So on day 2 of our journey, I wake up and walk over to the window. Of course, I'm expecting gray cloudy skies, the pre-cursor to this mother of all storms that is supposed to be ravaging the wasatch front. I open the blinds, and I'm practically blinded and knocked out by the beautiful blue sky and sunshine penetrating the hotel window. Well, looks like day 2 of the EPIC journey will continue. I thought to myself, wow, we only have 125 miles to ride today. Piece of cake considering we rode almost 300 yesterday. Little did I know, this would be the most difficult and challenging day of the trip.
"Preparing the donkeys for a brutal day, Richfield, Utah. Notice the blue sky.."
As we jumped on I-70 for a quick trip to Joseph, Utah, you could see the beautiful Tushar Mountains in the Fishlake National Forest. The Tushars are Utah's 3rd highest mountain range with peaks in the 12,000 foot range. These mountains are very visible from I-15 to the east when you drive through Beaver, Utah. I think of all the terrain we had on the itinerary, I was personally most excited for the Tushars. They always seemed so mysterious to me for some reason. I think the mere fact that most Utahn's know very little about them made it that much more exciting for me.
"The road to the famous Paiute ATV trail, the snow capped Tushars in the distance"
We stopped in Joseph, Utah for a quick fillup. Let's just say Joseph, Utah is definitely a 1 horse town, and a 1 gas station town as well. I was almost paranoid to put gas in my tank given the rusty old look of the pump, and the criminal figure of the man and woman running the station. They (the station owners) sat on the bench in front of the station and smoked a few cigarettes as we rode away.
Just a few minutes down I-70 to Fremont Indian State Park and this is where we would start our journey on the southern leg of the famous Paiute ATV trail. The Paiute ATV trail is a 275 mile long ATV trail that covers the better portion of south-central Utah. The trail is a sort of ATV highway that interconnects many of the small towns in that portion of the state, primarily along Hwy 89. It is considered one of the top 5 ATV trails in the entire country. Our portion of the trail would only cover 58 miles, I-70 to Circleville, Utah. This leaves many more miles to explore some day :-).
Of all the trails we rode, the Paiute was the most well marked. The junction signs were huge and easy to spot. Of course, we had the entire trail loaded in the GPS so signs or no signs, we were prepared.
We started up the Paiute and immediately it was obvious that this was a well traveled ATV trail due to the fact that the trail was just as wide as a typical ATV and had 2 distinct ruts to follow. We immediately started gaining altitude and it was obvious that we would be knocking at 11,500 in no time at all. The trail constantly crossed over a stream, back and forth as we zig-zagged our way up.
"Van posing for a quick photo on the Paiute ATV Trail, notice the distinct ruts of millions of ATV'ers"
We passed an old abandonded mine and several ATV dudes coming the opposite direction. Of course they were just flying down the road with no helmets, no safety gear and mullets flapping in the wind. I was actually quite surprised how few people we actually encountered while riding the Pauite. Compared to Skyline drive, this place was quiet but equally as beautiful.
"A typical junction, Paiute ATV sign, and Tushar mountains in the background"
As the snowy Tushars started to appear closer, we stopped for a few photos and a cliff bar. The peaks and mountain pass looked very snowy and I really started to wonder wether or not we would actually be able to cross. According to the official trail map, there was a small note appearing on this section stating that due to potential high snow, you may need to wait til late July or early august to crossover. What we were seeing was remnants of 1 mild October storm. These mountains must be pretty gnarly in the middle of January.
We arrived at the top of the pass and it was definitely snowy. I was ahead of Van and stopped to take a photo. I couldn't see Van coming up the road but could hear the sound of his engine running at full boar. I could see a rooster tail of snow flying from the back of his bike and at first thought it was a snow blower. It was simply Van pushing his bike with the aid of some throttle up the snowy muddy trail. Keep in mind that our altitude right at this spot was the equivalent to standing on top of Mt. Timpanogos.
"Van running the KTM snowblower up the Paiute at 11,000 feet"
We came to a junction where the trail immediately starting heading due west. Good thing considering the road straight ahead was completely drifted over by snow and definitely not passable. The trail started to head south west and due to the heavy sun exposure and decent amount of snow immediately started to get very muddy. This was perhaps the worst mud we would encounter the entire trip. Luckily I had installed a GPR steering stabilizer before leaving for this trip and it definitely came in handy during sections like this. I simply turned the thing up to about 4 or 5 and it made riding in mud feel like riding my old banana seat schwinn bike with training wheels.
As we descended the muddy rocky trail with a nice view of I-15 in the distance, we passed by a lake, appropriately named "Mudd Lake" considering our bikes had more mud than rider and gear at this point.
We rode for a while and eventually came to our first "log jam" obstacle of the day. This would be the first of many log jams that day. I personally lost count after about 10.
"The first log jam obstacle of the day"
It was obvious that there was no "easy" alternate route around this trail obstacle. So we stopped and started scouting a possible route around the fallen tree. As we were scouting, I looked down and noticed that I had a tear in my pant pockets and that my camera was missing. Of course, my first thought was about a tree that I had ridden quite closely to some miles back. I figured that when I blew by the tree, it had ripped my pocket open and my camera had fallen out. I told Van to wait while I back tracked a couple of miles to find my camera. I started tracing the trail back and diligently combed the trail with my eyes. Of course, all I would notice is the millions of smashed bud-light cans that I honestly didn't notice when I was enjoying my ride prior to losing the camera. I rode 1 mile, then 2, then 5, then 10 thinking any second now I would find that place where I brushed that tree and there would be my memory maker laying in the dirt waiting for my rescue. After a good 30 to 45 minutes of riding, I decided to give up and head back. After all, we still had a long ways to go before finishing the day up.
I turned around and started heading back. It just so happens that while I was backtracking looking for my camera, Allison just so happened to be watching us on the website and noticed that our path was all of the sudden going backwards. Of course she panicked as she told me later and thought something bad had happened. Isn't technology cool!
Well I finally arrived back to the log jam where Van was just settling into a nice afternoon nap. He said, well did you find your camera? I said, No and I'm not very happy about it. He said, well right after you left, I saw this shiny thing in the bushes where you were scouting and it just so happened to be your camera. Wow! What a painful 1 hour of backtracking relief.
We ended up finding a way to get around the jam and continued down the trail to Circleville, Utah.
"The alternate path around the log jam. This turned out to be one of the easiest log jams we encountered that day"
The descent into Circleville was extremely steep and rocky consisting of many switchbacks. We lost altitude fast as we approached the valley floor. I'm glad I experienced that section of the trail as I would never consider taking my family up that thing on a 4 wheeler or anything else.
There wasn't a cloud in the sky as we pulled into the 1 gas station town of Circleville, Utah. The wind however was blowing atleast 30 mph. It was actually quite annoying. Just as we started to fill up the bikes at the gas station, a school bus full of kids pulled up. The door opened and they all filed out and into the gas station for after school snacks. The bus driver (as well as possibly the store owner) came over and started to chat with us and wanted to know more about our trip. He was actually a pretty cool guy and the kids in the store were very polite, inviting us to get ahead of them in line so we wouldn't have to wait for all 50 of them to buy twinkies and mountain dew. That last 58 miles of Paiute was challenging and we almost considered just riding down Hwy 89 to Panguitch and calling it a day.
The original plan from Circleville was to ride the Fremont ATV trail 50 miles south through the Dixie National forest to Panguitch, Utah. We were both feeling slightly worn out but decided to ride it anyway considering the 30 mph winds blowing down Hwy 89. I'm glad we didn't turn our backs on the Fremont trail, it turned out to be one of the prettiest sections of the entire trip.
We headed out of town and soon we were on the dirt road leading south to the Dixie National Forest. Van was riding ahead of me as we started to gain altitude into the mountain range. At one point, I passed by him thinking he had stopped to take a picture. After a few more miles, I didn't see in my rear view mirror so I stopped to wait up. As I sat and waited, there was no sign of his headlight in the distance. This was very unusual for Van so I started to head back. A couple miles back, right where I had passed earlier, he was off his bike and pulling out all his tools. Turns out, he had a flat front tire. I've easily ridden thousands of miles with Van and not once has either of us ever had a flat motorcycle tire on the trail. This day was really turning out to be a long one.
"Van preparing the bike for on-trail surgery. Notice the bike jacked up on rocks and tied to a tree for stability"
He's still not sure why his front tire flatted, but when it did, he said it blew loud and bucked him off the bike like an angry rodeo bull. Just like in regular cycling, we carry spare tubes as well as patch kits. It's a bit different with motorcycles though because the front and rear tire take different sizes. So we each carried a different sized tube. The change was actually quite painless and went fast only because we had the proper tools to get the job done quick. The $10 pump I bought at Walmart before the ride worked like a champ!
The autumn leaves on the Fremont were the best we would see during the entire trip. The trail was very well established and every now and again, you would see a huge monolithic rock sculpture right in the middle of the wintering aspen trees.
"Autumn on the Fremont trail. Notice the rock sculpture hiding in the Aspen trees"
I was riding ahead of Van when all of the sudden I heard this loud crash right behind me over the noise of the engine. I immediately turned around and caught the final few milliseconds of a huge tree falling down behind me. I guess the mild vibration of my bike passing must have finally caused this old giant to go. My first instinct was Van could be caught underneath that thing since he was just right behind me not long ago. I jumped off my bike and ran back to the scene. He was nowhere to be found. I looked down the side of the trail in the ravine thinking maybe he flew off the trail in an attempt to avoid the falling tree. But he was no where. Then a few minutes later, he came puttering down the trail. He stopped in front of the tree and yelled to me "how did you get across that thing so fast?". I said, "I didn't, that tree just barely fell." It was quite a moment of laughter. Of all the things that could have killed us on this trip, I'm not sure the life insurance company would have bought such a story.
"The fresh fallen tree, our closest encounter with death"
We rode on and once again encountered more fallen trees as well as challenging maneuvers around them. There was a big part of the trail that had recently experienced a large forest fire and it was in that section where we came across many of them. At one point, there were 2 trees in the trail literally 20 yards apart. It was definitely a team effort to get the bikes across a couple of them. This day was definitely one of work and not pleasure.
"Josh praying to the tree gods for mercy and safe passage"
This was the day of riding motorcycles when one's love for the sport was truly challenged. I really feel like we passed the challenge. The original plan for the day was to end up in Rockville, Utah but given the amount of daylight and the amount of energy left in our souls, Panguitch would be our overnight stop for the day. The ride out of the Dixie National forest and into the Panguitch valley was one of achievement. We had just ridden over 100 miles of rocky, steep, snowy, muddy ATV trails and were still alive and kicking. We pulled into the beatiful 1 star Canyon Lodge motel and had some excellent BBQ for dinner at the local restaraunt. After dinner, we found ourselves out in the parking lot of the hotel with our headlamps tweaking our bikes and tightening and replacing nuts and screws after a seriously brutal day of riding. It was this day that KTM EXC motorcycles met their match.
jww
Click here to read about day 3 of the trip
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