Just something to read for those that want to go on this UTBDR, not trying to scare anyone, but want those that want to go, to understand what riding in Utah is like. I copied this from the UTBDR page on FB.
My Backcountry Discovery Routes Adventure – Days 36 – 38… Heat Exhaustion… Lost Pannier… Tourrete's Syndrome
Day 36… Parker and I started out early from the boarder of AZ & Utah with plans to meet up with Bill Whitacre in Moab later that day… We rode up to Mexican Hat, the “official” starting point on the UTBDR where we soon found ourselves among Gods, The Valley of the Gods that is… A 17-mile dirt and gravel road winds through the valley. It is sandy and bumpy, with steep sections. It provides a fun ride through an area that is usually deserted… Again we soon found ourselves riding from dessert sands to rich forest pines in the Manti-La Sal National Forest… We were making great time, Parker talked about how we would soon be enjoying a steak dinner in Moab… this is when we came to a crossroad, turn left and you go to an “Expert” riding section called, Lockhart Basin, turn right and you take the “regular easy” route (just a scenic) but Parker said, “we taking the expert route, don’t want anyone calling us “chicken” (not the word he used, but it’s more politically correct, & won’t get me banned from Facebook 😜 I let my ego get in the way of common sense, “yeah, no one is calling this Marine “chicken” we’re riding Lockhart… Our egos would come back to kick us in the A$$ES, HARD…!!!
We turned left and headed to Needles Outpost for more fuel and water before getting on the route… Ummm, btw, gas was $6 a gallon at the Outpost 😳 Rode onto Lockhart around 3pm, we thought this section would take us 3 ½ to 4 hours, it’s only around 70 miles, so we were planning conservatively… The Rever app even said it would take us 2 ½ hours… Lockhart started off great, we passed several people who were camping at the beginning of the trail… The first sign we should turn back came when we had to climb a talcum powder like sand covered hill… We didn’t get the clue, on we went 🤷🏻♂️
The route steadily got tougher and tougher… baby head rocks turned into to some damn big rocks, which became boulders 😲 Then we came to our first Step-Up/Shelve… it was uphill, off camber with lots of rocks and boulders and it was around 2 ½ to 3 feet high… you could tell some people had already tried to build a stairway made of rocks over the step-up, we even added more rocks to help get the bike up and over… We felt triumphant 🎺 after conquering the first step-up, and the second step-up, but by the third step-up the trumpets weren’t blowing so loud, and by the fourth, fifth and sixth step-ups the trumpets had all but gone silent.. Parker was struggling with symptoms of heat exhaustion at this point, temperatures were hovering around 105 degrees 🥵 he was feeling nauseous and said he felt like he was going to pass out, his muscles were cramping up and what once was easy technical riding became hard and a struggle to keep from dropping the bike… that inReach SOS 🆘 button came close to be activated… I had used 6 liters of water, some I used to pour over Parker to try and cool his body temperature down... it was becoming apparent that we were not going to be able to make it off the trail this evening… The sun had set, the skies were dark and the trail became too hard to see, never mind to ride… We pitched our tents and tried to recuperate, but evening temps were still in the 80s… our campsite was between 3 canyon walls and the radiant heat from them kept temps uncomfortably warm for most of the night… at best, I got 3 hours of sleep, Parker didn’t fare much better that night.
Day 37… I watched as the morning skies became brighter and brighter, wanting to take full advantage of the cooler morning temps, we started to break camp around 6am… Our first challenge this morning would be right where we stopped, 3 large drop-downs into a canyon awaited us… We were both feeling better so we tackled our first challenge with cautious confidence… But Lockhart would throw another challenge at you, then another once you made it through one… It took us another 3 ½ hours to travel 25 miles before we limped our way into Moab… We pulled into a gas station and camped out inside for several hours rehydrating and cooling off in the air condition… I had originally planned to meet up and ride the Utah BDR with Bill Whitacre, Johnathan Langley, and their friend Eric, who showed up at the gas station before they got started again on their UTBDR adventure… we all shared our Lockhart horror stories and made plans to try and meet up the following day… Parker and I checked into a hotel and even had that promised steak dinner that evening… It was a well-earned day of rest 😉🤙
Day 38… I let Parker sleep in, I won’t even make fun of him getting some Beauty Sleep, well maybe a little 🤪 We were both feeling prepared to take on the rest of the Utah BDR nothing else bad could happen, or so we thought 😳 Just outside of Moab we rode up into the Manti La Sal Nation Forest where we found a dozen small water crossings through The Narrows on Onion Creek Road… We road for a couple more hours through Crescent Canyon which offered spectacular views from Spring Ridge… By now it was time for lunch so we stopped in Green River… (Wait for It) After lunch we got back on the BDR and rode another 10 to 12 miles, Parker, a.k.a. Speedy 😉 flew by our turn off, I stopped and thought “he’ll be back”… as usual, temperatures were pretty warm, upper 90s 🥵 so I decided to grab a bottle of water out of my pannier and pour some over my head to cool down… went to reach in my pannier, I suddenly found myself frozen in time and in shock, my right side pannier was GONE 😲 I remember walking around the bike looking for it, like it dropped off right there… At this point I came down with a sudden case of “Tourette Syndrome”… a trucker and a sailor had nothing on me and my poetry of obscenities… 🤬 We raced back to Green River hoping, praying the pannier fell off somewhere close… Nothing… we sat and went through our GoPro videos to try and see when my pannier was on the bike and when it wasn’t… We determined it had probably fallen off more than TWO HOURS AGO… way back on Onion Creek Road somewhere during those water crossings…
Taking the highway back to Onion Creek Road we rode up and down the trails looking for my pannier… NOTHING... I stopped to speak with a couple campers who suddenly gave me a glimmer of hope… they had spoken with a couple in a jeep that had found my pannier and said that they were generally concerned about trying to find me and return my belongings. They were going to go through the Pannier and look for any type of contact information… unfortunately there would be no contact information inside. But I thought, surely they would drop it off at the Moab Police Department… so Parker and I raced back to Moab so I could check with Lost & Found at the police station… I called ahead and found out that the front desk at the police station was closed and I would have to wait until 8:30 AM the next morning to check to see if my pannier was returned… By this time, it was nearly 10pm and we needed a place to stay for the night… the NO VACANCY signs were flashing on all the Moab hotels we passed, so believe it or not, we road back to Onion Creek Road to camp for the night… luckily I still had my camping gear… But I must say, it was a Bitter Sweet camping spot… Lets hope tomorrow the police have my pannier and we have a better day… 🙏
Wish my pannier had a tracking device to see where it is like my inReach…https://share.garmin.com/BDRAdventure