JMBray

The area containing the section of the UTBDR that goes north from soldier summit was completely closed down. We bypassed it by going north east to Duchenne and then coming back west.

Yep. We took the first part of that segment until it crossed the 191 to Duchesne, then the 40 to pick up a dirt segment to Heber City. Stayed there, then carried on.

The area was devastated by the fire, and then the monsoon rains caused massive amounts of mudslides. So much so that rescue and police of said if someone gets in there and get stuck they will not come get them because it’s too dangerous.

We had to bypass soldier summit because of the dollar fire that was burning there and the mudslides that happened during the monsoon rains. Strawberry creek road and area will be closed for at least a year they said on the news. The northern part of the Utah BDR is very Alpine, flowing trails and if you take the expert sections there’s a little bit of loose Rocky stuff but nothing overly taxing. The gentleman I was with has ridden the Colorado BDR but I have not. He told me that the Colorado BDR was similar to the northern part of the Utah BDR but much prettier. In my opinion, the vistas that you get in the southern part of the state were prettier than the Alpine setting in the northern part. Much of the northern part of the state reminded me of the San Bernardino Mountains or the high Sierras. Pretty, but nothing that was stunning like it was in the southern part.

By the way, if any of you have questions regarding my bike set-up, bags, gear or clothes I used, I'm happy to share info.

Yeah, after contending with the wind, and HEAT the first night camping, we looked at the map carefully and realized that we could motel the rest of the trip. Soooo, we opted to do so. My friend has ridden 4 other BDR's as well as Alaska usually camps a lot...he admitted that the motel method was much more comfortable. We are planning do do the So. Cal. BDR in Feb if they have it posted by then, and then Washington next summer.

Late July was the only time we could arrange to go and thought the heat was something to contend with, we are glad we went then. In all the reports we'd read and watched, the first three days were sand...Sand and SAND! Fortunately the monsoon rains and heat combined to bake that sand down into a regular old trail/road. :-D The sleepy Hollow motel, and Rays Tavern are the places to hit in Green River! Enjoy and good luck!

Crossing the finish line!

Utah BDR Day 8. WE MADE IT!! Today was a lovely ride through the Alpine like mountains of Utah. About a third of the day was on asphalt just simply due to the route but the rest was interesting dirt roads and trails through heavily forested mountains. Occasionally they would open on to beautiful Meadows or vistas. We didn’t take a ton of pictures because much of it looks like the San Bernardino Mountains. Beautiful in their own right but things that we have seen a lot before. The route ended in Garden City Utah which is on the shore of bear lake. Apparently, it’s a rather unusual like in that it’s ecologically locked. There are fish in it that only exist here. Pretty cool! Though this is the end of the backcountry discovery route, it’s not the end of the adventure. Tomorrow we have to ride back down to price where our truck is parked and that’s about 230 miles. Then we have to drive back to California in the truck which is another 680 miles or so. The BDR it’s self was 871 miles so when you add the driving back-and-forth to the beginning and from the end and then driving the truck back-and-forth from California we will have clocked around 2700 miles total by the end of this trip on motorcycles and in the truck.

Utah BDR days seven. A week… We been going for a week. Honestly, it seems like only a couple of days. I’m really thankful that I decided to post these as they give some perspective when I look back. Today we had some beautiful alpine riding through the upper elevations of the mountains in Utah. We went over 10,000 feet twice with their highest elevation hitting 10,900 feet. Unfortunately, we also did some asphalt writing… But, it was all very remote back road type of stuff. So no harm and no foul. Because of the way the route goes and the shape of the state we are actually currently in Evanston Wyoming. Though we did 126 miles today, it only took about six hours. We took our time as well stopping to take pictures enjoy the sights and have some snacks. We had some actual water crossings. In here you’ll see my travel partner, Dusseou, doing his part to get through a small stream. He has video of me doing it, but it’s on his phone and he doesn’t have Facebook. I’ll post it later after we do file sharing when we get home. We opted to take some side routes that were significantly more challenging than the normal route. Lots of very rocky loose trails through the forest. Lots of fun! Prarie Inn. Evaston, WY. HUGE rooms, straight out of 1958...but updated in all the right ways. Jody's restaurant is right next door and is the best place in town to eat.

Day Six Ranch road ride by.

Utah BDR day six. 163 miles that included a bit of a 2 Lane Rd. and Highway because we had to skirt the dollar fire. It has burned thousands of acres and is still active. But, adventurous mean some adjustments it’s all part of the fun. But also met we ended up in a small town called Duchenne right around 1 o’clock. So, for the first time on the whole trip we went and had lunch at a café that it been there since 1930. Of course we struck up a conversation with a crotchety old gentleman who lived there his whole life and had a blast. Our route climbed us up to just below 10,000 feet and I really wanted to make a 10,000 foot level so I spied out side trail that we took and we ended up at 10,200 feet! Afterwords we wound down through miles and miles of aspen trees into of Heber City, Utah. We found the cheapest hotel in town… Which isn’t very cheap because the area is a huge resort section of the state. I’m guessing though when I close my eyes and go to sleep I won’t know the difference between this and one of the $500 hotel rooms elsewhere in town. (Update) As it turned out, the hotel "Mac's Motel" in Heber, was the worst of the trip. We should have paid a little bit more and stayed elsewhere.

You are Most welcome. I'm currently posting the rest, so check back in a bit.

Day five of the Utah BDR. Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re already on our fifth day. This was a shorter day, Coming in at 100 miles. The tracks today were mainly well maintained dirt roads and Powerline access roads. We saw some beautiful vistas, but also some very interesting sites. They included Smith’s cabin which was built by W Smith in 1940 and was located nestled at the end of the canyon next to a small seasonal river. I can’t imagine why he built it out there but it still stands. We also saw our first standing water and actually got a picture of and antelope! In one area we encountered an electrical storm with lightning striking all around. We didn’t stop to take pictures or video, because we were afraid to do so! I tried posting before, but for some reason Facebook didn’t like the videos and it wouldn’t post. So I will try those in separate individual posts. The Lord has been with us and kept us safe so far with only minor mishaps. We have some sore muscles and I have a heat rash on my feet… Don’t worry I’m not going to show those pictures, LOL.