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

[HogWild]

Originally Posted by Countdown

No, which Russ?

LKN4DRT Russ, see photo.
He went with some good friend of yours who organized the ride, though I forgot his name. Russ sent me his track logs, and when I saw them I recognized most of the roads as the same GWT stuff I mapped for you. Apparently they didn't know it was hand-drawn tracks, which explains why one of the tracks didn't go through. When I drew that one short section, I knew it must be a hiking trail, but they didn't know that. Anyway, if you don't have their track logs, let me know.

[wbbnm]

Originally Posted by Countdown

I just use the tracks Scott and others gave me and hand draw tracks from government travel maps and then go scout. The difference is that I am not going on a ride, I am scouting all possible ways to find the best one. South of Salina the marked GWT has many secitons of very difficlult, very slow ATV trails that are not what a long distant motorcycle rider needs. If you look at my tracks on GPSX you will see that where possible I have these ATV trails in Red with Dark Green bypasses as the prefered route.

The trail north of Torrey was ok for a dirt bike with only 5 miles of bad rocks but it looks like a much better ride would be to go east from Torrey on the highway thru Capitol Reef then turn north up the Freemont River back to the trail at Heart/Rock lakes. Anyone have this track?

Both my folks were from Bonne Terre, 60 mi S of STL. I spent 10 years writing family history of my Grand Parents. Had about 30 members come to party to get a copy.

Although I grew up in St. Louis all of my family is from Old Mines which I think is very close to Bon Terre. My grandmother lived in a house built around a frontier log cabin with an outhouse. I spent a lot of time there in the summers in the 50s. The name Boyer is very common and I am probably cousin of some sort to lots of them. Also the Polittes on my mother's side.

We were going to do a loop out of Torrey up the GWT to Cathedral Rock and them come back on one of the two roads heading southeast. Looks like one goes into Notam and one goes into Caneville. Maps differ on which one goes thru Cathedral Valley, but the Capital Reef map says the easternmost one is the Cathedral Valley rd. This is going to make for a fair amount of pavement getting back to Torrey that day. At least it is scenic drive thru Reef country.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by HogWild

LKN4DRT Russ, see photo. He went with some good friend of yours who organized the ride, though I forgot his name. Anyway, if you don't have their track logs, let me

Oh that Russ, didn't know he was going. They are my invetational regulars.

LostInDez organized it, the one I couldn't make. Lost just left for river and said he would send tracks when he gets back and organizes them but if you would send, it would save hime trouble. He didn't tell me he was going in that area before I left.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by wbbnm

Although I grew up in St. Louis all of my family is from Old Mines which I think is very close to Bon Terre. My grandmother lived in a house built around a frontier log cabin with an outhouse. I spent a lot of time there in the summers in the 50s. The name Boyer is very common and I am probably cousin of some sort to lots of them. Also the Polittes on my mother's side.

Yes, I know Old Mines, not even a spot on map. Exact same with my grandfather. Many Boyers in area and a Politte was next door farm to a cousin in Blackwell (try to find that one on a map).

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by wbbnm

We were going to do a loop out of Torrey up the GWT to Cathedral Rock and them come back on one of the two roads heading southeast. Looks like one goes into Notam and one goes into Caneville. Maps differ on which one goes thru Cathedral Valley, but the Capital Reef map says the easternmost one is the Cathedral Valley rd. This is going to make for a fair amount of pavement getting back to Torrey that day. At least it is scenic drive thru Reef country.

Yes, Yes, Yes, you are in charge of finding big bike route to east of GWT! Need deep sand evaluation.

Yes about highway but looks like it is worth it with scenic views. One map I have shows loop south of east/west highway. Also Goblin Valley is out there somewhere. Two guys I saw in Torrey rode to it and back from motel.

[Countdown]

Got tracks for Lost In the Dez and LKN4Drt

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

[wbbnm]

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.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by wbbnm

If you don't have the map and want to see it, let me know. 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.

[wbbnm]

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?

[Countdown]

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?

[wbbnm]

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.

[ramz]

But I did manage to accidentally wipe out 3 days of tracks before I could save them.

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.

[Countdown]

Originally Posted by wbbnm

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.

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.

[Countdown]

OK, updated GPSX, how do these look?

What about going down ChokeCherry then thruk Capital to Torrey?

[wbbnm]

Originally Posted by Countdown

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.