Transcontinental Rail Road Ride

This is J.W.'s first Post!!

My buddy Justus and I decided to go ride the old Transcontinental Railroad trail here in Utah. We were looking for something close and not still covered in snow. The trail is mostly the old railroad grade that was finished here in Utah at Promontory on May 10th, 1869. This is the Golden Spike location. The trail has historic information along the way and goes through a couple of ghost town cemeteries.

We made it a overnighter and rode from Golden Spike Historic site to Lucin, Utah. Then we turned south for Wendover, Nevada. That's where the Bonneville Salt Flats are.

We gassed up and started back home. We rode until 11:30 at night and camped for the night. We cooked our tinfoil dinners and went to sleep, at least I tried. The ground was very hard and Justus is a pretty good snorer. The next morning we woke up at about 7:30, broke camp and had breakfast and headed back to the truck. We got there at about 1:00 pm.

We stopped and took in all the info and sites along the way. In all we rode 16 hrs or so including stops and for 290 miles!

The trail is mostly flat rail road grade and is super easy riding but here is the amazing thing.
On the first day Justus stopped and had a flat, not a big deal we had a flat kit and even a small DC compressor. We had it fixed in probably ten minutes or so and started again. After about 3 miles Justus had a flat again in the same tire. What are the chances? We fixed it up and started again. Maybe 5 miles later Justus has another flat same tire, but this time there is a old rail spike sticking out of his tire. Justus is pretty pissed by now and were starting to think we might run out of plugs for the tire. Then it donned on me, that stinking spike must have been sucked up in the tire from the first flat! Then it punctured the tire two times from the inside out. Not a single flat after that for the rest of the ride. So if you ever decide to ride a railroad grade bring a flat kit and spin the tire after fixing to see if the little bugger is still in there.

We saw some antelope, rabbits, lizards, hornytoads, several birds, and one other person on the trail. There was a ton of sun and the temp was great! The views were awesome and it was fun to think about the old trains working their way along the very grade we were riding. We visited two cemeteries and three places were towns used to be. There are signed along the grade giving mileage from SFO and a brief history of the location. Most of the ride is in the complete middle of nowhere the closest to anything we ever got was about 10 miles from highway 30 for about 5 miles of the grade, excluding Wendover.

It was a complete blast and I can't wait for the next trip!

Another ATV Trip

J.W. just finished 6 days home and so after he worked his little butt off cleaning the house for me, mowing the lawn, winterizing a million different machines in the garage (No kidding), and doing the laundry, we thought he deserved a break.

We went to this place he discovered from his moto-head buddies called the Knolls. It is about halfway to Wendover. It was really fun. There we sand dunes and also lots of hills with trails to ride on. It had just rained the day before so the sand was perfect! We were the only ones out there and had the place entirely to ourselves. I know we would not have liked it half as well if the dunes were crowded with people and we were worrying about the crazies running into us.

Here is a picture of J riding around in a "bowl". I tried it once but my balance is so off that it was just too scary for me.

J.W.'s latest adjustments to Sammie's ride really made a difference. He switched the gas from a thumb type push thingy to a twist grip. Sammie's poor little thumb used to get so sore after just a half hour of riding! He also put on a new rear shock and now she's not bouncing around so much. Sammie did awesome! She rode for a really long time all around the dunes. She is becoming quite the good little rider.

Of course, being the little beach bum that she is, she had to take a break playing in the sand.

I rode with Felicity for just a little bit on the 4 wheeler but as much fun as it was, it was not comfortable at all so Felicity and I spent the afternoon in the truck watching DVD's and reading and snacking. It was a very fun day even if we didn't get to ride that much.

Camping

We went on an overnight camp last week up the mountain to Bountiful Peak. It was so beautiful up there! I think I counted 15 different wild flowers in bloom. It was amazing. It wasn't too hot, maybe 80 degrees but the bugs were out in full force.

Of course we took the ATV's and went on some awesome rides! We had a great time. Well, Sammie had her first little accident (Don't freak out mom!). We were going up a pretty rocky trail with a slope on the left side and Sammie hit a rock and leaned the wrong way and fell off her four wheeler on the slope side! I think she must have still been holding on the handlebars because the 4W rolled over and pushed her down the slope. Luckily there were a lot of trees that she was able to hang onto until I could get up there to come and get her. It was scary but she didn't even get a single scrape. I just can't wait till we can get her in the ATV class so many she can manuever a little better.

Reena (the dog) was begging to go with us so we let her come along. She was happy and trotting right along with us until about the last 20 minutes or so of the 2+ hours. Then she was really worn out and slowing down a lot. The next day the poor thing was so sore she could barely move! I felt so bad for her! It made it really easy to keep her around camp though. She is a good dog and fun to take camping.

We had fun playing catch, even though I am afraid of the ball! Sammie was really getting good. Felicity was so dang cute, I don't know where she picked this up but every time she would throw the ball she would say "whoa baby, baby, baby!" It was hilarious. She loved camping. And what's even funnier is she loved going down to the potty! That one I just can't figure out. The restrooms were absolutely horrible! I think it may have just been that every time one of us had to "go" all the girls went together. Of course, both the girls loved the fire and smores.

We had a great trip and amazingly didn't forget anything too important (like the sleeping bags, or the food!) I think we may be learning! We plan on going camping in two weeks and I hope it goes just as good as this one!

Happy 80th Grandma Spilker!

On June 13-15 we went to a resort on the east side of Zion National Park to celebrate J.W.'s grandma's 80th birthday! Happy Birthday Grandma Spilker! She is a great lady. J.W. loves the memory of when he was little and Grandma Spilker would take him and his brother swimming or something and then give them $1 or $2 or change and say "Now don't tell your Grandpa!"

We had a nice reunion with everyone. Marsha came down from SLC, Clark & Janet and all their kids except Nick came from St. George & Mesquite. Janna & John from Mesa, and two of their 4 kids. Mike and Ann from St. George and all their kids except the one on a mission. Chuck and Connie and 2 of their 4 kids from St. George. J.W.'s dad was the only child of Grandma Spilkers not there but we came so that was good. A lot of J.W.'s cousins are now married with kids of their own! It's crazy! I really wish we could do reunions more often.

We stayed at the Zion Mountain Resort. The have a huge herd of buffalo there! No kidding! Felicity liked the "Moose", I think she may be trying to say moos? Sammie had a fun time playing with her second cousins until the poor little thing got sick! She had a fever and just wanted to sleep, sleep, sleep and no play. Which anyone who knows Sammie knows she is all about play, play, play and no sleep! Luckily she was only sick for one day.

We went 4-wheelin at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes which we found out we didn't like. Too sandy and dusty and fast.

J.W. and I went on an absolutely killer ride on Sunday morning. Just the two of us, all by ourselves. I think it was the first date we've had in years! No kidding. The ride was cool, there was lots of rock obstacles, hard road and sandy road, lots of cedar trees everywhere and then we got down into the canyon and there were sheer rock walls shooting up. It was really beautiful. I want to do that ride again! We had a great time.

ATV-ing at Golden Spike

J.W. took the fam bam out on Saturday for our first real ATV trip together. J.W. rode his dirt bike, Felicity and I were on the 4 Wheeler and Sammie rode her 4 wheeler. We drove the truck and trailer out to the middle of absolutely nowhere, about 30 minutes past "Golden Spike" and then unloaded the bikes. J. found this place in a trail guide and it is along the edge of the Great Salt Lake. Surprisingly, there were quite a few people out there already. Some even with their RV.

We rode from the place we unloaded to a place called Kelton Ghost town. It took us about 3 hrs (?) to get there. We were all really excited to see a Ghost town, but Kelton turned out to be a huge dissapointment. There wasn't a single structure standing, we saw remnants of some foundations but that is it.

We wen't to the cemetary a little further and that was pretty cool. Sammie found some bones and teeth of some kind of animal and just had to bring them home for further investigation. She said she needed to study them if she is going to be a travelling veteranarian someday.

Before we left we got the coordinates to a geocache at Kelton. We found it and Sammie picked out a cute Skechers bracelet. Geocaching was my favorite part of the day.

It was time to head back to the truck at about 5 pm. Sammie was getting pretty tired. J.W. had the idea to ride ahead really fast and get the truck and come and pick us up. That was a good plan. Sammie likes to go about 10-14 miles per hour so it was easy for J.W. to ride ahead and come back. Poor little Sammie's thumb got too tired to push the gas anymore so after about 30 minutes I tied a rope to my ride and pulled Sammie home. Felicity fell asleep sitting in front of me and we rode that way for another 45 minutes or so before JW rescued us.

We stopped at Fazzoli's for dinner and made it back home at about 9:45 or so. The girls went straight to sleep. We were all dusty and tired but we had a really fun time. We can't wait to go again.