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:
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.
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