My son, Moose One, friends Paul G. and his son, Paul, and I flew out to Las Vegas, rented a van, and drove to Marysvale, Utah to ride the Paiute Trail. Here are some pictures and some of my thoughts. We stayed at Moore's Old Pine Inn and rented quads from local shops.

Monday started out cold and rainy. Nothing quite like rain at 10,000 ft. elevation to put a chill in you. Had to stop and add another layer under my rain gear. Was worth the stop.

Misty cold morning on Monday. Marysvale is below.


Fixer upper. Abandoned miner's cabin.



Larger abandoned mine. Most were small operations.



Average sized mine we saw.

 

Marysvale from a little ways up.

Foggy climb on switchbacks.

Coming down Deer Creek Canyon

Red rock formations.

 

Can you spot the person in this picture? Zoom way in and about the center of the picture is a dark green bush.

Riding into the horizon.

Tuesday morning. Kenny Lone (Specta) and Paul G.

Switchbacks up Mt. Marysvale.

 

Barney Lake from landslide area.

Landslide area from Barney Lake.

High mountain pastures.

Stopping for lunch.


You may notice that I'm renting a Polaris Touring 550 at this point in the trip. Not long after this photo I was rounding a corner just like I had done dozens of times before during the day. About halfway through the corner something in the steering let go. I ended up going straight off the corner, just kissing a tree, and coming off the quad to land in some nice soft soil. The Lord was watching over me. The quad had a broken control arm and the de-beaded tire. I was at the back of the pack taking pictures and had just told them not to wait up for me. They finally figured it out after about 20 minutes that I wasn't with them. I had taken out my tow strap and wrapped it around the tire and pulled while the air compressor tried to fill it up. Didn't work. When they got back I hooked it on to one of the RZRs and we were able to reseat the tire on the bead. I had to wrestle the quad back to Marysvale that was some 30 miles or riding on dirt roads. It wanted to crash me into the right ditch the whole way. And it got 5 times worse when we hit the last two miles on pavement.

 

On Wednesday they rented me a Honda Rincon 680. It is probably the worst experience I've ever had riding a quad. Seemed to only be suited for smooth dirt roads. The transmission is a Honda automotive style automatic. It has only 3 speeds. The first gear was too tall. Trying to use engine braking going down rough trails had the quad wanting to do 15-18 mph. Very dangerous even using the manual shifter. Also going downhill this quad was very hard to steer. Add having to use the brakes to get down the steep hills and it made it even worse. Suspension was like a brick too. Non-adjustable shocks in the rear? Really, Honda? If I could have cranked them up a bit maybe the ride would have been better. I may never know.

Successful beaver diet.

Rode to breakfast Wednesday morning.

Miners cabin. Workers slept downstairs. Owners slept upstairs.

Moose One having a blast.

 

Left to right. Moose (me), Paul G., and son, Paul G., and Moose One.

View north towards Fremont. Pictures can't do this view any justice.

Trails and view north of Marysvale towards Fremont.

Heading towards Fish Creek Canyon.

 

Sandstone formations near Fremont.

Kenny's trusty steed threw a shoe (balljoint). Will it have to be put out of its misery?

Improvised jackstand to patch things up. We were 2 for 2 on trailside fixes this trip.

More sandstone by the Max Reid Trail.


Kenny's (Specta, here in the forum) trusty steed let him down. We had to pop a ball joint back into place and zip tie it to allow him to limp home which was only a couple miles from where we took this picture. He hopped into young Paul G.'s RZR and had a nice easy ride back to pick up his truck at the Moore's Old Pine Inn. We were 2 for 2 on trailside repairs. It's good to have the tools you need to get back out. It was, once again, the Lord watching over us. If it had happened when we were at Fish Creek we would of had to leave it there and come back.

 

Looking back towards Fremont. Dusty trail. This was heading up the Max Reid Trail. Kenny broke down about 2 miles from his house. We limped his Honda back and he jumped in Paul's RZR 570 for the trip back to Marysvale.

Looking down one of the switchbacks on Trail 02.

Top of Mt. Belknap, an extinct volcano.

Mule deer. We saw dozens of them in our 4 days riding.

 

On Friday I rented a Honda Rancher with IRS, power steering and automatic transmission with the ability to manually shift. This machine had an automotive style transmission that was better shifted manually. In first or second gear it would crawl up or down steep nasty trails. It was light years better than their Rincon that I had rented the day before.

Top of Mt. Belknap. At this point we were around 10,500 ft. elevation. The top of Belknap is another 500 ft. higher. Must have been quite a show when it blew out the northern half of the mountain.

Panoramic of the valley to the north of Mt. Belknap.

Coming down off Mt. Belknap heading south.

Beautiful pasture in an area known as Big John's Flats.

 

Cattle near Three Creeks.

Coming down towards Circleville. We wondered if they named it that for the irrigation system that creates the crop circles that are green in the pictures.

Aquaduct heading downhill to Junction. Was nice cold, clean water. Felt good to wipe off the day's dust.

Last run of the day was on nice flat dirt roads with a 35 mph speed limit. Was a great way to end our trip with the sun setting behind clouds to the west.