South Fork's Trail Trouble

I was nervous as we drove up to the community center. I’d never been to a town meeting – much less one like this. We went and sat at the back, and I got my notepad and pen ready to jot down any important information that I was sure to find out. At the table in the front of the room sat several police officers, someone representing the national forest, and a couple others not in uniform that I never identified for sure. I was expecting to encounter angry raised voices, people throwing accusations back and forth, and generally an unpleasant atmosphere. Instead, I quickly noticed all the smiling faces, respectful comments, and even occasional laughter from everyone! This wasn’t the conflict I had imagined, but rather what seemed like a group of friends discussing an important town issue – ATV rights.

South Fork, CO, is a beautiful town nestled in the San Juan Valley about 45 minutes west of Great Sand Dunes National Park on Hwy 160. It’s kind of a gateway into the Rocky Mountains, and somewhere my whole family’s really enjoyed the past few weeks. Looking at a map, something you’ll probably notice first is that it’s completely surrounded by thousands and thousands of acres of national forest, with an immense amount of forest roads and trails! Since we bring our ATVs everywhere with us, it was easy to decide that this was where we wanted to come.

We chose the Ute Bluff Lodge located a couple miles east of South Fork on Hwy 160. It has a campground, cabins, hotel, hot tubs, rec room, laundry room, a big tipi to sit in, and a hiking trail that goes up onto the bluff. One of the main reasons we chose it, though, was because there is a trail leading out of the camp that goes into the national forest. Instead of having to load and unload all our ATVs on the trailer, we could just jump on and ride right out of the campground! People would even ride into town to the grocery store and gas station, on a little trail that runs along Hwy 160. But this privilege that riders have in South Fork is what’s at stake right now.

People have ridden along the road to get to the national forest for at least 20-25 years, according to a local resident, without any major problems. All this changed recently when a weird case was brought to the police department. A man had been riding on this trail along the road when he suddenly ran into a cable strung across the trail, and was thrown from his dirt bike. He was not seriously injured, and was actually at the meeting we attended. Initially, the police suspected an angry citizen had put this cable up, and an investigation began. Not long after, it was discovered that this cable was actually one that was being worked on, and was in fact part of South Fork’s utilities. But because of this incident, the right to ride on this trail, and the safety of it, began to be questioned.

This is why the meeting was organized – to discuss the legal issues of riding along this trail. Captain George Dingfelder, of the Colorado State Patrol, explained how it’s currently illegal to ride on the trail because it conflicts with two “right-of-ways” – the railroad and state highway. The trail runs down in a ditch between the railroad and Hwy 160, and it’s necessary to cross the highway a couple times to get to the national forest from where we are. The officers said that it’s not illegal to cross the highway, but it is to ride in its right-of-way. They explained that the State Hwy Dept. is actually liable for any accidents that happen in the right-of-way – including ones involving ATVs.

It was pointed out by several of the board that the only way for anyone to continue riding directly from their resident (including campgrounds) that do not directly access the national forest is to:

1-      Get permission from the county to ride on county roads.

2-      Get permission from the railway to ride in the railroad right-of-way.

3-      Make a new trail that does not enter the Hwy 160 right-of-way.

Another town meeting is organized for September 8^th to discuss these options, and try to get permission from the necessary people.

I found that every citizen in the meeting was supportive of riding, and even everyone on the board expressed willingness to help where they could to reroute the trail or get permission from the county and railroad. The sheriff even said that if he could, he would get ATVs for his deputies to ride while on patrol!

Several of the citizens at the meeting were business owners, and talked about how much the off-road industry helps their businesses, and South Fork’s economy. An interesting point brought up was that many riders from New Mexico are coming up to South Fork, and Colorado in general, to ride now that some of their public riding areas down there are being closed. One local garage owner (the same man who got “clothes lined” by the cable) stated that approximately 95% of his business this Summer has been from ATVs, and if this issue isn’t resolved he’ll likely have to close down.

The meeting ended and everyone kind of mingled and discussed the meeting and what needed to be done next. Everyone seemed sure that some kind of compromise could be worked out with the city, county, and railroad. One of the officers said that there was probably enough support just in that room to get something worked out!

Obviously, what’s going on in South Fork is not an isolated event. Meetings are being held and issues like this addressed all across America! Every single person makes a difference. Don’t leave it up to someone else to make a difference – if everyone has this mindset, it’ll never get done. If you’re not doing it for yourself, do it for all the other riders out there. Do it for future generations that will thank you for helping secure their off-road freedoms!

If possible, though, don’t go solo. Get together with other riders in your area, and work to make your community more off-road friendly. A quick online search of “ATV trail clubs” brought up over 16,000,000 results! Even if only 1% of the results are actually the kind of off-road group you’re looking for, that means you should still have about 160,000 results to check out.

South Fork is a good example to other towns going through something similar. Get together, talk about the issues, be friendly, and work together to find a solution.

ATVing, Kayaking, and Ghost Towns In San Angelo

Located in west-central Texas, San Angelo is the next place we parked our home for a while. It had been about 18 years since any of us had been there, and we all looked forward to seeing the town where so many stories we’ve heard had taken place!

Mom and Dad decided to stay at the Spring Creek Marina campground, which ended up being a great place to camp for a month. The sites were nice and level – a relief for Dad and I, who have to level the camper ourselves if our site is not. We were within a couple hundred feet of the lake’s edge – and could just grab the kayaks, walk over, and go. Where the campground is, the lake narrows down into about the width of a river and boats are restricted to idling only, so this was great for kayaking.

My Great Great Aunt Fran, Great Great Uncle Jack, and Great Grandmother Martha were all there during our stay – so obviously we were around a lot of “great” people! It’d been 9 years since we’d seen my aunt or uncle, and 2 years since we’d seen my grandma at her house in Florida…

While we were there I found out about the Twin Buttes Off-Road Area. Of course, it didn’t take Mom, Dad, and I long to get a day planned to go out there, and the next Saturday that’s exactly where we went! We all had a blast out there, and it turned out to be a great riding area. You can read ALL about our day there on ATV Magazine’s blog by clicking HERE. I also compiled some of the video and pictures we took into a 5 ½ minute short-film that’s on ATV Magazine’s website. There’s some awesome footage in it from the ground, and from our new GoPro Hero helmet camera – so check it out by clicking HERE! (I’ve been writing for ATVMagBlog for over a year, so check out some of my articles while you’re there, along with all the awesome articles posted by ATV Magazine’s other bloggers.)

One day we decided to drive out to the old towns where my grandparents grew up – Texon and Santa Rita. They’ve been deserted for a long time, and it’s amazing to see that where thousands of people once lived with their stores, houses, and roads it’s now almost completely grown over. Surprisingly, though, there is still a lot of small debris left out there for the exploring types like us to go find. I personally found an old toy gun, a model airplane, a Coco-Cola bottle, a Pepsi Bottle, and some pieces of porcelain. My grandma came with us and showed us where their house used to be, and took us up to the foundation of their old swimming pool. Then we drove over to the only building still standing in either ghost town – the Boy Scout’s cabin. My grandpa actually helped build it when he was in Scouts as a boy, which made it all the more amazing to see!

We went kayaking several times during out stay, and had a blast every time! The river doesn’t really seem like it has any current (because we were right where it dumps into the lake), so it’s definitely not the place for an extreme whitewater rafter or anything. (ha ha) But for us, it was perfect – the little kids could fish off the shore while some of us kayaked around the bay.

We had lots more fun and adventures in San Angelo, but once again, time and space has limited me. Check back again soon – more fun is waiting just down the road!


I highly recommend the GoPro HD Hero for anyone who enjoys hiking, camping, biking, off-roading, boating, or almost any other outdoor activity! It takes great quality video and pictures, while being simple and easy to use out in the wild. And there are plenty of different mounts to choose from for your helmet, handlebars, car dashboard, etc.! This camera makes it easy to capture and share those awesome moments with friends and family, or to review the adventure yourself later - whether scuba diving, rally racing, ATVing, skateboarding, skiing, flying, skating, or whatever you love to do!

A Summer of ATVing, Camping, Volunteering, and Firefighting



This is my cousin, Cole, standing next to a very pretty 15
foot waterfall on the camp.  This picture was taken during
really horrible drought; normally water gushes down where
he is standing.

 The past several months have been great! We’ve been at the incredibly amazing Camp Eagle Rock, in southwest Missouri. This place is one of my favorites in the entire nation because of its beauty, seclusion, and history. There are about 35 buildings on the camp, which includes cabins, lodges, bathhouses, barns, etc. All of these buildings are on only about 300 acres of the entire 1500 acres the camp spans. So, obviously there is a lot of empty wilderness there; something I love! My whole family is part of an organization called MAPS (Mission America Placement System), that has set up a system with most Assembly of God churches and camps across the country for volunteers who want to work at them. We’ve been volunteering at Camp Eagle Rock since 2004 and enjoy it every time.


Mr. Roger and Mrs. Barbara, the camp managers, are both very nice and Mr. Roger always teaches me new things every time I go there. He’s also always ready with a funny comeback or saying for everything. For example: one day Mr. Roger and I were on our way to a different part of the camp and saw my mom talking to Mrs. Barbara. After stopping and talking to them both for a few minutes, Mom said something like, “Those kids have been so wild lately; I’m going crazy!” Mr. Roger, with a sly smile, replied, “Well, it’ll be a short trip.” I tell you what, if Mr. Roger hadn’t have sped off as quick as he did, I’m sure Mom would’ve gave him a earful!

This is my... I mean, the camp's Kubota that I brush hogged
with.  It could be 95 degrees outside, while I sat in the 70
degree air-conditioned cab.

Just some of the things I worked on while we were there are: brush hogging, installing air conditioning units, mowing, splitting and stacking wood, fixing toilets, installing windows, making wood trim, various woodworking projects, machine maintenance, painting, cleaning cabins, and much more! I spent most of my volunteer time brush hogging; using a 75hp Kubota with a heated/air-conditioned cab. It was great and I put a TON of hours on that tractor. The next thing I did the most was probably mowing. The camp’s zero-turn mower is like a small tractor itself; a 21hp diesel Kubota with a six foot deck on it.

There are lots of four-wheeler trails on the camp, and lots more in the national forest around it. I probably rode my Honda 250EX more than most people while we were there! I figured between riding for fun and getting around for work, I rode somewhere up around 10 miles per day. There are some amazing old homesteads to visit by ATV and a couple really pretty waterfalls that we went to several time during our stay.

Hanna and I made this Chippewa kitchen
from scratch.  We cut down the trees,
scraped some of the bark off, cut them to
length, lashed it in sections, then lashed
the entire thing together.  It made a great
place to put kitchen supplies and gave us
some "counter space" to keep our food
off the ground.

After Mom came up with the awesome idea, Hanna and I went camping for four days together on the camp property. It was a blast and we both learned a lot about each other and got to practice working together! We weren’t suffering too bad, ‘cause we had a huge 21x11 foot tent separated into three rooms. We also had lots of really good food and had fun cooking almost every meal over our campfire that I lit every time with flint and steel. Building and using our latrine was a very interesting experience, but we soon got it figured out. (ha ha) Several nights deer and coyotes came VERY close to our tent, and one night we think the coyotes got into our food bucket. When the four days were up we were both disappointed, but glad to be back with the rest of the family.

Not long afterwards, it was time for my birthday and I decided to have a weekend campout with a few friends. We chose a ridge above Table Rock Lake, which borders the camp, to set up our tents. We did lots of riding and hiking that weekend, and saw some really cool stuff! My cousin, Cole, found an eight-point deer skull that we stashed in an almost dry creek bed to return for later. As with Hanna and I, lots of deer and coyotes walked right by and even through our camp at night. After dark we spent hours sitting around the campfire laughing and telling stories. We also did some archery at the camp’s range, and swam a few times in two giant outdoor swimming pools. It was an awesome weekend and we all regretted having to pack up camp and head home.

Another adventure that we had, but that was a little more unexpected, came one hot dry day.  There was a brush pile burning in a field behind our camper, but very quickly it caught the dry grass in the field on fire and soon about five acres were burning.  My dad and I used two shovels to start putting it out while Mom went and got help from some people that were renting the camp.  The woods began to catch fire, but with the Lord's help we were able to keep a forest fire from starting and potentially burning down the camp.  After the help arrived we finished putting out the last of the flames around the field and Mr. Roger built a dirt berm around the brush pile to keep any more fire from spreading.  It was an intense few hours, and a day I'll never forget, that's for sure!



My cousin, Cole, found this falling rock ledge during a hike
on the camp and thought he could save it.  I kept telling him
it was a lost cause... but he gets an "A" for effort, I guess.

 I love Camp Eagle Rock, and it’s definitely somewhere I hope to continue going back to often; in the future taking my own kids to enjoy it as well! If you’ve never been, I would HIGHLY recommend going there as soon as possible. Try to go in the Spring or late Fall to avoid the stifling heat and bitter cold that can sometime come in the other months.

The camp hosts meetings, clubs, churches, individuals, and anyone really, in its wide range of facilities. Check out their website at: http://www.eaglerockcampground.com/.

In the words of Mr. Roger, “I’ll see ya ‘round if you don’t turn square!”