Roads that go nowhere are special. Mainly because the road itself is a reminder that the journey is just as important as the destination… sometimes even moreso. Personally, most of the time it’s about the journey for me. The final destination is usually just a stepping stone, a placeholder, a pause between movement. The ride itself is where I want to be. I prefer “getting there” over the actual “there”. There are very few exceptions.
Every so often I come across a road-journey-destination where each piece is one in the same. Pikes Peak is one of the best examples I can think of to explain this phenomenon. The road up the mountain is both a journey (an epic one at that) and a destination. Just being on the road means you’ve made it somewhere that few people ever venture. The same goes for the summit, because even though you’ve reached it, your journey has not ended. You still have to travel back down, and it’s like an entirely new road altogether. Each step presents it’s own set of challenges, emotional responses, and views… oh the views.
Riding the Pikes Peak “road to nowhere ” was terrifyingly exhilarating. I had to push myself to keep going when the road got wet, icy and steep. I forced myself to look ahead, even when that meant looking off the side of a cliff down hundreds of feet of freefall to the next level below. At the same time, with every inch traveled, I felt more and more powerful. It was as if the mountain was sharing it’s energy, but only because I was willing to earn it, keep fighting and strive for more. It was one of the most unique experiences I have ever had in my life, and it wouldn’t have been the same if I didn’t do it on a motorcycle.
The mountain is calling and you must go… on your bike. You will never regret it.
Bee Behind Bars 
This blog entry is great but the first paragraph kills!I’ll be quoting those lines somewhere, sometime. It’s the thing about riding you either get or you don’t. It’s hard to get people to “smell the roses” when they’re so wrapped up in the what the GPS is telling them is the “fastest route”. My wife will be the first person to tell you, the best part of being a passenger rather than a rider is you get to see all the cool stuff the rider misses because they’re busy doing that whole not dying thing.