ch as I can and go for rides to chase the day away.
This was todays ride. Took about 5 hours all together. Started up parleys, got off at east canyon and headed down emigration canyon (not my pic) during the pouring fucking rain. I love it. You dry off really fast when your riding at around 80. Especially once you hit the sun, which I did once I came out of the canyon. Instant sunshine and warmth.
I headed out from there to I-80 and headed all the way out to Tooele where I filled up. I knew right where I was going. One of my old airsoft stomping grounds, the site of an old dolomite brick factory a few miles northwest of Delle. The road was windy and the sun was setting as I drove westward and the lake had that classic Salt Lake stench. My poor 650 hated it, it doesn't contend with the wind very well over 70 MPH.
I finally got to the exit and got a break from the hold tight mania of I-80. I headed towards my old stomping grounds with some excitement, but already I could confirm what everyone had told me.
Here's a video we made at the factory for our airsoft team:
The factory had been an awesome airsoft field with all sorts of terrain features and as close to an urban setting as one could get since Bauer had been demolished. But the place was not without it's peril. The main facility was a 4 story factory building, complete with rusty catwalks and conveyors which were uses pretty consistently in games. Inside the building there was a large area with several entries, hallways and a control room in the middle. The place was a killzone for any OPFOR who dared encroach on a well entrenched foe.
It was also where the furnaces were. These furnaces were HUGE. They were a good 3 stories all to themselves and there was a massive pit in the floor that dropped to the bottom of the furnaces. There were stairs that allowed access, but the pit itself was completely unguarded and anyone who wasnt being mindful of where they were could easily fall in.
Strangely enough, airsofters never suffered more than a punctured lung at the factory, to the best of my knowledge. The only death came when the hopper leading into the factory facility collapsed and crushed a man who had been contracted to demolish the place.
Anyway, I digress. Suffice it to say the place has since been leveled. A good chunk of time there was spent on really rough road or flat out dirt/gravel, which my V-star handled pretty well I think. I mean, obviously its not an enduro or anything, but still.
The roads there led in a few directions, one over the mountain, which I considered taking, but decided Gas was a concern if it led nowhere accessible, and the other led to the old Quarry that they used to get the dolomite from to make bricks for the Geneva Steel kilns down in Provo (of course once Geneva went down, so did the old plant that used to be here)
The Quarry was pretty rad though (not my picture btw). It was a dramatic stone face of dark grays and white. I g
ot there when there was a few overcast clouds still, so the contrast of the quarry rock to the storm clouds was pretty intense.
The roads trucks used on different layers of the quarry were still mostly intact, with a few areas that had been reinforced having been weathered over time, rebar tangles hanging off the edges. It was seeing those that made me think better about actually going up there.
The view straight across from the quarry was pretty awesome too. It overlooked the entire valley. Almost completely empty. a few powerlines and train tracks were the only traces of man.
So worth it. Gotta get back out there with a camera next time!
