Offroad: Five Canyon Loop Trail

When one has been riding the off-roads of an area for several months one gets a bit nostalgic when it is time for one to migrate once again back up north. Such is the case with this ride taken at the end of the 2011 riding season (sorry, I just noticed that one or two rides hadn't been posted yet) around the "Five Canyon (or maybe six) Loop".

The 2011 offroad riding season in Mesquite Nevada was an odd one by almost any standards. It rained more water and longer than any of the four previous "snowbird" years so we almost spent more time indoors than on ATVs in the desert.

It warmed up later in the season and we were still riding with jackets through March when we took this loop ride around nearly all of the canyons in the Bunkerville Ridge south of Bunkerville. There were at least five or maybe six if you count Hen Springs Canyon.   [A free Google Earth file of this route is available at: Offroading Home.]

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Offroad: Parashant - Savannic Mine-Tassi Springs Loop

I just noticed that in all the frenetic hustle to pick up stakes and migrate, there were two trails from last riding season which didn't get posted. Nor did their accompanying maps. We have been there before but this time Gordon and I were able to convince dad to ride with us down into "the Parashant".

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Keep Offroading Home Alive and Free

As annoying as it is, daylight savings is soon upon us which, to Offroading Home at least, means that it's time to think of paying server costs again to keep the web, blog , forum and free offroad maps online.

It's not much when compared to the national debt, the price of gas or new tires, but all my donated time doesn't pay the web-server costs for a site giving out free off-road maps.

So, a great big thanks to the Mesquite Kokopelli ATV club, Lindley Construction and to all of you who have spread the word about our site and helped with costs this past year … we need it again

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Open The Money Jail

There is an area where we need some extra help. I've mentioned before about the "money jail" Amazon and Paypal (and others) create by limiting payouts to a certain threshold amount. That means even though someone donated money months ago - we still don't recieve it until the total amount exceeds $100.

I have to say that even with the generous donation from the club again this year, we're still about $100 short and a big hunk of that is tied up in "Money Jail." A couple small donations will let the captive funds go free and keep us from closing down.

I'm much more versed in things like scouting and verifying trails, GEO-coding waypoints and tracks, digitizing map coordinates and programming Google Earth files than I am in raising funds. So, I look to the web for help.

Last year I ran across a guy who said that whenever he needed funding he just put up his photo with a direct approach asking for money. Of course I didn't think to ask if he ever got any.

So I did the same thing - I put up his picture asking for money.

Show Support

It worked, but not like he said it would.

So, this year I'm thinking that I'll appeal to a broader range of sensibilities, like:

Perhaps, cat lovers…

Cat Lovers
Support The Effort

- and not to be out done, I need to think about dog lovers too…

Dog Lovers
Love The Offroad

And just to cover all my bases…

How about helping one of these cute little kids out?

Little Boys
Love The Offroad

Little Girls
Love The Offroad More

At any rate, I hope you get the picture… Offroadinghome, just about the only offroading site which still offers free off-road maps to support the hobby, needs your donation to stay "on the air" and keep the maps free. I hope you can, one way or the other.

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Offroad: Mormon Mesa Point

In order to explore the Mormon Mesa a little more, Gordon, Hugh and I took to the offroad once again and headed south. OK… Gordon had convinced Hugh to go find two mines which were on his mine database, but which no one in recent history had seen. Then somehow we ended up on the trail without the coordinates to the spots so went sight-seeing instead. And I'm glad we did.

The view from the top gives the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon a run for their money; but, I digress. Hugh calls any trailhead in the area, except the water tower, "riding from the girls trailhead." So, once again, we staged at the water tower parking area on Ben Franklin to begin the days ride.

Up and over the Flat Top Mesa is a beautiful ride, in and of itself; but, for me at least, I've already "got the tee-shirt" on that ride so it can be a bit of an impediment to getting to the "real" destination on the other side. Recent weathering and wear has made opening and closing the gates at the top on the steep grade quite an adventure; so, if you're smart you'll make a side-by-side carrying two people go first. The "spare" can climb over to the gate and open it to let everyone through then close it after.

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GEO-tography: Deserts

In the past I have showcased examples of landscape photography, which has included photos of mountains, valleys, plains, lakes, coast lines, and a variety of other types of landscapes. That's what I'm calling GEO-tography – photography of the "GEO."

I guess it depends upon where you do your riding as to what pops into your mind when someone says: "landscape"; but, around here it's pretty much desert. I admit that sometimes it hard to actually see the desert for all the sand, especially when you are washing it out of your hair and shaking it out of pretty much every bodily orifice.

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Offroad: Parashant - Grand Gultch Mine

I have written about offroad rides to the Grand Gulch area a few times previously: Offroad: Savanic, Offroad: Mine Hunt and Offroad: Tassi Springs. Here is a submitted trail which can test all of the bolts and nuts in your rig – especially the one behind the wheel.

Gordon got a new Can-Am so he and Hugh decided to give it a test run up to one of their favorite locations: Grand Gulch Mine, down there in the Parashant wilderness. The Parashant arm of the Grand Canyon is to the southeast of the Virgin Mountains from Mesquite Nevada. The Grand Gulch Mine is on the bench between Grand Gulch Canyon and North Fork Canyon in western Mohave County, Arizona.

Their ride, taken in late winter from Whitney Junction, turned out to be a 96-mile (round trip) to the mine and back over the same route. It was cool late winter and, of course, taken in their side-by-side UTVs. Even so, they rate the trail very difficult due, in large part, to the portion beyond the Savannic Mine – i.e. over the top to the Grand Gulch.

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Extreme Sleepovers

While researching for an unrelated post I stumbled upon an article which had me mesmerized enough to journey on a major diversion of such proportion that I still can't remember what it was that I was originally looking for.

The great gimmick these days seems to be trying to set yourself apart and garner attention by calling whatever you are doing an "extreme" something. "Extreme Makeover," "Extreme Sports," … "Extreme Politics," "Extreme Tree Hugging." You get the idea.

So I was a little taken back to see the title: "Extreme Sleepovers" – sorta sounds like something your teenage son is begging for you to authorize over spring break. It turns out however, that if anything has the real right to call itself "Extreme" anything it's this: doing research on Mt. Everest.

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Mesquite-Overton Loop Trail

Pretty much a yearly tradition for the Mesquite Kokopelli ATV Club last Saturday's ride welcomed a hefty number of new members, almost doubling the size of the club this year and took the backroads over to Overton along the Mormon Mesa.

From the water tank trailhead, (the large gravel parking lot at the top of Ben Franklin Drive), the trail began first to go up and over Flat Top Mesa, a very scenic ride in itself. Once on the other side in Toquop Wash the trail to Overton begins just on the other side of the I-15 bridge and heads west beginning the climb upwards.

The first goal is to run along the Virgin River over to and cross the Riverside Road at Cook Bottom. The twenty-two rigs made it easily across the highway in shifts as there is rarely any traffic on the highway.

Hugh blazed the way following the Virgin River along power-line roads and offroad trails for about 7 miles (17.5 mi from the trailhead) until one last "up and over" brought the group down into Half-way Wash.

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GEO-tography: Birds

Most of us old codgers spend more time sittin' on our offroad bikes than ridin' on 'em compared to "young bucks" who wanna' just get there! After a few miles of bouncing around on an ATV or JEEP, it's a welcome relief to disembark and sit a spell.

Besides, that's when you see things and hear things. Only the very naive think they can see the sights in a moving vehicle – what, merely wave as you pass by the Grand Canyon? It is true that compared to what many kids listen to today, an ATVs engine is probably barely noticable; but, not for a chipmunk or a bird! If you're wondering why you never see any wildlife on your rides it's probably because of the direction you have your key turned.

You don't want to have to reply "the handlebars" when you get home and are asked "what did you see today?" If for no other reason than the fact that it makes it easier to convince your wife to let you invest in next season's model of bike - you need to bring back some pictures! Some intrepid souls even learn to like taking them and then even become quite good at it.

That's the point of these collections that I call "GEO-tography." Photos of the "GEO" that you and I see in our offroad forays. And, you really know that you are getting the hang of it when you can capture one of those flighty birds on film (or memory chips as the case may be).

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S.O.P.A: A really BAAAD Idea

Today, Jan 18th 2011, you will most likely notice many, many web sites which have 'gone dark' to show solidarity AGAINST the ill concieved proposed legislation that is called S.O.P.A. being considered in the US legislature! By 'dark' I mean that they are doing something to highlight to people just how much COULD be at jeapordy if junk legislation like this foisted on the American People.

More than a few sites have altered their color schemes from usual into a very dark white lettering on black background. The leading creator of web-publishing platforms - WordPress, debated on whether to completely shut down their site for everyone (except for a black front screen relating what was at risk); but, then decided it was unfair to drag everyone into the inconvenience. So, today, when you visited their company's site you did get the black front screen but when you scrolled to the bottom there was a link that you could pass through.

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GEO-tography: Paths and Trails

While we are spending a boatload of time trying to upgrade the blog to a new format, we could let you see a few more inspirational examples of offroading photography – what we call GEOtography. We call them inspirational because that is what we are attempting to do – become "inspired" with how to make our OWN photographs just a little less blurry, more in frame and possibly something that we can show to people outside our own family (who have to like our pictures).

Today we'll look at paths and trails and ways of getting somewhere in the landscape. Dorothy had her "yellow brick road" to follow, others a "road less traveled" but there probably isn't one of us off-roaders who haven't said "I wonder where that road goes?"

My guess is that I'm not the only one on the trails who, when confronted with a fork in the road, feels compelled to find out where it goes – or, at least set a waypoint so we can see where it is on Google Earth!

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Thank You - Whoever You Are

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - whoever you were who got our Offroading Home funds out of "money jail." You know, that neat little scam that nearly everyone is doing now to fatten their coffers by forcibly "borrowing" money from us through the "rules" they inflict on customers for the "privilege" of merely doing business with them.

For years now, ORH has been linking directly to books and other things which we mention in posts. It makes it easy for readers to see what we are talking about; and Amazon, bless 'em, will give a small "finders fee" to us whenever you click on the link and decide to purchase the book… except, there is a small catch.

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Ultimate Offroad: Terminus Overtakes Space Shuttle

Clearly the most iconic image of space for most of us is the "Pale Blue Dot" taken by the Appolo astronauts back sixty's or so. The beautiful blue earth in its entirety poised in its rightful place against the beek black vacuum of space. The photo has been "updated" several times by subsequent spacecraft; but, none hold the relevance to an entire generations' neural pathways as does the original which we saw taken live in the wee hours of the morning.

Many other space related icons clutter the minds now of the "internet generation" not the least of which is the ubiquitous "Google Earth" planet with its day and night terminus marching across the globe. "Terminus," now that's a word that none but scientists knew until Google. The demarcation on a map or globe representing the current position of the sun's shadow – the end of daylight… the beginning of the dark… the night.

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Does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

…Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

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GEO-tography: Macro

If it's one thing that senior ATV riders have along offroad trails, it's the proclivity to stop and take a picture of things we see and want to remember or show those back home. I call it: Geo-tography – photography of our "geo." Not that any of us have any grandiose ideas that we're going to become famous photographers or anything; but, just capable enough so that our digital cameras weren't a total waste of money.

The way I figure it, if I just keep looking at good pictures for long enough some of it may rub off on me – even if it has to be sub-consciously. So, when I saw a group of photos using the "Macro Technique" I thought that they might could use a closer look.

Macro photography is all about capturing things up close, usually involving special lenses designed specifically for this task. However, I notice that most new digital cameras come with some sort of "macro" setting, although usually require some actual reading of the instructions in order to find it.

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