After our last attempt at riding the Curse Canyon trail, Traci and I have wanted to go back to try it again. We had hoped to do it without the kids because there are a lot of off-camber sections along the trail, and we didn’t want either of them falling off an ATV or, worse yet, to roll over. I hate imposing on relatives to babysit though, so we just decided to take the kids with us, but luckily they actually enjoyed walking for the worst parts of the trail.
We parked the truck at the ball fields on the north side of town, and as soon as I got both ATVs unloaded I realized that I’d left the GPS at home. I wish I’d have gone back for it, but we were already running a bit late and I didn’t want to take the time. The first part of the trail seemed easier than the last time we tried it. It was obvious that the trail had a lot of use during the rainy weather we’ve had over the past couple of months, and I think all that traffic on the soft ground helped smooth out some of the bad spots. As soon as we got past our turnaround point from last time, Traci ran into a little trouble. There was a short hill that required a sharp right then left turn near the top to avoid a boulder in the trail, and she started tipping over to the right before she could make the left turn. She caught it in time, and I applied my weight to the left side of her ATV so she could make it the rest of the way up the hill. She had another scare going down a very steep hill, where she almost tipped over forward. Luckily she didn’t panic, and she let off the brake just barely enough to gain some forward momentum and avoid the rollover. After that, I was just scared. I wasn’t having too many problems, but the trail was a little beyond Traci’s ability. We pressed on very cautiously, but eventually came to a steep hill that even I didn’t think I could make it up. Instead of turning around, we rode in the bottom of a wash for a short distance before coming to yet another impassible spot. We had nowhere else to go but back to the truck after that, so we turned around and took our time going over all the obstacles that we’d already passed.
It was still a fun time, although a little short–we were riding for perhaps just over two hours. I’m glad that I now know what I missed the last time around, but I also know that I never need to go back down that trail again. Here are a bunch of video clips that I put together from today’s trail ride: