed.  I'm leaving the post up just because I don't think it's "right" to go changing stuff I've already put out there (sorry, it's one of my personal quirks or smthng).  Just keep it in mind if you're reading this post for the first time.

Hey again,

My Garmin Streetpilot 2610 is really close to being "dead", so I snagged one of the new Garmin Colorado 400t units the other day (available only at REI till February 11th).  I wanted to post up some issues with it before anyone else I know "takes the plunge".  Here are some of my observations and research...

First, it's a cool GPS unit.  It's the first I've ever used that can be entirely operated with one hand (hope you're not a lefty).  That doesn't sound like much, but trust me when I tell you it's a bit of a big deal if you're hiking through the woods or wearing gloves when it's below freezing.  Overall, the design is nice and it's got a good "feel" to it.

Satellite lock is pretty quick and seems to be very accurate (generally within about 10 feet).  The display is good and I particularly like the vertical screen (landscape never made much sense to me).  Controls are easily manipulated and buttons mostly make sense.  Customization is nice, but some die-hard GPS geeks aren't going to be happy with some of the stuff that they can't do... especially if they're accustomed to prior Garmin devices.

The Colorado series is an entirely new design for Garmin... both in hardware and software.  Unfortunately, that's painfully obvious at times.  If you haven't use a recent Garmin, you probably won't notice.  But, if you're someone who's used multiple Garmin units and have gotten used to certain things you expect to be there, chances are good that the Colorado is going to give you a pretty steep learning curve.  You're going to find a lot of things that you have taken for granted that aren't there on the Colorados or are buried very deeply in a weird menu system.

If you're fairly new to GPS's or just haven't dug very much into one that you already have, most of the shortcoming of the Colorado won't be noticeable.... it's hard to miss smthng you weren't aware of in the first place. ;)

Now on to some of the issues...

Rechargeable batteries - The Colorado has some pretty serious issues with NiMH batteries.  Someone appears to have forgotten to code for the voltage difference in NiMH's.  What this means is that the Colorado will read them as "dead" long before they're even close.  When I first slapped in a set of charged "Eneloop" batteries, I got two hours before the Colorado shut down.  That's ridiculously low.  After the most recent firmware upgrade, it's now up to about 7 hours.  Better, but I'm sure they'll "fix" it some more in the next firmware update.

Geocaching - There are some excellent advancements but also a couple of steps backwards with Geocaching.  First, it's WAY cool that the Colorado can store Geocache descriptions and logs!  This means no more need to create HTML files to dump to my cell phone for reading and no more printouts.  Yay!  Unfortunately, it seems that someone forgot to code in the ability to mark a cache as "found".  Not a big deal, as only very recent units (like Legend and Vista HCx) have had this option at all, but it's loss is irritating if you're used to it.  I'm sure this will be fixed in a very near future update.  Also, caches don't show up on the map.  This is kind of a big deal, IMO.  "Find nearest" and directional pointers to caches are available, so you can live without it, but it's a big pain to have to deal with it that way.  If I'm walking around town and know what general route I'm planning on, I'd like to see what caches are on the way so I can pick them up as I go.  Again, this is reasonably major for 'cachers, so I'm sure it'll be fixed real quick. Update: This is no longer an issue at all.

Updating - The update process is a hassle...  download the firmware update from Garmin's web site.  This will take the operating system up to 2.30 (as of 1/28/08), but it doesn't update the GPS code.  To do that, you have to run Garmin's Web Updater after you've done the 2.30 update.  Running the updater will take the GPS code up to 2.60.  This should be considered mandatory... do it as soon as you buy your unit before you go wandering anywhere.  There are a LOT of issues fixed in 2.3/2.6 that I haven't mentioned here. Update: The updater works much better than the previous runs.

In short, it's a cool unit and has some really sweet features.  But, it's a totally different direction for Garmin and there are some teething pains that they're clearly dealing with.  The first update from Garmin has shown that they are rapidly fixing the issues that are there and Garmin has an excellent reputation for support.  Expect the unit to get a lot better and have most of these issues fixed very quickly.  You're pretty safe banking on Garmin to address any problems.  If you're looking for a new unit that has a LOT of capabilities, ease of use and huge potential, I highly recommend the Colorado series... just be prepared for a few "break in" issues as Garmin updates it.

BTW... there's a very useful FAQ page someone set up to keep track of the issues, fixes and workarounds. Update: Keep in mind that the owner of the FAQ is in a worse boat than I am.  Garmin fixed so much that the guy pretty much has to redo his entire site, so the information there may or may not be current at this time.