I’m a little bit late writing about this trip but I figure better late than never.
This was a GREAT trip. Not only because I got to try out my newly acquired dirtbike but also because of the great scenery and of course, the great company. I guess I need to first thank Christina and Cory for inviting me a long. I had a great time and I appreciate them letting me come along. Rather than just writing about the trip, I figured I would try to break it down by day. I also took the time to show a map (click on image to the right) of everywhere we went so you can get a better visual. Enjoy. 
Day 1 (Thursday March 28th, 2008)
The day began with a long, long, long day at work. I had asked my boss about getting off work early so that we could get a head start down there. He told me that I could leave early if I finished this big project I was doing at the time. This pissed me off a bit but figured I’d better get going as fast as I could so I could get out of there. I busted my butt all day and finally got out of there 15 minutes short of a full day! AAHHHHHH!! I was a bit stressed. Anyway, hopped in the Cruiser and flew up to Heber to meet with Christina and Cory as fast as I dared with my motorcycle on the back. I finally got up there, we loaded my motorcycle on Cory’s trailer and throw my gear in the camper and off we went. We took a different route than I’ve ever taken to the area. We went down through Price but rather than heading out towards Green River, we headed south from Price down through Castle Dale and turned off on some road just outside of Moore. This road eventually turned into a gravely dirt road which we sooned discovered they were working on paving it or something. I think the big equipment we constantly saw was a give away. Anyway, this road eventually runs into I-70 and right where we were supposed to meet up with everyone else. If you have tried to find a camp in the dark, you know it isn’t easy. Cory had to call someone at camp to find out where it was. Coco and Tina ended up coming down the trip on a dirtbike to find us and lead us back to camp that was in the Justensen Flats area. Once we got to camp, we dropped the trailer, parked the truck/camper and got settled in for bed. I had brought a tent to sleep in but I was tired and didn’t feel like setting anything up so I ended up sleeping in the back seat of the truck with the seats folded down. Cambree wasn’t very happy since she wanted to stay in the tent with me. 
Sorry Cambree.
Day 2 (Friday)
I got up in the morning and was anxious to get my motorcycle out to go play. I’d been dying for the last month since I bought it to get it out. It was torturous because the bike is parked in my bedroom and had to stare at it everyday knowing I couldn’t take it out. Now was my chance. After nice little breakfast that Cory put together, we got all our gear together and hoped on our bikes and 4 wheelers and off we were on a ride. The trail we headed down started by taking us through some little tunnels that went under I-70. From there it took us down into a wash below with some fun little obstacles on our way down. Probably about 2 miles later we were all down at the bottom in the wash and took a little “break” which I learned we would take pretty often. After the break, we started heading down the wash. I quickly learned that riding in sand was A LOT more challenging than I had expected. You definately don’t have as much control. Half the time I was just holding on to where my bike was taking me and praying that I didn’t wreck. Fortunately I never did on this day. Will down in this canyon, we soon went under a couple large bridges that spanned across the canyon allowing I-70 to cross. Was a very cool view. We continued on for probably another 5 or 6 miles where we stopped at a little hiking trail that took you back to a natural spring fed trough which was cool and back to a cave type thing. I can’t remember what it was called but it was pretty cool. (see photos) There was even a bunch of snow back there still since it doesn’t see the sun much. Anyway, we checked that out and hoped back on our bikes and went just around the corner to an old cabin called Swasey Cabin (see photos). We checked out the cabin and just hungout for a little bit. The original plan was to do a big 50 mile ride this day but we had gotten a little later start so we checked out a map and decided to just head back the way we came in and then do another little ride when we get back. Some people were tired so we opted to do this. We went back the way we came and headed back for camp. We hungout at camp for maybe an hour and some of us hoped back on our bikes and we headed out for another ride. We had heard that there was a cool Mine not far from us so that’s where we headed. We headed for a mine called Copper Globe mile. It was probably 4 or 5 miles down a road near our camp. Once we got there, we found some pretty cool buildings and the mine. (see photos) We explored around a bit and Cory even went down into the mine to see how far it went back. He said he went back probably 100 yards and then it split off so he just came back. Pretty cool. I started wondering if I should have gone down. Oh well. We loaded on our bikes and continued on the trail a little further and came across an old house. (see photos) It was pretty cool to see. There was still some old things sitting on a little outdoor shelf. Not far from this house was a DEEEEEP open mine in the ground that had a fence put up around it. This was a good idea because after Coby tossed down a rock to see how deep it was, we quickly learned that there was no way anyone would survive the drop. We explored around a bit and decided to head back to camp since it would be getting dark soon. We got back to camp and had some great dinner (sloppy joes made with deer meet) and hung around the fire for a while and then headed to bed. I had decided to just sleep in the truck again since I didn’t feel like setting up a tent.
Day 3 (Saturday)
Today was similar to the day before in that I had woke up anxious to go riding. This time I woke up and Cory opened the door and handed me a plate of breakfast. Wow, breakfast in bed. What a great guy! I was very impressed that Christina and the girls were hoping on the 4 wheeler ready for a long day on the trail. We loaded up and off we went. We headed down the same trail as the day before but once we got down to the wash, we took the trail OUT of the wash on off a different direction on our long trip ahead. We followed this for probably 15 miles or so taking several “breaks” along the way to enjoy the scenery and hangout a little bit. Towards the end of this stretch we got down into a canyon which allowed us to really open it up and start FLYING down the trail. I bet we were topping out at 45 mph. Way fun and a little scary at the same time. Lot of water crossing too. Made for a great stretch of trail. We even caught up to a couple of mountain goats which was VERY cool to see. They ran off ahead of us and flew up the side of the hill. It’s amazing what they can get up. We waited for the rest of the group and had some lunch. After lunch, we headed back up the trail and not far we came to a junction where we ran into some BLM volunteers. We took a right which would start taking us back towards I-70. We followed this for a while which was very sandy and challenging and made a stop at a mine called ZCMI Mine. We hiked up to the mile which was very cool. We went into this mine which went back a little ways and got to check that out which was very cool. (see photos) Once we started hiking back, Cory noticed that there was another mine a little ways above it and so a few of us hiked back and up to this other mine. This mine didn’t go back as far but was very cool. You could see the vein in the mountain where they were digging and could see the drill marks and little spots where they were digging into the vein. Very cool. After that, we headed down to the bikes and started our journey up the next turn we took which took us on a section called the Devil’s Race Track. The first hill up on this trail was a tough little spot and gave us a taste of what was ahead. This trail went for probably 7 or 8 miles and had plenty of obstacles to keep us on our toes. One spot was especially tough. It was just big boulders after boulder that was extremely challenging. If you stopped you were done and would tip over. I watched others go through first and looked for my lines to get through this obstacle. I was very nervous as I’m not THAT experienced of a rider. Oh well, i pulled up the obstacle, lined up my line and just too a deep breathe and went for it. After getting up one ledge, i very quickly was looking for my next line which was tough because you had no time to decide and if you took the wrong line, you were going down. Luckily I survived it and made it all the way through. I was a little proud of myself but my heart was about to explode when I finished from beating so hard. Once everyone was through we continued on. I have to say that at this point, I was EXTREMLY impressed with Christina and her abilities on the 4 wheeler. She was doing very well especially considering she had the girls on the 4 wheeler with her. Good job Christina! Was also proud of my neices that hung in there too and stuck it out. Anyway, we finished off that stretch of trail, crossed under I-70 and followed the dirt road which took us back to Swasey Cabin which we had been to the day before. Basically this was a very big loop that we went on. We quickly headed up the trailer we had done the day before all the way back to camp.
As we were coming back under I-70 and back off the trail, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a guy coming down the hill off of I-70 and I wondered what he was doing. Was he in trouble or was he coming done to go to the bathroom or something. I went a little further ahead and waited for Christina. She pulled up and wondered if he needed help. I though I’d go check so we fly back up and ran over to a fence where the guy was. Come to find out this guy had ran out of gas. I told him that I’d run back to camp and go grab some gas for him and would be back in 10 minutes or so. We flew up to camp which wasn’t too far away, grabbed a can, loaded it on the 4 wheeler and flew back to where this guy was. Sorry Christina if I made you nervous on the 4 wheeler. We got back to where the guy was and there was Cory handing him a tiny can over the fence to help him out. Cory is a great guy by the way. We showed up with a bigger can and he took both back up to his XTerra up on the freeway. A few minutes later, Cory hopped the fence to go get the cans so he didn’t have to come back down. I guess the guy tried to offer him like 50 bucks for the gas but as any good person should do, he turned the money down. Loaded the cans and headed back for camp. Once back we had left over Sloppy Joes and just hung around the fire for the night and relaxed from a long day on the trail.
Day 4 (Sunday)
Waking up this morning was a little different than the previous days. This day it was cloudy and definately a lot colder. Most people packed up all their stuff and headed home. Cory, myself and another guy and his daughter decided to get a last little ride in. We flew up a bunch of little trail taking us to several fantastic overlooks looking over the landscape. It even snowed a little bit while we were out on this ride. It was a nice way to end the trip. We took off for probably an hour or two. We then headed back to camp, loaded up our stuff and headed home the same way we came in.
What a great trip this was. My only regret was that I didn’t have my camera with me to take photos as there were TONS of great photos to be taken. I had to rely on my iPhone to take photos which was a pain to take out since I was using for riding music so not very many photos were taken. This was definately a different way to see the Swell than what I had done the weekend before with Alene from work. You can read about that trip by clicking here. Anyway, thanks again to Christina and Cory for letting me come along. I had an amazing time and hope to get back down there again and also look forward to my next camping trip and/or dirtbike trip.
