Being a flatlander, born and raised in Oklahoma, you might wonder what qualifies me to be an ATV writer.

Well, as I was growing up, my family made annual trips to Utah to visit family. My dad was raised in Kaysville, joined the army out of high school, and was stationed at Camp Gruber in Oklahoma, where he met my mom.

Those annual trips assured me of two or three nights each year camping in the mountains. I went to Brigham Young University and met my wife, who was from Kaysville, and when I had the chance to settle in the mountains of Utah, I jumped at it.

Louis L’Amour said it best, “After you have spent time in the mountains, you will never be happy living with the prairie dogs again.”

I started riding ATVs in 1992 and bought my first machine in ’93. I had narrowed the choices down to two machines — the Honda Foreman 300 and the Suzuki King Quad 300. Being a bells-and-whistles kind of guy, I choose the Suzuki.

After my purchase, I fell into the same situation all people with their first ATV faces. Other than riding in circles around my house, I didn’t know where to ride. It took a long time for the grass to grow back in that track.

The solution came on two fronts — I joined the Utah ATV Association, a Salt Lake riding club, and I attended my first ATV jamboree. Joining a club puts you in contact with people who know where to ride, and a jamboree gives experience with specific trail systems.

The first thing I learned is that the leader is the only one with a clean face. Now that is what I am talking about — this dirty brown face was going to learn the trails so he could lead the rides.

I love to write and ride. I submitted articles to Dirt Wheels magazine in 2003. It published three of them, which opened the opportunity to write for the Standard-Examiner. In the fall of 2004, I had a question about an article in the paper on the Shoshone ATV Trail system. In my discussion with staff, my writing experience came out and I was offered the opportunity to write about my ATV adventures. It has been quite a ride.

Utah is a mecca to ATV riders all over the country. We have more jamborees than any other state to showcase our amazing trail systems. The Hatfield and McCoy trail system back East was modeled after the Paiute ATV Trail system in central Utah. Our state offers some 75,000 miles of OHV trail. I haven’t ridden all of them, but I guess I will die trying.

The Paiute Trails are some of my favorite. Although the system offers plenty of camping opportunities, I prefer to ride into town, pull up to a motel, take a hot shower, eat a hot meal, and sleep in a comfortable bed. I don’t have to pack a lot of equipment and extra gas because those amenities are available on the trail. I had my longest ride in a day on the Paiute. Six of us rode 273 miles in one day on that system.

Supplied photo/Lynn Blamires

Another favorite riding area is the San Rafael Swell. The swell is bursting with fascinating history, not only prehistoric, but ancient Indian and mining history as well.

I also enjoy the Arapeen trails between Manti and Ferron. It is a well-kept secret that there are 53 fishing holes mapped out with GPS coordinates on the Arapeen system. Some of these are accessible only by ATV.

I like the narrow ATV trails available in Utah, but I also enjoy the wider UTV trails I ride with my family. I have a 2013 Kawasaki Teryx4 LE, a 2013 Polaris XP Touring 850 (two-up), a 2012 Polaris XP 850 and 2014 Polaris Ace 325.

My email address is at the end of every article. I welcome emails and I answer all of them. I love to hear about your favorite trails. When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down, and let’s keep in touch.

Contact Lynn Blamires at quadmanone@gmail.com.