A Western Trip First

Well first an update from yesterday, the Harrisburg boys got in as well as Ho. They only had one day in Park City so we decided to show them the two best trails we had ridden, the Wasatch Crest and the mid mountain. In order to do that we took them on the ride Pooh bear and I did earlier, 29 miles, 4400 feet of climbing. They all did OK but all but andy and mike were sucking wind pretty good, Craig asked a couple times if we were trying to kill him. Andy even managed to ride, dabing once, a hike-a-bike we had surmised on earlier rides was unridable. The excellent track and amazing views were greatly appreciated by all.

We packed up this morning, the first time we really packed up the RV after having “lived” in it. It actually went pretty well, we left within a half hour of when we had planned to. I was a little apprehensive about the drive as we had to head down through Provo Canyon, a ride we had done a few time in just the truck. The curves and bumps due to construction were the issue. But luckily we got behind a big dump truck that was going even slower than I really wanted to and with all the weight on the truck, the bumps really were not bad at all. A few hours later down I-15 and we faced the next challenge, pulling the RV over the mountains on Utah 20 to route 89, our first chance to go over the mountains on a non-interstate road. Again it went much better than I had expected, the Tow Haul mode of the Beast which kicks in engine braking worked extremely well.



We found the “Hitchin’ Post” RV park pretty easily, just on the edge of the thriving metropolis of Panguitch. Its really not much to look at, but we got the RV in pretty easily and hooked up and there was nice spot to set up the “Swamp” tent for the Harrisburg guys. We had a less than stellar dinner at the local café and then headed out towards Powell point for sunset.

It was the first time we set out on a ride that we purposely knew we would be heading back to the vehicle in the dark. Howie and I both brought our night riding lights and most of the ride back was on gravel road so no big deal. We got there a bit past what would probably have been prime photography time, but the sunset was pretty amazing with about a 300 degree view. When we got back to the truck, we could see a wildfire down in the valley burning, pretty amazing as well. By the time we got back to town it was after 10 and everything but one gas station/ mini mart sorta place. We picked up a couple of candy bars and some bread. We had some smoked tuna in packets in the RV so we made up some tuna fish salad on toast with cheese