October 10, 2016

Hog Canyon, Kanab Utah

26 miles  Trails #1,3,5,6
This is one of my top 5 trails, (I've rode 10,000 miles, so far) smooth sandy trail, beautiful scenery, slick rock riding, and changeling spots. It is a good trail for an experienced rider.
We drove 1.5 miles north of Kanab, Ut on Hwy 89, to the Hog Canyon OHV Trail head, where you may unload our ATV's in the huge parking area. In .8 miles is the Kiosk and another large area. We took a picture of the OHV map at the kiosk, which was helpful.

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The trails are well marked, some of the trails are signed most difficult or extremely difficult, but there were go around spots to use. We took trail #1 back in checking out #2, which was a dead end. We then turned south on #3, which was a interesting area on top of the plateau. We then drove thru a ravine which was changeling over to #6 trail, another plateau trail looking down on Kanab 2,000 ft below. Some trails had work done on them to remove difficult boulders, which is made it passable.
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INFORMATION>
LOCATION>   NEAREST CITY=  Kanab, Ut  DIRECTIONS=1.5 miles north of Kanab, Ut, Hwy 89
AREA >   TYPE OF LAND=-desert, slick rock, canyon/hills  , OWNER=  BLM,                                                         QUALITY >  Pro- Best ride ever / Con-non /  Length of stay1-2 days / Rating-stars 5 of 5 star
TERRAIN>  MILES OF TRAILS 50 plus , hills  / dust  /elevation       NEAR BY TRAILS- numerous
REGULATIONS> Permit required-yes / Camping /whip-no / helmets req.-no / width req.-no
FEE> Camping / Entry-no
KEY SERVICES> Camping / Gasoline / Diesel / First Aid /  Water /  Dump / Food=Kanab, Utah
SIDE TRIPS>Other trails including Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park OHV riding
CONTACTS>BLM Office and Kanab, Ut tourist office

September 28, 2016

Northern Black Hills, South Dakota

.40 miles and 35 miles

We visited the Forest Service office near Rapid City, SD, and got the Motor Vehicle Use Map, which shows all the trails in the Mystic and Northern Forest.

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The first day we trailered to Nemo to the trail head and rode on nice real trails to Hwy 385, past the Sugar Shack (a great burger joint) to other trails and made a nice loop back. Some of the trail turns to a gravel road, but the hills were fun, the trees were at their peak.

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The second and third trip we trailered to Piedmont, to the trailhead and choose trails to make a nice loop. There was a huge canyon with sandstone cliffs, ponderosa pine, aspen at their peak colors and a 40ft hole, where the ground had fallen 25 ft down and numerous caves.

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Having the Avenza map on the phone was a help to make sure where we were at.

July 26, 2016

Elk City Wagon road, Elk City, Idaho

Elk City Wagon Road-100 years ago starting at Harpster winding on the old Nez Pierce trail through Newsome and to Elk City, where in 1861 men were mining gold from the streams. The road brought in freighters, miner, mail.  In the winter the team of horses pulled sleights through ten feet of snow and cold. Half way was Mountain House Way Station, where you can get a meal and a place to sleep. Summer travel took two days, winter travel took five days. $2,000,000 worth of gold was taken from Newsome creek area.

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Day 1- 32 mi
We headed up the Forest Service road 1858,  to find a camp site, the road is very dusty, and at 4.5 mi we found camping site along the Newsome creek on the left and at Sing Lee campground. (no services)
Sing Lee had room for 10 campers, but Newsome campground just 1/4 mi up the road, there was room for 3 maybe.
We headed up the road, and on the Elk City  Wagon road, at the old town of Newsome, the 284  road gets rough and higher elevation, a fun atv ride. We went left to the Pilot Knob Lookout tower, fs rd 466 where Gary was manning the tower, at 7135 ft. Along the trail there we saw Pilot Rock, a landmark used by the Nez Pierce Indians long ago.  The trail to the lookout tower is 5 miles and the last miles is rocky and climbing.
We visited with Gary and he told us about the 2015, 7,000 acre fire that surrounds his fire lookout station. A large spark landed on his cat walk and burned a hole in the board, luckily he put out the fire. The firefighters put a shield around the tower and got Gary out of there.
On the way back we took 466 road and the 1858 road, which turned out to be just plain curvy dusty roads. The wagon road we went out on was much more interesting, with signs along the way, showing interesting points
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Day 2-36 mi
We headed south on fs rd 284, and got on the Nugget Peak trail #  828    , it is a narrow, hill climbing, weaving, the best trail we've rode on!! We came across a few small roads not on maps, so have your sense of direction. We hit fs rd 471 and went south till we hit fs rd 1199, which took us into the town of Elk City, Id. Take time and tour the town, Forest Service Ranger Station, a grocery store, Laundromat, shower house, a convenience store with a restaurant, gas, propane, grocery supplies, and other cafe in town.
After touring town and lunch we came back on 1199 and went on the Elk City Wagon Rd 1808, till we came across the sign for Elk Summit Lookout tower, 2 mi

July 21, 2016

Pittsburg Landing, White bird, Idaho

  45 mi
We camped at Hammer Creek Campground, at White bird, and drove 1.5 miles to Deer Creek Road or forest service road 923. We drove along enjoyed some specular views, mountains with grass, some pine trees, deep valleys.

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We reached the tree line at 4,000 ft elevation and it cooled off. We stopped for lunch, went around the corner and found a picnic table and a drop off view. Down we went toward the Snake river. Once at the bottom, we went to the river and talked to the rafters coming down the river. As we were leaving, we took the trails to the left. The first goes down to the river again, the second one goes on for 11 miles, and we only road 3 miles of it because it was 98 degrees at the bottom.
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July 18, 2016

Bull Creek to Quartz Creek, Id. to Montana

July 18th, 2016- 49 miles
We headed west on hwy 50 to fs rd. 338 or Bull Creek road, it was 7 miles on the highway from Nugget Creek.  It is a gravels road which gets narrower and rougher the higher you go. We enjoyed the sights along the way, even picking huckleberries.

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When we reached the intersection of 327, we went right, and a short distance we turned right up a real rocky trail to Quarles Peak, ele 6557 ft. Wow, what a amazing sight we had for our lunch. There were valleys, open grassy areas, rock cliffs and elk trails. After lunch we kept going up to the top, another great view.
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Back on the trail 391, you are at the border of Idaho and Montana on the peak of the Bitterroot mountains. We stopped at an overlook, and could see a small town, perhaps Saltese, on I 90. We enjoyed the sights and smells of the wild flowers, trees, but no animals. When we got to the intersection of 391 / 214 (Where we were on the 16th) we headed down the mountain, back to camp 15 miles.

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Check last page of St. Joe riding for information