moto loop to hanksville

Riding the 157 in American Fork

I was lucky enough to survive one epic moto ride this summer, so why not push my luck. The proposed route was a fully inspired breathtaking loop through the diverse central part of this lovely state called Utah.

Our 750 mile route took us on 4 days of ATV trails, singletrack, dirt roads and deer paths and a little slab.

Our fearless leader and slave driver posted a trip report here.

I’ll add a few of my favorite moments from the whirlwind adventure.

Guy on the bumpy goodness that is Squaw Peak Road

Fixing flat in Left Fork Hobble Creek

Derek apparently gets off on this sort of thing

Fixing flats can be fun as long as you have the right tools, somebody that knows what they are doing and you keep the dirty jokes coming.

Fast and fun ATV track above Strawberry Res

Refueling bikes and bodies at the marina

Survived a slippery dark descent into French Hollow for our first night

Settling down under the tarp for the evening

Warming up after a cold night by blazing some great trail at sunrise

Bob deep into the Skyline ridge section

King tweaker giving me the 'we don't have time for photo's, we must ride stare' in Joe's Valley

Blazing saddles up a steep and rocky atv climb

I will never forget Rock Canyon. Ouch!

Neither will my bike. This is the after photo of the aluma-weld repair

Not pretty, but it did the job and I was able to finish the trip.

Still riding the big and loose rocks of Rock Canyon

We stayed close to each other in case somebody needed help

Sometimes you just have the camera out at the right time

I think this was the only time on the whole trip that Bob went down? The man is silky smooth on two wheels.

Not out of the woods yet

Heading out of Ferron into the swell

Chasing the light through the sandy washes

Trying to knock out 200 mostly off-road miles a day doesn’t give you much time take it all in, but this just stopped us in our tracks.

Give a Guy a few days on a bike and then just get the hell out of the way!

Crossing deep under I-70

Relaxing after a long day

The 'RED TRAIL' was a rude awakening! Most difficult section of the trip by far.

The Swell finally spit us out. We passed on Goblin Valley since we were a bit behind schedule.

A quick oil change and salute in Hanksville

The brothers Macfarlane put on a show at this natural playground

High gearing it through the moonscape of Capitol Reef

There’s a big gap here where I don’t have any great pics. We rode out of Capitol Reef high into the Thousand Lakes Mountains and mistakingly took a ‘horse path’ into Loa for fuel. From there we shot north to Fish Lake for dinner.

Cruising north on dirt and gravel with the sun setting

Time to look for a campsite

The camera batteries were getting low so there’s another blank spot here where we went on pavement to Salina and north to Gunnison. From here we rode Antelope Valley and dirt roads still heading north.

Regrouping on the Mount Nebo Scenic Loop

Up and over Mona Pole road with nice Nebo views

From here we crossed west of I-15 to Goshen for lunch and gas.

Kicking up dust along the power line road west of Utah Lake

Nice views of the lake and 'Happy Valley' from the Lakeview Mountains.

One more flat just a mile or two from where the dirt and trip ends and the pavement begins

Black top back into the SLC valley to wrap it up

Thankfully we took plenty of pics because this trip was quite the blur. It’s fun to have a goal and rally hard to cover lots of ground, but we all decided next time we would take more time to stop and just enjoy our surroundings.

Thanks for waiting for me and helping me start my bike fella’s. Hopefully I won’t have to be saying that after every moto outing. Actually I’m not sure my body and wallet can take this kind of abuse, but it is one of the most challenging and exciting experiences I’ve had.