Hold on... Wait, wait. My fingers are still frozen! Man, I don't know what was worse today, the cold or the moon dust. I've never seen Fossil Butte that dry. I joined up with Robert and the gang at the Fossil Butte parking area, unloaded my YFZ 450, tried to start it, and immediately flooded it. Now I should have taken that as a sign from God and loaded up and returned home. But no, after pulling on about 8 layers of clothes, I tucked in behind this humongous utility quad and immediately began to eat yards of moon dust. This continued all the way up to the Butte. From there, the whole group did a little hill climbing and ended up in the wash down by the ranch (if you can call it that) in Rye Patch. We then worked our way over to the big play area. For some reason the other guys didn't want to "play", but the 450 sure did. I gunned it, hit 5th gear and sailed up this hill. Hmm, no top. So I found my self about 10ft off the ground and sailing about 50ft. I pulled back on the bars and dropped it down just like I knew what I was doing. I haven't jumped that far in years and there was nobody to see it but two, stunned whistle pigs. I stopped, bowed, but I guess they weren't all that impressed. I caught up with the "cloud" and we continued on down to the Snake River. I went north as I wasn't sure if my 2WD could make it through the rocks and waited for the group to come around the southern river trail.
So, here I am waiting (for about 45 minutes) and I never see a soul on the trail. If you look hard in this picture, you can see the trail following the river:
While waiting, I keep hearing this still, small voice. Please, can we leave now! It's my 450. It's as cold as I am!
Ok, Ok, it's time to go. One last shot up river and we pull out of the wind whistling down the canyon:
We pull up out of the canyon and head back along the fun sand washes to the south of the ranches in Sinker Creek. I followed the old Southern Alternate of the Oregon trail for a ways, but it's pretty much gone now. Too bad, there used to be some great wagon ruts along that section.
I pulled up on the higway and followed the adjoining trail all the way back to the parking area. Oh, the heater in the old Jeep sure felt good! Home now, quad washed and dried, and now it's time for food!
Really not a bad day, just colder and dustier than I would have liked for late March.
