dirt dame

I have heard that you will need to show an Arizona driver's license to go with your registration. Just sayin'....

The weather was doing well up to yesterday. Then a cold front moved in. It is currently 14 degrees and snowing right now. Autumn may be over for good.

I hope all members of SDAR are having a nice Thanksgiving day, this year, whether you are eating a turkey dinner with friends and family, or out on the dusty trail....or possibly both.

Seems like somebody is a little too introspective. Just sayin'....

It's all on one body of water. Flaming Gorge reservoir is 463 feet deep at the dam (in Utah), then it goes 91 miles north on the course of the Green river (also fed by Henry's Fork, Blacks Fork, and numerous drainages) , and has 375 miles of shoreline. We were riding on the east side where there are more dirt county roads and Jeep trails.

We had our first little snow squall a couple of weeks ago, but then the weather warmed back up....a far cry from last year for sure. I spent a lot of that time out at Flaming Gorge, fishing for trout at the Firehole recreation area. But Friday night, Kim gave me a call and said "hey, it seems like quite a while since we went for a ride. We ought to go again before winter weather sets in". We discussed it a bit, but didn't really come up with a solid idea, so we chatted again in the morning. After a late start actually for both of us, it was decided that we would explore some of the trails and shoreline around the Flaming Gorge reservoir. Kim was to arrive around 11, but got hung up with something out at the ranch, so we ended up launching our endeavor by about a half an hour later before the old trailer rig rolled into the parking lot. We had to pick up my bike from the storage shed, and then head down the 191. We staged out of the boat launch parking lot at Flaming Gorge. A madhouse in the summer months, it was practically deserted on a fall day, as was the "beach" area, and most of the gorge, for that matter. The weather started out sunny around midday, but with a slight bit to the air, as we rode along dirt highway routes, ducking down two tracks from time to time that would, with any luck lead us to the water's edge. We really didn't have an itinerary. We were just poking around, talking to stray anglers we chanced upon here and there, and enjoying the scenery. As the afternoon wore on, some clouds began to move in, and the air got a little more nippy. We were looking to get to some cliffs that Kim remembered from days past, but we couldn't seem to find the trail that led there. Around 3:30, we realized that the trailhead for that venue was further down the 33 than we had anticipated, so we turned around and moseyed back towards the staging area, with a detour to a flat on the water, with some brush along the south side of the trail. There was about two dozen muley deer bedded down there. They were hidden from sight until Kim rode past. Then big ears began to pop up in the brush as the deer began to stand up and have a look at the two motorcycles passing through. We also had seen some antelope earlier in the day, further west on the hills. All in all, it had been a pretty casual day on the trail, and I spotted some nice looking fishing spots as well.

Yes. It was mostly wet, except for very high elevations. Looks like a bit of nice weather for at least a few more days.

The first storm of the winter should arrive today. It should not bring too much snow to this region, so hopefully there will be more rides to be scheduled before the new year arrives. But you never know. Last year, it snowed up here two weeks before Halloween and we managed one ride at the beginning of November....and that's all she wrote until May. So Kim and I did a 75 mile loop on Monday. Between our last ride and this one, I have been busy fishing the lakes up in the Uinta mountains. We visited some petroglyphs, went down to the shore of Flaming Gorge (the fish weren't biting), took a run down Cherokee trail, crossed Sage creek (was running better than last year), then made our way back to the truck. Lots of hunters out on the hills right now, so we encountered a few of those and their camps. It was mostly a mellow route on major dirt highways, but with a few two tracks thrown in, and of course a couple of annoying spots.

Welcome to the forum.

It was one of those rides, where your buddy says "it's just a mellow, easy" ride. I should always know better, but I keep being hopeful. Hopefulness gets you nowhere, and the ride was actually one of those where your trail leader stops every ten minutes to assure that "this is the worst part of the trail and the rest will get easier", or "it wasn't like this, last time I rode it". I'm sure that most of us have been there at one time or another, probably either when you very new to riding or when you finally got old enough to value self preservation over proving that you still "got it". Well...at least it was mostly all downhill...and of course, I didn't die. Sorry, no pictures of the tough parts. I was too busy clawing and bulldogging my bike down those sections.

Gortex is a thin membrane that is added to whatever material a garment is made of. Cordura is a type of fabric, a heavy duty denier nylon fabric. So if it doesn't have a coating, treatment or laminated water repelling feature added of some sort, it will leak. Clothing made of Gortex or some other water repellent treatment typically also have waterproof taped seams, so that the garment won't leak at the stitched joints. Gortex and other treatments will sooner or later start to leak. Also, even though they are advertised as breathable, once the exterior water repellent treatment starts to wear off and the exterior gets saturated with moisture, any interior moisture vapor is now trapped by that exterior barrier of water, and the wearer starts to feel the effects of that in the form of getting that damp, clammy feeling. Gortex types of treatment still work better than coated, vinyl, rubber or other solid barrier materials when it comes to shedding both exterior and interior moisture.

The weather was supposed to be fair on Monday, with no real threat of rain being a reality....but Mother Nature had other plans. By the time I realized this, Kim and I were well down the highway with our bikes in tow, heading for the Uinta mountains. We both had rain jackets packed into our gear, so there would be no worries if we were caught in a shower or two. We also had brought a little extra layering besides our jerseys....since it is Indian summer and we would be riding well above 8000 feet. Clouds and rain squalls were evident, even in the first 30 miles of our journey to the staging area on top of the mountains. But there was plenty of sunshine in between the storms, so we were hopeful. The sun was still shining for the most part as we embarked on our adventure to find new routes and new fishing spots. By the time we had worked our way west on route 58, the sunshine was an all but gone commodity. First stop was Beaver Dam lake. It looked nice on Google Earth, but in reality....it had been completely drained. So, that would be crossed off the fishing list. We crossed a couple of small streams on our way to Hoop lake. Luckily, this lake had remained intact, and appeared to be brimming with happy trout that were kissing the water's surface and occasionally jumping for joy. I wished at that moment in time that I had brought some tackle with me. The weather got dicey at this point, the wind whipping up so much that the resulting dust storm temporarily made it impossible for me to see where I was going. I had to stop and wait for a few moments before heading onward. Following the wind, the rain began, it was gentle and intermittent at first, obliging us to don our rain jackets. We continued on, exploring a bit of side trail, before deciding to head in a different direction. By now, we could see some snow showers on nearby peaks. The ride now traced the route we took out, with a stop to see some fall colors in a stand of trees. Then we had planned to hit the main road and head up to Spirit lake lodge, maybe stop and eat a snack and then proceed after we re-accessed the weather. But by now, a light rain was coming down pretty steadily and the air temperature had dropped by an estimated ten or 15 degrees. We were not really prepared for this turn of events and when we got to the turn off to Spirit lake I glanced up at the peak just above it and saw a snowy curtain veiling the mountain. At this point, we had to make a decision, and preferably a rational one....so we called it a day and turned around to had back to the staging area. We were not too chilly or uncomfortable at this point and we wanted to keep it that way. The rain increased and the temp fell a bit further. Sleet stung our faces as we rode back. We hung out in the trailer until there was a break in the precip, then we loaded the bikes and headed down the mountain. We had gotten some miles in, saw a lot of beautiful countryside, and we didn't freeze to death, so all in all it was a great day.

Any off road motor vehicle of any size is required to be registered to be operated on public land in the state of California.

Hi, Spaugh! Ironically,I'm still here,but I'm no longer there.