Midnight Canyon/Elk Meadows

This weeks bike trip not only involved a little biking but also some jeeping to get the bikes to the trail. We scouted this trail last week and decided that it would be better to jeep the bikes to the top of the mountain and then ride down. The trail going to the top was about 5 miles and steep in many places. It took us 45 mins just to get the bikes to the top in the jeep. When we got to the top we unloaded the bikes, got the gear ready, and locked my keys in the jeep. Not a problem though because I had a spare set of keys in my backpack. The problem was that the backpack was also locked in the jeep. So here we are sitting on top of a mountain with both sets of keys locked in my jeep and the windows rolled up. As we sat there wondering which would be less expensive, breaking a window or bringing up a locksmith, an elderly gentleman on his four wheeler stopped by to see what we were doing. He was up there that morning taking pictures and just happened to ride by. We told him what had happened and after a brief laugh he decdied to help ponder some ideas of how to get my keys out. We had been working on prying open the back window and trying to break the latch but it wasn't working. The guy told us of a barbed wire fence that he had past and so we went to go snag some wire. We broke off a couple of pieces and strung them together to make a long hook. From there my buddy and the guy pried open the back window far enough for me to get the wire in and start fishing for my backpack. After a while I finally snagged it and was able to bring it to the window. The trick now was trying to position the backpack just right so I could get the keys with my fingertips. They keys were sitting in a little side pocket so they were reachable if I could just position it right. The whole time I felt like a surgeon working on a patient through laparoscopy. After about an hour of work we finally got the keys out and didn't have to break anything.

Now the bike ride can begin! The trail is wide enough for a four wheeler most of the way and rides along the ridge of the mountain until it drops down into Midnight canyon. The trails follows the stream down the canyon and crosses over it two or three times so both the bikes and us got a little muddy. It's all downhill in the canyon.

We eventually came to a fork in the road and had to climb out of the canyon to meet up with the trail to Elk Meadows. This was a difficult little climb. I'd say we were able to bike half and walk the other half of the trail out of the canyon. Coming out though was beautiful because it was all through pines and aspens, all uphill.

We got out an continued along the trail that eventually would take us to Elk Meadows. There was still a little climbing involved but it was all bikable. We came to this spot in a forest of aspens where the trail looks like it just disappears into the forest.

After climbing a few more ridges we finally came to the end of the uphills and we able to drop into Elk Meadows and downhill the rest of the way. The scenery at the top of this ridges was amazing and all encompassing.

After a short break at the top we dropped down into Elk Meadows. The trail runs through a valley full of tall green grass and wildflowers. The ride was a good ride except for the amount of insects out flying around. I could've used a windshield on my bike that day. For those of you familiar with the Ogden area it felt like driving past Willard Bay at sundown. Disregarding all the bugs the trail was still enjoyable.

The trail continues through the meadows to the main highway. However, me being the expert map reader I am, made a wrong turn and double backed to the West Fork trail that we had done two weeks earlier while at Gibson Jack instead of heading to Corral Creek which was our original endpoint. Even though we had previously ridden this trail we, weren't the least bit disappointed with this unimaginable mistake because it is a fun single track downhill with many turns weaving in and out of the forest.
This has been the longest trail distance wise that I've done up here so far. If you've been looking at the maps the majority of the rides have all been focused around the same region: The Gibson/Slate mountain areas. On the west side of these mountains lies a dozen or so different trails that all interconnect together that make for some great biking. If only I had gotten my orientation merit badge in scouting I might have been able to avoid the mishap of doubling back and we would've been able to go explore a different trail. Oh well, I guess that's what the following weekends are for.

I haven't been able to post in my blogs many of the pictures I've taken on the various bike trips because of sheer quantity. However, I do upload them onto Google's Picasa web storage and if you want to see the complete collection of pics and videos then just visit this site

http://picasaweb.google.com/tjdhulst