Utah - Single-track Paradise

[DigDug 0]

Well, I paid a visit to my dad over the 4th of July week and weekend. He lives in Mapleton, UT at the foothills of the Unita National Forest. I figure that if I was going to be up there, I might as well bring the bikes. I jumped on the nat'l forest website and downloaded all the OHV maps for the area, loaded the KTM and DigDugJr's KLX in to the truck (I threw in JR's old KLX-125 in case my brother-in-law wanted to tag along), and headed out. What we found when we got up into the mountains was INCREDIBLE!!!! That place is a single track paradise. There's a very strong pro-OHV presence and they maintain some of the greatest single-track trails I've ridden on. Here's a few shots to make you jealous:

First day, we headed out up Hobble Creek Canyon. We decided to ride a forest road that wound it's way behind the mountains that overlook the valley. Great views, mostly easy road.

Here's DigDugJr heading up to the overlook side trail we found:

And the view from the lookout:

The bikes at the top of the canyon - looking out towards the valley:

Having taken in some of the sights, we decided it was time to hit the singletrack. We turned off on this trail, thinking "is this really a trail?". Yes it was... and it was AWESOME (even if it was a little overgrown). No quads up this one:

Here's DigDugJr getting his money's worth out of those barkbusters:

The trail opened up into a bowl. Beautiful! We were the only ones up here. Here the trail climbs the side of the bowl towards that ridgeline you can see in the background. Don't go too far left. The altimeter on my GPS was showing 9700' elevation - we tried to avoid bulldogging if could help it!

We crested the ridgeline, and dropped down the other side. This trail was rough!!! Since it had been sooo dry, the powdery dirt made it SLICK. Here's a shot on the way down:

Getting close to the parking area at the bottom of this trail. Cool little bridges to keep the knobbies out of the soft streambed:

We hit the parking lot at the bottom of the hill, tired, out of water and late in the day. We decided that we'd had enough and didn't want to fight the trail back uphill. I used the "dual-sport" part if the EXC to get the truck and come back and pick up Jr. Great day!!! Great trails...

To Be Continued...

Stand by for day 2.......

[Crawdaddy 96]

Well, I paid a visit to my dad over the 4th of July week and weekend. He lives in Mapleton, UT at the foothills of the Unita National Forest. I figure that if I was going to be up there, I might as well bring the bikes. I jumped on the nat'l forest website and downloaded all the OHV maps for the area, loaded the KTM and DigDugJr's KLX in to the truck (I threw in JR's old KLX-125 in case my brother-in-law wanted to tag along), and headed out. What we found when we got up into the mountains was INCREDIBLE!!!! That place is a single track paradise. There's a very strong pro-OHV presence and they maintain some of the greatest single-track trails I've ridden on. Here's a few shots to make you jealous:

Stand by for day 2.......

It worked, I'm jealous

Your Dad lives in a beautiful area........good that you're able to get out and ride with "Da Boy"......I enjoy riding with my son/daughters/girlfriend in addition to my knucklehead friends....

[DigDug 0]

Day 2 - we decided to hit a local canyon - Maple Canyon. It was no more than 5 miles from my dad's house. It's a good thing I don't live there, I'd be up this thing every day and never get anything else done.

This is another "no quads" sized trail. Hikers, horses, mountain bikes, and luckily dirt-bikes only.

The trail winds its way up the sides a nice shady canyon, crossing the stream a few times before dropping into the streambed itself. You have to ride up the streambed (with running water) for about 1 mile before the trail climbs the side of the canyon up the ridgeline.

Here, DigDugJr leads the way up the rocky streambed... This is awesome stuff:

More rough streambed. Yup, you CAN ride up this stuff (it's good fun too!!!)

The rocks like to reach out and pull the bike over once in a while. By the way, I found a good way to help Jr pick up his bike quicker - all without sweating myself - Pull out the camera and try and get a shot of it on the ground. Here I was a little quicker on the shutter than he was lifting (I'm such a mean dad)

The trail leaves the tight canyon and winds its way through some great mountain meadows and rocky climbs:

At the top of the climb, checking out the view and the trail in the distance as it winds its way along the ridgelines:

A little "log hopping" along the shady portion of the trail:

We decided to make it a short day. Went back to the truck, loaded up and headed back for some well deserved rest. Another great single-track day!!!

To be continued...

Stand by for Day 3....

[DigDug 0]

Day 3 - This was Saturday, so my brother-in-law was off work. We offered to let him tag along on my son's old 125 which he readily accepted. He used to ride an old XL200, so he's a little out of practice. The 125 is perfect for that type of rider though. Geared low, extremely low seat height (although absolutely no suspension or power). We all had a blast!!!

For day 3, we headed up American Fork Canyon. According to my online research, this was the local Mecca for single-track. I'd have to agree. Here's a few shots:

Here we take a break after a log crossing to wait for the lil 125 to catch up:

Jr negotiating a loose, rocky climb:

More sweet woods riding along the ridgeline:

KTM poses on one of the steeper, looser climbs along the ridge:

AWESOME views of the mountains to go along with the riding!

There were quite a few loose, rocky climbs to negotiate. Here, Jr and the in-law discuss the plan of attack - all the while I'm saying "shut up and ride!"

Taking a break in the shade. Check out that dirt mustache!!!

More ridgeline running. Check out that view!!!

EXCELLENT technical single-track. Don't turn left! Heck, don't even look left!!!

More of that lovely technical stuff!!!

A good example of trail maintenance. If you can't move the log, cut out a piece just wide enough for the bikes to get through:

At the end of the ridgeline, we rode this double-black-diamond down the the canyon floor. Not much trouble going down, other than the TIGHT switchbacks. Not one of the three bikes could make the turns on the switchbacks, so we had to do a little "manuvering" on the edge. I think DigDugJr rode most of this trail with the motor off (a pretty good plan if you ask me). I think I rode most of this trail without breathing:

Down in the main canyon (still at over 8000' elevation) we head up to the top. Here we're at the top of a rocky climb, taking a rest:

And at the top. Acutally, the trail keeps going on, but Jr and the in-law were pretty beat by then and we were all out of water. Okay, so Sr was a little beat too. The elevation here is just under 10,000'. From where my KTM is parked, you can see the trail cut hard up the hillside away from the camera. It was very loose and powdery (probably 3-4 inches of loose dirt). We ran into a couple other riders that were headed up and they said the trail was pretty much "unridable" since it was so dry and loose. These were guys that had ridden to the top a few times - so we didn't feel to bad since the locals only went this far. Don't you think the orange looks good in this setting??

From there, having conquered the mountain, we zipped back down the main forest road back to the truck to pack up and head back home.

In all, we had a great time!!! I'd have to say this is some of the funnest, most scenic riding I've ever done. I'm definately going to go back!!! It was well worth the 9 hour drive to get there - even DigDugJr says so and he HATES being stuck in the car.

THE END

SDAR road trip anyone????

[Crawdaddy 96]

Day 3 - This was Saturday, so my brother-in-law was off work. We offered to let him tag along on my son's old 125 which he readily accepted. He used to ride an old XL200, so he's a little out of practice. The 125 is perfect for that type of rider though. Geared low, extremely low seat height (although absolutely no suspension or power). We all had a blast!!!

In all, we had a great time!!! I'd have to say this is some of the funnest, most scenic riding I've ever done. I'm definately going to go back!!! It was well worth the 9 hour drive to get there - even DigDugJr says so and he HATES being stuck in the car.

THE END

SDAR road trip anyone????

My son feels the same way DigDugJr does when it comes to being stuck in the truck for the ~6 hour drive to Bass Lake.....but he'd be out there waiting in the truck right now if I told him we were heading up tonight.....which isn't a bad idea?!?! ......no, gotta make some more vaca $$ first .....after he sees these pics he'll probably be willing to up the ante from 6 hours to 9 hours Team Crawdaddy is "IN!"

[dirt dame 559]

This is just another confirmation that I live in the wrong state This also looks like another job for "Peanut The Bike" squatty red king of the single tracks!

[DigDug 0]

This is just another confirmation that I live in the wrong state This also looks like another job for "Peanut The Bike" squatty red king of the single tracks!

Aww.. come on... lots of great riding around here! Even if it is a little on the desert side.

One thing this trip DID do for me was tell me that I need to get a Friday off and head up to the Sierra's for some camping/riding here. If it's anything like the Uinta's I'll be in heaven!!!

As far as bikes go for the Unita's - at least up there, you don't have to deal with the whole Green/Red sticker mess. I've also heard that plating is still possible (and even quite easy) in Utah. I may have to "sell" my son's KLX to my dad to get a plate on it...

[Joliet 0]

Doug, nice write-up and great pics. Did you have any problems running too rich at elevation? Thanks for sharing. Ken

[bikeslut 1]

September in Utah is awesome! I'm up for a road trip... I know some great rides in Brian Head, with free camping and awesome views.

BYOB to Utah!

[DigDug 0]

Doug, nice write-up and great pics. Did you have any problems running too rich at elevation? Thanks for sharing. Ken

Just thought I'd share some of my experience

My son didn't mention any problems with the KLX (he may have been too busy hanging on to notice), but I did notice the altitude on the KTM. Most rides started out around 5000' and went up to close to 10,000'. I noticed more of a throttle response lag the higher I got, rough idle (fixed by turning up the idle speed manually), etc. I also noticed more symptoms each day (plug beginning to foul I guess). I tried a fiddling a little with the idle mixture screw which helped a little, but the real solution should be swapping the jets. When I got home and did the service, I noticed the plug was pretty sooty from the richness.

I've since got the JD Jetting kit that comes with a good selection of jets and needles to accomodate differing altitudes and even cold temperatures - A little expensive for what you get ($70 or so), but you're if you consider that you're paying for more than just the jets/needles (you're really paying for the research, tests, trials, instructions, etc) it's not too bad. The KTM is VERY easy to rejet (10 maybe 15 minutes at the most if I do the needle too), so I'll probably swap the jets out for every major change in riding conditions I go on. MUCH easier than the XR - you don't even have to pull the carb off the bike.

[DigDug 0]

September in Utah is awesome! I'm up for a road trip... I know some great rides in Brian Head, with free camping and awesome views.

BYOB to Utah!

That's a bit closer too. My son really wants to go and ride the Paiute Trail.

Here's a link about it: http://www.utah.com/offroad/paiute_trail.htm

It seems to me that it's mostly easy, but scenic and long. I think the real reason he wants to do it is because you can ride a "dirt-bike" or atv on the streets of the towns the trail runs through. I think it'd be a blast to do a 3 or 4 day loop of the area, spending the nights in motels around the trail.

Although, sometimes you just gotta hit some of that rough, technical stuff too...

[Crawdaddy 96]

September in Utah is awesome! I'm up for a road trip... I know some great rides in Brian Head, with free camping and awesome views.

BYOB to Utah!

That's a bit closer too. My son really wants to go and ride the Paiute Trail.

Here's a link about it: http://www.utah.com/offroad/paiute_trail.htm

It seems to me that it's mostly easy, but scenic and long. I think the real reason he wants to do it is because you can ride a "dirt-bike" or atv on the streets of the towns the trail runs through. I think it'd be a blast to do a 3 or 4 day loop of the area, spending the nights in motels around the trail.

Although, sometimes you just gotta hit some of that rough, technical stuff too...

A multiday trip would be fun but once Fall arrives it's tough to pull the kiddo's out of school for that long....may have to be a BIG KIDS (no school) trip

I still wanna go here sometime too:

http://www.dualsport-sd.com/forums/index.p...;st=0#entry5481

[Joliet 0]

Doug, nice write-up and great pics. Did you have any problems running too rich at elevation? Thanks for sharing. Ken

Just thought I'd share some of my experience

My son didn't mention any problems with the KLX (he may have been too busy hanging on to notice), but I did notice the altitude on the KTM. Most rides started out around 5000' and went up to close to 10,000'. I noticed more of a throttle response lag the higher I got, rough idle (fixed by turning up the idle speed manually), etc. I also noticed more symptoms each day (plug beginning to foul I guess). I tried a fiddling a little with the idle mixture screw which helped a little, but the real solution should be swapping the jets. When I got home and did the service, I noticed the plug was pretty sooty from the richness.

I've since got the JD Jetting kit that comes with a good selection of jets and needles to accomodate differing altitudes and even cold temperatures - A little expensive for what you get ($70 or so), but you're if you consider that you're paying for more than just the jets/needles (you're really paying for the research, tests, trials, instructions, etc) it's not too bad. The KTM is VERY easy to rejet (10 maybe 15 minutes at the most if I do the needle too), so I'll probably swap the jets out for every major change in riding conditions I go on. MUCH easier than the XR - you don't even have to pull the carb off the bike.

You are also paying for their customer service, which I have found to be very good. A quick 5 minute phone call to them could save you hours of experimenting. Ken

[PastaPilot 17]

I've also heard that plating is still possible (and even quite easy) in Utah.

A mechanic at our Salt Lake City base has a 2006 XR650R. He bought the bike from the showroom floor, ordered a Baja Designs DS kit after he got it home and then went to the DMV for his license plate.

Easy is an understatement.

As a pilot I have the ability to register vehicles in other states as a non-resident given the presumption that I will be using it in that state while there. I've been tossing around that idea for awhile. I'm just waiting for a bike with electronic fuel injection, because I hate fiddling with carbs and jets, er I mean carburator jets of course.

[DigDug 0]

As a pilot I have the ability to register vehicles in other states as a non-resident given the presumption that I will be using it in that state while there. I've been tossing around that idea for awhile. I'm just waiting for a bike with electronic fuel injection, because I hate fiddling with carbs and jets, er I mean carburator jets of course.

That's interesting... How do you go about doing that? Register it at your base there? Have any links to the laws that allow it? Might open up some options...

Thanks