I rolled out of Trinidad pretty early, I just couldn’t wait to see what Colorado has to offer. Out of Trinidad, it was mostly rolling hills and some prairies, then turned into nice gravel roads through the mountains. 
The only bad part was that most of these roads were completely washboard. Either way, the view made up for the discomfort. The day was perfect, I was happy and I couldn’t believe I had actually made it to Colorado.
It was about mid day and I was rounding a corner and ran into two guys on the trail! First people I’ve seen on the trail since I started in North Carolina I was pumped! It was two British guys named John and Terry who were on European bikes they had shipped from London to Canada. I came up on them while John was changing a flat and we talked a bit. 
We rode together and it was nice being able to be with some other people for a change. About 10 miles later we ran into another two people on the trail. I couldn’t believe it. This time it was a father son duo on two brand new Honda Africa Twins. (Side story: the father and son had just lost their mom/wife from cancer 4 months ago. They decided to go live it up and do this trip together. The son is 18 and on a 500 pound monster but was handling the bad boy like a champ. It was a pretty emotional story) We all stopped to talk about the trail and swap some stories. 
It was awesome! We got back on the bikes and headed out as a group. The day was perfect. Well, as it would enfold, the moment was perfect and the day turned to sh*t. We got to our first mountain trail that had a cattle barbed wire fence. One of the Brits held it open as I passed. We were in for a rude awakening. The trail turned into large broken rock and steep hill climbs. I felt a little more confident knowing I had some guys with me if I needed help so I rode a little harder than I typically would. We ended up getting to a fork in the trail. To the right was a hard single track and to the left was the original trail. Of course the British went right (which they would soon severely regret) and I went left. I got about 5 or so miles until I noticed the clouds getting darker and darker. Not long after, I was in the middle of a wicked thunderstorm. It began to flash flood everywhere and the temp dropped from 85 to 45 in a matter of an hour. I was prepared for the rain but not the cold. I made it to a highway and it became pretty scary. I could barely see in-front of me and lighting was striking everywhere. I found a house on the hillside that looked empty, ditched my bike under an aspen and jumped their fence to get under their awning. I stayed for about 30 minutes until it seemed like it was letting up. Turns out it wasn’t. Yet again I was in the middle of this storm on a bike. I went about a mile from that house and the road was blocked by the game warden. He said their were a couple of land slides and it’s impassible. I told him I had to go through and he said he’d let me ride down to check them out. I got to the first landslide (a bike easily could’ve made it) and not 100 yards in front of me, another landslide hit. Screw that, I turned around and started back tracking. I made it back to the game warden to find the British guys were there. They said the hard section was deadly and had to turn around. We found a town called Beulah and headed for safety. Of course, the only way there was over a mountain off road. 30 minutes later we were finally there. To add insult to injury, the roads were covered in mud in town and the first stop sign I came to, I hit the front brake and completely wrecked. I hit the ground and the bike slid across the street. Wreck #3. My gear did its job and the Brits helped get my bike back up. I was pissed, wet, cold and defeated. Of course, the only hotel in town was closed so we had to ride 20 miles to Pueblo, Co. we made it around 7 and snagged a hotel. Best shower and bed of my life. I slept in and headed to Denver the next day for some repairs. I’ll be in Denver until Thursday morning where my dad will be joining me for the next few days. Huge shout out to Ben Thomas and his roommate Clayton for giving me a place to stay and work on my bike!
Walker Benz ADV 