Truck Adventures

My Dad recently fulfilled his longtime dream of owning a really big truck. He spends quite a bit of time out in the back country and driving to my parents' property in Colorado, so it's about time he had a machine worthy of his lifestyle, but every machine has its limits. Here is his first person account of a recent "truck adventure":

On Labor Day (3rd of September 2007) Marcia and I decided to take the day off and head up into the Cache National Forest. I had heard that it was possible to drive from the head of Logan Canyon over to the Hardware Ranch at the head of Blacksmith Canyon via the dirt and gravel roads between US Highway 89 and Utah State Highway 101. So we loaded up the pickup truck with gas and a picnic lunch and headed out about 11:30 am.

By 12:30 we were almost to the top of highway 89 just short of the Bear Lake summit. At that point, just before you reach the Limber Pine trailhead, a wide gravel road takes off into the Cache National Forest. According to the map it is probably 30 to 40 miles to the Hardware Ranch. For quite a ways, the road was wide and well graded and through out the forest we saw quite a number of trailers parked in the high meadows of the forest. There was also a fair amount of traffic on the road in the form of both trucks and ATV's.

After a while, as we got deeper into the forest, the character of the road began to change.

It narrowed to the width of a one lane road and started to have more rocks and eroded spots in it. Still it was nothing a four wheel drive truck couldn’t handle easily. Also the road dropped off from the high meadows into a canyon. At several points we encountered traffic coming the other way and either we or they had to maneuver off the road to let the other fellow pass.

Part way down this road there was a place to pull off. Here the forest looked cool and inviting as a picnic site. Marcia and I set up our folding chairs and had a nice lunch (which we shared with the flies and bees). From time to time trucks and ATV’s would pass our site on the nearby road. Also three cows stopped to moo at us on their way to government spring which is further down the canyon. After a short hike up into the forest we loaded up the truck and headed on down canyon.

Quite a ways farther on and after a couple of narrow passes of other vehicles the road came out of the timber into a high wide mountain valley with little timber. The road itself was fairly wide but had lots of potholes and rocks in it. It stretched off into the distance but appeared to be the way to go to get to Hardware. The speed on this road was 5 to 10 miles an hour depending on how good or bad it was. From time to time we did however encounter Forest Service signs which said, among other places which we had never heard of, that we were headed toward the Hardware Ranch.

For quite a while now we had seen no other traffic. The canyon began to narrow towards a slot which we thought the road would go down thru to the ranch. However, just as we got to the beginning of the slot, the road forked. The right hand continued down canyon, but the left hand turned and started up what looked to be maybe an 800 foot high ridge. And at the fork was a Forest Service Sign with the word ‘HARDWARE’ and an Arrow pointing to the left fork. The left fork was decidedly a much more narrow rocky road which started to climb and disappear around the flank of the ridge.

By now we had been on the Forest roads for nearly three hours, so the prospect of going back wasn’t very appealing, but neither was the look of this road. At that moment down the left hand fork came an old pickup truck with three bow hunters in it. They waved as they passed; and I decided if they could drive down this road I could drive up it. Just as we started up the road we encountered three more bow hunters on ATV’s. I asked the first one how much farther it was to the Hardware Ranch and he replied “Its only 14 miles!” What an answer – we had already come what seemed like 30 or 40 miles. He told me that once you got up on the dug way at the top of the ridge to turn south and it was down hill from there to the Hardware Ranch.

As we started up the road it turned the flank of the ridge and I got a better look at where we were headed. As I looked at the road my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. Above us you could see on the steep rocky hillside a series of switchbacks which climbed higher and higher and finally disappeared from view. It was apparent that once you started up this steep and narrow rocky road there was no turning back. Putting the truck into 4 wheel drive low gear we commenced out slow crawl up and I prayed that this would turn out all right. Marcia later told me she was also scared spit less by what she saw ahead of us and wondered why I didn’t say anything. I replied “What was I supposed to do – start crying!” Part way up we encountered three more bow hunters on ATV’s, but they were able by careful maneuvering to pass us. Had we encountered another truck there would have been nothing to do but try backing down this nasty road. But thankfully we were spared that ordeal. After what seemed like forever we crawled up onto the top of the ridge. At that point the road visibly improved. And about twenty minutes later we came to the hardtop at the Hardware Ranch.

I was almost tempted to get out of the truck and kiss the asphalt. After a pit stop we headed down Blacksmith Fork to the Cache Valley and by 8pm we were home again, having covered by the trip odometer some 138 miles. Doesn’t sound like much distance, but at 5 to 10 miles an hour a lot of the way it took a long time. Some parts of this area we intend to visit again, but never again will I drive up or down that hairpin rocky track.