Snow and Clutching

When Steve went to Idaho, he was kind enough to leave his machine with us and also permission to use it.

Justin had planned an outing to the Mona Pole trail for his clients on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006. One by one all the the "sissies" bailed out. That left his one client, me and Travis to ride with him. The weather had been rainy and even snowy on the mountain tops but we decided to head to the trail head and make a decision as if we would ride or not. Like a little rain or snow would deter us.

When we arrived, it was slightly overcast but the sun was beginning to shine through. We unloaded and after a couple of minutes of foolishness around the trailer headed up the mountain. The Mona Pole Trail is in the middle of the Nebo Wilderness, literally, 25 yards to either side of the trail is wilderness with a posted sign at the trail head that it is "verboten" to play in that area. We were law abiding citizens and stayed in the trail area.

After about 2 miles there was snow on the trail. Having never ridden in the snow it was a new experience and a fantastic one at that. We spun, slipped and slid up the trail about 7 more miles. There were a couple of wide spots where we could do "donuts" and stay within the trail limits. At that point the clouds rolled in and it started to spit a bit of snow. Old age prevailed and we started back down the mountain. Travis was on Steve's machine and he used all of the trail and then some.

About five minutes before we got back to the trailer, it started to rain/hail/snow, whatever it was stung when it hit. We were only going about 20 MPH. We got the the trailer just as it started to rain. We were cold and wet so we stripped down to dry clothes and got in the truck and turned on the heater. After a few minutes we were warm and the rain let up so we loaded up the machines and came home.

We had snow and mud all over the machines. It was cold enough that the snow was frozen on the machines. We stopped at the local car wash and spent $4.50 to use the pressure spray to clean up the machines.

We have learned that when you ride in the cold you need to dress appropriately. Next time we will wear ski masks, ski gloves to keep our hands warm, some type of water repellent pants and shirts but we will ride again. Justin was smart enough to wear thermal underware and boy was I glad that mom suggested that I wear a sweat shirt.

The boys were in such a hurry to get off the mountain that they really didn't enjoy the beautimous scenery along the way. The leaves are beginning to turn and with the snow and colors it was quite a sight to behold. Thank heaven for thumb throttles or I would probably never see this part of Mother Nature's handiwork.