All About Bernie

Today was all about Bernie. Since Pooh Bear left we have been shifting around who “its all about.” Basically that means that we don’t let that person do much around camp like dishes etc and offer to get him drinks, clean his bike etc, then do our best to make him feel guilty about all the attention. The other part of it is we saddle that person with any on trail route decisions such if to do a certain out and back or which trail to take if they go to the same place. The first decision Bernie recused himself from the decision, didn’t really have a reason but he’s a judge so we let it go.

Anyways, the ride was to be a downhill shuttle from Brian Head to the bottom of Bunker Creek. Everybody shuttles it but Howie is always looking for ways around shuttles. He checked out the grades then made his pitch to the boys to try and convince them but to no avail. So off we went and dropped three of us off with all the bikes at 11000 feet and went to drop off the van and the Beast then returned in Bernie’s car. As written its about 13 miles or something with a total of about 300 feet of climbing. Only this crew could turn that into over 20 miles and over 2500 feet of climbing. It started at the first intersection, about a mile down the singletrack. We wrongly assumed that if we went on the written trail it was all downhill back to the vehicles and we would be done in about an hour. So first decision, the one I mentioned earlier, to do an out and back down this other trail or not. The consensus was to do it so up a tiny bit then down about 700 feet over a mile and half. The trail was nothing special, pretty loose, some ruts, a couple meadows but no views to speak of. I managed to poke a hole in the rear Nevegal, no big surprise and it was too big for the bubbling stan’s sealant to plug so I had to put in a tube. Bernie was out front as it was all about Bernie and I let him go down a steep little bit at the very end while I stopped, so he had to walk back up it as we all decided that was a good turning back point. Back on the trail as written we ebbed and flowed up and down some minor grades as we followed the ridge, culminating in a magnificent view of an alpine lake and valleys all around.

We continued along the ridge catching the tops of a couple meadow drainages before hitting the trailhead for the left and right branch of the Bunker Creek. It was a little strange since we were at the top and they name the branches as the come together, the trail for the left branch was on our right and vice versa. So the left branch was supposed to be more technical so that’s the one we let Bernie choose, because I think you all know by now, its all about Bernie today. It was a really nice downhill hill, about 3 miles and losing 1500 feet. We got the bottom where we had a few miles of dirt road back to the vehicles. We all had some legs left and we let Bernie decide that we should head back up the right branch, which was now on our right. The plan was to go up as far as we were comfortable with and then head back down.

The grade really wasn’t bad and after only a few short hike a bike sections and 1500 feet of climbing we found ourselves at the intersection we had left about an hour or so ago. After a quick bite to eat we turned the bikes around and headed back down the right fork which was on our left at this point. It was a great downhill, smoother than the first but definitely a challenge. We hit the dirt road out, Bernie in front, you know the drill, and he came around a blind corner and almost ran into a bunch of grazing cows in the middle of the road. HO got see some of it, or at least the aftermath of the cows scattering. The road back was actually a lot of fun with a decent downhill grade so we didn’t have to work hard, some woop de do’s to catch some air on and few puddles to negotiate.

Back in town we stopped at some BBQ place in town, the Cowboy Smoke house or something, recommended by somebody at the gas station the first nite we were in town. It was pretty good, not Clem’s but what is. Seems like a quite nite here at camp, Bernie just bailed back to his hotel room, howie’s about asleep, the conversation not near as lively as last night for sure.