September 2011 Archives

Over Labor Day weekend (2011), both my brothers came into town. My oldest brother is retired Air Force, now IT Tech residing in Vacaville, CA. My youngest brother is a 7-8th grade Math teacher, residing in Olympia, WA. Although my oldest brother hunts and camps a bit, he and my youngest brother are still inexperienced ATV'ers.

My plan was to stage at the Panguitch KOA (south end of town), get the guys oriented with the machines on Day 1 (ride toward Bryce Canyon, etc.). On Day 2, our plan was to ATV tent/camp at Castlerock Campground, just off I-70 and West of Richfield (over 100 miles to the North).

Garmin tracks and Google KML found here:

Panguitch_to_Marysvale.gdb

 spot_messages.kml

Day 1: Staging at the KOA. We had hoped to come in Friday night, but the KOA owners were worried that our rig was so big that we'd take their trees and power lines down. Apparently through the night, they had friends at work clearing branches and making the campground accessible to our monster-5th wheel. I'm sure glad they did. It was still tight.

Day 1 went without issue. Both brothers proved they could handle the machines, not get lost or destroy anything. We retired back to the 5th wheel for the evening. Overnight, the temperatures dropped to the mid-30's. Far too cold to get up and turn-on the furnace. My brothers, now sleeping in the garage area (on two drop-down queen beds) were freezing and had no issues with telling me so the next morning. That morning, we got an updated map of the area and instructions from the KOA owners that temps overnight had been getting very cold. My youngest brother and I were the only two to have packed sweatshirts. My oldest brother started seeking out a source to purchase on (no success).

Off we went. Our first leg was to ride through the entire Casto/Lime-Kiln loop. After that, it was the Fremont 02 trail to Circleville.

As my older brother was staging this video, I had just had a collision (low-speed) with a tree. I pushed in the right headlight, bumper and frame. I was upset as evidenced in the second video below where I ram the gate and create new suspension issues that won't manifest for another ~80 miles. (upper A-arm bushing)

On the weekend of Sept 22nd, I left home with my 43' 5th wheel and ATV en route to Emory. I'd never been to this town before and didn't quite know where I was meeting the rest of the BigRide 6 group.

After accidentally driving through town (its really small), I had to find a way to flip a U-Turn in my mobile Marriott; not easy to do on two lane country roads.

I found a space on the street that was out of the way and adjacent to a rest stop and open park, but not close enough to bother the locals. I setup the 5th wheel (since I needed to stay at least one night).

As the sun started going down, cars started pulling into the field and a live music event was formed. I wandered over and listened in. Apparently the locals do this singing every Sunday evening. What a nice event!

By that evening, almost nobody from the BigRide6 group had arrived. Bill and I were mostly alone waiting for the rest. To my surprise, after 10pm many others started to arrive.

We grouped up at 8am the next morning, made sure gear was loaded, stickers were handed out and that everybody was there. Garmin tracks for BigRide6 here:

 Big_Ride_6.gdb

We departed the staging area and started our Day 1 ride to Manti. The skies were clear and the trails weren't that dusty. It was starting to look like the makings of a great initial ride.

The first trouble started along Rock Canyon. Climbing these tight switchbacks and rocky terrain, my machine started to overheat. Somewhere along that trail, Bill Walke's RZR made contact with my machine and ripped my rear facing camera off. Fortunately, I had planned ahead and affixed a bungee to keep it from getting lost (falling off).

After several hours of riding, we stopped for lunch (about 2pm). I refueled (because it was starting to rain and I didn't want to refuel in a full storm).

The group started to fire up their machines, but mine wouldn't start. I had power, but the fuel pump wouldn't engage. I was dead. Fortunately, two comrades agreed to tow me to the our preplanned hotel in Manti. After ~20 miles of being towed, eating dirt and having my fog lights broken (from debris flying from my tow machine), I made it to the hotel.

A quick phone call to the wife and she came to pick me up. I left the ATV at the hotel and we drove ~80 miles back to Emory so I could drive the 5th wheel and truck back to Manti to haul out my machine.

And so ended BigRide 6 for me.

With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 about here, I find this a touching tribute by the men of 160th SOAR and the young lady from American Airlines. God bless America and NSDQ!

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