Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1162341
12 12 Trail Rider The food and service at Big Daddy's was great. To top it all off, I had the chocolate mousse for dessert. As usual, I ate too much, but there was always room for a couple of brews when we got back to the cabin. A long day in the trails had taken its toll on me, and a er a couple of brews, I saw my pillow go by a couple of mes. I think I was asleep before the covers se led. On day two, another crisp August morning, it was breakfast at Big Daddy's again. We were all itching to ride, so not much B.S.ing around the breakfast table. Ma and Aaron had been study- ing the maps that we got from the ranger sta on and were contempla ng which way we were to strike out. It really didn't ma er which direc on we started in. Any direc on revealed beau ful green valleys with literally hundreds of elk. We even managed to scare up a coyote or two. The state-provided maps we had were really helpful in our naviga on, and the signs erected by the state parks department were great. We spent the day bumping around on almost all dual-track, but with a li le single-track mixed in here and there. There was no boredom here with a mul tude of trails going literally everywhere. On most the trails you could comfortably stay within view of the guy in front of you without having to eat his dust. The end of day two was a literally a carbon copy of day one. Big Daddy's Diner again, and yes, choco- late mousse again. Hey, I needed the calories! We were all looking forward to ge ng back to the cab- in, popping a few tops then catching a few ZZZZ's. Day three was another carbon copy and the wait- resses at Big Daddy's Diner s ll like us! Amazing! We warned them at breakfast that they would only have to tolerate us for one more meal later that evening. We got geared up when we got back to the cabin and struck out on the pavement for a while. We soon found an interes ng looking sin- gle-track trail, so down it we went. It was great fun, and a er an hour or so, led us back out to the pavement. On the paved road, we came upon a scenic over- look that was really worth a "look-see." The view was due west, and into the valley several miles away you could see a large white spot on the desert floor. A er reading the informa on sign, we learned that the spot we were looking at was the exact place where the first atomic bomb was deto- nated in the 1940's. Wow, were we going to glow in the dark later that night? I suppose all the trees in this area were singed or at least damaged by that blast.