Distance > 13 Miles; People Met = 4
On our first day out of Antimony we suffered from too much information. If we listened only to Randy, whose ranch is along the route, we would have been fine. We ran into Kresten and Austin Black, son and grandson of Burns Black. Kresten heads up the working ranch operations. It was great to meet them but they pointed out the wrong drainage as Poison Creek, which we needed to follow. I suspected something was wrong and asked a couple of ATVers who came by. They confirmed we were on the Poison Creek trail. We were not.
Nice View of Antimony Valley While Going Cross Country
We went cross country to regain the trail, and ended up backtracking twice that day. The second time we were on the right path, as recommended by Randy, but it appeared to stop at the top of a peak with a fire circle and I did not trust venturing further.
Fortunately, we ran into both Randy and Ky earlier that day near his ranch. Randy and Kathy tried to find us the day before on their ATVs. When they couldn’t they became concerned, but news gets around in a small community like Antimony and Randy knew where to find us the next morning. We changed our meeting date with Ky, meaning we were able to both have our cake and eat it too, laying over at a dude ranch yet sticking to a “leisurely” schedule of four days to the other side of Dixie National Forest. Even with the backtracking we only did a little over 13 miles that day. Would the leisurely pace continue?
Randy and Ky
Randy came on his ATV to where we were camping that evening by Antimony Creek, bringing us some Pepsi that we cooled in the creek for the next morning. He may come East someday for the Berkshire colors and of course he has a home base with us. It was tough for us to say goodbye to each other but he finally got on his ATV and headed off.
The day had two highlights, one was an aspen meadow after a prolonged, steep climb up along Poison Creek. There will be a facebook album of this. The other was Antimony Creek, was one of our nicest camp spots: nice bedding, tree cover, flat area, creek nearby. Plenty of cow patties still, but cow patties and cans are turning out to be a constant in Utah.
Antimony Creek Camp
