I have been really looking forward to this festival, and got quite
frustrated when I crashed and broke my finger again two weeks before
it. However, a week later, as the initial pain subsided, I looked at
the map of the area and figured I can have fun even riding on the road,
if the trails turn out to be too difficult for one hand. The festival
is organized by folks from Altitude Cycles in Vernal, and takes place
at Red Canyon Lodge near southern tip of Flaming Gorge. The
location is awesome, on the northern slopes of the Uintas in ponderosa
pine forest (quite unusual for Utah).
We arrived there on Fri afternoon right on time for registration.
After that, we found an empty campspot at the Greens Lake USFS
campground, which is within a walking distance from the lodge. This
meant a certain level of luxury, as we could walk to the lodge to buy
stuff and had a dinner there on Friday. No pasta cooking on this trip.
Camping was free as USFS is one of the sponsors of the festival. We had
a spot right next to the lake. Friday evening was a welcome party with
a keg of Wasatch summer beer and a movie showing local trails. I was
getting tempted on riding those, but, got chilled up the next day.
On Saturday, I figured I'll try the beginners ride on Red Canyon Rim
trail, but, it turned out to be too rocky for a single hand riding. So,
I bailed out and rode the road to the Flaming Gorge Dam. I rode all the
way under the dam (another 150 m descent), checked the area out, and
got busted by the police after I stopped at the dam to take another
picture. It took them 15 min to check me out, during which I ate my
lunch and checked out the map to decide what to do next. Only later
Gary reminded me of the bust during the Olympics, when secret service
people stopped me after taking pictures during a hike above the Olympic
Village. I probably would be less calm knowing that I already am on the
record. Some detail on this (only in Czech) is here.In
any case, next thing was to ride back to the lodge, which took over 2
hours, since I had to seek shelter twice because of vicious
thunderstroms. Luckily, each time I was close to a shelter, first time
at the Flaming Gorge lodge, and second time at a USFS rest area. I got
back to the camp at about the same time as the advanced ride members,
who were soaked considerably more than me. Clickable map and fotos from the day are here.
In the evening was party, this time in a hawaiian style, with baked
fish, salad and, of course, another keg. A local bluegrass band played
and most of the people went home with some sort of prize from raffle
and other competitions. Naturally, we got rained on several times in
the process and I spent some time at the campsite drying tent which I
forgot to close.
On Sunday I coordinated with Gary who went on the famous boat ride
trip. I rode a different road loop and met with the group at the lake,
and rode on the road with Gary back to the car. Clickable map and fotos
are here.
Especially the Geological Loop was quite interesting and I took my time
to go through and took a lot of pictures, so, you can also explore the
geology of the are with my clickable map. After the climb back, I was
ready to drive home, which I did to get back home in about 3 hours,
plus time spent in Evanston, Wy. in a vain search for a good liquor
store. Guess Wyoming is not like Nevada or California in this respect.
In any case, it was a great weekend of riding even with one hand and I
am already looking forward to the next year.
U of U / CHPC / Cuma / Travel / English / Dinotrax 03
URL: http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/summer03/dinotrax03e.html