Graduation Day

Pulled off for lunch and a walk in the middle 

Woke up and made the West bound trek to Boise.  nice ag country most of the way then the last 60 miles were godawful ugly and boring.  Arrived at uncle Jeff's house to a yard full of familly, food and cold beer.  Nice to get out of the car and see familiar faces and I forgotten how nice Jeff's house was, perched up on a hill with a full view of the valley.  Good job, Jeff!

Graduation ceremony was.... a graduation ceremony.  Glad I was there to support and celebrate with Ben, but my god was it boring and all around me were screaming teenagers:

• Yeah, Jody! 
• Yeah, Mike! 
• Chris, yeah! 
• Yeah! Dan!!  Danno!!!

Ended up sleeping like a baby at the Tolomeo house, thanks again!

The Night of Camping that Would Not Be...

Woke up, packed up and took off to continue my Northern march.  Descending from the Nebo loop into Southern Payson was interesting, there are some great properties and I could imagine having a ranch in an area like this.  In fact, overall I'd say that I like what I see in Utah.  I had such good luck with the Nebo loop byway I tried another alternate option via the 91/89 combo from Bringham City, UT to Pocatello, ID - bad idea, while it was pretty, the traffic through Logan was terrible!!!!!

The trees in downtown Pocatello have
"twinkle light" and the string is connected
to this box.  I thought it was funny.

I stopped by the BLM and Forest Service office in Pocatello and asked for ideas on where to camp.  Usual criteria:

• No people
• Few rules
• No fees
• Dirt
• Etc.

I got a hot tip on a road up in the forest on the South side of I-86 so I checked it out.  The following video was taken on that road, it was amazing.

OK, so I didn't camp there and I'll tell you why:  I had a lot of office work to do and therefor needed an internet connection - I lost signal about 500 yards before I turned off on that road and it didn't return in the 20 minutes I spent on it.  So I turned around and headed for the next State Park that was close to the interstate as I'd likely have 3G coverage there.

Salvation! was found at Massacre Rock (great name!) state park.  As I pulled in I had full 3G bars.  Campsite was pricey at $26 and a cabin, according to the info board, was $55.  Normally I wouldn't even consider this, but the following flew through my head:

• Power - it would be convenient to plugin the laptop instead of sitting near car with inverter plugged in
• Bed - my back is hosed and a bed sounded nice
• Wind - it was blowing hard and sitting outside in the dark with a headlamp (so I can see the keyboard) didn't sound as good as sitting in a cabin at a table
• Alcohol - while this didn't have a direct connection to the prospect of staying in a cabin I nonetheless had a craving for a drink.  Update: I have not yet had a drink, I'm about to though!

Snake River as seen from my porch

Fresh pot of coffee at 8pm, ready to work late.
This is the view from my cabin-office

My back is screwed.... I really tweaked it when I crashed.  I spent the whole day stopping and applying ice packs and taking Advil.  Fingers crossed that I can ride with the Idaho MTB group on Friday.

Day 2 - part deux

The Nebo pass summit (the road, not the mountains in
the background) at 9,240 ft

As promised, here is the second installment (actually posted on the 30th).  So the day turned out great, I was driving up the 15 through central Utah and I started getting worried that I didn't really know where I was going, I also wanted a more remote experience than I had the previous night.  Long story short I stopped at a state park and talked to the super cute (but too young) Utah DNR park employee.  She seemed nervous (tattoos? - I dunno) but managed to give me some good info.  While looking at a map on the wall I saw an interesting looking route from Nephi to Payson - AKA "The Nebo Loop" (click link for map).  I talked to another DNY employee who knew the route very well and told me I had to check it out.

I found a great campsite - well, not a campsite but a place to camp, in fact I think I was camping illegally but figured I'd please ignorant if a forest service ranger came by.  The site was this grassy meadow with tree coverage on 3 sides and drenched in sunlight when I found it.  It was a no-brainer - I veered off the highway, dropped down a slope and half slid on the grass into my position.  Cracked open my pabst 24oz tall-boy and spent too long stacking rocks under the tires to level my truck.

Once that was done I spent 2 hours cutting and splitting firewood (worked off the beer).  Chui had a blast exploring the surrounding woods and eating junk he found on the ground.  He barfed later, then ate it.  Please note my raging OCD induced stacking of firewood by diameter!

It's almost 9 o'clock and still that light out...

Epic Gnar Slam

I'm sitting in a Starbucks (for WiFi) about 30 miles North of St. George.  It feels like Mammoth or Kennedy Meadows - the Sierras, I guess.  Slept great.  Temperatures dipped to only 50 overnight.  My alarm woke me at 6am (felt like 5 due to time time zone) and I started getting ready for my Ride.  I left Chui in the truck with Windows down and figured I'd be gone for 2-3 hours.

I rode the Bear Claw Poppy trail (link has GPX file too!) and it's one of the most fun trails I've ridden in years, just this great rolling pump-track like trail.  Plenty of jumps and opportunities to float over the crest of mini hills. About 12 miles in it was already hot and I started worrying about Chui in the car so I made my way back prematurely.  That's when I slammed, hard.  I was riding a right side berm on the side of a trail and when I start to come down my tire washed out in sand and 'thud!' - all on my right side, wore off some more tattoo and scratched up my knee.  Also irritated my back so I've been on ice while I drive, Advil, etc.  Still a killer ride though and I'd do it again any time.  Check out this YouTube video of some guys doing the first section (called "Three Fingers of Death")

St. George felt like Prescott or Flagstaff to me, very new and extremely clean and well cared for.  I didn't see any buildings that looked older than 20 years.  It also looked a bit depressed economically, lots of vacant buildings and unrealized housing developments.

OK, continuing North bound to SLC and then will look for a camping spot.  I want to be on a lake or river if I can find a place.  Hopefully it's hot as hell and I can find a river camping site.  I will post again Tonight once I get settled.

Off to a good start

In a way, my trip started yesterday.  Monday has been my departure date from the onset, but I needed to pick up guns and ammo from the house in Arrowhead.  My sister's family was up at the cabin so I decided to make the run up there Sunday night - sort of get a jump on gettin outta dodge.

12 PB&J sandwiches, 3 apples, 3 bananas, 4 carrots, an orange and a
bottle of scotch

I slept in my car last night while it was parked on the driveway, just 30 feet from 5 beds, a fireplace, large TV, full kitchen and all the blankets you could ask for.  It's OK though, I thought it wise to test the new sleeping platform in my truck at the house rather than 300 miles away from home and tools.  I went to bed a bit drunk and didn't realize the car was parked about as unlevel (word??) as it could be which resulted in a restless night fighting gravity pulling me into the door panel.  I was warm though.  And nothing broke and Chui and I, overall, were fine.

Shot over my shoulder while driving

It was all I-15 North today - through Vegas, Mesquite Arizona and finally into St. George Utah.  I left at the end of everyone else' vacation, while they were heading home with hangovers, empty bank accounts and dread for Tuesday I was just getting started - the best part is that I had NO traffic!  I made the 336 miles to St. George in about 5 hours with several stops to give Chui (and me) a chance to pee.  Speaking of Chui, I've never seen a dog travel as comfortably as he is with the new sleeping platform.  I was worried that he'd be freaked out but it's quite the opposite, he's totally comfy and slept the whole day.

Yes, those are houses in the background :(

When I got into St. George my plan was to stop by the BL:M field office to get some guidance on where I could camp - on BLM land, not a campsite.  See, there are different classifications of BLM land (Open, Wilderness, etc.) - Open is the one I want, that's the type where you can do what you want, how you want and when you want - within reason.  Anyway, it was a holiday and hte BLM office was closed.  I started calling hiking and "outdoors" shops and asking for advice.  A nice guy said "Check out Green Valley Gap.  I did, and while it's not nearly as remote as I'm accustomed to it was beautiful and I have 3G service which means I can type this story and get the jump on some work emails and other tasks.

As I type this with a headlamp on so I can see the keyboard, a (too large) glass of scotch and a fire warming my shins I can't help but realize that this is a pretty good start.  My technology works, my scheduled end point was reached, I had a 1 hour hike through a gulch and watch guys rock climb and I just realized I'm sleeping 300 yards from the trail head I had planned to mountain bike in the morning.  Time for dinner.