Highway of Legends - Arthur von Boennighausen

[arthurvynb]

Friends:

By talking to a man riding a 1979 BMW motorcycle with 93,000 miles on the odometer yesterday I discovered a ride in Southern Colorado called "The Highway of Legends".

Using my 2008 BMW R1200 GS Adventure motorcycle I will attempt the entire Highway of Legends in a single day.

You can use mapquest to follow the route from these towns and villages:

* Start in the Village of Westcliffe, Colorado and take highway 69 to Walsenburg.

* Take highway 160 from Walsenburg to the Village of La Veta.

* From La Veta take highway 12 to Trinidad, Colorado

* From Trinidad take I-25 back to Walsenburg

* From Walsenburg continue on I-25 to Colorado City.

* Take highway 165 to Mackenzie Junction.

* From Mackenzie Junction take highway 96 back to the Village of Westcliffe, Colorado

Thinking allowed....

Arthur von Boennighuasen @ The Sierra Mojada Ranch

[arthurvynb]

Friends:

* Here is a slide show I found about the "Highway of Legends".....  Look here:

http://www.highwayoflegends.com/

* Raining hard here in Southern Colorado with snow above 13,000' so I will try to make this ride in the next couple of days as the forecast is for Sunny with temperatures in the low 60s starting tommorow.

Thinking allowed.....

Arthur von Boennighausen @ The Sierra Mojada Ranch

[arthurvynb]

Friends:

I made the "Highway of Legends" ride yesterday on my 2008 BMW R1200 GS Adventure motorcycle in 5 hours and will do part of the ride again today as they have an Octoberfest today in La Veta Colorado. The Autumn colors were at their best yesterday.

I attached an image of a motorcycle on the highway of legends that I found on the Internet.

Thinking allowed.....

Arthur von Boennighausen @ The Sierra Mojada Ranch

[arthurvynb]

Friends:

I rode the West half of the "Highway of Legends" again yesterday.  You can Mapquest this variation to the route:

Westcliffe to almost Gardner, Colorado
Turn West on the Pass Creek Road to highway 160
East on 160 to the La Veta, Colorado turnoff which is labeled highway 12
Highway 12 which is officially the "Highway of Legends" to Stonewall, Colorado.
Reverse the route from Stonewall back to Westcliffe, Colorado.
Total time 5 hours 15 minutes

I had been riding at high speed on the Highway of Legends for about 2.5 hours and had crossed that line where on one side people were crawling grubs wallowing in the shallows of their miseries and those on the other side who were doers of Visions with Fire in their eyes and were always questing after the mystical crystal or whatever was their personal ideal.

I approached Chuchara Pass heading North and the winding and rising road to the pass seemed to intersect the blue sky.  I thought that maybe this was my chance to reach Infinity so I opened up the throttle on my BMW motorcycle.  As I got close to the pass I glanced down and saw I was doing about 110mph so I twisted the throttle wide open and focused on what was ahead.

Just as the road touched the sky I could feel myself go weightless for a moment as I crossed the pass and started down the other side. I released the throttle and slowed down to 20mph and stood up on the foot pegs to release the tension in my back and legs. I was Learning to Fly.... Look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-Nacm-pKc

Thinking allowed...

Arthur von Boennighausen @ The Sierra Mojada Ranch

[arthurvynb]

Friends:

Here is a slide show with music about the "Highway of Legends" that is published on the Internet....  Look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqqUMcXgJw

Thinking allowed.....

Arthur von Boennighausen @ The Sierra Mojada Ranch