Labor Day Weekend (Guest Editor)
For Zachary's 16th birthday we decided that we were going to do something we had talked about for a couple of years now. We were going to load up our atvs with everything we would need to spend a few days on the
Paiute ATV Trail. I was surprised how little we can actually pack on an atv and still keep it rideable on a trail. It's alot like backpacking, except that you can bring lawnchairs. And your butt gets sore instead of your feet.
So as soon as Zac and Em and Emerson (Zac's friend) got home from school we loaded up and headed out, along with about 30,000 other people. We made it to Salt Lake and came to a dead stop. Everyone was leaving town at the same time. So we got off of the interstate and took the backroads. Took for freaking ever...We were headed for
Fremont Indian State Park as our starting point, because we knew the area from our previous family trip. It was absolutely dark as we unpacked and headed up the trail, but we found a beautiful spot about 2 miles up the trail, next to a creek.
DAY 2- Saturday, 31 August
We awoke to a little bit of overcast skies and the sound of passing atvs. It was time to get up and make breakfast.
Now, it had been a little bit of a rough night. We discovered that not everyone had taken Dad seriously when I told them what to bring. See, there is a big difference between Mom and Dad. I guess they (not naming any names) are just used to Mom telling them what to do multiple times and giving up and just doing it for them. So when I said to pack a sleeping bag (which just seems pretty obvious) that is what I meant. Pack your own sleeping bag. Nights on the mountain can be pretty long and cold without one.
There was surprisingly little grumbling about getting going. Everyone was ready to get started on our little adventure.
Now we have been having a debate in our family about proper camping breakfast. Oatmeal vs. Cup-o-Noodles. And fire roasted Pop Tarts. The debate was settled on this trip. We pumped and purified our water, boiled it up and cooked our Cup-o-Noodles (we didn't carry much water to save room). It is easy to make, warm, filling, and easy to clean up after. We had breakfast, took a vote, and it was unanimous. Cup-o-Noodles and 1 Pop Tart are the way to go.
Breakfast was done, camp was packed and loaded, and we were ready to go..
...except...
One of the atvs wouldn't start. We had a dead battery. Great start to a multi-day trip right? Luckily we were only 2 miles from the truck. Zac blasted back to the truck to get the jumper cables while we took the wheeler apart. By the time we had the battery exposed he was already back. We got it running and hit the trail.
We started the day down at about the 6,500 ft. elevation amongst the sagebrush and cedar trees but we spent the whole morning climbing the Tushar Mountains, and by noon we were approaching the treeline. In the background you can see Mount Belnap and our last blue sky.
Here we are at the pass between Mount Belnap and Mount Baldy. This is the highest point on the entire 900 mile trail system. The storm clouds were beginning to build and it was pretty cold. Not all of us had pants to put on because Mom didn't pack any for us (Zac chose not to put on the pants he had packed
for himself).
One of the great things about the Paiute system? Clean bathrooms. They are just pit toilets but they are clean and welcoming. And not stocked with that industrial grade toilet paper either. No, these are stocked with quilted Charmin all along the trail. You can rough it and still be civilized.
We stopped for lunch on Sawmill Ridge around 2 o'clock, just as it started to drizzle. We stopped and warmed up our MREs. Since Emerson was the new guy on our trip and it was Zac's birthday he had to be Zac's servant for the weekend. Leg itches Sir? No problem..
Cheese Tortellini for lunch
And back on the trail. I was really surprised how well Emerson did. This was his first real trail ride and it's alot different than riding around your yard on a kiddie atv.
We finally made it to our 2nd bivvy site around 5pm. It had stopped raining for a bit so we hurried and set up camp and tried to get a fire started and dinner cooked but everything was pretty wet after days of rain in the area. No problem. We were carrying gas cans. This is Zac roasting 'corn weeds'. We had ridden about 50 miles that day so we didn't stay up long.
DAY 3- Sunday, 1 September
We awoke to a little overcast, but it wasn't raining. We could see down to the Circleville Valley about 7 miles below and it was foggy. As we watched, the fog raced up the canyon toward us and in about 5 minutes we couldn't even see. It was absolutely quiet and beautiful. As the fog cleared we could see a solitary mountain goat up on the hill to our north, too far for a picture though. It might have been a white cow, but I am going with goat.
We didn't want to ride on Sunday morning so we lounged around camp for a few hours.
Sometimes, even with gasoline, wood won't burn.. No problem. We weren't cooking anything so we didn't need a fire.
Sunday morning in 'The Grove'. There had been a fire here a few years ago which took out all of the giant pine trees. The quakies were growing back fast and taking over. We spent sunday morning here just being quiet.
By late morning we were pretty hungry and about out of gas in the wheelers so we headed down the canyon to Circleville. The plan was to get fueled up and have lunch in town before we headed back north toward Marysvale. Yeah, it's drizzling again. Not hard, just enough to deepen the colors of everything and dampen the sounds. It was actually great riding weather and there was no one around. I think the rain scared everyone away..
We made it to Circleville and found a little diner that was open. They made these great cheeseburgers with onion and green chilles in the patties. We were ready for something besides campfire food and it was great. The whole place had memorabilia from Butch Cassidy (who was from Circleville) and the Wild Bunch. His house is a tourist attraction in town. We also found out from our waitress (who was also our cook) that the only gas station in town had gone out of business last year. (I think that should be on the web sites we studied in planning our trip. It's kind of important). We had to ride 7 miles north on highway 89 to Junction to get gas. Nothing like traffic and pavement on a wheeler..
We rode north along the Sevier River headed for Marysvale. We were racing that storm you can see in the background. It kind of rained off and on as we rode, but when we hit Marysvale it poured. We didn't care. We stopped at the gas station, bought some of those old fashioned stick candies, and just kept riding. It was great. Marysvale is kind of the central hub of the whole system and there were dozens of riders pulled over waiting out the storm under whatever shelter they could find. We just rode on by.
We headed up Marysvale Canyon looking for a bivvy site for the night. We found a good one right next to the creek and it was even pre-stocked with dry firewood. The creek rose about 1 foot in the first hour we were there with all the rain. But the 2 big pine trees in camp gave us good shelter.
We were even able to make a clothes dryer before the temperature dropped for the night.
Zac and Emerson went out looking for more firewood. See the little stream running through our campsite?
We ate dinner, washed our dishes, and retreated to our tents for the night.
DAY 4- Monday, 2 September
Zac's birthday. See that? That's a blue sky, the first we had seen for forever, and of course it was time to start heading for home.
Emerson at the cabin at the Silver King Mine. We had been there before on our family atv trip but stopped to use the facilities again and show Emerson around.
From Silver King we headed back down the trail toward the truck.
As we got to the bottom of this hill about half a mile from our original bivvy site on night 1, we came across these bear tracks in the mud. They were about 10" across. I am pretty sure that the pistol I carry on these rides would have been pretty useless. We were pretty careful. We knew it was bear country going in and kept our food far from camp.
This is about mile 120 of our trip. We were getting pretty tired by this time. 120 miles on an atv is a long long way. But tired or not, there was still mud to play in..
We finally made it back to the truck about lunch time and headed for home. And someone's feet (again naming no names) smelled so bad we made her ride home with them hanging out the window.
It was a great weekend and I am already itching to go do it again, maybe in Moab this fall.
We
have a new family camping rule. Rule #1 has always been "Don't lick a
cactus". We learned that one while camping in Moab when the kids were little. Rule #2 is now "Dad is not Mom. Pack your own crap or you do
without". It is a simple rule, just like Rule #1, and equally important. I don't think it will be forgotten anytime soon either.
