An experiment in story telling.

It is that gifting time of year. A favorite gift in recent memory is a pack of field notebooks and a small Space Pen. This gift was given with the idea that I could jot down notes on my trips to write better stories later. I am not a pen and paper journaler, or a journaler at all. So this was a practice I had to work into slowly. I have used the journal to plan trips, write out my pack lists, and take notes on the routes I was going to ride. But for this longer trip I thought it would be keen to take daily notes so there was more than just a chronology of photos to look back on. I transcribed them here with a little editing, my spelling has always been embarrassingly atrocious. In italics I added some details of the geography we traveled through. Huge thanks to Doug Artman for including me on this adventure.

Who gave me such a thoughtful gift? Shay D, of course. Thank you for all your support, advice, and encouragement.

Day 1 Out of Eureka – Good roads, climb was a hike-a-bike. Descended a killer area with Juniper, big boulders. Nice camping. Cross a valley. Old ranch. Climb to camp, past spring/meadow.

Yahoo Canyon between Mahogany Hills and Mountain Boy Range – Spring Valley – Antelope Valley between Monitor Range and Fish Creek Range – climbed into Antelope Range at the end of Valley, passed Dick Allison Spring to camp.

Day 2 – Long descent to Clear Creek, old apple tree. Net descent day into Little Fish Lake Valley. Through canyon above Hot Creek Canyon. Climb to camp, selected pinyons for shade. Hot afternoons.

Dry Valley between Monitor and Antelope Ranges – dropped into Little Fish Lake Valley between Monitor and Hot Creek Ranges – 3 “lakes” – Box Canyon – camped just beyond McIntyre Summit

Day 3 Descend to Tybo-Push – Kilns, long hike-a-bike. But spectacular. More Kilns over the top. Descend to Tybo, no water. Cross the contaminated site. Rolling descent to Hot Creek Ranch. Filtered Hot Creek water, kinda gross tasting. Climb to 6 Mile, enter 6 Mile, lots of intermittent water, shallow creek crossings. Fish! Kilns, then Kilns + camp.

Stone Cabin Valley then turned into Hot Creek Range – Hike-a-bike Kiln Canyon – over the top into Cottonwood Canyon following Tybo Creek to Tybo – Hot Creek Valley – turned into Sixmile Canyon – 3 miles in to camp at kilns at the base of Charcoal Canyon

Day 4 – Good road then long hike-a-bike to top of Six Mile South. Spring just over the top. Great aspens. Wild descent, steep and sandy. Tricky. Couple more climbs. Drop down to Moore’s Station, side trip to petroglyphs. Met a nice couple from Strawberry, CA on their way to S. Utah. They gave us water. Rode on to Pritchard’s Station. Decided to camp where there is water. Big Water Carries, next two days.

Into the Hot Creek Range – South Sixmile Canyon to Sixmile Summit to North Sixmile Canyon – exit to Moores Station – Petroglyphs at Petroglyph Butte – climb Moores Station Wash – Pritchards Station, Pritchards Canyon

Day 5 – Left Pritchard’s for Summit Station. Then onto Brown’s Reservoir. Everything was dry. Cattle are for the most part off the range, troughs are empty. Climbed above Duckwater Reservation, after a little re-route. Saved us a long sandy hike-a-bike. Then a great descent through a canyon on Rez. Found water just outside of Rez residential area. Road through to Highway, took pavement to Currant. It was Railroad Valley Days at community center. It was late, we were smelly, we rode onto camp. Entertained by locals passing by. Comet sighting.

Pritchards Canyon between Park Range and Andesite Ridge – Summit Station – Little Smoky Valley – Big Sand Springs Valley – Pancake Range – Duckwater Valley – Duckwater Hills – Railroad Valley – Grant Range

Day 6 Currant to Preston – Climb and good descent into a long hot valley. Consumed a lot of water 5.5L and was pretty parched by time we made it to Lund/Preston. The All-In-One, Motel, RV Park, Truck Stop, Convenience Store, Showers, Restaurant was pretty awesome! My body couldn’t figure out what was going on, shower, beer, dinner, snacks, water, Power Ade. Sleeping in a bed.

Grant Range to Horse Range – Stone Cabin – The Cove, White River Valley – Preston/Lund

Day 7 (Monday 14th) Storm forecasted for Thursday 17th. That day we were to cross the highest point on the route, ~ 9k’. So we decided on a re-route. After a restaurant pancake and motel room coffee we were off for a 3k’ climb up Sawmill Canyon. Another highlight climb. Future sport climbing crag thanks to Vince, a relocated Bay Area climbing bum. Summit at 8500’ where I am writing this! Pinyon-Juniper has given way to White Pine and Mahogany. Great descent into the never ending Steptoe Valley. Climb to Elk Flat Campground. 48 miles, 4000’ climbing.

White River Valley – Sawmill Canyon, Egan Range – Lone Pine Summit – Lone Pine Swale – Steptoe Valley – Comins Lake – Schell Creek Range

Day 8 Outta Cave Lake – Big climb through limestone formations and aspens. Chatted with 2 rangers. Must see’s Hunt Unit 241 or 121, ghost town just below camp, Cave Overlook Trail. Crested pass about 2 hours in, 8698’. Re-route in progress to avoid storm on Thursday. Descent was fun, lots of rock formations but not as big. Slightly technical. Hit SR 893, 35 ish miles. Ranches vs. Schell Range. So much water. Turn at Kalamazoo Creek. Long day, very little traffic, pronghorn, lizards, snakes, jackrabbit, sage grouse, raven, fish. Has potential to return.

Cave Creek Reservoir – Cooper Canyon – Cooper Summit – Spring Valley – SR 893 – Cleve Creek Campground – Kalamazoo

Day 9 Climb Kalamazoo – 3200’ off the deck! Climbing along creek. Dominated by aspens and white pine and mahogany. Nice campsites 3 miles in. Picnic tables, vault toilet (fly trap). Road is well maintained. Summit just below 9k’ is super windy, no kidding. Climb was moderate to steep, ~400’/mile. Looks like a long downhill to McGill, then 10 miles to Ely. Downhill but headwind! Stopped for Cokes, then onto Hwy 93. Frontage Rd (intermittent) didn’t seem worth it. Nice shoulder. Arriving in Ely got a recommendation from Kyle Horvath for the Four Sevens Motel. The de facto bike motel. Good location. Ate at Racks. Met with Kyle.

All Kalamazoo – descend along North Creek – through Gallagher Gap between Schell Creek Range and Duck Creek Range- Steptoe Valley

Day 10 Rest Day.

Day 11 – Leaving Ely in the cold overcast morning. What a change, 29*F, high of 48*F. Its been in the 70’s-80’s. Ward Mtn Summit was 32*F. Got off the highway for a great little road through the P&J forest. 25 ish mile downhill with a tailwind into Preston. Another close encounter with pronghorn. Wind at 23 mph in Preston. Rather than turning into it we stayed another night. Ha!

Egan Range – Murray Canyon – Murray Summit – Ward Mountain – White River Valley – Preston

Day 12 – Wind dropped to 12 mph. Took a couple of tries to get out of Preston. It took 15 miles to get to public land and 17 miles to get where we would have camped. Pretty much climbing all day, beautiful canyons. Lots of water. Signage for National Discovery Trail. Next stop Shermantown. Camped at the bottom of the road to Shermantown. Watched a truck pulling a horse trailer down a loose 15% grade. Horse and dog. Two motos and a Tacoma came down from S-town.

White Pine Range – another Sixmile Wash – Cathedral Canyon – Eberhardt – Shermantown Canyon

Day 13 – Woke to 35* but temps dropped to 30* while packing. S-town was a great set of ruins in a fun little cyn. Definitely worth it. Next was Cathedral Cyn, WOW! Caves, arches, rock prows. Hike-a-bike following a cow path. Well worth it. Rolling P-J forest to early camp off Duckwater Valley Rd. Busy desert road. Nice camp, deer came through the night. Mild temps, woke to 38*

Shermantown Cyn – Cathedral Cyn – Green Springs – Railroad Valley – Pancake Range

Day 14 – Found a great well at Pogues stage stop. Then across the cold Fish Creek Valley to Fish Creek Ranch. Climbed the range, good road, stout grade. Traverse across to springs, find camp. Springs all locked up by private ranches. Creek flowing under road so no problem finding water. Camped off Craig’s road in the junipers. Nice spot. Short day tomorrow.

Little Smoky Valley – Pogues Station – Fish Creek Valley – Fish Creek Range – Fenstermaker Wash – 3 C Well (ranch) – Cerutti Well (solar) – Allison Creek (corral) – camped off Cedar Creek Rd, Monitor Range

Day 15 – Rolling north to Hwy 50. Passed Hot Springs Ranch, a potential commercial retreat? Turning onto 50, considerate drivers. Checked out a few side roads to north and south. Great meal at Middle Gate. Table next to us had a Monster Burger. Guy made it as far as I did once upon a time. Not far at all.

Antelope Valley – Yahoo Canyon