On the day after Christmas, I was tired of shoveling snow off the sidewalks, but I spent a couple of hours shoveling even more snow so I could go play in the snow. I shoveled all the snow out of the truck bed and off the utility trailer bed, and cleared a big portion of my driveway so that I'd be able to load up the ATVs and go for a ride. I had been hoping to go for a ride since I got my machine back from the Honda dealer (and the repair seems to have worked this time!), but I wasn't sure when I'd get the chance. Traci and I finally decided on Friday night that we'd be able to go riding Saturday morning, but it wasn't until right before bedtime that I made up my mind on where to go. We went to Farnham Dome again, but this time there was a lot of snow. We did a much longer loop than we'd done previously and rode on some trails that we'd never been on. Here's a link to my GPS track log in Google Earth .KML format.

The first one-third of the ride was great, riding trails we were familiar with but which seemed entirely different in the snow. We passed up our normal turnoff for the Farnham Dome loop and continued south along the wash, but some clouds rolled in and the second one-third of the ride was much colder without the sun shining. After reaching the south end of Farnham Dome and curving around to the east and then back north, we started following a different wash and eventually stopped to start a fire and warm up. We saw a huge herd of pronghorn there and I counted at least 50 of them in a group. I'm sure there were others beyond a hill that I couldn't see. After warming up, we continued north and met up with the trail that is part of our normal ride in the area. The sun came out for this part of the ride and it was quite pleasant again.

Instead of following a wash bottom, the last section of the trail goes over the very top of Farnham Dome, sometimes following the highest ridge line and other times following road cuts along the eastern edge of the ridge line. At those points where the trail was just barely on the leeward (eastern) side of the ridge, there were some big snow drifts that caused us a lot of problems. Traci was in the lead when we hit the first drifts and her machine became mired in several feet of snow. We let the kids wander around and play in the snow while we tried getting unstuck. I tried riding her machine out of the drift at first, but the skid plates were resting on some hard packed snow and all four tires were just spinning in the softer churned-up snow. I dug it out from the rear using a snow shovel, then backed out and barreled through after getting up some speed. I repeated this process several more times until I got her machine through the worst of the snow drifts, and then I walked back to my ATV and got it through without any problems.

YouTube recently began processing videos in high-quality, so here are some highlights of the ride in that format--it should look great full-screen:

I really expected the ride to be colder, especially since we were riding for about four and a half hours. However, we each bundled up wearing snow pants over our regular pants, a t-shirt, jacket, heavy coat, good winter boots, gloves, and knit face masks. The kids seemed to stay warm the entire time, often playing and digging in the snow whenever we stopped. My hands and feet got a little cold when the sun was obscured by clouds, but between the fire and all the digging out of stuck ATVs, I stayed warm most of the time. I'm really looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.

When I was about five years old I broke a window in my grandma's front storm door. I was trying to keep my sister from tattling on me--I forget what for--and I was running and slammed my hands into the door to prevent her from opening it and going inside to tell on me. My hands went through the glass and I got a big cut on my left forearm, where I still have a nice 2½-inch-long scar. I don't recall ever getting into trouble for breaking that glass. Today, Michael broke one of the windows in his bedroom, and I surprisingly found myself not angry in the slightest. It's strange how, as a parent, I can get angry about the most minor things, but when the shit really hits the fan it turns out to be a non-issue.

I got my ATV back from Carbon Emery Motorsports today, and I'm really unimpressed with their service to date. They had it for about a week the first time they attempted to fix the front differential oil seal, but upon receiving the "fixed" machine and riding it less than four miles, I found that it was again leaking out of the new seal. This latest time they had it for nearly three weeks and they admitted to me that they had a difficult time installing the new oil seal properly. When I went to pick it up, the guy who helped me load my ATV into my truck said that they weren't sure the new seal would hold, and that somebody had extensively test-driven it several miles in order to ensure that it wasn't leaking. The weather was so cold today that I'm not sure any gear oil would have leaked in its thickened state, so I suppose I'll find out on my next long ride whether or not it's been fixed correctly. And no, I don't think the donuts I did in my back yard today would have warmed up the gear oil enough to detect any leaks, but at least I can say that I had some fun on my ATV in the snow.

I managed to get out for a short ATV ride yesterday with the boys. I was on Traci's machine (still don't have mine back from the dealer), so Torrey had to run alongside for the entire six miles. I did the Farnham Dome loop in the reverse of what I'd done the last time I was there, and it took just under an hour. I wasn't certain how the ATV would handle because there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. I thought I'd need 4WD, but the snow was powdery and dry and the rear tires didn't slip much in it. I used 4WD going up one steep hill, though I'm not sure I really needed it. I just didn't want to lose my forward momentum and have to let off the gas and shift in the middle of a hill climb.

I'm looking forward to Christmas being over this year. Traci and I put everything off until the last minute, so now we're scurrying to get all our gifts wrapped and get the house cleaned. It's not so much Christmas itself that I want to be over, but it will be nice to have few responsibilities when it's all done with.

Rather than sticking to my plans for my days off this week, I spent most of yesterday being sick. Since Christmas shopping took priority over going for a 4-wheeler ride, I did a little shopping late yesterday evening and quite a bit more today. I'm glad to have finished most of my shopping, though the weekend is going to be a downer because it doesn't look as though I'll be getting my outdoors fix. I'm still looking forward to that ATV ride in the San Rafael Desert, but it'll have to wait until after Christmas. In all honesty, I'm more inclined to go for a hike. Perhaps I can sneak one in tomorrow during...er...before Traci's family Christmas party.

Today was my last day of work for this week. After this, I only have to work four days for the rest of the year. I managed to get one last hiking trip in before the snow hit this week. I took the boys out on Sunday and we hiked a little bit at Swazy Hole and in Buckhorn Wash. They didn't feel like hiking too far, so I'll have to go back without them another day to check out these places more thoroughly. We found an arrowhead factory (a lot of chippings) near Swazy Hole that is definitely worthy of a return trip. We hiked almost half a mile up Furniture Draw from the bottom, but we didn't reach the narrows or the rock art before we got too cold in the shady canyon, so we turned back. We also did a short hike in the canyon across the road from Furniture Draw. There are some petroglyphs where progress up-canyon ends at a dryfall, but I believe further progress can be made by climbing up out of the canyon about 500' before the cliff and continuing along a ledge to the top of the dryfall. That's not a climb I would take the kids on, but it would be a lot of fun either alone or with Traci--if I can ever get her to go with me.

We haven't done much of our Christmas shopping yet, so tomorrow I'm planning on spending most of the day shopping. I don't relish the idea of being on my feet for hours on end, but it's something that's gotta be done. After that, I've got an ATV trip planned for Friday. I'm shooting for somewhere (an as-yet unplanned location) in the San Rafael Desert. I don't know how much snow is down there, but regardless of the weather that area has had, the sandy terrain should make it easy going for the ATV. Anywhere in Carbon County would turn to snotty mud if the snow melted, so I'll be content heading farther south.

I haven't heard from Carbon Emery Motorsports for more than a week regarding the progress on the repairs to my ATV. I should have called them sooner to ask about it, because now I'm to the point where I'll be nearly irate when I call them in the morning to inquire about my precious piece of machinery. This Friday (less than two days away) it will be two full weeks that they've had my machine in order to effect repairs. Regardless of whether it's done by Friday, I'll probably take Traci's ATV on my trip to the desert. I'm trying to keep our mileage about the same, and I've overshot hers by more than 60 miles since the cold weather hit us a couple of months ago. She can't disregard the weather as easily as I do, and winter riding doesn't appeal to her as much. I just want to see some new country, and momentarily escape my usual life in the process.

I went back to the Wedge today and explored three more of Good Water Canyon's side-canyons. None of them was as fun as the other side-canyons I've already hiked, but it was still a pretty fun day. I uploaded a few pictures here. I hiked in and out of the three drainages to the northeast of Good Water Canyon, and my round-trip hiking distance was just over three miles. I did a lot of scrambling on bare sandstone, and in one canyon my downward progress was halted by an 8-10' drop that I didn't dare downclimb without some assistance with me. In fact, most of my hiking was above the canyon bottoms, because there were a lot of unclimbable drops along the way.

It was fairly cold when I started out, but after a couple of hours it warmed up enough to shed my jacket and hat. It still doesn't feel like December, but that's all supposed to change this weekend with some rain and snow and colder temperatures. I doubt that will keep me from getting outdoors this winter, but the warmer-than-normal temperatures we've had so far have spoiled me.

I got good news about the problem with my ATV today. The service manager from the dealer called and said that, this time, the leaking oil seal was caused when they put everything back together while fixing it in the first place. Apparently the act of inserting the driveshaft into the differential ended up cutting the new oil seal. It's only good news in that there's nothing major wrong with my machine, but it doesn't speak well for the work performed at the dealer. At least they figured out the problem and fessed up to it.

I probably won't get the ATV back until Friday or Saturday, though chances are I won't be going for a ride this weekend. There's a chance of rain and snow Saturday and Sunday, and I'm not sure I'm up for foul weather riding. I can stand the cold, but not while I'm wet.

I had yesterday and today off work, and earlier this week I'd been trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my time off. Finally, late Wednesday evening, I made up my mind to ride my ATV down Coal Wash and along the Devil's Racetrack. I had never been to that area because access is very difficult in a full-sized vehicle, and I simply hadn't thought about it since we bought our ATVs--until now. The normal staging area for this ride is just off the Dutch Flat Road east of Ferron, but I parked the truck at Buckhorn Well. That saved me 50 miles of driving the truck, but added 25 miles onto the ATV ride. Temperatures were below freezing when I started the ride, and I had to go slow on the road to Fuller Bottom in order to keep my face from freezing. I was nervous about fording the San Rafael River at Fuller Bottom, but it wasn't too bad. Driving through the river was easy because it was pretty shallow, but getting up the far bank was a bit tough. It was steep, and I felt as though I was going to tip over backwards.

After the river crossing, I rode pretty quickly to Coal Wash. It had warmed up by then and the wind in my face didn't sting anymore. The trail through Coal Wash almost completely follows the water course, with only a few places where it climbs out for short distances. It was mostly sandy or gravelly, though there were some rocky parts that slowed me down a lot, and even some water in a few spots. The scenery got really awesome after I entered the north fork of Coal Wash. The Navajo Sandstone is exposed there, and the formations are more interesting. Several times I spotted places where I wanted to stop and hike around, but I knew that I didn't have enough daylight for it.

I finally reached the Devil's Racetrack trail, and it started out rough and never let up. I rode five miles on the trail and found two geocaches, and I ate a late lunch near the second cache. It was too late to keep riding south on the trail, so after eating I turned around and headed back. It had taken me 4.5 hours to get that far, and if it took me the same amount of time to get back to the truck, that would put me riding at least an hour in the dark. I wanted to avoid riding in the dark, so I hauled some serious ass going back. Shortly after the fork of Coal Wash there's a turnoff that leads to a road that parallels Coal Wash, and I took it hoping that it would be faster than riding in the bottom of the wash. It turned out to be about the same, and I ended up wishing that I'd just ridden in the wash. I made good time back to the truck, even though the sun had set and it was starting to get pretty dark.

It was a pretty awesome ride, covering 56 miles and taking about eight hours. Here's a link to my GPS tracklog. My legs and back are actually a bit sore today from that much riding. I barely had enough fuel in my tank to make the trip, though if I'd needed it I had a two-gallon gas can with me. I also discovered when I loaded my ATV the night before that the front differential was leaking again, after having been "fixed" by the Honda dealer just last week. I'm pretty pissed about that, and I'll be taking it back there tomorrow to give them another shot at it. I have a feeling that it's going to turn into a nightmare (much like my experiences with other dealers), although the service manager was very nice and seemed competent. Anyhow, I carried extra gear oil just in case I needed to refill the differential, but the one time I checked the oil level it was fine. Since daylight was such an issue this time of year, I'm planning on at least one more trip to the same area next year when the days are longer.

Thanksgiving weekend was fairly typical this year, consisting of the usual gathering at my mom's house on Thursday, plus a bit of outdoor fun thrown in on a couple of days. I got off work a bit early on Wednesday and decided to ride my ATV after having just gotten it back from repairs at the Honda dealer. I drove up the bottom of Pinnacle Canyon, which is often used by the King Crawlers in their full-sized rigs. The wash bottom was full of rocks and boulders, and after more than two miles of that, the rocks became more annoying than fun and challenging, so I turned around. Before I got back to the truck, the dark clouds that had been moving in all evening finally let loose some snow. It was really wet snow and it made the ride considerably less comfortable, but it made the air smell like rain and sagebrush.

On Friday, I set out with the entire family and we drove to the Wedge to do some geocaching. One of the caches required a ladder to reach, and I felt like a dork hauling a ladder around in the desert. It was a fun one to find though, and it was the 800th cache that I've found. We found another near the Wedge Overlook, then drove back around to the head of Good Water Canyon and hiked down the canyon as far as we could. I knew there was a big dropoff that would halt our down-canyon movement because I'd run up against the bottom of it in October when I hiked up from farther down. What I didn't expect is that at the top of the dropoff is a huge pothole full of several feet of water and some cattails. There was a lot of water in smaller potholes all along the canyon, so perhaps that's how the canyon came to be named. It would be a great summer hike, and I still have several side-canyons in that area that I want to explore.

After Good Water Canyon, we drove a few miles to near Fuller Bottom, then took a jeep trail west that ended near the San Rafael River at Cat Canyon. Nearby there was buried a bottle that's part of a contest worth $1,000 to the team that completes it (you can read all about it here). We found the bottle quite easily near the coordinates that another team member had given me. I don't expect to see much of that $1,000 because finding the bottle was only a very small part of what's required, but it's worth participating just for the fun of it. Besides, we got to see some new country and a few interesting things along the way there.