Warmup for Dorkfest
Friday morning, I met Kevin and his alpine white S54 M Coupe for a 300+ mile morning drive. We started at Starbucks in Fort Collins at 6 AM and went up Poudre Canyon, down Stove Prairie Road to Masonville, cut over to Loveland to go through Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, into Rocky Mountain National Park, and up the seasonally open Trail Ridge Road to an altitude of 12,183′. Up at the top, we pulled out of a scenic overlook and were followed by a Park Ranger the next couple miles. He eventually pulled me over and took my information. After 20 minutes and 100s of tourists staring at the two funny looking cars that were in trouble, he came back from his cruiser and gave me a written warning for not coming to a complete stop before following Kevin out of the overlook. It was almost enough to ruin my day, but we pressed on.
Trail Ridge Road
Trail Ridge Road
The original plan was to head back home from there, but they were doing road work at the bottom of the mountain that we didn’t want to have to go back through nor did I feel like following the park ranger who had turned back down the mountain. We decided to head down the other side to Grand Lake and Lake Grandby. From there we turned onto 125 to Walden, CO. There’s virtually nothing in those 55 miles. The first half of the road contains long sweepers through a valley along the Colorado River. It made me forget all about the ranger. At Walden we parted ways as I actually had to go home and do some work, so I headed over Cameron Pass, back through Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins. Kevin continued on to double his trip through Steamboat Springs all the way to Hayden. He then headed south on Twentymile Road (a cool stretch as it turned out) to Oak Creek, then via 131 to Toponas. He cut east on 134 and 40 to Kremmling, then south on 9 through Silverthorne, then 6 through Keystone and over Independence pass back to I70. He said it was dark when he finally headed back.
This was the longest day I’ve spent in the coupe (about 7 hours), and it handled perfectly. Aside from the ranger, we did not have an issue and I came out of the driver seat feeling refreshed. It only makes me look forward to the 1,200 mile drive to Dorkfest even more.
View July 29, 2011 – Drive with Kevin in a larger map
Edit: We also saw an Evergreen M Roadster on the way up the canyon to Estes Park. It was right at a blind corner, so we didn’t even get a chance to wave.