First I want to thank everyone who was able to come up and make this run a success. As we got closer to the trip, it seemed as if everyone was needing to backout for various reasons. For those of you who could not make it, I hope we can do this area again next year. On to the trip, as Trail Boss I was pretty nervous. Was the place going to nice, was the trail going to be ok and could I find it, etc. etc.. As it turned out, everything went really well with even more rigs attending than I thought would be there.
The list of drivers was: Myself, my brother Matt, Tom, Ellen, Darryl and Kathy, Mike and Dede, Ron, Rich, Dirk, Loro, Michael C., Connie, Mike G., Lynn, Myron and Ben for a total of 16 rigs.
I headed over to the resort along with Ron, my dad and brother on Friday morning and arrived @ 10:45 or so. We were greeted by Darryl and Kathy and Mike and Dede. They were off on their hunt for the Halloween Grape shortly there after. The rest of the day was spent hanging around the campsite(s)and greeting all of the arriving 4 wheelers. Ron and I did get a chance to run up and find the trail head and do the first few minutes of the trail. After winching a fallen tree off of the trail, we decided to head back.
Saturday morning everyone started showing up at the store/office/restaurant/bar building @ 8:30, where some people aired down and we had a quick drivers meeting. At 9:02 (not 9:00 sharp), we left the resort and headed out for the trail head which was about 7 miles out, half paved road and half pretty smooth dirt road. We circled up all of the rigs the best we could and got group photos and finished airing down. Then it was onto the trail. The trail was a mix of dirt road, small rock gardens (a couple of decent challenges) and some tight turns and spots. I think we spotted people through 3 different areas. The last rock garden was where I got stuck. A little to much of a hurry to get my vehicle out of the way to get back and help spot. The last rock garden had about 5 different ways to go through. Thanks to Lynn for the tug!
The trip from Bear River Reservoir to the Plasse Trading Post Site took a little longer than I had hoped. I had hoped to arrive between 12:00 and 12:30 and we did not make it until around 2:00. After a quick lunch, we were talking about the time involved with running the upper rock garden and getting back to camp when a litlle rain/slush/snow started to fall and quickly convinced everyone to call it a day. It was still 7 miles of mild bouncing to get back to the freeway and then 15 or so miles back to camp.
The rest of the day was spent around the campfire and I think everyone came to the restaurant for the steak dinner.
All in all a great run. I hope to give it a go again next year, I think I would run the trail in the opposite direction and give anyone who wants to try the upper portion of the trail the opportunity earlier in the day and those who do not want to do the upper portion could just run the trail down the hill to the resort. I also need to get my CB squared away.
Again, thanks to everyone for making the trip up and for all of the assistance in spotting, mapping, tail-gunning and everything it takes for a successful run. ED4 is definitely a great group of people!
Brian