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On Saturday at 0900, around 200 ATV's departed the Deseret Peak sports complex. Final destination, the Nugget Casino in Wendover, Nevada.


Interesting things to note about the event. In the end, over $24,000 was raised by this group and well over 100 people participated in the ride, with several dozen additional in support (trailering drinks, port-a-potties, extra trailers, etc). Ages ranged from late teens to folks in their 70's. Average speed for both days was easily 45-105mph (depending on the vehicle driven). My average speed was 53mph along the salt flats with top speeds exceeding 64mph.


Virtually 100% of the terrain was flat open desert and the vast expanse of salt flats adjacent to the Great Salt Lake. Nothing overly challening except maintaining full throttle. Since the winds were excessive, we were able to avoid most of the clogging dust/dirt that usually accompanies 200+ machines going full throttle in the desert.


While en route, we took a break at the Knolls offroad area. After a few moments, one of the Make-a-Wish children (there were two brothers suffering from the same ailment) approached me in his wheel chair and said "you have the coolest and meanest looking machine out here, can you take me for a ride". We tossed an oversized helmet on his head and I had him start the machine. As soon as the engine fired, Noah hit the accelerator to the point of blowing the motor. Fortunately, we were still in Neutral.. that launch could have been disastrous.



On the last 40 mile stretch before reaching Wendover, we hit the salt flats. Even though some machines were easily 1/4 mile ahead, they threw so much mud/salt in the air, it coated every inch of us. We had to stop to wipe our goggles every 2 or so miles, because it was impossible to see.

Reaching Wendover, we were escorted through town by several Tooele County search and rescue vehicles. Full lights and sirens. Tourists and passers-by stopped to gaze and photograph the long procession of machines coming into town. It was quite a sight.


We then spent Saturday night donating our remaining money to the Nugget Steakhouse, slot machines and roulette tables.

Sunday morning was spent raffling off a ton of items donated by local companies, to include ATV ramps, ATV tires, medical supplies, first aid kits, fire extinguishers and the only 12V auto vacuum cleaner (which I won).

We preceeded back to Tooele on the same route, fortunately most of the previous day's rain had dried up and we didn't get nearly as salt coated on Sunday.


Total mileage was around 185 miles. Total for the past week is now over 800 miles on my Kawasaki. What an August!

On Monday, 16 August, 30+ people on ATV's and Side-by-Sides departed Marysvale for our first 90 mile leg. Destination: Torrey, Utah.



To get to Torrey, we had to cross the Paiute and Fremont trail systems and summit two mountain ranges. One of the more notable trails we encountered was the Barney Lake trail. This trail was easily the most destructive to the skid plates and undercarriage. It was on this trail that the rear skid plate on my ATV decided to give up and partially fall-off.

Took the quad out again Saturday to do some more riding in the Mercur/Ophir/Stockton area. My goal was to explore every side trail I could find.  
 
Even though I've been to this location at least a dozen times, I was surprised today when I found some trails that lead to new and interesting places.
 
The first new side trail was Above and just North of Jacob City. The trail climbed and climbed until it reached the peak of the mountain over Jacob City (north of). From there, a trail pressed North and would have dumped me into Soldier Canyon. Unfortunately, I had to turn around as a huge herd of bulls (horns and all) were blocking the trail, and I was in no mood to be gored by angry bulls (they were at 9800' elevation and seemed wild).
 

 
The next was N/E of Jacob City and in the neighborhood of N 40 24.034 W 112 14.720 . From this location, it would appear that I could drop all the way down to the far end of Ophir Canyon. Again, I had to turn around as a large herd of cows was blocking the trail and they refused to move.
 
While almost to Soldier Canyon, I ran into several members of the Northern Utah ATV Club (Gary & Co.). Thanks for stopping by, guys!
 

 
A few photos from my high elevation riding today:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are several ways to get up there. One is along Ophir Canyon (paved road) at about: N 40 23 102 W 112 14.070. Another, which makes for a great loop is around: N 40° 20.355 W 112° 17.335 and then you could also come in from Stockton around: N 40 25.300 W 112 19.255.
 
All staging locations are very easy. It's not until you deviate from the marked trails that some of the riding gets a bit more aggressive.  
 
In fact, from the Stockton location, you could drive a regular truck most of the way up before the trail narrows to just ATV width. 
 
 

After having taken our new rig out three times since May, I’m now thinking we may have bit off more than we can chew. On my first real outing, I went out alone to hold a campsite for two days while friends and family arrived. Since I was alone, I had to navigate the RW395 by myself. Unfortunately, a tree jumped out and grabbed the entire right side of the rig, punching a small hole in our front door. After getting back home and backing this beast into our driveway (RV spot), I pulled forward just a little and somehow the rig grabbed our gate and got wedged. The only solution was to cut that entire side of the gate down.

Camp (Wickiup area, San Rafael Swell)

Ouch!

Early last Sunday, Bill and I arrived at our designated staging area near Israel Canyon, on the outskirts of Saratoga Springs. It was 0930 and still quite cold outside. I'm going to guess it was still in the high 30's upon arrival.

We unloaded our trucks and began the journey up the mountain through Israel Canyon. Many hunters were scattered along the trail. Some just starting their day, others gutting a deer.

Neither of us realized just how rocky and rough this trail was going to be. Getting to the top of Lake Mountain proved to be its own painful adventure.

Upon arrival at the top, we were greeted with an outstanding view of all Utah County.

Without much planning, the family packed up the RV and ATV's and joined a caravan of friends and family en route to the San Rafael Swell.

Our destination was Temple Mountain Road. We've camped here a few times already within the last 2 years and this location never disappoints. While still quite warm outside, once into the canyons, you were comforted by shade.

Some of our group decided to pursue slot canyons and hiking while the rest of us wanted to further explore the trails and areas between "Behind the Reef", "Temple Mountain", "Lil Wild Horse" and areas around those locations.

Although we left home around 4:30pm, we didn't arrive in the reef until late that evening. In the dark, I drove slowly with a flashlight out the window trying to identify camping locations that would accomodate 2x 31-34' RV's w/trailers and one truck with a bumper-pull camper.

Our camp spot:




View from our camp spot - Temple Mountain:

For the first time, my oldest had an interest in taking my 2005 Brute Force 750i for a ride. He's not ridden much, so I was worried the machine might be too much for him (even though he's 15). I gave him some guidance on how to ride, control power, switch into L or 4WD and off we went.

Wife and son riding down the trail:



We decided to explore a dry wash just opposite our camp location. According to our map, the wash would take us toward additional trails.

3 miles of riding took over 2 hours along this very washed out trail. Not only were there plenty of fun obstacles, but my nephew's 2stroke sport quad kept stalling, he killed the battery and I need to tow him to drop the clutch (to start the machine).

One of the obstances: The Steps:

Between my brother-in-law Kenny (pictured above) and I, we managed to get all the machines over without actually needing to use a winch.

My mother flew into town to stay with us two weeks. Before week one was through, we were packed and loaded for Flaming Gorge. The plan was to get there early Wednesday morning (of last week) and stay through Sunday.

By Thursday, a cold front had blown in, changing the average day-time temperature from 95F to 75F and cooler by Saturday. In addition to the changing temperatures, we encountered high winds (+75mph), rain and constant rolling thunder. Most of the poor weather started in the mid-to-late afternoon, so during the day we were still able to play.

With us, we brought: 2x JetSki's, fishing poles, 1 x 4 person raft, 1 x 750i ATV (mine), swim gear and 2 x newly purchased tents.

To get setup, we first had to unload the JetSki's and ATV. Since we had a beach front location, this made it quite easy:

I decided to take a quick ride up Mineral Fork on Sunday (2 August). It had been over two years since I'd been up there last.

I had forgotten just how technical and rocky this little 6 mile stretch of canyon is. There are many locations that are obstructed by large rocks, off-camber cliffs and just boulder after boulder along the trails.

Here's the Garmin tracks from the ride:

MineralFork.gdb

Once I had reached the end of the trail (at the old mine), I decided to climb (on hands-and-knees in some spots) to the top of the ridge line. From up there, you can see down to Lake Blanche and over the peaks to the Salt Lake valley below.

A few photos from the ride and hike:

The trail up (the water fall):

So a friend of mine did some riding and exploring in the mountains to the North of HWY6/Spanish Fork Canyon. The USFS has marked most of the trails in this area, and most are accessible via 4x4 and OHV's; in fact, we've seen many RV's and campers up in this area as well.

Here's a video that Coop made from his ride last weekend:




Here's the Garmin tracks from the area:

L.H fork to Daniels, 65 mile loop.gdb

On Wednesday (22 July), I took half the day off and decided to ride the Jacob City Loop. This time, I was determined to make the entire loop while crossing through (and over) Ophir toward Mercur.

I arrived at the staging area at 0830 and the temperature was still in the 70's. The sun hadn't yet reached the mountains yet as it was still riding behind the Wasatch.

I rode from the Stockton area (staging area) up to the top, dropped down into Ophir, rode to the far east end of Ophir to recover my geocache ammo-can (since it seemed to be about 15' on private property), then proceeded back up the mountain on the South side of Ophir Canyon.

Somewhere in the process, I hit a rock (or something) with my left/rear tire and gashed the sidewall. Unfortunately, I didn't know this for at least an hour and just thought the constant rock bashing was making steering difficult; all the while riding on a flat tire.

I didn't realize I had a flat until I was easily 21 miles from my truck at the furthest point away, overlooking the Mercur mine. I used all my water to try to locate the hole but couldn't find it. It simply wouldn't hold air. After riding another mile, I looked back and saw the tear in the sidewall. As luck should have it, two plugs in the sidewall managed to hold air long enough for me to continue the entire loop (I was not eager to end the riding because of a hole).

If you've never been up in this area, I highly suggest you try the riding. At just over 10,000' in elevation, the aspens and pines and wild mountain flowers are just awesome. Additionally, its rare to see other people in this area.

Attached is the Garmin map tracks for this ride:
JacobCity-Ophir.gdb