Buckhorn Road Power Lines with Glenn

Looking down the power lines

Here's an odd view. We're right under a giant powerline pylon, looking down on the powerlines below us. In the very center of the image, that dot is Glenn's van.

I like riding with Glenn Neigenfind. He’s an incredibly-experienced rider who seems to somehow magically know what my abilities are (and aren’t). He stretches my abilities, yet not too much. I don’t think you can find a better mentor.

I got a call from Glenn on Thursday afternoon and shortly thereafter met him on the power line road. Getting there is easy: from US Hwy 550 just north of Colona, turn east on Buckhorn Road, follow this to Winchester, go north on Winchester through a gate and you end up on the road that parallels the power lines.

GPS track for power line road

Here's the GPS track for our (unnamed) power line road. Access is near Colona, Colorado, off Buckhorn Road at Winchester Trail (well marked). The GPS track of interest is the blue one.

Our first order of business was the power line road itself. The road isn’t used much, so the dirt is a bit loose. There are rocks and some relatively steep ascents in places, but otherwise the road is fine. I’d rate it a fairly easy ride (low-intermediate skills). We traveled up until we were directly under a pylon that sits at the end of an overlook. From here the power lines plunge down to a pylon on the flat area below us. It’s a very weird view looking at the power lines from above!

From there we traveled on up to a great view spot Glenn knew. Everything is mighty green—probably the greenest it will get. The grass is just starting to go to seed, which means it’ll turn yellow here pretty quickly, so we’re enjoying the green while we can. The 90-degree panorama shown below is made from several shots sewn together in Adobe Photoshop Essentials 6.

Panorama taken from power line road

This panorama, taken from the spot shown on the GPS track, is about 90 degrees. The left of the photo is east, the right of the photo is south. You can make out Buckhorn Road down below us at the right edge of the image. Click on the image for a much larger version and use your browser's back button to return.

After enjoying the view, we retraced our steps to begin what I call Glenn’s Power Line Exploration Loop.

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