RSS - Trip Reports

Labor Day at the Snakes

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:09:38 +0000

Cory, his bro and buddy on ATV's, Jeff, and I ran out to the Snakes on Monday.
Got out on the trail by 8:45

Only got a few pics but a bunch of video.
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Left Hand Fork

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:42:39 +0000

My family and I spent Labor Day weekend camped in the Left Fork Blacksmith Fork Canyon. That's quite a mouth full so I see why it is commonly known as Left Hand Fork. We arrived Saturday afternoon setup camp and took the Jeep and two atv's out scrounging for firewood. By the time we returned and started the campfire it was time for dinner. After dinner we spent the rest evening around the campfire.

Sunday morning we finally got going on our first ride for the weekend. Someone had to hit a big rock and pop one of the atv tires. Now this wasn't any ordinary rock it was an almost square rock, the kind with sharp edges and on top of that it was the only rock like for miles around. She said, "I didn't see it!" The tire was repairable but we had to run into Logan and buy a plug kit.

Now we were back on the trail again, I use the term trail loosely they are really roads. About halfway through Left Hand Fork there is another trail that heads North to multiple other trails. We were wanting to make our way to the top of Logan Peak. On a short straight stretch I managed to get up to 35 mph next thing I know is I am hearing a siren and seeing red and blue flashing lights. I think what did I do? So I pulled over and the DNR officer sailed past me in a big hurry. Now both my wife and I think out loud what did the kids do? They were ahead of us on the atv's. To all of our relief we came around a corner and we saw the kids standing around the atv's and no DNR officer! We all laughed for moment and continued up the trail to the Crossroads.

Unfortunately we were unable to continue as planned. Sometime around 2:00pm two women hit a rock lost control and crash into a water tank. They were both airlifted out both in serious condition. A large group of atv riders and a few offroaders (jeeps) had gathered at the Crossroads waiting. We waited until the helicopter landed then we headed off to Old Ephraim's Grave.

When we left Old Ephraim's Grave we started back the way we came. There is a fork in the road that goes out to Hardware Ranch Road and the upper end of Left Hand Fork canyon. So instead of backtracking we decided to take this alternate route back. Just as soon as we turned onto the upper portion of Left Hand Fork we came upon a sign say something like "the road is unsuitable for passenger vehicles", close enough. I have also heard this trail called the Rock Garden and The Slide in addition to Left Hand Fork. However you call it this is the fun part. The outdoor website Enjoy Utah Outdoors has the following to say about the trail.

Quote

This trail coming from the East beginning from Shoshone Trail #3 is ATV only, it�s too narrow for anything much larger than regular four wheeler.

The online Utah 4x4 Club in Zubicon's description he said,

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This trail gets Sami narrow towards the end with heavy brush just waiting to rip the paint from your sheet metal.

If you don't care about you paint this trail has to one of the best in Northern Utah.

As you start down this trail from the East you get into the rocks almost immediately and with the rocks comes the brush. The trail is extremely overgrown. Even atv riders have to dodge and duck branches. After a ways the rocks get worse (funner) I catch up to my son, he's on one of the atvs, he has stopped on the biggest obstacle in the trail. He wanted to know if I wanted to continue, YES of course I did! Not like there is any where to turn around. I would hate to meet some one coming from the other direction. The brush is so overgrown there are no place to bypass any one. Back to the big obstacle my front tires went up over with any wheel spin. There just happens to be another set of rocks just past the bigger pair. Now not only do your back wheels have to climb up and over the big rocks your front end has to climb up and over some rocks at the same time. I had some wheel spin and no forward movement, I could feel the tires trying to bite on the rocks, just a little more application of the skinny pedal, not to much, the tires found a spot and grabbed ahold and up and over we went. If I could have turned around I would have liked to try it going up hill. From there on out the rock started thinning out and brush got a little thinner. It isn't until almost Grey Cliff Spring that the brush opens up.

On a scale of 1-10 I would rate this trail a 10 for fun. Subtract 10 points if you are #### retentive about scratching you rig. I'm not going to try to rate this trail. I know I made it through easy enough, but I do have a lifted and locked Jeep. The scenery is great! Grey Cliff Spring is worth the drive by itself. But a careful driver could get a mini van from the West side. Would I run this trail again? Yes, brush and all, I want to run it the other direction.

Forest Lake Trip

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:41:14 +0000

The run yesterday was great. We started with 11 rigs and lost 1 at the beginning of Forest Lake trail because the tansfercase would not stay engaged. Also had another guy, who is building a Bronco, tag along and ride shotgun with Matt. Should have a couple new guys signing up for the site. Doug, the guy from my work, made it and was thoroughly impressed with his Blazer.

After Forest Lake we had 5 rigs continue up and went up Mineral Basin. We all had a great time and I found out that the big red truck does very good even on some of the harder by-passes. I was able to complete all of those the second by-pass took a lot of the skinny peddle and not much finesse but it was great and I really enjoyed it. Pics to come later.

Hurricane Cliffs??

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:13:49 +0000

Anyone been down the Hurricane Cliffs (a.k.a. Honeymoon) Trail lately? We did it yesterday from East to West and it seemed a lot more difficult than a 3 - 4 as listed in the trail maps section. Is that because down hill is more scary than up hill or because I�m pretty much a beginner. Just trying to figure out the numbers for future trips. Thanks.

Providence Canyon to Bear Lake

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:00:40 +0000

On Saturday we ran Providence Canyon to Mount Logan and then over to Bear Lake. I have never been all the way up Providence Canyon. If you are in the area that is one trail that you should make time for. The weather was a little cloudy, but just about the right temperature to leave the windows down.

A waterfall just after the gravel pit

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs427.snc4/47009_1470503175832_1631209446_1130169_1929244_n.jpg

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs369.snc4/45205_1470503455839_1631209446_1130170_5653264_n.jpg

Top of Mount Logan
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Bear Lake
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs369.snc4/45205_1470503575842_1631209446_1130172_7287780_n.jpg

Next time I will take more pictures.

washington county fair rock crawl

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 01:40:23 +0000

http://s844.photobucket.com/home/utjb57/index

Minneral Basin 8_14

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:57:24 +0000

After the trip up to Forest Lake Keith and I headed up Mineral basin to see how the truck and jeep would do. I was very impressed with the truck. Even running with open diffs I still was able to make it all the way to the top. Keith made half way into the rock garden then he did not have the clearance to make it further.

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At the top of the trail we ran into Snowbird Property I did not know was there.

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Great trip all the way. The old red truck did a lot better than I expected.

Forest Lake Cleanup 8_14

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:28:33 +0000

Washington County Fair Rock Crawling

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 14:33:18 +0000

Thanks to Steve and the whole crew out there at the fair had a great time even with blowing out my steering gear box, bending my steering stabilizer, bending a link arm, and the bed damage. Wish we would have had more vehicles to compete, so hopefully they'll do it again next year. Also a big congrats to Ashliee for winning the competition, she is truely fearless when it comes to hittin' the rocks. For all ya'll that didn't go you missed a great time and watching the demo derby was pretty cool too.

Also Steve once you get all pics sorted out if you could send what you have that would be great and thanks again had an awesome time. I'll get what I have posted up here once I upload them to photobucket.

Evening Snakes run 8-9-2010

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:13:00 +0000

the maze backwards

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:43:59 +0000

it was another good ride, i had a camera but cant figure out how to make the pics turn out at night, hope somebody got some.......

we started out with Nick, Chris, Vic, John W, Travis, Barratt, ... Chris broke a pinion on the stairs on the way up, Nick broke a spring shackle about halfway to the maze. so we had 5 rigs go up and ran the maze backwards, got done about 2 am, was going to run the west rim backwards and Vic lost a u joint cap and broke an ear on the yoke, so we decided to come down and pull the pinion out of Chris's toyota. got back to the truck about 430 am. all in all a great ride...............

Pioneer Day Snakes Trip

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:57:56 +0000

It's been a while since since I've ran a trail with an open open rig so I was pretty excited when my cousin and her husband invited me to run the snakes with them Saturday.

We hit the trail and besides a few rigs loading up and one rig coming down we had the trail to ourselves.

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video
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video
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ran up to the top of the tailings pile to show them the Jeep in the mineshaft and then it wouldn't start... we tried to push start it... no go... I banged on the coil and bam started right up. There is something to be said about the simplicity of the Jeep 4.0L motor

Then we went to the Kamas Demolition Derby and saw Matt.
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AF canyon 7/25

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:33:38 +0000

this was a really fun run, had a great turn out... 9 rigs total. no major break downs just a blown radiator. it was defiantly nice to see everyone again, and hope we can do something like this again!

http://i800.photobucket.com/albums/yy282/fleming213/af%20canyon%20large/DSC00496.jpg
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these are just a few of the pics, more pictures at http://s800.photobucket.com/albums/yy282/fleming213/AF%20canyon%204wheeling/

July 24th 2010

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 17:46:04 +0000

Click here for pictures.

Had a great time. always a fun time night riding.

San Rafael Swell

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:10:41 +0000

In a nutshell, one of the best backcountry trips I will have this year. We took 423 pictures in total!
Day 1:
We got to the Wedge Overlook campsite around 10 pm Friday night, and pitched our tent in the dark out on the cliff... We woke up to the incredible scenery of the Wedge, and there is no lying when people say the sunrise there is something to behold:

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This was the view we had out the front window of our tent!

The sun started to rise, and illuminated the red and yellow cliffs with a beautiful orange hue. We took the opportunity to take a large volume of photos, soaked in some morning sun, and cooked up some breakfast.
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After having a nice easy start to the morning, we met up with Dustin (daryl_jt), who was nice enough to give a lot of insight into the area and what we might see at a given point.
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Casey (Jisatsu) joined the group, and we made a plan to go see the dinosaur footprint off of the Buckhorn Wash trail. It is extremely interesting to me that something like this could be preserved so well through millions of years worth of erosion and changes in the different layers.
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Dustin was then nice enough to lead us through Fuller's Bottom, to the start of the Devils Racetrack. We parted ways here, and we were down to just the two rigs. Casey's black Toyota Pickup, and my Tacoma. We found a lunch spot, and drove down toward the trail. We spotted The Drips on our way there, and these are just mind-boggling...
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Some very interesting wind erosion.