Utica Reservoir

UTICA RESERVOIR 2004

This ride was a fun one. Utica Reservoir is in Calaveras County.
It actually started back in July with five of us going up to preride the
area. After one person got bucked off her mule the first day taking her
out of the contention when her head got slammed into the granite, but
didn’t even break the skin, just gave her a gnarly head ache and a
large lump. The preride group the second day was down to three of us.

Day two of the preride, Chuck, Vern and I headed out to scout trails.
What a time we had. I got into a fight with a burnt tree hanging over the
trail, and had to make the decision to have it spear me in the gut, or let it
go, and sweep me out of the saddle. Well I hit the dirt pretty hard, black,
charred dirt no less. My partners in crime could hardly contain themselves
as I was covered in black soot but did not know it.

As we rode, and tried new trails, with every trail block we came across,
the first words out of our mouths were, “UH OH”, we would turn around,
and find another route. It didn’t take us long to dub ourselves, the “UH OH
TRIO”. We really had fun, laughing so much our cheeks hurt.

The actual club ride. Friday dawned cool and clear. A group of about 8 of us
headed out for what we thought was gonna be a short 4 hour ride. But with
having to trim trees along the way, and the horse that didn’t want to cross the
small creeks, It took a few hours longer than we expected. It took four hours just
to get to our lunch spot, Which was the headwaters to Spicers reservoir. Where we
encountered a naked sunbather, poor guy, we totally caught him by surprise. Had
a nice lunch, and headed back to find a few more arrivals at camp.

Saturday morning was cloudy, cold, and threatening rain. A group of about 15 of us
headed out. All bundled up, heavy jackets and gloves. It even hailed on us a mile from
camp. A couple riders were having problems with there horses and never made it out
of camp. The next couple we lost was at a large granite ledge we had to climb, there
horses were not being cooperative, and they decided to turn around. Shortly after that,
we came across an impassable by horses granite wall of rock as far as the eye could see.
We deemed it unsafe to try, turned around, and took another route to a different lake. We
had a nice lunch, and headed back to camp, where the campfire was most welcome.

I hope you enjoy the pictures I have to show you.