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Show )' 1 '': h i'. ' ' - v - r " . , ,, ' ' ; " ft ' ' : , .... . - :..'. : , . , . . " ' . ' . ,, .' ., ' f '..'-', - . i . - - , , . ' k, '. ' i ,...-. - - - . .'i-irVj . a r-' i H ' i SL ' : . w.JT" J ' - - ' J , 2 i The Second Annual Fat Tire Adventure, held this year in the Escalante area, found some 50 mountain bike fans on the exciting Escalante Bike Event Is A Big Success ESCALANTE - The hills were alive with mountain bikes over the weekend, and it was music to everyone ev-eryone involved, as some 75 fat tire enthusiasts signed up for and took part in the Second Annual Fat Tire Adventure held in Escalante this year ad scheduled next year for another an-other county location. Local bikers serving as "trail guides were Dennis Moser and Jeff Lish, with Garfield Travel Council volunteers lending a hand and many from the community helping to make the event an outstanding success. Every Escalante merchant donated do-nated a prise for drawings held Saturday Sat-urday night Capturing the coveted grand prizes Reflex mountain bike donated by the Garfield Travel Council, was delighted Escalante local Shonna Lyman Many of the bikers were here for the first time, some because they'd lieard about the event from last year's participants and others were returning for a another taste of the best that the area has to offer in incredible in-credible scenery and some of mountain moun-tain biking's most impressive trails. Photo By Dennis Moser Hells Backbone trail where they paused near the bridge for a breathtaking view. Local residents gave full support to event. Perfect weather, friendly exchanges ex-changes and excellent organization contributed to the success of the weekend event. At one point, one trailer carried 16 bikes, another 25, and a van another 10 for a Pine Creek six-mile shuttle to the Hells Backbone Road. Moser, administrative assistant at Garfield Memorial Hospital, said he's been riding mountain bikes for about three years and mostly had ridden area trails alone until Dr. Jeff Lish recently joined the staff at Garfield Memorial. Now they are frequent riding partners, introducing others to the trails familiar to them and helping the travel council's Jean Seiler to develop new trails and guides to using them. All three are hoping to involve more local people peo-ple in the fast-growing sport. They have been joined occasionally by Panguitch pharmacist Steve Marshall Mar-shall and his son Sam Marshall on their rides. In Escalante, brothers Auggie and Louis Bernardo were big sup- i porters of the weekend event, along ' with Barry and Celeste Bernards, Bob Munson and many others. They were joined by Ralph Murri and Mike Davidson of Tropic. Seiler complimented Escalante resi- See Bike Adventure Page 3A Bike Adventure From Page 1 dents and merchants on their support sup-port of the bike adventure. Others lending a hand were Ross and Na-dine Na-dine Shelly who catered the dinner, Bill and Bev Kuhns, Bill and June Bernards, Chad Seiler, Arden Taylor, Tay-lor, volunteers of the Escalante Fire Department and many more. Only two minor injuries marred the weekend and all the bikers covered cov-ered some very challenging terrain. The county's trails were touted in a recent article in Utah Sports v Guide by Greg Bromka and Linda Carlson who were delighted participants partici-pants in last October's Travel Council-hosted mountain bike tour for journalists. Carlson liked it so much, she returned for the past weekend's fun. For their last October journey, they started in Brian Head for a five-day five-day trip to Bullfrog Marina on Lake Powell. Dennis Moser also took part in all but one of the five legs of the more than 200-mile adventure, adven-ture, serving as guide for the group. Leaving Brian Head, they headed for Sidney Valley, Bunker Creek to Panguitch Lake for lunch at Panguitch Pan-guitch Lake General Store, then Horse Valley to Myers Valley, on to Indian Hollow and down Five-Mile Five-Mile to Panguitch where they were hosted by the Sands Motel. The next day found the hardy group, after breakfast at the Flying M, headed for Casto Canyon, up through Flake Swale, past the old ranch and Widtsoe Cemetery to Rubys Inn for the night. Moser saw to it that any who had not seen Bryce Canyon had (he chance before they left the next morning, shuttled to top of the Pine Lake Road where the traveled the Barney Top, saw Powell Points imposing view, and headed for the Griffin to take the much-talked-about Gap Trail to Barker Reservoir and down North Creek to Escalante and a night at the Moqui Motel. Their fourth day found them shuttled to the Hells Backbone Road for the trip to Boulder where they were dined and entertained by the Larry Davis family and treated to stories of the ancient Anasazi. That final night was spent at Deer Creek campground for an early start on the 66-mile Burr Trail Road to Bullfrog Marina and an evening feast at the Defiance House Lodge. |