Utah Moto Day 6

I slept peacefully at the lovely "Village Inn Motel" of Castledale Utah knowing that Cody was not rotting in the grey desert of Green River. The normal noise of a busy hotel morning was non-existant only because we were the only guests that night. The owner told us to go ahead and park our bikes on the sidewalk in front of our rooms. We even considered just pulling them into the room and parking them in front of the beds for a little added security. As you can see from the photo, the lodging business is of course thriving in Castledale.



I loaded my bike after repairing my chain guard from the jacket eating incident and we were off to find a nice cafe for breakfast. Imagine that, another bike repair.




After cruising the main drag of Castledale, it was either a harsh Maverik breakfast or a 10 mile ride north to the much bigger town of Hunington. Arriving in Hunington, it was obvious that we were faced with a similar problem. So I stopped at the local Sinclair and asked the attendant on duty where a good breakfast might be found. He said, head back south to "Cindy's Cafe" which he claimed is a local favorite for homestyle cooking. Upon arriving at Cindy's, it was deserted and a sign was hung on the door with the words "Closed due to Circumstances". I was really starting to feel for the people of Carbon County. So breakfast it was at the local Subway inside the gas station. Not exactly what we had in mind, but it was stomach fuel nonetheless.



We gassed the bikes for the final time of the journey and started up SR31 which heads west from Castledale to Fairview Canyon. We immediately started to climb as the forest grew thicker. We passed many coal mines along the highway and I kept my eyes peeled for any sign of the famous Crandall Canyon mine where 9 people were killed a few years back but I think it might be a few canyons over.

Once we hit the top of the mountain pass, it was time to make our way north on the famous Utah Skyline trail. During our last adventure, we came south on this recreational dirt highway so this was familiar territory for us. If you ever get the chance, you should take the family car up fairview canyon and drive atleast a couple miles of this finely graded gravel road. You can see more Utah mountain ranges from the elevation than anywhere in Utah in my opinion. In the photo you can see the backside of Mt. Nebo which you pass when you drive through Nephi.



The purple wildflowers along the skyline trail were outstanding and covered the lush green meadows and fields of the 10,000 foot skyline. We stopped multiple times to capture the beauty.



As we started to descend the skyline approaching US6, we encountered a huge herd of sheep on the road. I thought for sure they would scramble as we approached. After a few "revs" of the throttle, I think they thought I was firing up a chainsaw in preparation for sacrifice so they immediately scrambled.



We met up with US6 and rode a few miles west to the sheep creek dirt road which takes you over the mountains to Strawberry reservoir. Again, this road was the on-ramp to our previous journey a few years back so it was extremely familiar territory. It makes for an excellent, more scenic and safer shortcut to US6 than driving the wasatch front where you might get killed by a cell phone talking minivan on I-15.

As we finally reach US40 and the entrance to Strawberry reservoir, it was time to pull out the license plate out of my pant pockets and use my MacGyver techniques to re-attach it to my bike. I think I failed to mention that I it was destroyed a few days back in Beef Basin while riding out of the Abajos. The extreme weight from my gear caused my rear to bottom out and make contact with the tire. If you don't find enjoyment in fixing your bike everyday, you might want to stick with a conventional hobby such as tennis. Notice the long strip of duct tape attached to my saddle bag.



From there it was maybe 1 hour to home. It was a great journey but in a lot of ways, it was nice to be home as well. Since my expert wife photographer wasn't home to snap our photo, we parked the bikes in front of the garage, placed the cameras on the garbage can and set the timers.



We were standing in the kitchen having a nice cold drink when Allison and kids arrived home. They walked in the house and the first words out of Jonas' mouth was "where is Cody Maverik?". I almost teared up thinking how much worst and dramatic this moment could have been and proudly took him in the garage where Cody was still securely strapped to the handlebars. I said, let's take a photo with you and your stuffed animals by the bikes. Jonas already had his most beloved dog "buddy" with him so he allowed Will to hold Cody. Sasha wasn't about to be left out and ran in the house to grab her favorite doll "baby".



I'm sure there will be many more journeys. Considering how much of Utah we've covered now, we may have to start heading west into Nevada, North into Idaho, or East into Colorado. The list of bike repairs, modifications and tweaks is huge and should give us something to do in late hours of the night when the kids are in bed. It's always nice to have something to look forward to.

Total miles today: 167

Total Miles for the entire trip: 1098 (1200 for Van. He had to ride from Kaysville)

We figure atleast 75% of the route was dirt road and trails and of course the grey Green River desert. As you can see, we've made some tracks on the Utah map. There are still a few mountain ranges I've yet to cross in our great state but plan to at some point. Here's a map showing our 2008 and 2010 rides combined. 2008 in Yellow and 2010 in Black.