I made it to within a hundred yards of Engineer Pass today. I’m amazed the roads are open this early in the season! We’re at least a month early in terms of road openings. Engineer Pass Road itself (Ouray County Road 18 and San Juan County Road 17) are open. Although Engineer Pass itself wasn’t quite open, Oh! Point was. And, yes, the exclamation point is part of the site’s official name! So this video is only a couple minutes long and is a tour of Oh! Point. The views are simply stunning! The views are better from Oh! Point than from Engineer Pass itself.

This video is an excerpt from the gobs I took today. It’s a quick tour of Oh! Point. The scenery is quite simply stunning! The road to Oh! Point from the Ouray side is open for serious 4WD (and, of course, dirt bikes). (BTW, it may seem like I’m traveling fast, but that’s an optical illusion because of the camera’s field of view. This was a first gear ride.)

Argh! So close! This was all the closer I could get to Engineer Pass because of one last snow berm too deep for me to cross. It looks from the photo (a freeze frame from helmet mounted video camera) that I could go to the left, but as the red line shows, that would have been off the road. So, I turned around. It'll just be a few days, though!

Last week Chris Miller from Ouray County Road and Bridge told me that Engineer was partially open. I decided to see just how far. Amazingly, as of today it’s open all the way to Oh! Point. But I could only get tantalizingly close to Engineer Pass itself – there was one last snow berm between me and it and I didn’t think I could get across it. But it’ll be a matter of days before its open. In the meantime, the road is open down to the Animas Forks ghost town and from there to Silverton!

Wild ride indeed. I took video of the entire ascent up Engineer Pass Road, or sometimes called Alpine Loop (although the loop is actually composed of several roads). From Hwy 550 to the east it’s Ouray CR 18. From the San Juan county border, it’s San Juan CR 17.

Spring is here early just as it is everywhere in the country. Gary Garren and I went up to Buckhorn Lakes today on our motorcycles. The road is open all the way to the lakes. Last week I checked out Ouray County Roads 5, 7, and 9. On CR 5, I got very near the locked gate at the top – just a little snow left. CR 7 is open all the way to the Blue Lakes trailhead. CR 9 is open through Ralph Lauren’s property and for about a half mile further where the road is blocked by several large trees that have fallen. And, as previously reported, CR 2 and CR 4 are open.

I’ve heard that Yankee Boy is open. I’ll check that out tomorrow.

WordPress recently updated their Jetpack plug-in, which means it’s now easy for you to subscribe to this blog. That means whenever I post something new here, you’ll get an email. That’s a lot easier than fussing with RSS, isn’t it! Look in the right hand column. Partway down you’ll see a headline that reads: Subscribe to this site via email. Just put in your email address and click on the “Subscribe Now!” button.

You’ll get an immediate email asking you if you really want to subscribe. Just click the “Confirm Follow” button and that’s all you need to do. And each of the emails complies with all the anti-spam laws. If you want to unsubscribe, there’s a link for that in every email. How simpler could it be?

If your Internet connection supports it, I really suggest watching this at 720p.

Part of Elephant Ridge Trail, from the north heading south. I used my GoPro HD Hero2 to capture the footage and CyberLink PowerDirector to assemble the video. PowerDirector’s stabilization function is very good – the original video was quite jerky. And, yes, although I was trying very hard to concentrate on the trail, the steepness of those slopes was always on my mind! No room for mistakes here. And…no room to turn around, either!

Billy Creek State Wildlife Area opened to the public on May 1st and will remain open until Dec 31st. Two county roads near my home go into the area and it’s one of my favorite rides. Here’s about 90 seconds of video I took today with my GoPro HD Hero2 helmet-mounted camera. The video starts at the top of Ouray County Road 4 and heads west (down). Enjoy!

Note that I used the anti-shake feature in CyberLink PowerDirector, which helps some. The original video footage is pretty herky-jerky.

My wife says this makes me look like a camel! A video just for fun!

Woohoo! My birthday present is a GoPro HD Hero2 helmet-mounted camera. Needless to say, it was mounted on my helmet even before I left Highland Cycles of Montrose, CO. What you see here is the first (successful) video, taken last Saturday, showing some fun diversions from Lower Powerline Road. Note that I did not create these trails, nor are they new—I’m a firm believer in using existing trails. Yes, this is BLM land, but that still means “stay the trail!” But staying on the trail can be lots of fun!

Just a quick note that Peach Valley, outside Olathe, CO, is very much open for business. I was up there Saturday and had a blast! And…I have a new GoPro Hero2 camera, so look for videos to come!