All of this past week I had been trying to talk Traci into going for an ATV ride on Saturday, and she was trying to talk me into going to Provo for a geocaching event and some shopping. It wasn’t until Friday night that one of us gave in, and we ended up going to Provo the following day. We went straight to the event at a park in Provo first. Several of our friends were there, and we spent some time just hanging out and looking for a geocache. After the event we drove to Orem and hit Sconecutter for some lunch. We had our dog with us, and instead of leaving her in the car while we ate in the restaurant, we drove around until we found a park where we could eat lunch. After lunch we did some shopping, most notably for new coats, ski pants, and gloves so that we can ATV this winter without freezing to death. We did some more geocaching on the way home and found several fun caches, including a couple at the Tucker rest area that we found in the dark. It was a long and tiring day, and we all went to bed early after getting home.
I got a slow start this morning. Traci went to church, and though I was feeling lazy, I was still itching to go for an ATV ride. Finally, a little before noon, I decided to just do it and I got all the kids’ and my gear ready and loaded my ATV into the truck. We left town around 12:30 and got to my intended parking spot about 10 miles northeast of Wellington at around 1:00. I parked just off the road to the Dugout mine and then piled myself, the two boys, and the dog onto the ATV and headed north toward the Book Cliffs. I’d noticed in Google Earth that there were a couple of canyons up there with old mining/prospecting tracks leading up into them, and it looked like a great place to ride and possibly do some hiking where the roads ended. The first part of the route was along a rough jeep trail that would have been doable (but annoying) in a 4WD, but it wasn’t bad on an ATV. It wasn’t exciting, but it was better than being at home. After about six miles we’d reached the base of the Book Cliffs, and I started seeing piles of very fresh bear crap along the road. At first I just saw a small pile, but we pressed on up the road and eventually came to a few more, each just a few hundred feet from the last. Either there are a lot of bears up there, or just one bear with a profuse bowel problem. No matter the case, I got really nervous and decided to puss out and turn around. Perhaps if I’d had another adult along I wouldn’t have been so skittish, but being with two young kids and a dog who’s scared of cats wasn’t a reassuring feeling. After we’d turned around and ridden a couple of miles, we eventually stopped to eat our lunch and just relax for a bit. For the rest of the ride back to the truck, I let the boys take turns steering the ATV and working the throttle. They’re both too young to reach the shift lever, but at least I can get them started learning how to drive. Our ride only lasted a couple of hours, and it wasn’t the most fun place I’d ever been, but it was worth going just to get out.