The "in-quad cam"! I crept through the streams. I hate fording water, and luckily most of the streams were pretty tame so I had no problem going through them. Some of the bigger streams had fishermen along the sides of them, though I know not what they were fishing for. Much planning appears to have gone into the placing of the ATV trails since you rarely had to go through anything much bigger than this. The bigger creeks you rode along the side of until a safe passage or a bridge occurred.

      Here is a large reservoir, somewhere near the gravel Hwy 153. There were quite a few RV's and campers in this area. In the Fishlake National Forest, you can park and camp anywhere (and a lot of folks do), as long as you don't stay in the same place for more than 14 days. Often I would be cruising along on some old timber trail and find a hunters trailer or camper parked in the woods at the side of the road. Some of the roads were so bad the trailers couldn't possibly come out without a lot of work, but many bore evidence of having a truck or something come in and move them to the other side of the meadow just so the rangers wouldn't cite them for being in the same place for two weeks. Most of the camps were empty, but sometimes somebody would give me a wave as I passed by.

      Oh to have my house right here! - What a view!

     I was riding down the trail and this guy comes into view around a corner. I stopped and chatted with him a bit. He and his daughters were just enjoying the day. I got the impression they were staying not far away at what was a ski lodge during the winter of which there are quite a few around, though the Paiute ATV trail steers clear of most places of inhabitation. The Paiute seems instead to traverse desolate areas in between the towns of Circleville and Marysvale, which was fine with me. I asked them to wave at the "folks back home" who were missing this, and they happily did so. And might I point out, if you did this in California and a ranger caught you, good luck trying to explain it. All the Rangers I met here in the Fishlake seemed little concerned with such things as helmets (quite a few riders were not wearing them), whips, or stickers. They were VERY concerned with people who behaved like idiots and endangered themselves or others on the trail, and a couple had stories to tell of such things. Happily, everybody I met on the trail or back in camp were there to enjoy the sights and trail-ride, not race through the forest with their hair on fire at top speed.

      Many of the trails were like this; quad sized and nearly endless. This one ran for miles through thick forests and lush, green meadows. I saw a few deer, and possibly even an Elk or two, but they moved well away from me before I could get close. Which isn't surprising since the Supertrapp exhaust pretty much insures that most creatures could hear me an hour before I arrived (I may be slow, but by goodness, you will know that I'm on the way!).

     I carried two two-gallon gas cans, which were totally unnecessary since I got terrific gas mileage. I estimated an unbelievable 90 miles on a tank of gas for the Warrior, which was almost an all day ride (with stops of course). Besides food, water, matches, rain gear, and a minimal tool kit, I carry the "worm" type tubeless tire plugs, and a dozen C02 cartridges, which fit into a handheld tire inflator. I used it once on the trail, and two CO2 cartridges brought the tire up to several pounds. The whole down time with the flat was less than ten minutes. I also got several "slow leakers" that necessitated me using a cartridge to bring the tire up equal to the other on the trail, but the repairs waited until I got back to camp where I could find the leaks.

     Many of the trails are "quad sized" and you do not share the road with anybody on foot, horseback, or 4wd. I did meet a lot of "groups" of ATV riders who were riding together. Some were surprised that I was by myself. I did worry about breakdown, or worse yet an injury, but I figured if worst came to worst I could set the gas tank on fire and gnaw on the tires until help arrived if I got stranded. (You know, kinda like shooting your horse to survive.) Okay, maybe I didn't really think this would work, but hey, it sounded good. I carried a ham radio, GPS, and cell phone (which worked pretty well in the high country). There were also a lot of hunters campers and RV's stashed about the forest in odd places, and I always tried to keep a mental note of where the last one was I saw.

      So I'm cruising down the high-country trail, in the middle of nowhere in particular, and I spy this thing at the edge of a meadow. As I approach I'm wondering what it is- it can't be! Yep, it is! A crapper in the middle of nowhere! Now why, of all places, did the State of Utah put this here? I found a trail that came in from another direction that appeared to be the access for the pump truck, but why here? I just shook my head and took a break since, well, that was what it was there for. (It was cleaner than any Shell restroom I've ever been in! Not that I'm the connoisseur of crappers or anything. Okay, time to move on now.)

     The Paiute has markers like this spread throughout. They, along with an excellent map that seemed to be for sale at any place that catered to ATV enthusiasts, kept you on track and sure of where you were going. They also frequently had the little blue indicators denoting trail difficulty. This one says (in blue) "more difficult". This was one of the first few "blue signs" I saw, and I scoffed at this one. I mean, I can see ahead and it looks mellow. Who are they putting these signs up for - old ladies? Wrong-o buddy. Those blue markers were not joking - four miles ahead and this trail degenerated into the rock-infested steep-switchback trail from hell. Not too difficult if you crept through it, but it gave me a righteous case of monkey-butt as I scooched from side to side at every switchback and large rock due to the angle of the trail. I quickly grew a bit more respect for the signs.

     Another sign that, sadly, is on the endangered species list in California.

Back to page five       Forward to page seven