dirt dame

I have spent many a happy hour catching trout, bass and crappie at that lake.

Gives new meaning to the term "adventure bike".

I guess that I am as safe as anywhere else, with my Spot device. True, there are few populated areas or services nearby, though I am only several miles From Dutch John up in the mountains where there is fuel, food and lodgings. I'm friends with the rangers in the area also.

You can rent goats if you are hunting. They come complete with collars and red nylon panniers. My bike was not running and it was parked, but the white goat did not want pass by it, so much so that he lay down and wouldn't get up until I rolled the bike about ten feet further away from him.

Another year passed by, and I haven't been able to spend nearly as much time riding motorcycles as I used to in California. Of course the winters here play a part in that, but even in summer I don't get out that much. Luckily, there are some nice mountains nearby to play in, only about 80 miles away. That's about the same distance that I used to drive to get to McCain valley for a few hours of leisure trail riding. So on my birthday, I requested a day off from work, applied for PTO and did what I usually do on my birthday....go riding and stop for supper on the way home afterwards. The Uinta mountains were beginning to respond to the colder nights, and the leaves were starting their fall color change. The kokanee salmon were heading upstream to spawn....and bowhunting season had just started. So riding on a Monday wasn't as peaceful as I thought it might be. None the less, it was a good day. Sunny and windy, not too cool, pretty much perfect weather. A stop at Flaming Gorge resort just down the road for a dinner sammich hit the spot to wrap up the day. Sheep creek, and a few kokanees lingering below the bridge. On the166 ATV trail, and I could see Manila down in the valley from the ridge I was on.

I've been doing quite a bit of solo rambling lately, as my usual riding buddy's haul vehicle has been down with a broken engine for a while. So on Labor day weekend, I hauled my TE up to the ranch, and Kim and I departed on two wheels, headed south on the rolling hills and plateaus of southern Wyoming. It was uncomfortably hot weather for the most part, but there were few rain squalls that provided occasional relief. We visited Maggie's spring, which had been taken over by sheep, then headed south until we saw an abandoned ranch cabin down in a valley. We made our way down there and then headed over to the main road to make our way back homeward. There were herds of cattle, scattered bunches of wild horses and an odd antelope or mule deer here and there. We spotted an old bridge abutment off the road a bit and followed a cow trail over to it for a few photos. It a good day without any crashes or mishaps, and interesting venues to be explored.

Back in July, it seemed that the Uinta mountains were just swarmed with UTV joyriders. But since August has begun, it looks like the summer season for these vehicles is over. There is a lot of thunderstorm activity in August, so maybe the nearby locals don't wish to encounter all the lightning strikes up on the mountain. I had the trails pretty much all to myself, last weekend. If you like scenery. this is THE place to go. I hated to leave around 3, but it's a bit of a drive home, and I wanted an early supper. Besides, there's always next weekend....at least until the first new storm of the autumn. Bugz Beta was ready to go exploring, and the weather was perfect with partly cloudy skies and cool breezes. The dirt was perfect from a rainstorm the afternoon before and the early summer bugs were a thing of the past. The only traffic jam I encountered was a small herd of cattle being brought up the road by three people on horseback. Other than that, only a few people were out and about, and they were on main routes.

I haven't been riding motorcycles much lately Got out for a ride in March, but haven't had much time for doing everything that I'd like to do since I had to go back to work. Admittedly, I have been doing a lot of fishing on my days off....but last Saturday, I decided that I needed to either ride one of my dirt bikes, or start putting them up for sale So ride it was. A day in the Uinta mountains.

Big Bear is really the closest place that is cooler than anything in SD county.

Nice!

I hope all you SDAR members have a great Easter Sunday, whether out on the trail or relaxing at home with family.

I miss McCain.😥

Up where I live, I spend most of the winter trying to figure out how to escape "snow day". This usually entails checking to see if the highway 191 is open to through traffic between my town and the Utah border. If it is, I check the Flaming Gorge webcams to see if there is snow or not. If not , I hightail it down the road to places like Manila or Dutch John to enjoy a snow free (or at least snow freeish) day in the back country.😎

Yeah, that's what they said back in the day too. I guess nothing has changed.