It’s been a great year for dirt biking so far, not so great for keeping up on this blog… I’ve been riding with my kids a lot, they are able to do a lot of technical trails that I like, but at a lot slower pace than the guys I usually ride with. It’s so fun to see them push their abilities and overcome the trail and mental obstacles.

I signed up for this year’s UTMA ride and volunteered to run sweep on the advanced loop. It turned out to be a 9-hour epic adventure at a length of 66.4 miles. I wasn’t prepared with my helmet cam or camera, but thanks to a couple of other great riders, I can share their pictures. Thanks to Brent, Shane, Drew and Matt for taking the pictures and videos sent to me or stolen from Facebook. Big thanks to Wes Thompson and Matt Groll for being the ride leaders.

Crew: we started out with 12 riders and were whittled down to 6 that made the full ride, with other bailing out at various stages. From memory – we had Wes, Colton and me from Smithfield; Brent, Bryant and Shane from Vernal; Rich and Drew from Ogden; Todd and Kim from Preston; and Chip and ?? (Clint/Brian?? somebody help) from Morgan.

Trails: Sink Hollow to Gibson Basin, Highline to Danish pass, Down St. Charles North Fork, up Davis Canyon, over to Midland and Horse Flat, took a right on Bloomington road, up Middle fork jeep road and over to Paris Flat, up to German Dugway summit, Highline all the way back to Danish pass, down the road to Beaver Creek campground, up the Highline back into Gibson Basin, then back down Sink Hollow to finish it off.

Conditions: cold, wet, raining, slick and greasy until we got to Bloomington road, then the sun came out and made for perfect conditions on the highline for the ride back.

Download the Google earth GPS tracks.

And, big thanks to Drew for the cool YouTube edit!