Jagt Club Adventures: Day 10

Day 10 (June 19) was a killer adventure! Almost literally as we turned bikes upside down, crashed into each other and nearly lost Ben when he inadvertently went off-road going too fast into a curve.

We started the day by breaking camp at Otter Creek. This was a great family state park with a nice reservoir, friendly staff, and access to riding trails right from the campground. We headed south on Highway 12 (a designated Scenic Byway that REALLY earns the name) towards Escalante. We took the Widtsoe road which looked like it went over the mountains and would save us about 45 miles of driving. About 5 miles along the road we passed a film crew setting up for some kind of shoot and as we passed we saw the Little People from the TLC show, Little People/Big World getting ready to ride ATVs and horses out in the wilderness. Just points out the fact that real life is better than reality TV...or at least that's what we told ourselves!

The road did go over the mountains and we had great views on both sides of the range. Once at the top we could see ~50 miles out in to the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and got a view of the Straight Cliffs which run ~70 miles out to Lake Powell. We found our next camping site at the Escalante Petrified Forest SP and made quick work of setting up our camp. The weather was awesome and the forecast called for thunderstorms tomorrow, so we mounted up and headed for the Hole In The Rock road. 57 miles from trailhead to Lake Powell along the Straight Cliffs following an old Mormon trail. We started at 3:00 p.m., and had great riding for the first 12 miles, but we missed the turn off to Devil's Garden and when I went to turn around, Ben had missed my hand signal and came barreling in to T-bone me. Luckily he tucked and rolled over both bikes, but I got pinned under the Honda when it got knocked down. Ben popped up like a trooper, but I had a big "dent" in my shin, several scrapes on my calf and a wrist I initially thought was broken. The bikes took the worst of it, but when we got them upright they both started up though the hand guard on the Kawasaki was broken off and the left side of the handlebar was bent, and the left mirror on the Honda was smashed. We went in to the Devil's Garden and assessed our wounds and the bikes' serviceability and decided to press on. Good decision as the road went in to and out of canyons and dry washes, went over slickrock, and the whole length went through the most incredible scenery the entire distance. At the Dance Hall Rock (where the Mormons used a natural amphitheater to play music and dance), Ben found a mini-slot canyon that looked real, though small scale.

The actual Hole In The Rock is a natural cleft in the cliff facing the then Colorado River (now Lake Powell) that a group of Mormons widened using dynamite in 1880. They used the route to get their people and supplies down to the river to then cross and establish a community in the San Juan valley. Ben climbed all the way down to Lake Powell (surprisingly warm) and I enjoyed the view!

We rode back with urgency since we had ~60 miles to go and it was already 7:15. While hurrying along I chose the wrong track through a section of the road that had hardened after earlier rains. There were big ruts in the road and I went over the handlebars when the bike slide into one of the troughs and the front wheel went sideways. Ben said I did a nice barrel roll, and I didn't get hurt (physically anyway). We pressed on a got back to town about 9:30. My old body was aching everywhere so we decided to cap off the great day with a steak at the Cowboy Blues restaurant. We were very late getting back to the camp and took quick showers and off to bed. Great day!