September, 2018.
There’s nothing outwardly special about this trip. Not compared to any other trip, other than this was “official business”, as far as we were concerned. We’re in the development phase of a new moto adventure line and the plan was to leave the shop around 9am on a Friday and blast down the 15 and meet up with our manufacturing house in Southern Utah at 1pm.
Right out of the gate, Sean’s FXR is has an exhaust leak. As usual, and luckily, Sean’s a crafty little guy and makes quick work of dropping in new gaskets and we hit the road around 10:30. We’re now 90 minutes behind schedule so we hit warp-speed, and somehow are only 15 minutes late.
Business wraps up, and we then manage to find the shittiest dive-bar in Iron County. A couple beers, terrible wings with no buffalo sauce, and a short bout of diarrhea later, Roy shows up and the fun finally begins.
Around 4pm we head up the 14 to lose cell service for the rest of the weekend. By the way, if you live in Utah and you haven’t taken SR-14 from Cedar City to US-89, you have really fucked things up.
We peel off onto the 143 through Cedar Breaks, and hit our campsite at Panguitch lake- literally right on the dam. (GPS 37.724844, -112.627851). Dirt road to the dam is in good shape – no problem on a Harley. Fishing was okay, there was a dead body somewhere fairly close to camp – never did find a carcass - it’s better that way. There is a small store and restaurant up there at the resort. They have firewood. Not so sure about beers – probably best to stock up before you get up there.
Saturday morning we start making our way to Fish Lake. 143 to the 89, then 62 to the 24. Overshot the 25 turn off to hit the grocery store and pick up provisions.
Campsite at Fish Lake was dope. Take FR1483 down about 300 yards (GPS 38.521172, -111.747725). There are some boulders and ditches on this road but it’s easily passable on Harleys. Plenty of firewood and deadfall here. The elk were going all god-damned night. There is a lot of wildlife out here this time of year, best to stay off the roads at night if you can.
We crashed out early and hit the road home around noon on Sunday.
SR-14 is a beautiful road. Panguitch Lake is small, nice, quiet. Fish Lake is only a gas tank away. Super easy trip, simple planning, good camp spots. Both of these campsites are at pretty high elevations so plan for cold nights pretty much any time of year. Catch it on a clear night and you'll see shooting starts and The Milky Way all night.
This trip was somewhat out of character for us. The route wasn't completely ridiculous, and we managed to leave and return on the days we were planning. Hmmmm, odd.
That's it. Smell ya later, beotches.
-Blair
What a great trip!