Great Western Trail Tracks Wanted bits and pieces OK!!!!

Got tracks for Lost In the Dez and LKN4Drt

They rode Boulder Top. I updated my file on GPSX.

Thanks for posting the updated track. I downloaded it and swapped the Boulder Top leg into my planned track for what I had there.

BTW I ordered forest service maps for the Dixie and Fish Lake forests in this area. The FishLake map has the GWT extremely well marked with about a 1/8" wide grey highlightling - both motorized and nonmotorized versions.

If you don't have the map and want to see it, let me know. I can scan sections and post them here.

I found that the version of the DIxie map available for free downloading was better than the paper map I bought. The download version was done after the MVUM was published and is color coded for motorized and nonmotorized trails.

I bought both when I was there but will look at download one.

We finally did our SE Utah ride.

As for the GWT we did not do the harder ATV sections south of Torrey as we had planned. One of the guys was recovering from a broken wrist and it was giving him some pain after 3 hard days of riding.

We did to the proposed Big Bike bypass of Torrey. We rode both alternatives: Cathedral Valley (aka Caineville Wash road) and Hartnett Draw.

Both were big bike acceptable. Cathedral Valley road was wide but with many sandy spots. Scenery was great classice Utah red cliffs. The Hartnett Draw road was more fun. It was narrow and a little more primitive and hardly any sand. Scenery was totally different - classic desert. There was a spectacular stretch thru some Bentonite hills near the southern end. We also had to cross the Fremont River to get back to UT 24.

One would have to ride 22 or 28 miles of pavement on 24 over to Torrey. But it is a nice ride thru Capitol Reef NP.

Tracks and links to pics are on both dualsportmaps.com and GPSXchange.

We tried to ride a very difficult 4wd road call ChokeCherry Trail on the east side of Boulder Top Mtn off of UT 12. We gave up after about a mile. The wrist injury was one reason, but it was hard for the rest of us too. The trail was covered with 6"-12" gray rock outcroppings and pretty steep.

I was wondering if this sounds anything like the rock sections of the GWT ATV trails?

Thanks for update. I was there also last week working new options between 89 & 89A west of Page. I will take your tracks and mine and update big file on GPSXchange.

What is the code for your tracks "P" is proposed 9no date tag)? Others with tags are obviouisly actual?

I need to put the code info into the posting.

Red is actual ridden tracks for odd numbered days (Dn). Blue is actual for even numbered days (Dn). Cyan is primary plan that didn't get ridden (Pn). Magenta is secondary plan that didn't get ridden (Pn).

Nearly all of the actual tracks are Active Log. But there were a few sections I didn't actually ride and the guy I got the tracks from only had Saved tracks.

I used my Montana seriously for the about the first time with no problems. But I did manage to accidentally wipe out 3 days of tracks before I could save them. So I had to get these tracks from another guy.

I set my Montana to auto-archive daily and never have to save anything manually. Every ride is in the archive directory, ready to download to my computer until I finally get around to it.

Archived files have the same detail as manually saved tracks.

What did other guy have? All the "x" models with data card will save Active Log to chip every day but you must set it to do it from the "Track" page. If they had done this, data is still available.

Since the "x" came out, I have never "Saved" a track in GPS (with unwanted filtering), always download active log and save as is (by date), then edit (split) out wrong turns etc and save another copy by location.

OK, updated GPSX, how do these look?

What about going down ChokeCherry then thruk Capital to Torrey?

I will check out your new tracks later.

Going down was much easier. But in retrospect I think healthy, reasonably good riders on dirt bikes could make it up the trail too. When I got home and looked closely at our track, it looks like we were about halfway up the steep part and halfway thru the steepest part too.

It was work, but I was doing okay. I thought there was a really steep place on the last pitch, but the topos don't look that way to me. The guy with the injured wrist really wanted to turn back and he is usually the first one to want to do the hardest stuff.

The guy I got track from had some kind of 60. I had forgotten that the Active Log gets stored every day. I may get back with him and see if he is willing to retrieve the Active Logs.

BTW with the Montanas, I guess we are going to have to start using the term Current Track.

BTW2 that dirt road going into the south end of Capitol Reef was a blast, just gnarly enough to be downright fun.

And the ride up and down Piute Pass on the first day could well have been the best ride I 've ever done. But my memory is getting weak.

How about comments on the two options for Cathedral?

If you are going north on GWT, it would be down.

I put these comments in my first post:

"Both were big bike acceptable. Cathedral Valley road was wide but with many sandy spots. Scenery was great - classice Utah red cliffs. The Hartnett Draw road was more fun. It was narrow and a little more primitive and hardly any sand. Scenery was totally different - classic desert. There was a spectacular stretch thru some Bentonite hills near the southern end. We also had to cross the Fremont River to get back to UT 24."

Also the Fremont crossing was no more than axle deep when we crossed. The crossing is kind of long, maybe 20 yards since the exit point is not opposite the entrance.

Not sure how much more to add. Any suggestions?

I looked at your new GWT tracks and they looked fine to me. You might want to put the Chokecherry trail in red.

What new tracks did you put in west of Page? I looked at a couple and they were at least a few months old. But I did not do an exhaustive search.

True on ChokeCherry.

Which is which? Are they both Adv or just one and other DS?

Gap to Page
George Lake to Tropic via Cottenwood (great route)
Page to Tropic via Cottenwood
Lee to Tropic via Cottenwood (still need section in middle)

I don't know what the accepted definitions of Adv and DS are. Both roads would be easily doable by me on my KLR and by the guys I ride with on KTM 990s. I don't know about GS1200 class machines, but I suspect they would be okay for any reasonably competent rider. There might be a fall or two in the sand on the Caineville wash road.

I looked at your tracks again and think I found the ones you mentioned. The names aren't exactly the same, e.g. Gap-Page is AZ 10-3 Gap-Page. They were all dated Oct 2011 though. I can't see how this could happen with the unit getting time from the GPS signal.

Maybe I need to go back and reload them from GPSX. But the track list is different from the version I downloaded in June.

Thanks for straightening me out on the dates. I didn't think to scroll down.

Caineville Wash/Cathedral valley is the easternmost road. Hartnett Draw is the west one.

Hello Countdown - A few weeks ago I rode a dirt road from Big Water just northwest of Page. It ran 100 miles or so east and north through what I think is the Escalante wilderness, ending at Escalante. It's called Smokey Mountain Road. The second water crossing stopped me so I took a bypass called Smokey Hollow Rd. It was basically a sand wash that ran maybe 20 miles. You can see the bypass marked by a sign I photographed below.

Is this road a possibility for the GWT? The beauty of it is that there is a ranger station at Big Water to learn of the conditions, so an easy bypass on pavement. The road was pretty beat up from weather for me from flooding and such, but I made it OK as a solo on my 250R. Probably not twin friendly unless one had a riding partner to help pick up.

Fortunately, the sand was damp enough to navigate easily and the mud was firm. The rock gardens left by the flood was a little challenging for the likes of me, but no drama. Just careful. Only one spill......not happy at the time, though. :eek1

I was too early at the ranger station so I chanced it and I am told now the road was closed! That is a good sign. I think it would be big bike friendly when the road is fixed again.





Here's a thing I googled up for it. Scroll down to Smokey Mtn
http://www.utahcanyons.com/roads/escalanteroads.htm

Smokey Mountain is a great ride. We have done it twice in the past few years. Both times we took the Smokey Hollow version but by mistake. I really want to do the real Smokey Hollow sometime. I understand the Kelly Grade is pretty neat.

What was wrong with the water crossing? Too much water or too deeply washed out or too muddy?

There was a lot of rain previous days and the second crossing I thought was way too big for me since I was solo. It looked like a river. The first one outside of Big Water was pretty big too, but there was a pickup with a boat and trailer on the other side, so I tried it. It was shallow and the bottom was firm.

The mud was dried enough that it was no problem and the sand was actually fairly firm from the moisture. Probably perfect for my ride. But I had no tracks for the Hollow Rd and there were hardly any tire marks in the wash. So I was often worried that I might have missed the road climbing out of the wash. But just as I was about to turn around, I'd see jeep tracks climbing out.

Probably the hardest part were some of the washouts, that left step-ups and step-downs through the rocks. I flopped on one of them. After awhile my anxiety diminished and I was able to enjoy the last hour of the wash and the rest of the run to Escalante.

It's pretty wild through there, though. One really should have a small group to help eachother if something happened.




The junction with Smokey Mountain Rd after climbing out of the wash:


I manufactured my tracks on my laptop and then rode them. But I forgot to turn on the active log...shame on me.

Yes to adding to GWT options but SHAME SHAME on you. Do you have Active Log set to different color than tracks you are following? Just a few miles out and you see no whatever color behind you.