Camping Trip To Pagosa Folk 'N Bluegrass

I got inspired to post some new pics of my '04 Silverwing after
returning from a great little trip last weekend up to Pagosa Springs,
CO for the Pagosa Folk 'N Bluegrass Festival. That was the reason to
go, but as you all know, the ride was an equally important aspect of
the whole adventure.

Went with my friend Nicholas, who has
recently moved up to a Piaggio BV250 from the little 50cc and 125cc
scoots he's been riding, and another couple who rode 2-up on Steve's
BMW K75S. I have to say, that BV250 did just great; much more sturdy,
powerful, and capable than the P250 I was riding last summer.

We
left Santa Fe about 8AM on Saturday, and headed north on US 285 up to
Chama, NM, where we had to stop to get a bite to eat, and to warm up
and add more layers of clothing. It was COLD all the way, and we were
all in need of a little comfort.

Then we headed north again on
US 84 to Pagosa, through a lot of beautiful mountain country and
twisty roads. Found the parking area for the festival, and unloaded our
camping gear. There were shuttle vans to carry people and gear up the
mountain to the festival/camping site. A nice surprise. We thought we'd
have to climb up the mountain.

Great
music, great fun, good food, beautiful pine forest setting, and NO
RAIN. That made it all the better. Left the festival site the next
morning late, down into town for a soak in the hot mineral springs, and
off down US 160 just a few miles to one of the many Forest Service
roads. We rode up one of these about a mile and a half and found a
wonderful green meadow/wooded area to pitch our tents for a second
night. Cooked a pretty strange stew of buckwheat noodles, chopped fresh
veggies and some kind of Indian dahl mix. Cooked up strange, but tasted
pretty good.

Nice camp fire and hanging out that night, a breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, nuts, chai and a little of the left over stew next
morning.
Then
loaded up the bikes and off down 160 a few more miles to visit Treasure
Falls, a really beautiful 100 foot water fall just a short walk into
the forest. You can get close enough to get sprayed pretty nicely, and
we did just that.

From there it was back on the bikes and no
stopping til we reached Chama again. This time we were all dressed
better in anticipation of a bit of a chilly ride. Then from there,
after a nice lunch, back down the highway to Santa Fe. All in all, a
lovely 3 days of riding, music, good company, camping and good weather.
Not a long ride, I figure it was about 400 miles for me, since I live
30 miles south of Santa Fe. This was the first time I've had the
pleasure of riding with friends on a road trip. I expect we'll do it
again.

Ride Safe.

Mathew, great trip report. It sounds like you really had a great time. I love camping and waking up to the smell of coffee on the fire....Dick

Sounds like a great trip Matthew. Thanks for posting.

Motorcycle camping......I'm envious. The weather has been very rainy here lately........too rainy for camping.

P.S. I have a write-up for making a heated jacket liner. Just the ticket to keep you warm on those chilly rides. I'll post it when I get a minute.

Sound like you had a good time

there something special about camping on a bike ,hopeing in the next month or two to do my annual pilgramige to Belgium ww1 war graves and drink a toast to my family members on the menin gate

Matthew,

Excellent report. I do not camp, but enjoyed your descriptions. of the trip. I like camp fires.

John,

Enjoy the walk through the battlefields and memorials in Belgium. I've been to the cemeteries in Normandy (allied and axis) and can say that it is a moving experience.

There IS something special about camping on a bike, I'd have to agree. Of course, you'd have to like camping to begin with. And no small part of it is the whole process of preparation, figuring out what gear you need, how to carry what you need while keeping everything to a minimum, the right luggage for the job, where you want to store what - like having rain gear easily available for example, instead of buried deeply under the seat while the rest of your gear is tied to the rear.

Two examples of being prepared (I did make it as far as Star Scout, way back in the day): I happen to bring with me, not by accident either, an extra pair of sunglasses, and some ibuprofen. Wouldn't you know, both of these were needed by my companions at some point in the trip.

If you google "motorcycle camping checklist" you'll find a great, inclusive checklist of things to consider bringing along on such a trip. It's an editable checklist, so you can print it out with the things you want on it, and delete stuff you don't, and even add things that aren't on it. I found this very helpful.

Aside from some extra underwear and such, there probably isn't much more you'd need to bring for a longer trip than for a short one like I did. Having all the essentials is the same in either case.

That write-up on how to make a heated jacket liner would be great, Mike. I actually do have a battery powered heated vest, but I didn't think I'd need it. Wrong!

"... And no small part of it is the whole process of preparation, figuring out what gear you need, how to carry what you need while keeping everything to a minimum, the right luggage for the job, where you want to store what ..."

The packing for a trip is actually fun - I must agree with the statement above. I am a minimalist and really enjoyed the bike with no top box, but now with a top box I'm a minimalist with extra stuff - how silly!

For me the preparation for a trip - route planning and such is as exciting as actually taking the trip.

As we do our camping with a Liesure Lite camping trailer behind the GW I have long ago prepared a list and photo all on one page of where the essentials fit. This also assures I leave nothing to chance forgetting it and also lets me distribute the weight in the same location every time. I weigh it on three bathroom scales, one under each tire and one under the tongue at the same height as the trailer hitch. What works best for me is 20 -25 lb tongue weight. With the stuff in the trailer it keeps a large load (except for the overweight rider and passenger) off of the bike. Patty has suggested a small cargo trailer for the Swing. Maybe in the future. We used to tent camp and really enjoyed it and got pretty good at hauling everything on the bike.
I am fortunate now that we end up with a ton of free nites in hotels due to my work related travels building up points so that we normally take the cargo trailer and stay in motels. I do like camping better, much better. You meet some real nice people just by riding cycles and scooters and camping adds another dimension to this. Coffee over a camp stove or fire just has so much more taste and feeling to me than coffee in a motel room. Dick

It's really become clear to me that for me anyway, the combination of riding with other things one likes - like friends, or camping, or music in the case of this latest trip - is a lot more enjoyable than just endless saddle time.

Last summer I started to consider doing the Alaska Bike Run with Mike Tucelli for this summer. The more I thought about it, the more clear I became that doing 500 miles a day for most of a month would be, again speaking only for me, simply grueling, and not enjoyable at all, no matter how spectacular the scenery.

Not that I'd mind a longer ride than a couple hundred miles. Just that it's so much more of a full, pleasant experience when I add the other things into the mix. I guess I'm just not so much of a hard core biker dude, so that saddle time alone does it all for me. I know this is not the case for some, and I say God bless them. But for me, I want the combination. Some riders will say that it's all about the ride, and whatever and wherever you're going is just the excuse to ride. Turns out I'm not one of those.

Each to their own.

Matthew, I understand what you are saying and agree that everyone gets there riding enjoyment at different paces. I used to see the telephone poles as a blurr, Now I slow down and count them...Used to hurry and go long distances but for a long time now I have wanted to see what's in between those destinations. We still will ride pretty hard and steady if the destination is pretty far away and time is short just to assure time while there to slow down and explore a new territory. Dick

Just to put my view into perspective, I should say that I didn't start riding til I turned 60. First bike ever was a Kymco People 150. So you can see a bit more where I'm coming from. I'm sure that if I'd started riding earlier in life, like in my teens or twenties, I would've probably been after the harder ride, whether that meant longer or faster or whatever. At this time in life, I'm not in too much of a hurry to do anything, and I'm not too interested in "hard" anything either, given my druthers.

A nice scenic cruise with good riding companions (or alone, if that be the case), heading toward something I like, out in Nature. That about works pretty well for me. Of course, I'm not above opening that S'wing throttle a little, say along a nice country straightaway with no traffic, just to see what that bike will do. Even at that though, I'm satisfied with a 30 second sprint before settling back down into cruise mode.

Like anything else, different strokes for different folks, and as long as there's respect, and tolerance for responsible differences, each to their own as far as I'm concerned. Some people don't like riding at all. No problem. I'm blessed to live in a part of the country where natural beauty is a given, and just a ride into town is a 30 mile pleasure cruise along a National Scenic Byway. That seems pretty special, and pretty fortunate, to me.

Ride safe, and don't take any of it for granted.