Coming...

Played hooky from work today... went to Tower Mtn and along Duchesne Ridge.  Man, was it chewed up!  Still had fun tho.  Under a clear blue sky, we were surprised to see we did 71 miles...maybe some of that was track spin going up and down so many awesome slopes.  Anyway, got to see lots of what Utah riding is like.  Can't imagine how busy it was over the weekend!

We were going to ride to Soapstone from the Mirror Lake Highway but that's a long story.  Instead,  we rode out of Nobletts and broke trail from the Mill Hollow turn-off all the way to Wolf Creek Summit where we met up with tracks from the other side (from Hanna, I believe). We were also the first tracks up to Soapstone Pass and into the basin where it hooks up with the road down from MLH.  The conditions were awesome (by my standards)! ...easily 3 feet of new; snow over the hood all day. Might not have been the typical Utah powder (don't know what that's like yet) but I felt right at home in the wet and heavy snowfall.  The 35+ miles we did in Washington-style "powder" was a great opportunity for me to get to know the area.  Definitely looking forward to exploring and getting to know this area better!

We didn't have a full day to ride today but I just wanted to get out and see more of Utah's terrain.  I picked the next closest spot from home, Payson Canyon.  I've heard about Nebo and thought it'd be fun to check it out.  We found untracked roads out towards Peter Winword Reservoir and played in the open areas all the way to the end at Dry Lake Reservoir.  We never made it to Mt. Nebo where everyone climbs, but did wander through the open fields around Payson Lakes before heading back. 

 

Not too bad for 36 miles...except for the ticket I got for being in the wrong lane with a trailer.  The UHP cop didn't even consider a warning - welcome to Utah!!  He told me the warnings are posted all along the center divide of I-15.  Funny thing, I never noticed them until now. 

We went up the American Fork canyon Saturday afternoon for a short ride.  Headed out towards Mineral Basin trying to get all the way to Snowbird.  We got close but not all the way...powder was too deep in areas and just couldn't find any traction.  Afterwards, we made our way to Pole Line Pass and ran up and down that a few times.  Found a couple of untracked patches on the backside of that peak but it was all pretty well tore up - still fun tho.  This Utah powder is amazing!! Can't wait til there's a better base and lots more coverage... ended the day just under 40 miles.

I guess I'd consider a trip into the mountains to cut a Christmas tree our "season opener".  We didn't exactly go to ride but we did bring the sleds since there were rumors of snow.  Thanks to the storm that blew in the night we got there, that put a few inches on the ground to play on.  We were on the north end of the Mirror Lake Highway just outside Evanston, WY.  It was pretty thin but enough to work any gunk out of the carbs and get new gas through the system.  We scraped a lot of gravel and some pavement too in the 15 short miles we did. 

woke up to snow covered peaks this morning!!
snow line was at 6500'

hope this is a sign of more good things to come...  

We rode up at Tony Grove today (Utah) - incredible terrain!  If I were to compare it to WA, it’s like the Lake Ann/Gallagher/Van Epps area x 10.  Just one huge slope after another for as long as you can see.  Wicked avy slopes if the conditions are right.  Basing this on one spring ride, I think the game just got bigger.  I now have a better understanding of why nitrous and other high-end mods are so popular.  …but the weather was 70 the day we went and we rode in t-shirts, which was very odd.  We ended up doing 43 miles...

When we come to IP, our primary goal is to find all the different ways in to Jefferson (dah!).  In 2005 (our first year), we succeeded from the north, up South Fork Duck Creek.  I thought... well, that was easy.  On our second trip in 2006, I wanted to make it to Jefferson up Tyler/Yale Creek.  We got close, but didn't quite pull it off.  As we began our third visit here, my goal(s) were to a) finish the Tyler/Yale route, b) come in from Willow Creek as well as c) from Reas Peak down the "Butt Crack".

 

I think we got lucky to finish the Tyler/Yale Creek route on Day 1.  Lucky because it was the *only* day we had all week with enough visibility to read the terrain and get a sense of where we were and what direction we needed to go (it also helped to not have new snow that day, after a holiday weekend, and lots of tracks to follow). 

 

On Day 3, we tried to get in from Willow Creek.  Unfortunately, we found ourselves completely socked in once we got up and out of the trees heading up the Divide (see the shot we took in the Island Park pictures part 3).  We had no choice but to turn back and explore somewhere else.  ...and that we did, back up Tom Creek beyond where we went on Day 2.  What a cool play area...we thought it was like a "mini Reas" Peak.  Odometer that day read 48 miles.

 

On Day 4, the wives were getting antsy to ride so we stayed close to the cabin and played in the meadows and the smaller canyons between Blue Creek and Dry Creek.  Much confidence was obtained for them that day...which was great!  We had one skeptical rider who is now completely hooked!  We did 22 miles with 90% of that picking our way through the trees.  They LOVED the adventure!

 

Day 5 brought lots of new snow, and continued poor visibility.  I hoped for one last clear day to hit Willow again with a possible return up the Butt Crack to Reas to complete my other two goals for this trip.  Instead, the bad weather forced us to stay close to the cabin again as we broke trail (er, dug our way) up Dry Canyon (yeah, just for the heck of it) and then ventured through the trees back over to "mini Reas" (the play area above Tom Creek).  This time up, we found a trail over to a huge wide open ridge line (with enormous playable canyons on either side) out towards Horsemint Spring.  All I could think was "WOW!"  ...but again, we could hardly see a hand in front of our face it was snowing so hard.  By the end of the ride, we put another 30 miles on the machines...

 

As you can see, I didn't quite accomplish what I set out to do this year based on weather.  I guess we could have had clear skies and hard pack/no new snow all week so there's really nothing to complain about - the riding conditions we found were absolutely awesome!  So we leave IP with several new found play areas and more possible connections between point A (the cabin) and point B (Mt. Jefferson).  Maybe with us moving from Seattle to Salt Lake City next month, we'll get to come up here a bit more often...

So every morning, I get the same question: "Dad, can we go out and ride ?"

I look at the clock, see it's not even 8am yet and reply: "How 'bout in an hour?  ...people are still sleeping, including me."

An hour later, the kids race through breakfast (trying to convince me they're not that hungry anyway), then run out to top-off their little tank and off they go.  They go round and round on a track the big sleds pack down for them.  It goes around the property, through the trees, over snow banks, along the creek bed and back into the driveway.  It's a pretty nice loop that has satisfied them for 3 years now.  Every now and then, we'll get the occasional complaint like "Taylor took more laps than I did" or "Keaton almost ran me over" or "do I have to give Hanna and Madison another ride" but this morning was a little different - we didn't hear a peep from anyone ALL MORNING long.  Here's what "team numbskull" came up with today... see part 2 of the Island Park pictures!

 

 

The weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate with us today for a big mountain ride so we spent a good part of the day tearing up an open meadow down the road from the cabin.  Not only did the 120 kid's sled get a workout but my two nine year old boys got to ride mom's sled all by themselves for the first time.  You can imagine the good time they had!

 

Later in the day, a few of us big kids broke free for a quick run down towards Willow Creek.  We took a shot through the trees up Icehouse Creek.  It was a good 5 feet deep and completely untracked!  We worked our way up and over into upper Tom Creek and found a whole new area to play.  Too bad the avy conditions and poor visibility kept us off those hills.  Added 21 more miles... 

 

It's been snowing hard all evening - should make for another great day tomorrow! 

 

Awesome first day!  Great weather too. 

 

Took a beating on the trails but once we got up and in, we found lots to play in.  We stayed off steep slopes (avy conditions are high) but did end up going in to Jefferson from the north (up South Fork Duck Creek) then found our way along the ridge along Rock Creek Basin, then over the divide and down along Yale Creek and Tyler Creek back to the cabin.  This connected up two previous trips that finally completed a "Jefferson loop" for us (see tracks).  Odometer reads 68.5 miles...

 

Unfortunately, we didn't tink to stop and snap any pics.

Went to Manastash on Saturday with Brian and Curtis... it was pretty chopped up everywhere but we still had fun.  Jumped a few drifts, carved up some open meadows, climbed a few hills and played in the trees!  The fog rolled in while at Moon Rocks but it cleared up later in the day as we hopped from one area to the next as far out as Canteen Flats. 

 

Finished out the ride with a close call heading up a steep slope that turned into sheer ice at the top... had it not been for the tree that caught my backwards slide (a branch lodged under the handle bar which brought me to a stop), I think I would have totaled my wife's new sled. :-O   ...that would NOT have been good - especially with all the warnings I got as I left that morning!  Ah, and no, there are no pictures of that incident. 

 

Odometer read 50 miles as we loaded up onto the trailer...

 

The conditions were amazing this weekend!! We started out of the sno-park at Elk Heights and were only 1 of 3 trucks in the lot (we found out why later). Brian and I followed a single track most of the way through Taneum trying to make our way down to Manastash Ridge. To our dismay (yeah, that's the word), we were constantly distracted by all the untracked meadows along the way and never made it to the ridge... Gooseberry Flat, Grasshopper Flat, Gnat Flat, Frost Meadows and a few other unnamed ones were just roll after roll of deep, DEEP fluff.

 

You couldn't have asked for a better day - great coverage and lots of new snow (19" in 48 hours), clear sunny blue skies (which is pretty atypical for weekend riding in WA until spring) and the whole place to ourselves (only saw 2 groups of 2).  Our track mileage tallied up 66 miles although the GPS said we only did 58 <grin>.

 

So why were there only 3 truck in the Elk Heights sno-park? I think it is for these reasons: 1) there is no off-trail riding through the LT Murray wildlife area...or snowmobilers will lose all access. 2) It takes waaay too long (and too much gas) to ride down to the bowls and numerous hillclimb/play areas of Manastash Ridge. 3) There are faster ways to Manastash with a shorter drive (from sno-parks closer in to Cle Elum). I don't think we'll be dropping in again at Elk Heights anytime soon...

On 12/23, Scott, Paul, Boyd and I rode along Strawberry Ridge from Daniel's Summit. It was good to get out for the first ride of the season (sad, I know, but Nov and Dec were very busy - not to mention having to deal with flooding, major wind storms and a lengthy power outage).  Anyway, the snow levels were pretty low and risky in places (you could see where others hit land mines), but we managed to get in 21 miles (mostly off trail) before encountering our own little snafu*.  

 

On 12/30, only Paul and I went out again - this time on the other side of highway 40 along Strawberry River and up around Currant Creek Peak.  The whole Wasatch Range could use a *lot* more snow but this area was much better than the weekend before!  We found a cool way in through Shingle Mill Hollow (off the groomed trail and untracked) up to the play areas then down and out Willow Creek and Bjorkman Hollow.  We put on 34 miles, under clear sunny blue skies, with no broken parts.  That day alone made it worth towing the sleds from WA for the holidays...

 

*Our snafu: the shock on Scott's rental sled was sheered off from it's mount - not sure how or why since he didn't hit anything.  We're pretty sure the problem existed before we even got on those beat-up machines.  Right out of the gate, Scott was complaining about how poorly it steered.  That should have been our red flag to go return it.  After a closer look (unfortunately after the fact), we noticed the spring on the broken shock was a different color (black) than the stock spring (red).  Seemed odd to us that we "broke" the same shock on the same side!  ...but as you can figure, the rental outfit out at Daniel's Summit Lodge didn't believe us.  The lesson here: we should have done a better job inspecting those two rentals before ever setting foot on either one of 'em!!   As they say, haste makes waste...shame on us.  That was an expensive afternoon (eh, 2 hours of riding) for Scott Dogg!

 

This season is starting out a lot like last season! Today's snowfall report shows the same amount of snow we had a week earlier last November. Looks like our first ride this year is going to be well before Thanksgiving, again!

 

As much as I didn't want to pack it up for the season, I made a few minor mods to the sleds and put 'em away for the summer.  I had hoped for "just one last ride", or to be able to say "We rode into June", but that long list of Honey-Do's finally caught up with me.  Oh well!  ...with every hot sunny day we get over the next few months, I will look forward to a cold snowy one next season! 

 

Maybe the transition would be easier to swallow if we had some quads (hint, HINT!).

 

Thorp Lake to Stave Bowl...WE DID IT!

 

Getting to Thorp Lake was easier than I thought (someone told me you had to ride up an avy chute - that might be another way in but not the route we took).  From the lake, we detoured up to Thorp Mountain then back and over "Decision Hill", through what I think is the Enchanted Forest and dropped into Thorp Bowl. (The last time I was at Thorp Bowl, there wasn't nearly as much snow. What a huge place to play!)  From Thorp Bowl, we cut up the ridge, down, around, and over several drainages. We ended up in Stave Bowl.

 

What awesome terrain between Cooper and French Cabin - it was a great ride!!

We went up to Stampede Pass on Monday, May 1st (opening day of boating season and we hit the hills!).  It was snowing on us when we started and had clear blue skies when we ended.  Still lots of snow up there with not much is poking through yet.  We parked across from Dandy Pass road and hit very few dry patches on the way up.  Trails were beat up in some places, but not bad in others - obviously go-anywhere conditions.  There's still a few good weeks left I think.

Big storm moved in on Wed & Thurs and dumped between 20-30 inches...which set off the weekend buzz.  Crystal Springs sno-park was full by 9am!  We played on Manastash and nearly had the place to ourselves...