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Over the last few years, the AZ Rat Pack has made a trip up to Durango, Colorado. This was my first year making the Annual Run. And what a Trip it turned out to be! For this year’s trip, there was a total of 11 Triumph’s making the Journey. Every year the group uses Durango as the base camp. This year 8 of the guys headed up Thursday morning while the remaining 3 of us headed up on Friday afternoon after I’d finished my shift at work. Work… it always seems to get in the way of myself enjoying the pleasure of the Open Road… oh well, I guess I need to be able to pay for gas somehow. I ended up having close to 6600 photos taken using a GoPro Camera that I'd borrowed from Jeff (JazMan) and a small old Sony Digit Camera. After going through all of the images, I've decided to upload 149 of the images to Photobucket... of those uploaded; I've selected 32 to post here. To see all 149 Photo's in a Slideshow, please visit the following link: Photobucket Slideshow Here is the route that our Group took on Saturday. We headed North out of Durango going up Hwy 550 toward Silverton and Ouray. We turned West at Ridgway taking Hwy 62 over to Hwy 145 to head down to Telluride. We continued South of Telluride on Hwy 145 to Cortez. From Cortez, we took Hwy 160 back to Durango.  Although I have several other images, I’d decided to use the following as the first image to post. Due to limited space, a few of us decided to place our Helmet's on the Bar at the restaurant where we had breakfast at Saturday morning before we hit the road:  The next few shots were taken while traveling up Hwy 550…    Traffic was a bit thick in some spots… however, you gotta love some of the roads in Colorado… you can pass on some of the curves… awesome!  Finally, some Open Road!  10 of the 11 Bikes that went on the Trip… all lined up at Molas Pass, Elevation 10,899 ft. A couple Panorama’s of Molas Pass…   Continuing up Hwy 550…    Michael (Bangers and Mash) enjoying the view as we approach Silverton… The next few shots were taken between Silverton and Ouray…     Ouray has been nicknamed the Switzerland of America… I have never been to Switzerland, so I have nothing to compare this area to... However as Beautiful as this area is, can it really compare to the Swiss Alps. Hopefully I will find out in a few years…  John showing off his “Leaning” Technique…  County Courthouse…. Thankfully, none of us had to visit anyone inside…  Larry, Moe, and Curly trying to figure where we need to go…  Rocket Man Ken…   Approaching Telluride…  Last known sighting of Waldo… I say we all chip in and purchase one of those Pet Locator Implants…  Boy, she sure is a Pretty Thing…  No Road Closure today…   This seemed to be a reoccurring and Welcome site…   Simply Beautiful… the Bike and Scenery, not me… I wish I would have taken a picture at this angle with only the bike… next time.  The Durango Train loading up for the trip to Silverton… When I saw this guy, I thought how cool to be able to take your Best Friend with you on all of your Motorcycle Journey’s… Check out the Dog’s Goggles’, they have Flames on the side of them. The dog was friendly and very relaxed…   Leaving Durango for the Journey Home… the trip ended way too quickly… On the way back to Phoenix, we decided to stop at the Four Corner’s…. there were many vacation photo’s taken with our bikes in the background due to clever placement of our bikes.  If you had viewed the Photobucket Slideshow, you may have noticed a few pictures that seemed to repeat along Hwy 145… there’s a good reason for it… Everyone re-grouped in Cortez… except for one rider. After waiting for 30 to 40 minutes, all of us were getting a bit concerned about our missing Comrade. I decided to back track Hwy 145 all the way back to Telluride to search for our missing buddy. To my disappointment, I did not find the rider. However, I now feel I owe him a Beer or two… for I was not done riding for the day and was not ready to head back to the hotel. While back tracking the route looking for him, I was able to have a different view of everything. I ended up riding Hwy 145 three times this day, Twice South and Once North. The Great News is that the rider showed back up in Durango approx 20 to 30 minutes after I returned… I still do not know what happen other then a wrong turn or two were taken… sounds like it’s time for that Beer… The return home was un-eventful… thankfully. My overall mileage for the weekend was 1275 Miles. Total time was just a bit over 50 hours. No Performance Awards, nor Motorcycle issues… What a Fantastic Weekend… I will be returning to explore more of Colorado’s Fine Roads… Maybe sometime in September.
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