Today was another opportunity to ride the Million Dollar Highway to Durango and back. I had ridden the Million Dollar Highway on our way to Ouray. I wasn't happy with my first ride of the famous road. It includes several switch backs and many climbs and descents along with a number of curves. It had been a while since I had ridden a motorcycle on a long trip and I have only had this bike for a month. These two factors meant me tentative on our Million Dollar Highway on the ride in. So, today was an opportunity for me to get into my grove and just enjoy the ride. We left early in the morning with a destination of Silverton. We had heard that the city was a wonderful place full of interesting shops and great restaurants. So climbed aboard the bikes and begin to climb out of the valley and onto the infamous Million Dollar Highway for the first 21 mile leg of our journey. Ouray to Silverton is the most "intense" part of the highway. I settled into my first curve and suddenly the "rust" on my riding skills and the love of my new bike took over. I glided in and out of the curves as if I had been doing this my whole life. I felt comfortable and any tentativeness I had from the first trip into the valley was gone. Before I knew it the 21 miles passed in no time.
We arrived in Silverton and parked at the southern part of the city. We begin walking the stores. We found wonderful shops full of interesting gifts, T-shirts, and my favorite - local history books. I carefully selected the one local history book for my reading pleasure - a book on the history of the Million Dollar Highway. Very appropriate, I thought. We then found a lunch stop at the Handlebars Saloon. The Handlebars Saloon seemed appropriate given that I work at New Mexico State University and the mascot, Pistol Pete has a handle bar mustache. The soloon was also appropriate in that it was decorated with a number of preserved animals from local fish to deer heads. The saloon also included patches from a variety of police departments. We ordered lunch. I had a pulled pork sandwich with ham and bean cowboy soup. Both were wonderful and amazingly satisfying. After paying we crossed the street and explored the shops on the other side of main street. Before we knew it our time was up and we needed to return to the bikes and mount up ensuring we arrived at the Durango Harley Davidson Dealer in time to wipe down the bike and participate in a bike show.
The 50 miles stretch between Silverton and Durango does not include as many switch backs as the stretch between Silverton and Ouray, but the portion was no less challenging. This section of the highway included a wonderful climb and descent, but on several stretches there is no side rail. The road even narrows at one point. The ride was still amazing and the comfort level with my bike through the curves made me look forward to the return trip to Ouray later in the afternoon. We arrived at the Durango HD dealer and lined our bikes up with the other bikes from the GTG (Get toGether) that we were participating in this week. It was very cool to see all of the Harley CVOs in one spot. The workers at the dealership each picked their favorite bike and an award was given to the first and second favorite bikes. It was a great little opportunity for us to interact with the HD dealer.
After the favorites were picked, we mounted up to head north on 550 (the Million Dollar Highway) to Ouray. The GTG event and day was culminated with a group dinner. What a wonderful ending to a great day and great event. Tomorrow many of the participants head for home. We are fortunate in that we have a few more days in Ouray visiting our friends from Denver.
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