Great weekend, we finally made it into the Nome Creek area for a weekend of camping and ATVing. BLM got the approaches to the Nome Creek Bridge fixed so folks could cross the creek to the established camp grounds, but heck, who wants to camp there, I much prefer finding a spot along the creek that’s big enough for our RV and others who joined us.
We drove out Friday afternoon and got camp set up just in time for dinner and a little BSing with Stoney, Peter, Dave and others and then went on a short 2 hour ride on the south-east side of the creek. Still lots of ice on the creek bottom and that made it an interesting trip.
Saturday after breakfast we took a ride over Mt Prindell and on to the Quartz Creek Trail. There was 14 ATV’s in all, including the wives and kids. So about 5 miles in we stopped for a short a break and I decided it’d be nice to try a different trail, ha, that’s what they get for following me :<) Got down to the lower valley and the trail is under water and ice. Water from the creek overflowing on the trail tread and ice shelves 3 feet thick.
I went over some brush to by-pass this one spot of ice and when I turned back to see if folks were following I discovered that most had turned around, well heck, so I and those who did follow me decided to go back to where the others were, one little problem, not so easy to go back the way we came, OK, plan B, back up via the creek bed. Ha ha, ha, ha, in less than half the way back our route is blocked by an ice pack, go figure, it’s the middle of June for crying out loud.
Peter gets his chain saw out and starts to cut the ice back so we have a route wide enough to get by, hey, ice cubes for those after dinner drinks, not bad, maybe a new career move for Peter "Ice Loogers". After we got through that it was back to the Quartz Creek Trail and off we go. The trail is rougher than a cob this year, it looks like breakup melt sweep all the soil away and left lots of rocks. The trails is in good shape as far “not” being washed out, but all those rocks get a bit tough on one after bouncing around a few miles. Might have to go with air shocks next time.
Anyway, we made it to within 5 miles or so of the trails end and came to another big field of ice, only this one was at a 45 degree slope on a trail just barely wide enough for an ATV, made doing a 6 point turn around with a nice long drop in front of you interesting…..
Back to camp and a nap before dinner and Poor Mason, the 8 year old grandson was so wore out he slept for 4 hours before we had to wake him for dinner and another evening ride.
Most everyone who spent the night made a morning run on Sunday, I decided to stay in camp and see if I could wake Trish, Melissa, Shawn, and the kids up before noon, sheese, I had to just start making breakfast at 10:00 AM and tell them food was coming to get them all up. By noon everyone else left but Trish and I, it was so quite I was tempted to stay another day and enjoy a peacefully afternoon on the creek, oh well, it was a nice weekend and many good pictures and videos for remembering.
Next trip is going to be up to 12 Mile Summit and a look at our Mt Ryan property. Most likely on the 4th of July..