Every once in a while, the snowmobile Gods are smiling down on us. Last season there was a lot of frowning around the West as snow conditions were less than ideal in most places.
However, during one 3-4 day stretch, we had riding conditions that left us smiling long after the sleds were put away for the day.
One of those days found us in northcentral Utah, north of Strawberry Reservoir, on Duchesne Ridge. We were all smiles as the day dawned bright and sunny with two-three feet of new powder-light, dry, exquisite and untouched.
With conditions like that our itinerary for the one-day ride was simple: ride through the trees, up hills, track up meadow after meadow, climb up and over mountains, scoot along ridgetops.
Yep, that pretty much sums it up.
The area we rode was basically sandwiched between the Mirror Lake Complex and Strawberry Reservoir in the Uinta National Forest.
We left the Nobletts trailhead, accessed via Utah Highway 35 past Woodland, followed the Nobletts Trail (E) to where it intersects with the Soapstone Trail (C), continued on Soapstone past where it meets the Wolf Creek Trail (D) and then dove off (pretty much literally) into the trees and deep powder. There the going was a bit challenging-meaning you had to stay on the throttle or the powder would suck man and machine under. Not a bad way to go, mind you, but there was too much territory to explore for us to go under so early in the day. We definitely didn't want to get too worn out from digging our sleds out before noon.