Brief by Central Staff
Events – March 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Salidans may remember the warm months of 2005 as “the summer of the two-wheelers.”
For one thing, the Denver Post’s Ride the Rockies tour is coming through again, so the town will be full of cyclists on Thursday, June 23. There are 2,000 riders, and many of them will be accompanied by friends or family in support vehicles; so the town’s population may double for a night.
This year’s tour starts in Grand Junction on June 19 with a loop through Colorado National Monument. On June 20, they peddle to Delta; Montrose on June 21; Gunnison on June 22; then to Salida over Monarch Pass on June 23.
(One year we had to go to Gunnison the same day that Ride the Rockies was headed to Salida. We took Marshall Pass, and had a pleasant, scenic trip without the extra traffic.)
From Salida, the cyclists will go to Leadville, staying there on the night of June 24, and then over Frémont Pass to Breckenridge, where the tour ends on June 25.
The other major two-wheeler visitation is scheduled for July 1-4 at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds – a rally by Rocky Mountain Iron, a motorcycle group. There could be as many as 5,000 attendees for a festival which will include several concerts, although that estimate is probably on the high side. Organizers have promised to keep Salida posted as they finalize plans for the rally.
We note that motorcycle rallies have generally changed from those lurid Hell’s Angels Pillage Village B movies we saw years ago. The bikes cost a fair sum – new Harley Sportsters go for $8,400 and up – so their riders tend to be people of middle age with comfortable incomes who don’t mind spending money at their gatherings.
