Snowed in at 11,000 ft. July 2008

I don't know much about this blogging crap, but I figured it would be fun to have some place that we could all post, collect pics and share stories. Over time, each ride seems to blend into the next so maybe this will help us keep them all straight and remember the adventures!! Even if it's a simple ride and location report and maybe a pic, it will be fun to have a journal of each of the rides we go on. Think of what we've already forgot. the report.....After everyone else flaked out on us, Lanny and I found ourselves headed for Spanish Fork Canyon and the Skyline Drive ride we've done a couple times. It's been so hot here in Salt Lake, we were looking forward to gaining some altitude and cooling off a bit. The ride started as every other...Fuel, couple Pepsis and some Dolly Madison crumb donuts in the pack just in case we needed nourishment. We expected nothing but the usual loop from Spanish Fork Canyon (Tucker Rest Stop) out to Joes Valley via Skyline Drive South, past Huntington Res. and Miller Flats Rd., up Reeder Canyon to Skyline Drive above Ephraim and then back to the truck. 150 or so miles round trip. The first half of the ride was uneventful. Just cool views, landscapes and miles of dirt road. We did come upon a new born lamb that couldn't have been more than a couple days old...It's umbilical cord was still attached. It was wandering down the road looking for it's mom. We didn't see any other sheep around. Apparently there had been a pretty good storm cell move through the Reeder Canyon and East to Skyline Drive because the trail up was terrible. Slick as grease. The bikes had a hard time moving in the muck. Lanny suggested turning around and getting back to good road but I promptly talked him out of it thinking that once we got to Skyline the road would be good....I should have listened to Lanny. I dumped the bike a couple times in the slick mud. Bike was caked good. Bikes were also overheating a bit from the caked radiators and slow speeds at which we were moving. Skyline Drive didn't fare any better than the Reeder Canyon trail. It was slick, slick, slick. Ater about 400 yards, 2 slide outs and 15 minutes of paddling on the slick road Lanny suggested we turn around and head back to top of Ephraim Canyon, down and then back up Fairview. We were hoping to get back onto some good dirt road where we could make time. We left the truck around 5pm. It was now 11pm...11,000 ft above Ephraim on Skyline Drive and were still had about 120 miles of trail before we would find the truck again. The road did get better for about 2 miles as we headed back south until......just before the summit where we crossed from East to West side of the mountain range we ran into a snowdrift that was impassable. It had to have been 50 yards across, at least a 45 degree slope..maybe steeper and there was no going above or below it. I did fail to mention that when we decided to u-turn on Skyline and head back south, I uttered an audible prayer there in the dark before I kicked the bike to life. I didn't have that hopless feeling yet....you know , that snowmobile, windy, Fairview Canyon, white out, slide danger, where are we feeling we've had a few times.... but I was keenly aware that if we made a wrong decision here, we could be spending the night. Plus the road was so slippery I was worried about damage to bikes and maybe even injury if we did something stupid. Lanny said he too had said a prayer about the same location. So here we sat at the snowdrift, amazed that we had been trumped heads racing through our three options..1. back down a really slick Reeder Canyon to better roads, 2. Back north across Skyline where we had just come from or finally, 3. across the snowdrift..somehow. We were closing in on midnight, it was full moon, but clouds kept it darker than it could have been. There was some lightning in approaching storm cells that would have been really cool had we been in a truck with a heater headed home. We weren't. As we stood there, believe it or not, a truck pulled around the mountain at the far end of the snowbank and stopped. Lanny and I started hollering hoping to get a road report or maybe some better perspective on our situation from THAT side of the snowdrift. We were amazed when Dan DaLene and Darrell Guyman(names?) pulled 2 shovels from their truck, made their way across the drift to our side and started helping us cut a path in the drift. the 4 of us shoveled for more than an hour. Taking turns, although, the two "young punks" seemed happy to do a majority of the work. Serious, Lanny and I tried to spell them but...they kept digging. Over the next few hours we got to know these guys as we chatted, dug snow and flung mud from our boots. We worked together to shuttle the bikes across and then we asked if we could follow them the 20 miles or so off the mountain into Ephraim. Lanny and I were trying to figure out if we had enough energy to ride out bikes the 2-3 hours it was going to take to get back to the truck through Ephraim, Spring City, up Fairview Canyon and back down Skyline Drive South..OR were we going to get a room in Ephraim and sleep through church the next morning. Dan offered to load up our bikes in his truck, and drive us to Spanish Fork Canyon to our truck. How could be pass that up? So the four of us loaded the bikes, lapped Maverick for some refreshments and headed the hour drive to our truck. It was about 3am when we got the truck, the guys helped us unload and reload the bikes and they were off. Lanny and I had about $16 dollars collectively in our pockets that they refused. We never did pass a gas station or else we would have filled their tank. Lanny did promise a plane ride for them this fall. We got phone numbers and I'll probably send some gas money down. These guys saved us!!! Can't believe the effort and time and coincidence of meeting them. Incidentally, we didn't pass another vehicle or person on the top Ephraim Canyon that night. 30 seconds either way and would have missed these guys for sure. With a little Mormon humor.... Lanny made a joke, asking them if they were 2 of the 3 nephites while we were digging snow...we all chuckled and maybe it was elevation sickness kickin' in but I swear Dan had a little tone and hesitation in his voice when he answered, "no". He almost answered too quickly. Anyway, these guys showed up at the most helpful possible time and totally bailed us out of what could have been a cold night on the mountain. Too much coincidence? I'll keep prayin' for now. Our sleepy drive to Lanny's truck at the Park-n-Ride lot on 146000 south got us both to our houses at about 4am. After I unloaded and showered up it was closer to 5am.....I was supposed to be at Bishopric meeting at 6:30am. I went to sleep planning on blowing off church completely. Turns out I missed bishopric but felt too guilty to miss the rest of church at 9am. So I was there. I got a text from Lanny during church. He was in Elders Quorum. Where we going to ride next week?