I have a new map book printed by Benchmark. I always thought The Gazetteer was the best ever till I saw this one and I just thought I would pass that info along. Basically 3 map companies got together to form one. The landscape map in 3D and also the Recreation map that shows all the BLM land and others are in much better details… great printing… yes, one per State!… California might even have 2…This map is clearly showing unpaved roads and 4×4 high clearance roads separately and I like that… it also seems that one can travel through Utah without ever getting on any black top. Today I heard that one could go all the way to California on unpaved… I always thought a lighter bike like a KLR650 with a light sidecar would be great for those hard to travel dirt roads and never touch black top… with minimal camping gear.

It is warming up nicely today, was a bit colder and cloudy early am, and glad that we took advantage yesterday of the perfect skies… cool temps needing electrics at higher elevation. Michael and Sandra are coming over for dinner tonight with Spirit’s buddies… we should all have a good time… only wish the cook would show up! Sorry if the weather sometimes as I write it does not make sense… the skies are different here, could be cold and cloudy for 10 minutes and the sun suddenly will appear warming everything up just to change again… So maybe we will just skip it in the future!

We took off on the dirt road to 18N with a right on 035 in Central toward Pine Valley with the intention to check out Pine Valley Rec Area… Closed for the winter… We did get to walk around the reservoir right by the locked gate, looked upon by Gardner Peak, with an elevation of 9500 feet, beautiful surroundings, couple fishermen catching nothing, however full of their past exploits, clear waters running down off the small damn, fresh air as we sat for a while against the trunk of a pine tree. As the saying goes, just what the Dr ordered!

Back to the little town of Pine Valley, finding a house with 30 to 40 tractors in their yard! Locked gate again, this area will be booming I am sure as soon as it warms up, and as I spoke with a neighbor, he told me that this was only about a quarter of his collection!… Beautifully restored, their were all lined up everywhere, specially the John Deere ones… The house itself was just a beautiful one, as clean as the tractors. I bet the owners have some stories to tell.

If you would like to see more pictures of them, I must have tried to take them all from behind the fence, just e mail me as I have them on a Smug Mug Gallery. I will be happy to e mail it to you…

The road to Pinto, a bit more north was clearly marked as a doable dirt road, and it was. This is the new road following the crest of the mountain as the old one, found out after talking to some truck driver that almost ran me off the road, has been washed away. Not a single vehicle in the way, besides the construction trucks, this kind of riding just does not get any better…

We arrived in Pinto, an old historical town, great intersection… the road will go all the way to Cedar City, but we made a left, headed west toward 18. So Utah is not all red mountains! Sometimes it felt like being in Colorado, with so much greenery and many creeks, big ranches… quite a neighborhood.

The town of Veyo appeared pretty quickly, a two gas station little town, I had not been in one of them and discovered that they bake their own pies… and my favorite… chocolate eclairs. Was mid afternoon. Time for a snack… one of those please… topped with some chocolate milk, and a nap afterwards was already on my mind! I now know that I will stop again… too tempting, too good!

Stopped by this little lake (?), reservoir (?) On the way to the back entrance of my dirt road leading back to camp. Right on the road, however with a real attractive setting and rock formations… Every few miles is a picture opportunity here…

Spirit’s Doggles did well today… the existing foam was wearing down very quickly and I added some more of it, a better quality foam from some weather stripping that I carry with me, one of those things you know… like duct tape, velcro, crazy glue and zip ties! Poor guy even had a sore on his nose from the last time he was wearing them… no more! I am trying to let Doggles know about it… they are sending me a replacement pair, which I will also modify… but as far as changing the design themselves… after numerous e mails… total silence! Oh! well….

Last night’s dinner went well… some rice pilaff, (grand ma’s recipe…), some carrots, red onions and a can of Le Sueur peas saute with olive oil, a bit of Dijon mustard and hot sauce…

I had found some thin sliced boneless pork chops, sandwiched in between them a slice of gouda cheese and horseradish, breaded and cooked in butter… Turned out to be a great combination giving the pork some added taste… Michael and Sandra had brought a local berry pie… you guessed it from Veyo… Yes, there is some left… right here starring unfortunately at me!

Today we are going to a local welder/fabricator… highly recommended. A retired gentleman with a great garage… I want to get his opinion regarding my mounts, specially the lower ones now, before I get into more trouble… will let you know of the outcome. Life continues here, on this little patch of Paradise… my days have been mixed up, time has not mattered… “it is all good”.

Till next time…

You be well…

Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 9:41 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.