Each year, my friend Eric Awerkamp of Arizona challenges me to find new trails for him to ride in Utah. Last year, I put together a five-day ride from Kanab to Kamas.

We will be talking about that trip for a long time. It was full of all the challenges that might happen on a trip into the backcountry, including breakdowns, snow drifts blocking the trail and road construction. All of these caused delays and forced route changes, but none of them put a dent in the amazing trip it turned out to be.

This year, he asked for an equally fantastic trip, but to condense it down into the space of two days. OK, so I went back to a section of that trail we rode last year on the Arapeen Trail System and studied the map.

Who doesn’t love the Skyline Trail above Ephraim and Manti? This amazing trail system is one that I have written about before, but it is a favorite.

We left the Willow Creek Inn where we had spent the night in Ephraim and rode up Ephraim Canyon. About 3.3 miles from the motel, we turned off onto New Canyon Road. I have ridden this trail before, but it has never occurred to me that there is nothing new about New Canyon. Being about a million years old, who thought to call it “New”? I guess the best way to think of that is a phrase my old Ranger friend, Brad Bradley, uses, “The reason for that name died with the pioneers.”

Riding a little over 2 miles up the New Canyon Road, we turned right onto one of the new 66-inch trails that have been created on the Arapeen Trail System, crossing a stream as we did.

This trail climbed 3,000 feet on a track sprinkled with switchbacks and through the forest to the Skyline Trail. At 66 inches, it was still narrow for my 62-inch, four-place Kawasaki. My friend Fred was riding with me and he kept yelling that I was too close on his side with pine boughs slapping at him as we passed through the woods. I guess I was cutting it a little close on his side because one of those tree limbs whacked off my side mirror. Fred called it poetic justice.

We came out on the Skyline at the Larson Tunnel and turned north, riding the Skyline Trail for about 4 miles. Turning off the Skyline near a place called Big Horseshoe, we followed Reeder Ridge down past Blue Lake and Grassy Lake.

We came to the Orangeville Road and turned east riding down to Joe’s Valley Reservoir. Riding around the south end of the lake, we passed through Buba Meadow and Buba Creek. I thought, well, I have a Bubba trailer, but that has an extra “B.” I think it is just fun to say Bubba.

Passing Mud Spring, we dropped down to the north end of a trail called the Black Dragon. This trail reminds me of trails in the San Rafael Swell and is in stark contrast to the high mountain forest trails we had ridden above Joe’s Valley.

The Black Dragon circled through pinion and juniper trees and then dropped down a boulder-strewn canyon called Bull Hollow. Passing Stinking Spring, we crossed over Black Dragon Creek on a UTV bridge into the Ferron Creek picnic area.

Storm clouds were gathering, so we decided that we needed to head back. We had dropped about 3,800 feet and we had to climb back up to the Skyline to get back to Ephraim.

We gained 3,100 feet as we passed Willow Lake and the storm hit as we went by Ferron Reservoir. Fred was yelling at me again because I don’t have a windshield and it wasn’t just raining, it was hailing. It didn’t help that I was getting pelted by the same hail that was hitting him.

The storm had subsided by the time we passed the junction to Manti Canyon and we were soon descending down Ephraim Canyon to our motel. Fred was being nicer since the storm passed. We had ridden 95 miles and climbed over 14,700 feet. That represents a lot of ups and downs, but we had to go down as much as we went up or we would not have ended up where we started. Man, what a ride! When you go, take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down and enjoy the challenge of the Arapeen Trail System.

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