Sunday, August 26, 2012

Book Cliffs 2012

It’s that time of year again. Time to pack up the horses and camping gear and head out to the Book Cliffs for a couple days of camping excitement. This year Lynn and I (Jeremy was unable to attend due his being punished) went down with George and Russell Jackson. We left Nephi at about 7:30 a.m. and made our way to Green River where we stopped for lunch. Then we headed up the familiar dirt road from Thompson Spring to Sego Canyon. It was a nice ride, but I was ready to be done once we reached the Parking Lot. We unloaded the horses and started packing them up.

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We got them all packed up and on our way down the Went Ridge Road. It was a pretty good trip with no incident to the packs or our horses. Once we turned up She canyon towards our camping spot we noticed a dear at the mouth of one of the draws. We stopped and looked for a moment and saw that it was a pretty decent Buck. He must have noticed us because then he turned and took off. Then the other deer got up and started heading out. They were all bucks! I’d say 5 or 6 of them. We didn’t have time to get out our binoculars or cameras so I have no proof, but I do have witnesses. They were all pretty good size bucks, so that was exciting. We got to our spot and started setting up camp

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I decided this year that I was going to be a bit more comfortable on our trip and get better sleep so I brought me on of these baby’s:

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That’s right! No sleeping of rocks for me.

We had dinner and got settled in for the night. No fires were allowed this year due to the massive number of forest fires Utah has suffered this summer.

The next morning we got up and were setting up for breakfast when I heard a noise and needed to check it out. Turns out there was a 5 point Bull Elk grazing just outside our camp. He was only about 30 yards away. He saw Russell and Me and took off crashing up the mountain side and that was that. So we had breakfast

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Once things were all cleaned up, we saddled up and made our way out.

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We stopped at the cabins in Bogart Canyon, as usual, and checked some things out

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We got our staple photos and were then on our way out again

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That’s right: self-portrait. We decided to go somewhere the majority of us have never been: West Willow. So we went back up to the Went Ridge Road and the out the White Ridge and dropped down into West Willow. We road for a couple of hours before we reached our lunch destination: the Dug Out:

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There were plenty of visitors at this place,

some of them less fortunate than others:

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We unsaddled the horses and let them take a break while we were eating lunch

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Hey! I have a cousin named Clint Morrill.

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After checking with him, turns out it’s some other Clint Morrill. But I thought it was cool anyways. With lunch finished we saddled up and made our way back to camp

We had dinner that night and let the horses graze for a bit

The next morning we had breakfast and packed up camp. With everything ready to go we decided to take off back for the Parking Lot

We got back to the Parking Lot, loaded everything up and were off on our way back home. We stopped for some lunch at Rays Tavern in Green River and then on to Nephi! It was a great trip. And for the first time, I didn’t have a near-death experience!

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