After spending the previous two weekends and many long days at work, I decided to leave work early yesterday (Wednesday, June 8th) to get outside an do some hiking and riding.
My adventure started by taking my Dodge Dually offroading to the East side base of Black Rock Canyon and making an attempt up my self-named Pine Cone Canyon. This trail (loosely called a trail) is easily the most technical in the area and probably hasn't seen activity in years.
A bit of video on the way up (or down) the "trail":
In early May 2011, I led a group of ~17 ATV's approximately 85 miles round trip from 5 Mile Pass to Eureka and back. My friend Bill recorded much of the ride and posted it online:
I've been asked many times to provide a Garmin track for my route from 5Mile Pass to Eureka. Two weeks ago, I took a group of 17 ATV & Motorcyclists on this route and decided to capture a track route. Unfortunately, I powered the GPSr off before saving the entire loop, but got a partial.
A few photos from the event.
What a great day it was. Even though we lost half our group on the West side of the Tintics (just after leaving Black Rock Canyon).
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!
We went out again yesterday (Nick, Alex, Megan and I) to explore this hastily abandoned camp. Seems far more vandalism has taken place since last year.
Still a fun area to explore:
A gopher snake that decided that if wanted to sit under my ATV:
My older brother and younger sister came into town (at the same time). My brother was here to take a bit of time off and to help get my Durango running again, while my younger sister (only sister) was stopping by while en route to Zion National Park.
On Sunday, we went for a little ride to the North/East corner of Five Mile Pass. At that location, I thought I had destroyed the motor on my 2008 Kawi Brute Force 750i (400 miles on it so far) by hitting a large puddle too hard and ingesting water into the intake.
On Tuesday, we did an 86 mile loop from Five Mile Pass, through Eureka, around the Tintic Mountains and back. We all had a great time and many photos/videos were taken.
Follow along on our adventure: North/East corner of Five Mile Pass, en route to the mud bowl:
At the mud bowl, and ingesting water into the intake!
Getting towed out by my 2005 BF 750i!
Short video of the tow process:
Yet another perspective on the tow-operation:
It was quite sad to have my new machine grounded while my brother and brother-in-law continued to play in the puddle.
From this point, I was towed back to my truck and got to hang out while I let everyone else do further trail riding and exploring. It was the end of my day.
The following Tuesday, I took the day off to again take my brother and two nieces on a long ride around the Tintic Mountains. I've done this ride several times already, but my brother was interested in a long ride with varying terrain and this was the perfect ride for that.
Me prepping to lead the adventure:
From this location, we circled around the mountains to the South of the staging area before proceeding toward the Tintic mountains. The weather was great. After all the rain and storms, there wasn't much dust, but there were still massive muddy puddles everywhere. In short time, we were all accumulating mud on everything.
Active mining area near Topliff:
One of our first stops before circling around to the East side of Black Rock Canyon was the geocache named "Crappy place for a great cache"; easily one of the most unique geocaches I've ever found.
Me inspecting the "bowl"
From there, everyone else was intrigued as well. What the "crap" was I doing they asked"?
From here, we rode through Twelve Mile pass and started the ride up Black Rock Canyon from the East side. Not a single other person/ATV in sight. It was a beautful day.
<rant on> Half-way up the mouth of the canyon, I encountered a very scared Yellow Labrador that appeared to have been abandoned. He was too skittish of me, the machine and helmet to approach, but was definitely tired and hungry. I'm sickened by the amount of animals I find in the desert that are wantonly abandoned. </rant off>
Near the top of Black Rock Canyon (from the East side), there's a live stock watering hole. I'm not certain if this hole was incidental or man-made, but this is where we stopped for a quick lunch.
Here's a video showing the ride up to the watering hole:
From this point, we continued over the canyon to the West side and banked north toward the microwave towers overlooking Hwy6.
We stopped in Eureka for fuel, snacks and a brief break. While there, everyone enjoyed the Rockwell Cabin.
From this point, we proceeded up the canyon to the immediate West of Eureka and decided to ride to the top of Overlook Point.
Staging was set for 0900-0930 on Saturday 16 May. Upon arrival, there were already several trucks unloading ATV's of all types. As it turned out, Chris Brimhall (aka Ghost Rider) had brought down most (if not all) of the Northern Utah ATV Club to ride the same route.
Just before 0930, m74me (Dennis) and Britt & Bill arrived. Just as we were leaving, another couple Edward and Rossalind asked to join our group.
At exactly 0930, we pushed out and began our (what would end up being 90 miles) ride.
The first obstacle was a mountain climb with significant rocks and obstacles on the way up. We broke out the winches, muscled the machines up and pressed on. No damage, no injuries. So far, so good.
Our first break came about 15 miles into it. We stopped near "Great Place for a Crappy Cache" and explained to Edward and Rossalind (who have never geocached) that there was a public toilet behind a tree. They couldn''t believe what they saw. A full sized toilet, right there in the open desert!
Britt & Bill looking to the South as 24+ ATV's from the Northern Utah Club came through:
Edward and Rossalind coming back from the geocache "toilet": At this point, we banked East toward Black Rock Canyon and began winding our way up. Upon reaching a cattle watering hole, Dennis (m74me) determined that he had torn a 3/4" gas in the sidewall of a rear tire. It was to plug (for him), and time to place a geocache at this location (by me).
The group at a break near the watering hole:
Shortly after leaving the watering hole and about half-way through Black Rock Canyon, Edward hit a rut, and both he and Rossalind flew off the machine. Fortunately, neither seemed to be seriously injured, but they were obviously shaken up. Afterward, Edward drove much more modestly.
East cattle gate to Black Rock Canyon. Dennis aka m74me taking a break:
From this point, we proceeded south along the Tintic mountains and decided to head into Eureka for food & fuel. Upon arrival, we found a full group of motorcyclists (at least 20+) and all 24 ATV's from the Northern Utah ATV club already there. The gas station attended seemed a bit overwhelmed.
The "group" near Rockwell's Cabin:
After fueling up, having a snack, we decided to head back out via Chiulus pass. We were now a bit over 50 miles into our trip and the weather was perfect even though a bit warm.
We navigated through the Rock Garden and came down the pass into the canyon adjacent to Black Rock Canyon.
Edward and Rossalind coming out of the canyon:
En route back to Five Mile Pass, we managed to leave Dennis behind. After getting the group safely back to the vehicles, Bill and I decided to go looking for Dennis. Fortunately, he had found his own way back.
Final mileage: 90 miles, end of ride: 1730. What a great day!
Britt, Bill, Dennis, Edward & Rossalind: If you're reading this and you have photos, please do share them.
Start: N 40 14 10.79 W 112 09 43.12 (south side staging area) Rock Crawling: N 40° 12.203 W 112° 09.607 Ridge line: N 40° 11.134 W 112° 08.738 Hill Climb: N 40° 09.718 W 112° 09.490 12 Mile Pass: N 40° 05.591 W 112° 09.896 Black Rock Canyon: N 40 02 44.66 W 112 09 14.17 Meadow Ride: N 40° 01.899 W 112° 11.519 Mill Canyon (if there's interest): N 40° 01.518 W 112° 13.984 High Point: N 40° 00.207 W 112° 11.815 Eureka Sinclair: N 39° 57.272 W 112° 07.197 Chiulus Pass: N 39° 57.363 W 112° 07.778 Rock Crawl: N 39° 58.224 W 112° 07.718 Allen Ranch Road: N 40° 02.137 W 112° 04.290
After riding 50+ miles through the Eureka/Tintic mountain areas yesterday, we loaded back up and rode up to the top of Jacob City. While we were able to reach the top, the entire ridge line is still covered in 2+' of snow.
I attempted to plow through anyway, but the snow was soft and my machine would only dig in.
So, for now, I'm postponing this ride until all the snow has cleared (for safety and to prevent rutting up the trail).
If anyone has interest, I'd be game in making another 50+ mile Tintic mountain ride. Black and Mill Canyons are now open and passable via ATV, but probably not yet for motorcycles.
A few photos from yesterday:
Craig (co-worker) and Danielle (sister-in-law) after coming back down from Mill Canyon (Craig's motorcyle couldn't make it up and he dumped it at least 3 times):
These photos are from the top of the Jacob City area. I started at the staging area just off Ophir Canyon and Hwy 73:
Since early April, we've been attempting to get up Mill Canyon / N 40° 01.518 W 112° 13.984, but the snow has just been too deep, with some drifts being 3+ feet in depth.
My main goal was to attain a geocache (not yet found) that was placed in December 2008 by Britt & Bill.
Since I enjoy riding in Mill Canyon (it dead-ends in a nice steep hill), and we also enjoying looping from Five Mile Pass / N 40° 14.221 W 112° 09.845, around the Tintic mountains, through Eureka (for a soda and fuel), through Little Moab, into 12 Mile Pass and back to Five Mile, it just made sense that I would come back every couple weeks to attempt this trail.
For the past few weeks, snow was receding at about 500'/week, but it still put me to within .5 mile of the final location (just before the Dry Lake).
So yesterday, I loaded up the ATV, extra fuel and my snow shoes, hell-bent to get to this location.
I got to within .5 miles before getting stuck in a 4' snow bank (that draped from the mountain, over the trail and down the hill). I put on the snow shoes and started hiking East toward the geocache location. The snow was quite deep for about .25 miles until it cleared and just turned into thick mud.
Fortunately, the geocache was not buried in snow, but was placed in a perfect area to keep it dry and accessible. The cache description indicated a First-to-Find prize, and I got it! The FTF prize was either the $10 Sportsmans Warehouse gift-card or the first ever Britt&Bill Geo-Coin.
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 
We then spent Saturday night donating our remaining money to the Nugget Steakhouse, slot machines and roulette tables. 
