Jamboree day 4 dusty and rachael

ATV Jamboree Day 4

GPS Explorer

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Cheeseburger in Paradise

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Arrival of Rachael and Dusty

Wednesday evening about 11, Dusty and Rachael finally rolled into town, we had been keeping a most excellent dinner warm for them, pork tenderloins BACON 'taters and biscuits, mmmm!

After eating we all settled down for a short nap and an early start for the next day.





Thursday morning we made the trek to Hoovers and proceeded to enter coordinates into the GPS's and start the day of geo caching. It was a little cool when we started so sweaters were on.

With a little practice and having been here several times it was not to hard to find the caches. Mike in white, Rachael in black, Travis in blue, and Dusty in red. Travis is local to the area and had been on the GPS ride every year have had it. he decided to hang out with us as a volunteer guide for the day. Paul and Travis had plenty of time to compare notes on riding styles

Well as with anything we do, there is always time to eat. we picked the furthest cache to stop at and break out the grill. Dusty and Rachael cooked up some cheese burgers, improvised a spatula from a Monster can. Travis had some flat sandwiches (they weren't flat till his cans smashed them). Fortunately there was plenty for all to have a burger.

Rachael knows just how much mustard to put on.



Rachael Paul and Travis, don't know what Travis is showing them but it has their interest.

My view of Rachael and dusty checking out a geo cache.

And Rachael's view of Dusty and the same cache.

Paul climbs part way up a radio tower to see if he could see any body else.

This is one of the high points that there were guides at in case someone got lost.

From here you could almost see everything,

well at least they saw Paul and Travis doing donuts earlier that morning.

We were several miles away when that were doing that.

ATV Jamboree parade

Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree

Day 3 1/2 World Record Parade

Wednesday afternoon people started to line up at 5:30 p.m. for the parade, this was usually held Monday at noon, but this year they were wanting to break the record for the longest atv parade set in July in Minnesota of 1632 ATV's. Well they had 2000 t-shirts to pass out and they ran out of t-shirts before they ran out of people. There were about 700 in front of us in this picture.

This is looking behind us, the line snakes up and around the water tank. There were about another 1300 behind us.

We were in line for about 45 minutes waiting for the parade to start at 6:30, Paul was talking to the boy in front of him and girl next to him, she was in the High school play Footloose, and he almost had a date with her for Richfields homecoming.

Patience Rachael you are next!!!

ATV Jamboree day 3

Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree
Day 3, Wednesday

Shopping?

Alright this ride was more geared for Lori and Brenda, but it was Wednesday, and all the good rides were already full, and hey, there was a chocolate shop involved. Artic Cat was the sponsor of the ride and we did the obligatory pose in the Artic cat 1000. There were a few guys in the ride, reluctantly but we still had fun. The stops you ask? First, a Quilt shop next the Diamond Store, The art gallery and Hobby shop, (things are looking up) Lunch, bought by artic cat, Innovative trailers, Good call Rachael and Bonnie, Twelve timbers, Pressed flowers, the sign and t-shirt shop, the scrap booking store, and finally Cocomotive.

All hand made Quilts

Ok I'll go, you said that there would be lunch.

They make some really nice trailers in Richfield, Innovative Trailers, this is the paint booth.

By the end of the ride, all the ladies new who Paul and John were.

He was resistant most of the time but in the end he still did what John does best, he spent money. Ooooh a scarf with acorns.

Yes, we made some scrap book stuff, Halloween cards, Paul's was voted the best by all.

And the best part was, we got to keep the spiffy green bags.

Good thing we had the Razor with its spacious back seat for all the stuff that john bought, to bad he couldn't fit a trailer in there.

Jamboree Day 2

ATV Jamboree Richfield Utah

Day 2 Tuesday

Kimberly Ghost Town

Tuesday morning we met at Walmart's parking lot to head out for our ride to the Kimberly Ghost town. John was sick this morning so we left him at the cabin. At the parking lot we picked up a hitchhiker since we had extra room on the trailer, Valerie from New Mexico. As we started the ride we could see the clouds building on the mountains.

Our first stop was at the Hoovers rest area to regroup and either put on more jackets or take them off.

As we went up the trail the leaves were starting to change so this meant a photo opportunity.

After a loop around the mountain and dropping into the Fremont Indian State park we made the journey back up into the mountains, on a narrow trail called Maxx Reid, approx 5 miles long and gains about 5000 feet elevation, we had reports from other riders who had just came down it that they got caught in a hail storm, sorry no pictures were taken on the way up, it was muddy slippery and rainy, tell by the new mud on the bikes.



This is the Brigham Darger cabin near the Silver King Mine, Brigham and his new wife lived in the lower level of the cabin in 1897, while they worked their Mine and they had 6 to 10 workers living upstairs.

As the clouds cleared on our way back to Marysvale we could see that the tops of the mountains, 11000 feet had gotten some snow on them, fortunately we were not on those trails that day.

Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree 2009

Day 1 Monday

Monday morning, after trailering from Richfield to the other side of Salina we unloaded and got ready for our trip on the North side of I-70 and the Gooseberry trail. Previous attempts on these trails have ended up in deep mud and being unable to finish. hopefully this time will be better.

After about 5 miles we had to stop, one of the riders in our group caught a rut and rolled his quad (he is sore and we think he bruised a couple of ribs). But as we were waiting the clouds started to roll in, just like usual. Well we finally got back underway and as we rode it started to rain, not to bad at first and it kept the dust down. Soon we got to the clay, it was wet and it sticks to everything. For most of the riders they are on utility quads, which means that the have full floor boards and the tires are under the fenders, so the mud will stay off the rider. Paul and I were on sport bikes and they are less desirable in the mud, but man are they good at slingin' it!

This is about a third of the way into our ride and we have already knocked off some of the mud. Those tires do have tread on them but you can't see it anywhere, Paul is in the back left of the picture scraping off some mud.

Well after some more riding, the sun came out and it got a little warmer and drier, note the tread on the tires, John is on the quad behind Paul, note that he is not that muddy, Paul is being asked what were you thinking taking this bike into the mud, are you crazy?
Check it out, the bikes are loaded on the trailer, and we have finished the Gooseberry ride! We had dust, rain, mud, clay, sun, and finished up with another serving of dust. John, (on the right) is clean by virtue of his bike, I, (center) am clean because of the waterproof pants and jacket, and Paul (left) is clean because John let him use a jacket but his pants are dirty.

Stay tuned for further installments.... mikieg

Anniversary on Mt. Graham

Mike Gillespie Plus Ginger Mullins



Mike and Ginger for 31 years!

Ginger and I took a drive to Safford, Sunday afternoon, did a little geocaching and had a little dinner, (Chalos) yes, Andrew this is the same place that you and Jeremy and I had dinner when we went to the hot tubs and sand dunes south of Safford. Anyway we took a drive north of Safford up a long hill the the 'back in the saddle again' geocache. This is the view from the saddle looking back towards Safford.

Monday morning we headed to Gillespie wash, and we found it and the 'cache' there, along with a couple of windmills. Across the road we found a little 4 wheelin action, in a sand wash and in and around the trees, some where South of here is a place named Gillespie, we think it is a ranch from looking at google earth.

Then we were on our way to Mt. Graham, 36 miles to Riggs Lake, nearly the end of hiway 366, loaded with switch backs, and twists and turns. Several geocaches later we were at the lady bug cache. Short hike about 500 ft elevation gain and about a mile in lenth, there is a bench mark at the top near the cache. On out way down it started to rain, we took shelter under a tree for a while and when it slowed down a bit we made a dash to the Sidekick.

We then continued our journey to the top, the road got muddy but we felt confident in the ability of the Sidekick, and never lost traction, we even explored a couple of slippery side trails and never even tried to get stuck. We had a blast. After several creeks and water crossings we made it to Riggs lake, pprox 9000 ft elevation! I wonder how they keep the water up here? By the way be on the lookout for bears playing with children.

On out way back cdown the mountain we did a little berry picking, there are wild berries growing alond side the road, if you look close you can spot some, and maybe even find a good looking berry lady.

Happy 31st Anniversary

You are still my favorite wife.

I love you