Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

; Political lifeline Da -= s t GOODNEWS New riding areas opened ;- UtahBLM district plans a bike trail By Dorde W oodruff A fter attending th e dedica tion of the BLM 's Little Sahara Recreation Area (eN May 25 , 1976 ) 1 wondered what 6 else th e 'agen cy might be doing for bikers in th e state. Public a ffa ir s offi cer Jack Reed told m e abou t th e Moab Slickrock Bike Trail , and th e proposed Sand Pockets Bike Tra il near Vernal in northeastern Utah . Plans for the tra il were ini tiated by Bill Civish , the former recreation planner in the district. He found a route on Red Mountain north of Steinaker Reservoir. The only wa y off the rugged mountain is through private land . Th e owner wa s approached in 1972 with negative results. In '73 Curt looked for an alternate route . There just wasn't on e. In '74 he had to do other things. The summer of '75 came. He decided he had to do something, and found th e shorter Sand Pockets route to the west of Steinaker. The present ranger at Steinaker, Howard McKowen, the ranger befor e him , and th e state Division of Parks and Recr eat ion rec rea tion veh icle (in Ut a h this means off-highway vehicle) ranger, Virgil Sp a rks, a ll p rovide d inpu t to th e planning . The sta te will provide th e trailh ead a nd parking at S tei n a ker , a lso e nfo rce me n t. In Feb ruary a coo pe rative agreement with th e st ate was drawn up , a nd sent to the Fed eral Solici tor 's office in Sa lt Lak e for th e necessa ry legal ap proval, where it now sits at this wri ting . Curt ha s scrounged to arra nge for the trail to be built. No t much co nst ructio n is needed, but that which is, is essential to route around th e private land in the area . Much of it will follow existing roads , for instance a power line right of way. Curt will use a fire cre w, between fires, for the trail building. They are allowed to do such work , which then keeps them in shape. H e's found enough money for blasting one rock ledge, and will get used cattle guards. He hopes he gets the go -ahead from the Federal Solictor whil e he still has the fire crew . I was lucky enough to ride the trail with Curt. He used one of the weirdest motorcycles around, th e Rokon automatic Pioneer "utility vehicle ," a sort of overgrown Tote -Goat the district uses for fence maintenance and like chores. The trail has enough sa nd and hills th at small-bore bikes are better not used . It goes through all the local Jurassic rock strata of 140 million years ago or more - unbelievable colored clays, red , maroon , purpl e, white and green. A wa y up th e trail is an exp a nse of strange bumpy slickrock next to tiny red Morrison hills , to be an open play a rea as a cha nge from th e restri ction of th e rest of th e rid e. The trail climbs a lon g slope on the Na vajo . On top is good hard soil for goi ng fas t. Riding through so many formations , th e visitor gets all kinds of vari a tions in soil a n d terrain to practice riding; cla y, soft fin e dust, fine sand - and slickrock. Slickrock is the neatest th ing in th e world to ride : all kinds of traction, variations in slope , and no environmental degradation . Sand Pockets is no place to go in the middle of a summer day. Spring and fall are beautiful, or early or late in the day in summer. Curt and I went in the middle of a slightly overcast July day. By the time the Enduro got stuck in dry clay hills a couple of times on imaginary parts of the trail , I wished to be elsewhere. In the middle of the trail is a spur to one of Utah's amazing views, overlooking all the real estate between Vernal and the High Uintas to the North from sheer sandstone cliffs . Vernal itself stands out like a green jewel to the south. The view alone is worth the trip, Although all BLM lands are at present open in Utah , Curt doesn't want use of th e trail until he can get it built. Local riders do use the area , however , H e doesn 't want trouble with the pri vate landowners. Hopefully he can go ahead this fall or at least for next year. When it is open , use it! Steinaker State Park has got to be one of the best in Utah, a great sto pove r when traveling on US 40 . Good camps, clean, swimming and boat launching are featured for -S2 a night. The trail , about nine miles long, takes as much time to ride as you want it to. Go fast or take a lunch and enjoy the scenery. It 's close to Flaming Gorge reservoir, famous for fishing and boating, and the river runs of the Green and Yampa , as well as Dinosaur National Monument. If the trail is well used and no major grossness occurs in littering, vandalism and riding off the trail, Curt will try again on the longer, more difficult Red Mountain trail , or one someplace else in the district. If bikers aren't that interested, or fail to respect the development , he 'll work on river running or some other area of responsibility. Talking to Curt gave me an idea of the complexity of the process of government development of facilities . I had talked to Larry Lee, the BLM state recreation specialist, about the process, gotten thoroughly confused.,

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