A Ride on Boulder Top

[Bob Palin]

A rather hot spell was followed by a stormy spell up on the mountains but finally on Saturday it looked like the clouds were not going to gather over Boulder Top, well not the black storm clouds

 

I think I'll head up there...

 

I turned off UT24 just through the gap between Torrey and Bicknell and immediately noticed a sign for an access road to the Great Western Trail, I thought maybe I would find a track leading to the Boulder Top access road.

 

The trail started to climb the spur of Boulder Mountain that forms the southern side of the gap with good views of Bicknell Bottoms

 

Over the top of the spur was a downhill in some deep fine sand, I careened down it and at the bottom decided it was obvious that the trail was going in the wrong direction, then I tried to get back up the slope. No chance, the knobs on my rear tyre are really worn down but I think I would have needed paddles to get up there. I hit it at about 25mph but barely made it 15 yards up the hill before the rear wheel was buried. The tough part was up in the dark patch, all the tracks are mine. In the end I hauled the bike around and set off to find a way out in the other direction,it wasn't far before a track led back to 24.

 

Back on the right track I had good views of Thousand Lake Mountain where I had been the day before in the truck

 

The road rises up through the juniper into the aspen, where there are more open areas of aspen the forest floor is covered with flowers

 

Lupins, indian paintbrush and in the shadows wild roses.

 

Up on top I took a side trip to Raft Lake

 

Quite a contrast from last September

 

Road 178 crosses the Top diagonally through the small forests that dot the area

 

I had intended to ride to Rim Lake then hike around it for a while but I forgot which road it was on so never got there, pretty soon the clouds started to look a bit threatening so I backtracked to Bess Lake.

 

The Boulders of Bess Lake

 

There were all sorts of great flowers in the area, these few were all alone though, I will post a seperate thread in Other Topics with flower pictures rather than cluttering up this tale.

 

I left the CRF at a camp spot and headed up a little higher, this place was infested with mosquitoes!

 

As I started to walk it began to rain and then suddenly hail, only small soft stones fortunately, I took refuge in some trees with the mozzies.

 

The hail didn't last long, the trees in more open areas grow low to the ground.

 

Looking across the lake to the bike

 

By the time I got back to the bike it was looking very black again so I set off back across the trail to the main track

 

Noon Lake - guess that's what time they got there.

 

There was some thunder but I managed to get off the top without getting soaked, about half way down I came across this sign

 

Hmm, that looks like it might need exploring

 

The GWT followed the contour of the mountain past the Aquarius Forest Service station, it was getting hot by now, the CRF and I were glad of the occasional dip

 

The GWT is an ATV trail, it kept fairly level round the mountain darting in and out of the trees

 

and through lots of small streams

 

which had lots of delicate litle flowers growing around them

 

In places it was quite open with steep drops off the side

 

Finally round the corner Thousand Lake Mountain came into view

 

The track was quite narrow and rocky in places

 

Right after this I came across a sign I was happy to see - Rocky Unstable Trail Ahead - it was facing the other way! Soon after that the ATV track met a good dirt road which led down into Teasdale and it was an easy run home. Excellent afternoon's ride, 83 miles in total.

[Lets_Play_Two]

Thanks Bob!!!

[TEWKS]

Ok it's official, i'm jealous! Nice playground Bob.

 

Pat

[Firefight911]

Awesome job . . . as usual!!!!

 

Thanks for taking us along Bob.

 

[Bob Palin]

Forgot to post the map

 

 

The red line is a bit hard to see, starts at the yellow diamond just west of Torrey then goes out to the furthest point west and south on Boulder Mountain. On the way back I cut the corner over to Teasdale. UT12 runs down the east side of the map.

[Joel]

... I came across a sign I was happy to see - Rocky Unstable Trail Ahead - it was facing the other way!

 

 

Perhaps that was just as well, at least for us, if the little man in your head might have changed your plans.

 

Thanks for sharing the tale.