We were on the last day of a three-day ride based in Ferron. We had ridden the Fuller’s Bottom Road to the Wedge Overlook and enjoyed amazing views of The Little Grand Canyon on the first day. We rode to the famous Buckhorn Pictograph Panel and then took a trail that followed the rim of the Buckhorn Wash on the second day.

The weather had been a little cool on either end of the two rides, but the temperature reached 65 degrees on both days. On this day, we gathered in the game room of the Big Mountain Lodge for our pre-ride briefing. I asked everyone to open their cellphones and check their weather apps. We chose to go with the app that showed the highest temperature.

We had trails to choose from. We could ride another trail in the Swell or we could ride through Black Dragon Canyon west of Millsite State Park and have lunch at Joe’s Valley Reservoir. My best sources indicated that the trail would be open to successfully make that ride.

I have clown horns mounted on all of my machines. I use the unique melodic sound of these instruments to indicate that it is time to move out. We lined up our little group of eight machines, I glibly sounded the clown horn and off we went.

Lynn Blamires, Special to the Standard-Examiner

My first mistake happened immediately – I turned right instead of left. After riding a couple of blocks, I could tell that the landmarks weren’t right. I reached the top of the hill north of Ferron to turn around safely and headed south with everyone following and found the sign I was looking for indicating Forest Service Access.

We soon found ourselves passing Millsite Reservoir. Coming to the picnic area with parking for the Black Dragon Trail, we stopped for a break. A vault toilet was available which answered another question. These stops are great social opportunities and this was a beautiful place to stop, but the trail was calling. It was time to go, so with great flair, I sounded the clown horn.

We had only traveled a few yards when we came upon a locked gate. “What?” I exclaimed, appropriately shocked. My best sources didn’t include the Forest Service. The fine print on the sign indicated that the trail would open on April 15, 23 days from then. Everybody looked at me with that, “Now what?” look on their faces.

I conferred with Dave Schoss, President of the NUATV club who was riding “drag” on this ride. That is cowboy talk for “tail gunner.” We decided to get back on the main trail and see how high we could get.

That was the second mistake. It wasn’t long before we came to another Forest Service gate that I should have expected, but I had fooled myself into thinking it didn’t exist. Once again, I strode back to the end of the line like I knew what I was doing for another conference. I told Dave I thought I saw a turn-off near the park on our way in. With a great deal of hope on my part, we turned around and headed back down the trail.

Lynn Blamires, Special to the Standard-Examiner

We came to a turn where a truck pulling an empty ATV trailer was parked. The trail took off into the foothills above Ferron. Once again, everyone was behind me. We followed a fence line for a while and then the trail started to wind on a fun track through desert pines. We had a ball on this fast track in the foothills. There are a lot of trails to explore here.

At about 11:30 a.m., we came to the edge of a cliff with a view of nothing. The valley was hundreds of feet below, but it was just a flat nothing. What a great place for lunch, I thought, and sounded the clown horn to announce it. Everyone talked about how fun the ride turned out. I was relieved to have salvaged it. When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down and try the foothills of Ferron.

Contact Lynn R. Blamires at quadmanone@gmail.com.